August 31

I finally got a new printer that works!!
After years of dodgy functioning of my devices, we (Margo,) got a new one on sale, absurdly cheap... so, of course, I worried that it would not only fail  to print but more importantly, print from my iPad.
Whoopee! It does both: prints from the PC and the iPad. (A public thank you to my wife.)

Today is one of those life-stones (my word for events that mark a milestone in one's life, either in a physical sense or emotional one.) August is in fact one of those life-stones that is shared collectively by a whole community - or in this case, the whole World : the day that Lady Diana, Princess of Wales died. Millennials all remember where they were when they heard the news of her death. It is burned into the collective consciousness.  For us baby boomers, it was the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated that marks a similar Life-stone.

On August 31, 1997, The children, my mother and I had returned from a touring holiday in Cape Breton; My mother was sleeping in my son Andy's bedroom; I had a bed in the living room. I could not sleep so was watching CNN. Around 4.a.m. AST it came on as Breaking News. I flicked between CNN & CBC to get as much detail as I could. It was stunning, an emotional  shock, This woman whom I had never met, died and I  was profoundly sad. I cried. My mum came down around 5:30, she was an early riser in the days before Alzheimer's cruelly took her simple functions away from her. We sat and watched the TV for the next 24 hours - straight.

Lady Diana was arguably the most recognizable woman on the planet, and possibly, save for the Royal Family, the most loved celebrity. The Princess is dead! Long Live the Princess, at least in our memories.