Yes, I know it's Mother's Day - I'm ignoring it beyond this post; I hope you aren't.

No, she's not alive - it's been a while now.

No, I did not have a "bad" mother nor a bad childhood.

Both her homes are gone, my old home is gone, the town I grew up in is "gone" - buried in suburbia.
It's all a long way away both in distance and time.

It's just another Sunday ...

The Confederacy lost one of - if not the best - general on this date ... and perhaps the war itself. With the possible exception of Robert E Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson spent his part of the war confounding Yankees. Accidentally shot by one of his own men (with a .67 caliber bullet) on May 2 while returning from a night patrol during the battle of Chancellorsville, he died in this building at Guinea Station, VA on May 10. He was 39yo.

"He was martial and stern in attitude and profoundly religious, a deacon in the Presbyterian Church."

"Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, 'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.'"

Harper's Weekly reported his death:
"General "Stonewall" Jackson was badly wounded in the arm at the battles of Chancellorsville, and had his arm amputated. Jackson initially appeared to be healing, but he died from pneumonia on May 10, 1863."

Nothing is left of Guinea Station except the railroad, nor anything of the plantation except this outbuilding and marker where Jackson was cared for and died.

Tourists at Yellowstone (and other areas) seem to love getting close to fluffy buffalo. Traffic jams are regular occurrences; buffalo go where they want ... and stop where they want - often in the middle of the road. And tourists turn into looky-loos.

Then get the idea that a selfie is a good idea.

Even Griz stands back for fluffy buffalo.

"According to the National Park Service, a Cape Coral, Florida man was attacked after getting too close to the large animal in the Lake Village area of the park. Medics treated the man for minor injuries, park officials said."

He was lucky. Bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal; they are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans. They will kill you - intentionally.

So one day, I'm wandering not far off road in Yellowstone one day - edge of the woods but clear visibility. No serious wildlife nearby, nice day ... so there I sit, enjoying the view and sunshine.

Then this guy comes wandering by. Wa-a-ay too close - within 20 ft (what I get for not paying attention. Dozed off a bit) - but there I was; there he was. Best thing to do? Stay put, stay calm, no sudden moves - let him do his thing. (While I kind of slo-o-owly scoot over to the other side of the truck). He was aware of me but pretty much ignored me.

I didn't have a telephoto lens on when I got this shot.

He wandered on by, found himself a sunny place in a field maybe 100' away, then settled in to do the same thing I was doing (I emphasize "was") as I decided there was a different spot where I'd be more comfortable.

As you may recall, I had plans to occasionally re-post some of Gerard's work (those essays that Neo didn't place in Book 1 and maybe Book 2). To do so, required making copies of those essays. Rather than go through 20 years or so of writings and individually copy those I had possible interest in, I got a web backup application and dedicated a computer to spend the 38 hours it took to copy the AD site. (others - ghostsniper for sure - did so as well).

Being unfortunately familiar with computers and their evil ways, I double-checked the backup when the download was complete.
Ah-h-h ... just what I was looking for. So I made copies and backed the backups onto separate hard drives.

I should have known better.

Well, when AD went dark, there was a Gerard post I was going to put up.

So I whipped out the backed-up copy and ... digital dust. Nothing much was in the backup copy. For some un-Godly reason, the backup software made a backup that was dependent on the original site.

I do NOT trust software. I do believe in Murphy's Law - I trust any piece of software to give me problems at unexpected times.

I saw a meme today that defined what happened. Being a bit of a physicist myself, it rang true ...