Moving

It has been a busy time. We have to move because of my increasing disability. This home is on two floors, and it is becoming difficult and dangerous for me to use the stairs. I even managed to prove that by falling on the stairs the other day. Luckily, I felt up the stairs. My weak leg tends to give out near the top of the stairs when I am going up, and I did not lift it high enough for the toe to clear the step and I fell forward. The upcoming move means we have people coming through this house to look at it, and we are trying to prepare to move. We are throwing things out and packing all at the same time. Until the move and all is completed, I will get little chance to be here in front of the computer. Please trust that I have not forgotten you, and I will get back to you as often as I can.

Virus problem

I have gotten behind because of a computer problem. Somewhere I picked up a virus that did a great deal of damage. I suspect it was from an email. They can approach 500 a day in my writer account. My antivirus software scans all of the incoming email, but the virus was a new one that had been recorded yet. I have no idea what people hope to gain by creating virus programs. I suspect a lot of you had your problems too. I am back on track but it is going to take me a while to catch up.

Pain issues

As you know, I am a disabled veteran. Things concerning my injuries have made much impossible the last few days. There has been a great deal of pain even with pain medications. The major problem there is not the pain but the fact that it leaves me feeling ill all the time – it is hard to eat or drink. This may sound strange to you but what bothers me most is the almost total lack of feeling in my feet – that is due to the spinal injury too. I seem to be able to endure pain better than a lack of feeling. There are times I wish I could trade some of the feeling in my back for the lack of feeling in my feet – grin.

Democritus

Bertrand Russell’s book A History of Western Philosophy is still sitting beside me and demanding time I should be spending writing. As I said the last time, reading about the early philosopher’s ideas about the world is something that truly fascinates me. How did Democritus come up with the idea of atoms? An aside – I know it is thought he was repeating his teacher’s ideas. Back to the idea – how do you look at the world around you and decide it is made up of things too small to be further divided, atoms? I know from my education atoms exist, but they are made up of even smaller particles such as electrons and neutrons. I also know they too are being divided into smaller and smaller particles. When I get involved with math of that world, it seems as if they only exist as a “wave function.” Yet, we can release their energy to destroy entire cities if not the world. It is this tremendous flow of ideas that fascinates me.  I wonder what Democritus would think of today’s atomic theory.