Summer is over. This weekend was warm, but there was still an autumnal nip in the air. I got some work done around the house, and instead of crawling into a corner with a bottle of Jamesons and a cello concerto I took Gamma to the gardening center and we bought some stuff. I planted two rose bushes and a prune tree. Alpha and I went for a 10k run and I didn’t injure anything. We took the kids on a long bike ride along the Danube and had lunch at a restaurant a few towns away, in a grape arbor outside.

We noticed, at some point, a red ring around one of Gamma’s many mosquito bites. This is a symptom of Lyme disease, which used to be transmitted only by ticks; however our new, improved post-flood mosquitos now transmit it as well. All I can say is, Let’s hear it for antibiotics. She’s feeling rather tired, but the antibiotics should catch it.

Also, if any of you are considering upgrading your operating system from Windows 98 to Windows 2000, be sure and back up all your files first, because it could trash your hard drive if you are a moron.

I have this Japanese friend, I think I mentioned him recently, he’s a nice guy, lives in Austria. Sometimes a little hard to understand, our conversations sort of jump around between English and German sometimes as we seek a channel of communication. He’s the one who recommended I upgrade, as I had complained my PC was crashing way too much. He put me on the phone with his neighbor, who is a Computer Programmer.

Computer Programmer: You’re having PC problems?
Me: Uh huh.
CP: You really should b-b-back up your files before upgrading to Windows 2000 because there’s a big dif-f-f-f-f-erence between 1998 and 2000, whereas 2000 and XP are not so far apart, and don’t usually have such problems.
Me: I was hoping I could get away with it. I neglected to burn a CD.
CP: Heh. P-p-p-p-p-people should always arch-ch-ch-ch-chive their f-f-f-f-f-fffffiles regulary.
Me: … Yeah, well.
CP: B-b-b-b-basic-fffff-ly you can do t-t-t-t-fffff-two things. Reformat your hard drive, or pfpfpfpfpfffff-install a se-e-e-econnnnnd drive and [technical blah-blah].
Me: I’ll t-t-try to get a friend at work to do that.

And so on. On certain rare occasions, when I am nervous or tired, I stammer, and this guy was getting me started. I was afraid he’d think I was making fun of him. Anyway. I’ve got a friend who’ll look at the hard drive this week. And I’m making the most of my computer free time, doing freaky stuff like hang out with my family.