Back in December and January I took over 50 pictures on Scarboro Hill (some were duplicated over different trips) but due to a combination of tech issues and time shortages I wasn’t able to post them yet. I plan on taking new pictures soon, but I want to ask if I should post the old pictures or just take new ones.
more “[Poll] Should I post Scarboro Hill pictures from January?”
I use Smashwords to distribute my ebooks, but there’s always been one store that’s been missing: Google’s Play Store. After several requests to Smashwords about the problem with no response, I went ahead and put my ebooks on the Play Store myself. more “My books are now in the Google Play Store”
When I got to my local branch of the Boston Public Library last Thursday I found out the IT folks were updating all of the laptops available for loan. I go to the library every day and the first thing I do each day is to get one of their laptops to work on. When the techs were done updating the laptops I found I could no longer mount my external hard drive, which is something I had been surprised to be able to do in the first place. My external drive was formatted for my old Linux laptop and needs special drivers to be mounted on Windows computers like the library has available for patrons to use. Not being able to install the drivers essentially destroyed my daily workflow because I can no longer access any of the files I used every day to get things done online. I’m still trying to figure out how much I can and can’t do, but if it weren’t for the WiFi-only Android phone a friend is letting me use I wouldn’t even be able to take new pictures, let alone post them.
When I walked out the door Sunday morning, 19 April, I wasn’t planning on taking any new pictures, partly because I don’t have a memory card for the phone so I’m usually short on space for new pictures. As I was heading to the clubhouse for Franklin Park’s William J. Devine Golf Course to use the free WiFi to check my email, I took the turn off Circuit Drive/Jewish War Veterans Drive to go to Schoolmaster Hill, only planning to see how things looked now that all the snow has melted.
When I finally left the Schoolmaster Hill Terrace to go to the clubhouse there were 26 new pictures on my phone. As I started writing this post I realized I had missed taking some pictures so I went back yesterday and took five more pictures.
Just a note before the jump: Most people refer to the area as simply “Schoolmaster Hill,” but I found out the original name is “Schoolmaster Hill Terrace” so that’s the name I’m going to use most of the time. I’ve also found there are other names for the Forest Hills Corner and the hill where the Wilderness Scenic Overlook so I’ll be going back in the next week to update the posts to show the proper names of the sites.
If you walk into Franklin Park via the Williams Street entrance you’re in my favorite part of the park. You’re in the Wilderness, Frederick Law Olmsted’s replication of a typical New England woodland (despite the blacktop on the path) with a forest to explore on your left and a stream on your right, with two benches for you to sit on to take a pause if you’ve been walking a while or even just to sit on and enjoy the area. Of course, you also have the Ellicott Arch as the path cuts under Jewish War Veterans Drive, but right after the benches you will find a path cut off to the right. Christine Poff of the Franklin Park Coalition tells me the historic maps call it Juniper Hill, but she calls it Forest Hills Corner so that’s what I call it.
These pictures were taken on 4 April 2015, shortly before a combination of a warm stretch and some rain got rid of just about all the rest of the snow that Mom Nature dropped on Boston during our record setting winter.
(The screenshot on the right was taken in the free version of MyTrails, the Android app that I use to track my walks through Franklin Park, as well as to note where I take some of my pictures. The placemark on the right of Jewish War Veterans Drive is where I take pictures of the white oak in Ellicottdale, and the one above it is the Wilderness Overlook where I took the first TestPics. .)
From what I was told last evening my surgery went well and quite to my surprise I am, in fact, happy my arm is in a sling.
https://instagram.com/p/0bQpYmJvDw/
more “It’s the day after my surgery, and my left hand is still attached”
As I alluded to in Saturday’s post, I have some surgery in my future. Today I got confirmation that I’ll be going under the knife a week from tomorrow. more “Measure twice, cut once… again”
I haven’t forgotten to post ebooks I’ve found during Read an Ebook Week, I just didn’t have a chance to find any. I was going to post and say I’ll try to find some on Thursday but I lost a lens from my glasses Wednesday night, turning me from a 4-eyes to a 3-eyes, and had to scramble to least make arrangements to get a new set of eyes. My exam appointment is Tuesday morning and it turns out I’ll have to wait 4-6 weeks to get my new ones. (Tanj it Mass Health!) more “Tanj this week…”
Last week I was thinking it should be getting time for the 2015 Smashwords Read an Ebook Week and sure enough, when I checked my email this morning I see that it started yesterday. Read an Ebook Week is a promotion my distributor, Smashwords, runs every year to encourage people to read ebooks. Many Smashwords authors put deep discounts on their ebooks with some making their ebooks completely free. As I did last year you can get my two non-free ebooks at a 50% discount. more “It’s Read an Ebook Week!”
Unless you’ve been off spending a very cold and snowy winter and avoiding all news about what’s going on where we’re cold and sick of snow you’ve probably heard that unless something happens very soon a very important part of the U.S. Government, the Department of Homeland Security could be forced to close at the end of the day Friday. This comes because while most of the government got a budget for the current fiscal year, The Powers That Be up on Capital Hill have decided to fight one of the president’s actions on undocumented immigrants. While I won’t pick sides (there’s enough mud to go around) I find myself wondering if perhaps we need a way to penalize our elected officials for wanting to force federal employees to work while the rest of DHS has to turn off their lights and lock their doors. more “Should Congress be penalized for possibly closing a part of our government?”
I had a funny thought this morning as I was reading the ebook of Larry Niven’s Flatlander on my ‘Droid as I was finish my morning coffee:
Server years back I was talking to a barista friend of mine and mentioned that one of his coworkers punched in things on the cash register terminal with her middle finger, but when I was her age using the middle finger like that would be a (possibly) subtle insult. He had never noticed it but it made him chuckle when told him about it.
Lately I’ve noticed that when I type on my phone I use…
You’ve got it, my middle finger. It makes sense though because I have my phone on the table as I type this, my left hand angling the phone toward me slightly, and my middle finger extends out the farthest. If I try to use my index finger to type on my phone it feels odd. How things change over forty years.
/me lifts my cup of coffee in salute to my friends from the coffee joint