New pictures

Thought I'd better cover up that crying child with another post. Went to the beach this afternoon--pretty deserted but one guy had been wind surfing (see pix on my SB blog). The light was delicious today. Wish I'd gotten out earlier. This was about 4:20.

Waaaah!!!

My computer crashed!! I am devastated. Yesterday afternoon when I turned it on I got the fatal message on a black screen, "Windows could not load because the following file is missing or corrupt .... CONFIG\SYSTEM." A death sentence.
After mourning for 6 or 7 hours and then sleeping on the problem it occured to me that I should call the Toshiba Technical Help line. The voice (Indian accent) guided me to the Restore wizard. It became clear that I would lose everything I'd saved in the last four months, including photos. Groan. Nevertheless I needed to have my computer working, so I clicked on Yes and went through the whole process. After 30 or 40 minutes I had Windows back, with all the clutter on that banal desktop. The documents I'd saved in Wordpad, not too many, were gone. The photos and the program for them were gone. Starting from scratch. Of course I hadn't saved anything on a flashdrive. Much snarling and mental flagellation.
The reason for the crash is a mystery to me, but I suspect it had something to do with the DVD I put in forgetting that Windows was not on. Anyway, that's when the message came on. I'm back to square one.
Did this ever happen to you?

Merry Christmas to all!

Best wishes to all my blogging friends!

Snowy Green

See, Kristen, we do have some snow. I took this about 3 hours ago. It's the Setauket Green, where the famous Battle of Setauket took place in 1777. That's the Presbyterian Church.

"The British controlled Long Island throughout the war after defeating Gen. George Washington in Brooklyn in August, 1776, and Setauket became a hotspot of Patriot guerrilla warfare. The Redcoats turned it into a garrison town by seizing the Presbyterian Church and making it a fort. Local families' loyalties were split between the rebel and Tory causes for most of the war.The Battle of Setauket occurred Aug. 22, 1777, when 500 Patriot troops, led by Col. Abraham Parsons, came ashore from Fairfield, Conn. In a four-hour skirmish, they unsuccessfully tried to force the British out of Setauket, retreating across the Sound when word came that English ships were about to close off their escape route." (From Newsday article)

A few snowflakes today

It took an hour to get to work today, normally a 15-minute drive. Here's how much we had by 1:15. At 3:00 they closed the campus, so I was home before dark for a change. Looks like about four or five inches so far (7pm). How are you folks in CT making out?

Decisions, decisions

Uh, I'll take a pound of ground chuck, please.

What's this?

All you car buffs out there...what kind of car is this? I saw it the other day in Port Jefferson and wondered if it might be a customized dune buggy. Maybe a Maserati? Santa's new sleigh?

Carolina Horsenettle (again)

Now that I know what this weed is, I'm seeing the little yellow marbles everywhere. Yesterday I saw this patch at the edge of the Waldbaum's parking lot in Rocky Point that borders a golf course.

Cute song

Anybody know what group this is that is playing on this blog?
Tune's really catchy. Also arresting: the "landscape" pictures (scroll down a little), and the Chinese text that makes me realize there are people all over the world out there blogging just as we are.
Meg Wu

Thank you, Kristen!!

I love my present! You did a great job with that lettering, very neat. You must have a very steady hand. The package arrived today. Now I'm going to wrap it up again and place it under my Christmas ... Jade Plant. Thank-ee, thank--ee, thank-ee!

Horse nettle

Don't these look like nice cherry tomatoes getting ripe? Well, they're not. They are horse nettle (Solanum carolinense), a common weed, and they are poisonous!
On a Sierra Club hike this past Saturday we saw some in a field and wondered what they were. Like good scientists we squooshed them open with our fingers. Ughhhhhh! what a horrible smell! They grow on spiny stalks, not vines. They are in the Nightshade family, to which tomatoes also belong.
I felt I should post this as a caution to the hiking public. Here's more info

Now I can see what ancient Rome looked like

A recent Google Friends Newsletter told me of Google Earth's new feature: views of Ancient Rome in the Late Empire Period (3rd and 4th Century). I tried it out this morning. Amazing! You can see where every building was and how the streets run. A wonderful toy.

Whatever next? Watching the Vikings burning and sacking an English village?

Ancient Rome

P.S. You can download Google Earth for free, a wonderful service.

Hooray, it worked!

I feel so good!

I just did the link insertion thingy, as per Biddie's instructions, and it worked(after about 17 unsuccessful tries). The beige box in which I'm supposed to plop the url was not showing...it was blocked. When I unblocked it ("temporarily allow scripted windows")all became clear. Then I put my relevant words between the marks (><) and clicked Publish Post. Voila!

Thank you, Miz Biddie. You can tell yourself that you have contributed to the technical education of a humanist