A Second Look--December 10, 2014

I had it all planned. After work, I was going to take a Second Look around the yard no matter how cold it was. But then we had freezing rain all day and no matter how much I had planned to investigate the back 40, I didn't want to do it in freezing rain. So, I'm going to let you take a Second Look at my zoo visit in October. During that visit, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the great ape house that I described previously. However, we did see a few other things that day. Here are some of them.

It took the turtle in the water a lot of effort before it finally made it up onto the rock to join the others.

These lions are a lot bigger than our cats, but don't look a whole lot different when they are sleeping.

Luke, the only male in the lion pride at the zoo.

??

Asian elephant

The National Zoo is famous for its pandas so there's always a line waiting to see them. We decided to wait in line this day since we had never seen them before.

It was worth the wait to see one of the rarest animals in the world.

Christmas transitions

One of several pieces of stationary that I used this year.

One of the first things I do at the beginning of each December is to write our Christmas letter. That's what I did last week and as I started to finish it by signing, “June, Ward, Wally, and Theo,” I paused and wondered if it were time to take the kids' names off and just sign it from Ward and me. Wally and Theo are out on their own now and it would really be more appropriate for them to send their own letters and cards. This thought made me a little sad. So I struggled with my emotions that wanted things to be the way they used to be, but realized that they weren't.

So what did I do? Well, I let it percolate for a couple of days and decided that I wasn't fully ready to acknowledge our empty nest this Christmas. I signed the letter, “June, Ward, and the two boys who are out of the house, Wally and Theodore.” We'll see if I can get away with that next year.

Thankful Sunday--December 7, 2014

I am thankful for 

DIY stores.

Ward and I are working on a Christmas present that will cost about half of what it would if we weren't doing the work ourselves. I am thankful that there are stores where we can get our supplies to do this. I am also thankful that they have generous coupons.

Help me understand

Recently, a friend of Miss Landers, Jack, passed away and she helped his wife with a luncheon after the funeral. Among other things, she decorated 10 round tables with centerpieces depicting things that were part of Jack's life. One table had toy car mustangs and a map representing a hobby of his, another had books from a famous author that he was friends with, and yet another had a group of Beanie Babies showing that he was an animal lover. The other tables were decorated in a similar way and really gave a good idea of who Jack was. It was a total surprise to his wife and she was quite moved by it. Miss Landers bought some of the things she used to decorate with and borrowed other things from friends and family.

Now here's the part you have to help me understand. People started leaving with parts of the centerpieces. Not just one person, but many. Miss Landers was able to stop a couple of people from taking things that she had borrowed, but they had no explanation when they gave them back to her. They just gave them back.

What do you think was going on? There was no announcement to help yourself or suggestion that there would be a drawing for them. They weren't in a basket by the door suggesting that they were “party favors” for the grieving crowd. Was this a custom that I don't know about? Or was this just a crowd mentality where one person took something and everyone else followed? Or was this just tacky behavior that was totally inappropriate especially in the setting it was in? Help me understand.

Upload/Download?

Okay, I admit it. I am confused by the terms upload and download. I know I should understand them, but I don't. I know upload and download deal with computer data transfer, but I'm never quite sure which direction is which. I usually just use both words to cover myself such as, “I'm going to upload these pictures, or download them, or whatever.” I am confused and I think it's finally time to get myself straight.

I asked one of many experts around me, Wally, to help. He said that they were such basic terms that he hadn't thought about explaining them before. But he tried anyway using the floor and a high shelf to help me visualize. I listened to his explanation and thought, “So simple. So very simple.” I thought I had it and wrote down the definitions with examples.

But then Ward read what I had written and he told me that I was still confused. So I didn't have it. He says it's better to think of it as a client/server relationship. And then he proceeded to tell me things about restaurants and UPS stores to help me understand. When I tried to repeat back to him to make sure I understood, he said I made sense, but I was wrong.

So I thought about both Wally and Ward's examples for a while and I think I finally have it. Let's only use two devices in my explanation: my personal computer and the Internet. We will call the computer the initiating device or the client and the Internet the server. If the computer asks for data and gets it from the Internet that would be downloading data. Or if the computer sends data to the Internet like a picture to Facebook or Blogger that would be uploading. In other words, if data is coming to the computer/client/initiator then the data is being downloaded. If data is being sent away from the computer/client/initiator, then it is being uploaded.

Now it starts to get confusing when you add peripherals like your camera or phone. I think throwing these into the mix has been the complicating factor for me all along. Depending on the device, the computer or the device could be doing the asking for the data transfer so there could be either uploading or downloading going on. And if the data goes back and forth from peripheral to peripheral, I understand that sometimes there is no name for that—neither uploading or downloading.

So there you have it. Downloading and uploading. So simple. So very simple.  Or not.