Done in by:
Below zero weather which paralyzes the Pickiup.
The combination of a corrupted MAC Mail program, an awkward gmail mail program (but Mary.Scriver at gmail works.) Even the techies are stumped about the Mac Mail which refuses to send in spite of all settings being proper. I have a lot of research to do. This stuff is a separate language. I can learn the formal names of things online but everyone uses slang and the young ones are actually changing grammar patterns. On the phone they talk very fast with stiff lips and think in computer gaming concepts.
In an attempt to straighten out MAC Mail, I went to El Capitan, which seems to work okay but means learning a whole new set of assumptions and commands.
A re-alignment of interests and goals to make a tighter fit around the issue of identity: "deep history", neurological research. These are fairly technical and I will lose some readers.
At the same time, both Valier and Browning are threatening to collapse as governing entities and I want to monitor that closely. I'm finding it hard to talk to people because my assumptions about culture and government are very different. Aside from terms, they don't have concepts that I have, and I sometimes have contempt for their assumptions. Prejudice about Indians is still very strong and no one bothers to hide it.
Related to this is needing more freedom to talk about taboo subjects, which may mean going to a different blog provider. Blogger is prissy.
Aging: sore eyes -- but my tunnel carpal has eased. Diabetes is not a prob. Teeth are. Mild allergies that could be abated by better housekeeping.
Better management of materials, esp. the photo images from the Strachan/Scriver archive. I'm starting on the slides now. Putting Google images on every post is becoming a drag. I'm sure they'll begin billing me soon, after capturing all the photos I took.
At present my sewer line to the street is half-repaired and protected by sand up to the point where the line becomes Orangeburg. The consensus is that the problem is roots that catch and entangle TP which blocks the flow until it rots or disintegrates. Then I get a couple of days that are problem-free. Sullivan, who will do the rest of the replacement, thinks he can keep the cost under $1,000. Dry Fork Plumbing's bill came: $350.
The next crisis will either be the galvanized water lines which are aging out and bursting in old houses across the state, or the pickiup. I may have to turn attention to finding an agent and all that. It means less time for writing.
Better cat management would be nice.
I guess this turns out to be more of a New Year's post than one for Christmas Eve. But the reading I'm doing is so much more optimistic than this sounds. I mean, I see the world as getting more honest and thinking harder about what to do. Now that we're past the Solstice -- the Great Sun Gong has been rung. The days get longer. Ground Hog's Day is only a few weeks away.
Someone named "Wade," a techie down in Great Falls, got access to my screen and we wrestled with Mac Mail for a half an hour. Finally got it to receive and send. prairiem at 3rivers.net.
ReplyDeleteBelow zero tonight and tomorrow night. Back to Thirty by Sunday. This is quite a lot like the first winter I was circuit-riding in Montana -- 1985-86.
Prairie Mary