If not for the fact that I was on an iMac, I might have suspected I’d been hacked. But then, who wants to sound like he comes from that alternate reality where Donald Trump “sundowns” into paranoia and finds solace in ill-inspired tweets. 

Sundowning—“a symptom of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. It's also known as ’late-day confusion.’ If someone you care for has dementia, their confusion and agitation may get worse in the late afternoon and evening. In comparison, their symptoms may be less pronounced earlier in the day.”

I’ll just explain that suddenly my faithful iMac lost the ability to open the door and let me log in on ptleader.com, where I’ve been blogging for many years. It also took away my ability to send, reply to or forward e-mail. Altogether, sort of took away my freedom of speech. This poor Mac has been through 10 years of rough, wild and exciting times, and I’m putting it out to stud. I’ll finish this piece on its successor. Meanwhile, I’ve accessed ptleader.com briefly a couple of times on a borrowed p.c.

It’s been Apple all the way for me, and still nothing but desktop (no laptop, no iPhone, etc.), since about 1990. I believe this new one will be my fifth. The sales guy just laughed when I asked him about anti-virus software. Apple doesn’t even recommend it, he said, as their own current operating system is so strongly protective. My new computer will have 8 gigabytes of memory, pretty astounding when compared to my first computer (see following).

Even the cusp was beyond me—old dog/new tricks-wise— when computers hit the scene, but I managed to adapt fairly well back around 1990. It wasn’t easy, as I’d spent a lifetime dating from my sophomore year in high school  (thanks again here to the memory of PTHS teacher Emma Pringle) through a career in journalism pounding on a typewriter. I worshipped a fine old Underwood 5 on through the 1980s.

I was at loose ends somewhat after leaving the Leader near the end of 1988 and I’d just moved into my 7th decade when my more-socially-acclimated wife brought me home a little computer. A Classic something-or-other by Apple—black and white with a single (1) megabyte of RAM (40 MB hard drive). Really! I soon bought something called a RAM-doubler and armed with 2 megabytes of eager memory, I was on my way into a new life.

I promptly crashed that computer seven times and eventually named it Henry the 8th. The crashes came from my enthusiastic importation of all manner of untested utilities—eyeballs that followed the pointer, unusual alert sounds . . .  After the first crash involved, I left it with a supposed hotshot technician for 10 days or so, at a cost of $100. I soon learned that I could easily re-install my operating system myself with two floppy discs that had come with the computer, re-installing also the  eventual 100 or so assorted alert sounds I’d saved to another floppy disc.

Life was good. I spent most of my time on the early news groups available to family-history researchers—by surname, ethnicity, geographic location, etc.—and checking library catalogs around the country. Several years later, I published my first book of family history, having fashioned the 350 or so pages (to be replicated in large number by a commercial printer) on that little old Mac that never ran out of steam.

I pushed on through several more computers, all user-friendly Macs, and published seven more books, including the two major ones on Port Townsend area history. All were printed in keeping pace with technology. All original pages were created on whatever computer was serving me at the time. All books—about 4,850 total copies and involving some 3,300 pages among them--were produced locally at the Printery/Star Printing. Limited custom imprinted hard-cover copies (totaling around 365) were masterfully done by Dave Myhre at Duckabush Bindery. (If you want to salvage an old book by giving it a new binding, give him a call.)  

I’ve not kept apace with computer technology on through the years. However, my local service provider (Ned Schumann, et al at Olympus.net) has been a great facilitator for me for some 27 years. I turned to blogging on ptleader.com 6 or 7 years ago and hope to continue on with that into my 90s. I’m saddened that, after we’ve shared so much, my retiring old iMac won’t be accompanying me to the end of the road.