Computer and writer both going for repairs

This is my first time ever to sign in on a library computer. Live and learn.

About 10 days ago, I stupidly opened an enclosed http file from a friend. This same file hit the same person who supposedly sent it and several others. They either had Windows 7, which can eliminate the virus contained, or deleted and shut down. I opened. I haveWindows XP.

I'm going to need professional help to clean the drive. This time, I'm backing up the pictures, too.

I will try to post once or twice in the next week while this mess is getting cleaned up, but in the meantime, June 1 I am going in for a total knee replacement.
I've opted to go into rehab for about two weeks, which hopefully will accelerate my recovery to a cane by the time I get home.

I apologize for the void right when I have been trying to accelerate, but life has interfered a bit with my plans. I have high hopes both for the computer and the knee. Both are being upgraded.

OK-Buckle Up-Keep your own arts program going

I always thought "full of yourself" was derogatory.
Until my granddaughter was tonight. She was bubbling over, laughing, emoting charm 20 feet away without realizing it, and yes, she was full of herself.
I loved it.

It was after the concert.

Before, she gave me only a 2-hour notice, although she said she told me yesterday.
I was tired. I had had a hard day. I----went.

At the beginning of the year, my son spent a lot of time at the school arranging her schedule so that she not only got her accelerated courses but the Blue Band, which you must understand is more competitive than the White Band.

Same director for each. And what a director he is. Wow.

Can you imagine your angel volunteering to take the instrument home over the weekend and actually practicing? He got that, from bunches of kids.

My oldest granddaughter plays French horn (yes, I know it's one of the most difficult instruments, and it is beautiful to hear). At which point, my own"full of self" over my granddaughter exudes. She is good. And I will tell you so in an instant.

They played a very difficult program for UIL competition, and were rewarded with Sweepstakes when they played it very well.The music tonight was just for fun. For the parents, and grandparents, that remember Blackeyed Pea and Journey.
Oh, yeah! It was fun, and it was tuneful.

In the White Band, the director recognized 5 students for going above and beyond in practice. In my granddaughter's Blue Band, he recognized 10. My granddaughter is one of them and will receive a trophy with her name engraved on it.
The 10 rather enhances than detracts from the honor. The trophy represents hours of practice every one of them did. It's a trophy to discipline and hours and resulting performance. I hope she sees that.

Not many of us get trophies for the extra hours and work on improved ability that my granddaughter is getting in seventh grade. It's a good life lesson. The warmth of doing something she loves so much carries over to her academics. Success in one field often carries over to another. When she brings the French horn home, it isn't her cacaphony, but her practice on her part of a tune we all know that disconcerts us.

Earworms. How we hate them.

She is a second year student, first chair French horn, in a middle school band that can charm the older generation with melodic--admittedly amateurish versions--of songs we all loved.

I LOVE this school system! They even figured a way to keep most of the teachers.
Thank God, her music director is one of them.

Bin Laden is Dead

I like the symmetry.
This morning, I heard Osama Bin Laden is dead.
Almost 10 years ago, at about the same time of day, I heard about the first airliner hitting the World Trade tower. As I continued to dress for an important meeting, the second airliner hit. And the startled newsman said, "What is this?"
On the road, I heard about the third plane hitting the Pentagon.
"What is this?" I screamed in my car.
As a news junkie, I had probably heard his name before. It didn't register. The day after, I heard Osama bin Laden made this happen. He attacked innocent people in my country.
That attack changed many lives forever. I know of one who joined the military, one who joined the paramedics, another who became a minister. All because of one event.
At the time, I was working for Child Protective Services in Texas.
I knew what caseworkers in New York were going through, and their story was never told that I know of.
In Texas, it was the Branch Davidian coumpound with American David Koresh near Waco, Texas,1993.. There were children in that compound.
If I remember correctly, 37. The Feds attacked it, and the inhabitants put the children under the floor, and then set it afire. And they burned.
CPS workers from throughout the state had been called in and assigned to those children. They knew their names, their ages, in some cases personal information.Yeah, it is a beaureaucracy, but you know? When the kid is assigned, you stand for them. Even if you have never met them. And I guess you could say, David Koresh paid for that.
And we all watched while they burned to death.
I was a newbie in CPS, but I had colleagues who had been called to handle the children. They were devastated. I guess folks expect beureaucrats to have no feelings. Well, we do.That was my second year in the agency.
So when the towers collapsed, I knew there were a lot of people just like me scrambling to find the kids who wouldn't have one or more parents coming home and would need care in a city of total disorganization.

The same ocurred in Okalhoma. Another home-grown terrorist. A trial. Closure.

In New York, almost 10 years later, we finally have closure. And the pain wells up again, a bit. I still feel lighter. I've heard others say this.

And it is justice. It really is.
And I honor those who did it, right up to the President.
I'm glad he's dead.
A chapter closes. And a new chapter continues.