August Highs and Lows

August is my birthday month. I'm at an age where I'd just as soon forget birthdays, but since I'm getting so old, my kids seem to think it's remarkable and we should all celebrate. So that's what we did and we all had fun. We had dinner with two of our daughters and their husbands and my youngest granddaughter, who is 17. I was thrilled that she decided to stick around to celebrate with her grandma.

I got a new computer at the beginning of the month and of course had a guru transfer everything from one to the other. Of course not everything transferred--I have 3 old versions of Word Perfect filled with files as well as my Word files. We managed to find them finally.

What didn't come through were all my addresses in my address book. I now have Outlook where I had Outlook Express before. It may be a better mail program, but it certainly is confusing. Not only did I lose addresses, but I lost all my groups which I'm still working on.

The guru spent 4 hours at our house the first day and after I played with the computer and found out what all else was wrong or I couldn't find, he came back for another 3. Thanks to Mozy, an offline back-up service, I restored some missing stuff.

And this all ties back to my age--I'm getting far too old to keep learning all this complicated stuff. Had a big promo weekend that was great fun. Headed to the coast where I participated in a library's book and and craft fair, saw old friends, made new ones, stayed in the Santa Maria hotel where movie stars and politicians stayed in the hotel's first years--still a fabulous place. We headed down the coast to our kids' house and before the birthday celebration, went to the movies, out to eat, and I was the "cultural" speaker for a women's group. No one fell asleep and they laughed a lot, so I think I was happy. Of course that was part of the highs.

Another low was losing my Internet connection on the little Acer computer I take with me on trips. I did something wrong--think I can fix it, but the whole weekend away I was unable to get on the Net and do things I needed to do.

Another high, headed up to the mountains and spoke to a writers group connected to the Willow Bridge Bookstore about working with small presses, and the changes going on in the publishing industry right now. I love that bookstore and I always see old friends there and make new ones.

Received the cover for my new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery, Invisible Path, and also the galleys which I've corrected and sent back.

So, though August has been a bit bumpy, I lived through it. Now, it's on to September and new adventures which will include promoting Invisible Path.

Marilyn