After some weeks with computer problems  a schizophrenic mouse that could not control the cursor, a dis-connect with our printer (the error message was “printer off line”) and $200 for two visits from our tech who said we needed a new printer, we went to Staples. I had spent a couple of hours on the phone with a Logitech geek and thought we had solved the erratic mouse problem, but after three days of working, the mouse went ape again. I thought it even might be a virus. We bought two mice  one for the desk top and one for the lap top (because moving my finger across the space below the keyboard was very unreliable). The Staples tech told Ed to download new drivers for the printer and this worked so we didn’t have to buy a new printer.

While we were at Staples, I got a new calculator that will print a tape, a label maker for Ed so he can label his new cabinet drawers and files, and a novel by Walter Moseley (black writer who writes brilliantly about ordinary black folks) on the discount table. For me, Staples is like a kitchen gadget store ï‚– I always see something I want.

Separate from the above, Ed had bought a blue ray  it has something to do with streaming movies and we finally got everything to work last night and watched “Jack Reacher” with Tom Cruise. If you have read the books by Lee Child, you will know that Cruise, physically, does not resemble the character whom I have pictured more like Nick Nolte in his prime. But Cruise was good in it and made it believable. In the books, Reacher usually gets to have sexual/romantic encounters but there was none in the movie. I had read the book this was based on, and thought the movie followed the story line rather well.

The News-Press printed one of my letters this morning. I have sent my contact at least four things in the last two weeks and when I had no word back, thought maybe they were trying not to overexpose me. I was annoyed with people who criticized Coca-Cola for putting on a rendition of “America the Beautiful” and including some of it sung in other languages, a celebration of our diversity. These idiots have been saying Coca-Cola had insulted our “anthem”. Stupider you don’t get. So I took them to task.

And last night Max went missing again and when I took a really close look at the pool door, it was just slightly ajar. We’d had no high winds, we hadn’t been using that door … one wonders if the mischief maker was back at work. I looked out and saw Max across the lawn next to our neighbor’s pool cage and went after him  he ran away because he was determined to continue his adventure. The area is heavy with bushes and it was night time, so I gave up. I was relieved to have seen him and knew he would come back but was very upset this morning when he hadn’t shown up by 7. He sauntered in around 7:30 (I had left the pool door open for him, however, looking for breakfast which, I reminded him, was free. My stress level started to go down after that. I always worry because every house is on water, and a kitty could conceivably get confused.

I had taken an early morning walk around the neighborhood, calling out to him (look at the nutty lady …) and stopped to talk with a young woman walking her dogs. Her boyfriend, Kevin, used to walk them but he hung himself in their garage because he was too ill to work and his diagnosis was confusing to the doctors, and everyone (and specifically including her) thought he was malingering. She didn’t know that I knew her story and I said nothing, except would she keep an eye out for Max. Kevin used to hang with my friend, John, so I had several chats with him when I’d run into him at John’s house. Sweet guy, only 39. John was devastated because Kevin had become kind of a surrogate son to him and confided in him, which is how I know these details.

xx, Teal