Hello, All.  Another day of warmer than normal temperatures but fall comes back with a vengeance starting tomorrow.  After a frustrating day with the computer yesterday everything is almost back to normal.  Suddenly my little MacBook decided to act up.  It froze and I couldn't get out of the program or site.  Or the cursor would act erratically.  I was afraid the whole thing was going out and I really did not want to even think about a new one.  After a whole lot of fumbling with trying to shut down and restart accompanied with much loud swearing and screaming I did what I should have done earlier on--used my nook to go on line and search out information on the problem.  Well, the problem seems to be easily and, relatively, cheaply remedied.  The battery was going out and swelling when it heated up--which explained why everything worked well from early morning to mid afternoon when the battery heated up.  The swollen battery put pressure on the track pad which prevented it from working properly.  So until the new battery arrives in the next couple or three days I am operating without a battery.

However, I was reminded, in spades, of how dependent I am on my electronic devices.  If I can't get my daily fix on the computer I am totally out of sorts for the day.  And I feel somewhat cut off from the world.  Long ago we stopped taking newspapers--they are mostly advertising and contain almost as little news as the broadcast news programs.  We get so much more information on line.  During my daily sessions I generally visit NBC, Al Jazeera, Deutche Weile, NHK, Asahi Shimbun, and a Greek English language news site.  And we usually spend about an hour or two watching to the BBC.

Here is another item for the "Dirty Tricks" file.  So far we have seen official letters sent out in Arizona and Ohio with 'mistaken' information for the election date.  Now we have some asshole sending out fake letters to voters in Florida questioning the recipient's eligibility to vote.  And the letters were sent from Seattle.

The local (Chicago) news this morning told viewers they should stock up on beef now while supplies are plentiful and prices moderate.  They have, finally, noticed that the drought forced a lot of cattlemen to send their stocks to slaughter early and the future supplies are expected to be tighter and more expensive.   We are as stocked up as can be given our limited space but not because of economics.  We like to have enough supplies to last at least a week with a bit to spare--in case we get a stretch of bad weather that keeps us housebound.  We have seen all too many of such incidents (elsewhere admittedly) over the last few years.

I read parts of this article to Mom and suggested that it might be a good idea of retire to this little Greek island where 'People Forget to Die.'