Visitor on my window

Yesterday, after the storms, I saw this welcome visitor on my window.  Help yourself to all the mosquitoes that you care to eat.

The first storm came through before lunch and took out a few smaller branches from the trees.  A second storm came through after lunch.  In the evening the air was nice and clean.  Sylvia and I invented excuses to spend time outside picking up fallen sticks, walking around and enjoying the pleasant evening.

We picked some raspberries, which we had with some frozen yogurt for dessert.  They were very tasty!

The electricity went out several times.  While that was slightly inconvenient, it was not completely unwelcome.  It gave me a  push toward reading a bit more in the book I’m currently working on.  That was good.  Also, we have a generator in the barn that starts automatically when the commercial power goes out.  About 20 seconds later, it switches the power feed to the house from the commercial mains to the generator.  When power is restored it switches back and shuts down the generator.

Of course shortly after we installed that generator, the power company went into an aggressive policy of removing potential power-threatening conditions.  That’s why they removed some trees here a couple of years ago.  That’s okay.  I’m glad we have the backup generator.

Computer Problems

My 500 GB external hard drive has become unreliable.  I recently ordered a replacement.  For less than $100, I’m having a 2.5 TB drive shipped to my door.  How can you beat that?

I use that drive to back up my main hard drive.  I use Acronis True Image software to do that in the middle of the night.  The external drive and software have proven to be an excellent investment.  A few years back, I had a catastrophic failure of a replacement hard drive after two weeks of service.  The drive itself was under warranty and was quickly replaced.  Restoring all files turned out to be a very easy task.

It’s nearly lunch time, and then I have some computer work to do.  Hope you are enjoying the summer.