PROBLEMS

It finally happened. After only six months of operation on my relatively new computer, my 160-gigabyte hard drive crashed. For many years this was always somebody else's problem. I knew it could happen, but it never happened to me. I've had hard drives that lasted five, six, seven years, but not this time. This time I got caught. And how! I hadn't backed up my financial data or my photos in the past several months, so it all went up in smoke. I hated to lose some of the pictures and it was no fun recreating the financial data, but I'm finally getting back to normal. Dell Computer was quick to send me a new hard drive and a technician to install it, but I had to re-install all the software myself and there were a few glitches along the way.

I lost a few e-mail addresses, too, so, if you changed your e-mail address in the past six months, I'd appreciate it if you'd send me the new one. It would save me a phone call or the resort to snail-mail in your case.

One good thing that came out of all this was a slimmed down, cleaned up hard drive. I'm a pack rat when it comes to old files, programs and messages. I'm sure I won't ever miss 95% of what I lost in that regard. It's not that I didn't have enough room in this 160-gigabyte monster, but there was a lot of useless clutter that I'm sure I'm better off to be rid of.

In any case, be warned! You could be the next one to run into something like this. Back up your data, if it's important to you. You never know how soon your hard drive will bite the dust. I didn't!


THOSE KILLDEERS

Would you believe, our killdeer parents have returned for a third batch of offspring? Well, we can't actually be sure that these are the same parent birds that made their nest in this spot the first two times this spring, but it sure looks like it. These birds have now chosen the exact same spot three times this year. Earlier it was always so wet and rainy that we felt sorry for the adult birds sitting there protecting the nest. Now we wonder how they can stand the heat and why the eggs don't fry on those rocks when they're not protected.

This morning, when we walked by, this bird was sitting on the nest. It looked suspiciously like she might have something more than eggs to cover, but we kept our distance and hope to discover the truth on another day. Here's mama (or papa, as the case may be) doing her thing:



So keep tuned, we may have further news shortly. If so, I'll get a shot up close and personal with my new telephoto lens, a Canon 70-200 mm L that arrived today! I can't wait to try it out. Till then, here's a shot I took at the Farmer's Market on the town green last Sunday: