I’m always interacting with strangers because I like to have dialogue. So at the checkout counter at Publix the other day, I was looking at the tabs and romance mags before my turn, and one cover line said an article in it would help me “channel the inner sexually wild me(sic)”. So when I got up to the clerk, I told her about the cover line and said, “I know how to find the inner sexual wild me, I know where she is, but I need a time machine to get to her.”

While Ed was away, I became aware of stuff that has gone undone – when he’s here, I am distracted. There was a portable file filled with stuff, so I took it into the spare bathroom where there is a very nice counter, and worked there using that as my desk. When we moved from New York, we didn’t move the small desk I had because Ed said, we’d not have room for two desks here. So now I don’t have a desk and yesterday I said, I can’t work without some area that is just mine, so I am claiming the top of this waist- high file cabinet next to the computer and you are not allowed to bitch because it is full of my papers. We’ll see how that works. In the meantime, every other surface in the house is covered with guardian paperwork. It’s called the double standard.

When I had gone through everything, I still had a pile three inches tall that I needed to file or, in some cases, to enter into the computer and organize so I’d have access. Paper isn’t working for me anymore. If I make a Word document, I am more likely to refer to it.

But I still prefer a book to a Kindle. I have found that my Kindle does not suit my reading style. First off, the books I want are often on a long waiting list, if the library has them at all. When I do download a book, it’s annoying to read on a timetable connected to battery life. I hate it when I accidentally touch the wrong part of the screen and find myself 200 pages away and have to somehow find my way back to where I was. Sometimes I want to page back to refresh my memory about the first appearance of a character, and I have to go through a search routine that is tedious and then do it again to go back to where I was before I searched.

At the end, they ask for a review. There is a keyboard function on the Kindle. It thinks it knows what you want to say and automatically substitutes the word it thinks you want. I recognize the change and correct it and it instantly changes back to the word I don’t want.

Furthermore, texting on a tiny keyboard and shifting to a number or an initial cap takes more than one move and that is annoying too. My solution was to input a very brief review, then go on to Amazon, where one can extend the review and do a more thorough one using a keyboard meant for the human hand. So I haven’t bothered with the Kindle in months. Screw it.

Our HP Photosmart printer developed a major hardware problem so we are junking it. It was making crunching sounds as it organized itself. This sound was different than the normal sounds of burp, gug, scrunch, gurgle that it always went through when first turned on or when it reverted to stand-by after a print job. We went to Office Max to get a new one, and Ed bought an updated version with room for half a ream of paper (a real improvement). It is twice as tall and a bit wider than the old one. Looks like a tumor, actually. Ed installed it yesterday and the printer works and it is much faster. It spits out a page (ptuey), instead of chug chug chugging by inches. But the fax isn't working, and suddenly we also have no phone service. Ed thinks he has to split the modem for everything to work and has to get a part to do that. Meanwhile, we are using cell phones (which I hate).

I have to get kitty food for Max. He wants fresh, even though his bowl is full. I wanted to check his age and looked in the cat file and there was this thick folder full of Brunswick’s medical history. All reminders of Brunz trigger an internal nervous breakdown and I have to stop and regain my calm. His loss is as fresh today as it was when we had him put to sleep (May 9). I am a basket case on this issue.

It is what it is. A little while back I had gotten rid of the Sniff file and the Chewy file, but tossing B’s file is even harder. I’ll have to work my way toward doing that. I keep reminding myself that the file is not the cat. He is in my heart.

Pool renovation still on hold till we get a check we are expecting. I am not doing any swimming in deep green pool water. That is final.

xx, Teal