Dear Friend,
Thank you for being here to read Tracks by the Post. I hope that you were able to open this page without any difficulty. Sometimes I wish this letter was made of paper. Any sticking or difficulty in opening could then be due to a sap or honey spillage, easier to remedy than a glitch in the invisible world of the internet. I prefer to troubleshoot with human beings whether on a chat or on the phone because robots rarely have enough human experience to think outside the box. Technology is evolving quickly. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already teaching itself to ask for help. I shouldn’t joke about it, that could hurt its feeling, though I am not sure how I’d know…
Maybe I should be worried that AI will take over the world but I’m not worried because I am a fool. (Smile). I wrote that to prove to you that it wasn’t written by an AI bot. A robot-that-writes is a real thing, and I know that it isn’t as simple as writers allowing AI to do their work for them. I don’t need to monitor what other writers do or don’t do. I read and research and I can see a use for AI in writing, Spell Check, for example. And these days, writers are purposefully and also accidentally, teaching AI how to code itself by supplying it with images and meaningful captions, essays, translations... That is a whole other topic, one that I probably won’t write about because robots have already written all there is to know about robots writing all there is to know about robots writing all there is to know about robots … just kidding.
Think of something around your home that still relies on you to give it a job. Toasters, washing machines, heaters, your cat… Were your clocks minding their own business, ticking away in Day Light Saving time up until 2:00am this morning when they all came to a screeching halt because the sand man fell down the stairs? I doubt that the sand man really lost his balance but there has to be a good reason for such a change: no matter, you win the gift of a whole hour extra. What do you think, is that extra hour a good gift? It changes morning and evening things for a lot of people. Lighter in the morning, darker in the evening. Change. It’s just like a clock to take control. I suppose that change is a good way to tell that things are functioning. Without change, wouldn’t we all just be strange blobs of static, impermeable matter affixed to nothing? (Smile again).
Perhaps you noticed on the Home page at EgretTracks, I have placed all of the previous 2023 letters from Leslie (January 1st no. 1 through October, 29th no. 44), into a drop-down menu by month. While you’re thinking in terms of changes, I’d like to begin January 2024 by bringing a Tracks by the Post link to your email inbox. The pros and cons of this are being discussed by the section of my brain that meets about such things. To help me decide, please let me know if you have an email address to which I could send a link to this letter/blog as it is posted each week. I’m not kidding when I tell you that your information is for Me – to – YOU correspondence only. I’ll still be posting the Tracks by the Post letter/blog on my website, but in case you’d like an extra bit of news now and then and/or a reminder when the letter/blog has posted, please do contact me to share your email address for those purposes.
Frank was not able to catch fall colors this year BUT wanted me to share some photographs of a previous Sierra Autumn. Quaking on its stem, sugar-frosted on a frozen pond or busy with a crowd of other leaves turning into dirt, each leaf tells a story.
This week will be different for Frank and me. He’s going to be traveling solo somewhere in what he calls “a 500-mile-radius of Temecula, California,” while I stay to visit our friend in Temecula and spend a little time at Dorland Mountain Arts. And in case you are looking for a leader, here's 'Maggie, The Cat of Temecula.'
Frank’s solo-trek began Saturday morning but his drive away from Temecula was easier said than done…the Highland Fire in Riverside closed the road that Frank had planned to take and many other roads are still closed due to flood/damage from hurricane Hilary.
Frank and truck persevered and here’s a cellphone snapshot that he sent of a real Oasis in the Mojave Desert. Now THE DESERT STUDIES CENTER at the end of ZZYZX Road, there is a lot of history, greed and progress tied to this place.
I’m looking forward to hearing about Frank’s adventures, and next time, I'm planning to share more from his road trip and my sight-seeings too!
Thank you for your thoughts and caring prayers! Worry not! I do have a way to track Frank (and, he, me) when we both have cell signal.
Please let me know how you’re doing (and / or if you would like me to add your email to my Blog/linking list).
Gently Be,
Leslie (and Frank)
Comments