Peeking out from under the rock
After two full weeks of computer disasters, last week (though I hesitate to admit it and knock ferociously on wood) went reasonably smoothly. It took a full Friday afternoon and then some to replace all the Word preferences, but at least they got replaced. I found a thing that’s supposed to back them up so you don’t have to do this over and over again every time you have a crash, but of course, that option doesn’t seem to be available to my system. No wonder I loathe M$.
I found a local computer tech who loathes them, too, and his boss is my age and loathes them even more. He’s been very helpful. In fact, he has obtained Honorary Son status, so I will have to take him a cupcake for his birthday. That should give Snaotheus great relief, in that it’s possible I may not be calling him quite so frequently with Computer Emergencies. Or I may. Don’t want him to get too comfortable.
Grandma’s finally gotten her new teeth close enough to comfortable that she can eat. She seems to be keeping them in most of the time, now. For two weeks I’ve been trying to get her to throw out a sheet from some church-published book that contains pictures of people whom she can’t remember. For some reason, she seems to think it’s critical that she not only keep it, but that it float around on her desk, even though she has no clue who any of the photos are. Of. Whatever. Poor dear.
Fall proceeds apace. The leaves have gone from tinges of red and yellow through brilliant cerise and butter and are now turning shades of brown before they flutter down. They carpet the trail at the park, which of course makes the trail slipperier when it’s wet, which means I must tread more carefully. So far, I’ve stayed vertical. It’s a joy to watch Ms. Dog on these walks; she runs like a . . . like a running thing, bounding through the trees, racing along fallen tree trunks, leaping up and down from boulders. Every 90 seconds or so she races back to me, hammering up behind me or barreling down from in front, and joy is in every muscle she owns. Not to mention her smile. Once she’s discovered I’m still there, she’s off again.
Several quadrangle maps from my hometown are glued together and waiting for me to extract the relevant bits and glue them together, as part of my busy work to avoid actually working on a novel while doing things I can claim are critical to the writing. These are one of the coolest things around, showing topographical (and in some cases satellite photos) from all over the country. You can download them at the U.S. Geological Survey site. The difficulty is that I had to print out nine of them to cover my home turf, so they are all over the floor because they are Big.
Hmm. I read Unseen Academicals and am starting it over again because I think I missed many of the jokes the first time around. I’ve finished the clown-barf blanket for LaRyantrelle and LaPalpinatrelle and hope to get the edging on today. Wowie. This is really boring. Well, welcome to my life. Boring. . . but very peaceful, except when everything goes wrong.