This is not a dig on Doug but the efforts expended were directly related to his laptop.

Doug is the Financial Officer for American Legion Post 42. As far as I know, he’s the only one that’s held that position since the post was started 135 years ago. Considering the span of years, I could be wrong. If that turns out to be true, I believe I’ll at least be close to correct.

He keeps all his files on his laptop and generally shares his information with hard copies for the troops to review. Post meetings are held in the Moose Lodge and they have three large TVs mounted in the room they use. Someone asked Doug if he could display his files on those TV’s. He told this person, “Yes I can.” Then he called me.

We spent an hour or so at the lodge seeing how things work there and we came up with a solution. The first choice, for me, was to use Bluetooth for connectivity, but that didn’t seem to be a choice. Another option was to connect directly to the TV via HDMI. During our discovery, we were able to do that, but making it work would require purchasing a very long HDMI cable. Since the TVs looked fairly new I figured there must be a better way.

So, we got busy pushing buttons to see what happens. That’s my solution for any computer problems and generally it’s productive. It this case it was so it’s all good. I haven’t been to an AL meeting in quite a while but I agreed to show up at the next one to support Doug and his first effort in front of the crowd. I will, I’m sure, be a target for many reasons but I’m not worried. Doug has my back.

The lodge was not officially opened this morning when we did our work but a lady was working in the office. When we were leaving she asked for help getting into the office because she inadvertently locked herself out. The only way in was via the service window in the hall. Doug has trouble walking and the lady in distress wasn’t up to the task so I drug a chair over to the window and inserted myself into the office. Doing this required me to bend myself in half, literally, and slide in feet and head first. It worked. During the process the lady questioned my age saying, “You aren’t really 81, are you?” I said, “No. I’ll be 82 in 12 days.” She was amazed. So was Doug. I bet he was sure he’d have to find a way to , I extract me from the window and the ledge that I was sliding on. But, I fooled all three of us. I was adlibbing everything I did about getting through the window. I amazed myself. Tomorrow will tell the tale about which muscles I tweaked the wrong direction. So far, I feel just fine.

My only fear about the entire process was that bending myself in half might could easily have caused me to expel some extra gas that I seem to have, all the time. The down side of that is that sometimes, expelling gas sometimes results in accompanying debris and the need to purchase new underwear. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

That’s my story for today.

Hi, Hon. It’s Wednesday, the 17th of December. It’s almost Christmas and that boggles my little head a bit.

It you’ve had time to look around the house you’d see that Jeff put up some really nice outdoor lights for us. They’re the kind we should have bought a long time ago. They are the permanent kind that never need to be removed. I bought two 100′ sections that wrap the house from the front corner of the carport to about halfway up the inside of the carport from the backside. Jeff did a good job.

You can be proud of Max because he’s getting more trustworthy all the time. I’m no longer fearful that he’ll head for the hills when I take him out before bed. Before going out we have a little talk and he just goes go the steps leading down to the shed and comes right back. I think I’ve mentioned this already, but I don’t care. It bears repeating. To make it even better, I took him down to the river thig afternoon and took his leash off for the walk around in the new section. He stayed right with me and showed me how much fun he had by lagging behind me as I walked, then running full out to catch up. He did that a few times. There wasn’t anyone else down there so he didn’t have anything to divert his attention from me. He got a record amount of uninterrupted sniffing while we were down there.

On the way home we stopped at Grocery Outlet to pick up a few things. Max wanted me to get him new treats but I told him he’d have to eat the old ones, first. He already knew that. We’ve had this talk before. He had a really good time walking all the aisles sniffing the entire bottom rows on both sides. He has yet to pee on anything in the store which really makes me happy because I can almost hear the announcement “cleanup on the dog food aisle.” If that happens, he knows he’ll never be allowed in that store again.

Lydia came home from work a little early today with a bad headache. She texted me to warn me, but I missed that so I was surprised when she popped in the front door. Until the garage door opener gets fixed she can’t use that the enter/exit. So, I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet on that and call in an expert. I can’t figure it out. Must be losing my touch. It’s easy to ignore it’s broken nature because there are two work arounds in the front and back doors. I suppose I could free up the laundry room door and make it 3 options.

I finally put up the folded clothes that were on my bed so I can move around a little at night. It’s been easy to ignore, too. I don’t need a lot of room unless Max decides he needs to sleep where I am. Normally he sleeps on either one of you night shirts, or your old dark blue robe. He likes either of them, as do I, because they smell like you. I’ll probably never wash them. Ever.

I think it’s time to quit. It’s almost 2000 and I woke up this morning around 0700. I woke up at 0700 but I didn’t get up until around 0900 when Daniel texted me.

He relayed a greeting from Nelda to me from one of his crew members who apparently saw her at a bazaar event somewhere in Vancouver. I misunderstood what actually happened and thought she may have called Dan by mistake, but I got that cleared up when I called her this afternoon.

She said she was as this event selling stuff and got to talking with one of the customers and learned that he worked for Intel at the Aloha Campus. Nelda quizzed him a little more and discovered that he worked for Daniel so she asked him to pass along a hello from Nelda to his boss’s wife’s father. Hence, the text which he sent mainly to confirm that Nelda is actually a person I know. I confirmed that she’s real and trustworthy.

Now it’s time to stop and start practicing going to sleep at a normal time. Lydia has been keeping me up really late. But, we’ve kind of developed a routine where we watch 2-3 episodes of a fun series, or maybe a movie or two. We’re watched some really bad movies lately.

If you can find a way. send me a photo of what the house looks like at night with the lights on.

Love you.