"Post No. 553"

Nervous as I am regarding purchasing any electronics at a yard sale, I stopped by one that had a pc for sale. (It's a 2000 Gateway.) Guy wanted $35. for it; said all his kid ever used it for was games. Had speakers, keyboard and moniter. Missing a mouse and connection cord from the moniter to the drive. Got it for $30. and took it home and plugged it up. Bought a new mouse for $15.00.

Couldn't get the moniter to work. Thought, "I've got screwed again!" Brought my own moniter in the room and connected it, and...BINGO! Looks beautiful! In fact, checking the RAM it has 268 (mine was a dinosaur at 64!) The floppies work in it and it has Outlook Express (a program I'd lost). Looks like I'll now move into the world of high speed Net since my DSL has little or no affect on the old pc. This weekend I'll make hardcopies of all of the email and net addresses I want to keep, plug in this new one, eliminate the games (for extra space), download my scanner, printer and camera. Looks like a made a good investment considering I was just getting ready to spend a few hundred on a new system.

My old pc has served me well the past 10 years, but now it's time to let it go out-to-pasture for a while. I think I'll save it though and have it wiped out and reloaded (just the basics) and use it for documents only.

Well. I've read up to No. 39 of Transmetropolitan now; still very much enjoying it. I'm amazed at how relevant the storyline is comparing them to the current election. Thus far in these issues, Spider Jerusalem has destroyed the career of the former president, and helped get a new one elected, only to be dismayed at someone killing the canidate's assistant (someone Spider cared for) just to get "sympathy" votes to win the election. So now Spider's going to take him down as well. The old president is called "The Beast", and the new one's called "The Smiler", and I can't help but see a strong resemblance in those two characters (Bush=The Beast; Obama=The Smiler) and those who are in office or running for the presidency. I've got 21 more issues to go and figure I'll have those finished in a week or less. I think the one advantage I have reading these as such is that it's more like reading the chapters in a book; not having to wait a month between "chapters" certainly has its advantages.

Picked up a couple silver-age comics on auction this week: Hawkman #14 (DC/1966) and Outer Space V1 #19 (Charlton/1958). Both were just fair condition (but complete) "reader" copies, but well-worth the little of nothing I paid for them. The Hawkman has Anderson artwork (of course) and written by Gardner Fox, plus it's a "Go-Go Checks" cover (which I always like). The Outer Space is from a time period that Ditko excelled in his artwork for Charlton, pre-dating even his first "Captain Atom" app.'s; 17 pages of his beautiful artwork and includes a "U.F.O." story.

Mom goes back for her follow-up visit with the heart specialist tomorrow. I have to work but my neice is taking her this time. If everything's okay she's then be able to have her stomach rescoped from the operation of July. She's doing well but complains about being tired, which is due to the medication the doctor gave her to regulate her heart rate, I'm sure.

Raked again for the 3rd. or 4th. time this season. Probably a good 5 more rakings/mulchings to go.