Up and Running

Well, up and sort of trudging along. I have a nice new computer with a lot of memory and the very latest in processors (I only wish I could get my brain replaced the same way!) What finally triggered this, after several weeks of cursing and not being able to post was a lightning strike in July which fried my elderly Dell and left me bereft. The wonderful guys at our local computer shop made a real effort to get the old lady up and running long enough for me to at least save my data, but it was hopeless. The same lightning storm blew the telephone, the sensor lights on the garage and half of a huge pine tree, which landed across one of the main trails. Then Little Stuff came to stay for eight days. On seven of these days it rained.
In fact, I think it has rained almost every day all through July and the first half of August, and a fair number of these rain days included electrical storms. I now unplug everything, including the power bar and pull the phone line if I am leaving the house for more than a few minutes. Barn door. Horses. Yes, indeed.
However, the new machine is sleek, fast and impressive. And has been loaded with all sorts of new programs, programs which, of course, I now have to master. Mozilla's browser and email. Open Office. Photoshop. Sigh. I have reloaded all the old stuff except for my Corel software. I need to be Strong to deal with those, as dear Corel no longer supports my version of CorelDRAW. And their Help on the website reduces me to tears. I love the program, however, and I will perservere. Tomorrow. Or maybe the day after that.
Meanwhile, I have a lovely bunch of photos from Little Stuff's visit. She has discovered that Grama and camera can record all the good stuff and she can gloat over it later. For instance,and, a little later,
When we have a day with no rain, what does she choose to do?
Greater love hath no grandparent than to put a sprinkler on when the lawn is already sodden. Poor Grandpa is cutting about every three days, and I have watered the pot plants maybe twice this summer.
I also confess to being a total Olympics junkie, or I would have been back up two weeks ago. Why did all the best stuff run at 2:00 am Eastern Daylight? I suspect it may have had something to do with keeping Phelps' races in prime time, but hey, I wanted to see that, too. Wow! However, it was well worth a lost night's sleep to hear the rowing men's eight crew belt out 'Oh Canada'. However badly.