LUNO

Don introduced me to his friend Gene Lehman, a long-time English teacher, now retired and living with his wife in a nursing home in Sandy. We drove out to his place, partly because Gene founded this Learning Unlimited Network of Oregon (LUNO) whereas I have my Oregon Curriculum Network (OCN) -- perhaps we're on parallel/convergent tracks in some dimension, except I'm more into the math end of things.

If you checked this blog yesterday, you might have caught some esoteric essay about a tradition of dissent within Catholicism. Those were Gene's words. While at his place, I helped him find a lost document on his hard disk, fixed his printer, upgraded his browser (which he doesn't yet use) and made progress towards restoring email, which hasn't worked for almost a year (I found a typo in the POP server name, but then at the last minute upgraded to Outlook Express 6, which broke stuff again -- I'll need another visit).

Don and I went to lunch in Sandy (a beer each, cashews and salmon jerky from Trader Joe's) while we did an 11 MB download of Internet Explorer 6 through dial-up (took over an hour). We also stopped at Good Will: I'm looking for a replacement reading lamp for mom, given the Costco one broke, but the one candidate had too many problems.

On my way out to Don's, my wife called from a red phone booth in Glastonbury, England. She wanted me to confirm her return flight with American Airlines, check the bank balance and stuff. She'd just been to Stonehenge that morning and was charged up about it. I'm looking forward to the pictures from her pilgrimmage (the new Olympus went with her).

Also, Nick phoned to check on my schedule for Friday. He wants to introduce me to the Spoon Man, a musician known regionally for his spoon playing technique. This guy is also Nick's ride from Seattle. Spoon Man is enroute to Bandon, Oregon.

After Don and I got back from lunch, the Lehmans had places to go and left a key so we could lock up when done. Don reassembled a busted desk organizer made of wood, then showed me an interesting back route from Boring to Foster Road. He led the way in his white van, with me following in the Subaru, along twisty country roads. Once we reached city congestion, we talked business by cell. We met up with a vehicular funeral procession coming the other way on Foster. Thanks to this short cut, I was only five minutes late meeting Tara, instead of 15-20.

Anyway, I was suggesting to Gene he might want to start a blog, and do his LUNO newsletter in that format. He asked for a demo of ease of use involving this essay I'd just recovered. I cut and pasted from Word to Grain of Sand, and voilá, I think he was impressed. I've since deleted the essay, which wasn't finished in any case. If Gene gets his own blog, I'll link to it from this post.

Follow-up: I completed the planned upgrade, including of Outlook Express, on Tuesday after Doug Strain's presentation to Wanderers (see following post). Don's reassembly of the wooden desk organizer was also much appreciated. Kirby to Don after we accomplished our mission: Meliptus rocks!