Virus Alert Shuts Us Down

After being a part of a group of ten local authors at Cata's book store at West Frankfort, I dropped by Geri Ann's middle school basketball game and then on to Southern Illinois Writers Guild, where we had a good meeting reading and critiquing one another. Back home again and going to do my nightly chore of deleting junk emails and expecting to relax surfing the Net, I suddenly faced the dreaded "Virus Alert" from Norton--a first for us. Norton admitted defeat with this particular virus, and I did not even know until the next day how to pull their little warning window aside and read our email. By then I was packing and getting on the road for my adventure to go back to Cata's for an individual signing, up to my brother and wife's to spend the night at Mattoon, and then on to Freeport to see granddaughter Leslie sing in Working.

Jim and Vivian proved my best book signing yet as they generously bought books for many relatives for Christmas! We had a good overnight visit Friday night on my way to Freeport and another one Sunday night on my way home from Freeport. I got to see both Judi and Beth, but missed Willow's first birthday visit when Josh and Leana brought her by on Saturday. But I loved hearing about it.

I cannot say enough good things about Freeport High School's music and drama department. The musical Working based on Studs Terkel's 1970s interviews of workers in Chicago was an excellent choice for high school students in the throes of trying to decide what they want to work at during their adult lives. And the music and acting and choreography were all fantastic. So was my granddaughter Leslie, of course, who played the part of a housewife and sang about that career.

I had a great weekend and got home Monday. Gerald had spent Monday downloading various hoped-for solutions to delete or quarantee the virus, but he finally took the computer back where we bought it and it is now being freed up of the virus. I am writing on an old computer that does not work too well.