Simple computer stuff really sucks!

I use Eudora as my email program, both on my desktop machine and laptop, which I keep going side by side for various reasons, and today I had to add another email personality to both machines for magazine management reasons. Four hours later, after enormous frustration and a few breaks to vent steam with a walk down to the chicken coop, I succeeded. There were a few other long-lingering email problems that I also resolved, but basically it was my frustrating inability to deal with simple technology that exhausted me mentally by flat out pissing me off.

But why do I have to deal with technology that can’t be dealt with reasonably? Why doesn’t this stuff just work? Why do you have to be a computer geek on the side just to get your job done? I have other stuff I need to do, and now my day and composure have been wrecked by Eudora’s techno/geek quirkiness. How stupid can this computer technology be!

I’ll tell you what I think! I think we need a “throw your computer through the window” day. I’m so mad I could spit!

My friend, Pat Ward, the grand lady of Fall Creek Ranch, which straddles the Oregon/California border, died Saturday. Her beloved horse of many years, Navarro Prim, was found dead in a field by a family member just a few days before Pat’s death. Earlier this year, John Silveira wrote an article about her ranch (Jan/Feb 2007, Issue No. 103) “The modern day small family ranch.” In the article is a photo of Pat Ward, at age 79, on her horse as she took part in a cattle roundup.

The family will have a pot luck at the ranch this Saturday to celebrate her life. John Silveira and I will attend. I’ve posted a photo of Pat in her kitchen from the 1980s. I was in that kitchen many times in the 1980s as I built a house about a half mile from hers that essentially launched BHM. Pat was a marvelous lady. Silveira has been in frequent contact with her in recent months as she battled cancer.

Death becomes a more frequent visitor as we get older. I’m 63 and I’ve seen a lot of friends die. Those of you who are my age know what I mean. It’s just the natural order of things. Still, it’s very sad and disconcerting when nature changes everything so drastically. I don’t mourn people anymore; I celebrate their life with the friends who are left. I’ll be especially glad to get together with my good friend, Gerry Barry, Pat’s brother, this Saturday.

I think hard work is the key to success in all endeavors in life. Since we arrived home late Friday night, we’ve been doing house and yard chores: vacuuming, sweeping, and washing clothes inside, and mowing, weedwacking, gardening, and watering trees outside. My family likes a tidy place, inside and out, so we do this sort of family work project every time we come back from a trip. It took the five of us most of the day today. The boys each have a machine they like to operate: Jake the weed eater, Robby the power mower, and Sam the blower. Lenie likes to work in the garden, of course, and I like riding my big mower. As we were finishing up our many chores today, you could feel the family’s group satisfaction in a job well done. It occurred to me that these work projects, and the gratification my three boys, Jake, Rob, and Sam, get from them are probably the most valuable lessons Lenie and I could be giving them. They have seen us work very hard all their lives, and we have made comfortable lives and a good business with our hard work. Now we are showing them how to do the same. They recognize hard work as an essential ingredient of a successful life. I got my work ethic from my parents, as did Lenie. My parents were of Irish immigrant stock, but their hard work enabled them to meld into American society well. They never got rich, but their five kids never wanted for anything either. Their children–me and my siblings–applied the work ethic learned at home to their own lives, and now Lenie and I are passing on the same teaching to our children. I think it becomes a personal thing: I want my property and my business to reflect the view I have of myself as a hard working person, just like my father and mother did, and just as I hope my children will. What could be simpler. Hard work underlies success!

Just relaxing at the 29 Palms Inn. We’ve gotten a break with the weather for most of this stay, with temperatures mainly in the 90s, occasional clouds that hide the scorching sun, and even some brief rain sprinkles. The combination of clouds and the extra humidity they bring to the desert gave us a spectacular sunset the other night. We all pitched in at Annie and Erik’s house to help them get ready for their cross-country move. There were bookshelves to unscrew, nail holes to spackle, boxes to pack, cleaning to do, and a dump run to make. They’ve had a good landlord during the past three years, and they want to leave the place in good shape. Otherwise, this has been a kickback vacation, with lots of swimming at the pool and a nightly reading of the new Harry Potter book by Lenie. (I’m not a Harry Potter guy so I listen to oldies on my laptop.) Plenty of coyotes and rabbits around this desert oasis. The rabbits are mainly cottontails, and judging by the slowness with which they hop away from us, the coyotes use this place as a fast food restaurant. For the bunnies, it’s reproduce fast or become extinct. We’ll be home Friday night, just in time to review the new issue’s proofs and FedEx them back to our Wisconsin printer Monday. The issue will go on the presses a few days after that. This is that period after deadline when publishing a magazine becomes a real nice business.