Randoms from the Ravine 22 December

If I plotted the frequency of posts and their entry times over the past year, I’d see a drop in the number per week and words per post, and also see a trend in which post times grow later and later.

With wife working far fewer day shifts, the alarm does not go off anymore at 3:45 a.m., and if she is a sluggard until 5 or 5:30, then so am I. I know that, if I want uninterrupted writing time any more, I have to rise before Herself who turns on NPR, chatters with kitchen appliances and reads over my shoulder every time she passes.

That said, I’m late today, having been all around the world via my feed reader, email and the usual suspects—that, taken altogether, are a much more serious interrupter of focus than any wife–or most any wife-could ever be. This morning I’ve…

â–º…gotten a reply from Microsoft Online Safety Support to say they’re on it. Seems that, when I log into my OneDrive account (almost exclusively for access to OneNote) I see a OneNote account of a gentleman (or not?) from Israel. There are my four OneNote notebooks along with one titled in Hebrew. I think this is a random screw-up and not an intentional hacking, but nevertheless, it lowers my confidence in OneNote and Microsoft, so I’m writing this post in Quip instead the usual OneNote.

â–º…paid out another $2 for iPhone software. I just added vividHDR as in in-app purchase for my go-to camera app, ProCamera 8. It seems like the best High Dynamic Range tool at the moment, and while I recoil from over-worked images in HDR, landscapes often benefit from the depth and light range such a tool can provide so much easier than doing something similar via Photoshop.

â–º…sent this (recommended) Christmas afternoon time-filler activity to my grand daughters: Learn to Fold a World-Record-Setting Paper Airplane. So once the presents are unwrapped and it’s ikky outside, there’s something to absorb the Cabin Crazies. Pass the link along and build your own, full-grown children everywhere!

â–º…found my computer glasses between cushions on the loveseat. Yes, for the first time, I need glasses mostly for computer reading distance rather than books. So now I have my regular glasses, prescription sunglasses, and the computer spectacles with Clark Kent Horn-rim Frames. And the gadget bag of Elder Adaptives grows quickly too heavy for our puny chassis to tote from room to room, and we check into our shared 12 x 12 at the Failing Arms Rest Home.

…but not today.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. “Failing Arms Rest Home.” Made me laugh out loud, even though I was only yesterday discussing my “independant living” choice: Villa Sorento, near our medical center and hospital, with nice level sidewalks to walk to them (and a nearby TGIFridays, to boot.)