I put in the disk, it decided to read it! So I quick translated my two disks of Mound notes to the new format and read them into my new system. Now I have my notes and four chapters in my new system, ready for me to write more. All because I faked out the computer. Maybe it thought I was the repairman when I gave it a real error to work on. So I’m happy; it isn’t often a person can outsmart a dumb machine. Ask your mother.
But there’s a moral. Yes, you knew I was going to get to that, didn’t you. And you’re going to pretend you’re sound asleep, clutching your whistle, aren’t you! But it won’t work; here is the moral anyway. It is that if something doesn’t work the first time, or the second, keep trying, because maybe after the sixth time it will. I remember when you were in that deep pit—it was more like a well, actually, dark and lonely and scary—and you finally started to climb out, an inch and a blink at a time. You struggled and struggled and at last you made it to the rim—only to find that that was only the first hurdle in a mountain of challenges. So you’re still struggling to get back your own, one muscle at a time. You wish nature would just let you get it all back in one swell foop, but foops are hard to come by. So keep struggling, Jenny, and maybe one day you’ll get to take a giant step instead of a finger step.
One of our magnolia trees had seven flowers one day. Did I tell you about the magnolias? No? When we were having our half-mile drive put in, I was showing the man where, and I saw a little magnolia tree right in the path of the dozer. “Go around that tree,” I told him. Thus it was that that little tree was saved. But they cut the road so close to it that some of the roots were damaged, and the poor little thing’s leaves were turning pale and yellow. We were afraid the tree wouldn’t survive, after all; it was sort of in the Cute Care section. Then I had a bright idea. Maybe nitrogen would help it. Plants like nitrogen; it helps them grow. It happens that there is nitrogen in urine. So whenever I passed that tree, I—well, never mind the details. But soon its leaves were turning green again, and it was doing better. It’s out of Cute Care now and will probably grow into a fine tree in due course.
Your mother says the flowers in her garden just aren’t as pretty when you aren’t there. They will surely perk up when you return. You say maybe they need nitrogen? Your mother says Absolutely Not!! (No, I don’t know what set her off. Women are strange that way.)
I have just written a scene between Sammy Cat and Prince Dolph. You see, Jenny Elf told Sammy to find help, when the goblins were capturing her and Che the centaur foal, and he took off and found Dolph. Dolph can change forms, so he became another cat and talked with Sammy in feline language. But Sammy never says two words when one will do. “Where did you come from?” “Home.” That sort of thing. It was frustrating. Finally Dolph got smart, and told Sammy to find the captives. Then Sammy took off, and Dolph followed. But there’s a lot of adventure still to come.
The other day we saw strange bugs on the screen enclosure of our swimming pool. They looked like huge gray Assassin Bugs, but one was pink. Was it hatching from its old gray skin? Then a cardinal came by and snapped it up. We like birds and we don’t like assassin bugs, but it was a bit of a shock to see nature so directly in action. Everything preys on something else. We love the pretty colored dragonflies, though they are predators too. The thing is, they prey on things like deerflies, and the deerflies bite our horses (we do have deer in the forest, but I guess the deerflies can’t always find deer to bite), so we really appreciate the way the dragonflies keep them down. I found a dragonfly in the pool enclosure. We always try to get them out, because there’s nothing in there for them to eat, and they can starve. But they think it’s a
But there’s a moral. Yes, you knew I was going to get to that, didn’t you. And you’re going to pretend you’re sound asleep, clutching your whistle, aren’t you! But it won’t work; here is the moral anyway. It is that if something doesn’t work the first time, or the second, keep trying, because maybe after the sixth time it will. I remember when you were in that deep pit—it was more like a well, actually, dark and lonely and scary—and you finally started to climb out, an inch and a blink at a time. You struggled and struggled and at last you made it to the rim—only to find that that was only the first hurdle in a mountain of challenges. So you’re still struggling to get back your own, one muscle at a time. You wish nature would just let you get it all back in one swell foop, but foops are hard to come by. So keep struggling, Jenny, and maybe one day you’ll get to take a giant step instead of a finger step.
One of our magnolia trees had seven flowers one day. Did I tell you about the magnolias? No? When we were having our half-mile drive put in, I was showing the man where, and I saw a little magnolia tree right in the path of the dozer. “Go around that tree,” I told him. Thus it was that that little tree was saved. But they cut the road so close to it that some of the roots were damaged, and the poor little thing’s leaves were turning pale and yellow. We were afraid the tree wouldn’t survive, after all; it was sort of in the Cute Care section. Then I had a bright idea. Maybe nitrogen would help it. Plants like nitrogen; it helps them grow. It happens that there is nitrogen in urine. So whenever I passed that tree, I—well, never mind the details. But soon its leaves were turning green again, and it was doing better. It’s out of Cute Care now and will probably grow into a fine tree in due course.
Your mother says the flowers in her garden just aren’t as pretty when you aren’t there. They will surely perk up when you return. You say maybe they need nitrogen? Your mother says Absolutely Not!! (No, I don’t know what set her off. Women are strange that way.)
I have just written a scene between Sammy Cat and Prince Dolph. You see, Jenny Elf told Sammy to find help, when the goblins were capturing her and Che the centaur foal, and he took off and found Dolph. Dolph can change forms, so he became another cat and talked with Sammy in feline language. But Sammy never says two words when one will do. “Where did you come from?” “Home.” That sort of thing. It was frustrating. Finally Dolph got smart, and told Sammy to find the captives. Then Sammy took off, and Dolph followed. But there’s a lot of adventure still to come.
The other day we saw strange bugs on the screen enclosure of our swimming pool. They looked like huge gray Assassin Bugs, but one was pink. Was it hatching from its old gray skin? Then a cardinal came by and snapped it up. We like birds and we don’t like assassin bugs, but it was a bit of a shock to see nature so directly in action. Everything preys on something else. We love the pretty colored dragonflies, though they are predators too. The thing is, they prey on things like deerflies, and the deerflies bite our horses (we do have deer in the forest, but I guess the deerflies can’t always find deer to bite), so we really appreciate the way the dragonflies keep them down. I found a dragonfly in the pool enclosure. We always try to get them out, because there’s nothing in there for them to eat, and they can starve. But they think it’s a
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