Lost in Computer Transitions
Greetings to everyone out there in blog land. By now, I'm sure most of you believe that Kilmurry House and it inhabitants have slowly faded away into the Irish mists somewhere or at least drifted off into cyberspace. Not true, only that Disaster Cat's old computer decided it was tired and wanted a break and her new one came with some jinxed software that wouldn't let her onto the web. Or rather, it let her one sometimes, but five minutes later decided she didn't really want to be there. Refusing to believe that this was a message from the universe to stop spending so much time in Cyber Land, she and Dell computers worked on the problem until finally it was decided to wipe out and reinstall everything on the computer. Now, Disaster Cat has a working computer again, but has lost all the nice programs her friends put on for her. Things like, Microsoft Office, which Microsoft seems to feel you should want to spend 400 dollars to have a copy of. Instead, I have a silly little "word processor lite" that will not read any of my backed up files. So, while waiting for programmer friends to reappear and correct this situation, I have been spending the last few days learning to make web pages.
And, the results can be seen by clicking the Out URL button at the top of this page. OK, OK, so pictures of MY CAT THOR, are not the most exciting thing in the world; except to all those people who know and love him. And, I realize that many people do not consider Yahoo/Giocities to be a real web hosting site; but it was still an easy place to get started. I tried Angel Fire, which had more storage space, but I wasted five hours before I realized that their webcliant had neglected to download the images section. Since there was nothing in the help section on how to correct this, and I could not get another template no matter how hard I tried; I gave up and went over to Yahoo. Their software is annoying because you have to redown load it every single time you work on your page. But it is VERY EASY to use, which for a beginner was important. Now that I have the hang of things, I'd be willing to go back to one of the other sites again. But for the moment I'm just staying put and practicing where I am. And I am happy to report that after about ten tries I was able to get my Joe.User site to link with the WebPages. Now, everyone here can go see Thor if they like. I still don't have a shot of him in his Elizabethan collar (only one was ever taken) but I'm working on it. But there a lots of others to chose from.
Eventually, of course, I'll try to get pictures of Kilmurry House, the horses, the dogs, the chickens, just about everyone really. Opps, I just heard a shot gun outside (Disaster Cat Jumps six inches from her computer). I wonder is it the fox that ate my favourite rooster the other morning (which I watched helplessly from the bedroom window) or has another pigeon just met an untimely end? There goes another shot? Hmmmm birds usually only get one or they fly away...wonder if its the fox...stayed tuned for the next instalment of life at Kilmurry. Never a dull moment....
Wow, a third shot! Your getting it here folks, real live reporting! Shots are being fired in the front garden even as we speak. I wonder if birds will be served for supper tonight? If so, I won't be cooking them. Game birds, especially little ones, are just not my cup of tea. I'd rather leave them for the folks that really enjoy them, which includes both of the mighty hunters in our household.
Speaking of birds and hunting, one really weird thing happened early this week. I was taking my daily walk, down the path from our house, when I heard two black birds screeching and yelling. Two, black birds with yellow beaks, were locked in either a battle to the death or a failed mating experiment. It was impossible to tell their original intentions because by now, they were both entangled hopelessly in the grass and each other. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought:
"This is suffering, and I don't want to ignore suffering.."
As I was pondering how to solve this situation (without getting clawed or pecked myself) I noticed that my huge Main Coon cat that walks with me was staring at the whole thing in disbelief! What were birds doing just lying their on the ground making lots of noise but not going anywhere.
"Ah, this will solve the problem," I thought, "I'll just step back and let the cat eat them! That will put them out of their misery and make the cat happy. Which sounded great in theory, but didn't work out so well in practice. It seems that, Lady Frey, said main coon cat, simple could not believe what was going on. She just sat there watching the show as if it was the best the cat TV channel had offered in a long time! Why it was so much better than just stalking the chicken run, oh no, these were real live birdies, just six inches away and no chicken wire in between.
Things continued this way for about five minutes, until the cat sat down and I realized she was not about to do anything. At least not anytime soon. So, I went to plan be. Gingerly, I took my walking stick and started to try to pry the birds apart. This proved a lot harder than I had anticipated because the grass had become horribly mixed in with legs, bird's feet and unmentionable bird products. I did eventually manage to separate them and one little guy just flew off and away. His companion was not so lucky as he still had huge, grass and mud lumps attached to his tail and feet.
"Now," I thought as the bird went through a fence and out of my reach, "now we will see the cat perform her true Darwinian purpose."...
And I waited for cat to pounce...And I waited for the cat to pounce...and then I waited for the cat ..who walked away in disgusts...
Just too easy I guess...
Meanwhile, I wonder if our human hunters have had any more luck? Good to know someone around here has some motivation...*grin*
Stayed tuned to this channel, and now the website: http://www.geocities.com/mlammond
for the further adventures of Disaster Cat and the gang at Kilmurry