We didn’t have “The Great Santini” here at all before that.

And in other noteworthy blogging news…

I probably gave up notion of buying that condo for now,

tho’ I’m still ready to make that big change I’ve been talking

about –just can’t tell what it is yet!

I doubt it’s a move to any humid climate, however, no

matter how much milder  . . . .

I believe you  might as well dump Windows 98, considering

they do not offer any support for it anymore.  Move immediately

to XP (but family version should do, not the Pro!).
I suggest taking computers to somebody if they don’t work,

and let them erase the hard drive, after saving things for

you –and afteryou’ve deleted what you don’t want –

then install the newoperating system for you.  At the same time,

they could makesure the modem’s working the way it should

with DSL internet.

Might even be worth calling a tech for a ‘house call.’  I know,

that’s not the easy, cheap way to do things but in the long run

it might be worth the investment in hassle-time.

All that seems pie-in-the-sky right now, even tho’ weather

here is almost summer-like today.  Warm down there, too,

huh?
Here, it’s going to be rather cool (60′), maybe rainy and

windy, and quiet for  me.

Meantime, if you missed 60 Minutes last eve, I want to be

sure you have a chance to see the page on the link below.

Andy Rooney did a thoughtful piece on significance of this

holiday, from his perspective.
I’ve always believed our consciousness is evolving –moving on.

Think maybe what we’re living right now is another step in that

evolution?  I remember when kids (VietNam) there was a

saying “suppose they gave a war and no one came . . .”  (my

recall is probably not exact).

these days except me.

I’ve been checking website from time to time, just to see

what a friend has been working on these past months.

He told me he’ll not be sailing down, himself, but will fly

down to be sure everything’s in order at the other end

of the race.  (He’s already been down a time or two,

getting plans laid for everything that’s involved with

boats and crews.)
I did some digging into the site, and found a place to

follow each yacht (by GPS?) as they make  their way down

the coast next week.

on for my friend.  I got a phone call about how

things all went.

Brad is in recovery, said to be awake and talking to

everybody.  The word is “it all went well.”

His wife called while waiting for his prescriptions, after

which she will be going back upstairs to where he is, then

they’ll head out to home.
She assured me that before the procedure, she had good

conversation with the doctor, re what they can expect

during the night.

Their home is right near the airport, and they’ll be heading

home “first thing in the morning.”  (My note: assuming the

surgery went as scheduled at 3:30 their time — called at

4:00 their time –that would confirm that ‘everything went

well.’  In fact, pretty speedy!)

Going on an all-day bus trip (in big, luxurious bus, they say)

to see this wind farm.  My first attempt to go with a group

from the downtown community center.  I could drive up,

surely, but wouldn’t have the benefit of a presentation about

the technology and this installation, plus lunch.  I can’t imagine

the lunch but those who know say it’s a great experience.

Weather’s cloudy with threat of rain but the wind should be

blowing so we’ll see the propellers in full operation.  I have

the camera batteries all fired up –but can’t imagine how

the full panorama will fit on this little view finder!

That’s startling  news on this end!  Whether or not this

foreign body is giving a person any trouble, it is good

to know about this.

I’d always heard of kidney stones only when the pain was

driving somebody crazy –in fact, don’t believe I ever heard

of one being found ‘accidentally’ in course of another

procedure!
Once they see chemical makeup of this invader, they may

be able to give you hints about whether a diet change might

prevent a recurrence?  That’s just a guess, don’t mean to act

as if i know what medical management is nowadays.

Green tea may have a helpful action for this. I don’t

know.  Funny thing about that tea, you can get a good-sized

box from Costco.  Just a couple hours ago I was in Costco,

even picked up a box but didn’t buy it because I still have

some on hand.

What I get at Costco is simply TenRen Green Tea.  But when

I looked up the article at consumer reports, the highly-rated

one was TenRen Dragon Well Green Tea.  You can see both

of them listed in ratings.
Unless someone wants to try the Dragon Well, the other

kind may be just as good.

I haven’t yet ordered the DVD I was thinking about, so I 0

still don’t know howthe movie compares with what was

on TV . . .  Also, I haven’t watchedmy VHS tape of the

Georgia State stuff that I wanted to watch.  Sooner or later,

I’ll watch that.

I’m just having a hard time keeping up with what’s going

on around here now!

I’m still distracted by this thing that wakes me every morning,

anytime between 3:30 and 5:30.  Believe I’m probably suffering

effects of long-term sleep deprivation!  No joke, because I find

myself with low-energy, lacking ambition to attack chores, etc.

Of course, it could be age but I could easily blame on this

affliction!

That baffled me.

Apparently is is the idea of sliced bread.

Over the past months, thousand of Americans

submitted deas for a better country.

Now we the entire country decide which idea prevails.

There’s prize money!

I just cast my ballot.

Our votes will decide the winning ideas.

out my cell phone minutes. Always watching

the budget.

It has come to my attention that Tracfone is getting some

competition in the West.  Other prepaid cell phone plans

are turning up.
It’s a dilly of a deal for you folks –tho’ it’s not here yet.
Check the page, then go down to coverage , click on it.

After you enter a ZIP code, you’ll see a little map that

shows coverage along several states.
Per-minute rates seem better than Tracfone but I didn’t

really study the whole thing.

Service is with Sprint –don’t know what their reputation is,

either.  Believe I read in the latest Consumer Reports that

Verizon is the best.

Rest of the story is that used Tracfones with minutes are

sold on eBay all the time . . . tho’ I haven’t followed how

much they sell for these days.

They’re probably junk, I am thinking.

All this stuff is very confusing to me.

as you are on the task at hand.

But then, I might always wonder whether it would’ve been

OK to put the words out there, in case the thought might be

useful.

Attended a military burial, which I would recommend

to anyone.  It was very nice. Actually, it might feel quite

good to have –symbolically,such a ceremony.

Of course the ceremony is more for the family than the

person who gets to decide to have it.

I was very touched by it, and by the playing of taps.

Lately it has been mailing.

Both boxes are scheduled for delivery at your house tomorrow,

Thursday. They require no signature.   The internet doesn’t

show any movement since they arrived in Savannah, however,

so who knows?

I’m afraid I have potential bad news to send along with this,

tho’ . . . that day we packed it up I was so frenzied to get

to Island in time to send it off, that I lost all my usual attention

to detail when sending off a printer; i.e., in addition to leaving

the USB cable and the new color cartridge outside of the

box –for you to worry about.  What I did NOT do was to

remove the two ink cartridges from the place they’re mounted

inside the printer.  That means they were free to slide back

and forth, side-to-side, with every movement of the box.

I have no idea what that means.  At the least, the cartridges

will be damaged so they need to be replaced: each cartridge

contains the ‘print head’ that may not work right.  Maybe

worse, ink will be splattered all over inside that part of the

printer –and who knows where else?!  My hunch is that the

‘carriage’ parts that hold the cartridges will be OK.  The owners

manual has good illustrations for loading the cartridges,

running the alignment test, etc.

In case tho have a color cartridge but not a black one.

Walmart carries them (best price, of course).  I’ve used

refilled ones from my local printer service shop, lots

cheaper and they work just fine.  (however, both cartridges

that are rattling around in the printer now are authentic

HP ones, not refills.)

So,  a multi-function machine, after all.

To hook it to the computer will be more complicated, however.

Not sure whether the CD is in the box or not –but no matter,

because the software driver would be too out-of-date for

computer, probably.  The  “software driver” from the internet?
Here’s the routine I’ve used:  go to www.hp.com   Go down

the right side, click on “Software drivers and downloads”

For the machine, enter/choose “PSC 1210 all-in-one”

Next, choose (click on) your operating system, such as

Windows XP (On that same screen, farther down, notice

“Troubleshooting software and driver installation issues,”

in case you run into a glitch and need to look for help.)

On the next screen, there are choices for things to download.

First off, click on “HP Full Solution Software Driver” then follow

instructions for how to install it, so the computer will talk to

the PSC 1210.  After that’s all done, I suggest you come back

to this screen and ask it to check whether you need any of

the other updates there.

The computer can probably have more than one printer

connected, you just  have to tell it which one’s the default

when you’re printing.
I’ve  kept  this trip to be in touch with folks because of a

bet  . . . so I was planning to do it, sooner or later.

Not sure about next year.  I’d sure like to try in-town more

than the isolation I felt on end of that island.  Maybe I

should rent one in town and you could come in to visit me?

No—I do not have the same fever, just fantasizing!  (and to

each his own, as far as location is concerned –it sure was a

good place to let the kids do their own thing, with relative

safely.)

I sure have been on the road.

Uneventful trip back –just felt long by time I got in at 9:30,

2-hours later by Eastern time, delivered me to a sparkling

apartment.  Turns out her C- surprise was to clean and

dust the place and to lay in a stock of groceries so I

wouldn’t have to do that today.  Must say, when I walked in,

it didn’t feel quite ‘right,’ probably because everything was

in perfect order –including all the mail that she’d carefully

sorted into a few  piles.

Trying to correct my jet lag, I stayed up to get all unpacked

then had a good night’s sleep.  I’ve read the thick Sunday

morning paper –thick with ads, that is–plus lots of year-end

articles about the city and state.  Can’t say all that made me

happy to be back –the political/social/economic climate

is just not very hopeful here.  Only bright spot is the governor

who hasn’t seemed to work any miracles yet with a deadlocked

Legislature.
Mild, sunny day now, tho’ a mix of rain and snow is predicted

later.  Guess I’ll just loll around, probably go over to say

‘hi’ to all later on.  Will hold good thoughts, while they

travel home to sleep in their own beds tonight.

So, again the best of adventures to one and all, hope all

my readers have good times traveling as I have had.

So far so good.

When I get back from work I’ll figure out some

more of how it works.

Supposed to be easier with hispeed internet but this

experience is really more ‘for the birds.’  To explain,it’s late,

Monday, and I’m exhausted from lots of walking today.

Still in Charleston ,back at the Sleep Inn. Logged on to send

a brief note, if it would work this time.  Suddenly appeared

the long one that mysteriously disappeared this morning.

So here it is–I hope. More tourist stuff to do tomorrow.

Will be  ‘back home’ on the island Tuesday eve.
Still learning photoshots=–

Don’t know how this will work, but I did manage to reduce

photo size to 640×480, just like the book said to do.

I ‘ve been trying to catch up all day, after being otherwise

involved or away for five days.  Been ignoring personal

business that needs tending before much more time

goes by.  Everything takes so much longer with this

dial-up connection that I find I’m not planning use

of my time very well.

Anyhow, the trip to Charleston was worth doing.  The

tour yesterday morning was OK but I could’ve skipped it,

because so  much was repeated in the afternoon

“Black History” tour, that included a couple islands

offshore from Charleston.  History almost reeks from

every cobblestone in the streets!  Ok, that’s exaggeration

but it goes ‘way back to before the Revolution–not just

the Civil War days.  I can’t begin to tell you much of

anything but I’ll bring back a story or two.  One of the

high points yesterday was a big tree –I mean a BIG

(wide) live oak.  Said to be 1400 years old.  Sort of

like the giant I saw at Lahaina, Maui –only more so,

or like the tall, giant Sequoaias in California, only

spread out.  Couldn’t begin to photograph it.

Cold and cloudy again today, said to be rainy tomorrow

but clearing in time to have a decent day for the munchkins

to drive down from Raleigh-Durham on Sat.  Sure will be

good to see them.  Meantime, I’m still dealing with

shopping, and with hopes to get out to the old, restored

lighthouse that’s open for folks to climb to the top . . .
I trust all is OK elsewhere and the season promises to

be great all around.