First let me say I always pay rapt attention to my wife when she delivers a train of thought monologue. She fanatically follows the economy, politics, pandemics, emergency pantry storage, alternative energy sources and a host of other subjects. At some point all that information has to escape before her head explodes and I’m supposed to listen to the leaks. And you know I’ll be quizzed at a later date.

Now, I don’t hear as well as I used to and I admit at times I only half listen. So at times I don’t realize I’ve mis-heard. When that happens the train derails.

A Bowl of Iris

Not quite – I heard it but it wasn’t said. During one of the ‘discussions’ on pandemics and plagues Ebola Virus was mentioned. I should know better than to ask questions when my attention drifts to the point of hearing things. Of course I don’t need to know how contagious a bowl of iris is.

Speaking of mis-hearing. There was a song I didn’t really like (by Alanis Morissette) but there was one line I loved to sing.

What if God ate on of us?

It took a while but someone finally informed me the real lyrics where What if God was one of us? I still prefer my lyrics. I believe you should be able to pick out God in a crowd.

Clintonia borealis

As the name implies this member of the Lily Family will produce true blue berries later in the season. So just give it a break and enjoy the flowers for now.

The flowers most often come in groups of 3 but clusters of up to 6 slim bell like flowers are not uncommon. That’s one reason there are so many 3 berry photos of this plant.

Clintonia prefers acidic soils and they are found more often in the higher elevations in the southern part of St. Lawrence County, NY. This native wildflower is fairly common in the cool woods in Stone Valley. It grows right along the marked trail so it’s easy to see.

And now something completely different:

It Came From Agway

I noticed something odd up ahead of me but I had to wait until the car in front of me got out of the way before I could get a really good look.

North Country Hot Rod

I’m not sure but I have a feeling I was lucky I wasn’t driving my old ‘65 MG Midget when I came upon this vehicle. There’s just something about that sprayer that makes me want to pass it on the ‘under’ side besides giving the driver a big surprise.

Boy was I ever a sad puppy this afternoon. About 1:30 this afternoon my websites and blog were suddenly disabled because someone had hacked into my hosting account and attempted to use it as a SpamBot. My hosting company disabled my account as soon as spam started to flow from my account. Needless to say I was taken aback when I got the E-mail from my host telling me they shut me down. I was upset and comforted at the same time. I sure didn’t want my sites down but even more so I didn’t want my sites to be SpamBots. I think my host did the internet a great service by shutting the spambot down. I only wish more companies would do the same. No tolerance should be the only policy across the board.

Being Sunday I was resigned to having to wait till the next day to get this straightened out. I called support right away so that first thing tomorrow support could get to work. But to my great delight the answering service forwarded my message to the owner and he went right to work on the issue. Now it wasn’t just one web site but 5 he had to go through and it did take some time. After about 5 hours I still wasn’t up and running so I E-mailed him again and said to knock off, go to dinner and start again in the morning. Well two hours later I got the message the account was restored. He saved the day and all I had to do was restore the index page of each site.

I must admit it was my own fault. I had let my virus program expire (I got tired of it making my computer slow to a crawl) and must have picked up some trojan/spyware/keylogger/something from somewhere. The ‘freeware’ piece of junk I was using as a stop gap program just wasn’t up to the job.

The owner recommended (after I asked) a virus and malware program (ESET NOD32 and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware) and I went and got both. Sure enough they each found a couple of things my ‘freeware’ didn’t pick up. Both are running now and I haven’t noticed a performance hit on the computer, it’s running as fast as if there was nothing running in the background

I know most bloggers are using free services and those that don’t already have a host. But if anyone is looking for a great company QWK.net is the place to go. They are more expensive than many other hosting companies but you can’t beat the dependability and service this privately owned company provides. I’ve been with them over 7 years now and the few times I’ve shot myself in the foot the owner himself has come to my assistance. I can’t recommend QWK.net highly enough.