Leopard is out temporarily

Well, it' s not over, but Leopard is off the macbook. But that means no Bonjour scan support. Even With Tiger back Soho Notes was unable to open the database backup. Never liked its group feeling anyway. it's open base heart always wanted to go out somewhere and contact some distant database. Maybe it was Soho notes all along. FOR THE RECORD I LOVED STICKY BRAIN. GREAT PRODUCT. I RUE THE DAY CHRONOS DITCHED IT FOR SOHO Luckily while the thing was still operational I exported my files so I have the rtf and text files of my writings at least up to a month or so ago.

I have have lost my itunes library, except for the files I created by recording or garageband. lost all my project files. I had backups but accidently knocked the External HD off the shelf when switching between machines. Now it won't work.

Not sure how to get iWeb to import what's on the idisk instead of replacing it.

This might be my worst fake-geek day ever. I should have stayed in bed. At the time it the external HD fell, I had already made a 28 gig timemachine backup for the G5.

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Will be removing Leopard from the Intel Mac

Yes, I will be removing Leopard. Now my ethernet connection keeps dropping just like the wireless connection. I am posting this from my old G5 which seems to be running Leopard like a champ. Go figure...  Soho Notes will no longer export either . I will be restoring OS X 1.4

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Leopard OS on my Intel mac has some aggravating problems

NOW THAT I HAVE IMPROVED MY INTEL MAC by installing the Leopard OS I have begun having all sorts of problems - with the key board and with the wireless connection.  Slow boot, a blackedout menu bar, a stuck shift key then a stuck num lock, and the airport connection in out in ou in out the finally no connection at all.

 I am really angry and frustrated that this expensive piece of equipment which worked very well for six months now is an aggravating piece of crap after I spent money to UPGRADE it.  Guess you can't guild the lily.... Ironically Leopard works just fine on my G5 which I almost got rid of....  

On the upside -  with my apple airport network I could plug a spare ethernet cable into my macbook and be instantly connected to the internet -   I have tried quick switches between wireless and ethernet on a PC with Windows XP -  the OS doesn't seem to find the connection - so I guess to be fair Apple is still ahead despite the snafus.

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The stuff we can never find

Keys? What keys?

Can't keep hold of keys. it seems I really don't want to open or close much at all. But keys are not the only objects that plague me. Grocery lists, cough drops, bills, pencils, poems I have scrawled on envelopes, the cup of coffee I am drinking... Whatever it is, I can pick it up, hold it my hands contemplate its uses and destination, but only half a minute later - it's no longer there and I have no idea what I did with it

I am not the only one with this problem - though for a while I wasn't sure.... A few years back I witnessed a scene that was a revelation. I was visiting a couple I know – the husband is a pianist who was getting ready to rush off to accompany a choral group's concert. He was standing in the kitchen clutching the directions to his concert location, when he and his wife realized he didnt have his dress jacket. They began to frantically search for it and finally found the jacket, smoothed it, covered the hanger with plastic. But now he discovers that although he has the jacket in hand, he no longer has the directions to the hall where he is going to play. A new search is mounted for the directions which cannot be found anywhere. A call is made to get new directions. After he leaves, I noticed the original set of directions on the floor right where he was standing when the search for the jacket began. yikes!

This sort of drama has happened to me repeatedly, except that I curse and slam as i am searching which does not really help.

It was so clear to me that my friend was thinking about where his jacket was and was not paying the slightest attention to his hands or what was in them... As he walked away his hand opened without his realizing it and the list skittered to the floor like a lost leaf. It's the thinking about something else and not paying attention that seems to be the cause...

Maisy goes for a walk early in the morning, a short one, but the terrain is not smooth. Couldn't find her cane today. We looked in every room, behind all the doors, in the car, beside all the chairs. No cane.

She went to the grocery store yesterday though where the same not-paying-attention phenom came into play. People with canes tend to put them in the grocery cart when they are pushing it around the store. That works great until they get to the car and happily stow their food, while contemplating future meals, the drive home, the next stop on their errand route. (Cane? What cane?) The last time Maisy inquired if they had found any canes, they offered a choice of a dozen that had been left behind in shopping carts. That's where we went and sure enough they had her cane which has her name and address right on it.

Go figure.

Medical bruohaha needs context

A letter I am sending today to the local paper

To the editor:

The News Times and Connecticut's various versions of television news have repeatedly run stories that illegal immigrants are costing Danbury Hospital $4 million in unpaid bills. The figure has been cited over and over again. Any reporter and any thinker worth his salt knows a figure without context can be a little like holding a dime up next to the moon on a dark night or looking at one line from a drawing. Could be the side of a skyscraper. Then again it could be the side of a jelly jar.

There are two numbers without which the $4 million dollar figure is completely meaningless. It is necessary to know the total amount billed out for medical care (both paid and unpaid) by the same hospital during the same time period - and also how much was spent by that hospital covering for medical care for uninsured and UNDERINSURED American Citizens.

Then there must be a comparison - what percentage of the total billed out for medical care does that $4 million represent? And what is the percentage of the total for the unpaid bills of citizens? Give us context and then we'll know how to consider that $4 million. I suspect we are whining about the jelly jar when we should be furious about the skyscraper...

ADENDUM - As of Dec, The Danbury News Times never chose to print this. They never even called to confirm the letter sender as is usual at most newspapers.

the wild roar of this day

        The trees are tossing in a fit of false-March on this wild morning. Though it was quite cold earlier now it is a balmy 50 degrees.  Some November.    Around here, at least the oak trees sport  a lovely copper cast, while  many leaves are merely brown.
        I live on the upper-lip of I-84 and I still can't get over the continual wind. Walk straight across our small backyard, scale the fence, and keep going for 20 feet and there is a sudden drop-off where the highway cuts through. You can't see it from here, but there's  an ever present background hum. When the air temp is changing, the wind tends to push through the i-84 canyon rattling all the trees on both embankments.

I see on the Nature Geezer blog there is a page about the winds of autumn.

Cat woman lives!