Hello, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in New Hometown, Florida on Tuesday, May 4, 2021. Currently, the temperature outside is 79˚F (26˚C) under sunny skies; with humidity at 88% and the wind blowing from the southeast at 6 MPH (10 KM/H), the heat index is 77˚F (25˚C). It’s gonna be a hot day, folks – the forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 93˚F (34˚C). Tonight, skies will be partly cloudy and the low will be 74˚F (23˚C).

Well, my new laptop is now in the first stage of its journey from wherever it is now to my digs here in New Hometown. Best Buy has not emailed me to tell me that my order has shipped, but whenever I make any purchases – big or small – I make it my business to know where they are and check on my orders constantly. I didn’t always do this, but after several incidents in Miami where an Amazon subcontractor, Lasership, delivered some of my orders to other townhouses in my condominium which – unfortunately – shared the same first numbers of my house’s address – 9708 – and the residents of those units shamelessly kept them.

Fortunately, ever since Amazon Prime started its own delivery service back in 2015 I have had only one order delivered to the wrong address, and our neighbors here are not as shady as my former East Wind Lake Village residents back in South Florida, so I got my order just a bit later than anticipated. Still, now I like to know not just when a package will arrive, but where it is and where it has been.

So…I’m on BestBuy.com, and I see that the Logitech – MX Anywhere 2S Wireless Laser Mouse I ordered along with my Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop shipped yesterday via UPS and will be here tomorrow. It was originally scheduled to arrive on Thursday, but per UPS’s tracking system, the package with the mouse left Maumee, Ohio this morning at 1:53 AM.

The laptop? BestBuy.com marks it as “shipped” but that they’re waiting on UPS to provide tracking information. As far as they know, that shipment is still supposed to reach my nook of Florida by next Monday. We’ll see. Like the mouse, it might arrive before then.

I am also keeping an eye out for a shipment from Amazon with my hardcover edition of Harold Coyle’s Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III and my Blu-ray set of Hemingway: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Right now that shipment is not too far away – 13.2 miles – from here, but usually the vans don’t go “Out for Delivery” till 11:30 AM or so. As I write this, that’s still over an hour away. I am willing to bet, though, that I’ll have my new novel (actually, a revised and expanded reissue of a 1980s novel I have in paperback) and the Hemingway documentary by 4 PM, 5 PM at the latest.

In the meantime – as I wrote yesterday – I found a website that has the sea turtle wallpaper that I’d used on my old laptop ever since I booted it up and downloaded it. It’s now my desktop wallpaper, and if the synching function on my Thinkpad and – when it gets here, that is – my Ideapad, it should be the default wallpaper on all three computers linked to my Microsoft account.

 May the Fourth Be With You

Since 2011, May 4 has been celebrated by Lucasfilm and Star Wars fans as “May the Fourth Be With You” or “Star Wars Day.” I’m not sure who in Lucasfilm came up with the idea – no, it was not “Disney” who designated this date as Star Wars Day – but for the past decade it has been a “thing,” even though in my mind (such as it is) May 25 is the real Star Wars Day.[1] It’s not a national holiday – at least not yet –but it almost feels like one. Star Wars fans on Facebook trot out their “May the Fourth be with you” profile pictures and memes, and retailers get on the bandwagon by advertising sales on toys, clothing, books, and other Star Wars stuff.

I already received my copy of the second volume in Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy, plus I spent a lot of moolah on Star Wars: The Black Series figures last month, so I won’t be buying anything today, not even with my Amazon Shop with Points rewards. I like to save those for pricey stuff that I don’t want to charge to my credit card, so unless Lucasfilm offers The Mandalorian on Blu-ray or Hasbro reissues the Imperial Shuttle for the 3.75-inch scale action figures for a reasonable price, I think I’ll pass on the sales, thank you very much.

To mark the occasion, I’ll share some of my favorite quotes from the Star Wars films here.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.” – Yoda

“You can’t stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.” – Shmi Skywalker

“Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi’s life. So you might say that we are encouraged to love.” – Anakin Skywalker

“It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. Once this crisis has abated, I will lay down the powers you have given me!” – Sheev Palpatine

“I’m just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe.” – Jango Fett

“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” – Sheev Palpatine

“ Obi-Wan… there… is good in him. I know there is… still…” – Padmé Amidala

“This is where the fun begins.” ­– Anakin Skywalker

“Wonderful girl. Either I’m going to kill her or I’m beginning to like her.” – Han Solo

“ I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

“I find your lack of faith disturbing” – Darth Vader

“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” – Princess Leia Organa

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.” – Yoda

“ Laugh it up, fuzzball.” – Han Solo

“I have a bad feeling about this…” – Princess Leia Organa

“Your destiny lies with me, Skywalker. Obi-Wan knew this to be true.” – Darth Vader

“A Jedi Knight? Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, everyone gets delusions of grandeur!” – Han Solo

“I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You’ve failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” – Luke Skywalker

“Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for… sister. So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side… then perhaps she will!” – Darth Vader

“Chewie… we’re home.” – Han Solo

 “I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy.” – Rey

“That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him. And now, it calls to you.” – Maz Kanata

“Escape now, hug later.” – Han Solo

“Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.” – Yoda

“Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it you’ll never make it through the night.” – Leia Organa

“ Pathetic child. I cannot be betrayed, I cannot be beaten. I see his mind, I see his every intent. Yes. I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true. And now, foolish child. He ignites it, and kills his true enemy!” – Supreme Leader Snoke

“In the event I don’t make it back, I want you to know you’ve been a real friend, R2. My best one, in fact.” – C-3PO

“I’ve died before. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be… unnatural.” – Sheev Palpatine

“ I am ALL the Sith!” – Sheev Palpatine

“And I am ALL the Jedi!” – Rey Skywalker

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[1] George Lucas’s Star Wars, aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, premiered on May 25, 1977 in select theaters In North America; it went on wider release about two weeks later, once 20^th Century Fox saw it had a hit on its hands.