Me Abby knew sumfing was up when human bean got our collars and leashes. Den I hares dat ebile big truck roar like sum angry beastie. I fink it was VET time for our annual visit, but I not sure. I not like ride in big truck no how. Ebony not panicky but I was all claws, paws, and meowed as pitifully as I could, but human bean chased me all ober travel trailer any old way and captured me right off!

Since Ice stressed out me furr was coming out and getting into eberyfing. You nose, white furr show up on eberyfing! Eben Ebony was covered wif white furr. She not mind doe. Ebony lubs traveling in dee monster truck. I not mind trucks ifing it weren't furr dee skeeter truck spraying nasty stuff for dem ickly itty bitty skeeter sects. Day make noises and sucks yur blood and make use scratch and make dat dang SKEETER TRUCK come out all noisily like hisspitting a cloud of yucky fur all dem nasty skeeters! Here is Ebony who not eben hab an interent boyfriend yet. I fix dat fur her soon.

This is EB! And dat dratted Abby cat is full ub hen stuff! Use nose sumfing? I not in lub wif dat county skeeter truck needer. It loud, rude, and dee noise is straight from cat hell and dat not bit good. And sumfing else, you nose? All dee catnap done and good and gone! Someone et it all. I nose I helped meshelf to it whenever I wanna, but all dat nip sposed last till dee next bottle. Now what I gonna do for nip? I need dat stuff to get real loose! Fink bout it. And who need nasty tomcat boyfurrrfriend wif catnip? Hmmmm? A few ub dem toms been fixed and recently gots dare brainpans refilled. Den day be almost okay and tolerable to meow wif.

On dee vet visit: I Ebony not too worried cause I fingered dat Abby get to go first and bend all dem nasty needles sews I not need any. As you would eggspect, I got pricked, prodded, and I eben growled and hisspitted. Ice was madder dan anyfing. I was first! Dat doctore vet called in as assistant with big, hairy arms to hold me down. I was all set for cooperating, but day were forcing dee issue by being rude, crude, and cruel. Dat what I fink anymeow. And day not hand out any catnapped-covered lizard pops for being good kitties needer. Now dat what I mew is really very extra cruel!

NP & GeoShop
NP or NetPublishers was opened for business July 1. We have four artists listed for sale. Yours truly [that's me if you want to know], Australian painter and poet Terri Hateley, graphics artist Tony Spaar from Texas, and horror short-story author Senaka La Palme from the great horror state of New Hampshire are all under contract with NP listing their artistic works electronically for sale. All other artists are welcome to submit their copyrighted works to be published, and all our customers are invited to purchase these fine works.

GeoCities GeoShops for their volunteer Community Leaders, of which I am one, is still tooling up for the conversion of all prepped regular websites. The website is a long way from being finished, but I intend to sell all my literary works there mostly in electronic form. I was also able to contract a short novel from Senaka La Palme to be sold at my GeoShop. More good news for this is just around the corner. I know you all can't wait!

All the above is now located at http://RunesofAo.com/aobp/index.htm.

Internet Stuff
Last month we had Email Monster, a new program to address the scourge of the internet and email called spam. Another program called Spam Exterminator has the same problem of working with everything except America OnLine [AOL], CompuServe [CIS], and Microsoft Network [MSN]. These three Internet Service Providers called ISPs for short have problems allowing the Spam Exterminator to work between the mail server and the mail customer. This product is being sold electronically over the internet at Unisyn's.

Windows 98 finally came out, and I installed it with only a few problems. Here is my review: The setup program on CDROM installed flawlessly, because I had followed all the preparatory steps outlined in Windows Magazine, which is also online at www.winmag.com. Preparation is a must for Windows 98. I did not have a lot of choices to make. It took very little time to install the new operating system. Once it was installed, everything worked with the minimum of adjustment. Windows 98 went online to update all its components to the very latest. I got my browser and email all setup correctly. I converted my hard drives to FAT32 which saved me a lot on my disk space. Overall, the installation was good, reliability is up, it is faster, and there are a lot of nice additions that all worked together cleanly.

WordPerfect Suite Magazine and the website that stood for years as the pinnacle of word processing is at an end. The sad news is that they are now out of business. Current subscribers are just out of luck with their money too. Why do all the really useful things eventually just fold up and die?

Hockey News
Hockey withdrawals are somewhat mitigated by NASCAR races, but this weekend there is neither. Aieeeeeeeee! Draft days for the NHL are over. No earth-shattering news there. New teams are being stocked and adding some anticipated excitement to this sports summer. The future is bright for the NHL except the poor treatment of Mario by his club, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Some things do not change like the greed and the nature of owners.

Number One Son
Jeff, Jessica, Michael, and Alexis are all on the internet now. I went from almost never hearing from my family to having Jason stay with me for six months, Lisa calling me when she can, and Jeff talking with me almost every day on email and chat programs. I am helping him and his family put together their website. Well, I provided the basics only. They have to fill in the special web pieces to showoff their family and pets.

Poetry Corner
More from the new collection called Moments of Life:

"What is This Life"
July 17, 1998

What life is this
When age means nothing
Time kills surely, slowly
Emotion overwhelms the heart

O, precious life
Sing to me
Of good memories
And, yes, the sad too

What is this life
But pain and misery
Wonder why to go on
O, tears drown the care

O, life live on in me
For I know grown old
The end should be near
What is this, life!

And star-sung song
Plays again and again
Bass pulsing my heart
How can this be joy and sadness

Can life bear all the pain
With the good, the love, the joy
What makes no sense
Increases the mystery

What is this life
But a fleeting gift
Between you and me
And the living is all
There is left to do

In The Park
I am glad the daily thunderstorms and casual rain is back. I like hot, lots of sun, and don't mind rain at all. It keeps the dust off the truck and fifth wheel travel trailer. Saves on washing chores.

My routine has not changed much. I breakfast at around noon. My latest taste is honey on muffins. Cheap muffins taste best. I try to run or bike, if I have not overslept. I do that once in a while and sometimes more often depending on how busy I have been the night before. I then have a few glorious hours to lie in the sunshine, listen to the lobster traps being built behind the pool at the fishery close by, watch the crane bend to the pool for a cool drink, and swim in the sun-heated pool. The temperature of the water is about the same for the gulf and the pool. Yesterday the water was 88F. Celsius in Australia is a different and lower number.

I am still looking for a buyer for the truck and fifth wheel so I can get a live-aboard boat. Actually, it is cheaper to live on a boat, but it is slower in escaping bad weather. The trick is to leave temporarily at the first warning. It would be an excuse for a mini cruise. Well, here is hoping that happens.

"The Mountains of Ao"
Tears from Ao continue serialized each month in the Internet webzine (an electronic magazine) called The Outer Rim at the internet URL of www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1225/Tears from Ao is also available electronically on the Internet at the web site called The Temporal Doorway StoreFront. All my completed novels and poetry collections are available at NetPublishers. I am working hard on The Mountains of Ao, specifically chapter 11 of 22 chapters. It seems that it takes so long to write, but early comments from everyone have been most encouraging. Existing proofreaders please contact me via email/snail mail to arrange for quick delivery of the latest version of the novel. A new sample will be posted soon.

The Dull Stuff
Inputs and letters to this journal are subject to approval by Ebony. All inputs may be edited for content and become the property of Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company.

The address follows:
Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company
PO Box 501833
Marathon, FL 33050-1833
(305) 743-9648 voice/fax [fax: voice call first]
(phone charges billed to callers)

Internet URLs: http://RunesofAo.com
http://RunesofAo.com/aobp/
http://RunesofAo.com/ebony/
http://RunesofAo.com/abby/

Publication date: July 1998
Author: L. E. Shaffer
Company: Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company &
Shaffer Internet Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 1995 - 2008, 2009 L. E. SHAFFER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FIRST PRINTING.