Every 7 Years? Katrina ~ Isaac

Note: As Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac seems to be following close to the path of Katrina almost exactly 7 years ago, I wanted to post these pictures I took recently of the Mississippi Gulf coast.  I think we often think of New Orleans when Katrina is mentioned and tend to forget the devastation all along the Mississippi coast as well.  I did a little research and found a great collection of pictures showing the damage including bridges that would seem impossible to repair in 7 short years for us to drive over just 3 weeks ago.  I pray for all those folks this week as they are probably remembering that 30ft surge of 7 years ago and using the word "only" with the prediction of a possible 12ft surge this week.

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After we finished our adventure on the HWY 127 yard sale about 3 weeks ago, we ventured on south along the gulf coast for a quick trip to New Orleans. 

We always enJOY a highway that follows the coast or a river/creek. 

It was cloudy and stormy that day as we drove through a few showers.  So the beach was pretty much vacant.  (Notice the red flags.)

I started wondering why there were no buildings across the street from this beautiful beach that was so close to the road.  As we drove down the highway, I started noticing things like this....

All kinds of "for sale" signs almost begging people to buy. 

 Rarely you would see a small house and a couple like these you wondered if they had made it or been rebuilt.

 Just think, the definition of "beachfront property" on this highway changed overnight.

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Longest Yard Sale Treasures ~ Hwy 127

Although this yard sale was longer than the 400 mile HWY 68 yard sale in June, I ended up with much less.  One item not in this picture is a steam press I got to press my sewing, especially while making quilt tops.

We did come up with more free items on this trip.

When I bought the chair, to replace one that had been broken- I'll not call names, the lady said if I bought it she would give me prizes at her choosing.  It was Sat and she needed to load up.  She gave me 2 old stained lamp shades and a porcelain bed pan.  I actually had bought a bed pan 2 years ago to use as a bird bath.  Birds don't use it.  Any ideas?

Broken

Spent about an hour at the KY State Fair Tuesday, tripped and fell.  Had to use a sling and needless to say had to put the camera away after it survived a big bashing sling to the ground.  Thank goodness the camera was in its bag.  Today, I found out my upper arm is broken (my first broken bone ever) but aligned, and going to see if it goes back together without cast.  Using the good ole triangle sling because Dr. wants me to move it to keep the 10 year old frozen shoulder from freezing more. 

So picture taking and blogging are on a slow down for now.  No telling what I would post while on meds!

Sunday Best ~ Bee Yellow

Taken

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Mesker Park Zoo & Botanical Gardens

Evansville, IN

I especially like the contrasting colors that appeared in the background which made the yellow pop even more.

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Save Blogger Storage- Downsize Pictures

This might be something Blogger doesn't want you to know about?

A few months ago I got a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach when thought I had to stop blogging, because I was notified that I had used all my storage and could add no more pictures to my blog! Their solution was that I pay for more storage.  Since I was only doing this as a hobby, and didn't want to add advertising to my blog, I had no desire to pay for storage.  As I read more details, I found out that pictures smaller than 800 were not counted in the amount that was stored.  I quickly went to Picasa and used Photoscape to resize almost all the pictures and redid many of my blog posts.  Yes, that took a lot of time- a couple of days.  Sure enough by changing them to less than 800, I got more than half my storage back.  So, especially if you are new to blogging, you might want to take notice of the size of your photos.

Update:  To find out how much space you have left, log into your picasaweb.google.com with your blog log-in and go to the very bottom of the page to see how much storage you have used.

Using Photoscape makes resizing effortless, because I take the time to watermark my photos.  The photos are actually resized in the background of the process so to speak.

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Here's how I do not use up blogger storage with my pictures:

First I downloaded Photoscape from http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php .
Open Photoscape and its Batch Editor (which I also use to add watermarks.)

Then when you pull in your photos to watermark them, notice at the bottom it tells you the original size of the picture and the resizing dimensions.  This automatically happens each time.  You need do nothing else.

.  Sometimes I put my watermark in different places and convert one at a time.  If it doesn't matter where the watermark goes, I use the "convert all' button and zip, its done.

I discovered Photoscape from Jamie over @ Mommy's Camera when I was looking for a way to watermark my shots.

UPDATE:  Please see Wen Redmond's comment below for an easy way to change sizes of photos already uploaded in Picasa.  

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Wordless Wednesday #25 ~ Mesker Park Floral #2

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Mesker Park Zoo & Botanical Gardens

Evansville, IN

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Wordless Wednesday

Barns of Indiana ~ Part 2

The barns started fascinating us as much as the bridges. 

This barn depicted the bridge that was a quarter mile down the road.

I always thought after watching my Dad and his helper friends put hay in the loft, that having a barn where you could drive into the upper level would be wonderful.  My Grandfather had such a barn.  Of course it wasn't metal like this one.

Check out Barns of Indiana Part 1.
Linking to Barn Charm 

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Quick Surprise Trip to NOLA

As our HWY 127 Yard Sale trip ended in Gadsden, AL we thought we'd head for the coast since it wasn't so far away.  Little did I know we'd end up in New Orleans!  It had been about 13 years since I'd last been there.

 So hot!  Almost 100 with 90 something % humidity.  I thought I had it bad last month with 108° in much drier conditions.  Wishing for shade for these animals.  Glad they had plenty of water.

 I know these folks pay a premium to live on this street, but I think I would want the peace and quiet at night rather than a party every night.  Day isn't much quieter because all the delivery people are busy as bees and businesses are sweeping and hosing off the streets. 

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Popping Up Daisies

Linking up @