Reducing our "Stuff"

This is the year we are going to get rid of some of our "stuff". There is an opportunity to recycle much of the material I accumulated while serving on the Seward City Council. It is not only the Council material but also the Seward Foundation, Library, and Seward Aging Service Boards on which I served as a part of my Council duties. This afternoon, I brought up a full set of construction plans and drawing for the Seward Memorial Library that was built 10 years ago. I don't believe they have been looked at during that time but took up space in my "office". Tomorrow they will go back to the Library and I will find some additional obsolete files. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment which we all need.  

Lodge Installation

We had the privilege of participating in son-in-law Ben's installation as Master of Lancaster Lodge #54 in Lincoln this afternoon. It was an "open installation" so our whole "Seward family" was able to attend. It was very impressive with all the Lodge Officer's dressed in formal attire. The Installing Master conducted the entire ceremony from memory and the acoustics of the large hall made it possible to hear every work. (Even for Elaine & I). Carolyn baked several cakes which she and Elaine served for lunch. We are all very pleased and proud to see Ben assume the responsibility of this position. And, know he will do justice.  

My New Camera

Here is my new Panasonic Lumix FH 25 Camera. I've got it figured out to the point of being able to take pictures and download them to my PC where I can process, store, send, and retrieve them . Earlier I had learned to download pictures from the camera directly to the Mac laptop where I can process them in IPhoto. As often happens with some of us, I made this "camera transition" a lot more difficult than necessary. I related some of my problems to Carolyn this afternoon and she gave me some good advice. She said she just plugs things in and if something doesn't work, reads  the instructions on how to fix it. With this guidance, I removed the system that I downloaded on to the PC yesterday. With the PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0 System gone, I was able to download my pictures to the familiar Kodak Easy Share system and proceed with my old familiar system. I took a break and saw the Seward HS boys lose to Elkhorn (The girls won) and when I sat down to it again, the pieces all seemed to fall together. It's going to be a good improvement. And, good for me to accept the challenge of something new and not always be satisfied with that to which I've become accustomed. There are limits however, Elaine doesn't have to worry.  

New Panasonic Camera

I received a Panasonic LUMIX camera for a Christmas present. It is to replace my Kodak that I've used for the past several years. With "end of year" activities I've spent little time getting "acquainted" with it. Today it was on my priority list. I went through the little instruction booklet and was able to take a picture and upload it on my laptop. This one of Elaine and I was taken with the time-delay feature. It has been cropped which diminished the quality. My next step was to download the complete instruction manual to my PC. It consisted of 127 pages and told me much more than I wanted to know.

Then I downloaded the Photofunstudio 6.0 "system" to my  PC. This took a while so I cleaned old magazines off the coffee table while it was in the process. After an hour or so, I was able to hook the camera to the PC with the 3 pictures on the memory card that I had moved over from my Kodak. The 3 pictures did show up on the PC screen but the new system had also "grabbed" all the other old pictures that were in the computer. I went back looking for my newest 3 and couldn't find them. I printed out a few sheets of the instructions and hope to learn more about the system tomorrow. If challenging ones mental capability helps keep it from deteriorating, mine should stay in good shape. 

Winter Day Activities

I put on my winter boots this afternoon and knocked down the ice cycles and chunk of ice that had accumulated over the roof gutters. We have a valley in our roof in that area which is a focal point of snow and ice when the sun shines as it did this afternoon. While out in the back yard, I filled the bird feeder with a new mix to hopefully attract different species. Our River Burch had a couple of its multiple trunks bent over by the snow storm. I was able to pull the upper branches out of the snow and they are trying to straighten back up. We also got to the recycle center this evening. It will be a pretty popular place this winter as we clean out a lot of City Council related material that I no longer need. One of the new City Council members who works in the Bank, joined us for coffee there this morning and related some of the discussion that took place last night. While I enjoyed the "give and take" discussions during my tenure, I'm happy to see someone else have the experience. One of the issues that the new Council is facing is the extent of City involvement in the proposed Health Center on the old Middle School site. The Mayor and City Administrator seem to be more interested in its pursuit than the Council.

Picture Collages

For the past several years, I have selected some of my favorite pictures and printed out collages to show our years activities. This is part of the last page of 2012. The arrival of Sadie, our first Great Grandchild, in early August, has led to many "favorite" pictures. Elaine has the task of listing captions on the back  of each collage. It seems that each year, I have more difficulty eliminating the pictures not included. This year about 15% made the cut. That led to 5 pages of collages. Its always interesting to wonder what will happen to pictures eventually. I don't know how long they will retain their color and quality.  When looking  back at past years the pictures stimulate the memory to where one can "relive" enjoyable experiences. The time and expense involved in producing them is justified by the enjoyment I get in the process. After all, isn't that how we justify many of our activities. 

Georgia 45-Nebraska 31

It would have been great if Nebraska could have won but they actually played better for 3 quarters than I expected. It was great to see Rex Burkhead play his game. Martinez should be able to set all kinds of records in his senior year. He is an exciting player but still makes some sophomore type mistakes. All-in-all it was a good season and could have been better without some critical injuries. And the game today gives more hope for Next Year. But, Bo & Company have their work cut out for them.