Another Slice of Life

For some time my clownish sense of humor had been dampened, but it’s back now. My outlook of joy and hope have returned, and I’ve missed it. Of course, this means for folks around me that they have to put up with my outrageous joking. Pray for my wife.

For the time being, as long as everything works, I’ll keep using my computer and tablet. I’ve decided to pass my laptop off to my son. The point here is that I’m leaving the ranks of online content producers. When it comes to the Net, I’ll be just another consumer of content — and very selective about it. Of course, this blog will stay alive until God makes it clear it’s mission is finished, or external events force a stop.

But my desktop computer will become what my first computer was thirty years ago: a glorified typewriter. That is, I’ll keep writing and printing, along with collecting important material I find on the Net, but I’m not going to participate directly in whatever the Internet has become. I’m withdrawing.

Meanwhile, I won’t even bother getting a typewriter. I’ll just try to find a really nice, fat ink pen like I once had that is comfortable for gripping and scribbling for hours at a time. I’ve been working on my penmanship. Note: My brain does not like cursive writing at all, so my best hope is the old grade school printing. I managed to submit a handful of research papers that way back in my college days and was commended for making it readable, even without a typewriter.

I can do this.

The trick is to collect the necessary materials before the economy crashes. That’s coming any day now, never mind CMEs and stuff like that. TPTB are working hard to make it happen, once they are satisfied that they have scraped off the last bit of plunder that they can possibly extract from us. So I’ve stocked up on writing pads, pens and I’ve got some pencils on order. If I can’t find a fat writing pen, maybe I can get some of those cushy finger guards for the thinner pens/pencils.

But I still need a mechanical watch, so if you have one floating around somewhere that you can afford to let go, I’d love to know how I can get it from you. It needs to have a face large enough and contrasting enough for my aging eyes to discern where the hands are. I’ve been searching for one locally with no luck, so far.

Do you realize that a great many retail stores no longer even sell watches? Sure, you can get a smartwatch almost anywhere, but even those cheap electronic chronographs are disappearing. And the only reason I had to order pencils online is that I need #3 hard lead, and nobody stocks those any more in my neck of the woods.

So in the meantime, I’ll keep using what works during a sort of transition period until something shuts it all down. Aside from this blog, the forum and some email or texting, I’ve moved the bulk of my writing onto paper. For years I kept a rolling daily journal on my computers, just because writing something daily is critical to keeping me sane, but it’s now going into those composition books kids have to use for school around here. But I’m still chasing down Bible reference materials online that I can’t find in print, and printing it off for my own use.

I’m plowing back through the Ancient Truth Bible study series of books, giving them one last edit for a print-on-demand edition. I started with the Gospels and I’m almost finished with Mark. This has become my daily job for now. As I get through these books, I’ll announce it on the blog and put up a link for the raw word processing document. They’ll be in Word DOCX, but I can easily get you one in the older DOC format, or in the Open Document format by request. It’s been a real blessing to read those commentaries again.

For those wondering, my physical therapy is going great. I’ve cut back to every other day, and I’m not taking as many long rides for the simple reason that I have too much to do. I’m still riding enough to get to quiet prayer chapels every couple of days, of course. I still can’t walk too far without a bad response from my knees, but the strength is coming back. In my younger adult days, I was proud of my ability to squat and rise on one leg at a time. It was a skiing thing in Alaska; our instructor made a big deal of it, and I could do it from the start. Well, I’m getting closer to regaining that kind of leg power. Also, I’m working hard at the kind of interval training that most older folks can’t handle. Age and death will have to chase me down to catch me.

And how are you folks coping?