Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JB>  I was alarmed at how many messages I had to reply to,
JB>  until I noticed there was a duplicate of this one.
JB>  Now, I have one less drudgery to deal with.  

AH>  Oops... [blush]!  My bad.  I made a correction & the
AH>  original version scanned out from under me in the
AH>  meantime.  IMHO you've brought up a very good point,
AH>  however.  There's a serious purpose underlying what
AH>  we do in this echo. But it's not meant to be yet
AH>  another item in a long list of "shoulds"... so if
AH>  your keyboard doesn't work or you'd rather be raking
AH>  leaves that's okay.  I'll still be here, but I'm not
AH>  expecting a response to everything I write....  :-)

JB>  Oh... You know I had my tongue FIRMLY in cheek, right?


          Yes, I got that impression from the ""....  :-)



JB>  I took the summer off, sort of speaking.


          Understood.  We did much the same....  :-)



JB>  Raking leaves? Not this cowboy!


          I enjoy raking leaves.  Even though they're high in carbohydrates
I'm not about to let all that free composting material go to waste.  And
besides, I like being outdoors in spring & fall.  It's not too hot
& not too cold....  :-)



JB>  I did spray so much paint however, that I lost most
JB>  of the mucous production in my mouth. So much thinner
JB>  washed across my hands, that I have a cracked nail,
JB>  that just shed its hang-nail tonight.


          Good grief!  But of course you wouldn't think of using a face
mask or gloves in such situations.  I can relate.  I probably wouldn't
either....  :-))



JB>  I could go on and on, but I think you said it best,
JB>  that I'd likely die with my boots on, just not yet. 


          Ditto.  IIRC Pablo Casals died at ninety-six, while playing his cello
... i.e. doing what he loved.  It seems to me one could do a lot worse....  ;-)



JB>  The leaves? Whoever put them there, will take them away.
JB>  ...Eventually. <-;


          I must confess to similar feelings regarding a lot of the other
stuff which tends to appear uninvited during a high wind... empty plastic
bags, pages randomly selected from old newpapers, and whatnot.  If I wait a
day or two most of it will blow away again & come to rest in somebody
else's yard... [chuckle].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+