Category Archives: Electronic Toys

Hazards In The Work Place & Recreational Marijuana

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A friend of mine showed up at our weekly Thursday morning coffee clash yesterday wearing a baseball hat. That was odd because he normally wears a watch cap. I commented on his change of apparel and he removed the hat to show us why. Then he mad the mistake of allowing me to take a picture which is pretty much permission to share it with the world because he knows I do that.

Although it appears he sustained these injuries by thwarting an attack by someone who had a board with a nail in it, I assure you he got them in a far less intimidating manner doing a job that would normally result in injuries to pretty much every other area of his body below the head. Pretty gnarly, huh?

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What he does is supervise installation of cement forms for the purpose of creating foundations for new buildings. This particular building site was located in an area where the tree branches around the property were trimmed to about 2 inches lower than he was tall and he said he just kept running in to them. We suggested a hard hat but that’s apparently not an option.

When we shared the injuries with our waitress she said, “Geez! Did you stand under it and jump up and down?” We all laughed, including him, so it was OK. We feel his pain and hope he mends quickly.

At this particular moment it’s 0032, Friday morning. I’m up because I spent the last two hours tossing around in the bed unable to get to sleep. Diane was snoring peacefully, a sure sign that she’s doing OK, so I decided to get up and enjoy the night in other ways. Normally when this happens I ensconced myself on the sofa with my iPad and read whatever book I’m currently reading, but decided to write a bit. I’m handicapped, however, because the keys on my laptop are not lighting up like they used to so I can’t see the keys at all. Everything is by touch. A handy skill to have, for sure, but I like to look at the keys once in a while just for fun. It’s a habit. So far, however, it doesn’t seem to impede my efforts. I suppose I could turn on the light next to me but I’d have to get up to do it because it’s on a wall switch. Since I don’t want to get up, I’ll just keep hammering away.

Diane and I got our flu shots yesterday afternoon. She insisted. now my arm hurts a lot and I think the shot is the reason I can’t sleep. I don’t know why, though, because 4 hours ago I could hardly keep my eyes open was ready to go to bed. I should have done that. Instead we stayed up and watched just one more TV show from the DVR, then just one more, and before we knew it 10 pm rolled around. Then I wasn’t tired any more and it kinda sucks.

Not really. I like sleeping on the sofa and do it quite a lot, just not this early in the morning.

Everyone around town is gearing up for Halloween already. Familiar structures are going up in various yards that are constructed for the sole purpose of scaring the crap out of little kids seeking candy. Could be, too, that the structures may have an alternate purpose this year because, yesterday, recreational marijuana use became legal in Oregon. It’s going to be interesting to see how many drivers decide that, since they can drive perfectly well while drunk, adding a little MJ to the mix probably can’t hurt. The police used to issue tickets for DWI (driving while intoxicated), which turned into DUI (driving under the influence) because I’m sure an ACLU lawyer argued that a mere police office surely couldn’t determine if a person was really intoxicated. I’m sure that DUI would suffice for both alcohol and marijuana, but what about those who use both? Would that be a DUIx2, or should it be a DUI-A&M?

Decisions, decisions.

I’m sure our illustrious state leaders are hard at work on all these questions I have so I’ll let it go and see what the news media has to say later this month. Maybe it will be perfectly OK.

Now I’m going to stop and read my book until my iPad falls on the floor. Then I may get up and go back to bed.

Maybe.

Probably not because doing that would mean I’d have to get up and walk all the way to the bedroom. By the time I got there I’d be awake again so why bother.

Oh ya! Last Wednesday both Diane and I got emails from our new smoke alarms to alert us of the monthly test it was going to conduct, and to report that the basement unit needs batteries. The test went fine. I know that’s true because we got another email telling us. I think I’ll just let the batteries die in the basement unit and see what happens. Wonder if it will get angry.

I’ll let you know.

A Shameless Plug For Chevrolet

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At this time in space, 1225 pm, we are nearing Sacramento, home to one of the lovely California Kathies, one our way to join fellow divers on I-5 North. It’s a beautiful day, currently 73 out there. When we got up this morning it was 20 degrees in Fallon but it quickly warmed all the way to 45 before we embarked on this next to last leg of this current voyage. When Kathie reads this she might be a little miffed that we didn’t stop to talk, but we have a mission to accomplish that can’t be influenced by stops visit for any length of time. It’s not that we don’t love her lots, it’s just that she recently returned from Hawaii and I’m sure she’d be talking non-stop about that trip. She used to live there, too. Now, don’t get me wrong. We LOVE Hawaii. We just need to make it to Medford before the sun goes down. Not knowing what the traffic might be like going North so just don’t want to take a chance. So, Kathie, please forgive us for zooming on by. Truth of the matter is, I’m not driving, as you may have suspected, and have absolutely no control over the driver. It’s my job to point out the pretty things along our route that I think she may want to briefly look at, keep my mouth shut, and hand her whatever she wants. So, that’s exactly what I do because I do not want her to have to stop the car to punish me.

Today I thought I’d try something a little different and utilize one of the nifty features of Diane’s new car. It’s got wi-fi and works as a hot spot, like Starbucks, for up to seven devices. I’m using six of them right now – two phones, two iPads, and the laptop. I’m doing that just so a bunch of people traveling along with us can’t hijack our signal and use it for nefarious “things”. It’s kinda neat because it’s connected to AT&T, which is our cell provider, so I can simply add it to our data plan once the free three months have expired. Interesting to have a car on the cell phone data plan. Should make the monthly bill interesting, too.

In the past 25 minutes Diane skillfully maneuvered us through the incredibly complex array of freeway ons and offs where I-80 and I-5 meet. Most of the time interactions like that are frightening beyond belief, but not this time because I just wasn’t paying any attention. My Navigating responsibilities have been reduced to the task of ensuring our destination has been entered into the car’s brain before we head to a specific destination. You might find it interesting to know I can do this more than one way. The easiest way is to open the RemoteLink app on my iPhone, enter our destination and upload it to the car. Then, when we start car up in the morning, the destination downloads and gets us on the way. If I don’t do that, then I must enter in manually in the car. I can do this by pushing the appropriate buttons. I can also talk to the navigation system and tell it where we want to go. That method is tedious because she, Bessie, tends to mess stuff up and we wind up arguing. It has never ended well, yet, so I try to get the destination downloaded.

Other neat things on the car that I’ve fiddled with is the Driver’s Information Console (DIC – I didn’t make that up) which can be set to provide a lot of distracting information to the driver. One of them is the speed alert. I set it for 80 yesterday but we didn’t make it ten miles before I was severely directed to turn it off. That’s because every time the designated speed is obtained the car beeps a few times and my driver got tired of hearing it. I should have set it to 100 instead. She would have still heard it, but not as often.

The DIC, I really didn’t make that up, will also, if the driver is interested, display an accurate rendition of a speed limit sign for the current location. Diane never looks at that, though. She checks the tire pressure frequently, and the overall mpg which, for the first 1317 miles, is 27. Not bad. On this current stretch of the trip we’re averaging  31.2 mpg. That’s while running along at an average speed of 65+ (mostly 80).

Boring stuff for most of you, I’m sure, but I’ve got nothing else to do. I did pause to check all the devices and see that all their batteries are charged so I should unplug them for a while. Maybe I’ll read some of my book. See you later.

Oh, before I go I have to share something I heard on the news last night … Don’t know what station it was, but the reporter told us that a certain lake had “… six drownings this year, 3 of them fatal.” Had to stop and think about that. I guess the three fortunate ones were dragged back from the dead by a handy people who knew CPR.

The Garage Door, My iPhone 6, My Glasses, & The Garbage

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Yesterday afternoon I only had two things to remember; put the garbage can, and the recycle can at the street. Technically, I suppose that’s only one thing to remember. Also, technically, neither of them are cans, but it doesn’t sound right if you call them ‘plastics’, ya know? So, they’re cans.

I knew right away I’d missed the garbage man when I frantically rolled the can to the street when I woke at 0710 because the neighbors garbage can lid was upside down, the garbage man’s way of saying, “I was here.” Still, I left it at the street with the plan of hauling it back to the house later in the day, between rain storms. I did get the recycle out on time, so that was good. Still, I got into a minor bit of trouble when I told Diane about my failure.

Technically it was the dogs fault because neither of them woke me at 0530 like normal. Had they done so, I’m sure I could have beat the garbage man to the street. I’ll have to talk with them about that and reinforce it with a piece of cheese.

There are a couple of other reasons I may have failed to remember those important chores that are worthy of mention. First, my iPhone 6 arrived yesterday and it was mandatory that I configure it and test all the functions I’ve been studying for the past 1.5 months. Second, my new glasses arrived from the VA facility that makes them, somewhere in Idaho. Boise, I think. There’s a little difference in the prescription so there was an adjustment period getting used to them. I hardly ran in to anything so it was a successful transition. The main problem is that they have transition lenses that require me to wobble my head around to focus on things because the magic little focus spots are a little off from my old ones.I got gold frames, which Diane doesn’t like on me, so I envision a trip to Costco in the near future to rectify that fashion failure on my part. I only chose them because I liked the nose cushion. It’s comfy.

My new iPhone arrived while I was working on the other garage door. We have two of them. Diane’s has an automatic opener and mine is manual. Everyone should be very proud of me for taking the phone to my desk where I left it, all wrapped up, then went back to work on the door. My task was to attach a new seal to the bottom of the door. It’s kind of a problem because I got the kind that has an extruded aluminum bracket into which one must slide the seal after the bracket is mounted to the bottom of the door. Sounds easy, right. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s far from that. I did Diane’s garage door on Saturday and it about crippled my right hand all over again. The problem is that the rubber part arrives flat and must be formed into a “U” as it’s slid into the bracket channels and this covers the screws quite nicely. Looks good. But, the door must be completely open so the bottom of the door is located at the curve where the door goes horizontal so the bottom is not blocked by the frame in which the door rollers roll. Got it? Even then I had to undo the bottom roller on one side in order to clear the roller frame thing. With a little WD-40 and lots of effort I managed to push, yes, push, the rubber seal across the entire 10 foot span of the door. It was brutal and my right hand wasn’t working very well when I finished, but I got it done, by golly!

So, yesterday I figured I’d make things easier by propping the door open, about chest high, then remove the bottom rollers from BOTH sides thereby allowing me to swing the bottom panel of the door into the garage where I could easily insert the rubber seal. I tied off the bottom rollers to heavy things I found on the garage floor to keep the door spring from coiling up and beating holes in the ceiling after being ripped from my grasp. On one side I used a trailer hitch and the other side had a propane tank attached.

Everything was going nicely until I took the last screw out of the second roller bracket. At that exact moment I realized the error of my thinking as the door pushed the wood clamp I’d used to hold the door up aside as if it wasn’t there and slammed with a resounding crash to the floor. I’m sure it shook houses on both sides of us. On the way down it hit my sprained left wrist which hurt a bit, but I wasn’t concerned about that right then. I was waiting for the pain to race up my left from my left foot that I thought might be trapped under the door, but it never happened. Looking down I was relieved to see that my foot was actually OK.

Right then Diane appeared in the door to the house and calmly asked if I was OK. Having already assessed myself for possible crippling injuries, I assured her that I actually was OK. Then, just to get it out of the way, I told her what had happened, she nodded knowingly, and retreated back into the house after suggesting that I call Jeff for help.

I eventually did call Jeff, after re-learning that a 10 foot wide wood garage door that isn’t hooked to its spring weighs about a ton and a half, far beyond my limited lifting abilities. Once Jeff got here we managed, after a bit of testing, to get the door open and propped up so we could insert the rubber seal and put it all back together. However, noticing a small dent in one of the channels, into which the rubber gasket would slide, closer inspection revealed that nothing was going to slide through it. Ever. The door landed on some “things” that slammed those grooves shut tight in a number of places to the point where I knew the only way to make it neat was to get a new rubber gasket bracket. If I’d been thinking properly I would have reattached the bottom rollers, that are attached to the big spring, but I wasn’t so we didn’t. Instead, we lowered the door to the floor, gently, where it will reside until the new brackets arrive from wherever they’re made.

Last night Diane went to play bunco with her friends so I was left along with strict instructions to not do anything that involved lifting heavy things, or plugging anything into a wall socket. That pretty much limited me to my new iPhone 6 which I opened and got it all set up for use. I worked on the puzzle we have living on a table, too. The pieces are very light so there was no danger of violating the lifting restriction.

Now it’s Tuesday and I’m home alone again because Diane is working today. She didn’t leave me any instructions so I’m a little bit concerned about how I should conduct myself until her return. I’ll figure something out. It’d not raining very hard so maybe I’ll just go out and mow the yard.

Hope you all are doing well.

To iPhone or Not To iPhone

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I recently discovered that I’ve paid my debt to AT&T, honored the terms of their elaborate contract, and can embark on a new 2-year lease for one of the new, fancy phones available on the market. Or, I can switch providers and engage in a different contract that, in the end, will provide me with cell service anywhere in the USA and afford me a gaming experience beyond my wildest dreams.

So, I began shopping and doing my research in order to make the best decision possible for someone my age, with my background. Thinking that what i discovered will be useful to others, I’m going to share my thoughts about all this hoopla, and what I learned.

To put “things” into perspective, I’m 70 years old. Not your typical gamer looking for the biggest, baddest phone around that will meet my need to play Halo, or some other shooter game, while sipping a latte at Starbucks. No, I’m actually looking for a phone that that I’m less prone to drop, whose keyboard is large enough that I can actually type on, or whose voice recognition is good enough that I can simply talk to it and get things done, if I want to. I have an IT background, but that was my second career after spending the better part of 30 years in the US Navy. Just the guy you want to review your phone, right? If that’s a problem for you I’ll remind you that what I write here isn’t something you have to read. You can stop any time you wish. If you do that, however, you might miss some perfectly valid insight about the potential of this new world of communication gadgets. Or, maybe you won’t. It’s a crap shoot, so read on at your own risk.

I’ve had cell phones since they were first made available. Somewhere in the basement is a box containing a few of the flip-phones I’ve owned in the past. They all did the job just fine and I was happy with every one of them. I suspect they would still work OK if I could convince myself to be happy with GSM or EDGE service. Some of my friends still use them and we talk quite often so I know they still work.

Then, along came texting, a new way to communicate without getting instant gratification by interrupting the person you called while they are in a meeting, eating lunch, or in the bathroom. Instead, send a text that can be answered at a more appropriate time. I loved that idea even though it took me a while to rid myself of the incessant need to respond immediately so as not to offend the caller. Getting the hand of texting on a flip phone was a serious challenge that i eventually met, the the Blackberry show up with its standard QWERTY keyboard layout and the teeny tiny little buttons that I thought I’d never ever be able to hit just one of them. Happily, it turned out I could do it just fine and I learned to enjoy sharing information through text messaging.

Without drawing this out any longer than  necessary, I’ll just share that I progressed through the phones with physical keyboards and into the world of smartphones with those cute little keyboards that work quite nicely. I will add that the only rendition of a smart phone I’ve ever owned is an iPhone of one version  or another. I think I’ve had every version from the start and currently use an iPhone 3.

“Why,” you may ask, “are you still using an iPhone 3?” My response is, “because it still works.” Oh, I had my iPhone 4G just before the iPhone 5 was released, and was on target to get the 5, the  I started dropping “things”, and cracking screens. Most of us have done that, but it took a long time before it started impacting my cellular experience. To aid in my move from the 4G, I upgraded Diane to a perky yellow 5C, took her 3 that was encased in a nifty Hello Kitty case, and gave my 4G to Jeff whose screen was in worse shape than mine. I also gave him a screen repair kit knowing he had friends with fingers more agile than his or mine. Life was good after swapping the SIMS around to get things working.

The Hello Kitty case didn’t last long. I was perfectly OK with it, but Diane felt I should have something a little more “manly”. Being a really good husband, I folded and sadly moved my phone to a new case and I’ve been using it to successfully communicate for the requisite 2 years without fail. And, I haven’t dropped it until recently. Thanks to the case, it didn’t break anything, but dropping it is a concern. I have this vision of wandering abound in Costco, or another equally large retail outlet, with a broke phone that just dropped and will not allow me to communicate with my beloved wife, Diane.

Since we actually were at Costco, I visited the phone kiosk and talked with Seth to learn to advantages of, say, a Samsung G5 over the new iPhone 6. Seth whipped out his Samsung Note 3 and gave me a dazzling exhibition of how accurate Samsung voice recognition is, and how incredibly accurate it’s ability to decipher notes jotted with a stylus and stuff the info into his contact information. He displayed another neat feature that allowed him to wake his phone up simply by talking to it. It was readily evade that he’s done this numerous times and has the spiel down pat, and that he’s a diehard Samsung Guy. He had me convinced that I should abandon the iPhone in favor of an Android unit running an OS with a cute name. I was totally hooked and called AT&T right then to cancel the iPhone 6 I had ordered the previous day. Yup, I was moving on to a platform that would do everything I asked without ever having to touch it. How convenient is that?

I couldn’t do anything about “moving on” for 24 hours from the time I cancelled my order so I had some time on my hands that I put to good use researching The iPhone 5, Samsung G5, and the new Samsung Note 4. I read dozens of reviews from analysts who switched from Android to the iPhone and from iPhone to Android all for valid reasons that fit their needs. Some were full of technical data about how good, or bad, one camera was compared to the other, but the one that resonated with me, after a long dissertation about the merits of each platform, simply said, that if the platform you’re using works for you, does what you need it to do, there’s really not a reason to change. Changing, for me, would entail learning an entirely foreign system and I’m just not inclined to do that. So, I got back online with AT&T and ordered my new iPhone 6, again. It will be here in 7-14 days. I actually toyed with the idea of getting a 6 Plus, but figured the 6 was about the perfect size for me to wrap my arthritic fingers around and engage my trigger fingers to lock it in place without fear of dropping it. The 6 Plus, though nice, would to allow me to engage the trigger fingers, however, so the 6 is it.

Now, if I’d just ignored Seth, my new phone would have been here tomorrow. Now I must wait.

Fun With Phones

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Just for fun, I thought I’d share a little bit of the kinds of texts I share with brother Jack.

It all started when he sent a text, out of the blue, reporting that he was just leaving the Kaiser emergency room. That was a shock, so questions were asked, and answered, reassuring us it was more perplexing than life-threatening. I let you gnaw on that for a while as I share the ensuing exchange that started when I shared that if St. Helens wins next Tuesday against Putman, they will play for the state 5A title at Ordhon Statd.

For some odd reason, my texting spell checker allowed that, probably because both words were capitalized. That led to the following …

Jack: Where is Ordhon stadium?

Me: Hmmmmm. Oregon State. Guess I shouldn’t be so cocky by pushing send before checking the spell checker results.

Jack: Thx

Me: Urwelcum

Jack: Tu

Me: Grate

Jack: No sweet

Me: Okay. Ewe wind.

Jack: K

What fun …

 

46 Years, Lions, & a God Moment

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Yesterday was Easter so after church we had our traditional free for all lunch for anyone who wanted to show up. Pretty much. In attendance were Jean, Me, Diane, Jeff, Daniel, Jennifer, Cedric, Lydia, Brianna, Alyssa, Jeran, Gilligan, and Baylee. Those are family members. You may question, Brianna, and Alyssa, but we count the kid’s friends as family. Also there was our friend Ron, from church, and our friend Gretchen who stopped by on her way home from Rainier. Gretchen and I worked together at PGE for many, many, many years. She’s still there, working hard.

The bigger kids, including Jeff, scattered candy filled plastic eggs all over the yard, front and back, for Gilligan and Baylee to find. There was no method to the distribution process, and no one had any idea how many of those eggs were scattered around so I have just cause for believing eggs will be showing up the next time I mow. After everyone left yesterday I found two. Today I found a couple more. I’ll get a better count with the mower because they’ll make a lot of noise as they go flying up the grass catcher tube.

Yesterday was also Adolph Hitler’s birthday, in case anyone was wondering.

The absolutely best part of yesterday, however, was that it marked the 46th year of wedded bliss for Me. Yes, just me, because I’m sure all those years weren’t blissful for Diane. Most of them, maybe, but not all. I know that’s true because I’ve been told. Thankfully, for Diane, the blissful part has been mostly on this end of the calendar. It just keeps getting better. Really, it does. Ask her.

After all the activity yesterday, it took us a while to wind down, then we watched the Blazers beat the Rockets in overtime. That caused an emotional outburst of adrenalin that didn’t go away until after midnight. So, there we were, laying in bed with our iPads at 0004 this morning. Diane’s checking her Facebook and I’m reading my book. I hear a little ding from my iPad and a little note pops up from Diane wishing me a Happy 46th. We’re like 15 inches apart, and she sends me a text. It was great, and I answered her back. Getting old and knowing how to use technology is quite fun.

Today I pulled weeds from the flower bed out front. We’ve both been working on it during the sunny days, a little at a time. This morning, when Diane told me today was the last sunny for the next week, I donned my pulling weed clothes and got to work. Diane stayed inside because that kind of outside activity isn’t kind to her immune system. Additionally, our neighbor was mowing his yard which is worse than simply touching weeds. So, I was on my own, and that’s OK.

I got everything pulled across the front, but not all the way around the corner. That was my goal, actually, so started gathering all the tools scattered in my wake so I could put them away. The net results of my efforts filled the little trailer I pull around with the mower when the grass catcher isn’t attached. I do that for fun sometimes. Just hook it up and pull it around the yard. Sometimes I put something in it and move it to another location. Just for fun. Really. Makes me feel like a real farmer.

Just as I began gathering my tools, it started sprinkling. That’s the rain that wasn’t supposed to arrive until after dark. So, thanks to Karma, I chose the exact right time to end my task.

Another good reason for ending it was because we had a Lions club meeting to attend. Diane was scheduled for the program and had Mary from SHEDCO lined up to speak. So, we got there early in order to be there when she arrived.

Shortly after we arrived a strange gentleman arrived so I introduced myself. I do that. His name was David. Expecting Mary as the only stranger for the evening, I asked about her and he said Mary had to cancel. This led me to believe that he was filling in for her as the SHEDCO speaker.

Then Mary showed up and threw both Diane and I into a momentary fit of mental frenzy as we tried to figure out what was going on. The reason turned out to be that Diane and Andy swapped program dates because we weren’t going to be in town on Diane’s assigned date. So, Diane wound up with today, but Andy forgot and arranged for David to come speak. David, or Dr. David Krier, founder of Volunteer Voyages, LLC, came prepared to give us a pictorial presentation about his organization. All he needed was some A/V equipment. But, we don’t have anything like that. All we had available was a screen that’s always there in the back room of the Village Inn Restaurant where we have meetings.

So, we had two presentations available: David, who had a flash drive but no A/V equipment, and Mary who, gee, had a laptop and a projector. David and Mary had a little discussion and cleared things up as to who would present by determining who came the farthest. That would be David who lives in St. Paul. The one in Oregon, not Minnesota. Mary lives in St. Helens.

So, the double booking worked out great for everyone, even me. David gave his presentation using Mary’s equipment, and Mary sat and watched. The real upside for me is that I was able to secure Mary as the speaker for our May 5th meeting. That’s the day I’m responsible for the program. She was a really good sport about the circumstances.

We call things like that a God Moment.

My “Golden” Post – # 555

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Greetings and hallucinations to all on this momentous day. Who would have thought that 3 short years ago, or thereabouts, I’d make it this far. I was sure the WordPress moderators would have tired of me by now and just kicked me off for no reason other than they wanted to. Just for fun. But, they haven’t. Yet. So, I will continue until I’ve used up all the nouns, consonants, and adjectives, to name a few, that I can. Even if they don’t always make sense.

I have nothing special planned for this entry so don’t expect much. It will be the normal drivel that pops into my head when I touch my … when I touch my keyboard. Something just takes over. I’m sure all of you have had this same experience at some time or other … no thought involved, just type away and see what happens.

First, Diane is on Day 3 of an IBS attack and finds peace only in resting. I totally understand and let her be. Yesterday we talked about how awful IBS can be and I asked, “well, would you rather be sick at home, or in paradise?” She smiled and said, “paradise, of course.” So here we are. The upside is that we aren’t spending very much on food. At the moment I’m having crackers, Tillamook cheese, and water. I love that stuff, so it’s not tough. She will rally, I know, if neither of us push it.

Then we’ll go see the whales.

While flitting away the time I got on my Facebook account and did something I’ve wanted to do for a while now … go through Facebook’s list of suggested friends. I was amazed at how many there were who had crossed the ‘friend boundary’ by being friends with someone I was friends with. Merrily I clicked along, sending friend request after friend request to those who either had names I actually recognized, or those with whom Diane was already a friend. This took a lot of time and, as I got toward what I thought was the bottom of the list, the names became more and more obscure. You know, like you think you should know them but you aren’t quite sure, and some of the mutual friends aren’t familiar and you couldn’t remember ever friending them? Like that.

Throughout my journey, on that list, I kept seeing suggestions for friends who appeared to not have any friends at all. At least not mutual friends. They just stood sadly alone with no names listed in the adjacent column, and it began to concern me. In order to assuage this empathetic attack on my conscience, I decided to send friend requests to them, too.

At first I sent to them all but the list seemed to be never-ending so I switched to every other one. Still, it went on and on. Then to every third one until, finally, I apparently clicked on the wrong thing, or the Facebook ‘People’ noticed what was going on, and I was summarily dumped out to my home page.

Using that as an indicator that it was time to stop what I was doing, I did that. Now I’m here. But I’m still thinking about all those poor people who don’t appear to have friends. And, I wonder how their names wound up on that list. I suspect I’ll find out.

So, if you are reading this on my Facebook page, and don’t know me, it’s OK. We’re friends. Honest. You can trust me. Ask anyone.

Thinking about getting that ‘prompt’ to quit brings to mind how many events in my life are dictated by similar ‘prompts’. Like, I need a screw, or a bolt, so I go to my huge stash of screws and bolts to look for just the right one. Usually, I’m looking for an even number, like 2 or 4, but sometimes I only need one. It has to match one I already have, though. Normally I can’t find one just like the one I have, so I start digging around looking for matching screws or bolts. The rule is that the first group of 4 I find are the ones I’m supposed to use, and it works out surprisingly well. Sometimes I’ll find 3, the 4th one is illusive, so I’ll start another matching group, taking the first to make the cut.

On the rare occasions that I only need one, I’ll find what I think is the one I need then it magically falls from my hand disappearing either back into the screw/bolt box, or onto the shop floor. I take that as an indicator that I had the wrong one and go back to the box and, usually, quickly find a replacement. It’s pretty amazing.

Getting a parking place works the same way. If someone beats me to the spot I was looking at it means I wasn’t supposed to park there for some reason. I just get another one. Simple. A lot less stressful than jumping up and down in anger because that ‘jerk’ took ‘my’ spot. Karma, in response, usually kicks in and causes at least one of the cars they parked between to be too close, allowing the owner to rightfully slam their door into the parking thief because it’s the only way they can get into theirs. Ya know? It all works out.

I’m kinda looking at Diane’s situation in the same manner. If we were home and she had an attack like this, she’d be up and about feeling that it was necessary for her to be doing ‘something.’ Here, she can rest and get over it. Her concern, of course, is that I’m not having any fun. Well, I’ve done all this before, a couple of times, and I don’t feel cheated in even a small way. My concerns are with her.

I know … it makes me sound like a saint of some kind, right? Saint Jerrie just doesn’t have a ring of truth in it, however, so I’ll just stick with GMM. That’s a Good Married Man, as opposed to a BMM. Some BMMs are rightfully associated with a BBM, or Bad  (pick a word) Movement.

I hear Diane navigating so it’s time to terminate this and see how things are going.

Hope you all have a great day.

Every day I wake up is awesome!

Oh ya! I didn’t really randomly send friend requests to all those strangers. I was very selective …

Searches

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Sadly, I haven’t been very productive this year, but I have every intention of turning that around.

Soon.

While being unproductive, I found it necessary to review comments I found on a web site I follow called Slashdot.org. It’s an interesting site that touches on a ton of subjects, many of which interest me. Many of which do not interest me, also. I get daily emails from the site with links to the day’s selected topics.

Like this …

Every once in a while I find one that interest me enough that causes me to read the inevitable comments from people all over the world with wildly varying points of view. The one that caught my eye today was Suspicionless Border Searches of Laptops Ruled Constitutional . Some of you may find that boring in the extreme, and probably rightfully so because I think the minority of people in the world travel without laptops. Tablets and smart phones yes. Lots of them. The ensuing comments regarding this issue, which you can read, if you are moved in that direction, was interesting because they cot into quoting Consitutional Rights, and how risky it is to enter the US with a laptop. Personally I don’t see any problem with that because getting searched when going from one country to another is pretty much routine and expected.
I just don’t see the problem. Your suitcase is going to get searched, too, and everything, including your laptop, is going to get x-rayed. And, if a customs official, from any country, deems that you look a bit “iffy” then you will get more in-depth scrutiny. Some may call that profiling, but I’m OK with the term “gut instinct”. Someone makes a judgement decision and you get to visit with the security team, for whatever country you’re trying to enter, a little longer than most.
Big deal. I’m guessing that most of those spouting about abuse of our rights with regard to this topic would freak out if they found out you can’t take an apple into California from Oregon, Nevada, or Arizona. I’m here to tell  you that I’m less worried about my laptop on entering the USA than I am about attempting to get past the Fruit Guards at the California borders with an unauthorized apple, banana, or orange.
If the guard has a suspicion about you, they’re going to search everything in your vehicle. I think they even have dogs and cats trained in the art of ferreting out hidden fruit. I either read that somewhere or just made it up. Hard to tell. Now, the issue with laptops is that there doesn’t have to be a suspicion to search it. If the guard wants to do it, it’s going to get done.
So, does it concern any of you? The laptop thing, I mean. If you leave the country, are you worried that you might be subject to a frisking, of yourself and your electronic toys?
I’m curious.
Personally, I’m all in favor of frisking, electronically or otherwise. Wave your magic wand over me, or touch me if you must …

Tour Hillsboro For Less Than $400

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How’s the new elbow, KC?

Are your hands getting along, yet, or is it too early to tell?

Diane took me to my dermatologist today to visit the rash on my back. I know, that’s personal but I had to share that since KC hasn’t objected (yet) to my mention of her faulty elbow. Knowing this, now, you may be happy to learn that my dermatologist burned 13 holes in my face and at least that many in my back. She uses a little spray can of liquid nitrogen to burn those holes, and they hurt, in case you don’t know. Thankfully, there isn’t any skin left on my ears so she didn’t have to burn any holes there. Ears hurt the worst.

So, now, I have 20-30 more spots on my body that will never tan. If this keeps going, it’s going to be like freckles in reverse. Sometimes I think they should just dip me in liquid nitrogen, let thaw a bit, then send me home.

I’ll include a photo of the damage as soon as KC comes up with a photo of the guy she got her new elbow from.

After visiting the doc, at 1030, we went to Tom & Linda’s to deliver some Avon stuff, and to visit with Tom for a bit. They only live a few blocks from where the appointment was. Unfortunately, for us, Tom picked that day to have some blood work down so we missed him. We did get to visit with Kyle a bit, however, so all was not lost. Turns out we missed Tom by a whisker as we left and he returned. There will be another day.

IHOP got our attention for breakfast so we stopped and had some. Our morning yogurt was long gone. We both had the Senior 2+2+2 which was very good. Then we headed for Costco.

I think we went to get paper plates, napkins, and little cups for the church. When done, however, it cost us over $300 to exit the store. The large part of that was getting ink for our printers. One of us isn’t too frugal when it comes to printing ‘stuff’. I won’t say which one because I don’t want to get into trouble. Again.

From Costco we went to the Washington County Habitat For Humanity Restore Store, or the WCHFHRS, for short. We were looking for either a window, or a piece of plexiglas to fill the hole left by the storm window that suspiciously fell out of the right side of the living room window when Diane opened it a few years ago. Those things just can hold up to a 15 foot fall to the ground. Thinking it would no longer be needed, I compounded the problem by tossing the frame, into which a new piece of glass could have easily been inserted, into the metal bin at the dump. Smooth, huh?

The reason that’s important now is because of our new chairs, the ones we bought because company was coming over. Remember those? Well, Diane likes them so much that she’s moved from the old recliner couch to one of those chairs, and it’s right next to the window with the missing part. It’s drafty and cold and now needs to be fixed. As long as she was sitting by the wall, it was perfectly OK. I envision a visit to ACE tomorrow to rectify this.

We went from WCHFHRS to one of the many Goodwill stores, Diane’s favorite place to shop, that dot the greater Portland area. The one she chose is located just up the block from a BMW dealership. I sat in the vehicle and read my John Grisham book, “The Racketeer”, for a couple of hours while she cruised the isles. About 1640 I went in the store to cruise a bit myself but discovered that we were due at our next location at 1700, not 1730 as I previously believed. Diane was heading for the check out line so it turns out I showed up just in the nick of time to cart all her treasures to the vehicle. She was pleased.

Rick and Jody were next on the agenda. We had a plan to meet them at BJ’s Brewpub and Pizzararium in Hillsboro where three of us had hamburgers, and one didn’t. This was another visit to deliver Avon products, and to just visit prior to going home.

By the time we arrived, the dogs had been without us for 10 hours. In dog hours that’s about three days. Jennifer, bless her, agreed to visit the dogs this afternoon to assure them they hadn’t been abandoned, but I failed to ask her to turn on a light for them. So, when we got home, they were in a pitch black house, except for all the pretty blue and green lights on the front of all the electronic equipment scattered around the place. So, it’s really not pitch black – its pitch black blue and green.

They were fine and didn’t even get up until I opened the door for them. Normally Ozzie is yapping away as soon as the big garage door starts up, and doesn’t quit until he’s well into the yard, relieving himself. It’s funny to watch him bark and pee at the same time. I’ve tried that and it isn’t easy.

Now we’re home and we missed choir practice tonight. It was the first one, too. As expected, I got into trouble for that because I actually knew about it. Yesterday.

Duloxetine and Xfinity

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Life is interesting at this time – more so for Diane than me, because I just kind of float around wondering if I’m really going to fall down, of if it’s an illusion manifested to keep me on my little toes. Regardless of how I feel, we both agree that being on the roof today isn’t a good idea. Actually, being vertical isn’t a good idea.

So, I get to sit around all day and only have to make occasional trips to the bathroom, when I remember it’s necessary.

The reason for my current state is the result of running out of Cymbalta 4-5 days ago. This happened while wrangling with my civilian medical provider, who initiated my current refillable script last year before selling her medical practice to another doctor. Then, when I needed the refill, the new doctor’s staff reported that I was no longer a patient at their practice. So, I had to make an appointment to get back on their roles. To their credit, they submitted the refill the day I made the appointment, not the day it was scheduled, which was about 4 days later, but the refill has yet to arrive.

Consequently, the effects on my tiny brain are pretty profound. Here’s what I found on the internet about it …

Cymbalta withdrawal

  • Withdrawal side effects of Cymbalta include aggression, anxiety, balance problems, blurred vision, zapping sensations in the head, constipation, crying spells, depersonalization, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, flatulence, flu-like symptoms, hostility, mood swings, indigestion, migraines, lethargy or drowsiness, paranoia, sleep disturbances, cramps, ringing in ears, worsened depression, severe restlessness, nausea, headaches, unpleasant sensations such as tingling or burning, vomiting, irritability or nightmares.

Having shared all that, I also share that I do not take this med for depression. I take it for nerve pain and it helps. Oddly, however, since being without it for a number of days, the overriding sensation is vertigo.

Diane thinks I have all those symptoms whether or not I’m taking my meds.

I have permission to wither away this Saturday, indulging in my required NCAA football ‘fix’, and playing with my Xfinity X1 remote. Did you know that this astounding remote unit will allow you to watch whatever channel you wish while displaying all of the scores, and current statues of a game, for any sport? All you need to do it press the round, red “C” button. How convenient is that? In this house it’s mine alone because it would, literally, drive Diane over the edge.

In my current state it’s just … fun.

Ya know?