We have enjoyed a mild winter this year so it has been sort of a shock when temperatures dipped back down to normal this weekend. It snowed Saturday night but the ground was too warm for anything to stick. The Olympics are set to begin this week and I’ve been thinking about just how mild our winters have become. I remember the 1976 Winter Games very well because we had so much snow we were out of school practically the whole time. When they took a break from the games at lunch to show a few hours of soap operas, we all went outside to try what we had seen on TV. It is a wonder we didn’t kill ourselves trying to “bobsled” down a frozen creek.
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. Last week I mentioned my cousin, Marijo, who was in the hospital. She passed away Sunday afternoon. Between smoking and breathing hair spray (she was a beautician) her lungs were simply in a terrible shape. However, her getting sick and passing away is really quite sudden and unexpected. She was at church three Sundays ago.
One thing I’ll always remember about Marijo was how good a cook she was. We had her cooking a few months ago as she had fixed supper for all of us the night Mom came home from her stay at the rehab unit at Skyline Hospital after her knee replacement.
A BIRTH IN THE FAMILY. I have reported on various births over the course of this newsletter but the news I have this time is better than welcoming a new baby into the world. Jenna has accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior! She has been asking questions for several weeks now and last week she wanted to meet with Bro. Bill. We met with him in his office last Wednesday afternoon and she invited Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to live in her heart at that time. She went forward during the invitation Sunday morning and will be baptized during the morning service on the 19th.
MORE HOOP ACTION. The Lady Cougars burned up the court again Saturday. Jenna contributed three goals to the game this time. It was another exciting contest with lots of goals scored and lots of turnovers.
We borrowed the wheelchair from church and took Aunt Mar to the game this time. She really enjoyed getting to go and see Jenna play. While I think it was a wise move to get the wheelchair for her she is actually walking better right now than I have seen in many weeks.
A DARK DAY. Most of you know that I am an avid Mac user. My job has been perfect in the sense that I get to work on Mac hardware and software pretty much exclusively. We are currently migrating to a new student management system at work and while it does work with the Mac our Director of Schools wants all administrators to use Windows units for this system. Last Wednesday I unpacked a Dell and put it on my desk.
I still have and use my PowerBook (Mac laptop) and I’ll probably have one for several years to come but I am venturing into new territory. I am going at this with an open mind and have learned several things about the Windows OS, but the last five days at work have been extremely frustrating due to my unfamiliarity with the way Windows works. I will have to be honest and say that I have discovered several features in Windows that I wish Apple would adopt in the Mac OS, but then there are several things the Mac can do that a Windows machine either can’t do or is extremely complicated. I’ve never had to worry about viruses before on the Mac and was deeply disappointed to see how the antivirus software practically killed the performance of my new computer. I feel like a fresh water fish that has been dumped into the salt water ocean. I’ll learn to swim there but I’m mighty glad I can return to the fresh water both at work and at home.
On the positive side, we have a new iMac at home. I have people ask me to do video slideshows on occasion and have enjoyed doing the projects. We have just never pursued doing this as a side business because we didn’t own a computer capable of burning the finished product to DVD. We now have the capability and hope to explore opportunities in this area soon.
Joe
