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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Life is funny, ya know?  Just when you think things are okay-BAM-
something like losing your computer slaps you in the face.  For two
weeks, I have been up and down.  The first part of that time I spent
trying to save bits and pieces of my dying computer.  It was laid to
rest, wouldn't even boot up, on October 25th.  I didn't know it at the
time, but October 25 was also the day my father died.  I know you all
are probably confused.  I  lost my biological father last January.  I
was very close to him.  My adoptive father died on the 25th.  He and I
had not spoken in about 15 years, and in fact, I found  out about his
death by accident yesterday.  No one even told me.  I'm still processing
it, still kind of numb about it all.  I guess they didn't want me to
know because they thought I would make some kind of stink, rock the
boat, or try to get some kind of inheritance.  He was quite wealthy, but
I've always said and I still say that I'll never see a dime.  I really
don't even want the money.  I just want to see an obituary-to see if I
am named-but one hasn't surfaced yet. I called the Memphis Police
Department to find out the details of his death, and while talking to
the Sergeant, I started crying....just for a second...but that is the
only time I've cried.  Right now, I am just thankful I sucked it up and
wrote him a letter last year telling him how I feel.  I had heard he was
in poor health, so I wrote a letter to say goodbye, knowing that it
might be my only chance to do so.  As it turned out, he never responded,
but at least he died knowing how I feel/felt about our relationship.
Anyway...
Last Thursday, my new computer arrived, and I hardly had a chance to
take it out of the box before we left on our little getaway.  We bought
a timeshare, oh, 20 years ago now, so we ventured over to Mountain Lakes
Resort in Helen, GA on Friday, to try out the canoe and take a break
from life on the farm. Drew, was it you that also has a timeshare there?
There's a beautiful 50 acre lake there so that's the first place we put
the EarthNSky into the water.  It floated.<g>  Seriously, it was rather
cold, about 45 degrees with a 10 mph wind, so we didn't do a lot of
paddling, but we were able to ascertain that Ron did a pretty good job
of building his first canoe.  It tracked well and was very, very quiet.
 It was a real attention getter and we had a lot of folks come down to
the water just to look at her.  We have to adjust the seats-the bow
seat, where I sit, is too far forward and that makes the canoe a bit off
balanced and tippy as my center of gravity is too high above the water.
 Once we move the seats to lower our centers of gravity, I think we will
have a great fishing and camping platform.  Most of the trip was not
very exciting, but we did ride horses and lounge around in the jacuzzi,
which was nice.  I also spent some time in the sauna-the Finn in me
couldn't resist it.  Ron and I have decided that if we ever get enough
money, we definitely want to build a sauna and get a jacuzzi.  I
consider it a health investment-if not physical, at least for mental
health. :)  The rest of the time was spent doing old fogey things like
working puzzles, shopping for PFD's(we bought two that match<g>) and
playing with the thermostat.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to play
with a thermostat..Instant heat.  It's interesting to live in a condo
for a few days....you appreciate the fact that you don't have neighbors
above you at home.  One night, I went to open a can of shrimp and
started bitching about the crappy little can opener they had...Ron said,
Bev, why don't you use the automatic one on the counter.<bev slaps
forehead>..well DUH!  I forgot that such things existed!
Anyway, it was good to get away, but we missed the dogs and ended up
coming home last night-a day earlier than planned.  So today, I spent
the day unpacking, playing with the dogs, tweaking the computer, and
helping Ron build the chicken coop.  Yes, it is finally going
up....yippeekiayeah!  We lost 3 chickens while we were gone....well, I
should say that 3 chickens lost their heads-we found their bodies.  I
suspect a raccoon, so we can't get that coop built fast enough.
So we come home a bit rejuvenated only to hear bad news(my father, the
chickens, etc.) and have the wind sucked right out of us again.<sigh>

I went back and read a lot of the posts you guys made about computers
after mine died and I thought I would take a moment and tell you about
what I have now vs. what I had...I also want to say that I appreciate
all the computer advice you guys have offered.  I uninstalled WinAmp
since I have Realplayer and Windows Media.
Old                             New
Pieced together clone           Gateway DX420B
??? pentium processor           Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 6300 1.86GHz
256 MB RAM                      1024 MB RAM
20 GB HD                        160 GB HD
64 MB Video card                NVidia GeForce 7300LE 256 MB
14" Clunky ass monitor             17" Flat Panel LCD monitor
Windows 98                      Windows XP Media Center
Netscape 7.1 browser/mail       Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird
Dialup 26400 max                Dialup 26400 max :)

I am still loading software and getting the system the way I want it,
but so far, I love it!

Bev


--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky