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Tuesday Tidbits

1. Once in a while unforgiving technology clashes with human stupidity.  One pretty sad note since returning to Florida from a 2 week romp around the frozen hinterland of the North: a technological glitch erased almost all of my 751 pictures.  I have no idea how it happened but I did whisper to myself not to erase the card before I erased the card.  You guys don't have any idea what was lost, but I do and I am extremely bummed.  Some of the things you guys missed out on are several pretty neat pictures of eagles down by the river, including a bit of a tussle between two bald eagles.  Also lost:  a place near Keithsburg that has acres of old farm machinery and tractors, some wonderful pics of the woods,  hundreds of pictures of birds at Pat's feeders (I wouldn't have subjected you to all of them, of course), quite a few pictures of a herd of deer I came across on either side of the road near East Galesburg, and several pics that would have been paintings.  All are lost now, but I did manage to save about 20-30 which will be posted at a later date.   After a good cry I just chalked it up to my stupidity and hope I learned something from it. 

 (Don't worry too much because there is a happy ending to the story which I will relay next week.) 

 2.  Aside from the loss of all my pictures, it was also a bit of a tough trip on three of my other possessions.  Firstly, whilst taking pictures of Seaton early in the morning one of my tripod latches snapped off due to the cold.  In addition, my little obsolete Acer Notebook laptop decided not to open in some sites as well as being ungodly slow.  I had to do one of those system default thingies a while back and it had never been the same since. It was chucked into Aledo's E-Cycle bin.  And finally, my old DS which is about 10 years old conked out on me as well, deciding it needed rebooted every time I put it "on break" mode.  Things break and get old, but all on one trip?

3.  I think I discovered why Galesburg is undergoing economic hardship.  I attempted to get a La Gondola torpedo, a Made-Rite, and an unbreaded tenderloin from various restaurants but they were all closed.  This was on Sunday before I came back to Florida, thus preventing my culinary satisfaction, but guaranteeing a return trip.  Hint to owners:  close on Monday.  People spend money on weekends, not Mondays.  

4.  For all you Norah watchers out there, I stopped by to see her after my flight and I must say she was ecstatic.  Couldn't get enough of me.  Here she with her table runner Carol Sutor made for her. 

5.  My flight home was an introvert's nightmare.  I was seated next to a woman with three kids.  She was up from Sarasota and wore a black leather jacket with spikes, drank wine all the way back, and  decided we needed to be chummy.  I couldn't use scenery as a deflection because all I had out my window was the engine housing.  One of her kids, Jaeis, thought I was cool because I was wrestling with my DS while he was giving me a master course on the the latest generation machines and games.  I told him he needed to meet more people.   I mean, really, if I'm cool, what's the latest definition?

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