I'm Back!!

After a very trying week and quite a few late nights I now have my computer back up and running. While this is good in a way the downside is that I had to reformat drives and completely re-install Windows from scratch. Now to see if I can recover all my photos, art, and music which I backed up prior to re-formatting.
Keeping my fingers crossed!

Big Troubles

Well. I've been bit, infected, infested, or whatever term you choose to describe something taking over my computer (I am posting this from work instead of from home). I can no longer get online at home. Oh, the computer IS connected to something on the web. For you techies out there I CAN "ping" almost any site that I choose. I can even ping my email server. I just cannot connect with any of them. I cannot get my email. I cannot visit ANY website. I can not run a virus scan on my computer. Wednesday I installed the latest, greatest Norton 360 (virus protection, firewall, online security suite, etc.). Everything seemed to go okay Thursday but when I got home on Friday I could not get online. Tried to reset the computer back to a time when things worked okay. Nope, no good!. Restored back to a month ago. Nope, no good!Restored back to Wednesday night and now the new Norton 360 is gone altogether. Won't re-install either. And now to make matters worse my wife can no longer access her email using Outlook Express and cannot log onto AOL. Everything else works for her on her computer but those items. It's like some form of "Denial of Service". I have noticed that my cable modem and routers' activity lights flicker like crazy (indicating "something", what?, who knows?). Have we been taken over by some devious "Bot" network? I just don't know.

Can a trojan, virus, or malware bot take possession of a cable modem or router? My cable modem always seems to be busy as heck even when both computers are shut down.

IS this something caused by Norton 360? Was it caused by a trojan or virus? I don't know. What I do know is that two computers at my house are about to get wiped clean and re-formatted.
Man! I hate doing this. Having to re-install programs, re-creating web links and favorites, etc.

If anyone else is having similiar trouble let me know. I'd really like to know if there is a simpler solution to this problem. I just can't afford to pay a networking or IT guy 60 bucks an hour to figure this all out.

Illustration Friday:GREEN

For the ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY subject GREEN. I used Photoshop 7 to replace the yellow color of the heavy equipment with green and then used several filters to digitally alter the appearance of the image.

KOMAT'SU!!!

I have been wanting to take a picture of this equipment for quite a while now but for some reason or another never seemed to make the time. This was shot at the Komat'su equipment manufacturing plant on Signal Mountain Boulevard in Chattanooga. To me this is just an awesome sight when there are 30 to 50 completed machines lined up side by side.
This was shot on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007.

Gaylord Opryland Hotel

I recently had the opportunity to vist the Gaylord Opryland Hotel as a guest of my best customer. While the room was just an average hotel room the hotel on a whole is fantastic. The landscaping is exquisite. There is at least 7 acres under roof. The hotel is divided into three main areas all under glass with pools, waterfalls, an indoor river complete with boat rides, and what looks like a slice of the French Quarter. The plants were beautiful and you could get lost within this enclosed landscape. There are restaurants, boutiques, game rooms, a spa and fitness center, radio station, and much, much more.
I highly recommend a visit to this hotel as it is a complete destination in itself.
I've also posted some other pictures on my FlickR page.

Texture

The Photo Friday word for the week of Febbruary 23 - March 1 is TEXTURE. This is my entry which includes several varying textures ie: Rose Petals, Thorns, Velvet, and Knap.

Photo Friday: SELF PORTRAIT

I haven't posted anything in a while and felt the need to upload this entry for the PHOTO FRIDAY subject: Self Portrait. I made this one several months ago while goofing off.

Testing

I cannot see my own blog. Very annoying.

BROTHER

My pic for the PHOTO FRIDAY subject Brother. From left to right, back to front: My grandson Blake, grandson Braxton, their cousin Austin, & my granddaughter Micah.

Illustration Friday: BUZZ

Some people complain of ringing in their ears. I have a buzzing that is with me all the time. Not some of my finer work but this is my illustration for the ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY subject BUZZ

Illustration Friday: PHOENIX

My sketch for the Illustration Friday subject Phoenix. While I am sure that most thought of the mythical bird I instantly thought of the 1965 film Flight Of The Phoenix with James Stewart; possibly one of the greatest movies of all time. Certainly one of my top five.

Photo Friday: BEST OF 2006

One of my favorite photos that I took in 2006. I call it Autumn Falls. It was taken at the end of October 2006 at Suck Creek in the Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area approximately a mile from where the creek empties into the Tennessee River.

Christmas Fun

For Christmas Eve night my daughter Tiffiny, son-in-law Jeff, and grandsons Blake and Braxton came over to spend the evening with us. Susan found some wierd rubber wig things and here's Braxton and me giving them a test drive. Are we not cool?
I bought Susan an old 1940's telephone which had been restored. We plugged it up and gave a test spin (ie: called a few folks). It works beautifully and has that sweet old ring that makes you think you're back at your grandmothers' house. Blake and Braxton couldn't seem to get over the fact that it was so large, had no buttons, and was not cordless. And to think, I still remember having telephones such as this one as a child!

Photo Friday: Weather

My submission for the PHOTO FRIDAY subject for 12/22/06 entitled Weather. I took this shot at approximately 7:45am last January 28, 2006 while standing on the roof of my back porch.

Zzzzzzzz

Sshhh..............sleepin' here.

Happy Birthday, Lisa

Cumberland Trail

Today we took another hike this time going a couple of miles up the Cumberland Trail. This shot is of the North Suck Creek Bridge which is approximately 1.4 miles from Highway 27. From left to right: My son-in-law Jeff, his brother-in-law Tom, my grandsons Blake and Braxton, and their cousing Austin. We estimate this bridge to be about 245 feet long not counting the ramp on the far side. Believe me when I say that this bridge does sway quite a bit as you cross it.

The picture above which was created from three seperate shots was taken by my son-in-law Jeff. He's taken some great shots that give some good perspective to the bridges' length and height above the water.

We had a little of excitement during this hike. I saw an old rotted pine tree that was on the brink of falling and decided to give it a kick or two to help it along. I gave up so Tom and Jeff both took a few turns attempting to bring it down with Tom delivering the fatal blow. My grandson Braxton had gone a short distance up the trail and when the tree did start its' fall it was dropping right straight toward Braxton. I screamed for him to run and his eyes got big as half dollars as he backed away just as the forty or fifty foot tree slammed to the ground right in front of him. He started talking excitedly about how neat this was while I was thinking that if he had gotten squashed I'd never be able to go back home and face his mother and grandmothers. I told him that if he spoke of this not to mention that he almost had a tree dropped on him. His response was that "this was one of the neatest things that happened and that he couldn't wait to tell everyone back home that this was the day that he almost got killed by his Pop".

Kids say the darndest things!

Photo Friday: STILLNESS

Mullins Cove, on the Tennessee River west of Chattanooga, TN

Illustration Friday: INVENTION

A quick sketch / collage combined with a bit of "scanner art" for this weeks' Illustration Friday subject INVENTION. I chose the acorns as a representative sampling from the greatest inventor of all.

Aahhh...Mother Nature!

Today I did something that I've been promising myself that I'd do for years. Today I hiked through parts of the Tennessee River Gorge to the base of the cliffs overlooking the Tennessee River. Me, my son-in-law Jeff, grandsons Blake and Braxton, their cousin Austin, and their friend Tyler all hiked to the cliff faces. We were guided by my son-in-laws brother-in-law Tom Ritchie. Tom grew up the Tennessee River Gorge and took us to some pretty interesting rock formations, cliff faces, as well as some very small old coal mines that used to be in operation at the base of the cliffs. We're going to try to hike to a different interesting place within the River Gorge, Prentice Copper State Forest, or along the Cumberland Trail every weekend (weather permitting). Click here to see a few more pictures that I posted on my Flickr page.

The Tennessee River flows northeast to southwest through East Tennessee. Near the southern border of the state, the river abruptly turns west, carving its way through the Walden Ridge portion of the Cumberland Plateau and creating the Tennessee River Gorge, one of the deepest canyons in the eastern United States. Where the river cuts through the plateau, two mountain remain on each side: Signal Mountain on the north and Lookout Mountain on the south. The latter mountain is a prominent peak overlooking the river and forming a backdrop for Chattanooga, which grew up at this passageway west.