Today's Challenges

I do have some challenges today. I won’t go into detail. My purpose in writing is to put into perspective the fact that here I am in all of the glory of the R-Ranch and have been reachable. I have argued against having easy access to telephone service here simply because it is a good excuse to ignore everything that is going on elsewhere. Likewise for TV. However, there are arguments for having the ability to call my husband without having to drive to Dahlonega to “just say hello”, to ask him to change my airline reservation so I can stay another week, to receive messages about various family issues, etc. I can now send email messages from the Lodge or I can sit out in the middle of RV-2 and go on-line thanks to the graciousness of someone who has a Hughes network satellite dish there that does not require a network key. Perhaps there are not as many flies there as at the Lodge. To do this blog entry I decided to write it in Word first and paste it into the Blog when I go on-line. That decision took care of the fact that I don’t want to drag my computer to the Lodge, or anywhere else right now. I am waiting for a visitor that I learned only last night to expect.

I owe Ellen a vote of thanks for telling me about Picasa2, downloadable from Google. I find that it, in combination with my Roxio media management software, allows me to edit photos and transfer them directly to my blog. I owe Terri M. a vote of thanks for encouraging me to buy a digital Walkman and to learn to transfer music onto it to accompany me on my walks. Actually, more than anything, I am enjoying listening to the local FM radio station on it as much as anything. It’s just a little dynamite of a music machine. Lastly, I owe my husband so much. I am so grateful that he is so generous in his encouragement of my travels, and never complains when I am not at home to be with him. I am enjoying my respite alone – for a few more hours- here at the R-Ranch. Just finished reading Brother Odd by Dean Koontz. He is such a delightful writer. Start reading about Odd Thomas in the first book by the same name. There are three in the series. Do it especially if you are an Elvis fan. On to my next chore now – some retrospective blogging about recent trips to California and Florida. I seem to be behind. Pea