Unrelated December News

I'm still working on some Web pages for the Mt. Rainier NP photo guide and hope to have them ready by next week. After that don't expect much between then and the end of the month unless it's news or something I think is important. This is because of two unrelated events this month.

First, I'm replacing my computer system. I have an Apple Mac G5 Power PC (PPC), circa March 2006 and yes just 3 months before the introduction of the Intel-chip Macs. Bad timing but then it's become the reason I'm replacing it with a new Mac Pro which is coming next week and I plan to spend the week of the 13th to set it up, transfer all the software applications and files, and install new software.

All my applications are 1-plus to 2 years old, since many companies stopped supporting PPC versions in 2008-2009 as did Apple and Adobe in late 2009. In short, it's aged itself out of business. While it's still useful and useable, it's won't be current with updates and upgrades. Such is the life of computer, and after 4 1/2 years I been a very satisfied user and customer. It's never failed, hiccuped or whatever and only rarely failed to install software which was always fixable.

The new Mac will easily last me 5 years and maybe longer if Apple contintues with the Intel chip and software companies support it. All of the peripheral equipment, two scanners and two printers will work nicely with the new Mac. I look forward to it, albeit my checkbook doesn't, but hey Merry Christmas to me.

The other issue is health. I've had on-going health issues for almost three years now, and more so since this last February and some issues going back to 2006 and some of the last few decades. It's been a slowly developing problem with worse periods as of late. So, the physician is working with the specialists to finally determine what it is which my physician and I think we know.

The specialist don't want to hedge their bets without going through the tests looking for the obvious to the less obvious. It's a matter of reduction, reducing the causes to the ones left in the face of the tests. And on down the line until the obvious is staring the specialist in the face, or in the test results, and they have that conversation, "Ok, we know what's causing the problem and we have a course of treatement."

Well, I'm hoping it's not too long, intenstive or diasterous to my health, the old adage about the cure being worse than the disease. But I won't know until later in the month and probably into January. Until then it's off to the clinics. And as I find time around these two events I'll update the photo guide.