Friday, November 18, 2022

Still freezing here, the weather that is, and I keep myself bundled up. Today’s header photo shows the early morning path toward my barn from up at the house.

After quitting work outside my home, I am finding time for animal care and property needs. This extreme cold multiples animal needs. Maintaining warmth expends mega calories. I face frozen-over watering devices, sheltering areas needing improvements, and making corrections to feeding amounts and frequencies.

There also are my dogs. I let them be outside for a while and then inside for a while. This works well since mostly they sleep while inside. That gives me computer time for writing, reading, and attempting to create something cool.

Yesterday and today have the horror of black ice. Years ago, a couple of bad slips taught me that danger, which now discourages walking with my horses on asphalt toward a neighbor’s pasture. The horses will have to be in a dry lot until Central Oregon’s atmosphere heats a little.

It is lighter now and quite beautiful outside. But it’s cold!

Dear Friends: Icy weather is neat for carrying around and pointing a camera. Diana

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Well, there’s Peaches on a big rock, and somehow, minus his perch and hot dog. While he’s wrongly sized in this, I did eliminate an original image’s background and successfully moved Peaches from a cage into the outdoors. I think these represent a decent start to learning the complex software, Photoshop.

In examining photos taken with my camera, my mind plays with them. Individual images often have me wishing to combine a couple or more, to tell a story or to increase their potential.

This began years ago. I was playing around and combined several throwaway shots, creating one I have loved. It shows my donkey, Pimmy, gazing at the wintery moon over the Cascade Mountains. Of course, this morning I cannot locate that old image in time for this blog. I will post it tomorrow.

Anyway, here’s to sharing my accomplishment so far, Hoping to continue and create something better.

Dear Friends: Cool as AI is, it’s really less than what human brains may produce. Diana

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Today’s header photo shows Peaches in his cage savoring a hot dog. I decided to use Photoshop, remove the image’s background and then place Peaches and his snack elsewhere. These changes would be my first experiment in navigating the complex Photoshop software.

After removing the in-home background, I could see challenges in finding a suitable background for Peaches, his perch, and the hot dog. A temporary solution was to place them against a solid color background.

This image’s tilted perch won’t easily fit into a natural tree, as I had hoped. I wondered if the saved components could be fitted onto a stump or a rock. I didn’t see an appropriate natural stump but spotted a rock that might serve.

Combining these two images successfully calls for a clear vision of desirable outcome and a clever manipulation of software. By tomorrow morning, I hope to have progressed adequately to share.

Dear Friends: Photoshop has enormous possibilities and greatly inspires creativity. Diana

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

I’ve begun hanging and turning on my outside Christmas lights, starting at the barn. They’re warm greetings, although now might be too early for them. Homeowners usually activate their Christmas lights after Thanksgiving. Anyway, last evening, I enjoyed peering through the sheer darkness at a lighted string of multi-colors at my barn. I will leave them up until the end of January, or this time not take them down at all.

I felt like pausing and hanging my lights after quitting my part-time job. For the first time in months, I could relax and do whatever I wished. What changed things is that this winter season began suddenly and harshly. Continued snowing and freezing temperatures encouraged deciding to stay home and care for my animals.

First, I’ll string the remaining lights, and then seriously will start working with my own images and the Photoshop editing program. I enjoy the illustrations that artificial intelligence produces and surely will enjoy mine. What’s been missing is enough free time to focus, practice, learn, and produce.

Today’s header is from AI, and tomorrow’s might be a product of my efforts.

Dear Friends: This cold, beautiful morning is an invitation to use the daylight hours wisely. Diana

Monday, November 14, 2022

Last week, encouraged by national book reviews, I purchased books from Amazon. This time, skipping my usual choice of hard-back versions, I went for Kindle downloads.

I grasped that my reading style has changed!

I love hardcovers and as an avid reader could “live in” books. I used to be an armchair expert on the works and lives of Charlotte Bronte and Emily Dickinson. For years, my brain was full of mid-Nineteenth Century British and American cultures, and the limiting gender-based discrimination. Role limits confronted those creative and talented women causing wonder about what more they’d have achieved had cultures allowed.

After turning from those personal studies, I focused on current and more open social views. I pursued the writings of contemporary talented women, with evidence of my interests printed on the bindings of books filling my bookcases. Those bindings served doubly to remind me of past reads, which sometimes I re-read.

In a bedroom “reading nook” I could relax, hold an actual book and become lost. To my eventual confusion, something changed. I quit reading but continued to purchase books, leaving them unread in stacks. Maybe because after long resisting, I was adapting to reading online.

I don’t prefer reading online but increasingly do. Today’s ultra-communicating world makes reading online quickly informative. Also, I’m searching for better ways of managing time and energy. My cellphone has a Kindle app, is always in my pocket or my hand. In the most spare moments, Kindle is readable from wherever I am.

A bound book makes reading a luxurious experience. One can page back, re-read, and consider how past passages connect with those ahead. In contrast, online reading encourages rapid processing. While selecting last week’s book versions, I doubted if online reading would have revealed the immense power of Bronte and Dickinson as did my hardcover reads.

Dear Friends: The Universe in occasionally identifiable ways moves us onward. Diana

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Oh dear, the internet is making available an AI program that’s capable of developing a writer’s ideas and finishing thoughts. In playing with the program, I think it won’t help my blogs, for my style is very personal. What’s cool though, is that this AI is helpful and makes me want to create fiction. Using it could prevent stumbles into writer’s block!

I’ll keep playing with it. I could dredge up some of my old creations to learn if using AI might punch them up. Years ago I wrote a fantasy, that I’m still fond of, but couldn’t create a satisfying ending. AI might enlighten and help, or might not, but I’m eager to discover.

I have fallen in love with DALL-E, an internet AI which creates satisfying illustrations from requested descriptions. I have company, too, as DALL-E images often head up contributor articles in major newspapers. DALL-E also might be illustrating books, an aspect I’ve not explored.

For me, there’s today’s reality. It’s bitterly cold at 20-deg. F. Once again, I will skip working. On Sundays, the grocery store is packed with customers and needs cashiers. I understand that I can leave after working five hours, but today my animals need me. In freezing weather, the equines and other outside critters need frequent feedings. Also, puppy Chase mustn’t mess with his stitches (I resist his E-collar as often he’s kenneled in a small environment}.

Our farrier, Russ, will arrive early today. He drives here from California every five or six weeks. Unlike any farrier I’ve ever known, Russ is informed and liberal-leaning and has a cool sense of humor. I enjoy catching up as Russ works on the horses.

Dear Friends: My blogs always will be my own brain children and without AI assistance. Diana

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Snowing! Today, Central Oregon’s high will be 31 degrees. It’s a day for staying home to care for my animals.

Yesterday, I gave written notice to the Human Resources Manager in the grocery that employs me. I explained my concerns with caring for animals in frigid weather that discourages long working hours away from home. She requested two weeks’ notice, said I could work only five hours daily, and I agreed. Today, however, the internet scheduling app doesn’t show me with reduced working hours. The heavy snow discourages my leaving home.

By quitting abruptly, I’ll probably not be re-employed by the grocery. Fortunately, however, this economy offers many working opportunities. Months behind a busy cash register has given me a highly marketable skill. That’s in my back pocket, but I’d seek new work that will offer learning.

Today at home, I can let dogs inside and outside as needed; ensure that my horses frequently receive hay; and care for the chickens, turkeys, and goats. Plus, I will make sure that puppy Chase doesn’t mess with his stitches.

Dear Friends: Inclement weather has occurred very early this season and disrupts my routine. Diana

Friday, November 11, 2022

It’s Veteran’s Day. In this early morning, the Markets are open, and nosediving after an exciting string of run-ups. The Nation’s general mood feels different than before the mid-terms. People seem more optimistic despite Market gyrations. The major newspapers are reporting good news, that some food prices are coming down.

But so are housing prices. Watching those will be interesting and perhaps jarring.

This morning, my main concerns are home-based. Yesterday, my puppy, Chase, was neutered. That evening, he removed and tore apart a seemingly capable donut collar designed to prevent the licking of stitches. Not a huge problem, for I also had an Elizabethan collar, and even managed to get on him. Chase resisted mightily and in minutes had slid his neck free.

This happened during late evening, what could I do?

This morning, I found him, awake and licking stitches. After we walked briefly in the freezing outdoors, I gave him a mild sedative. Early today, we’ll revisit the veterinarian for a re-check of his stitches, and hopefully, a more effective E-collar. (Those two collars he dumped were from Amazon, highly rated, with sales of some thirty-thousand-plus.)

Dear Friends: Lessons learned (again!): no more puppies, no more spays/neuters. Yes, no more! Diana

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Early today, my puppy (Rottweiler/GSD), Chase, goes in for neutering. He’s approaching eight months old and occasionally challenges my older male dogs. It’s time to do the deed. Chase is energetic and friendly; he loves everybody and is a keeper.

For the next week or so, he’ll wear an E-collar, or a donut-style one, whichever prevents reaching his stitches. My scheduled eight-hour workdays will force me to leave him outside, but in today’s freezing temperatures I will take time off. Chase will stay with me in the house and have supervised outings. I’ve not worked out details, but will create a plan.

My six months of hourly work, cashiering in a busy supermarket, have been fun. Store employees and customers alike love me. I show up when scheduled and do my job well.

I can operate a cash register efficiently, have memorized many product codes, and interact appropriately with shoppers hurrying and worrying about food costs. This job has given me highly marketable skills. I’ve begun thinking about exploring other job opportunities.

These days the supermarket is busy. Cashiers work hard from starting to finishing times. Taking care of Chase might call for too many days off. I’ve worked well, have achieved some key goals, and could quit to care for Chase.

I’d also explore other job opportunities. I like working, being among the public, gaining a larger sense of social and economic trends, and enjoying extra income, to cover “wants” that aren’t needs.

Dear Friends: Someone in CA has won the $2B Powerball prize; a life-changer. Diana

Wednesday, November 09, 2022

This “fall back” early morning reveals a very blue sky. It reflects hopefully today’s blue-enough America.

The counting for Oregon’s Governor continues in a close race. If that office goes Red, it’ll be the first time in forty years that Oregon has Republican leadership. Astonishing, in a state long with a conservative population. Old timers complain that the liberal bastion of Portland has swung voting, and more nowadays as “Portland” receives support from Eugene and Bend.

I’m no “bleeding liberal” as Dems may be sub-labelled. My humble perspective is that Americans are wealthy enough to care adequately for most citizens. It’s not right that a mere 1% of Americans control 99% of this country’s wealth and use it to wield great power. This election season has demonstrated that vast resources can be used to alter or destroy what many Americans accept as a Democracy.

Last evening, I followed the national returns and realized that my biggest concerns were over House and Senate races. The results coming in allow many Americans to rest easier. A nearly even division will force seat winners to negotiate across aisles. That represents more fairness than a slam dunk from one side.

This has been an astonishing political season. It owes kudos to Democracy, for continuing, and for supporting voters’ perspectives.

Dear Friends: A new category allowing self-identify as a “Liz Cheney Republican” suggests the future. Diana