Let not your hearts be troubled...

So Scott Moore's guy actually healed my computer--raised it from the dead is more accurate. And saved everything I was afraid I'd lose--over 200 sermons, a lot of poems, short stories, stuff like that. At first I thought it was gone--which would have been my fault and I would have, after whining and sniffling for a while, gotten over. But lo and behold they had created a new heaven and new earth called "Drive D" and there was everything I had already began to mourn. I never knew there could be a Drive D--it must drive Scottzo (which is what I call him) crazy that I have not an earthly clue about computers. But then, does he know what the Manichean heresy is or can he explain why it was J/E/P and D that wrote the Pentateuch instead of Moses?

I've never asked Scott if he minds me calling his Scottzo. I probably should. Someone offhandedly and with no mean purpose called me "Jimmy" the other day and I actually snapped at them: "No body but my mother calls me 'Jimmy' and she's dead..."

Anyway, the system now installed on my computer has an icon to allow you to play Hearts. I've always loved card games and become super competitive about them. So now an evil spirit causes me to click on 'hearts' and play for long periods several times a day when I'm home. Of all the 'games' in the universe--at least the 'known universe', which is earth, after all--baseball is the most nearly perfect game. I could write several posts about that and may. But hearts would come in second.

You either want them all--the 13 hearts and the Queen of Spades--or none of them...or one of them if someone else is about to get them all. And the deuce of clubs always leads and you can't throw a heart or the Queen on that round. And you 'pass right/pass left/pass across and don't pass at all in each four hands. Lots of strategy, lots of things to think about. Then how to discard on each round is another test of memory, reason and skill (as Prayer C in the BCP says). I love to play hearts and am now officially addicted to playing with Ben, Pauline and Marsha--my computer generated opponents. I haven't started playing on line with real people yet--though that's an option. When I do I'll write about it and someone needs to plan an intervention.

Ponder, if you wish, what obsesses and addicts you. But then, you may not want to know. I hadn't played hearts for years until it showed up on my computer. I'd forgotten how much I loved it and how irresistible it was to me....

But, until I start playing real people on line, don't let my Hearts be troubled. Just don't expect me to answer your email immediately--I'm playing hearts with Ben and Pauline and Marsha...