What's on my mind today? I have, lately, been taking stock of the interests that I've had all my life, the ones that have sometimes been put on hold, but have never gone away: faith, reading, writing, art, languages, ecology. With a low energy level, it's always been do one or two and let the others slide. Now I'd like to see how I can blend them into combinations in order to get more "bang for my buck," so to speak.

Getting older. How long will I be here--how long will I have the freedom to do the things I love? No one knows. I recently read an actuary table that predicted I'd live until 73. Whoa, that's not very promising--I'm 62 now and somehow, I'd always figured on 80 as my "ideal" demise date.

I can't change the future too much, I can enjoy the present and reach back into my past to re-enjoy the good times and connect them with the joys now. How to connect all my dots, that's the question (and Hamlet thought it was to be or not to be, tsk)

(The Port) Deal or No Deal?

What upsets me about this port deal? Where to start. First let me admit my ignorance. I was not aware that any of our ports was being managed by a foreign country. When did that happen? And why in the world would we do it? Globalization is a fine thing when it means we share medical information, help the impoverished, and cooperate instead of compete against other countries, but when it means handing over jobs related to our national security? Then there's the matter of the country who'll be doing the managing. First cut the nonsense about being anti-Arab. It's a known fact that Dubai had links to terrorists, we are still occupying Iraq after starting a questionable war, and if you Google "national security alert" you can go to the Department of Homeland Security and discover we're still on yellow alert (as of March 3, 2006.)

Then there's the matter of a president who claims it's no big deal and it's perfectly safe. Funny, he's one of the few who thinks that. Is he listening to Congress? Our elected officials are a little peeved that they weren't in the loop on this one. I can't say I blame them. Has he noticed that the governors of New York and New Jersey are filing suit? Since I live smack in between Port Newark and Manhattan, I find that reassuring and admirable. Thanks, gentlemen!

Am I anti-Arab? No, I was and still am against the war in Iraq. I work at a job where I meet and serve many people from middle eastern countries, mostly women and children. I happen to like them a lot. But permitting our ports to be managed by people who may have a connection, no matter how tenuous, to terrorists is a foolish and dangerous thing to do.

Computer Conundrum

Would you believe I have two hard copies of a completed manuscript called the Christmas Eve Shop, but nothing on disk? Yep, I did it on a word processor before I got a computer and the disk wasn't compatible, so there it sits. Then I got a computer but no printer and wrote several chapters of Sparrow Hill on Corel's Word Perfect. Three months later my baby Dell got a virus and I lost everything. Ah, but I had most of it on disk. Only problem was my computer didn't like Corel (and neither did I) so we went back to Word 2000. Unfortunately, no one I knew had Corel. Then I wrote about fifty pages of The Home for Nanwrimo on Word 2000 and copied it to disk, but for some reason when I tried to print it out at work, the computers couldn't read my disk.

Are we seeing a pattern here?

I was finally able to print out the initial chapters for The Home and I'm now attempting to rewrite the two chapters I lost during the above named crash. As for Sparrow Hill, my coworker, Tracey, installed Corel's Word Perfect in one of the lab's computers at work and I was ecstatic to see my work after all this time! Then we discovered the machine didn't have a printer or Word 2000 in which to copy and paste. She loaded the program into another machine. That one refused to recognize Drive A so I couldn't open my floppy.

Bless her heart, Tracey offered to try a new machine for me.

Takin' any bets on this one?