Printer problem fixed! I finally found a place to download the patch to the computer update that screwed up my system and made the computer unable to connect to the printer. Why the fix wasn’t automatically uploaded like the original update, I don’t know. I have a hunch it would have uploaded in the July updates, but now I don’t have to worry about the printer not working. At least not until the next update.
I’d received five lilac twigs from the Arbor Foundation a few weeks ago, and they were all alive and all doing well, and for no reason that I can see, one died overnight. (In case you haven’t noticed, plants are as much of a mystery to me as everything else.) On the other hand, some old morning glory seeds I strewed out there have started coming up, so at least that’s something.
There’s been no further activity on my garage. That’s disappointing, of course, but at least it’s enclosed so the wood and tools and such that are inside won’t go missing. Admittedly, most stuff is too heavy to be casually carted off by the larcenous folk in the neighborhood, but I wouldn’t have put it past someone to pull up in a truck and load it all up. They’ve done that before. It was just a board they came and got, but other people have lost workshops full of tools.
My knee is doing better. I wear a brace part of the time (until it starts digging painfully into my leg), and that seems to help. So does massage, isometric exercises and the herbal poultices I have been using. (Frankincense and myrrh are a couple of the ingredients, which tickles me.) I even walked a bit outside until the pit bulls running loose had me scurrying back inside my fence. (Too many people around here don’t want to walk their dogs, so they let them run loose for a while, which is a real problem, but since they are back in the yard by the time the code enforcer goes on duty, nothing is ever done about it.)
I’m still working my way (again) to the last battle in The Wheel of Time series. It’s odd how the poor fellow who was born to fight the dark powers and save the earth is so underappreciated by everyone. They all think they need to control him (they think they know everything, and they think that if they don’t force him to go, he won’t do what he’s supposed to). What I’ve been thinking about this time through is freedom. The world of the story is a sort of chivalrous feudal matriarchy, with women asserting their rights and men trying to protect women at all costs. What it comes down to is all the disparate factions, as well as powerful individuals, are trying to control everyone else. It seemed weird to me, all this insistence on obedience, until it dawned on me that modern society is rather unique where individuals can try to form their own destinies if they will, rather than conforming so much to the will of the powerful.
I think these are all the recent updates to my life. Well, the tarot. Today’s card was the two of pentacles, which told me to be flexible and adaptable. Good advice, especially in light of all these updates.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Bertram's Blog 
June 23, 2020 at 11:13 am
Glad you got your computer fixed & that the knee is better!
June 23, 2020 at 3:31 pm
Dear Pat,
I am a technician in IT naturally I can fix printing problems for lot of people even by distance with the help of telephone and control your computer.
I am sorry for your printer. I hope you will get some help soon.
June 24, 2020 at 7:12 am
I found an update that fixed the problem. Yay!
June 23, 2020 at 3:38 pm
“Flexible and adaptable”… Hmmm, I recently finished a book my daughter gave me to read; “The Left Hand Of Darkness”. In that fictional galaxy, dozens of worlds have been seeded with human-like beings who develop a sort of trading network. The story takes place on one world in which the humanoids have a monthly estrous period (similar to “heat” in a cat or dog). During this time, the otherwise asexual beings take on either a male or female form (depending on circumstance, not by choice) and are fertile as that sex for the duration of the estrous. These people are introduced to a human-like envoy, and from their viewpoint, we’re in a sort of permanent estrous with only a single, lifelong sexual identity. Much of the book is about how each form of sexuality and reproduction affects relationships, both interpersonal and societal.
Most mammals on Earth do have an estrous period, and the book got me wondering why it was that humans aren’t like almost all other mammals. I ended up downloading a book by an anthropologist with some evolutionary theory and evidence around the topic, which also gets into the sexual dynamics and societal implications. A lot of what we think of as free will is heavily influenced by evolutionary/environmental factors and brain chemistry. Having finished that book, I wonder what rabbit hole it will send me down next!
BTW, the left hand of darkness is light. The right hand of light is darkness. Each is defined by the other. Like people?
June 24, 2020 at 7:20 am
I’m not really sure how much free will we actually have, not just evolutionary and environmental factors, but also individual genetics and sociology and cultural (though perhaps those can be included in evolution and environment). So much is determined by things we have no control over. For example, tall people earn more than short people. Lithe folks are more admired than stocky, peasant types, and that admiration or lack of helps form who we are. So yes, we are defined by others, and our choices are effected by other people’s choice. Which is why I qualify any mention of freedom as “trying to do what we will.”
Rabbit holes are the joy of reading!