This morning there was a baby starling in the bathroom. Very cute but very confused. It was cute and I was confused. The first hint of it’s presence was when it pecked my bare foot.

I scooped up the bird and placed it in the window sill. The bird refused to fly away through the open window. A few nudges later we were still playing chicken.

My method for resolving low impact problems is to let them fester for awhile. If it’s still an issue then I’ll deal with it. Unfortunately, the starling has read my play book, because it was in the window 5 minutes later.

It was time for Lecter.

sam: Hello Clarice.
starling (twitches) : chirp.
sam : You think if you sit in my window sill forever, your mother will stop screaming?
starling (twitches again)
sam: Better fly home to mama now.
starling flies away.

In response to the Trojan/Malware/Adware rogue web site attack on my PC tech guy replaced nearly all my MS software with comparable products from other vendors.

Internet Explorer or Internet Exploder to tech guy? Gone. Now I use Firefox 0.9. Outlook Express? Replaced by Thunderbird. I guess these open source tech types drink a lot of cheap booze. Bring me the Maddog 20/20 photo editing program.

The cool part was that it all was free and easy to get running. All my contacts, bookmarks and email settings work like before. All the songs still play.

Of course, I had to learn how to use a bunch of new applications but it was pretty easy to get my swerve on. The interfaces are different, but not that different from the old stuff. Besides, it’s good to try new things.

So, I’m minding my own business heading into page 5 of new content for The Ridge Runner. Things are going well, dealing with the heat, my coffee is running strong. The need for a tiny bit of information sets in, so I surf over to google.com, type in a phrase ( a completely innocuous – nothing naughty), hit feeling lucky? and

BOOM!

I got virus! I got virus! I got virus! Yaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Tech guy was on it like no one’s business but it took more than 4 hours to undo all the damage. Sort of killed the writing momentum for the evening.

That got me thinking, how many people don’t have a tech guy to bail them out when they do something stupid, like say open a web page? A whole lot. Another question is there any reason opening a web page should cripple a perfectly good PC?

Oh, if anyone got an email from me between 3 pm and 7pm, it’s best you delete it right now. I probably didn’t send it and you don’t want what’s in it anyway.