A Period Of Instruction/To Gain Understanding by Experience

Do you know what words those are the definition of? Lesson Learned! I've learned 2 very valuable lessons in the past 2 days. Yup, you're going to hear what they are cause I'm gonna tell ya.

My first lesson was learned while on vacation last week. While camping I sat outside every morning at 7:30 a.m. and knit! Just knit. Me and the yarn and the needles and the pattern for my Icarus shawl. Know what? I got A L O T done! No computer, no TV, nothing but me and the above. So, know what I learned? I spend WAY too much time on the computer every day reading blogs, surfing the web and reading e-mail. So, know what the lesson was? No more than an hour each morning and no more than an hour each evening reading blogs. I love reading blogs. Like I've said before, I live a long way from anything and don't have a lot of friends (which isn't me wining, just explaining) and the computer and the blogs are my way of belonging to something out there in this big world. But, I haven't finished one single project in forever and I realized while camping that it's because of the computer. I got 2 pattern charts done on that shawl in just 4 days of knitting for a few hours in the morning. I didn't work on it in the evening, except one night, and got further on it than I have on anything else I've been knitting, or trying to knit. So, I'm cutting back on my blog reading and my computer time. Don't worry, I'm only cutting out the ones that really aren't for me anyway, not all of them. Those of you that read this blog will stay on my list, you're my cyber knitting group since I don't have one close by.

My second lesson learned? This is a much bigger, badder one! If you have a computer, if you keep pictures or patterns or information on that computer that you can't live without, BACK IT UP!!!!!! I've been told that umpteen times but always thought, "okay, I'll do it, I'll do it" and just never got around to doing it. Bought a box of CD's and was "going to do it." Well, the computer guy came yesterday and my hard drive on the PC is now dead, gone, gone with all the information I've kept on it forever. All my pictures, all my knitting patterns, all BTB business quotes, invoices, pictures of the houses in progress, EVERYTHING ON THE DAMN COMPUTER! The guy felt really bad cause he thought he'd probably be able to get something off it, but it was totally, 100% dead! All the pictures of the Baby Girl and her band activities during high school, all the pictures of my grandkids, the Baby Boy and his moves, the pug growing up, everything! Gone! I'm sick, I'm sad, I'm really, really mad at myself for not backing up and I'm really, really tired of computers! So, less blogging for me, less reading of blogs and no more saving everything to a hard drive. I'm spending my entire weekend burning CD's and backing up the computers. Dell sent a guy to put in a new hard drive, so it's working, but what good is it without all MY stuff in there? I've got some pictures on my laptop, which is going to BTB since I have the new laptop, so all that is getting copied to disk and I WILL NEVER DEPEND ON THE COMPUTER AGAIN!
Here is last Saturdays Sky for Sandy. It's taken inside the butterfly house at Callaway Garden in Pine Mountain, Georgia. It was a great weekend, had a blast seeing the gardens and then we went to Warm Springs to see F. D. Roosevelts Little White House and the Warm Springs where he went to help with his Polio. It was great seeing our Baby Boy, too. I miss that kid around here. He, BTB and the Baby Girl went skeet shooting at the Callaway Gun Club. The Baby Girl never used a gun in her life (well, maybe a BB gun) and got 12 out of 16 skeets! Not bad for a first timer. Father and Son did very well too, but they did one of the courses, so it was a little tougher. It was fun watching them, 2 grown men playing together. Do you call that playing? I do! They had a blast. Me? I kept score, took pictures and spent the rest of the weekend working on Icarus. I'm starting the last pattern chart tonight.

I'll be posting once a week, probably on Friday night or over the weekend, but I can't spend so much time doing this, it's cutting into my knitting time. I'm going to finish something soon, or go nuts trying. I'll be reading your blogs, popping in with my comments and enjoying what you're all doing every day, just won't spend half my morning reading them all. Can't have a knitting blog without getting some knitting done!

Happy Knitting!