Alarm

It's October 1st, but don't be alarmed: I'm not going to talk about the government shutdown. It's the first Tuesday of the month, so the sirens went off here at 10:00 a.m., the monthly test, sort of a mournful, scary sound, though, since the sad sound means the sirens are working, vaguely reassuring.

Meanwhile, I was vaguely alarmed at the recent loss of sound from videos on youtube or posted on Facebook. I knew I would be too technologically challenged to sort out what my computer had done to mute or block sound, so I asked my son. Other helpful people had advised me to turn on my speakers or turn up the volume. I am not being sarcastic here. I do know that this is often the solution, as is unplugging and re-plugging one's computer when it keeps kicking you off the Internet. Thank you, Al Gore.

My son instructed me, by email, to go to Chrome, click the 3 bars in the upper right corner, and clear my browsing history. I had a choice here, about how far back to clear it, and chose From the beginning of time. I found this thrilling as well as alarming, and waited to see if I would actually explode, or just disintegrate little by little.

Also, I am reading The Fermata, by Nicholson Baker, about a guy who can stop time. People kept telling me I would love Nicholson Baker, and I saw him interviewed by Stephen Colbert and thought it was time to give him a try. Why did people think I would like a book about a guy who can stop time in order to take off women's shirts? Well, true, they thought I would like The Anthologist, about a poet, which was not on the shelf at the library, and Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, a nonfiction book about preserving words on paper, also missing, and I probably will, because I am pretty darned fascinated (and simultaneously alarmed) by The Fermata.

So, anyway, just because sound was paused indefinitely on my computer, it didn't mean 3 million other people couldn't hear the delightful daughter of Ben Ames sing "Tonight You Belong To Me" to ward off fear of fireworks. They could! I couldn't! Not till I cleared my browsing history From the beginning of time. And now I can. She is very cute.

And that, my friends, is a Random Coinciday in the blog.