My Desktop

            Some people live much of their lives on their computer, whether laptop or phone, or something else. I confess that I am often one of those people. So, in order to get a snapshot of who I am, I find it useful to describe some (about half) of the stuff cluttering my computer desktop.

 

·      Television Operation – We do a lot of streaming, which means it’s often a multi-step process to get to the regular channels. Spectrum walked me through it on the phone, and then when the Geek Squad from Best Buy was here, he showed me a simpler process. Still, I forget sometimes. And Kim may want to know how to do it if I die – provided she can get onto my computer at all.

 

·      Hoop Manual – Our basketball backboard tipped over in the wind, springing a small leak in the plastic container and breaking a piece of the rim. I ordered a new part, but I’m waiting for spring to attempt the repair. I need the manual to attach the new part, unless I find the one that came with it.

 

·      Help – phone numbers for Apple, Adobe, Epson (printer), Earthlink, PNC Bank, plus instructions on how to take a screen shot and turn on the scanner on my printer.

 

·      Pastor 2022 – cleverly disguised document containing all my passwords, named after the program where I previously stored them until an upgrade of some sort meant that I lost them all and had to retrieve them.

 

·      Next House – contact info on realtors and condo communities and neighborhoods of interest.

 

·      Directory – contact info for everyone who has worked on our house, plus doctors and dentists, utilities, etc.

 

·      Home History – This goes with a scrapbook Kim is working on, a history of all the places where we have lived. So far, we have ten.

 

·      Sack – a photo of one of my favorites of Kim’s artwork, featuring a poem I wrote.

 

 For those of you reading this on your cell phone, here's the poem in big print:

                    Sack

 

                How I love the paper sack:

                The roar of paper when you pack

                It full of lovely scavenged scraps

                For works of art that cry, “perhaps.”

 

                How I love its humble brown --

                Unbleached, undyed: the art of down

                To earth. Its folds and wrinkles feel

                So unpretentious and so real.

·      Movies – a list of our favorite movies, just so we won’t forget them. Some of these appeared as blog entries over the last few years. We appreciate suggestions.

 

·      Kim Surgery – my 2017 email notifying friends that Kim’s cancer had metastasized to her spine. I included supportive messages back to Kim.

 

·      Modem – the Best Buy receipt for the new modem and two outdoor cameras that Kim is buying for my birthday. I’m keeping it handy in the unlikely event that we will experience computer problems making it work.

 

·      Recipes – a very brief collections of recipes for items I can make. Kim is insisting that I don’t look at these recipes, that she has shown me how to make a white sauce half a dozen times, so I shouldn’t have to look at the recipe. You may be able to guess how that goes . . ..

 

·      Kim’s Spirit Bag – a list of items she contains in her Spirit Bag, plus some notes on where she got them. (Her spirit bag is her version of a computer desktop.) Here’s the list:

 

Yooper stone –  from Lake Superior

tortoise shell ring – from Ann Arbor (Peaceable Kingdom)

Petoskey stone heart – from Torch Lake

armadillo amulet –  from David (tough on the outside, tender on the inside)

ivory polar bear – from Kim’s dad, Spitzbergen Islands

owl feather – convey us into the next world

snake bones – from Paynes Prairie

deer dew claw - Scott

fairy stone – from Kate Lindenmuth – from a cave in Kentucky – promotes healing

Sweet grass from Bill Lavery – good spirits

granite from Dingle Beehive,  8^th-12 century Ireland from Bill Lavery - endurance

sage from Bill Lavery – good health

wood from Celtic Tree of Life – from Bill Lavery

Apache Tears –  from John Stringer’s friend in Arizona

The name “Apache tear” comes from a legend of the Apache tribe: about 75 Apaches and the US Cavalry fought on a mountain overlooking what is now Superior, Arizona, in the 1870s. Facing defeat, the outnumbered Apache warriors rode their horses off the mountain to their deaths rather than be killed. The wives and families of the warriors cried when they heard of the tragedy; their tars turned into stone upon hitting the ground.

bridge pins – from Vivian

guitar picks – from Kim’s dad

arrowhead – from Torch Lake

shark tooth – Genne’

hand forged needle - ? 

ivory skull from World War II – Korea – her dad’s good luck for poker

six-leaf clover – from Gainesville house

 

            Now, you probably have little interest in seeing who I am. I’m tempted to come up with some sort of interpretation/conclusion about my identity, but I’ve resisted the temptation. No, the point is for you to look at your desktop and see what it says about you.