A Meme - Just Threes

I don't do memes a lot.  I've been enjoying Jess' Blog Smog for some time now.  She's doing this meme, & i thought i'd join in.   One thing she said in this meme that spoke to me was in three things that i miss, when she said,

The house I grew up in and maybe just plain being young.

 Yeah.  Me, too, although she is young compared to me, most definitely.  

Confession - i've not been keeping up with responding to comments, & so i apologize.  I love having people respond to my *brilliant* (roll of the eyes) thoughts & just so appreciate that folks show up here to read them.  Thank you.  I do my best, but sometimes it just isn't quite there. 

Jes, of His Scribe - you need to do a meme!  This is part of blogging & the blogger world! 

So, here's the meme:

Just Threes - About me meme

MY 3′s: Here are some details about me you may not know. (I’ll ask for
yours at the end)   

THREE PLACES I’VE LIVED:

1.  Knoxville, TN

2. Bozeman, MT

3. Long Beach, CA (As well as Artesia, Fullerton, Placentia, Irvine, & Costa Mesa)

 

 THREE JOBS I’VE HAD IN MY LIFETIME:

1. Waitress at a Woolworth's lunch counter

2. Receptionist at a veterinary clinic

3. Crisis counselor at a psych hospital

THREE SHOWS THAT I WATCH ON TV:

1.  Living with Ed

2.  Burn Notice

3.  Eureka

 

THREE PLACES I’VE BEEN THIS WEEK:

1.  Orange County, CA

2. Mother's Market & Kitchen

3. The Assistance League Thrift Store (& also The Container Store)

 

THREE PEOPLE WHO EMAIL ME REGULARLY:

1.  My blogs - telling me i've got comments

2.  Mark, my insurance agent

3.  Facebook

 

THREE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS

1. Nearly anything sweet

2. Sweet potato fries

3. Avocados

THREE THINGS I MISS

1.  I'm gonna miss Rebecca more than i can say

2.  Being thin

3.  Mom, it has been almost 6 years since i saw her last (oh, & this is the time of year i'm homesick for Montana the most)

THREE PLACES I’D RATHER BE:

1. How could i ever want to be anywhere but Sugarbear?

2. Well, i do miss Montana in the summers

3.  I agree with Jess, part of that missing of Montana is being young & carefree

THREE PEOPLE WHO WILL MOST LIKELY RESPOND:

1. ? No one?

2. Jessica

3. Amrita

THREE THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO:

1.  Eva's visit

2.  Finishing the quilting placemats project

3.  Having more energy

 

Now, here’s what you’re supposed to do… copy into a post, delete my answers and type in your answers. Then link back (& come & tell me) so I can see your answers too.

344

Pic of Kathryn?

I've been following Lynnette Kraft's Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground for quite some time now.  She does linkys from time to time & i don't often join in.  But she's doing "share the real you" in pics & i joined.  Without thinking it thru.  

The pic of Duane & me in the sidebar is my favorite, although it is over 3 years old now.

I've discovered that i'm usually the one behind the camera.  I can show you pics of our home, the mountains, Duane, the snow, our cats, the blooms, more snow, more mountains, some scrawny lilacs, a dead peach tree, our cats, Duane, & so much more.  But few of Kathryn.  I like it that way.

The last pic i found of me was in February, when Mrs. Mac was visiting in So Cal & we met for tea for an hour or so.  

It is not a very flattering pic.  I hope i don't always look so sour (i don't think i do!) but i almost always seem to in pics.  You can't begin to tell how excited i was to meet with Mrs. Mac.   


Maybe when my niece comes next month we'll do funny pics of each other the way Lynnette & Abigail do of each other!  Then i'll photoshop them into me looking skinny, or something.  ;)

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Can you tell?

My favorite color to wear?

As of last night, every piece of clothing we had in the house was clean, except what we were wearing & the sheets on the bed.  That won't last long, but it feels wonderful to be "caught up."  As i was putting away my tops i seemed to detect a pattern.  !  Some of these are long-sleeved tops to be put away for the summer (& one is a scrub top for work).  Still !  I think i've too many clothes.  My second favorite color is white.  Then i have a couple of other colors, but invariably i will choose either an aqua/Caribbean blue top or a white one.  (The orange in the background of the top pic is Duane's SAR uniform.)


I would never paint my house blue, probably not the walls inside either, but i do love the color.  I love to wear it.  I love to gaze at the blue sky.  Or the water.  Or at blue flowers.  

Ok, not blue, but here are some purple/lilac items.  The first 2 Duane took in OC, at his parents' house, although the flowers are actually bordering the neighbor's driveway.  The second i took of the wild onion blooming in our yard.  It doesn't show very well.  The last is a lilac on our neighbor's lilac bush.  Lilacs didn't do all that well this year.  The late snow & freeze seemed to do bad things to them.


One of our peach trees is dead, too.  The guy from the local nursery told Duane that we probably it died in a late freeze when it had already begun to draw water from the ground & the freeze destroyed the cells that had the water.  It looks very sad.  I don't think the other peach tree is going to produce, either, so we will have to decide what to do about them. 

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Life is funny

Well, i seem to have fixed my Gmail without Duane's assistance.   It took me most of the AM (Sunday).  I haven't done updates on certain applications in a long time.  In fact, it has probably been a couple of months since i turned the laptop off.  I hate waiting for it to come on, so i usually have it just "sleep."  So i loaded the updates & then, *gasp!* turned the computer off!  Then rebooted it & things seem to be working fine now.  I'm still waiting for it to lock up on me, but that hasn't happened yet.  

Duane came home for dinner Saturday night, & then headed out to Holcomb Valley to camp in order to be there for some early AM race.  He expected to be home Sunday PM by 2 or so, but was not.  They didn't find the guy they were looking for.  From his first description of the search, it almost sounded like some older guy had gone out into the desert to commit suicide.  However, Duane told me at dinner that they think that he just went out & got drunk & lost.  He was actually in an area of a bunch of houses assumed to be deserted, but they weren't allowed to actually search buildings for him.  Also the family had been out to look for him & their prints had destroyed whatever trail he had made.  

So, the result from that search might not be as dire as i first suspected.  He might be holed up somewhere, sleeping it off.  The results may not be good, still, but it isn't quite as bad as it could be.


I didn't make it to town on Saturday, but did on Sunday PM.  The other book (besides the Sally Fallon book, which is much bigger than i expected) is Jason Boyett's Oh Me of Little Faith.  I read the intro & part of the first chapter while at lunch.  


On my way into town, i saw 10 or 15 Jeep Wranglers ("the he-man" form of Jeep according to Duane).  We've often commented about what a high percentage of them up here.  So i decided to do a limited count.  I decided to use the 1.1 mile stretch between Division & Stanfield Cutoff along the "marsh" section of the lake.  I counted the cars in the opposite lane coming toward me.  Ok, here are the stats:

• I counted 50 cars.
• NOT ONE of them was a Jeep Wrangler!
• Two were Jeeps of other types, like a Cherokee or Patriot.
• As soon as i reached Stanfield Cutoff & stopped counting, i immediately saw 2 Jeep Wranglers coming toward me.  
• There were also 2 Jeep Wranglers in the line ahead of me.
• This kind of count is useless.

Isn't life funny?


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Eva's Pics

My niece Eva, the one coming in early July, likes to take pictures.  She has an ok camera, but often what she posts are rather washed out.  Duane has a laptop Apple computer he hasn't been using, so when she comes, she'll be able to play with making adjustments to her pics.

 This is her original, SOC, of the barn of a neighbor.

Here i've brightened it a bit simply using iPhoto.  

Then i moved the pic to Photoshop Elements & played with the applications.

This one i simply made a blue sky with clouds & brightened some of the background trees.

 This one is either "canvas" or "burlap" for the texture.  I don't remember which i used.

I think this is a "water color" application.  I don't remember what the rest are.

I created an unforseen error in this.  When i made the blue sky, it covered over the telephone lines running thru the pic, but left the bird there.  Thus i ended up with a black dot in the pic.  It shows more in some than in others.  


I had fun with these, & i think she will have fun playing with these aps, too.  But she likes turning her stuff into B&W more, from what she's said.  Here are some more of her pics. 

I'm having a very hard time with the computer, although the speed seems to be fine now.  But every time i try to open either of my Gmail accounts, it causes the browser to crash & become non-responsive.  Doesn't matter if i try to do it in Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.  I can't access those accounts.  I guess i have to wait for Duane to trouble-shoot it for me.


He should be home in a couple of hours, but he'll probably be very tired.  


Had a squirrel climb the guard part of the screen today to tell me he had no nuts.  When i opened the door to feed him, i thought he was going to run right in.  He stood right there to wait for me to give him something.  


They are funny, & i enjoy watching them, but i don't want one in the house!





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Frustrated

 For the past 2 days or so, our internet connection has been wonky.  


Things will load ok for an hour or two, maybe.  Then they won't load at all.  Very limited on what we can do.  I've found it frustrating (& have much more empathy for you, Amrita - this happens to you all the time?).  Don't know what is going on.  Had a tech to the house yesterday & they are doing "maintenance" in our area, but they say our house isn't effected.  ???


I tell you, anyone really wanting to screw with this country doesn't need to use all the scary things the media talks about.  All they have to do is go thru a major area/city with something that will send out EMPs (electromagnetic pulse) & whooey!  Most cars won't work, traffic lights, phones, probably no cell phones or computers or anything else we use to stay connected these days.  Can we live without our technology?


Of course, i don't know the first thing about this really.  I don't know if it could be done like i'm outlining, but my fears are not so much about explosive stuff, but about messing with our technology in place & limiting our ability to function.

________________________

We sent a letter, well more than a letter, to the pastor, G, & to the three elders of the Lutheran church.  Have had no response yet, but didn't expect to so soon.  Duane thinks we probably won't get any response at all, but i think they will respond.  If nothing else, probably an official letter stating that the elders are upholding the pastor's decision & maybe some gobbledy-gook on why it was justified.  
_________________________

Duane is off the hill.  He planned to be gone all weekend, first with a SAR training & then some race in Holcomb Valley.  The SAR training was postponed as they have a real search to conduct today.  (Five months & no searches, to his disappointment, then this one happens the same weekend as a planned training.)


It looks to be sad, however.  A 58 YO man was reported missing on Wednesday, but no one knew where he was or where he'd gone.  Yesterday his vehicle was found in the desert.  This may not be pleasant for Duane's first official search.


He is gone next Saturday, too, as he has a Karate tournament he is responsible to help with in OC.  


In fact, the whole summer seems to be filled with weekends where he is doing training or something.  I'm not complaining, not really.  I miss him, of course.  But with my own functioning so limited, i often feel that i'm preventing him from being more involved & doing fun things he would enjoy.  So i'm glad that he's got something to do that he feels so strongly positive for.
________________________


I've only got Rebecca one more week!  AARRGG!  I'm going to miss her a lot.  


I've appreciated her so much for the past couple of months.  I enjoy her.  She "gets" me.  She enjoys doing the work i have for her.  She's been responsible & i could depend on her.  


I've some ideas on what i plan now, but Duane & i need to re-assess having someone here so often.  Rebecca is worried about me & had a friend come to see what she does.  I appreciate that & that friend really wants the job, but i kind of wanted to take this next step on my own.  I'm not even sure exactly what i'll do. 
_________________________


One of my knives was broken this week.  I think a cat probably knocked it off (while we were down the hill) & it broke at the first screw/dowel-thingy.  The blade comes cleanly off.  It isn't a knife i use often, but i checked into the warranty of the thing.  It is only covered for "manufacturing defect" so i don't think broken counts.  So i looked at the replacement cost of this knife - $70 - ON SALE !!!  


This knife set was a wedding gift, so i had no idea that the giver spent something like $300 for the set.  I'm shocked.  I don't think i adequately appreciated it before, & can't share my appreciation with the giver as he died a couple of years ago.  (Yes, i do remember most of our wedding gifts & who gave them.)
__________________________


Going to town in a little bit.  I've ordered 2 books & they've come in.  One is Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, which i have so wanted.  I don't remember what the other one is.  Guess i'll find out when i go to get it.  :)  I don't often buy books anymore, & rarely buy them new.  If Duane complains, i'll tell him it is my BD gift for my BD this week.  :)



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I miss the squirrel highway

I had a squirrel bark at me this morning.


We feed the squirrels regularly.  We have one, maybe two who will come, stand up & stare into the window (sliding glass door) when there is no food.  I'm sure they are saying, "Ok, i'm here!  Where is the food?  We are out of food ! ! !"  (I've not taken any pics of this yet, never have the camera nearby.  It looks very funny when they do this, they are so intense.)


We do NOT feed them by hand, tho there are a couple who probably could be trained to do that.  There are a couple who don't even back off when i open the door.  But we have been told that feeding them by hand is an open invitation to be bit. 


This AM at exactly 7 i had one staring into the screen (the door was open all night) & he barked.  Woke me up.  "Excuse me!  NO food!  Fix it!"


I couldn't begin to tell you all the different noises the squirrels make, usually when they are upset, but i rarely hear them bark.  


I know i've shared most of these pics before, but i do so enjoy them.  :)

This is an almond, not a raspberry!

 It was a hard morning!

Found one!

Well?  Are you going to put the nuts out?

What ARE you doing down there?

One of the trees we had go down last winter was part of the "squirrel highway."  The squirrels would start in a tree at the edge of our property & run & jump from one branch to another to get to our deck.  The tree that went down was near to the corner of the deck & one of its branches was a major part of the highway.  The squirrels still come, of course, but i miss seeing them run along the trees to do it.

Squirrels are very territorial.  I haven't seen as much fighting & the injuries yet this year that we saw last year.  I don't have any pics of Mister Three Paws either.  We don't know how he lost his R hind paw, but he doesn't seem to miss it much.  He gets around just fine.   

I was right in that our summer is almost certainly going to be hotter than we are used to.  Last year the hottest day (at 85.5 F) was in mid-July.  Yesterday was 81.6 F - already!  We don't generally hit the 80s until after mid-June. 

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Random rambling

Well, yesterday we were ex-communicated from our church.  It was rather a shock.  If you want to read about that, this is the order of those posts:  One, two, three.   The first two are long.  (There are more than this on the subject of our problems with the church, older posts.)


I didn't say this there, but one of the things the pastor G has frequently said from the pulpit was how that so few churches honor Jesus anymore.  At one level, i didn't believe this, but i heard it so often it began to take root.  One thing blog-reading has done for me has to help me negate this thought.  I read blog after blog after blog of wonderful folks trying to honor God, love Jesus, love their children & their neighbors, & the world.  


Duane is off on the second of the Seven Summits hikes.  I'm sure he will be more careful this week.  We've a memorial service to attend this AM.   It is for one of the Lutheran members but is being held at the Catholic church as the Lutheran is not big enough.  We will attend this to honor someone we loved & support his widow, but it is almost certainly the last time we are involved in a service with this particular Lutheran church.  (G is doing the service.)


As a kind of weird aside, i'm not sure i've got anything appropriate to wear to a memorial service.  Big Bear tends to be extremely informal.  So, i'm not going to wear the black dress i have.  I do have black pants & tee shirt, but that seems a little over the top.  It occurred to me that wearing black pants & white shirt would be entirely appropriate for this particular church.  


Dear friend Jessica recently posted on purple blooms in her area.  There are so much more.  Duane took a few pics for me the other day, but i've not loaded them yet.  There was a gorgeous purple bougainvillea blooming.  Also a tree called "Purple Robe."  And others.


Here in Big Bear we have purple/lavender, too.  The lilacs are close to blooming.  My wild onions are purple.  And we have lupine (wild) blooming, too.  


Our spring was nearly non-existent.  It looks as tho one of our peach trees died over the winter, which has me puzzled.  We certainly had lots of snow, but the cold didn't seem that extreme.  It seems to me that we have gone directly from late-winter, early-spring to mid-summer.  We had a harder winter than normal, it seems we may have a hotter summer, too.  The hottest it has been since we lived here was 91 F on 4th of July 2007.  One day.  There have been other warm days, of course, but nothing like the extremes other parts of the country have.  Now, on 5 June, it seems summer wants to make up for that.  Yesterday our high was 77 F & the low overnight was only 41 F.  While 2 weeks ago everything seemed about 3 weeks behind, we now seem to be about 3 weeks ahead.


The other possibility is that i'm noticing the heat more this year.  Just as i was having trouble regulating my temperature (getting chilled too easily & difficulty warming up) thru the winter, i seem to not be handling the warm weather very well.  Not bad in Big Bear, but when we go to OC it has been unpleasant.  And of course, it is easier t warm up (blankets) than to cool off (cold shower?).  


It is too early to know if we will have apples, peaches or pears.  I think the apples/pears are a good possibility, the peaches not so much. 

I haven't any other pics to share (yet) today, but Duane just sent me this from the top of Gray's Peak.  He called, too.  He thinks he can meet me at the memorial service.

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Now, what a surprise

I've hit the number 30!  (Readers, that is.  The age 30 is long past. . . isn't it funny how 30 seemed so old when i was 20, but it seems so young now?)  Anyway, for those who show up to read my rambling words, thank you.  :)  I'm only sorry when my readers don't have a blog i can show up at & visit. 


This is gonna be quite a day . . . i slept maybe 4 hours, so it will be a challenge.  


My favorite market (Mother's Market & Kitchen) moved yesterday.  For 31 years they were in the same spot (for almost 15 years i lived down the block from them).  They have moved to a bigger location.  While i'm thrilled, i have some reservations.  Their spot used to be a Border's Bookstore.  I am in that parking lot frequently as the place i go to have my nails done shares the parking.  I knew from previous Christmases when it was Border's, that parking there is a nightmare!  Well, the parking lot at the old market was, too.  This new location, while a huge gain for the store, won't be an improvement in parking.  


I had my nails done yesterday.  It was the first day open for the store.  The parking lot was a horror.  I wanted to go in the new store, but could see it was a madhouse.  They open at 8 this AM, i might go then.  


My niece E2 (two of my sister's kids names begin with "E") is coming for a visit!  :)  


Sis #2 lived in Florida for over 20 years.  That is about as far from California as you can get.  She came out to visit Sis #3 a couple of times, so i got to see her then, but otherwise we've had little contact.  I never even met 5 of her 6 kids until they came to our wedding (almost) 6 years ago.  (I saw the oldest child, E1, who is expecting her first child, twice when she was a baby.)  So i've had little contact with the children thru the years, beyond an occasional gift-thank you note, or phone call.  Frankly, i also have esteem issues ("Why would anyone want to know me?") & the lack of contact is largely my fault.  


Facebook has changed that.  Honestly, i'm not a big fan of FB.  FB now informs me i have over 100 "friends," but i don't feel i know most of them any better.  It does let me know what is happening with friends & family, but i don't find that i've made deeper connections.  Sometimes i find it very frustrating as people make cryptic remarks, but i never hear "the rest of the story."  


That said, FB has allowed me to know a bit more of my nieces & nephews as they post.  And one child, Sis #2's 4th, E2, will "chat" with me when she sees i'm on FB.  All the effort has been on her part.  Well, as with most adolescents, i find conversations with her somewhat forced.  "How are you doing?"  "Fine."  "Having good weather?"  "Yes."  etc.  But as time has gone by, it has gotten easier.  


My sis moved herself & 5 kids (the oldest is married) to Kentucky last year.  She is nearing the finale of her divorce.  Child #2 R, is in college, so she essentially has 4 left at home.  Anyway, i'd mentioned to E2 (who is 14-1/2) that it would be fun to have her come out.  She indicated an interest, but i wasn't sure if she really would like to, or it was a polite, academic interest.  I wasn't sure Sis #2 would let her, but i called yesterday & she was ok with it if E2 wanted to come.  She does!  


I bought the tickets yesterday.  E2 will actually fly into San Diego (on 30 June) & stay a few days with Sis #3 (who is an E also) & then they will drive to BB.  They'll both stay with us a couple of days, then Sis #3 will go home & we'll have E2 with us for about a week.  I'm very excited.  


You know what i find ironic?  Sis #2 has 6 children.  Neither Sis #3 nor i have any.  When i was growing up, all i wanted to be was a mama.  I babysat a lot & loved little children.  I was a nanny for a couple of years right out of high school.  Sis #2 never cared much about children.  She never thought about having them.  She did some babysitting, but only to make $$, never out of a love for kids.  


(Typical of life, huh?  When i was a child i actually had a Sunday School teacher say to us, "Don't ever tell God what you want, or what you will or will not do.  If you say to God, 'I will do anything for you but be a missionary in Africa.  Don't send me to Africa,' Africa is exactly where you will end up."  Over all, i have found this to be a sad but true comment on life.)


Anyway, my sis, mother of 6 children, expressed envy of me that i'll get to spend this time with her daughter.  Now, at one level i totally understand this.  My sis is going thru a very hard time right now.  She is highly stressed.  She is trying to build a new life for herself & her children.  She is homeschooling 4 children who have, to one degree or another, learning disabilities.  Money is tight & nearly-ex-husband isn't helping much.  Life isn't easy.  She doesn't get to spend much time with any one child.  The idea of getting to spend non-stressed, "quality time" with one of her children alone & without all her other obligations sounds delightful to her.  So, yes, i "get it."  But come on!  You have had 20+ years of being a mama; you have birthed, nursed & raised/are raising 6!  YOU get to be called "mama" (well, i think they use "mom.")  You are envious of me because i get to spend one week with your daughter???


Ah, life.  :P


You know, in reading this over, i'm tired of Sis #2, E2, etc.  I've done that because i hesitate to use real names for folks, unless they use the name themselves somewhere.  My friends David & Jessica have their own blogs & use their own names, so i do that here, too.  Well, lots of people i have come to know have blogs, & some use their own names.  But i knew both David & Jessica apart from their blogs.  (BTW, you should go see Jessica's post on purple blooms in So. Cal.  Her pics are so pretty.  Read the rest, too, she's so good at sharing stories.)  


I've always had a lot of fun choosing character names when writing a story.  I think i'll do the same here.  You know my name & Duane's, my sister's initials are L & E.  Sis #2's children are E1RPE2DA.  (E1 was named for Sis #3, but i find that confusing in real life, i'm not going to perpetuate it in the blog.)  


Hereafter, i name the folks.  Sis #2 becomes  Larkin.  Sis #3 becomes Elsa.  "Elsa's" friend/date/main squeeze becomes Frye.  E1 becomes Ellen.  Her husband becomes Tad.  R becomes  Rae.  P becomes  Perry.  E2 becomes  Eva.  D becomes Drew.  A becomes Angie. There!  That was fun.  (If you want me to name you too, just let me know.  "Dear friend Cindy" or "Dear friend Dawn" can change if you want me to do so.)  I'll now have to put this in my sidebar so I remember, however!


Okay!  I'm done.  


(This - rambling - is what happens when i wake up at 5AM.) 




336

1 June . . . Already?

I've had a habit the past 2 years.  As near 1 June as possible i take a pic of Mt. San Gorgonio as we go down the mountain.  The snow on it varies from year to year.  These were all taken from close to the same spot on the road coming down. 

These two were taken on 2 June 2008.  

These two were taken 1 June 2009. 

And these three were taken today 1 June 2010.  (Rather grey day, today.)

I'm also adding these to the mix, for i don't remember Sugarloaf Mountain having snow on it this late in the season before.  We've had a long winter.  In 2008 we lost all the fruit on our trees due to a late storm (over Memorial Day weekend) & freeze.  But this year we've not had much spring as it has largely remained cold until the past couple of weeks.  And we had snow/freeze the weekend before Memorial Day holiday weekend.  Fortunately, i think we will have some apples.  Many seemed to be frosted, but a couple of days later the tree had a lot of blooms still.  It is not as spectacular as last year, but i think we will still manage some fruit.  :)  


Duane seems to be healing well.  He did come in to have the doc (chiropractor) work on him today.  His L hand/wrist is still very mildly swollen (not much).  I did some lymph work on him when he came into the office.  Also the doc said that he had put out his shoulder & ribs, but only mildly.  


I think i had more to say, but it is late, i'm tired & forgetful.  :)

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