Halloween Already?

Seems like summer has just ended and daylight savings time will kick in this Sunday. The gloomy days of winter, when it gets dark before dinner hits the table, is upon us. Not even Halloween can help. The trees still have most of their leaves but they’re falling, and soon the yard will be covered. I gave up raking a few years back when I discovered they had a “Mulching Blade” for my mower.  I can now do in a couple of hours what used to take all day, raking, gathering, and burning leaves.

Our Soldier son spent two weeks of leave from Afghanistan with us. He looks good, says he feels good, and is ready to complete the last 5 months of the tour. This is his second, after Iraq, and says he’s tired of the sand and brown landscape of South West Asia. He’s getting a few years on him and is ready to pack it in after 20 plus years in the Georgia Guard and Army reserve. He’s ready to get back to work for the college.

This weekend was wasted getting the computers up and running Windows 7. I started using computers before Bill Gates, running an IBM operating system called DOS. Gates took over that code and began the prelims to Windows. As with all of the Micro Soft upgrades, it was a mess. I run 3 PC’s and a MAC. One PC handles my personal data, Quicken, email, etc. Another works other programs, websites, and stuff, and the third is the “E’s” mail machine. I run a web site on the MAC. I could tell you all the gory details but I don’t have the temper, time, or the room here. What I will tell you, don’t believe all of the hype about 7. I thought that maybe this time it would all work smoothly. Not a chance. The first attempt was on my most up to date machine, with 64 bit processor. The three pack I bought from Micro Soft for the home package, lauding the network set up, had a 64 bit disk. BUT, I had a version that did not fit the “Upgrade” requirement, it was more program than the new 7, so it would load as an operating system but would NOT keep my data. I needed a backup, which I thought I had. You guessed it, The external hard drive which was set to backup weekly had nothing for the past month and a half. It’s one of those set ups that you assume is working.  NEVER ASUME as I’ve learned over the years. I just didn’t take my own advice. Windows 7 loaded fine. I spent a full day working back and forth between the bank and Quicken to get my financials reconciled. It took another full day to get the other stuff working.  The easiest machine of the three was the E’s. It had Vista Basic and the new 7 worked as advertised.

I could go on but I would rather forget it all and get on with the book. All of that work WAS backed up and Word marches on unaffected.

Memories. Very old memories

The first book I read all the way through was “The House at Pooh Corner”. We were not poor but we did try to stretch a dollar from month to month so the purchase of a real “Book” was an event. I have no idea how old I was, the book was a Christmas present, but I do remember sitting at the kitchen table, reading until I was unceremoniously sent to bed each night. The next Christmas brought “When We Were Very Young”, another A. A. Milne book, and the reading took me through the cold winter, and into the spring. This was at the beginning of WWII. I remember some of the news, the rationing, and relatives hugging young men leaving on the train but, I didn’t  really  understand what was happening. I did understand Pooh. Christopher Robin was the smartest human on the planet, but Pooh, Owl, Eyeore, and Rabbit were my best friends.

The last time I saw my books was in 1962, when I went through the little farm town on my way to a training program in Texas.  A bunch of books had been stored away in the loft of the barn, and mice, or other small animals with a taste for book binding glue, had turned them into mulch. I wanted the books to pass along to my sons who were very young at the time.

Why the sudden nostalgia? I received an E-mail alert for a new book being released this coming week, and I immediately went into total recall of Pooh and his friends. I don’t know how I feel about the introduction of a female to the cast of characters, but, I do know that I will scurry down to the book store, and spend a few nights with my old pals.

The following is the Note from B & N about the release:

When the first new authorized tale of Winnie-the-Pooh in more than 80 years is released on Monday, the book will introduce a new, female character to that bothersome bear’s mostly male entourage. The new character, called Lottie the Otter, will make her debut in “Return of the Hundred Acre Wood.” written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, and approved by the Pooh Trustees. In a news release, the Dutton Children’s Books imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, which is releasing the book on Oct. 5, described Lottie as “a smart and elegant character” who is “always dressed in pearls,” and who “has her own ideas about how things should be done and believes that everyone should follow the correct etiquette.” In the course of “Return to the Hundred Acre Wood,” the publisher said, Lottie takes a swim in Christopher Robin’s bath, helps to set up a school for the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood, and turns out to be great at cricket.

Penguin Young Readers Group said that it would unveil a new permanent mural in honor of the original stuffed animals that inspired A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” and other books, and which are kept in the New York Public Library’s Children Center. That unveiling is to take place on Monday, also at the Children’s Center.

 

                            

                                         Lottie the Otter