October 2024

 I imagine that some of you are a bit surprised to once again finding one of these in your inbox. Its a bit of a surprise to me as well. This last year has had a bit more of a cost than usual. I'm still kicking, but sometimes you have to check, just to make sure.

I managed to get the VA to replace my left knee in June. I picked up a new puppy five days after the operation. The knee was interesting to say the least. I still need several steps with a grimace before I get lined out. Hopefully that will go away with time.

The actual main reason that I have not wanted to do anything with the computer is that I had to buy a new one last year and it appears that every thing that I did using Windows 7 is not anywhere near the same. The things that were so intuitive with 7 is now much more of a problem with W 11. One of the more endearing features of this version is that I have to keep moving the page up so that I can see what I am typing. I am sure that there is some way to center the text, but my current fix is to make the font so small that I have trouble reading it. 

I turned 80 just a few days ago, and with all the forced inactivity it is much harder to fight against the current.

I took Brenda to the coast after the fly in this year. We did most of the Coast, and I got to show her all of the features that I like about the coast. I guess I did pretty well, she remarked to me that she had never known that there were so many Pine trees in Oregon.

After our return, I began to trim Hope down for some hunting. She has as much trouble losing weight as I do apparently. Today was our second attempt at finding some rabbits to chase. I walked 2.75 miles this afternoon only finding 5 Jacks to chase.  I walked most of the distance in what had been one of my best spots, only finding 4 in an area that would normally hold 8 to 10 Jacks. I changed fields and lucky for us, found a half grown Jack that has not learned all the tricks of evasion.

If I had to guess this year is still going to be difficult, requiring a lot of travel just to find something to chase. I'm not sure how long I am going to put up with the scarcity of rabbits, before I pull the plug.