Weblog 78

August 5, 2007~ 1:45am



REST IN PEACE, VERSION 2.0.0.6! I have never in my life been through as much frustration as I have in the last 4 days. Computer problems that last a day- even two- those I have dealt with- and successfully- from time to time, but just let me just say now--- THE FOX IS DEAD! When I first downloaded the Firefox browser a few years back it felt like being reborn- it was so much simpler- more controllable and quicker than Internet Explorer, and I loved it right down to the ground. It's still better- only NOT the last two versions- 2.0.0.5 and the real killer 2.0.0.6- that one gummed up my machine and constantly crashed no matter what I did!

Granted, my OS is old. I have Windows 98SE, and I love it. I know it's out of date -and yes, I know Microsoft doesn't support it anymore-(thank God...their 'support' was always shit anyway with their constant updates and plugging holes)- but for my money, 98SE is the most stable version they've ever put out there. I have XP at work and I HATE IT. Everything is hidden- and there are more 'adminstrator' files and permissions to hack through than the Amazon jungle. And when I want to get RID of something there are always ghosts in the machine, little bits and pieces stuck everywhere through many, many layers of securities, etc., and we still get spammed almost to death! LOL!!!

Here at home- with my old system, and Avast Free Virus program- practically zilch. I have no viruses because what hotshot is gonna design something to attack an old mule? I don't have the speed for all the streaming video or music downloads or gaming, but I don't need it. This machine does just what I want- and nothing more. And nothing is foisted on me.

I'm here to say that the Firefox is so deeply embedded with GOOGLE-shit now, and toolbars and tabs and security permissions, that if you have 98, it's gonna crash. Can't handle it. Do what I finally did tonight-- uninstall. Then go to your 'find files and folders' and type in 'Mozilla'........and anything that comes up, anything, delete it. If you don't have a program like 'Windows Registry Repair' as I do-- (picked up for 18 bucks a few years back, bought on the net, one of the best things I ever purchased)- GET ONE! Then run it. Have it clear out all the hidden registry entries, because believe me, you're gonna have 'em. Finally.... find yourself an older version of Firefox, and install that. It works beautifully. Fast, simple, safe, QUICK!, even with dial-up, smooth and rapid.

Maybe some folk like all the new bells and whistles......I hate em. Couldn't even control my Firefox about:config the way I used to be able to, because so much is becoming bogged down in gimmicky junk, with add-ons here, add-ons there...look, you need a dependable, stable browser that protects your privacy. That's it.

You need to be able to choose when you WANT to allow cookies or javascript, etc.-- and when you want to take the time to load images on a page-- or when you'd rather just see text, and fly through.

"Choosing" is what it's about. I didn't 'choose' that latest update 4 days ago-- it automatically installed. Never again-- disabling that sucker, that's for sure. THE FOX IS DEAD...and oh my God...it's turning into Bill Gates' baby brother! (Google sold its soul a while ago, and Firefox is in their hip pocket) but "Long Live the Fox!" - (the old one- the original.)




August 7, 2007~ 6:45pm



Now that's a picture of an oppressively summery day. There's this golden-orange light and heat- actually pressing down, having a weight- that sits there and sizzles in this scene of summer in the Texan desert. The title of the picture is "Rest"--- and in that kind of heat- in that kind of inescapable light, how could anyone do anything but 'rest'.

That's one of the things I find so difficult being a working person at this time of the year. The body cries out for slowing down, taking it easy, napping wherever, whenever there is shade, and yet we push and push: same schedule, same obligations, and nothing is adjusted seasonally in this culture. There are no 'afternoon siestas' in the hottest hours of the afternoon, yet the flesh itself craves its lethargy and when it doesn't get it, either tempers erupt- or like what has miraculously happened to me in this current 'heat spell from hell'- I simply have slowed into lower gear. It takes longer to rile me; takes longer to perk me up as well, but psychologically, I've adapted for the first time in my life.

Methinks death can't be very far off if I'm not kicking down doors, tearing up the place in my rage against nature-- I think-- oh, I think that may very well be true because for me, adaptation is the calm that connotes defeat.

Once that fight is gone- it's not real peace- it's a kind of heat-overloaded despair. And that was my 'annunciation moment' this evening: take nothing at face value.




August 7, 2007~ 6:45pm



There's nothing to say here, but.......read it and weep

End of Tether

There is such
tenderness in me
that quickly
curdles
if the
hurdles I have to jump over
are too great,
and I have been
home
for an
hour, and only now have begun
to settle
down. You see, I've been
plagued
with cat
elimination
problems,
which I blamed on the old
male cat, who has a harder time
negotiating
his bony behind
down
low enough to keep things
in the box- so I bought a covered one
on
Sunday,
and the covered box works fine
on my old Tom,
who gets his
arthritic hips
right up there, facing
out
like a cuckoo from
its clock
and does
his
business neatly. (He showed me
that he could do it
first thing
yesterday
when
I came home)-- and there was much cooing
and praise, and a peaceful evening. Today

when
I walked in,
on top
of the trunk
I keep
in the kitchen,

filled with mememtos,
storage
things,
there
was a lake
of cat piss-

not from
him,
from her- the younger miss- and after
all the
tenderness and praise
I'd given yesterday, and putting up
with this
for weeks, then finding
out

it's
her-

I just want to kill
her, give her away-
call
up the
Animal Control- tell them
I have
an Incorrigible,
and I need
to have them
put this
Horror
down. No one

can
live
like this.





August 9, 2007~ 5:15am



When you have a cat who suddenly begins to act with defiance by soiling all around the litterbox, and who takes it into their head-- because of whatever imagined threat or the marking of territory or out of spite, to simply forget that they'd ever behaved otherwise-- your world looks pretty much like the one above: one enormous monster cat made up of all the vile mythology of 'catdom'.

My world looks exactly like this- never far from thought no matter what I'm doing. The covered litterbox I bought-(that the 18 year old tom uses very deftly)- now has the lid taken off, and the lid placed on the trunk that sits beside the waste box, but up-ended (since Harris now prefers to void her urine on any flat, smooth surface near the litterbox, but never in.) I had thought the dreaded 'hood' would keep her off the trunk where yesterday she pissed right ONTO the dry food I'd put there, hoping to discourage that--- I mean, what idiot would piss right on their food??- that idiot did.

This morning.....a small, yellow pool of piss...in the lid. Great Christ- how defiant is that? I think this weekend I will buy yet ANOTHER covered box and put it, litter-filled, right on top of the trunk, where the hood now sits. My guess??............she'll begin peeing on the kitchen floor again in the same way she squatted- just as I walked into the kitchen after work yesterday, and SHAT- right in front of me. Not diarrhea, not a health problem.....insanity. Pure spite. I've gone beyond the end of my rope after 2 weeks of this- I've gone as crazy as she is.




August 9, 2007~ 7:10pm
Today was a wet day all around. About 8:30 this morning, we had a monster storm go through Pittsburgh that brought 3 1/2 inches of rain in an hour. The fiercest lightning I've ever seen, and a BIG mo'fo struck our building and fried the air-conditioning element on the roof - sounded like a cannon volley!- knocked out the outside pop machine, and threw fans of water at us from the nearly standstill traffic trying to get through outside the building. This was Pittsburgh at 9:00 a.m. this morning. Looked like night time....



At about 1:30 this afternoon, we started to hear weather reports of an even BIGGER cell moving in on us out of Ohio at about 40 mi. per hour, and by the time I was getting ready to leave, that became a scarier alert of a 'tornado WARNING'- not a 'watch', the funnels were a'comin'....

I left at 3:00- my usual time, and many stayed- but I wanted to outrun the bad weather and get home. Let me tell you-- that was some of the SCARIEST shit I've EVER driven through. About 8 minutes from the building, the rain was coming horizontally in big walls, the lightning was striking all around me and the car was rocking in (what I understand now) was up to 80 mile an hour GUSTS. We crept along, all of us with our hazard lights on, scared, waiting for trees to fall on the road or debris to start hitting the car. Up ahead, I saw flashing lights from a firetruck and police cars- accident on the bridge, but along I crept in the line of cars, tuned in to the local radio AM station to hear the call-in's, and what they were seeing. Bad news all around.

Flash-flooding, roads closed.......I crept on. At one point I drove through water that nearly reached the bottom of the car door.....and I prayed. A LOT. The traffic signals were knocked-out at the worst intersections- and as I crawled in line along a jammed 5th Avenue in Oakland, there were reports of roofs being ripped off of buildings and actual building collapses. All the while, the world was dark and greenish-threatening. I was scared shitless. I smoked in my car- 1/2 a cigarette- and I vowed I wouldn't smoke in the new one. (I was afraid I couldn't go across the bridge into the South Side, and didn't know how else to get home- since I'd heard 5th Avenue was closed there, and all the other roads seemed to be flooded or closed) but OH GOD- the bridge was OPEN, and moving nicely. I took an alternate route from there: I've been on Beck's Run during what they laughingly refer to as 'ponding' more than once-- and it was not something I wanted to be caught in today.

I went through Mt. Oliver and then on to home, to a place that ALWAYS flooded--- Saw Mill Run - right across the road from me- was raging. High, but blessedly 2 ft. from overflowing its banks.

I got home in an hour and a half instead of just one. Not bad.....not bad at all-- considering. I'm sure some poor folks are still stuck out there in other areas- Millvale flooded 3 times in 2 DAYS- and apparently all of Allegheny County has been declared in 'a state of emergency', and there are more storms on the way.

I have power, I am drinking my coffee, HARRIS THE CAT did NOT PISS anywhere but in the box today........I honestly think I'm gonna cry......and yes.....there's the thunder again.





The above, from a local news station's uploaded files of photos sent in by viewers: the perfect storm approaches.





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