I jumped (or did I fall?) off the cliff!

I did it. Since you last heard from me, we (KLK and I) set up my new computer. It's running on 64-bit Windows 7. To boot, I installed some seriously updated software, and downloaded new drivers for my beloved old Canoscan 8600F scanner and my equally old HP Deskjet 9800 which I love because it has a duplexer.
I feel like I landed on a new planet. Nothing looks or acts familiar. The machine is stupid. I'm stupid. Or both. It's so frustrating: the printer won't double side; Photoshop doesn't see the scanner!...I need Valium!
For years I've been using various versions of PhotoShop to manage my digital images as well as to digitize print images. All of a sudden PS CS5 won't "just do it" from the Canoscan, while it's little brother, Adobe Acrobat, does just a fine job. Except using Acrobat instead of PhotoShop takes several extra steps because it expects the image to be PDFs and not JPGs. It took me at least an hour to get to the point where I could make it work. This is eating my life! Giving me headaches! I'm in withdrawal!!

The images I was intent on scanning are photos from Hurricane Carol that whipped up the eastern seaboard all the way to Martha's Vineyard in August of 1954, the first summer my parents rented a little cottage there.  I have no  specific memories of the experience, only vague impressions (I was 4 years old) and nothing concrete to tether them to, other than these photos my mother took. Here they are, with thoughts of Hurricane Irene, that bitch who might just do it to the Vineyard again. 
In any case, here at last are the photos:

Menemsha

Edgartown

Here's hoping the Vineyarders and all the summer vacationers fare better this time around.

Wordless Wednesday on Saturday

Sometimes, time does stand still

Digital image of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park, June 2011:

Scanned Kodachrome 64 slide of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, July 1981:

The tall burned brown and yellow-spiraled snag stands on the canyon shelf to this day. How long it had already been there the first time I saw it? How many years was it a vital living tree, and how many decades--or centuries--will it remain an upright monument to some wildfire fire that made it half-way into the canyon?

Attention lovers of the West, bears, nature, mountains and hiking!

Amusing Musings recommends a new discovered blog, Ecorover. Check it out!