Tuesday, September 22, 2026

              So many things to keep functioning. My life is full of things.  Currently the Apple plus show now insist that I am Chinese and all my subtitles are mysterious.   We go to the settings and are not given the choice of English among the thirty options.  We try Spanish, the alphabet is familiar. Neither of us speak Spanish. The characters are talking too fast but at least in English. We start yelling at the tv.  It doesn’t help.

           The formatting on my computer is still wonky.  The youtube instructions are not helpful. I don’t know the right words to describe the problem. I now am slowly adjusting each line I write. My two employed computer engineer relatives probably could fix it in a nano second. I know my house is full of invisible messages waiting for a mechanism to receive them, cell phone messages, tv shows, PG&E reports, invisible money, and of course dark matter.

             If I sound a little demented, it’s true.  I have outlived the familiar world I inhabited for 86 years. Still I can carry on a conversation in person and sometimes on my cell phone, which is also not functioning very well. I read paper books, I write checks for my monthly bills, I use real money to pay the home cleaners. I go to the bank to pick up cash.

            No more complaining.  I live a good life, just a bit strange to me. We watch the last episode of SHOW TRIAL. I am ready for season 2 but my roommate is hesitant. We give up on the Apple plus show, TRYING since we can’t read the Chinese subtitles. I have two books I am now readying and I am able to keep the stories separate in my mind.        I enjoy reading the articles in THE NEW YORKER each week. And I am in better shape than our corrupt president who is part of my generation of old people.

 

         Monday, September 21, 2026

              It is turtles all the way down.  That’s the answer but I can’t remember the question. A giant turtle carries the earth on it’s back and it is endless turtles all the way down. We will never know the causes of life.

             Bladder cancer is supposedly caused by smoking at home, or maybe second hand smoke in the office, or maybe past radiation treatments, or something eaten, or nuclear bombs tests near my mother’s Arizona home. The correct answer is, bladder cancer is really caused by turtles and there are turtles all the way down.

            Cool overcast day, all day. Time to check out the heater. I am neurotic about my heater, turning it on and then off. My body is hot and then cold. Turning on the heater means closing the windows but I like the fresh air. And I visualize the gas heating bill getting higher. My family know to bring warm clothes to my house when they visit.

            We watch more episodes of SHOW TRIAL Almost done. Very good courtroom dramas. We are waiting for season 6 of SLOW HORSES to drop more episodes to avoid the tension of waiting another week for an episode. Maybe we will rewatch last year’s season 5 first to get into the swing of the story. The depressing political news is boring.  The conniving president is losing his touch to entertain and enrage us.

 

         Sunday, September 20, 2026

             I hear the rumor that the largest national AI development system is just down the street from me. The Novy Post Graduate school. Another rumor is they have a terrorist study center and a national weather study center and who knows what else.  We live in a military town. And we love rumors.

             I have lost control of formatting my word documents.  I don’t know what happened. I understand about 50 percent of the functions of this computer and that is not enough. I just want to throw the computer against the wall and buy a new one. I know, I know there is a better way to do this.

             My neighbor and his two young kids came by in the late afternoon to take pictures of my roommate who is running for public office. Lots of excitement here. She will be really great member of the County School Board.

             Just bought the latest book, BECOMING YOURSELF, teachings on the Zen way of life, by Shunryu Suzuki. I need some encouragement to accept my life now as an old woman with illness and disabilities issues. Last night we continue to watch SHOW TRIAL from Britbox. The series continues to be interesting.  I am encouraged seeing pictures of the crowds protecting the Kennedy Center from the demonic destroyer president.