With the exception of this post I won’t be posting anything for the month of October. The reasons for this are many fold. Here are but a few.

First and foremost has been the unfolding tragedy in the aftermath of hurricane Helene. I have family in Georgia heavily impacted by the storm, as well as acquaintances in Tennessee and North Carolina. I’m trying to provide help and donations to as many of those effected communities as I can, starting in north Florida and continuing on up into the Appalachian states.

My part of Florida came through relatively unscathed, although the storm was wide enough to effect the Atlantic coast and send winds that toppled my last remaining oak in my front yard. That oak was finally removed this past Wednesday, along with a maple in the back yard that was nearly dead. It was miraculous that the oak fell where it did absolutely no damage, and that the maple wasn’t blown over. If the maple had come down it would have destroyed part of my fence and more than likely hit the neighbor’s house. I’d already spent money earlier this year to try and save the maple by having the dead parts cut out. I’d also had to pay for some damage on my roof when a limb came down during a particularly violent storm in January. I finally had the rest of the maple cut down and removed before it could be blown down and cause any future damage.

Then there’s the upcoming 2024 presidential election. I’m not going to make any comments except to say I’m voting straight Democratic party all the way down the ballet. By the way, it is pronounced ‘Democratic’ not ‘Democrat’. I am a ‘Democrat’ (single member) in the ‘Democratic’ (plural group designation) party. The Republican party pronounces it ‘Democrat party’ to try and get a rise out of the opposition, and example of them trying and failing to ‘own the libs.’

I grew up indoctrinated as a Republican in a Republican household listening to William F. Buckley Jr on Firing Line as it played every Sunday on my local PBS station in Atlanta (bit of irony in that). When I was old enough I reflexively voted Nixon in 1972, Ford in 1976, and Reagan in 1980. It was the first Reagan term that totally destroyed my support of Reagan and belief in the Republican party. I switched to being an Independent until I realized I was always voting for Democrats, at which time I switched to being a Democrat. I’ve voted straight Blue ever since. There is an unbroken line between Reagan and Trump, with that line running down hill. I’ll vote straight Blue this year, just like I’ve been doing since 1992.

I also have traveling and paid consultancy to fulfill. I’m going to be very busy. I will probably post something or other after 5 November. See you then.

Another Reason to Stop Writing — Autocorrect

I’m back in here to correct the weird words that autocorrect dropped into my post — ‘rook’ instead of ‘roof’, for example. It’s one thing to get red squiggles underneath words not in the browser’s dictionary, but it’s another to have some mysterious agent automatically correct what you write. I really am tired of that.

For reasons that only my body knows (and it’s not saying) I spent all of yesterday in my pajamas and slippers, huddled underneath blankets throughout the day, living in a state of fatigue and a mental fog. I managed to end the day suffering a major migraine complete with visual distortions (“the colored jaggies”) dancing across my field of vision. The migraine passed and left me in an even greater state of fatigue.

Sunday started cold and rainy and stayed that way throughout the day. That was the impetus to stay under big fluffy IKEA blankets. I could have run the heat in the house, but the insanely high cost of electrical power in Florida means I will find every opportunity not to run either AC or heat, or consume electrical power if possible. If I’d been in a better cognitive state then I’d have dressed appropriately, but I didn’t. The cold and clammy from the environment added to the overall malaise I was in.

A post I started early yesterday remains unfinished. It’s a technical post that contains lots of code listings scattered throughout. Technical posts demand focused attention to writing in order to “flow” correctly from paragraph to paragraph because of code listings and other types of illustrative information embedded between each paragraph. When I tackle a post without that attention to detail I wind up having to go back and reorganize and/or rip out and rewrite. That’s no fun, not for me anyway.

This morning was decidedly different than yesterday. I woke up without the mental fog of yesterday, got dressed, and was out in the house doing my normal chores that includes taking care of the little critters. I even took the galloping gophers (Ruby and Annie) out on a regular walk this morning. They were quite happy about that. I don’t know if I can do a walk this evening as there is more rain in our forecast, but we shall see.

Today is Martin Luther King observance day and a federal holiday, meaning the post office is closed along with the brick-and-mortar banks. Being retired it won’t matter as every day now in my life can be considered a holiday. That doesn’t preclude me from “working” here at home, and after yesterday’s unanticipated downtime I’ll need to catch up with certain chores I should have done on Sunday but didn’t. I am glad to be feeling better, and I hope that days like this past Sunday are very few indeed.