A picture taken at 3:20 a.m. this morning toward the deck outside.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - For some reason, in the middle of the night, I heard the guy on the radio say, "there is a storm coming with possible 60 mile per hour winds."  Yikes!  That was at 2:45 a.m. this morning.  I immediately got up! Kane County was mentioned.
     After last week's disaster, I knew what I had to do....move my plants to a safe place.  It was still pretty warm outside and I just started toting them into the safety of the garage.
     Hmmm.  Did I make the coffee first?  Yeah, I think I did.  Just in case the electricity went out, I did NOT want to be without my coffee.  That would mean driving into town to go to McDonald's.
     The wind was blowing pretty good -- probably not 60 mph, and we did get some rain but not enough to make a difference in the drought situation....but every drop is welcome.  Okay, it's time to get some more coffee since it's just sitting up there waiting for me.  ~djb    

The downspout got whacked by the storm - water gushed onto the green carpet.  

Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - We know that the winds were very, very strong yesterday.  This is what I read in this morning's paper:

The storms produced wind gusts of up to 70 mph in some areas such as Naperville and Elburn.  As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, about 69,500 customers in the suburbs and Chicago remained without power, and some of those might not be back up and running until Thursday night, according to a ComEd spokeswoman.

~Daily Herald, story by Hannah Meisel

Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - When I got up before 5 a.m., I heard them say that there was severe weather coming from the northwest.  When I looked at the map, I knew we were in for it!!  I took this:

at 5:51 a.m. Then, I ran out to the end of the driveway to get my papers.  It was so dark and scary but having soggy newspapers would be much worse.  The videos I took don't even begin to capture the intensity of this storm.  It blew over all the plants and the bench that was on the deck.  I thought the closed umbrella was going to go flying a few times.  There's tons of leaves in the pool and lots of branches and leaves and stuff in the yard.  Yikes!!  later, djb

This plant is called an ARROWHEAD plant.  The leaves are 5 x 8 inches wide.

Sunday, July 22, 2012 - Hey Granny, remember when I told you this plant's leaves looked like arrows.  Yeah, it's called an arrowhead plant.  duh!

I knew that!  later, djb

This is the flower box that I got in St. Charles in May - it keeps growing.

Sunday, July 22, 2012 - I just checked my andrew-jarrett website and the picture on the Home page is goofed up again....BUT at least it's uploading.....finally!!!!!

This morning, I had to uninstall my Sitebuilder page and Java.  Then, I had to re-install both of those.  It's taking some time, but since the first two days (Thursday and Friday) when it uploaded for 36 hours, followed by yesterday (Saturday) when it uploaded for only 10 hours, I'm now looking at less than that for today.

I didn't encounter the same pop-ups that I had been running into.  It's just going to take a huge amount of patience on my part.  I wish me luck.  Good luck to me.  later gator, djb

First guess:  Terry Turtle could be a red-bellied turtle or maybe a pond slider according to the markings on its shell.  I don't know.....I'm no turtle expert.

Friday, July 20, 2012 - I found a very interesting website with LOTS and LOTS of pictures of turtles.  I had no idea that the sunshine state was absolutely teeming with turtles. Here it is:

http://www.pbase.com/lejun/turtle_types

This is so interesting.  I'm not sure how long Terry has been in Berg's back yard but he/she is providing them with a lot of fun and enjoyment.

Maybe you can look at the photos and figure out what type of turtle Terry actually is.  later, djb

Obviously, the solar storms have caused trouble for me and also the Bergs!

Monday, July 16, 2012 - I have NO IDEA what happened to my andrew-jarrett website cut I cannot access it from my computer.  That means I can make no updates until I figure out what happened.

I'm going to blame the severe solar storms.  This morning, I think my yahoo account was compromised by the hacker jerks.  Thanks so much for giving me something to do today.  ay carumba!

And Grandma and Grandpa are having trouble with their new thermostat.  Solar Storms.  I'm sure.  Either that or it was made in China by an angry person who purposely screwed it up.  who knows?

Maybe I'll be back on line with new stuff some day or maybe not.  At least, I can come on here to communicate.  maybe later, djb

Okay, every time I put in a YouTube video, it takes me a few tries to get it to fit. This was another video of the rain we FINALLY got around noon. Last month, we had less than an inch of rain. Hopefully, the corn and soybean fields got their share. later, djb