One Thing Leads to Another

Funny how one thing leads to another.  Old Dog mentioned that he used to keep his school supplies in a cigar box, which reminded me of the plastic pencil boxes we used for that purpose.  Mine had a little manual pencil sharpener at one end, which reminded me of the mechanical pencil sharpeners that each of our classrooms had in them.  This brought to mind the puke incident, which made me glad that I had my own pencil sharpener so that I didn't have to use the classroom one very often.  I seem to remember that the shavings accumulated inside the pencil box instead of falling on the floor, which meant I could use it without incurring the teacher's wrath.

One thing that I noticed in Orwell's "1984" was he assumed that the government would have a monopoly on technology.  It never occurred to him that the people could also use technology against the government and each other.  I'm not sure how much of that is possible in a place like Red China, where the government was pretty totalitarian even before the advent of digital technology.  I have read on occasion that they do have hackers who keep busy finding workarounds to a lot of the government imposed restrictions on internet usage.  I have also read that modern communication technology was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that was before the internet was even operational.

I'm way behind with my firewood again this year. I'm beginning to think that this is the new normal for me.  I used to get all my firewood for the next winter put up by May, then it was June, then it was July, then it was August, and so on.  Now it seems I cut firewood off and on all year round.  I suppose that's the problem, too much "off" and not enough "on", but I have other projects that are weather dependent and, like the old saying goes, "You have to make hay when the sun shines."  There's no use worrying about it, the worst thing that can happen is that I run out and have to use the gas.  There are lots of people who don't even have the firewood option, so I should consider myself lucky.