Brad beat me to the punch and called to say he didn't feel like working today before I'd gotten around to calling him to say I felt under the weather. I needed some time to just not do much of anything. I have gravel and topsoil coming tomorrow morning, then if someone doesn't beat us to the little backhoe at Ace Hardware the guys can fix the drive and fill some low spots in the barnlot and pasture Friday.

I don't know how we became so hard to find suddenly but the FedEx driver gave up this morning and took my new laptop back to Effingham. I called and gave them directions for getting here and it should come tomorrow.

UPS did finally figure out where we live and brought my new camera today. I'd say it takes pretty good still shots. Those fence posts just past the horse are a good 200' from where I was standing:

It also does pretty decent videos but I'm not too impressed with what YouTube does with them:

Actually, I think I like the way it worked out with Photobucket better:

I didn't think this turned out too bad considering the lighting conditions. That ferocious beast doing the chewing is a 5 week old Shiranian pup (who'll be for sale in about another 3 weeks):

The new camcorder that came Monday takes great videos that look fine on the TV but I need a cable that didn't come with it to copy them to my hard drive. I went to the Wal-Mart right past the end of the pasture this morning with the intention buying a cable and some SD cards but everything in that section of the store has already been moved to the new store that's scheduled to open a week from today. I guess I could have gone on to Vincennes but I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for the idea. I'll check prices on Wal-Mart's and CompUSA's web sites and order what I need.

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Chow time big buddy! You comin'?

I guess another one of those assumptions I was naive to make was that a camcorder that accepts miniDV tapes and SD memory cards would record video to either. Wrong. The only thing the SD slot in my new camcorder is good for is still pics; since I have a very nice digital still camera now I'm not sure there's even any reason to buy an SD card for the camcorder. I guess the game plan at this point is to use the new still camera for still shots and spur of the moment videos and the camcorder for videos I have more time to plan for. I'm not sorry I bought either one, just disappointed the camcorder isn't quite everything I was expecting.

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Coises! Foiled again! Cordell's Wii can access my blog and view still shots and YouTube vids but not Photobucket vids. Why? I 'aven't the foggiest. Anyway, here's that last vid as a YouTube upload so Mom can sit on the couch and watch it and for the benefit of anyone else who does their web surfing on a Wii. I like the Photobucket version better:

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I just ordered a bigger 2nd hard drive for the computer I'm using now, which will soon become the family machine, from CompUSA. When I get around to it I'll put the 2nd drive that's in this machine now in the machine I gave Scotty. With that much internal storage on the family machine I'll probably keep the USB drive I bought last month for myself. The notebook I have on order has enough internal hard drive space that I shouldn't have any space problems but having two copies of my music, pictures etc won't hurt anything. ... Actually, it probably makes more sense to leave the external drive connected to this machine when it moves and just leave it shared over the network like it is now. That way it will be available as backup storage for all three computers in the house and won't disappear off the network when I'm blogging in the back yard, in Texas, etc.

While I was on CompUSA's site I also ordered a couple of SD cards but I went to Wal-Mart's site for a Firewire cable since I wasn't sure I was ordering the right thing and I know if I didn't Wal-Mart will buy it back.

I hope I don't get a load of gravel dumped in the drive tomorrow then have to wait several days for the backhoe we're going to rent to be available. After the gravel is actually here I think I'll go over to Ace Hardware and find out if there's any way short of paying for an extra day's rent to reserve the backhoe.

My brother in law pointed out earlier, in very undiplomatic terms to which I responded in kind, that we need to be careful not to do major damage to the root system of my favorite Red Maple digging the trench for that freeze-proof hydrant. He has some valid points at times but he's also has a hard time dealing with the fact he's not in charge around here and I'm not going to put up with the tone of voice he's prone to use when he forgets that fact. After I'd had time to cool down and think about the matter I realized it makes sense to detour around that tree's root system, even if it does cost me a little extra for pipe. I spend too much time sitting under it relaxing to screw around and kill it.