“The RoseBouquet”

First I praise God for some improvement in my eye, and for the many friends who have let me know they are praying for me. Yesterday in my prayer time I realized that the floaters were not as dark or many as last week. The spider is gone. So I suspect now that I had a blood clot in the eye, and it has slowly been absorbed and taken away. Praise God. I think He can take away the rest of these thready blots too.

When I heard last week that others just get used to it (my neighbour Penny has had this in both eyes for 20 years or more!) I was caught off-guard. However, I decided that I would not resign myself to that destiny without first praying and seeing whether I might be healed. The Bible says that we have not - because we ask not. I didn’t want to miss out for lack of asking.

Here’s a few precious subscriber prayers for me;

From Janice: Boy do I understand those annoying floaters & flashes… They are no fun at all. I pray the Lord Jesus will do a work in your eyes so that you may see clearly…no more fuzzy flashy not being able to see… in Jesus Name Amen.

From Kathy O: Are you doing any better today? I’ve got some pain in my back so I called the Dr. who did my treatment,… I’ll put you on the prayer list at church okay Ruth. And yes we do have great God who knows all we are going though & will go though as long as we live, girlfriend. Talk to you soon. YSIC, Kathy

And Robin prayed;
Dear Father God, Thank you for the gift of sight, and thank you for creating us to enjoy perfect sight.

Either way, please let Ruth experience a close sense of your support. Comfort her with the assurance that all will be well. Thank you Father in Jesus name. Amen

There were others too. I’ve just picked out a few samples. They have all been so encouraging!

Okay. I have four computers ready, although if better ones are donated (some are tentatively promised), I will be happy to replace my older, weaker models. I’ve been setting up the printers that have also been donated, but this is likely to be held up until I can afford to buy cartridges for this mix of models Only two are the same.

Meantime, I’m turning my attention this week to recruiting students, and I hope to have some ready to start next week! Since it is a first for me, and I may fumble a bit, I’m offering a special deal of just $75 for a week of half-day lessons. My regular fee will be $99/week, but I believe I need to be able to offer specials from time to time.

This short one-week course will be very introductory, meant for people like seniors who find they have a computer in the house and they are not sure how to use it. It still scares them a bit.

I plan to check with my community association too, as I see by their newsletter that they want to encourage the matching of courses and career advancement.

Later, about May, I hope to start my longer, four-month internship courses which will be all day long, and really be like an incubator to help people start their own home business from a computer.

This short course should boil down like this;

Monday - get familiar with the computer hardware and what’s hooked up with it, and how to change settings so it becomes really YOURS. I’ll throw some in about the advantages of Linux operating systems and their neat features.

Tuesday - explore your computer programs and what they can let you do, how to install and get rid of them, and how to do some basic trouble-shooting, and how to get the most out of your keyboard and mouse. How to keyboard nimbly.

Wednesday - using email safely and ethically, avoid spam- and how to scan pictures and send attachments, how to understand and set up a good filing system, and how to find things, and how to create graphics, etc. Then of course, also how to do backups regularly.

Thursday - surfing on the web, doing intelligent searches and research, how to shop online, and the barebones of websites and their basic structure, and how to use a blog effectively. How to avoid identity theft too.

Friday - discerning what is a good program to sign up for, so as to make money, and how to check out and avoid the scams. Some safe programs to join, and how to promote them so you can in fact make money from them.

Want to join me in praying that I’ll get the kind of students who will really benefit from such a course? Ask too, that I be a wise and effective teacher.

My friend Samson wrote from Africa this week and asked, “How do I get a blog?”

Here’s my reply, in cases it answers your question too;

A blog. Ho-boy. There are so many ways to go. I need to ask first what you want the blog to accomplish for you?

There are many free sites which will gladly give you free blog space, but of course, the owners of that site are making money off the ads they place on your blog.

If you want to be perceived as more professional, and if you hope to set up a professional image with your blog, then I would suggest you get a domain name registered (GoDaddy.com has the lowest prices), and I can offer you hosting for your domain on my hosting service at $12/year. For $20 extra I can install a blog software on your domain site, and then you can just log in and start making blog entries.

If you read up on the WordPress documents you can learn all about setting up categories and do many interesting things with your blog.

If you sign up for Google AdSense and get the right plugin installed, you can have an income coming in to you from Google for the AdSense ads that show up beside your blogs.

There are other ways to go about getting a blog, but with my experience, that’s the path I would recommend as the best choice.

My friends seem to either love cats or hate them. I thought I could be totally indifferent to pets. I guess because Dad did not care for house pets, so I had resigned long ago to just caring for plants. Now that I’ve had my cat, Snowflake, for about a month, I’ve come to see how much I am like a cat myself.

Or is it the other way around; how much Snowflake is like me?

That’s within boundaries, naturally. I am innately curious too, but I don’t pull things apart, and …I don’t whine for attention, do I?

So much for philosophizing. Let the pictures tell their story first. You need to meet Snowflake before we start building empires of thought on cat behaviour.

Go to - Meet Snowflake in Pictures

Hasn’t she got a pretty face?

I’m late. I know. I’m just back from Ermergency and the Eye Care Dept. at City Hospital. That means a lot of waiting; it was a long day.

On Sunday I thought my glasses were dirty in church, so I wiped them more than once. On the way home I thought the windshield was uncommonly dirty and it wouldn’t clean with the spray washer. Once I got home and thoroughly cleaned my glasses I realized that they were not the problem. My left eye was seeing floaters. A little black spider with an extra long crazy leg, and some bits of threads and lint and some black and grey dots would float by but shift position every time I blinked.

Then I recalled what one eye specialist told me oh, maybe 15-20 years ago, and my current optometrist who last checked me in 2005. That I’m a prime candidate for macular degeneration, and if I ever saw floaters or flashes of light I should come in quickly so they could save my eye. Mom, her mother, and at least two of her brothers had it (Uncle Henry still does), so it runs in our family.

I tried calling my optometrist’s office on Sunday but got a recording, and it recommended calling the Eye Dept at City Hospital. i called there next and got a recording to say they were closed until Tuesday. Only doctors with crisis patients should call the next number. Monday was a new holiday here, called Family Day, so there was nothing to do but commit myself to God and wait until this morning to try again.

My optometrist was away on holidays this week, but they could give me an appointment with another doctor on Thursday but urged me to go to Ermergency and the Eye Dept. at City Hospital, and to take a driver because they would put dilating drops in my eyes.

So… I called my friend Shirley and she was good enough to drive me there, and to pick me up when I called her again. I spent from 10:30 to 1:30 in the Emergency Dept, only getting to see a doctor the last 10-15 minutes. Then I was sent up to the Eye Dept, where fortunately, things moved faster.

I called Shirley at 3 p.m.. and she came to take me home, but warned me to put on my sunglasses. I’m thankful I had my clipons in my purse! I still have them on, and although it seems like past dusk in my house, without the sunglasses, everything is fussy and bright, BRIGHT!

Happily, I know this will wear off in a few hours.

Oh, the diagnosis? My retina does not show signs of being detached - yet, but I’m to see another specialist in 6 weeks, and if I see bright lights, or curtains coming down shutting down my vision I ‘m to call right in fast. Otherwise, get used to the floaters. There’s nothing that can be done about them.

Obviously, I didn’t get any computers set up this morning, but I got one of the two I fussed over yesterday done. My old one is up and running well, and another one is doing okay, but i may try to install SUSE on that one yet. I have three others I want to do over better to solve some problems, and one of them is only a dial-up computer, so I may set that one aside to give away to some needy person.

There is a possibility three others will be given to me, so out of all these I should soon have four up and running smoothly. It didn’t quite happen last week, so my hopes were high for this week.

Oh, how I hope the next three mornings are very productive.

One good thing, is that I’m becoming much more familiar with the various operating systems or distros, and what their features, advantages and disadvantages are.

They say, “Curiosity killed the cat.” I can now add cleverly, “But education brought it back!”

With this eye problem I see it is even more urgent that I train others to do some of the work I’ve been doing, for if I should go blind it may all limp to a halt.

Still, as I reminded myself several times in the waiting rooms, God love and wonderful plan for my life has NOT come to an end. In fact, I was able to cancel the appointment for Thursday, which would have cost me $81. Despite all the waits, today’s services are covered by my Saskatchewan hospitalization plan. No cost to me today.

I had in mind to do a photo story today about my cat Snowflake. I’d been taking extra photos in preparation for that, but I think I better put that off another week. I hope you’ll understand. I need to fiddle with those photos and can’t see enough detail at this point.

If you know you’re going to emergency, even just as a companion, and have time to grab a few things, then I recommend that you grab some energy food for your pockets, and some reading material or a book of puzzles.

I’m rather slow at those sudoku puzzles, and wish I’d brought my last one along. I had plenty of time there to work on them today.

I’ll try to get a photo page about my cat Snowflake done for next week. I promise.

Meantime, here’s a couple of links I found quite thrilling yesterday; it’s the singing of a great Welsh hymn about the love of God on two different occasions. “Here is Love, Vast as the Ocean.”

See this song performed by a Welsh Church Choir

And another version by Huw Priday

Songwriters; William Rees (1802-1883) Robert Lowery (1826-1899)

Read about my novel. Or, go directly to the Order Page,

Or, Read sample chapters of my first novel online

Order the e-book to download and read on your computer

You can order the softcover paperback from Brooklocker

Last week I came down with a sore throat and head cold again. Thinking it over as I tried my home remedies, I realized that it wasn’t like a virus caught from anyone else, but more like a generic head cold without the virus.

Then one morning I woke with a clear memory of a friend, a young mom with three kids, whose middle son was declared allergic to the cold by their doctor. I also recalled that my Mom used to get pneumonia whenever she got a mouth full of cold air. It suddenly came together for me, that this so-called ‘cold’ came upon me last week when I took to walking to my office again, but bucking very cold air and some winds.

Have you ever heard of an allergy to cold temperatures? When it wasn’t a joke?

I stayed in all weekend, (well, I intended to drive to church, but the car wouldn’t start at -36C, with a windchill making it like -48C). and this week I’m feeling much better. My voice still gets rough and scratchy if I talk too much, but I’m feeling more like myself.

Solution, I’m going to drive to the office until the temperatures come up some more.

And Yes! They are coming up this week. Right now it is only -15C and by the weekend it will be a mere -1 or even 0C. Oh that is going to feel so balmy! I think my spring fever is kicking in!

This doesn’t guarantee that we won’t have any more cold days, but hey, mid-February we are due for a temporary ‘thaw’ to give us hope.

Snowflake must be looking for spring too, as she spends extra time at the windows looking out.

I admit I was rather discouraged and filled with self-pity on Friday. Besides the stuffed head and runny nose, I didn’t seem to be making any headway with setting up the computers at the office. I brought two of them home that afternoon, and spent the better part of Saturday trying to take Games files off of the one for the previous owners - as I had promised. Finally I got all but one file that was too big, onto 14 floppy disks.

But when I tried them in another computer some were blank, and one was a virus!

I did some serious praying about all this on Sunday when I was stuck at home.

Yesterday, back at the office I tried again with another Linux Live CD called FeatherLinux, and was able to access the files and upload them via FTP to one of my sites, and later download them, and burn them to a CD. Complete. Thank You, Lord!

This morning I was able to install Mandrake 9.1 on that computer and it is working nicely except it doesn’t seem to know where my sound is. I feel much encouraged!

This is a tough stage to go through, and I’m learning a lot about operating systems, and what works and what does not work, Sticking to my schedule seems easier this week too. I’m still crowding my usual full-time job into afternoons and evenings, but I feel like I’m creeping forward in the mornings towards this new business start.

Just think how smart people will think I am when I show them how to solve these problems.