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  My blog was filled up. I'm too lazy to clean it out. So I started a new one. |
| I'm just not a part of the electronic age. I've spent half the day trying to install my security system on my new computer, now that the trial one has expired. The one I already had on the old one automatically renewed on my charge card. I've had it for years. I did the chat thing with the support person, but he kept closing out on my while I was trying to follow his instructions. At this point, I don't have a firewall, so I feel like calling my bank and reversing the charge. It's too frustrating. I don't recommend auto-renewal to anyone, but I can't sign into the account to stop that either. I have a printer that I can't install software for. Now on the old computer, I did all these things, including photo software with no problem. Everything has changed. Things are the same today that they were two years ago! A person who knows how to do these routine things could go into business for himself. Of course, he'd have to have a business license, be bonded (going into people's homes for wiring and setting up), advertise, write invoices, and probably have a bank card ap to collect fees. There would be expenses, but a lot of people would use such a house call computer doctor. I set up an Instagram account on my desktop, but you can only use it on your phone. I can't set the phone ap up! I feel like a moron. A lot of people do these things, but they are just lousy at teaching others. If you ask a young person in a store that sells computers and supplies, they don't know how to answer you. They know nothing of office or business programs. I know two people who do a lot of fancy things, but they are super busy with multiple jobs and doing computer jobs for their church, including music and video. I belong in the dark ages. |
| I've tried pushing some first cousins to pick a date for dinner or a Saturday with a place to gather. I will bring my elderly father from 70 miles north of them to their town at their convenience. I have two aunts (widows of my blood uncles) in that town that I would like to visit with us. Only one of these cousins is flexible and sounds anxious to meet. The others just won't commit. They claim they want to. The one who is flexible wants his sisters to be there. It's even harder to arrange a family reunion with other relatives. Most of the others are at my end of this distance. We're not getting any younger. I think it would be nice to get together one more time, take some pictures for future generations and catch up with each other. I'll give them a little more time. Then Dad and I will just set up something with his sisters-in-law for a lunch meeting. Skip the cousins. I want this to happen. We aren't getting any younger or healthier. Maybe we're being too flexible and accommodating. I may just give a date, and if they can't come, they can just complain. I don't know if the others just don't care, like being in control, or don't want to make decisions. I'm tired of going to funerals for people I haven't seen in years, when we were all so close when we were younger. Summers are for family gatherings. I'm going to keep pushing. |
| The local river is still out of its banks. The sun is shining and it's windy, but warm. The yard is muddy. The ground is soft enough to allow weed pulling. Little puddles are everywhere, apparently breeding mosquitoes. I took a short time between rains to pull weeds from a bed I worked last week. I drew out the little devils like a picnic for ants! I must have come too close to a shrub because I have a long pink scratch on my temple. I don't remember snagging anything, but old skin tears easily. All around the scratch are bug bites. I knew something was "bugging" me, but I was pulling up something with long roots, and it looked like poison ivy. So I was afraid to put my hands in my face, I rubbed that side of my face on my shoulder and my upper arm. Not enough. I have stings on my neck, my ear, my eyebrow, my chin, my cheek, and the corner of my eye, and all around the scratch. These are the soft skin areas, not as tough as the rest of the body. So scratching is not advisable. I always react badly to mosquito and all bug bites or stings. It will take 4 or 5 days for the worst of it to disappear. The mark will remain much longer. I am going crazy. This happened on Monday, and I am still itching to death. Yesterday, all I did was walk onto my back porch for some daily weed pulling out of the herb pots. I get them there while they are small and easy to pull. Both hands got it bad. I could not sleep last night for the itching. My hands scratched each other until I almost broke the skin. I picked up some Benadryl today, since topical medicines don't help more than 5 minutes. So immediately, I fell asleep after taking the first pill. A nurse told me to take it to lessen the swelling and calm the nerve endings. After being up and about for a while, I am struggling to keep my hands out of my face and off my neck, but can't seem to stop rubbing my hands together like Lady MacBeth. I'm not doing any outdoor work today. I want to wait until I heal. I have some disposable gloves by the back door, so quick trips outside I can at least protect my hands. I have moved all my repellents to convenient places near the doors, and have sprayed the foyer and the garage to be sure nothing is slipping inside. I love the yard, but I have been reminded why I don't do more yard work or spend time outdoors entertaining. Nobody in my family suffers from these things like I do, and they don't attract them like I do either. |
| I spent half an hour pulling weeds from one flower bed. I had to do some minimal trimming of shrubs to get to the weeds at the base. I didn't get 100% of them. The tiny ones are still there. But I have a big mess still to rake up. I was dripping sweat--it's an overcast day--and had a few bug bites. I was dripping blood on one arm. Old skin breaks easily on shrubs. My back and knees were aching. This old person had to go in and cool off with a glass of water. I felt all trembly as though I'd been to the gym, but didn't have that good feeling after a work out. The muscles hadn't been exerted properly. And gardening, unless you're hoeing or shoveling, burns very few calories. It's not aerobic. It just keeps your body in uncomfortable positions for extended periods of time. It really doesn't take the place of a nice walk or a work-out. Nor does housekeeping. But both housework and yard work need to be done. Dust and clutter accumulate inside, and weeds take over outside. It will all have to be done again before you recover. If only flowers were as hardy as weeds. It's a good thing trees don't grow like weeds or they'd be falling over all the time in the slightest of breezes. Some weeds put roots out further than trees and are just as hard to remove. Weeds seem to be impervious to drought, bugs, and disease. We specialize in growing weeds at my house. They even end up in the flower pots with the expensive store bought potting soil one flight up from the yard. It's a daily job. As I guess I should have a positive attitude. I'm alive one more day; so let's pull some weeds. |
| Dishonesty and fraud are everywhere. As much as we love our computers, it's easy to hate them because they allow sneaky thieves, vandals, and scoundrels to invade our privacy and annoy the bologna out of us. Tuesday I was blocked with what appeared to be a Microsoft Edge message with a vocal warning in a British accent. It warns that if you close the screen or take the page down, it will wipe out your computer, and make a complaint about your IPL. It starts off telling you that you are being attacked by a pornographic site, but goes on to say that all your financial information is being stolen. I found it was impossible to close the program or take it down. It would not shut up. I had to turn the power off and disconnect the Ethernet. I waited an hour, and rebooted only to find it was still there. My friend told me it would go away with no power. I waited a few more hours, and it did go away. Two days later, it did it again. This time I had already used my phone to research it, and found that it is a scam to sell you a fake protection program. The 800 number is not a really a Microsoft trouble shooting number. It also told me how to correct it when the program can't be closed. You have to click on the task bar, right click "task manager", find your browser listed, then "end task". It won't stop it from happening again, but it turns that awful voice off and takes down the Microsoft pop-ups. Thankfully, my instinct was not to call that number. It just didn't seem real, like those phony phone calls from Windows. How do they even know I have a computer, or that it's hooked up? I just hang up on those crooks. Never ever give your email address or serial number to one of those guys, and don't give any credit card numbers. Too bad there are so many people willing to make a dishonest living. Makes you wonder about the fate of mankind, when so many are willing to exploit others for their own gain. |
| So many people say they can't carry a tune in a bucket. I've heard some people sing who sound, well, maybe they need a bucket. I always think they didn't hear enough singing when they were babies. I don't mean a radio or TV blasting away. I'm referring to a real live singing or humming person, a nanny, a parent, a babysitter, a sibling, someone to hold the baby and sing softly up close. Children who have either parent sing to them as infants and toddlers will sing easily in tune. They can't sing what they can't hear first. But it can be remedied, one child at a time. If a teacher, at church or school has a group that sings well, but one kid is always off key, there is hope. If you play the piano, have the child stand in front of it, facing the keys but hands at his sides. You stand behind him and play the melody only, while singing the words behind his ear. He will zoom in on the sound and will feel the vibrations as well. Eventually, he will start to sing the same notes he hears. Most children will pick this up quickly. It may take more than one attempt to lock in his ability, but it should work. With older children, teens, and adults, it's a little more difficult. There's the personal body space dilemma, You probably want to have that individual seated and still stand behind and lean over to sing behind his or her head. Let someone else play the piano or keyboard or do it without music. It may take a little longer, but it should still work to help that person "hear" the notes and then aim for them with his own voice. That doesn't mean that the person suddenly will be a great singer. (Who knows? Maybe.) But life could be a little more fun, if he can sing along without embarrassing himself or offending anyone. The best way is to sing around children. Engage them in singing. If they don't sing when they grow up, that's their option. But at least they'll have a chance if they are exposed to singing or humming when they are babies. |
| Thanks to everyone who has served our country in the military service. This weekend we remember and pay tribute to all who have served, who have died, or who were injured defending our country in war or police action. To their families, we also say thanks for your service and sacrifice. We celebrated today with all beef hot dogs on the George Foreman grill since it was raining outside. To be different I made hot dog chili from scratch, none of that nasty canned sauce. I used ground turkey, fresh garlic, tomatoes and chilies, etc. Yum. I also had sauerkraut, but of course, the kids weren't interested in that or the chili. The adults didn't want sauerkraut either. They ate lots of seedless watermelon, cantaloupe, baked beans, lemonade or tea, and my brother's macaroni salad. I made brownies from scratch. We had red, white, and blue decorations. Baby Jack-he's 5 months-and I sang patriotic songs, while the five year old tore off my only peace lily bloom in another room. We work so hard on that lily for light and moisture to get one little bloom twice a year. There it was in all its perfection lying on the patio in the rain. I'm surprised at the lack of war movies this weekend, which is typical of Memorial Day or Veteran's Day. There are a lot of movies and old TV shows featuring John Wayne or James Arness. They both had birthdays this weekend. I did watch two short movies from 1935 with John Wayne, great treasures. Hope you have the weekend off. Enjoy. |
| I remember when my family was introduced to pizza. It really was a foreign concept. My mom swore that Dad would never eat pizza after we kids experienced it at other people's homes or church events for kids. He came around. Now everyone I know eats pizza readily. My grandmother, who probably never had it the first 60 years or more of her life, ate it with extra hot sauce. My dad will eat it now as long as the crust isn't too crispy. But you have to add extra cheese and meat to it when heating. Remember TV dinners in aluminum trays? That tells your age. No more aluminum trays because of microwaves. And they're not referred to as TV dinners. There's even healthy versions and family size packages. I even remember when microwave ovens were new. We were afraid they would hurt us, like give us radiation or something. We even called the process "nuking" our food. My mother in law insisted it made her house hotter to run the microwave for a few minutes. I tried telling her the food got hotter without using heat, but it never sank in. It still worked like a regular oven, but faster, in her mind. That was only a few years ago. I was thinking about hot spots in my home town where people loved to go. There was a Mexican restaurant, locally owned by a non-Hispanic family, that was very popular. My brother claimed that after he and his wife ate there, with no alcohol, he had a hangover headache the next day from all the spices. Today people of all ages in this mid-Atlantic town eats spicy Mexican food. There must be a dozen or more quality Mexican restaurants in the area, plus the Bell. At one time every wedding reception served chicken livers wrapped in bacon. Nobody does that any longer. Waffle cut raw vegetables and radish roses were popular, but now there are just simple cuts of veggies. Crepes are still around, but are not so worshiped by the upwardly mobile. Chocolate fountains are still popular right now, but they're falling off. Sushi became hot a few years ago. Manufacturers and restaurateurs keep changing things up to rake in our dollars. Food prep changes with our busy schedules and available cooking tools. You can buy a device for almost anything you can do in the kitchen, a brush for corn silk, a strawberry huller, a pineapple corer, etc. And people aren't teaching their children cooking skills like they once did. They see their parental role differently. They don't cook, so why teach the kids to be self-sufficient? Yet You Tube and web newsletters make it possible to learn new skills on your own. Nutella and coconut oil are all the rage now. Who ever heard of them decades ago? But how can you find a Dreamsicle or a red, white and blue popsicle? Or sherbet push-ups? Only old-timers like me still make pineapple upside down cake. Pop Tarts didn't exist when I was a child, but they've lasted well and are still selling. Grits may be making a comeback. Bacon's in everything. Quinoa is trying to find acceptability. I can't find farina or buckwheat in the supermarket. It's hard to say what people will be craving ten years from now, and what items we like won't be available. Maybe chocolate will be obsolete. Who knows? |
| On the way to my house one Sunday a few weeks ago, my niece stopped at a charity yard sale and let her 5 year old pick out some dresses. They were wild looking. She had to model them for us and ended up playing in one covered with silver glitter. Well, you know what to expect. Glitter doesn't stay where you see it. She left a trail everywhere she went. We didn't notice at the time. But apparently, she crawled under the daybed, wrapped up in an afghan which then covered a big stuffed bear that sits in a rocker in the family room. On Monday, I vacuumed what seemed like hours to remove glitter from upholstery and room size rugs. I cleaned toys and the coffee table. I vacuumed the stairs and the foyer. I cleaned upstairs where she had trailed through to the kitchen which has been mopped several times since. (She always has to raid the refrigerator just before she leaves to see what she can take with her.) Unfortunately, I didn't clean all the toys and books. I didn't discover the afghan for a day or two. My day moved it and got glitter everywhere that I had already cleaned. Two weeks later, I'm still mopping up glitter from hard surfaces, vacuuming upholstery and rugs, and running throws through the dryer on air only. I don't think it will ever come up completely. She hasn't been here during that time, but we still have the reminder. Dad keeps getting it on his clothes and has started bringing it upstairs to the upholstery. Both of us are getting it on our feet and tracking it around. I'm not sure the vacuum isn't leaking it, but we use a different one on each floor. So, here's my word of warning to mothers, grandparents and others buying children's clothes. Stay away from glitter. If a child comes to your house wearing glitter, keep her (it might be a boy, too) outside. It is a great way to track sneaky kids, but such a nightmare to clean. |
| My washer broke. Called the repair company. They tried to sell me a warranty for every appliance in the house for $50 a month: no charge for parts or labor for all household appliances. Lawn equipment and electronics not included. I did some quick math and figured at $600 a year, I would not get my money's worth. I don't have many appliances break down in a ten year period, and can replace them or repair them for less than the $6000 I would pay in 10 years. So he finally set an appointment for today. I had wet laundry stuck in the machine. Before hanging up, he wanted to set an appointment for a free carpet or cabinet estimate. Just not interested. Everything turns into additional sales. I'm told by friends never to order items from TV ads by calling in. You can't get off the phone, because they keep trying to sell related products or upgrading. One lady I know who really needed that back brace ended up saying,"Just forget everything", because they wouldn't finish the transaction. They had her credit card number, so she called the bank to be sure the charge would not go through since they never got her shipping address. These companies try so hard to get additional business that they risk losing the original sale. My personal feeling about extended warranties is that in some cases they are desirable. Price is the biggest factor. When I bought a child's I-Pad for my nephew on sale, the warranty was only $5 less than the I-Pad. But the warranty on the desktop makes sense because of power surges and children. I use a surge protector, but I lost one hard drive to lightning even with one. It made sense to get one on the printer; the price was low enough, and children can't keep their hands off of it. Still the retailers will hammer you on buying the warranties. Some clerks don't want to accept a "no". My washer was re-calibrated rather quickly. It's running smoothly for the time being. If it begins to fail again, buying a new one will be cheaper than getting the new parts that will be needed. No I don't want a warranty on all my household appliances, unless you can do it for, say, $10 a month. |
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