Digital Campfire

Gainesville

Got your images uploaded and into your latest blog entry, Mom. However, since your post didn't mention them, they're just kind of there for decoration. You should be able to edit your post to talk about them, move them around, etc.

Thanks for transcribing the rest of my 85 post-Europe letter. I enjoyed reading it and remembering that nice homecoming from the Serials Unit staff. Also, I always get a charge out of any reference to that glitch in the 2.0 version of our program-- the "phantom cursor." The fact that it was unfixed when I wrote means I hadn't yet met Bill-- but was about to! He had just been hired, stepped in, and fixed the very simple error with a single line of code, in a program of thousands of lines he didn't write.

Both the Paris/glasses story and the Phantom Cursor story I know I've told many times, and I beg the pardon of the reader. The blog is, in some ways, a digital campfire. We tell and retell the stories that are important to us, the ones that changed things, in addition to telling the new stories of what happened today. Well, that's my excuse, anyway.

Speaking of blogs, we received news today, via blog, of the unexpected resignation of a key player in statewide library politics. Usually this kind of news gets out through official channels first, or at least official lists. How the world is changing...

Got the food shopping done, with reasonable success. Unable to find the beef tenderloin they had last week and I passed on (why didn't I buy it and freeze it?!), so have a blank day I'll need to fill later. Couldn't find a fresh fish I liked, so bought some frozen tuna steaks. Not all that great, but under a rather lovely Greek salsa, who cared? The salsa was so good I ate the rest all evening, and just finished it off.

Was very clumsy in the kitchen tonight-- besides banging and bruising myself, I managed to dump a pint of lovely local blueberries on the floor! Since Scooba had done the floors yesterday, I dared to rescue most of them and give them a thorough wash.

Bought a 5th of the new Tanqueray Rangpur Lime, and am enjoying it on the rocks tonight. It is very limey, but quite nice. At his request, I fixed Bill a G&T with it, but while he pronounced it very drinkable ("I could get used to this"), he opted for original Tanq for subsequent drinks.

I finished the Didion book this morning. Sandy, you should check this one out. It's difficult-- not to read, as it's so readable it's almost impossible to put down, but in the way it bravely faces everyone's deepest fears, and stares them down. I admit I've not read anything else of hers, although I knew who she was-- always figured she was too bleak and literary for my taste, and maybe most of her stuff is.

But this is different. It's about what happens to "rational" thought in the face of sudden loss and grief. Mom, I think you might find something of interest there, if not now, then eventually. You have lived through the first year, and made it. Didion lives in another world than we do-- moving easily between Paris, New York, Hollywood and Honolulu. There is a certain fascination with the lifestyle that helps get past the emotional minefields. But in the end, the important thing is that we all face this one way or another, and this is a helpful guide.

Well! Didn't mean to say that much. I will get back to Jane and the... whatever it is before I tackle The Road or the graphic novel of the 9-11 Report. Need some literary R&R.