Laura (Troutbend) posted a Youtube video about engineers and cats. I was determined to see it. I started the download. An hour later, it was not finished. The way my computer handles a video is this: The download begins, a frame is shown, I hear three words, there is a pause ranging from 30 seconds to a minute or two, then the second frame, another three or four words, more wait time. The rest of the video unwinds the same way. When it is finished, I am sometimes able to press the “Play this again” button and get the video in one smooth repeat. Not this time. The whole thing started as if I had never downloaded it. I don’t sit watching this agony. I do other things. I do morning ablutions, play the piano, clean the counters, etc. I check back periodically. Yep, still foomfing along.

Meanwhile, I am on line with the only phone line. Ed is in Fort Lauderdale at an ombudsman meeting and he is trying to reach me. There is no emergency. He just wants to touch base, hear my lovely voice, and why not? Anyway, his cell phone doesn’t bump me off line, but a landline will so he calls his office, and they call me. I get off line resigned to losing whatever download on this video has “taken”. Also, once a Youtube download is done, I can’t figure out how to save it. Their menu choices are not clear cut. (Well, maybe they are to you.).

Although Ed and I are in agreement that eventually we will get a new computer, Ed can’t move on this for historical reasons of spending money. If you spend money, then you won’t have it any more.

I am seriously thinking of waiting till his next out-of-town gig (later in May) and getting a computer in his absence. Voila! All done. Shoot me.

Unrelated subject. Toni, a recent acquaintance, and I were chatting about back pain (that I have had unrelentingly in my T section -- neck and shoulders) for 40 years. I always attributed this to strenuous ballet work. It ain’t getting better although I work it out every day with self-massage and deep stretches just as if I were still in class.

Toni is using a HoMedic back massager and, bless her, lends it to me for a week so I can give it a really good test. Yes, indeed, it is truly helpful. It vibrates along the T and lower if you push extra buttons. It can even give you a buzz down below if you care but I just do it to the base of the spine. There are better ways to get sexy.

I go on line and order one of the HoMedic products from Wal-Mart. It includes shiatsu massage. When I get it, I realize it won’t do because it doesn’t have a vibrating feature, and it is a padded board (makes sense since shiatsu requires more vigorous action) that doesn’t mold itself to my neck. I use it over the weekend and it has some use but it is not relaxing. So when Ed gets back from his meeting, we can go to UPS and return it to Wal-Mart and get a full refund. Meanwhile, I have been talking with the HoMedic customer service line and have chosen to order the cushion back massager (cheaper even) and should get it sometime this week. I still have my friend’s unit and will return it to her tonight when she gets home from her job.

My “home-made” style of giving myself shiatsu massage is to lie on a 5-lb. dumbbell under one shoulder blade (lots of pressure points there), and holding the other dumbbell in my hand do wide-arc, full range of motion moves. I also have a pulsing unit bought some years ago and I can lie on it. It has no finesse and I am constantly shifting to reach different pressure points. Or I can go to live with a masseur (definitely an option, I tell Ed, whose idea of massage is a 20-second effort).

xx. Teal