Simon is never too busy or too distracted to come and see us, to talk to us, to get a carrot, a scratch, a kiss on the nose. Tomorrow, I’ll go outside and try and catch one of his meaty brays, his “call to life,” as I call it, and put up a video. There is little in my life more inspiring than Simon and and his call to life. And it is a gift to the world, it is inspiring to others as well. I always felt he had something to live for, and now I see what that was.
Dori writes from a small town in upstate New York that this is the first letter she has ever written to an author. She read one of my books a year after her husband died – the first anniversary of his death. “I was, and still am, on that unsure path of creating a new life. Your book gave me courage and reminded me that though we all walk our own paths, we are not alone.”
Dori reads my blog and has ordered “Second Chance Dog” from Battenkill Books. “Your life with Maria is an affirmation for me that life continues (happily) as long as one has hope and patience.” As Thanksgiving approaches, she added, “I want to thank you for sharing your life story with so many, myself included.”
Dori writes in a quiet, dignified and gracious voice, it felt almost like a meditation. Her handwriting was careful, even, the writing of an educated person who is used to writing letters and prefers the informality of a handwritten note. I thank her for taking the trouble to write me, and am touched by her message to me, I am also very proud to be the first author she wrote to. The blog, I think, is sometimes a spiritual place, even when I don’t know it.
You can write me c/o Jon Katz or Bedlam Farm, Post Office Box 205, State Route 22, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
One of the most frequent questions I am ever asked is “who takes care of the farm and the animals when you and Maria are away?,” so I ran into our pet and farm sitter – Deb Foster – at Battenkill Books today, and I thought it might be nice for some of you to meet her and hear her perspective. I caught her by surprise, but she and Red were having a joyous re-union and she obliged.
Deb does a lot of things, she is a former counselor, she works as a publicist, pet and house sitter, a waitress and chef, but animals are clearly her passion, and we are lucky that is so.
Deb confirms one of my long-standing and controversial theories, dogs and other animals do not miss us unless we condition them to and reinforce the drama of separation. We leave quietly and silently, and the dogs do not make much of a fuss. I ask Deb if Red misses me, and she says no, absolutely not. I am glad to hear it, I believe animals mirror us. I do not need for Red to pine away for me, this is something people need, I believe animals are often reinforced in separation anxiety. They are what we need them to be.
I love Red dearly but I value our time off from each other, I love sleeping wait and not having to feed and walk animals.
In the video, Deb talks a bit about Frieda, the dogs, even the sheep (at one point she is talking about Zelda and calls her “Frieda,” I didn’t pick it up until I looked at the video. We love working with Deb, we leave in peace, we don’t worry about the animals, it is non-stop love fest. Deb is one of those people who has done a lot of things and followed her heart. Her presence gives us the freedom the travel, she takes care of every single animal and even has been petting Frieda, a first for anyone other than Maria and I. Come and meet her.
This morning, I saw that Minnie’s walk is getting steadier, more even, less hobbling. Her rear leg is getting stronger, this is the first photo I have gotten of her moving, she has been lying down quite a bit. I see that she is making progress, she is healing.
The term “geek” has a negative connotation sometimes, but that is unfair, there are hero geeks as well as trolls and hackers, and one of them came to our rescue this morning after a hacker in France got hold of my bank login and password – he either entered my computer or Maria’s or some other computer with this information. The break-in effort triggered alarms at the bank – they shut down all access to my business bank account – and after some confusion and alarm yesterday, I called Stored Tech a computer security and systems firm in Glens Falls, N.Y. and hero geek Rob Barrett came running to the rescue early this morning.
The John Wayne era is America is long dead, hero geeks come rushing to the rushing via remote computer sharing systems, Rob took control of my Mac this morning from his office an hour a way as I watched in fascination and he went whizzing through it, repairing permissions, finding disorganization, scouring every file and e-mail message for malware (malicious software), viruses, damaged or corrupted files. There was nothing bad in my computer, not even a bad piece of e-mail – Rob says when there is trouble with Macs, it is almost always through e-mail.
Rob is a geek and has the storied geek personality (remember I wrote a book on Geeks, appropriately called “Geeks” ) – focused, professional, (he has six Apple computers at home) more or less tolerant of the clueless and amazingly knowledgeable and confident, it felt wonderful to have him rocketing around in the computer looking for villains and trolls, it was kind of exciting to watch. We got along, he was fun to work with once he understood I was autistic. (“I don’t want to tell anybody else how to set up their computer,” he said, but….”). I was happy to hear his suggestions, they were great.
There are heroes still, they just don’t ride in horses wearing white hats. Rob installed various software that would block any hackers at the gate, alert him at his computer if any damaged or dangerous files entered the computer and slipped past me, and put monitoring software to guard my e-mail. No system is fail proof, but I wouldn’t want to try and get into this one. There are all kinds of different protections running around the clock now, whether I am on the computer or not, and while he was whizzing through, he repaired about 1,000 obscure permissions and programs that were damaged – I didn’t even know what they were.
We live in a tense and different kind of world. I was actually feeling sympathy for the bank, vaults and guards don’t do much good in the modern world, villains can be anywhere, coming at any time. I have been on the Internet almost from the beginning, and I am not paranoid about it, or fearful of it, there are many worse dangers in Washington, it has been a challenging but creative and satisfying experience for me from the beginning. No one has ever harmed me online, except for some of the angry furies in the animal world, outraged over one thing or another.
But reality and change go hand in hand, the blog is my work, the computer my livelihood, I get messages, mail and images from all over the earth, sometimes thousands each day. My blog ought to be protected, and so should the many people who come and read it all day. If you watched Rob work, you would feel as safe as I do now, as safe as one can feel. I’ve signed a long-term contract, he is a partner in the enterprise now, and I have to say I will feel a lot easier knowing he is out there, he will know if there is trouble before I do.
If my French hacker tries to return, he will get more than he bargained for. We are protected.
I prepared him for Maria, a true technophobe, I said you will miss me in a few minutes, and when Maria tried to give him her Apple Store password instead of her computer password, I took the dogs for a walk. They’ll work it out.
Rob is finished with my computer, he is going to work on Maria’s, poor geek. I told him he has to come visit the farm, he said he would. I’ve learned in life that there are times when you need help, and that there is help if you are open to it. Another bit of trouble that was meant to be, that helped me navigate the world in a saner way. Here’s to the hero geeks, the John Wayne’s of our world, they still exist, riding software instead of big horses.
Welcome to my world, Rob.
