What a mess! :(

I apologize to any followers who have received a spam e-mail from me.  It seems my AOL e-mail has been hacked again and I'm getting those fake messages, too, on my other e-mail accounts that are seldom used.  I now have a Master Password to get into AOL and then I input a new password to get to my messages.  Such a pain to have to go through all this again.

If you get an e-mail from me, don't click on any links.  I don't think they are viruses, at least not these from what I've been told, but they are still not from me.


I also apparently accidentally downloaded Sweetpacks and all it's various tentacles while downloading something from CNET.com.  I've always trusted them, but from now on, I'll go directly to the programs' websites.  There are too many "free" little programs that end up being downloaded if you aren't REALLY careful to DECLINE each and every one of them.  I'm not sure if Sweetpacks is from one of those, or from BING, which seems to be connected somehow. If it was a CNET download, I missed checking a DECLINE. I've uninstalled Bing and Sweetpacks, but Sweetpacks seems to still be there.  The research I've done shows that it's very hard to get rid of, and possibly a "factory install" decision should be made.  Anyone else have this problem in the past?

Then I installed Live Writer to give it a try, thank you, Rick, for the link!, and somehow the "temporary post used for theme detection" became the name of the post about the cows in the campground.  I did research on how to remove that, too, but it was just too much, and so it will have to stay that way for now.  

It seems like anything I do turns out biting me in my proverbial butt.  I'm tired of saying OUCH!

I'm thinking about reversing everything back to the factory install, but I've put a lot of time into re-loading programs and files back onto this laptop.  Also, it's been suggested by a couple of people that I delete my AOL e-mail account, but it's attached to everything I do.  That would be a major job.  Anyway, in the past I was able to get through this kind of craziness, and I'm hoping to do so again.

On to a brighter subject:

Can you imagine leaving this in your campsite when you leave?

A couple of weeks ago when I had a site near the lake, there was a huge rain during the night.  I think this belonged to some tent campers.  In the morning when Katie and I took our first walk of the day, we walked around the circle of sites across from us, and here was this bar-b-que in an empty campsite.  It is a gas bar-b-que, and still had four pieces of cooked chicken laying on the grill.  It would appear it was working the day before, because the meat was cooked.

I can't imagine what this was all about.  Anyway, it's in the lost and found I guess.  Weird, huh?

The day before, someone left a nice bike leaning up against a tree in the campsite next to the bar-b-que people.  They had two trucks and two RVs in the site, and I counted 10 bicycles at one point, so I'm not surprised one was left behind.  I reported both the grill and the bike to the office, and maybe the owners will call. 

Here are a couple of new photos of our current campsite.  Weekends we have some neighbors, but during the week, we're often the only ones down here at this end.  I love it. Lots of bunnies and squirrels in this area playing and running around. I got some photos of a runny fighting a squirrel for the rights to sit in my campsite - the runny won.  I'll post those another day.  As I was watching, it reminded me of the fight I captured between a squirrel and a quail at Quartzsite.  Remember that one?

Such a beautiful location!

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

Well, they're not horses, but...

When Hazel and I and the dogs were taking our early evening ride around the campground on Saturday, look what we saw:

A bull!  And yes, that's some bull.  He has horns, too, and blue eyes.  Isn't he beautiful?

When he saw us driving closer, he hid behind this tree. 

This must be the cow of the family.  They were grazing and it looks like she has her mouth full! 

Going along with the "family" theme, this must be the young male.

These two grazed together, and the bull was always a little distance from them.

Notice the notched ears.  I wonder if that is a brand of some kind.

They were munching on the good greens in the Canyonside Campground area, heading toward the tent and pop-up tent campers nearby.

There was a little boy coming back from the showers; he was in his pajamas and carrying a towel.  He was probably around 8 or 9 years old. I noticed he was walking alongside our car, on the driver's side (the cows were on the passenger side), and he kept walking along with us.  At first I thought he was admiring Fleur and Power, Hazel's Greyhounds, but Hazels said, No, he was using us as a shield.  Every time we moved, he moved, when Hazel stopped the car for photos, etc., he stopped, too.  Finally he was near his campsite and ran to it.  He was so cute, and a pretty smart cookie.  He sure wasn't going to be trampled by wild cattle!

Later in our drive, we saw them heading toward the road that leads out of the park.  Going home for the night, I guess. The cow and young bull were already on the road, and the bull was back a bit behind the fenced area with the thick wires between the posts.  Hazel stopped the car to watch him, wondering how he was going to get over the fence.  When he got up to the fencing, he looked at it, then walked back around the fence to the open area next to the road.  Even though it was a low wire, I guess he didn't want to step over it.

I've never seen cattle in the campground, only that one bull going across the dry lake bed down by the lake shortly after we got here.  I've seen evidence of their presence, cow piles here and there, but not up close and personal like this.

I try not to ever forget my camera - you just never know what you're going to come across.

From me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

"Me and My Dog ...and My RV" dewelldesigns@blogspot.com

Gorgeous Great Blue Herons

I finally got my great shots of Great Blue Herons!  Isn't he beautiful? Just look at that beard.

Almost every day in the early evening Hazel picks me and Katie up and we go for a ride around the campground to give her Greyhounds a good walk.

Hazel and Fleur and Power - exercising the Greyhounds.

We drive through the campgrounds and also along the road by the lake which is at the bottom of the hill where we think a couple of Great Blue Herons are nesting.  Usually when we are driving by, the male is out guarding the area, looking very regal.  I've taken so many photos of him - here are a few of the best I've taken over the last few days.

See how he holds his left foot up, "fingers" stretched out?

His beard isn't puffed out in this photo. 

He usually doesn't move, just stands there.  But I caught him in a big yawn.

This is the terrain on the lower part of the hill.  We think there is a nest in one of the trees behind him.

One day both the male and female were there.  I love seeing Great Blue Herons, from the first one I saw at Santee Lakes June of 2011 during my first month in The Palms to today.  Whenever I see one it makes my day and a good photo is the frosting on the cake.

Male on the left and female on the right.  He looks very puffed up and protective. We've only seen her once.

I think it's interesting that I mentioned the other day I love getting pictures of Great Blue Herons, but hadn't yet gotten a good clear close-up.  Then - waaa laaa - here they are.  I don't know how I'd get a better shot than these.  I love looking at them.  The birds and the photos. 

These are the kinds of pictures I would have used for the front of note cards that I used to enjoy making and giving as gifts when I had a good office set-up at home.

It's a beautiful Sunday at Bluewater Lake State Park here in New Mexico - I hope you are enjoying a beautiful day, too.

From me and Katie, have a great day everyone!  :)

We're back and up to speed...

And when I say "up to speed," I don't mean fast.  I'm talking about Retirement Speed. :)  We've added a computer and my new Canon camera and two dozen horses and subtracted one cute mouse - and yes, I threw away the D-Con.  Lucky for you all, I lost the photo of the dead mouse.

My computer didn't arrive as scheduled, but it's back now, and I almost have it completely loaded again.  Luckily I have lots of back-ups of my documents, photos, music, and scrap booking graphics.  I own the programs I use, so I just had to re-install them.  It takes time, but I haven't lost anything.  It's sure nice to be back to normal again.  I can soooo tell the difference between the other less expensive HP laptop and this computer, which is an HP ENVY dv6 with an intel CORE i7 processor and a back lit keyboard, which I do use often in the evening.  This is just a better machine and it performs so much smoother and faster - it has better color, better sound, a better keyboard, better features, it's just better all around.  I love this computer; I didn't realize how great it was until it was MIA for a couple of weeks! 

We are in a different campsite this time, one of my favorites on the other side of the campground, and we're settled in again for a while.

The horses that were here a week ago only came that one day so far, and I got some photos with my old camera, but it doesn't have the good zoom lens.  I counted 24 horses, and these are the best of those shots.

Mare with her new foal.

Many of the horses were laying down resting, and there were always horses guarding them.

More horses and their guards.  These were really sleeping, and were laying there for a while. I love the way they are protected by the horses watching them, but also facing different directions looking outward.

 

Mare watching over her colt.  There was another shot which I lost, unfortunately, of a new foal laying down, sound asleep with the mare standing over it, providing shade.  Horses have good instincts, don't they?

These are the horses across the lake, and some cows and bulls, too.

I had a memory card in my new Canon and got some really good closeups, but when I tried to load them into my computer, it said I needed to "format" the card, which meant I had no photos on the card.  I don't know what happened because it looked like I was saving photos, but they were all lost.

Since that first day the horses were here, I've only seen them over on the other side of the lake, a bit too far for close up photos.  Hopefully the horses will be back on this side of the lake soon and I'll get some shots of the new foals before they get too big.  There were 3 or 4 new ones, and a few colts, too.

It's a weekend again, and the RVs and tents are surrounding the lake.  Hazel is volunteering in the Visitor's Center/Office and said this is a really busy weekend.  There are tons of boats out on the lake with people fishing and being towed in rubber rafts and riding little water craft thingies - Skidoo's or whatever they are.  Lot of families, lots of groups, lots of fun.

From me and Katie, have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

Computer will be back tomorrow!

According to the FedEx tracking, my repaired computer with a new or refurbished hard drive will be delivered tomorrow. I've been going through a bit of computer withdrawal but still doing okay. Having my Kindle Fire has been a big help. I've watched a few movies - kept up with e-mail - played a few games (I downloaded a really good domino game that was free) - and kept up with all your blog posts. I have lots of news, photos of HORSES (YEAAAAA!), a photo of a dead mouse (YEAAAAA) -it was very cute :(, etc. As soon as I get the computer I'll be leaving Bluewater Lake because my two weeks are up. I plan to do some parking lot camping while getting the computer up to speed and will be returning to Bluewater Lake in a week or so. No photos today. I'm not quite sure how I'd import them. From me and Katie - have a great Monday everyone! (It sure is different typing with only my index finger on this little screen.)