I ended the last post abruptly because I was worried about my cursor not showing up on the screen as I typed and tried to get a the right spot to fix a word that had gone misspelled. I pushed publish and then tried the cursor one more time on the post I had just written –  the one that was obviously still sitting in front of my face and POOF, the cursor was back.

I am nervous about this. When Quentin was little he would stand in the middle of circular clothing displays and I would feel panic start to grip me. Well, this isn’t that bad but it is unsettling to suddenly realize your cursor is not just one tiny step in front of you acting as a flashlight on the vast blankness ahead. The crinkling sound? I don’t know. I just don’t know. It is not doing it now, but that is about as comforting as having your heart skip beats and then go back to normal. It could do it again anytime!

I mowed my mother’s house yard with the rider again. Last week when I did that, I broke or dislocated a toe. Maybe this time the retribution will be something more vital to me than my little toe. I will probably become obsessed with this and check all the time. Oh, wait, if it breaks I won’t have to be compulsive about checking if it has failed yet. I will know. Of course, in such situations, I usually then become obsessed with checking to see if there has been a reversal of fortune and, somehow, everything is all right.

I will KNOW, of course, that it happened and may happen again so that “all right” is misleading. Already I feel a weakening of the knees and nerves twitching. I am uneasy. I think my pulse rate is up.  What if the missing cursor is only the beginning of a curse. Is there such a thing as laptop voodoo from beyond the grave? Oh, I don’t know; I don’t know; I don’t know. The panic: it’s started, hasn’t it?

Rose, Rose, I need you. Unfortunately, Rose is on vacation at the Ohio Redoubt, partying at Grover’s Grotto and eating Cousin Vinny’s pizza. I need to get a grip, but Rose packed her stuff in it when she went on holiday. Maybe I need someone to slap me? Ack, members of the colony here are pushing and shoving to be first in line to “help” me.

Deep breaths.

Last night there was thunder; yes, it was a stormy night. And it is not a bright morning, as far as the weather is concerned.  Everything is gray and dim and it is raining; more thunderstorms are predicted. I don’t mind storms that much, in fact I like change in barometric pressure and the cool, crisp air they usually bring in summer.

BUT TODAY IS SATURDAY!!!!!! And what  is waiting outside is one, big clinging WET.

And I just realized I can’t see the cursor and I hear a crinkling noise coming from my laptop. What is the phrase? Oh, yes. Woe is me.