Good morning all:

Quote Of The Week:

“We don’t thank the axe for giving us wood; we thank the wood cutter, and that is why we are thanking God for giving us the sun.” — Rabbi Zalman Deitsch

This past Wednesday our Jewish friends celebrated a beautiful ceremony, Bircat HaChammah, “Breakfast under the sun” is a celebration that occurs once every 28 years to celebrate the sun.

The Talmud, the text of Jewish civil and religious laws, explains that when the sun returns to the same position it occupied at the time of its conception, the blessing is made. The Jewish calendar states that the sun returns to this position the fourth day of the week at 6 p.m. on Tuesday once every 28 years, then is celebrated Wednesday morning. Maybe this is part of the reason I drink my morning coffee—in celebration. Only I do it daily.

Well, Marcia did it again; and I didn’t catch it. The “it” happens just prior to laying in front of the television and usually about an hour before heading for bed. Marcia has a habit of then cranking up the thermostat to prevent any possibility of feeling chilled. No problem.

The problem phase comes into play when she then simultaneously pushes the “hold” button on the thermostat thus overriding all settings, including nighttime setbacks. She does this every time she ‘adjusts’ the pre-set temperature, which means it happens all the time.

This morning, 4:00 AM, I woke up in a major sweat. The king sized down comforter had been kicked clear of my feet—all part of my unconscious desire to cool down. It was now parked in a massive clump around my neck. Thank you Marcia!

Last weekend’s kite festival was great. The weather held till shortly after the end of the festivities. We saw it all, synchronized flying, and acrobatics, animal shapes to square hollow boxes. From kids and their self made kites to ones the size of a school bus, and everything in between. Marin and two year old Dinah both got their kites up then managed to hold them at the end of a 100’ line. They were very involved. They were very proud.

There were major computer happenings this week. Vince changed around a bit and gave me his slightly used, top-of-the-line Compaq laptop, complete with a huge Hi Def screen. So, even though I was running Outlook 2007 a reversal back to an earlier Outlook 2003 became a no brainer. Also, Marcia was soooo ready for something, anything, faster than her little desktop system—she would take over my old one.

I spent serious time creating a complete mirrored backup of my system. The theory being that a morning’s worth of porting and ‘mucking’ about and voila I’d be on my way. That was Monday.

Last night about 9:00 PM I quit at about the 98% finished point.

This morning I am proudly posting from my new system using a newly installed FileZilla FTP transferring program (one of several newly installed programs due to my changeover). My old file transfer system ‘balked’ when I tried to reinstall (as did several programs due to my changeover). Afterwards I realized just how much of a clunker my old FTP program was compared to the slick and updated FileZilla (as were a number of the old programs, discovered due to my changeover). It does go to show that sometimes we just need to let go of the old and jump, with both feet, into the new.

What a great segue into wishing everyone a joyful Passover and Easter. Buddhists mark Vesak — the day of Buddha’s birth, Enlightenment, and death during this period. So here we have it: my Buddhist cousins reminding themselves of their spiritual precepts: the practice of wisdom, peacefulness, nonkilling and nonfear; of giving kindness, patience, compassion.

My Jewish family members are celebrating Passover, and with it the exodus from Egypt after 400 years of slavery. Being given freedom and a new beginning is something we all want. So Cathy, I hope that the Passover Seder had you surrounded by family and cheer.

Then there is Easter, truly the heavyweight of this time of renewal: a celebration wherein a path is extended into eternity. For those of us Christians a remembrance of the horror of the ultimate sacrifice and the joy of that outcome: forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.

And for everyone – well, there is the chocolate-egg laying bunny. And we all do love our chocolates and sweets. Don’t we?

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,

Dirk