Since that home run I hit on the baseball diamond a few weeks ago, I’ve really been busy.   The following weekend I was in New Jersey singing in a massed choir at the Meadowlands.   Considering the warm ups, I was singing for about 4 hours straight.   That is more vocal exercise in such a brief span of time than I had ever gotten in my life.  By the end of the concert, my voice was gone and I was starting to get sick.  It took me several days to recover.   The entire show may be out on DVD by early next year.  I will keep you informed.   It’s OK to laugh about this too — I have no formal musical training and cannot even read notes.  However, I think they needed me to fill their “shower singer” quota.

A dear friend that I have written about in many of my newsletters over the years, Edward “the Bear” Gaber, passed away last week.   He was only 60 years old, but suffered for a long time from heart failure, kidney failure, and diabetes.  By the end of his life, his liver was failing and his lungs were significantly compromised.   Ed’s decline re-emphasized something that is probably said to you over and over again by your doctor, lawyer, and the financial experts on TV:  make sure you have advance directives in place.  In Connecticut this would include having a living will, power of attorney, and even a conservator.   Fortunately the Powers of Attorney that Ed granted to me back in 2005 included healthcare decisions.  However, the Connecticut Statutes were changed in 2006 to remove that particular power.  If you o want someone to make healthcare decisions, its best to appoint another individual as conservator  — while you are still competent.

Apple’s new or perhaps revised operating system, OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard, will be out in September.   The cost will be only $29 for the upgrade if you are using 10.5 currently.  The OSX 10.6 will only run on Intel based Macs.  These systems were sold in 2006 and later  — I’m pretty sure you know who you are.  Some of you Intel Mac users may still be running OSX 10.4.   (released prior to Sept. 2007).  If that is the case, you’ll need to get the Mac Box Set which includes the full upgrade to 10.6 as well as iLife (iPhoto, etc.).  and iWork (Pages – word processing.  Calc-spreadsheet.  Keynote – presentations) for $169.    You don’t want to fall 2 operating systems behind.

The new version of Windows  – Windows 7 – is set to be released on October 22nd.  As has been typical in the past, you should be able to place orders for Windows 7 systems from vendors like Dell about a week before.  Computers ordered between now and then will at some point offer a guaranteed upgrade program.  From all the testing that has gone on so far, Windows 7 appears to be much gentler and less resource intensive than Windows Vista.  Some reports have claimed that 7 can run on PC’s dating back to 2002.   Perhaps, Microsoft has done it right this time!