JennyB, you inherited your mom's big house, but were afraid time & maintenance would eat the worth.
So, how did it all go? Did you leave it all  and biked out of Ulster, or such?

-Curt (October 06, 2016, 04:03 AM)

Considering her last active was in 2015, I think you're going to have to be content with not knowing the story.  ;D

-wraith808 (October 06, 2016, 07:21 AM)

Just found a PM from Curt in my spam folder, so I'm dropping back in for a minute. It's a bit weird seeing a large part of my life scroll before my eyes in the form of past posts - reminds me of some good conversations.

I'm still in the old house. The money's lasting a bit better than I expected - it's still (just) above the level where I can claim Income support. I've got into writing - poems and short stories, with a novel in the works. I've done quite a few public readings now with Fermanagh Writers, and edit Corncrake, a local Arts magazine There's no money in that, but I do earn a little from the odd editing job.

I was sixty last June, and not cycling quite as much, but still hosting international tourists. If cycletouring is your thing, and you're headed to Ireland, you'll find me on Warmshowers.

What else?

I can't remember if I ever mentioned it, but I'm trans. I transitioned officially in 2000. I was quite difficult at time still living in the village where I grew up, pu Mum was my greatest ally.

That all I can think of for now.

Great to hear from you again, Curt.  How have things been for you?  :P

It's good to see the old names again.   8)

I was full-time carer for my mother from 2007 until she died in July 2013 at the age of 98.  She developed dementia, so I didn't get much sleep in the last year or so. Now I'm stuck with a house far too big for one, and not much chance of selling.

I got my head back together mostly by reviving an interest in long-distance cycling. I worked up to doing a couple of 200+ mile rides last year, and have hosted a few passing international tourists.   I'm still looking for enough employment to stop the savings eroding.  :(

I got a BlackBerry PlayBook after I sat on my Kindle, and am now using it for most of my simpler tasks (such as writing this reply!). I really like the smaller 7" format - it is large enough to work with but will fit in a small bag or a large pocket, so it goes everywhere with me.  :P

There is certainly a great opportunity for developing really productive apps. The PlayBook has a great multi-tasking OS that allows several to be open at the same time, but it would be nice to have a framework that allowed them to communicate with each other more.

Predictive typing has got much better recently, but it still has problems, particularly in quickly correcting mispredictions, or indicating that a predicted word has the right stem but the wrong ending. A really good predictive command line could replace menus for many apps, with each simply supplying a tree of the commands to which they can respond.