The Summer of My Discontent

The sun is shining outside in a sky with billowy clouds and the temperature is moderate. I should be content but my well-laid plans would have had me off on the East Coast at this point camping in my RV with a salt-water breeze wafting in my windows. Instead I’m stuck here in soggy Southern Ontario because OWASCO RV waited until May to requisition the vehicle I ordered from them last January. A pox on all auto dealerships!

I just spent the last hour or so attempting to bend Microsoft Word to my will to create a template I can use that will be compatible with Blogger. Once I finish this entry and publish it we’ll see if I succeeded. Persuading Word to create a template using .txt as its type and a specific font used natively by blogger is no minor task. The challenge appears to be finding and changing all the default settings as until you do Word doggedly returns to them no matter what one does. First I tried out alternatives such as Open Office, Simple Word from MS Works Suite, Note Tab, Word Pad, Notepad, and Polyedit among others but no other program appears to give me all the features I’ve come to enjoy in Word. Apparently the devil you know….

I’ve been doing a few things to prepare for the journey ahead. One is trying out the GPS unit with which my fellow employees gifted me before I left. The first discovery is that it requires online updating. First a software installation and then the updates and extras, points of interest in particular, that it needed. While exploring the programme I innocently found something called up to date map guarantee. The up to date map was nearly one gigabyte in size took an hour to download at high speed and an hour and a half to install. How does it work? So far I’ve used it largely to ensure it can navigate me to places with which I’m already familiar. It’s somewhat like having a nagging wife as your backseat driver. Sort of interferes with the radio as well. GPS units have become popular theft items hence the unit must be taken with one every time one gets out of the car—I can see the advantages of its being built into the vehicle. But then we know what happens to car radios and of late Honda Airbags.

I’m still trying to break the habit of getting up between 3 and 4 AM. Old habits die hard; I still feel an overwhelming need for an afternoon nap as well. Wouldn’t want to be driving when that hits. Managed to get out for a hike in a local ravine this week as I need the exercise. Given our weather that’s a project best undertaken early before the sun gets hot and definitely before our almost daily thunderstorms. I’ve been attempting to catch up on my E-mail. Had the in box cleared earlier this week and I’ve sent off most of the letters I felt I needed to write. Today I’m finally about to finish reading my current book of Poetry. When I finally establish a more stable routine I must get back to my reading. For the present I’ve been spending too much time beguiling my discontent in front of the TV while it plays DVD’s.

Of course there is no lack of household chores to be done. Piles of this and that a pack rat has collected and run out of room to store. I’ve been picking away at my laundry and the kitchen is clean. Paperwork just seems to procreate on its own. I should be going shopping and attending to all those trips I need to make while I still have a car that gets reasonable mileage. Sounds oh so prosaic, doesn’t it? Almost enough to send me off for a nap.