Tag Archives: challenges

May 1, 2019 · 2:55 pm

Good News – Bad News

123RF.com

I already told you that two of the fourteen planters we built around the yard collapsed. We’ve been trying to get bricklayers to come and give us estimates on rebuilding them for us. We have the brick already, waiting on a pallet. We already have concrete bases ready to receive the brick.

GOOD NEWS – Today I finally got a call. Because of all the rain we’ve been getting, one of the guys we’ve been trying to reach called and got directions to come give us an estimate!

BAD NEWS –  The bricklayer was really nice. He even put up with Amber greeting him when he opened the truck door, covering him with kisses. I finally got her into the house and we looked at things. His estimate for the job was $700. That’s too steep for us, particularly since we’ve already had to buy the bricks.

SO – when the monsoon is finally over and it looks like we’ll have several dry days in a row, we’ll go to the local hardware store and buy umpteen bags of Qwik-Crete and will rebuild the planters ourselves. Even though we don’t know what we’re doing, the other 12 planters we built some 30 years ago lasted, so maybe we’ll do well enough again.

I’m excited about getting them functional again and deciding what we’ll plant…

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April 2, 2019 · 10:45 am

To-Do’s

psychologies

Feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with a longer and longer to-do list no matter how many things I manage to remove. It seems as if every direction I look has things saying, “Fix me next!”

I just moved heavy coats from our utility room hooks area to the front hall closet, since it had no space available and I was having to dig or move things to find what I was looking for, so I feel good that is done. But on the way to the utility room, I saw little wisps of dog/cat hair moving along with the breeze on the tiled area. And the poor fishes’ water is cloudy again, and the table by my chair in the living room is piled up….

So – I’m doing a bit here – which I truly love – and then going and doing something else on the list before I allow myself to return here.  This way I’m having some fun between chores.

How do you handle too-long to-do lists?

Brian Tracy – http://www.pinterest.com

 

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February 27, 2019 · 11:54 am

A Friendly Dog

This is Amber, a 94-pound yellow lab ‘puppy’ who will be 2-years-old March 7th.  We were told that labs are puppies until they are two years old. I think this may have been a vast understatement.

Amber is a very sweet, affectionate dog. She regularly comes to me or my husband while we are in our recliners in the living room, putting her head down at our feet and doing a somersault so we’ll laugh and rub her tummy.  She has her foibles, such as continuing to take ONE piece of trash out of the can beside my chair. Only one – I think just to show us she knows she is not supposed to do it, but wants to anyway. She regularly checks in the pantry to see if Molly’s bowl is still on the floor to lick. It never is, but she still checks every morning and every evening, like clockwork. She regularly reminds us WHY we spent the money and went to the work of putting up doggie gates that she can’t open in almost every doorway on the first floor.

She is one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known. She LOVES going in the car – anywhere – anytime – and never knows a stranger.

For example, we had three errands to run this morning. It took me a bit of time in the post office, and my husband said that SEVERAL people had come over to the truck to say “Hi” to her and pet her. She LOVES it. When I was in the drug store, the people inside with me could hear her crying. I told them she wanted to come in and see everyone. My husband said that everyone who came out came over and talked to her. I got into the truck and the pharmacist came out, saying she HAD to meet the dog! Amber leaned as far out of the car as she possibly could, covering the sweet lady with kisses.  She went back into the drug store, laughing, to wash her face. :0)

We have worked really hard to train Amber. She is so big and she has no clue that she is able to mow you down while you’re standing there, or that she can hurt you in any way. She minds really well when we’re home, inside the house. When someone comes over, though, all bets are off. She has never met us before and becomes ‘deaf’ ignoring our commands, just like a kid when you HOPE they’ll behave when company comes….

She is a challenge – particularly since we’re long in the tooth around here – but a joy.

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February 21, 2019 · 4:14 pm

Whine and Cheese

Baby Center

This day started out really nicely – with a wonderful massage by Lynn Moody, the best massage therapist on the planet.

My day deteriorated once I got home, though. My husband and I both got messages on our phone AND our computers that we had exceeded our data allowance and were being charged extra for the month for our phones.

I immediately felt guilty, since we got an iPhone 8 for me this month and I’ve been looking at it, playing with it, and trying to figure it out. I couldn’t figure out how to turn OFF the things at which I looked. Lynn helped me with this this morning, showing me how to tap the home button twice to pull up what was still active and then to swipe each one up to the top of the phone to turn it off.

What I found out, though, was that the usage problem was caused by my husband’s phone. (He still has an android and almost never uses his phone. We got it solely so that when we’re not together, we can call each other, if needed.) The lady who waited on us in the local AT&T office was more interested in her long, black, pointed fingernails than in our problem. She said, “Call Customer Service.”

I got online and talked to a chat person who was very nice, but unable to help with the extra charge or the reason behind the problem. I then got another cup of coffee and called customer service. I got a very nice man who was unable to determine what the problem was on my husband’s phone, but DID arrange for a credit for the surcharge for going over our data limit. He then passed me on to the Tech “Big Guys.’

The “Big Guy” turned out to be named Mary. When I told her that my husband’s phone was android and said, “4G LTE” at the top of the home page, she directed me to settings/mobile network. We discovered the button was in the ‘on’ position and was charging us even when the phone was not in use. There was a peak in usage yesterday from 3pm to 6pm, but we have no clue why that was. We turned the button to the ‘off’ position and we think the problem is solved.

The mystery remains. The phone sits on a shelf plugged into the charger. I have to remind my husband if he leaves without me to take his phone. He gets a lot of calls, all of which are wrong numbers. He doesn’t call or message anyone using that phone unless he is trying to talk with a tech about a computer problem – something that happens maybe once a year.

Fingers crossed the problem is solved. We seem to be out from under the extra charges and we think (hope) whatever caused it is fixed. My husband was ready to blast everyone and is very appreciative that I spent so much time, effort, and patience to get things solved.

I now know how to check our usage online. I now know how to make sure the mobile network button is off.  I feel as if I have earned my salt for the day.

The only problem is that all my get-up-and-go got up and left…..

 

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January 20, 2019 · 2:23 pm

Character-Building Exercise

Mindfulness Training

I have probably indicated that I HATE preparing our stuff for taxes each year. I have probably also admitted that I excel at procrastination – championship level, I might add – modestly, of course. :0)

Today is the day –

I have run out of even the most feeble excuses for not at least making the first pass at our stuff.

Our office is beginning to look as if a bomb exploded in here.

STEP 1 – I have gone through the ‘helpful packet’ our CPA provides. So I feel a BIT better about myself at the moment.

STEP 2 – I’m now slogging through our monthly receipts, grouping them according to categories. I’ve made it through 3 months so far.

__________________

STEP 3 – is going through our credit card and bank statements for pertinent information.

STEP 4 – is totalling the various categories.

STEP 5 – is putting the receipts where they belong in the ‘helpful packet’

STEP 6 – is waiting until we get our official Schwab statement – the thing that is the most important and always takes the longest to receive.

STEP 7 – is bagging it all up and driving to Fort Smith to dump it on our wonderful CPA.

 

My goal is to be finished with Steps 1-5 by the end of this month or before. I’m going to take a break now, but will return to do another session this afternoon after we eat some lunch.

Did I happen to mention I HATE tax prep?  UGH!

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December 18, 2018 · 10:23 am

Older than Dirt

Commander Bill

My husband and I are being dragged – kicking and screaming – into the current century.

We like gadgets, but keep discovering we are living in the stone age on some things.

We had to replace our old land line phones because rats got under the house and ATE through the wiring. Since we didn’t want to crawl around under there trying to replace all the wiring, and couldn’t find anyone willing to do it for us, we bought essentially a cell phone on a base to replace our system. We’ve used that for a long time, adding an answering machine that we liked better than the one provided,  and then my husband designed a call screening program that had callers pressing 1 “if they were a real person and weren’t selling anything” in order for the phone to ring here.

This got wonky, not recognizing callers we had put on our list, and hanging up on people after they pressed 1. We’ve been living with NO caller screening for awhile, and I’ve been going nuts.

We got a new phone system yesterday and my husband and son set it up. We’ve ordered two more phones and charging bases so we can have phones everywhere we would like them. I managed to ANSWER my phone last night, patting myself on the head. This morning I actually manged to MAKE a call, after fumbling around awhile. My husband has just finished creating a directory.

We have gotten several reminders that the rest of the world has gone on past us, while we stayed in our cocoon –

  • We installed a geothermal heat and air system several years ago. Our thermostats have been misbehaving and we were having trouble getting them set correctly. The guy who checks our system out twice a year tactfully suggested that since our thermostats were older than he was (he didn’t say that) maybe we should get ones that were made to work with geothermal, which doesn’t need ’emergency heat.. He helped us decide which ones to get and installed them for us. We’re now doing fine, able to control the temperatures in our house just fine for the most efficiency.
  • We have actually donated several items that were causing havoc and tension around here, rather than ‘helping’ us or making our lives simpler. :0)
  • We were even reminded how old we are when we got a Synology – a device that allows us to record our DVD collection, making them available to play on our television and get rid of the physical DVDs. I looked each of them up on Amazon with the idea of selling them. I had DVDs that had the same cover picture – and many were Blu-rays, but the production date on ours was so old Amazon sneered at us and wouldn’t allow me to list them. We ended up listing the ones that were ‘acceptable’ and giving 217 DVDs to the local library for their next fundraising sale…

We may be older than dirt, but we’re still able to kick and scream as we’re forced to enter the current century!

 

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November 17, 2018 · 11:33 am

“Chock-Full-to-the-Brim” Day

Milton Hyundai

Yesterday we had a chock-full-to-the-brim day.

We started with Lunch Bunch – the usual wonderful time we catch up with our good, long-time friends, Linda and Kay. Yesterday, a lady we treasure was also there, Alice. We stuffed our faces and babbled as fast as we could in the time allowed. (My husband is an honorary member of Lunch Bunch. He sits at one end of the table surveying what might look like to uninformed strangers as his harem. He doesn’t say much, but when he does, he breaks us all up. :0)  )

We did errands, came home, regrouped and then went out again for a doctor’s appointment for my husband and more errands. Afterwards we got a 10 foot long X 12 inches wide board to make a ‘shoe shelf’ in my closet.

We got home again, regrouped, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening in the shop.

Our weather was finally warmer, so we used the opportunity to change the tires on our truck. When we first bought the Honda in 2006, we found and purchased 4 extra wheels and then bought snow tires. We had them mounted by the local tire place and stored them in the shop. Twice a year we change the tires from the regular ones to snow tires, then back again, once winter is over. Usually we plan to do this some time in mid to late November or early December. This year we had a cold snap and then rain, and more cold with the threat of ice and snow super-early. We didn’t get stuck up here on our ridge line, thankfully, but we decided that the next day that was warm enough we would get the tires changed.

We’re getting a bit long-in-the-tooth for this, but we have a well-equipped shop with an air compressor, good fancy tire pressure gauge that allows us to fill from the compressor while the gauge is on the hose, stools so we can sit, etc. We have this project down to an efficient “dance” having done it for several years now. My husband does the actual tire changing. I am the go-fer, rolling tires from the back of the shop up to where we’re working, taking the ones we’re taking off back to the storage area, getting parts and watching to be ready with the next step. Yesterday I was also handling the jack. We got this done in record time. No blood was spilled. No harsh words. The tires are now filled up and ready to take us through the winter!

 

When we finished with the tires, we started on the shoe shelf project. We went inside and measured again, making a few decisions. My husband cut the board into three parts – the shelf, and three supports. I then painted the boards so they could dry overnight.  This pic shows several levels. Mine will be ONE board mounted on the wall across one wall of my closet, allowing me to put shoes ON and UNDER the board.

We’re going to try to get the shoe shelf installed today. If we do, I’ll share pictures. This will allow me to empty the cubbies that are now holding the shoes, giving me a lot more flexibility on what I’m storing where. :0)

By the time I fixed us dinner, it was 8:30 in the evening. Since I was up in the middle of the night before from 1am till 3am unable to sleep and reading, you could say, by the time we went to bed around midnight, I was ready.

 

amazinganimalstories.com

I didn’t do my yoga yesterday, but I think I MOVED enough to make up for it…

 

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October 31, 2018 · 11:55 am

Annoying, then Good Morning

Everyday Health

We got up this morning and drove straight to our doctor’s office to get the blood test my husband needs for his appointment next week. We usually don’t have to wait long, but we did today. Finally, I got up and checked with the front desk again. They said the orders for the blood test weren’t in the chart, so they were waiting for the doctor to come out of a room. We waited again. When we had been waiting an HOUR, I went to the front desk again, asking them if they could get the orders into my husband’s chart by TOMORROW morning, when we would come again. They said they could, so we left. I will call this afternoon to be SURE the orders are in the chart so we can be more successful tomorrow.  (At our next appointment, I’ll ask the doctor to put the orders for the labs into the computer while we’re there.)

Added insult was Mother Nature choosing to pour on us each time we stepped out of the car. It would stop while we were inside, of course.

 

Scribol.com

Our morning improved quite a bit after we left the doc’s office. We had decided that we would try out the new restaurant in town, The Dari, for breakfast. We had been there for lunch and had been quite pleased.

I’m happy to report that our FLEX breakfast was delicious!  The people there are friendly. The group of women at the counter where we ordered went nuts over my ceramic ‘ghost’ earrings, even calling people from the back to come see. When we were at the table, another women came. That was really fun for all of us.  The service is fast and the food couldn’t have been better.

It’s more food than we should eat for breakfast on our diet, but we’ll modify our eating for the rest of the day to make up for it. It’s wonderful to have a nice place to have breakfast in Greenwood!

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October 19, 2018 · 10:21 am

Family Fun

dogster

 

dirtydogs.biz

These aren’t actual pictures of our dogs, but close enough.

By last night, I was having to remind myself why I thought it was such a great idea to have a houseful of pets….

Molly and Amber ran off yesterday afternoon. My husband and I weren’t communicating well (imagine THAT!) and he let Amber out without checking to see if Molly was already out.

They came back about an hour later, finally, covered in ‘stuff.’  It was cool outside, so I wet a micro cloth and used it on Amber, since she wasn’t as bad as the doggie above. I was able, after umpteen times of rinsing the cloth out and using it again, to get Amber to the point where she could stay inside with us.

Molly was a mess from head to toe, so I put her in the kitchen sink and scrubbed her. After using two bath towels to dry her, I was exhausted and decided she was dry enough to finish on her own. (My husband said she was still damp when we took them out for their final outing for the day last night).

Meanwhile, Amber showed us another result of letting the dogs out together by puking on the carpet. I found this out when my husband started cursing loudly and putting her out. We got things cleaned up and just settled down when Amber barked to come in. By mutual agreement, we put her behind the gate in the utility room where she sleeps. The rest of the afternoon and evening I cleaned up more – and more, but it was on the tiles of the utility room floor. We fed her only water the rest of the day.

This morning there was another spot, but it was from last night. We have fed her and put her back in the utility room until we learn if she’s keeping her food down or not today. We’re hoping she never finds whatever she found yesterday again!

Meanwhile, I called and scheduled Molly to be shorn as if she were a sheep Monday. It’s cool outside, but she usually doesn’t stay out long – particularly if her owners are smart enough not to let Amber out with her – and she’ll be much easier to clean for a while.

We love our pets. We just wish WE were smarter in dealing with them.

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September 19, 2018 · 10:44 am

Gremlins are Rampant!

I told you recently that we’ve been plaqued with stuff suddenly not working, busting, etc. And it continues, with the gremlins who hide here running rampant!

Yesterday it was two things:

THING ONE:

Patch

I went to rinse a dish from dinner to find NO WATER!  We went out to the well house to find a pipe had burst, spewing water everywhere, 4 inches on the floor, more on walls, ceiling, and shelves. My husband found the busted pipe that had a gauge for reading the pressure on the end. We were able to remove the pipe and took it out to the shop.  We were able to find a pipe nipple the right size and a plug, in case we couldn’t replace the pipe and the gauge. We swept out as much water as we could with a broom, and then replaced the pipe with the gauge on the end. VOILA!  We brought out a box fan and ran it with the well house door open all night, to try to dry things out. It was better out there this morning. We’ll give it a while longer, and then move the fan up higher to work on the walls, shelves, and ceiling. It’s SO good to have a husband who can figure out what in the world happened, had the parts we needed to fix it, and was able to get our access to water back.

 

THING TWO:

Sandisk

I have a cute little Sandisk MP3 player my husband and son got me for a birthday a million years ago. They loaded on some of my favorite music from over the years. It has a clip on the back so I can clip it to my shirt and listen to my songs via earphones. I love it, and I wear it whenever I’m on the elliptical trainer so that I can forget I’m exercising. :0)

It suddenly was dead. I put in on the charger, but that didn’t do any good. My husband looked at it last night and decided I ‘probably hadn’t charged it right.’ We charged it overnight, but got nothing more than stuff like the ‘play all’ thing you can see lit up in the pic. It showed ‘no song’ when I tried to play it. We’ll go to Walgreen’s today to see if we can find a new 4G SD card and see if that restores its memory and ability to play.

Fingers crossed!  And hopefully, the gremlins are satisfied they’ve caused enough havoc around here for a while. We still have my husband’s computer to rebuild, assuming we ever get his motherboard back…

 

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September 18, 2018 · 1:08 pm

Checked Off!

Google Sites

It seems as if we’ve been working on a bunch of things FOREVER with endless details and lots of frustration, but things are finally coming together and we’re able to get things checked off.

  • The biggest frustrating thing was that both of our computers died at once. This has never happened before, and we’ll be making some changes so that if it happens again we’ll be better able to handle it. My husband finally got my computer up and running and most everything back on it and accessible. I’ve been working on my laptop and we didn’t have access to any of our regular places because we lost access to our passwords. We’ve now made a CD we can slip into a computer and access everything. We’re now sharing this computer, with a keyboard that toggles back and forth between QWERTY (regular keyboard) and DVORAK (my husband’s special keyboard.) He is able to access his email now, plus play on the computer, so we’re workable until he gets his motherboard returned – either the one we sent back fixed, or a new one. Hopefully, the put back together on his will go smoothly. It will be a LONG time before I take any of this for granted again.
  • Since our son lives and works across the globe from us, we’re trying to do everything humanly possible to make things easier for him when the time comes he has to handle our remaining affairs when the second one dies. Some people really don’t want to think about this, but we want to have the decisions made and the arrangements handled, then put them away and not think of them again for hopefully many years from now. We had this all done – or most of it – and then a law in Arkansas changed and messed our plans up. We had to start again. After a huge amount of work, details, legal documents, payments and cards to carry in our wallets, all arrangements are done and paid for.
  • I’ve told you before that my husband was diagnosed with Type II diabetes a couple of years ago. The result was a very expensive life insurance policy that requires no medical exam. This policy premium was due to skyrocket as a ‘Happy Birthday’ present in November. Today we were notified that he has been accepted for a 10 year level term life insurance policy that DID require a medical exam. Since he’s done so well changing his diet, losing weight, etc., he qualified for the policy this time! We handled the remaining details this morning and were able to call and cancel the policy that was due to balloon later this year. Now THAT’S a much better birthday present!

There are other things we’ve been doing, but these are the biggest and most important right now. Now we can relax and feel much less stressed!  Sometimes being stubborn, tenacious and persistent pays off!!!!

quotesgram.com

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September 13, 2018 · 4:21 pm

Now We’re Talkin’

Alamy

Pound 24 came off today!  And 23+ inches gone. I feel as if I am definitely off to a good start now.

I had that happy news and then got to go for a heavenly massage, so I’m feeling that today is a stellar day.

We have eaten more ‘flex’ meals than usual because our Nutrisystem supplies were almost gone. (We got our orders today), so I’ve been worried that the scale and the tape measure would both start backtracking. We held our own and made progress. Hooray!!!

Another happy note – we may be seeing a sliver of light regarding the computer issues that have really been character-building exercises recently. My husband’s motherboard has been sent back for repair or replacement. I ordered another motherboard – a different model – and that should be on its way to us now. Today I FINALLY reached someone on chat at NewEgg who found our order for my previous refurbed motherboard and said she would contact the seller to give us an RMA # within two business days, and – if they didn’t get back to us – that NewEgg would handle the return and refund for us. I had almost given up ever reaching their customer service department.When I tried to use the chat, I was told I was number 75 or so in the queue. When I tried to call, the wait time was 36 minutes or so. I couldn’t just send it back because we had no order # or any paperwork to go with it. This lady – Olivia at NewEgg helped us out tremendously.

Even though we’re still in the trenches as far as working regular computers go, things appear to be improving.

I hope YOUR day is good, too!

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September 11, 2018 · 10:59 am

I HOPE We’re Getting Somewhere…

I just finished doing 30 minutes on my elliptical trainer in the garage.  My MP3 player wasn’t working for some unknown reason (probably part of the gremlins that are living in our house right now) but I managed to find an old CD player. Listening to music makes all the difference on being able to put in a reasonable amount of time working hard, but staying in the same place.

Another annoyance is that after 30 minutes, my pedometer doesn’t show any more steps than it had when I got on the machine. Apparently the low impact motion of the elliptical doesn’t register as ‘steps’ to the device in my pocket. :0(

We’re on a treadmill around here for many reasons lately. I’ve told you that neither of our regular computers is working right now and I’m on an old laptop we got out of the shop.

We’re waiting for an RMA# for my motherboard to be sent in for repair or replacement. Meanwhile, my husband called ASUS tech support about HIS computer this morning. The guy suggested that maybe his power supply was bad. My husband thanked him, hung up, and then muttered about people not knowing anything and that he’d never had a power supply die. He got the power supply out of my regular computer and tried it in his. It turned out that the guy in tech support was right. Now my husband is busily trying to put his computer back together and see if we can get it going. There may be light at the end of at least one of the gremlin tunnels in the Lewis household!  All appendages are crossed for a resurrected computer!

Meanwhile, since I’m of no use putting computers together, when I get rested a bit more, I’ll head into the living room to do my yoga for the day.

I hope YOUR day is a good one.

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September 9, 2018 · 3:35 pm

Revenge of the Computers

Istock

We don’t know what we did in this – or a past – life to cause this, but whatever it was WE APOLOGIZE!!!!!

I’ve lost count of the number of days we’ve been trying to get our computers working here. I don’t want to complain TOOOO loudly because at this moment, I’m still able to use my laptop that we got out of the shop. I am able to retrieve MY email, and function really awkwardly otherwise, but this is really getting old.

My poor husband has been trying to get things going – essentially non-stop – and is now taking a bit of a rest.

HIS COMPUTER – just went on strike a few days ago. He was trying to add a Windows Quick Something-or-Other and the whole thing crashed. It wouldn’t boot at all. He has now taken everything out, cleaned everything thoroughly, tested parts he’s able to, replaced the motherboard, and more. He got it to try to start once and then it simply stopped again. To say he’s in a bad mood doesn’t begin to describe things around here.

MY COMPUTER – the Best Buy tech group said the motherboard was bad, having two non-functional memory slots. We were still under warranty so we sent it to the repair group of the company. We got it back and they said it was all good. Meanwhile, since my computer has been down so long, we went ahead and ordered another motherboard and he installed it. The diagnostic stuff he had, plus the book that came with the motherboard, said the memory was incompatible with the motherboard.  We looked in the book and ordered memory suggested by the book. Two of the memory thingies worked in two of the slots, but not the other two. We have now contacted the help people at the manufacturer’s. We’re hoping to hear from them tomorrow.

Because neither of our regular computers is working, we don’t have access to Password Safe, our computer password wallet program. I have asked for a password reset on a couple of sites. The first one was successful, but the second one wouldn’t allow a reset because we can’t receive email on my husband’s computer. ARRRGH!

I tried to access my husband’s email on the laptop, but I have to exit everything I’ve finally gotten to work in order to try to get his email to download. I don’t want to lose what it’s taken me several days to accomplish, and so we’ve hit a wall.

Hopefully, a miracle will occur and we can get our computers happy and functioning again. At this point, they seem to be enjoying their vacation….

 

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August 28, 2018 · 4:26 pm

Hello!

everyday feminism

Things are very awkward – using laptop, external drive saved from my regular computer, and all the patience I can muster – but I seem to be functional on posting on the blog again. :0)

We shipped my defective motherboard to the manufacturer this morning. It’s still under warranty, so they’ll either repair mine or send us a new one. Help is on the way!

I figured out this morning how to transfer my camera pictures to the laptop, edit them, and get them into my blog picture folder, so I’ll post a couple later today.

Since everything is different on the laptop, the mouse is built in and has an idiot trying to use it :0), things are a bit challenging, but doable, with a lot of concentration.

I’m glad to be back, however hobbled my gait. I hope you’re doing well, too.

More later.

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August 21, 2018 · 4:46 pm

Motivation

I’m feeling good that I got my exercise for the day accomplished. I received the gold stars (really!) that I ordered in the mail today and caught my calendar up with my activity, adding another one for today.

I feel a bit silly for “working for the gold star” each day – rather than working just for the loftier and more mature goals of better health, less pain, easier movement, better balance, and more – but there it is. I feel GOOD when I add another star to the calendar, and get up off my duff and exercise if I haven’t, so I don’t ruin my new record, now 5 days and 5-1/2 stars…

I’m still having to push myself to get to the 1 mile marker on the Annoying Leslie walking video, but I’m hoping by the end of next week I can at least START Mile 2. I’m doing half an hour of gentle yoga, stretching, twisting, and breathing. My husband even noticed I was touching my toes with my fingers after less stretching time today, plus ALMOST being able to bend forward in a sitting position, soles of my feet together and touching my head to my feet. (I hope this description makes sense. I don’t know any name for it. If it’s just a bunch of words, just picture me tying myself into a pretzel shape.) :0)

My ‘extra’ for the day today was an hour this morning weed whacking and leaf blowing to finish trimming the grass my husband mowed yesterday. I’ll try to do a bunch of bug spraying and weed spraying tomorrow.

Now I’m looking forward to taking my cup of coffee into the living room, stretching out in my recliner with my “Creation in Death” Eve Dallas book. I’m having such a good time re-reading the 45 books in the series by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts before I read # 46 “Dark in Death” that came out recently in paperback. (Number 47 “Leverage in Death” will be out in paperback in December of this year. I’ve pre-ordered it. )

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August 21, 2018 · 11:10 am

Getting Older is SO Much FUN!

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A little sarcasm – maybe a LOT. :0)

 

My husband wanted to go to an auction this morning. He said he wanted to leave at 9:00. Knowing him, I set the alarm in the office where we were working and having a first cup of coffee (me) and sugar-free hot apple cider (him.) When the alarm went off, I said, “It’s time for you to go.” He said, “Where?”

He searched until he found his phone. He only takes it when we aren’t BOTH going somewhere. Then he came back in because he didn’t have the address. Then he came back because he didn’t have money. I programmed the GPS in the truck and he was off.

The above is told with a smirk at one of his foibles. He’s the smartest person I know. If he can’t figure something out or fix it, we ask our son. If neither can fix it, it can’t be. He’s really good with electronics, bending things to do his bidding. Sometimes the fight is long, but he gets it done. I look at it and figure it’s ‘magic.’

While he was gone and it was cooler and not raining outside, I swept out the garage where the truck had been. Then I weed whacked beside the sidewalks and around the flower beds. I was finishing up, coming around to switch the weed whacker for the leaf blower and he was back!  He said one of the things he was interested in sold, but for much more than he was willing to pay. The other thing he thought might be interesting was junk, so he came home. I got the leaf blowing done and put things away.

It’s amazing to me how quickly I tire these days. I’m very lucky that I can work until some part of me is yelling, stop and rest and drink some water, and then do another session until the job is done. It also takes me a LONG time to cool down and for my breathing to be normal again. One of the joys of becoming ‘mature,’ I guess.

“As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.” — Criss Jami

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August 18, 2018 · 3:24 pm

The Bottom Line

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August 18, 2018 · 3:18 pm

Coloring in the Lines?

Khaled Hosseini via SayingImages.com

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July 28, 2018 · 11:01 am

Armoring Up

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I WISH our flower planters look like this. I’ve been trying to weed the three 8-foot brick flower planters that follow the slope of our front yard between our grass and the driveway. My rewards for my efforts a couple of days ago was another red wasp sting and an ugly bruise on the back of my hand I received while flailing around trying to get the wasp off me.

I’ve been resting and avoiding the yard since then, trying to get the swelling in my arm to go down and the pain to subside. After two days of feeling sorry for myself, I’m finally over the hump on pain and swelling, both on the back of my hand and my arm. I think in another day or two I’ll be back in fighting form.

When I do go back out there, I’m going to armor up. I’m going to start wearing an old long-sleeved dress shirt of my husband’s that I’ll designate as my ‘gardening shirt.’ I’ll wear my jeans, long socks, and my gardening gloves. It it’s really sunny and hot, I’ll wear my funny-looking hat. Needless to say, I’ll be quite a sight, but MAYBE I can do what I’d like to do without getting injured.

The first thing I’ll do is arm myself with a can of the spray that knocks wasps out of the air and kills them on contact, or at least knocks them down where I can squash them. No more Mr. Nice Guy around here. I realize that wasps serve a good purpose or two, but they are hereby on notice to do their good work somewhere else! I’ll also have my canister of EIGHT bug killer and will hose down the area again before I get close. I’ll take our metal yard art peacock out of the planter (maybe even ripping it out and throwing it into the yard) – in case the wasps have built a nest in it. I’ll also hose down the palette of bricks stacked next to the brick planter because the wasps may have built a nest in there, as well.

Thankfully, we’re getting some rain on and off this weekend, so I can heal up a bit more before I tackle this.  Once I feel a bit safer – armed and armored –  I’ll start trying to weed again….

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July 25, 2018 · 10:43 am

Pet Peeves – Short Rant

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I’ve told you that my husband and I are trying to get the lard off and get healthier with the Nutrisystem program. We did this years ago, quitting because my husband was able to order fewer and fewer things he liked due to NS discontinuing his favorites. It’s happening again! :0(

Yesterday I spent a LOT of time contacting NS via email and then chat, trying to find out when the BBQ Pulled Pork lunch would be back in stock. They finally told me that it had been discontinued.

On the website on our previous order, it had said something similar to, “Due to high demand and popularity of this item, it is temporarily out of stock.” To find out this month that it has been discontinued was almost a deal breaker for my husband. He isn’t the most flexible person and doesn’t adapt well. We had a tense hour or so while we tried to figure out what to do. He doesn’t care for many of the lunch choices, so he wanted to eat the alternative “BBQ Seasoned Chicken” for lunch AND dinner. It’s only offered for dinner. We finally decided to order only 4 items for his lunches, order other choices for me to use to make flex meals for us, and then order 20 a la carte BBQ Seasoned Chicken items (having to pay extra) and order a bunch as part of his dinner items, as well. WHEW!

The discontinuing of an item that is out of stock ‘due to high demand and popularity’ doesn’t ring true for me. That seems like stupid business – plus you’re teeing off your customers. I would think a company as large as Nutrisystem could either make a deal with the current supplier, find another supplier who makes this, or figure out a way to make it themselves.

The NS program is expensive, but worth it when you’re trying to make a lifestyle change. To have to buy a la carte because my husband has tried, but doesn’t like a lot of the lunch items is really frustrating.

I will try to contact someone there who might be able to do something about this. I really want to stay on the program. Just a couple of weeks ago, my husband was saying he didn’t see why we couldn’t stay on NS essentially forever – but this was before his choices were being discontinued.

END OF RANT

Madeleine Jacobs

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July 19, 2018 · 9:47 am

Stupidity Reigns

Sarcasm Dujour – http://www.pinterest.com

Between my husband and me, our life is one LARGE surprise party.

Our latest ‘party’ is listing two things for sale on eBay. We’ve done this for years, but not often. We listed an iMac, and then two external drives, asking that payments be made via Paypal.

We sold both in the last several days, but then the party began. It turned out that we had neglected to check the email address listed for our account at Paypal (listed nowhere on the site except on listings you’ve posted.) We still had our OLD Paypal email from when I had my Creative Artworks website on our LAST listing, so it went on the NEW listings automatically. Since we’re old and doofus, we didn’t think to check. The buyers paid, but the payments went to lala land, since neither that email nor the Paypal account associated with it, exist now. We tried everything to fix it, finding out that the ONLY place you can change it is in a new listing. We listed a DVD, changing the information to the current email and Paypal account associated with it, but that doesn’t help us with the old listings. ARRRGH!

When we explained our goof to the \buyer of the external drives, sending him an invoice via Paypal, he said he had found the drives elsewhere, so we canceled the sale. After communication with the buyer for the iMac,  he said if we would list it again with the “buy now” price he had bought it for during the auction, he would buy it right away. We’re in the process of doing that now, hopefully not losing this sale, too.

What should have been simple listings and sales got hopelessly complicated because we FORGOT that the old information was on the Paypal account (only on eBay) and that we didn’t understand where we should have looked to make sure our information was correct before listing. Since we don’t sell things that often on eBay, we’ll probably forget what we have now learned the hard way. We’ll make notes about this, but then the notes will mysteriously disappear….

As Bette Davis said, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” 

 

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July 8, 2018 · 11:57 am

Another of Life’s Character-Building Exercises

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My husband is the technical person, handling computers, all things electrical, a LOT of things online, fixing things, etc. He was the one who figured out how we could cancel our satellite TV and save a lot of money. But, as he ages, his temper gets shorter and shorter – and – I admit I’m describing myself, as well.

Yesterday we had a power blip. Though the electricity was off for such a short time a lot of our things didn’t notice, it took us the rest of the day to deal with things that WERE affected.

We like DirecTVNow. All of a sudden, it wanted us to sign in with our user name and password. This is a really aggravating, laborious process of searching for one letter at a time, making our user name seem endless, and our password almost impossible due to the fact ours is quite complicated for safety concerns. I told my husband I would do the input if he would get me the password.

To make a long story shorter, we couldn’t get DirecTVNow to accept our password. My husband went into the office, then came back saying, “I deleted our Roku account because it wouldn’t take our password.” It turned out that he had confused the Roku and DirecTVNow accounts and had been giving me the Roku password. Now the account was deleted, so that meant ALL of our TV related accounts were toast.  His reaction to the problem and his temper in deleting the CORE of our TV watching ability was done in a fit of pique. He then decided to divorce himself from the problem – saying, “I don’t know,” to all my questions and not showing any interest in helping –  which had me tearing my hair out, and – at one point – going out in the back yard to yell a bit. (I wonder what the neighbors down in the valley think of the crazy woman who shrieks once or twice each year.)

I finally created a Roku account in MY name, and then got on my husband’s computer and added each of the programs and channels we had before, laboriously going from the living room to the office and back again, jumping through the various hoops each required.

We are both still alive and the TV stuff has been restored.

If you heard my head exploding or my shrieking last night, don’t be alarmed. Things are back to what passes as ‘normal’ around here.

It truly amazes me that the person I love most in the world is also the one who drives me completely nuts!

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May 23, 2018 · 11:13 am

I Just Want You

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Today is a challenging day for us. My husband’s computer isn’t working. Since he’s a computer analyst by trade, this is not only aggravation for him – it’s an ego thing. He got some ‘help’ from Microsoft yesterday, the result of which was that he is not able to boot his computer now. He put in a call to them early this morning and he got the message they would call within 27 minutes. He got set up in his chair with my phone, because he finds it easier than using his new one, his sugar-free hot apple cider, and his e-reader. They should have called about an hour and a half ago. To say he’s ‘upset’ is a vast understatement.

Because he can’t boot his computer, some stuff on MY computer isn’t working. Also, because of that, some things on our TV aren’t working. Because he’s using my phone, I can’t check to see if we sold any books I need to package and mail today…. So I’M not a happy camper, either.

He pressed me to change from the iMac my son set up for me back to a Microsoft Windows PC so that he would be able to fix things for me. He would set up the two computers the same, we would be able to share files, etc. This hasn’t worked out as planned at all. I am functional on my new computer, but we still are unable to share files. His computer keeps pitching hissy-fits, draining our finances and our calm demeanors simultaneously.

This definitely falls under the ‘flaws’ part of the wonderful quote above.

 

CraftyMamaGifts-Etsy

I DO want him, and have since I was 14 and he was 17. Now we’re older than dirt and STILL enjoy being together more than anything – EXCEPT when computers don’t work….

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May 8, 2018 · 1:08 pm

Ain’t It the Truth!

Aging Is Not a Disease via Cindy Basnett Thurman

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April 18, 2018 · 10:46 am

Bookmarks Progress!

PersonalizationMall.com

This old lady ain’t dead yet! I’m learning a LOT about how to create and manage bookmarks on the new PC using Microsoft 10 and Chrome.

I now have ONE list of bookmarks, all on Chrome. (I deleted Firefox as a browser)

I now can –

  • create a bookmark and put it in a folder
  • create a new folder
  • rename a bookmark
  • delete a bookmark

I’m in the process of looking at each one, deciding if I still want it, figuring out what folder to put it in if I want it (or create a new one). I’m actually making progress now and feeling much less frustrated.

Thanks to those of you who offered encouragement, commiseration, or wished good luck. It has really helped!

Pinterest

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April 17, 2018 · 3:00 pm

Bookmarks

PersonalizationMall.com

Can you hear me gnashing my teeth and muttering bad words?

I’m TRYING to move my computer FireFox bookmarks from the MAC to my new PC. I’m also trying to export my FireFox bookmarks on my new PC to Chrome, because my husband hates FireFox for some unknown reason. Since I need for him to help me on the computer, I’ll set things up the way he thinks is best and THEN I might bite him in the leg. I mainly want to be able to find things and use them, so I don’t really care how things are organized. I’m so awkward on the new computer anyway, it won’t make any appreciable difference in my learning curve.

I have NO patience with hardware or software. I only know enough to USE things once they’re working properly. Right now I have to tell you I’m thinking about throwing ALL of it out the window…

My project for the day is to try to use the newly imported bookmarks list to

  • figure out if I can access the websites using the URLs provided in the list
  • decide if I want to delete some of the bookmarks imported because I’m no longer using them
  • move bookmarks to a reasonable folder (I’m used to having a bunch of things open at the same time, moving from one to the next with abandon and back again.)  I have been told this is bad policy and that no one should use the bookmarks toolbar, for example, so I’ll need to figure out a way to access things quickly under the new system
  • Each of the programs I was familiar with on the MAC is either a version specific to Microsoft, or we have an equivalent program on the new machine, so how I do things has changed. I work until I tear my hair out and then do something else for awhile.

In order to stop myself from automatically clicking on the FireFox icon, I have deleted it, leaving only the Chrome icon to get to the Internet

I’m going to tackle my bookmarks now, taking a deep breath and determinedly diving in.

Wish me luck?

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April 8, 2018 · 12:48 pm

Exploding Head Syndrome

Rebel Circus

My husband was upset that I was using an iMAC and he was using a PC with Microsoft Windows 10. He’s a computer guru, used to being able to solve things when I screw them up. Our son is also a guru, but he lives and works halfway across the world and is not always available to help. My husband has been badgering me for a long time and I finally gave in.

He built the computer from scratch. What SHOULD have been a simple plug-it-all-in turned into a major nightmare because of compatibility problems. We returned parts, ordered more, replaced others, and were tearing our hair out. (Actually, I wasn’t tearing MY hair out because I didn’t really want to change to the PC and Microsoft :0) ) The problem turned out to be the video card. Once he got a compatible one in, the computer booted the way it was supposed to and the progress in earnest began.

After using a PC for years, my son got me to switch to the iMAC. Since we did this while he was home, I made as many notes as possible and learned as much as I could before he left. It was really difficult for this old lady to change, since everything I ‘knew’ how to do was wrong, but I finally managed to do most of the things I wanted to do on the iMAC.

Yesterday was the start of MY exploding head.  I’m back to where even the MOUSE is difficult. I’m used to using one that is flat. Now I’m back to using a regular mouse. All my instincts are wrong again. My head is exploding!  I start typing and get a bunch of gobbledy-gook. I have a nice ergonomic keyboard to use, but my fingers are used to the other board.

The only REAL  problems were not being able to move my bookmarks the way we thought we could, and my pictures file showing ‘icons’ instead of pictures. I had laboriously made a list of my bookmarks  (I have a lot). It’s a good thing I did because now I’m putting on bookmarks one by one as I need them. This is the first post I’ve done since switching to the new PC, new keyboard, new mouse, new look to everything. ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

My husband finally got Password Safe working. This is crucial because you can’t get into any of the programs or websites you use all the time without it. Lots of bad words were said by everyone, including Amber, who desperately wanted to play tug of war; but finally he prevailed. I asked him to help me move the new stuff into place, moving the iMAC, keyboard and mouse to the side in case I need something. I figure I’ll learn faster if I’m FORCED to try to do things on the new equipment. I’ll also figure out things we forgot, etc.

Right now, I’m not an unhappy camper, but definitely a TIRED one.

 

Dusky’s Wonders

Wish me luck?

 

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April 6, 2018 · 4:32 pm

Ambivalence

WikimediaCommons

My husband is building me a new computer. He really doesn’t like my iMAC and wants to be able to help me when I have problems. He has almost gotten things to the point where we can start putting data onto the new computer.

ON THE ONE HAND – it would be good to have an in-house computer guy to help when my computer goes wonky. Our son has helped me, but he’s across the world from us now -with a 12-hour time difference – and busy with his own life and pressures. ON THE OTHER HAND – I feel fairly comfortable with the iMAC and am really not looking forward to having to relearn how to use Microsoft – specifically Windows Microsoft 10, and have to learn all over again how to do what I want to do.

I went through this before when I changed to the iMAC. Everything I knew how to do was wrong on the MAC. Even the mouse was a pad, rather than a mouse. (You can’t left click or right click on a pad, for example.) All my programs were different. How I access my pictures was different. It didn’t even have Word or Excel or Capture Pro….

Now I’m pretty used to the new regime. It isn’t perfect, and there are some things that aggravate me, but I don’t learn new things nearly as easily as I used to. Technology has always been magic to me. (Kind of like electricity – I know how to USE it, but have no clue what actually happens to make it so the light comes on.)

So I’m ambivalent. Life is too short for my husband to be aggravated all of the time that we can’t share files as readily as we once did. Neither of us is in a position to problem-solve, or figure out how to overcome differences, so it makes sense to make my husband secure in the knowledge that he knows how our computers work, how they are set up (pretty much the same), and what to do in any given situation.

This morning, though, we tried to move one file from my computer to the new one – just to see what was involved. I tried to export it from here and import it over there. Nope. I tried simply dragging and dropping the file from where it was on my computer to the new one. It said it needed ‘authentication,’ and that I needed to get permission from my administrator. Supposedly, I AM the administrator!

This is the point at which I want to throw ALL computers out the window and tie my posts to the leg of a pigeon and hope for the best….

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March 28, 2018 · 10:10 am

Foiled Again

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Yesterday we stopped at a local grocery’s deli to grab some fish for lunch. My husband had gotten no-sugar-added ice cream cones in the frozen section, then asked for the special stash of sugar-free oatmeal raisin cookies the nice deli lady keeps in the freezer for him. He had also added sugar-free blueberry muffins to the basket.

I ordered two pieces of fish. My husband said he wanted two pieces of fish and then chose not one – but TWO – cobblers as sides for his lunch meal. The two deli ladies and I all stood, speechless for a moment. The lady serving us said, “Are you SURE? Aren’t you the one we keep sugar-free cookies for?” He smiled and said, “Yes, and I appreciate it,” waiting for her to fill his sides choices.

I held up my hands in surrender. We all make our own choices and have to live with the consequences…

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March 7, 2018 · 11:07 am

“Blow Me Down!”

as Popeye would say.

We had really gusty winds yesterday. I decided it was nuts to try to do any mixing of Mel’s Mix, since I knew the vermiculite and the peat moss would just swirl around my head and end up inside my ears, nose, etc. We didn’t have any tree damage, thank goodness, but we did have a casualty.

We left to go to the Chinese restaurant in Greenwood. When we got to the bottom of the driveway, all we could see of our robot was his FEET!

 

He weighs between 175 and 200 lbs, my husband estimates, and he’s really unwieldy – heavy, bulky, and really hard to work with. He’s blown over one other time and we practically killed ourselves getting him to stand up again. I made two suggestions of what to try to get him up again. My husband blew both of them off right away, so he’s thinking about how two old folks can tackle the problem. We need some good luck, if you could send some in our direction.

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