PERSONS (FURRY)-MISTY AND LUCKY

The two cats have different ways of getting your attention-especially when they think I've been spending too much time with "Frank." Please see earlier entry titled "Frankenputer."

Lucky, the big cobby type tabby is fairly direct. She'll figure-eight your ankles while you type. If that doesn't work, a set of claws delicately flexed in my hip pocket will get my attention and my lap.

Misty is a little less direct. She'll just make a nuisance of herself. Try to climb behind the computer books on the shelf by my feet. Try to see if there is anything behind the dvd's. Look down and I'll find her looking up through the gap between my lap and the keyboard shelf.

I can't complain. Kitty purrs beat tranquilizers any day.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALLL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY
If you'd like to meet the four footed members of the family, they have their own album in Webshots.

PLACE-OUR FRONT YARD

If you've read my other journal, you know I've made several entries on our front yard and the
grass that isn't there anymore. In its place we have lots of lavender,  some daylilies, black eyed
susans, coneflowers, a butterfly bush and other shrubs.

It's gotten a lot more interesting. This weekend I got some pictures of bumblebees, watched butterflies
dance around the butterfly bush, and watched a dragonfly perch with perfect stillness on the stalk
of a gladiola. I'd forgotten that dragonfly wings shimmer like gold. I wish I could say "film at 11"
but that dragon was very camera shy. I think he knew  I was out there. It's been fun watching the
"work in progress". The hardest thing is not adding too much at once. The available space looked
a lot bigger before we started planting and some of the plants are getting a lot bigger that we
anticipated.

As long as the butterflies are happy, I'm happy.

PEOPLE-FRANKENPUTER

OK,  so Frank is sort of blue and white, about 17x17xwhatever and shaped like half an egg. Anyone
out there that doen't think one of these electronic $@**&!!!"S  is a person, boy do I have some
waterfront property in Florida for sale.

Frank picked up this nickname early last spring when he (she, it, ?) develped some major electronic
health problems. Not all at once, darn it. By the time the hard drive crashed I'd all ready invested
some major bucks in the first set of problems. So, b-tree ect. restored and new 80 gig hard drive
partitianed we were back in business. Partitianing-you (the tech actually) split the hard drive and
set it up with two operating systems. Unfortuantely, Frank has trouble remembering how to find
the 9.2 side of the hard drive so I'm working from the OSX side. Unfortunately the majority of
my software is sneaking through the door from the other side. (Have I lost you yet?) Slows things
down a lot.

Anyway-I am very fond of ol' Frank. (I can't claim credit for Frankenputer-picked it up from one
of the gals at the Eugene Mac Store. She basically has the guts of an E-Mac in an old powermac
chassis) I'm going to miss my old friend (stop reading over my shoulder).......about as much
as dad missed his old model A when they got the new Pontiac when I was about three and a half. lol

PEOPLE-A TALE OF TWO GRANDFATHERS

I think I was in junior high when it really sank in. The man I called grandpa had a different last name than two of my uncles. I think you don't really notice because your grandparents are grandpa Smith or Grandpa Jones and your aunts and uncles are uncle Tom or aunt Mary.

It happened in the early 30's and my mom was all of nine. Her dad probably would have survived the pneumonia but he had TB, too and these were the years before antibiotics and the social safety net. The man I knew as grandpa promised to look after the family of his closest friend. They married before too long and had a son together. He treated all the kids the same, hugged them when they needed it and even if they didn't. Helped all his sons when they needed it and stood up for the girl he called a daughter when she started her own family.

We all called him grandpa and after over twenty years I still miss him. I hope he's found a place on the bank to fish. With any luck all the cats, and other pets they had over the years are helping out.

REVISING THE JOURNAL

Gonna revise the focus of this journal. Realized when I was doing the last entry that this part of
Oregon and members of my family have stories to tell. The peope-family and friends. Places-Oregon
and the places they lived before they moved here. One great grandfather was born in Indiana. He
married a gal from Tennesse and then moved to Wisconsin. From there they came here. Things-
old pictures, furniture that's been passed down, things like that.

I'll give names and dates when I can. Who knows, I might get lucky and find a relative.

NOT TOO FAR FROM ANYWHERE

This is a wonderful part of Oregon. Head west from Eugene/Springfield and you are on the coast
in about 90 minutes. Head east or southeast and you are in the high Cascades in about the same
amount of time. About three hours and you are at Crater Lake. Three hours north and east of here-
up I5 and you are in the Columbia Gorge. Along the way are fascinating little towns, and this time
of year-produce stands and craft fairs.

We have a reputation of being rainy. It's more cloudy and foggy than rainy. We get 35 to 40 inches
of rain a year. Most of this between October and early May. One down side we're at the bottom
of the Willamette Valley and a lot of the polution doesn't have anywhere else to go once it
gets here.

Right now, it's about 85 degrees, getting cloudy and they are making rumbles about possible
rumbles-what my grandmother called the "tater wagons." Unlike so may other parts of the
country we have the potential for about 6 weeks of hot summer weather. By mid-August
it cools down at night even if it hits 100 during the day. All in all it's a pretty place to be.

BEING OVERWEIGHT AND THE NETWORK NEWS

Has anyone else noticed this? Whenever the network news uses footage for a story on overwight
people-they don't get their footage outside an office building. We don't see footage of weighty
folks in suits and nice dresses. No, we see footage of lumpy people in shorts, ill-fitting slacks, too
short tops, and bellies hanging over belts.

Yes, I know dressing it up doesn't make the problem go away. (I'm currently down about 92
pounds over the last two years.) The impression you get is of a bunch of losers.

THE CHURCH IS THE PEOPLE-NOT THE BUILDINGS

The Portland Oregonian had extensive coverage last Sunday about the problems of the Portland
Archdicese and the abuse lawsuits. There was a picture of one of the accusers in the paper. It
took me awhile-I suddenly realized that I had graduated with this man's sister. I couldn't help
wondering if she had run into problems too.

Later that day, I listened to some cousins talk about how many parishes the local priest has to
cover. Darn it, the church isn't the real estate, it isn't the heirarchy, it's the people. It's my
cousins, and my classmate, and her brother. They are not well-served.

GETTING STARTED ON MY OTHER JOURNAL

I recently joined the journal community and I've discovered that I have more to say than
I thought I did. I've also discovered that some of the entries that I want to make don't really
fit in the other journal. So here I am.

I have always loved to read. My most intense interests are the "how to's" of history and
philosophy, especially religion. How we got where we are now. I am especially interested in
English history from the Tudor period through the early 18th century. This is the period that
began to define the "Rights of Englishmen" that the Founding Fathers believed they were
defending. Although to be honest, depending on the mood I'm in and what catches my fancy,
almost anything is fair game. (and I have the bookshelves to prove it)

While I'm at it I want to mention a website called Alibris. If you love books this is the place to
go. Alibris brings together a network of used bookstores. There may books out there that they
can't find but I haven't found one yet.