What’s Going On

Hi everyone. My computer is on it’s last legs and would not boot up for several days. Abby tinkered with it and got it to start but how long it will last is anyone’s guess. I just wanted to tell you all what was going on in case you were waiting to hear from me. I decided to type in the blog entry I had started the other day and haven’t gone on line to see whether it was Scott or Nic who left you guys a note, but they were really a big help in doing that for me. Thanks to you guys.

I went to turn on the computer and it looked like it was starting to think and then, even before it gave the initial boot screen or a chance to get into the setup screen or a cursor or a prompt or anything it just shut off. There is a guy in our church who is competent at repairing computers and I will probably give it to him to work on. There are actually a couple of guys who are, but I want ot get it back before I have to worry about y3k.

So, here is the entry I was working on before the computer messed up:

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Just got back from playing with the moose. Well, at 9 lbs. she is a little moose compared to the 1 lb 12 oz she was when she was born. She’s gaining and I’m losing a little at a time. I’m down to 233, which is about 10 pounds total lost. It seems like forever, but in the same breath it has not been really hard work.

Time to write something. I have been following several people’s blogs and some folks sound a little downcast because it seems like no one ever reads what they write. There are almost no comments and the comments that there are all seem to be from the same people all the time. One of the problems may be, however, in the amount of updating you do. It may be that if you haven’t written anything on your blog in more than a month people might have stopped checking it so often. I still open it up because with the Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ browser it is easy to open several favorites at the same time. I like this browser, but I still wind up having to use Internet Explorer from time-to-time, like when I upload my blog entries. Blogdrive is very user friendly to Internet Explore and maybe Firefox would be if I typed directly onto the blog, but I don’t. I type it up in Word and then save it as plain text then cut and paste it. Anyway, Firefox’s tabbed browsing makes it easy to make a folder of blogs to read and just open up the pages I want right away.

If you have to open each page individually only to find out that it has been a month since the person wrote anything, which makes you want to check it less and less. I am not daunted by that because the ones I read I read because I want to see that person’s writing. I got onto this because I was thinking about how I started this blog with the two-fold idea of keeping friends and family updated with the events of life around here and to practice my writing on you guys which means all sorts of writing besides just what is going on.

I have been telling people more and more that I am a writer. I used to keep it to myself because I really didn’t think of myself as a writer since I haven’t had anything published. The more I study on it and read about it, the more I plan to get away from that frame of mind. I already have one rejection for something I submitted, so now I feel official. The writing books all tell you to refer to yourself as whatever you want people to think of you as. So, being a best-selling, millionaire author…okay, see, you have to have something to back it up. I’m not going to be daunted by such minor details, however. One problem at a time. A big one is finding time to write. The other is doing it. The several articles I have read recently (I subscribe to “The Writer” www.writermag.com and “Writer’s Digest” http://www.writersdigest.com/ ) all said basically the same thing, just write. One point an article made, which was actually about something else, but I applied to me was that you should write under a deadline. In other words some people, like me, need to have some pressure to get anything done. This is something I need.

All that being said, you might not hear much from me from the 4/9 to 4/16 because we are flying my parents in from Wisconsin to meet Savannah. I used Priceline this time, but last time Travelocity was better. It is usually a close race between the two. They will be coming from Shawano, WI, flying out of Green Bay. It is about a 1,200+ mile, 20 hour, trip by car and 3 days by bus, which is really hard for them either way, so they have to wait until someone can afford to buy them a plane ticket. It will be an interesting and hopefully fun time. Oh, don’t upbraid me or take me task for saying “interesting.” Anyone who has ever met my mom would use the word “interesting” and many people who have met my dad have used the word “fun.” I am not being disrespectful; I just know whereof I speak. I am looking forward to seeing them.

It is difficult at times like this to have them so far away but Colorado Springs is where I am supposed to be. God told me to be here. Not in an audible voice from Heaven, like, “Thou shalt verily stay thee in Colorado Springs.” But we decided by prayer and fasting and talking to Pastor J (many times) that this is where we are supposed to be. There are many factors involved in such a decision. At the time, Spring 1990, I could move back to Wisconsin, or anywhere else, really, I could stay in and go to PLDC (the Army NCO course) and get a $20K bonus plus pick any MOS in the book or I could get out and hope things worked out. They have worked out well and I don’t think life would have been as good if we had made any other choice. That doesn’t make some times less difficult.

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So there you have it my beloved fans, friends, fiends and foes. Scott and Nic, as time and there gracefulness permit, will leave you brief notes. Oh, hey, here’s another cool idea too. Since Nic has access to the humor blog http://herbshumor.blogdrive.com/ if there is something really, really important perhaps she would put a report up there for you all. I’ll ask (am asking) her.

Remember, the Good Book says that Honoring your father and mother is the first commandment with promise.