Thanks (giving)

Thanksgiving Day is now past a couple of days. The leftovers have a little left than yesterday. The shoppers have had their day of what I call craziness and things are pretty much normal again. Even though the day is past I don't think that it is too late to think about those things that we we are thankful about. I don't know that I have more to appreciate than most people but at times I think I do. My life has been good in many ways and at the moment I have a good life that not everybody has. I was born shortly after WWII began, so I missed knowing about much of the hardship of that time. And being on a farm there were things there that made my early life better than some. I was young enough to miss going to Korea, and old enough to miss being called for Viet Nam. I did try to join the service but they were being very picky about who was taken into the service and a skin rash kept me out. I have often wondered what I would have done if I had gotten into the Air Force. The jobs that I have held over the years have been good. Sometimes miserable and extremely dirty and hard, but I was one of the workers that did suffer the annual layoff, at least until the company way sliding to total closure. And then I got an even better job that set me up for retirement. During those years I had as good a wife as any one could hope to have, and she presented me a daughter that has given me joy and made me proud to be called Dad and she continues to do that.

Now that I am retired I can move from location to location as I am inclined. I have a nice home, in many respects better than any I have ever had. I stay out of the area in winter that has the freezing weather and the snow and then in summer I go to where the weather is not so hot and that is nice. I have a bonus that I would never have considered. I am not sure how to define friends. I can think of a half dozen definitions that that vary from one that would exclude nearly all people to one that would include nearly all people. I will use a definition that includes those people that I enjoy talking to, spending time with, and would be glad to work with. So I have met many new people that I would consider friends. One of the reasons is the change lifestyle that I live. I spend time class with some, some I help with computer problems, some are neighbors part of the year. All of them share a more common lifestyle today than many of working years. There is more opportunity here to develop friendships. It is funny that I have friends that I actually never seen again, or no more that a short time once every couple years, and ones that I will see daily for three to five months of the years. No matter how long or how short I have known them I a thankful for their existence in my life.

In the years that we have been full timing this is the first time that we have spent Thanksgiving in Bentsen Grove. Our first one full timing was at the home of some very gracious friends of our daughter in New York the next four were in whatever campground we happened to be in for the week. This sixth Thanksgiving Day we planned to be here in Texas. The dinner was an experience to remember. Like most community dinners it was partly pot luck. The turkeys were provided by the park and each person brought a dish to share and some brought two. There were so many people that the dinner had to be held in two large buildings. I heard that 405 people signed up for the dinner. In the hall where we ate there were five groups that each had a set of tables for putting out food. There was so much food it was hard to believe. Another thing to be thankful for. There was so much left that the group that I was with came back for supper a few hours later and there was lots still.


PART OF THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN HALL

In the process of helping people with their computers I come across some strange things and I have learned a lot. One of the things that I have learned is never say "All computers -------", because as soon as I say that I see a computer that 'does not have' or 'does not do' whatever I have said "All computer ----". I will change the statement to "All computer should -----", and I am safe because it is more of an opinion. Thus I can say that "All computers should have a keyboard that shows the letter or number that will appear on the screen when a particular key is pressed." I went to a house where the computer would not allow access to programs and administrative functions. A password had to be typed into the computer to allowed. The problem was one I had never heard about. If all the keys were removed from the keyboard, put into a bag, mixed and withdrawn at random and placed back on the keyboard it could not be any more mixed up than it was. When "p" was struck '6' would print, when "6" was struck 'm' would print. To get the letter "t" it was necessary to strike the '\', all the other keys were fouled up just as bad. I finally was able to open up the on-screen keyboard which displayed the letter or number that would be printed. Thus I was able to figure out how to correctly type in his passwords and get access to the administrative function. I ran a system restore and that fixed the problem. At least for that I did not need the key board. There is so much to learn about computers, but they are so much fun.
Now if I could just figure out some of the other things that I need to know about them to help people.

Till later this is Uncle Duck