| I will write this Journal Entry Later--- I have less than 3 hours to Upload a few "Leap Day" Walls. I put this in now to reserve the date! lol  |
| Twos-Day 2/22/22
(I\'m saving the date! "Midnight" comes for me, on Desktop Nexus, in a half hour! I will post the real journal entry later. 
Well, Here is the "Real" Journal entry but it is sure not the one I thought it would be.
I was really happy about getting 2 wallpapers uploaded on 2/22/22, and I still am. Was going to write all about that and more, but I can\'t now. Read the rest of this and you will understand why.
Oh well, at least my back is now a lot better...
[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2636563/] [/URL]
Hi Everybody...
The good news is that my back is doing a lot better. Doing exercises everyday & massage therapy have helped a lot!
The bad news...
So I finally uploaded a couple of wallpapers and was going to post on everybody\'s profile, but my carpal tunnel wrist problems flared up big time. 
It\'s been so long since I had to deal with carpal tunnel that I can\'t find my wrist splints. This evening, if my husband and I still can\'t find them, he\'ll be going out to buy me a new pair.
I\'m not worried about this... I know it will clear up, but it sure is inconvenient.
I shouldn\'t be typing without wrist splints on, so I have to wrap this up. Most of you will see this on my own profile. I may post it on a few other profiles, but if I don\'t visit yours directly, please don\'t feel left out. I shouldn\'t be posting without my splints either!
To all of you who have asked how I\'ve been doing, left nice comments on my wallpapers and profile, thank you!
Hugs,
Elaine
[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2636563/][/URL]
[URL=https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2636559/] [/URL]
[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2636563/][/URL]
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| December 31st, 2020
I\'ve posted this on many of your profiles already.... Happy New Year! In my area 2021 starts in 6 hours and 10 minutes!
[url=https://www.crystalscomments.com/graphics/174/p/1/] [/url]
I am SO SO GLAD that this year is ending, and that it\'s time to wish you a
[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2586415/] [/URL]
I hope it will be a good year for you-- and much better than last year!
May you find all things fresh and new, and have much to look forward to!
Happy Hugs,
Elaine
[URL=https://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2586411/] [/URL]
[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2586410/] [/URL]
[url=https://www.crystalscomments.com/graphics/174/p/1/] [/url]
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| December 25, 2020
(There\'s a good chance that you\'ve read this already... on your profile.)
[url=https://www.crystalscomments.com/graphics/157/p/1/] [/url]
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
You may have noticed that I\'ve been less active on DN this year. It\'s been a rough year for me, (and I know that I\'m not the only one!) I\'ve been isolating myself a lot to avoid getting Covid 19. I have several friends and acquaintances who have gotten it. One of them, a 28 year old, almost died. I\'ve been spending a lots of time out in Nature areas. (If I could catch Covid from squirrels, deer, or trees, I\'d be in big trouble!)
In November, I took some pictures of pine trees that were in the parking area of a Nature center I like. I started playing with one of the pine tree photos on my computer. Whenever I looked at it, a Christmas Carol would start going through my head; It came upon a Midnight Clear. I thought I might put it on the wallpaper, so I started doing research on the song.
I was amazed when I read about the man who composed it and the times that he lived in. I put what I discovered in my wallpaper description, and a link to the song itself. If you have experienced stress, worry, and difficulty this year, you will identify with and truly appreciate this song!
Hang in there, have a marvelous Christmas, and God Bless You!
Love,
Elaine
[URL=https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2585781/] [/URL]
[url=https://www.crystalscomments.com/graphics/157/p/1/] [/url]
[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2585785/] [/URL]
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[URL=https://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2585784/] [/URL]
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| Part 2
The next day, Friday, was trash day. John went to work. I turned on the radio and TV, and prepared to spend the day barefooted with my nervous collie, Katie. She hates trash day because garbage trucks scare her. Even when I leave the house on Fridays I turn the radio and TV on to help muffle truck sounds. That morning, to my dismay, the squirrel showed up in the fireplace again. He must have been up on the chimney dampers. At first, Katie was interested in the rustling sounds. But after an hour or two, she started getting scared by the noises. The fact that it was trash day likely didn\'t help.
When Katie gets overly nervous about anything, she starts climbing on furniture, clawing at her dog beds, or rummages through our pile of paper recyclables, all by turns. Getting her to stop any of these activities is next to impossible when she is spooked.
So here I was stuck at home with my infected toe, a sore tooth extraction site, lots of noise, Katie freaking out at everything, and a noisy squirrel who seemed to be doing his best to get out and into our living room. I tapped on the fireguard to get him to be quiet and quit freaking Katie out. It didn\'t work. What could I do? Katie doesn\'t like to be outdoors for long, so that wouldn\'t work. If I left the house, Katie would tear things up in her panic. I couldn\'t really leave the house anyway, unless I left barefoot. I put her in her crate and turned the TV up more. That worked for a while, but then she started clawing at the bed in her crate when the squirrel rattled the fire guard.
After nearly 2 hours of all of this, I started feeling like I was losing it. I began having flashbacks to the days when I had no car and was stuck in the house with a fussing baby and an accident prone toddler who got into everything. I could barely think. I let Katie out of her crate, called John and begged him to PLEASE come home and get the squirrel out immediately.
Home he came, but it took until late Saturday afternoon to successfully evict the squirrel. By the time it was all over, we had turned Katie\'s crate into a squirrel trap, plied him with apple slices and peanut butter, and marveled at the way one cute but scared little animal could hijack our weekend.
At this point, I\'m back at work again, sort of. I\'ve been trying to spend more time at home because being barefoot is still preferable for my healing foot. But on the whole, things are a lot better now. One character who\'d agree with me is the squirrel, who is free at last!
(Here\'s a link back to part 1 of this journal entry)
https://my.desktopnexus.com/CollieSmile/journal/a-toe-a-tooth-a-squirrel-in-the-chimney...
[URL=https://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2578997/] [/URL]
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| [URL=https://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2578995/] [/URL]
Firday, October 30, 2020
I\'ve just finished experiencing 2 of the most crazy, difficult weeks I\'ve had in years.
On Tuesday, Oct. 6, about 4am, I woke up and went to the bathroom, and fell asleep on the commode. I dreamed there were a bunch of bugs running around on the floor. I woke up -- in the middle of trying to stomp on one -- and found myself falling.
I didn\'t hit the floor that hard, but my right foot got a bad abrasion from scraping the wall. My little toe was hit badly. There was lots of blood on the wall, but it looked worse than it was, because I\'m on blood thinners. I yelled for my husband, John, but he was sleeping so deeply that he didn\'t wake until I\'d been hollering for at least 20 minutes. Finally, with the help of an old dog bed, we managed to get me out of there. The fact that this bathroom is very small made it much harder. We nursed my foot for 16 days, It started to mend, but every time I tried to wear shoes, it would get worse again.
8 days later on Wednesday the 14th, I found myself going to my dentist for an emergency appointment. A day or so after my fall, one of my upper molars started bothering me. When I woke up on the 14th, the pain had kicked into high gear, so off to the dentist I went. It turned out to be an abscessed tooth. The dentist started me on antibiotics. We set up a teeth cleaning and the infected tooth would be pulled immediately afterwards. What fun!  (My March dental appointment had been canceled on me because of Covid 19, so we had to play catch up.) As it turned out, my double dental appointment went a lot better than I thought it would. Nitrous oxide really helps!
But the fun wasn\'t over. On Thursday, Oct. 22, John took me to see my doctor because my scraped toe wasn\'t healing well. My doctor prescribed horse pill sized antibiotics and told me to stay home for several days. I was to wear nothing on my feet and keep them elevated.
Now for the Squirrel...
After my doctor appointment, John took me home and went off to salvage what was left of his work day. I was watching TV when I began to hear rustling sounds in our fireplace. I got a flashlight and discovered that a black squirrel had fallen down the chimney. Fortunately we have a glass fireguard so he couldn\'t get in. I phoned John and told him to bring home some things to help get a squirrel out. That evening, we tried to get him to go into a long cardboard box. It didn\'t work. The scared squirrel disappeared. Perhaps he’d gone back up the chimney?
Here\'s the link to Part 2: https://my.desktopnexus.com/CollieSmile/journal/a-toe-a-tooth-and-a-squirrel-in-the-chi... |
| August 31, 2020
(If you are a friend and/or a fan of mine, you may have already read this on your profile.)
[URL=https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2571203/] [/URL]
[URL=https://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2571205/] [/URL]
Hello everyone!
If you think that it\'s been a long time since I visited your profile, you are absolutely right. I haven\'t been doing much visiting here since the end of March. One thing that I have been doing, however, is logging into DN a couple of times a day so that people here wouldn\'t worry about me.
My state of Michigan went into lockdown on March 15th. Because I am in a high risk category, (heart attack last December among other things) I take lockdown very seriously. My husband started doing all of the grocery shopping. I stopped going to any stores. I either worked (part time because business is down) or stayed at home. It didn\'t take long for me to start feeling stir crazy.
Then I rediscovered an old love of mine. Nature. I started going to a nature center near my house with my camera in tow. The center itself was closed, but the trails were not. I walked those trails, sat on benches, listened, observed, and started taking photos. I\'ve taken several thousand photos since March, and have no plans of slowing down anytime soon. I\'ve photographed trees, trails, birds, deer, wildflowers, squirrels, insects, and more.
I\'ve been to at least 6 Nature Centers now. The wallpapers I uploaded today (even the blue Chevy wallpaper!) are from 3 different ones that I\'ve been to recently.
I feel so much calmer and happier than I used to. Trail walking or even just sitting outdoors and listening is wonderful medicine. Give it a try and you won\'t be sorry!
I hope to start getting more active here again. I have ideas for 2 nature groups that I haven\'t yet seen on DN. I actually meant to start those 2 groups a month ago though, and it didn\'t happen. If and when I finally do, I will let you know.
Thank you for not giving up on me. There\'ve been many days when I\'ve desperately needed to walk the trails and let the computer go. With the way that things are happening in our troubled world, I\'ll likely continue to need the trails very much. I\'ll try not to be as much of a stranger though. You might be surprised at how much I think of many of you as I walk!
May God bless you all and keep you safe.
Hugs,
Elaine
[URL=https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2571202/] [/URL]
[URL=https://cars.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2571207/] [/URL]
[URL=https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2571206/] [/URL]
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March 31st, 2020
This is what I have posted on many profiles, so you may have read these words already.
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2540793/] [/URL]
Greetings to everybody!
Although I\'ve been logging in to DN everyday, I haven\'t been very active. Case in point... I haven\'t uploaded any wallpapers this month... until today, and it\'s the very last day of the month!
I have to admit that part of it is I\'ve been watching all of the Coronavirus/Covid 19 TV news. (That\'s about all the news there is, these days!) I\'ve watched in horrified fascination as the numbers of sick people go higher and higher. At least the TV news does one good thing, it leads me to pray, again & again & again for nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel. Also for all of the people who have fallen ill from this hateful virus...
In Michigan we are under "Stay at Home" orders. I think every state in the USA should be doing that-- I feel sorry for people in places that do not have these orders. One of my sisters who lives in another state told me she wishes so much that their governor would give Stay at Home orders too, so everyone will be safer.
At this point, I want to apologize to everyone who belongs to my Cows, Sheep, and Balloon Groups. Normally, I favorite and comment on all of the wallpapers in those 3 groups. I just haven\'t had it in me to do that lately. I may not be getting back to that very much until the pandemic is more under control and less worrisome.
If you have uploaded wallpapers to any of those 3 groups that you would really like me to see and comment on, post them directly on my profile, and I\'ll try to do better. For that matter, if any of you have ANY walls you think I would appreciate, post those on my profile page too. Frankly, I could use some beautiful walls right now, to keep my mind off of the latest Covid-19 woes.
The 3 wallpapers that I\'ve just uploaded are below. The first wall especially, was inspired by the Covid-19 situation. I hope it will make you smile. We can all use something to laugh at these days...
Whatever you do, take care of yourselves and your loved ones! I hope we DNers can all get through this pandemic safely!
Giant Hugs,
Elaine
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2547821/] [/URL]
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2547822/] [/URL]
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2547823/] [/URL]
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| December 31, 2019
I really should right something in here right now... maybe I will later or maybe on January 1st. For now, this is just what I posted on my friends profile pages today.
EDIT: Because of what I just added about blueangels/Judy (at the bottom of this post), I\'m not going to change this. It stays as is.
I\'m driving by...
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2531902/] [/URL]
to wish you a
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2531904/] [/URL]
If you are like me, you have some great memories of 2019 but also things you would just as soon put far behind you. For now, let\'s leave the old behind and celebrate the new!
Hugs,
Elaine
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2531905/] [/URL]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PS. Actually, I have one more thing to put here. MadPainterKen/ Ken put in a cute tribute to blueangels/Judy in a profile post that he sent around. I think she would have loved it! Sadly, Judy passed away on December 19th. We will miss her a lot, although I know that she is in a much better place now.
Here is one of the last wallpapers that she uploaded...
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2527730/] [/URL]
And here is the cute 30 second tribute that Ken found to go with it. Thank you Ken! This is my smile for the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Pa2zKhmq8&feature=youtu.be
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|
Christmas Day, 2019
Anyone is welcome to read this journal entry, but if you are one of my friends or fans, you probably already have.
Hello everyone,
It is so good to be able to write a greeting to all of you!
I had a major life changing event this month. Many of you know that on December 9th I had a massive heart attack. I am so glad to be alive and able to tell you that.
I will never be the same again. I am not talking about what I went through or the 2 stents in my heart. I am talking about mentally. You can\'t go through something like this without rethinking your priorities and what is most important to you in life...
I won\'t tell you about every priority that I\'ve set for myself, but there are a couple that you will want to know. One is that I am more committed to Desktop Nexus than ever. I still love and care about this website, in spite of the spam and neglect. You, my friends, make this website a joy to be on. I will do what I can to battle spam and stay in touch with all of you.
I can probably explain the most important priority in my life by talking about my December wallpapers. They are in this post in the exact order that I uploaded them. imo these wallpapers are an accurate description of my life so far this month.
"Christmas Ribbon Dance" is a simple light hearted Abstract I completed about 3 days before I went through the heart attack. (I also had a funny one to go along with it, of a somewhat psychedelic poinsettia. I never finished that one. I\'ll probably upload it next Christmas.)
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2530915/] [/URL]
I created "A Stained Glass Christmas" in the spirit of, "Oh gosh! I\'m barely going to have any Christmas wallpapers to upload this month! I\'ve got to get busy creating something!" Well, I starting having so much fun manipulating my stained glass window photo that I forgot to worry about the number of wallpapers that I might or might not upload. It felt so good to take my time and simply create something intricrate and pretty!
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2530916/] [/URL]
"A Wonderful Gift" has two hearts in it\'s design. (At first glance they may not be easy to see.) In the description of this wallpaper I\'ve written about some of the things I went through during my heart attack. I did not go through it alone! God was with me all the way through...
[URL=//abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2530917/] [/URL]
The last wallpaper in my post, "O Holy Night" is the reason that I didn\'t get to upload these wallpapers until Christmas Day. (As I write these words, it is 3am where I live, and yes, it is indeed Christmas!) The other 3 wallpapers were ready to go up a couple of days ago. But I felt like something was missing... and after some soul searching I realized that I wanted to create a wall that told a story... the Christmas story. I hope you like it! Of all of these wallpapers, this is the one that I\'d love for you to take a close look at, in part because I put so much work into it. I think I spent at least 16 hours on it! (I had that kind of time on my hands because my cardiologist didn\'t want me to go back to work or drive for a couple of weeks.)
[URL=//animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2530918/] [/URL]
Thank you so much for being my friends. Thank you for the care and the concern and the get well wishes that you all PMed me with and/or posted on my profile page. That meant so much to me...
Have a beautiful, wonderful, and blessed Christmas, everyone. And if you don\'t celebrate Christmas, have a beautiful, wonderful week ahead!
God bless us, everyone!
Hugs,
Elaine
PS. There is one Desktop Nexus member who is no longer with us. Blueangels1015/Judy went home to be with Jesus on Thursday, December 19th. Grandma Gingerbread/Joyce let me know this just today through a PM. (For anyone who doesn\'t know, Grandma Gingerbread/Joyce is Judy\'s sister.)
Joyce is extremely busy right now with funeral arrangements and many other things that must be taken care of when someone passes away. She told me that she would be on DN sporadically for awhile because of that. Here is a link to her profile page in case you would like to send her a sympathy card. (I can only imagine how rough it must be to lose a loved one at this time of year.)
https://my.desktopnexus.com/grandma_gingerbread/
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| It\'s Leap Day 2024!!!I will write this Journal Entry Later--- I have less than 3 hours to Upload a few "Leap Day" Walls. I put this in now to reserve the date! lol ...Its 2/22/22!Twos-Day 2/22/22(I\'m saving the date! "Midnight" comes for me, on Desktop Nexus, in a half hour! I will post the real journal entry later. Well, Here is the "Real" Journal entry but it is sure not the one I thought it would be.I was really happy about ge...Happy New Year 2021! (Thank Goodness!)December 31st, 2020I\'ve posted this on many of your profiles already.... Happy New Year! In my area 2021 starts in 6 hours and 10 minutes! I am SO SO GLAD that this year is ending, and that it\'s time to wish you aI hope it will be a good year for you-...Merry Christmas in 2020December 25, 2020(There\'s a good chance that you\'ve read this already... on your profile.) Merry Christmas, Everyone! You may have noticed that I\'ve been less active on DN this year. It\'s been a rough year for me, (and I know that I\'m not the only on...A Toe, A Tooth, and a Squirrel in the Chimney (part 2)Part 2 The next day, Friday, was trash day. John went to work. I turned on the radio and TV, and prepared to spend the day barefooted with my nervous collie, Katie. She hates trash day because garbage trucks scare her. Even when I leave the house on Frida...A Toe, A Tooth, & a Squirrel in the Chimney (part 1)Firday, October 30, 2020I\'ve just finished experiencing 2 of the most crazy, difficult weeks I\'ve had in years. On Tuesday, Oct. 6, about 4am, I woke up and went to the bathroom, and fell asleep on the commode. I dreamed there were a bunch of bugs runni...Hitting the Nature Trails, Camera in Tow...August 31, 2020 (If you are a friend and/or a fan of mine, you may have already read this on your profile.) Hello everyone!If you think that it\'s been a long time since I visited your profile, you are absolutely right. I haven\'t been doing much visiting...How Things Have Changed... Coronavirus, & CopingMarch 31st, 2020This is what I have posted on many profiles, so you may have read these words already.Greetings to everybody! Although I\'ve been logging in to DN everyday, I haven\'t been very active. Case in point... I haven\'t uploaded any wallpapers t...New Year\'s Around the Corner...December 31, 2019I really should right something in here right now... maybe I will later or maybe on January 1st. For now, this is just what I posted on my friends profile pages today.EDIT: Because of what I just added about blueangels/Judy (at the bottom...A Heartfelt Christmas GreetingChristmas Day, 2019Anyone is welcome to read this journal entry, but if you are one of my friends or fans, you probably already have. Hello everyone,It is so good to be able to write a greeting to all of you! I had a major life changing event this month...WHAT HAPPENED TO AUTUMN???November 17, 2019I\'m sure that many of you are wondering the same thing, if you live in the USA or Canada. A lot of us got plastered with unexpected snow. A lot of us got hit with freezing January like temperatures. Many of us got both.This is the story ...A Difficult Halloween Week with a Few Funny Memories...Friday November 1, 2019What a week... It was such an exhausting one... and a sad one too.Most Halloweens are fairly normal for me. I get home, my husband and I eat a quick dinner, and we pass out candy to the trick or treaters. We visit with the neighb...How To Post a Desktop Nexus Wallpaper on Someone\'s Profile: A Reprint :D10/26/2019....Well, this isn\'t exactly a reprint yet, but the link below will take you to the actual post, I promise! I originally posted these "How To" instructions back in 2012. I re-did the directions back in December of 2014, so I figure I\'m way ove...Beautiful Autumn Colors!Wednesday, October 23, 2019I\'m pretty tired tonight, so I\'m just going to put my basic profile greetings in here I think. I\'ve been doing that a lot lately... oh well. If you\'re one of my fans or friends you probably saw this already.Hi Everyone,I\'v...Just a Belated Repeat... Friday August 30, 2019Yep, I know that today is September 1st- - - but I meant to post this on August 30th, and I forgot. If you are a fan and/or friend of mine, you have probably read this already, since it\'s what I posted on your profile. But if I mi...Finally Catching Up a Bit...If you\'re a fan or a friend of mine, you probably have this posted on your profile already. June 25, 2019Hello everyone, I\'ve been behind in all things DN, especially visiting around. I\'ve been dealing with everything from a very painful tooth to taki...Easter PostIf you are reading this... you\'ve probably seen it already on your profile... April 19, 2019I\'ve been playing with colors......keeping my eye out for color loving rabbits...and being thankful for what Easter is all about. Have a beautiful & meaningful h...Striped Cloud Formations...March 31, 2019 SundayIf you\'re a fan of mine you\'ve likely already read this....I did some unexpected & unusual cloud watching the other day. I\'ve got some striped wallpapers to prove it! Have you ever seen cloud formations like these? If you have, I\'...Happy Saint Patrick\'s Day 2019!Sunday, March 17, 2019I have decided to make a journal entry to commemorate the fact that I stayed up waaaaaay.... too late last night struggling with my Irish Abstract Shamrock wallpaper design. (It\'s below.) I am truly glad that I have a wallpaper to s...Frigid Weather & Sundogs(If you are one of my fans, you\'ve probably read this already... on your own profile) February 1, 2019I\'ve been a bit out of touch with most of you, because my back decided to go out once again. So up until now I\'ve had to limit my computer time becaus... Recently Spotted MembersNo members found. Be the first. |
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(My March dental appointment had been canceled on me because of Covid 19, so we had to play catch up.) As it turned out, my double dental appointment went a lot better than I thought it would. Nitrous oxide really helps! 
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