This is a pine branch. It showed up on my deck.
There is no pine tree within 3 lots of mine. It didn't blow here in the wind. Something dragged it up here. It wasn't my cats (they don't wander out of the yard).
But what animal drags a pine branch around?
Its working, but it wasn't for 3 days at first and I was going nuts. There is bad news at first, but good news at the end, so keep reading.
It arrived last week. I made sure my Time Machine backup had the latest version of the old computer. Went through the migration process. Answered all the questions along the way. Recorded all information it suggested. It took 9 hours.
Migration is supposed to retain all settings. For the most part, it did, but for some things it did not.
When the migration process was ended, it said to restart the computer. That made sense, restart incorporates the old into the new.
When it came back up, it wanted my admin password. I know my admin password. But it wouldn't accept it. I struggled with that the entire next day. No luck. The new computer software wouldn't recognize me.
Hooking my old computer back up, I researched "recover admin password". By design for security, that is not easy to do, but I did find some instructions about it. Sadly, none of them made much sense to me (too technical and in terms I didn't understand). I mean, seriously, "kernal panic"?
I set up the new computer again and tried to follow the recovery instructions. No luck
I tried sleeping the computer, I tried restarting it, I even unplugged the router to reset it after 2 minutes. Nothing helped.
I set up the old computer again (which, perversely, seemed to be working fine and made sure I had a new backup. I disconnected it and set up the new one. I erased the internal hard drive. I reinstalled the backup. No luck. The new computer would simply not accept my admin password.
I shut it down again. Let's just say "bad words abounded in the house...
The next day, I started it up again to try and do "safe recovery mode" and other things recommended. But I tried the same old admin password again first (why not?) and it was accepted! I have no idea why it was now and not before.
But the new computer is working. It's not perfect. I lost all autofills, but I will restore them gradually. Good news is that it hasn't auto-restarted. It doesn't get hot in sleep mode. It wakes up immediately. It seems to send and receive quickly. All my bookmarks, files, email and photos are present.
Time to see if I can FINALLY be able to leave comments on blogs again. That is the last test and something I have missed doing.
Finally got outside and worked hard. It's been a long Winter and I don't deal with "cold" as well as I used to. Today got to the 80s. So I got some stuff done...
1. I had covered parts of the fence flowerbed with cardboard. Lifting it up, I saw that some annoying weeds were still alive. So I gave it a shallow tilling with a mini tiller and covered it back up.
2. Gave the pollinator bed a similar short-mowing and then shallow tilling. It is about 350 square feet but my seed packet was for 500 sq ft. Spread it all. Well, the thicker the better. Most won't sprout anyway.
3. The native wildflower meadow bed is larger (700 sq ft) and needs deeper tilling. I have a larger tiller, but it doesn't want to start. I'll have to drain the gas, spray cleaner into it, and otherwise fight with it. I think what I need to do is cover it in black plastic for the year to smother the weeds and grass.
4. Speaking of equipment, I have a bad habit of leaving old gasoline in them. I'm engaged on a project to fix everything and not repeat old bad habits like that.
5. I have a chipper/shredder. It easier to just pile all the tree debris into the trailer and bring it to the County recyling site. I pull the stuff off the trailer and on Saturdays they will use a bucket-loader to fill it with 3-year-old mulch/compost. Well, it isn't exactly either. To course for compost and too fine for mulch; but it is good to add to my compost bin or spread on shipping paper to break down further. I should sell the chipper/shredder.
6. Should sell some other stuff too. I have a lawn roller I never use. 
Not that brand, but one like it. It's actually bad for the lawn. But it is good for flattening mole or gopher tunnels and someone would probably want it for that. I just stomp on the mole tunnels myself.
Someone wants almost anything for their own reasons and their evaluation of things can be surprising. I bought a bike to get back and forth to the car dealership with my old car and the next month theyt started offerring rides back and forth. And besides, I well over trying to ride it. They say "you never forget how to ride a bike. Yes, you can. And I sold it for more than I paid. The buyer was thrilled. Yeah! Win-win.
Sold a large air-pressure pump too. I bought a small portable one more suited to my needs. But some guy wanted a big one. Sold!
I have too much stuff I don't use. Time to start selling. I don't need the money, but there is no point in just tossing them away. What I need more is unclutterred space in the basement and toolshed.
Anyway, I spent the day outside, and I am paying for it now. Hand and rib muscle cramps, finger-clenches, lower back pain. I better get this place ready for another 10 years soon or I won't be able to soon. After 10 years, it is going to be a professional landscaper service or just let everything become "lawn".
It arrived a couple days ago. Need to set it up and migrate the old files to it. Probably tonight but there is always something else to do. I don't know about Windows, but Mac Time Machine saved on an external drive works well.
I can delay it a bit because (oddly annoyingly) the current one has stopped auto-restarting randomly and is not overheating after an hour. It's like it knew it was being replaced... Of course I don't give sentience to a machine, but it is acting as if it did. Well, maybe some of the efforts I taken the past month are actually working.
Still can't get the current one to leave comments on blogs with any regularity, though, so that is enough of a reason to set up the new one. It's not like I don't try every few days, but constant failure gets discouraging.
I may be avoiding setting up the new one for fear of discovering it doesn't solve the problem. If it doesn't, I will just scream! And there is the thought that, if I don't open the box, it is returnable for 3 weeks. I mention that because this "newest version (2020) has a dedicated Mac M1 chip and may require more app changes.
But if I want to continue with Mac, I probably have to. A former co-worker just told me her office is going to Google software which (apparently) resides totally on The Cloud. I don't trust Off-site file storage. The security is probably better than on my desktop, but I am a WAY lesser target. And if someone wants to see my photos, they are welcome to. I keep no financial information or passwords on it.
The current view. The late white daffodils.
The mid-Spring white daffodils were at their best.
The 2nd blooming of the daffodils... The mid daffodils were opening.
I love my 2 Saucer Magnolia tress. The early Spring flowers are gorgeous. But they walk a dangerous line with the weather. One cold night, and all the emerging flowers die! If I had it to do again, I would have planted Star Magnolias. They open their flowers a week later. So, they bloom more reliably.
They are lesser in showy flowers but more reliable. But I chose the Saucer Magnolia because there was a small park across the street from my office and I was awed by their beauty. And the trees have pleasingly twisted branchs and nice green leaves the rest of the year. But they were in the center of Washington DC and city-centers are warmer.
This year seemed promising. Lots of buds, and the weather forecast was for wees of above-freeze temperatures. Alas, a 22F night snuck in and killed are the blooms.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes you get frozen blooms! At least the cold temps don't kill the tree. And I have some backups for the future. 2 years ago, I planted 2 korean dogwoods and 2 Sourwoods in the far backyard. The Dogwoods will bloom a couple weeks later in Spring and the Sourwoods don't exactly bloom, but the leaves turn bright red in Fall.
It has actually been a hard couple of years for trees here. The drought 2 years ago was harsh. A Beech tree in the front yard died outright. I have 2 Golden Rain trees at the street on either side of my driveway. I died and the other is barely alive (just several small branches with leaves emerging). I may try to clip some small shoots and root them.
A huge Sweetgum tree has been falling apart slowly for years. I don't really mind that (it shades the garden). But the trunk is going to fall on my fence eventually. And it has shady siblings. I hope they die too (I can use the light). I can't have them cut down because they are actually (barely) on the neighbor's property and they don't care about my garden. But I can hope they die natural deaths like the falling one.
When I moved here, the backyard was filled with junky trees. I cut down some and a couple fell over on their own. Wild blackberries and English Ivy took over. They are hard to remove. My hope is that the 4 new specimen trees (2 Dogwoods and 2 Sourwoods) will shade them out between chainsaw and brush-cutting efforts, but it will take a few years.
I'll get the backyard cleaned of problem-plants eventually (and as the new trees grow). Then I can try to remake the 10' pond and get the place looking as good as it did 10 years ago!
I've been slack about posting about the yard. Too much griping about the computer (new one arrive 4-21 I hope). So this starts 4 posts about the flowerbeds for this year, grouped by dates.
I covered the entire area of the main daffodil bed with black plastic last fall afrer the first hard freeze to try to smother the weeds. Can't do it earlier than that because rain collects in small pools and mosquitos love that.
When I saw the first daffodils emerge near the house (where it is warmer and they come up faster) I pulled all the plastic off. There were some daffodils struggling to find light there already. I should have realized that the black plastic warmed the soil.
But they recovered and greened up quickly. So here are the first.
I decided to plant daffodils shortly after I moved here. Well, I knew they lived long (and prospered). But there was a yard I drove past frequently (not in my neighborhood, but on a sidestreet shortcut to the grocery store) that had a large daffodil bed. I admired it a couple of Springs before I realized "I can do that". It took some work (nothing good is easy, or everyone would do it).
And I planted tulips and hyacinths among them. The voles ate all of those. So I bought mesh wire and made cages to protect a 2nd planting. That worked better, but tulips don't live long and maybe the wire mesh small enough to keep the voles away were also too small for the hyacinths. I need to mark where the cages are and dig them up to try again after the stalks of the surviving bulbs die back down.
Later blooms next post...
I sometimes don't realize how frustrating computers are to others. Some people are skilled at them; the hardware or the apps parts. Some people just have to live with the frustrations. I'm in the middle, I think.
I know enough to try. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. That may be the most maddening of all. I sometimes think it would be better to know most all of it or less of it. The first is very helpful and the 2nd pretty much lets you just "accept".
The middle means you struggle constantly. Knowing what to do is like killing the wolf at the door with a gun. Not knowing is like just accepting things and throwing a steak at the wolf. Being in the middle is like just having a knife against the wolf.
*Sigh*
This time, I had to accept the wolf. I can't wait for the new computer. It will "probably" solve most problems. Probably... I won't know until it gets here and I set it up. I'm hoping it is a hardware problem, fearing it may not be.
I both love and hate computers.
The bad news is that I had to struggle through my tax software with the old Mac Mini.
The good news is that it still worked.
The bad news is that the taxes were hard as hell because I needed a statement from my Credit Union and my password wouldn't work.
The good news is that the Credit Union emailed me the statement.
The bad news is that it needed a paasword, too and in a pdf format my computer refused to open..
The good news is that I got it open in Preview "eventually".
The bad news is that I couldn't print the whole page full size (needed a magnifying glass to read the numbers).
The good news is that the numbers were about right.
The bad news is that my inkjet printer decided to run out of ink.
The good news is that I finally found the dedicated printer cable for the "new" color toner printer that has been sitting around for a year refusing to connect to the Mac Mini.
The good news is that it worked (after "many bad words" at the "add a printer app").
The good news is that the toner printer printed out the Credit Union statement, full size.
The bad news is that it was so unexpected to work, I almost had a heart attack when it began to print.
The good news is that I completed and printed my tax forms.
The bad news is that I owe some additional taxes to Federal and State.
But in general? More good than bad. The color toner printer works great. Loud, but who cares? And my taxes are done. I'll call that a "win".
But I wanted to remember a sad day. I remember some parts. I was only 13. I saw a lot on TV afterwards. But my most specific image is the...
