Late Saturday Evening Post

My Day:  Awake past midnight, but didn't wake up until after sunrise, unusual to sleep all night without even one overnight walk down the hall.  Putting it in writing now, but those kind of nights are so rare I'll bet I won't forget it.

Another humid day with 90-degree temperatures and no rain.  Watered marigolds, geraniums, indian blankets, and the volunteers (dogwood, evergreen, and the purple-and-pink flower on the single stem amidst daylilies and sedum on the north side of the shed).  Transplanted a small sedum from beneath the zelkova to a sunny planter in the bird garden.  Weed-whacked thistles out back, leaving bare ground and hoping that the lack of rain will keep them from returning.  Maybe I should cover that bare ground with some black fabric.

No walk around the neighborhood this evening, due to a passing brief thundershower just before sunset.  Wouldn't have seen any rabbits anyway.

Meal #1:  raisin bran and pistachios, grapefruit juice and seltzer

Meal #2:  banana with peanut butter, 12 oz. mexican coke, 4 oz. chocolate pudding

Meal #3:  spaghetti with meat sauce, made from PG's recipe, which begins with a jar of Rao's and from there adds meat, onions, and spices.  Oh, and red wine too, but in the recipe, not as a drink at the table.  Lemonade and seltzer.  Some ice cream afterward.  

an hour of practice

an episode of mr. ace and JANE

Countdown (but to what?)

Closest thing I can think of now is that I ran through stages of grief, and have now reached Acceptance.  Not so much for the job, but for the past 11 years, where there was a steady paycheck with steady yearly increases.  Even though I know SSA has yearly increases too, it starts from a lower point, right?  Yeah.

What was the percentage of people who couldn't come up with $400 for an emergency expense?  (Not as high as the initial headlines blared.)  A few days ago, I looked at replacing a valve on the downstairs toilet, but realized I didn't have the tools or the experience to get it done, even with YouTube videos to reference.  Of course, the plumber tried to upsell me, pointing out that the flapper wasn't as bright red as it should be, so why not replace both the valve and the flapper, only $249, it's like an internal overhaul, you know?  "Let's just get the piece that needs fixing, thanks."  Even that cost $125, and I know the complete valve didn't cost more than $25 retail.  Give 'em an inch, they'll ask for a mile.  At least I have a couple of paychecks still to come.

June 28 is a few days away.  Then I have to step off that looming cliff, the one I've been unsteadily approaching for the past 36 years.  Might as well look on the bright side (if there is one).  Maybe I'll discover I can fly.

Wildflower and pollinator

Seen this afternoon in the unlandscaped area behind Tabby's Place.

 

A little bit from a sunny spring Saturday

Earlier today:  This is a view from the township yard waste facility.

This morning, I gathered the branches taken from the bush next to the shed, and lopped them down so they'd fit in our containers.  After dumping three containers at the facility, I went to Wegmans for milk, cereal, salad dressing and pain patches for PG's hip bursitis.  On the way there, a groundhog ran across the road in front of me, but I was going slowly enough that he made it safely to the other side.

Can't remember just when, but I picked up 4 envelopes of seeds from the Dollar Tree up the road, and planted them in a couple of containers outside the back door.  The marigolds did the best, and over the past couple of days I transplanted four of them into a planter box just off the driveway.  (The driveway was patched and paved this past Thursday.  We'll be able to drive on the driveway tomorrow.)

Apple pastry from Costco for lunch... the remainder of the NJ diner French dip sandwich for supper. Didn't have dessert.  I like wearing 36-34 jeans again.

At 8:00 p.m., it was close to sunset, and I took a half-mile walk around the neighborhood.  Along the way, I saw rabbits to the left of me, rabbits to the right of me, rabbits in front of me.   They appear to favor lawns where there is plenty of flowering clover.  

 

Interested enough to bookmark, not enough time to enjoy them all

 

Keeping busy

Still a few working days left.  This was one of the off-days.  So was yesterday, when I transplanted PG's yellow rose on the south side of the house; disposed of a bunch of thistles on the formerly landscaped area out back (which now is about half-covered with wood violets); weed-whacked the brick walk and swept off the shredded greenery, and lopped off a number of branches from the dead magnolia tree next to the shed.  Today, I cut them into smaller pieces that filled a large plastic tub, and hauled the tub along with a trash can containing a dead red rose bush over to the township's yard waste facility.  Tomorrow PG's son will come over with a power saw and cut down what's left of the magnolia.  

On the way home from the facility, I stopped at the Dollar Tree in hopes of finding more flower seeds, but no such luck.  Nothing left but kale, cauliflower, and hot peppers.

Last night in the back yard

A first.  Never so many rabbits in such a small area of our yard.  

Today, saw a blue heron flying over the 1250 building at the hospital.  

 

Countdown

18 days of work to go.  Not handling it consistently well, either.  About what?  Pretty much what you'd expect.  Do I have enough money (probably not) and what if I run out.  Sometimes I feel like I have enough going on that I won't miss the old job, except every other Thursday when the paycheck no longer gets direct-deposited.  My last planned splurge was a Steely Dan t-shirt, high-priced to begin with, and larded with a heavy shipping-and-handling fee before tax.  But the 1996 Art Crimes shirt is worn out, and the 2003 shirt from the Borgata concert is showing its age as well.  

But I have my essentials:  someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.  Even the virus that laid me low for a few weeks has receded, leaving only an occasional hacking cough.  

Just for my memory, here's the day in a few words:  woke up alone at around 7:30.  PG had already gone downstairs.  I reported for work, booting up and logging in, then walked downstairs for a bowl of cereal and glass of juice.  The workday started slowly and by noon, I had showered, dressed and was ready to drive to Wegmans.  We got everything on the list and took it home, then I made a sandwich, poured a glass of lemonade with seltzer, picked out a half-dozen small pretzels, and went back to work.

Several more hours passed.  I had a bowl of chili for supper, and after that a small serving of homemade vanilla pudding with the last of the canned whipped cream.  Reclined in the recliner and listened to part of Kaleidoscope (subject:  the radio Green Hornet) before Mike Whorf's voice made me nod off.  Watched 15 minutes of "Madison Avenue" and the 15-minute Seinfeld speech at Duke.  Then went upstairs to practice.  

There, short but with enough detail to be interesting to me somewhere down the road.  

Five of everything

Common Cinquefoil, New Jersey, 19 May 2024.  Five-parted leaves and flowers with five petals.  In a pleasant surprise, I learned this is not considered a noxious weed.  The Wikipedia entry says "Pollinators include mason bees, small carpenter bees, cuckoo bees, halictid bees, syrphid flies, tachinid flies, blow flies, and others. Less common pollinators are wasps and butterflies. Rabbits and groundhogs eat the foliage."  While I saw no pollinators at all in the few minutes I was observing the wildflower section behind Tabby's Place, as far as I'm concerned, if it's good for the bunnies, say no more.

 

All kinds of life

Taken yesterday in the same unlandscaped location as the prior photo.  Multiflora Rose is (and I'll bet you guessed this) another invasive plant, unwelcomed by the authorities, although birds and insects appear to be appreciative.  

 

Uncommon

Black Swallowtail butterfly on Dame's Rocket, 19 May 2024

 

Wildflower and beneficiary

From the unlandscaped section of Tabby's Place, 19 May 2024.  Varied carpet beetle on Philadelphia Fleabane.

 

Things work out, I guess

Lingering URI and a night without sleep last night.  Steroid, benzo perles, Vicks in steam, hot tea with honey, and Ricola wild cherry drops, and in spite of everything I coughed instead of slept.  Turns out that being awake at sunrise was the right thing on this particular morning.

Around 5:30, I checked the email from Home Depot and saw that the toilet was going to be picked up by a gig driver for a UPS company and delivered soon after.  Hitting refresh again and again, I saw the completion of each step as Juan drove to the nearest store, picked up the product at 6:15, and began the drive west along the four-lane highway.  I followed the moving icon as it took the exit nearest home and steadily proceeded toward us.  When it reached the final turnoff into the development, I opened the garage door and watched a pair of headlights approaching on our street, right on cue.

Juan stopped his dark red Acura 4x4 some 20-25 feet short of the garage, ignoring my invitation to park closer, and opened the back end.  Picking up the box containing the toilet, he carried it into the garage and set it down next to the township trash receptacle.  I leaned hard against the box to create a little more space between them, and barely budged it.  

We paid the deposit to the flooring company and were told they'd have to order the product and fit us in their schedule, estimating 4 to 6 weeks before they could get started and another week before completion.  Later in the day, a local company notified us of their estimate to fix the crack in our driveway plus resurfacing it.  Five more paychecks to go in my working career, and each looks like they'll be easy come and easy go.  But we can't let the house look like it's falling apart, so we spend for the lawn, the landscaping, the driveway, the external signs that people who care live there.  

Progress report

Still coughing, but more energy.  

What's happening now?

Bought a new toilet for the downstairs powder room.  Well rated, yet marked down $30, plus another $15 off out of the goodness of Home Depot's heart.  Delivery fee brought down by all the discounts.  Should be here tomorrow.  Do I dare attempt to play Handyman?  Well, I've learned from YouTube videos before.

Volunteer butterfly bush in the back, and a tiny volunteer arborvitae next to the garage.  Up the road, dame's rocket in the same spots as last year, next to a telephone pole.  Cultivating the strong greenery that has survived to the point of becoming visible.

Some music, a little of Kaleidoscope before I lost consciousness.  Something about that show that eases me into slumber.

A good result in Immaculate Grid.  I believe every player I input was a major league regular sixty seasons ago.  1955-1985 is my strongest area, and especially the mid-1960's.  

Now after midnight, so enough writing.  Time to check out the Times games and inhale some more Vicks steam before closing my eyes for a few hours.

Just outside the front door

I intended to walk out the front door to go get the mail, but as I reached for the door handle, it became clear that I would have to take a different route.  Rabbits always get the right of way, especially when they are already there first.

What *IS* That?

Driving home from the doctor this afternoon, about a mile from home I spotted several of these purple flowers along a side road.  Naturally, I was attracted, and fortunately, the light was good and there was a place to pull off easily and safely.  

What I should have done is use Google to snap the picture and identify the wildflower.  Thanks to that lack of foresight, the ID had to wait until now.

Answer:  "Ornamental onion", or allium.

 

Time Marches On

Headline I did not expect to see, or "another passphrase I don't dare use now":  

"OMAHA'S LATIN DRAG SCENE"

The philosophy behind Jerry Seinfeld's comedy and his life.  I guess we shouldn't be surprised that the guy who co-created the "show about nothing" also believes his life has been about nothing much, either:

"I really have adopted the Marcus Aurelius philosophy, which is that everything I’ve done means nothing. I don’t think for a second that it will ever mean anything to anyone ten days after I’m dead."

The original sheet music from Drumeo for 16-note rock beats and fills, followed by an edited version where I've added some, um, notes.   

In lesson 2.5, we were taught 10 beats and 10 fills.  The fastest was 80 beats per minute (bpm).  Speaking for myself, I figured the intent was to be able to read the music and play the rhythms at the designated rate.  

In lesson 2.7, the final lesson of level 2 for beginners, we were given a final exam of sorts, in which we would use some of the beats and some of the fills and play along with a pre-recorded track.  The problems: first, the example set by the instructor was much faster than the speed we'd learned; second, the instructor used no sheet music and didn't expect us to use it, either.  Whoa.

It was all a blur to me, and judging from the comments, a good many others felt the same way.  The final exam didn't match the lessons.  I needed it to make sense, so I went back to the 2.5 lesson and made a copy of the sheet music for beats and fills.  Then I put on the instructor's final video and slowed it down to 50% speed so I could follow and figure out what he was doing. 

So it wasn't what they intended, but everything I need is now on one screen.  I copied a couple of beats from the left screen over to the right screen, and color-coordinated the order in which they were played.  Now I can follow what he did and play the same bars in the same order that he played them.  Memorization will have to wait, though.

 

OK, now what?

I came down with a cold at the beginning of the week and have been hacking unsteadily ever since.  It's forcing me to slow down, take naps, get more rest.  PG began to show the same symptoms this morning, and she was in bed tonight before it got totally dark.  

But with just a half-day of work tomorrow, I'm looking forward to feeling closer to normal for the coming weekend.  With PG under the weather, I'll pick up some of her chores.

Here was this day:  not much appetite, so small meals.  Besides the usual chores like scooping cat boxes, I pulled some weeds and whacked some others.  PG and I transplanted some flowers into one planter box; it already contained oregano in one corner, mini daffodils in the opposite corner, and an Indian blanket we found in the front yard in 2021 now filling in the corner between them.  

Still leaves one corner, which is where PG wanted to place an orange geramium she bought a couple of days ago at Walmart.  Then between the oregano corner and the geranium corner, we finally transplanted some white phlox that PG bought late last summer.  She actually bought two of the phlox that day at the farm market west of here, and the second one was buried in the space between the new marigold and the existing mini daffodils.  Got all that?   There's more.

Some intentional white flowers had spread so that there was a small patch right on the edge of the driveway.  We decided I should dig them out whole and put them in the middle of the planter box, the one remaining area.  Not only were they on the edge of a hard asphalt surface, but on either side of the root bulbs were metal pieces that held the border together.  More work loosening the dirt so the flowers could be lifted out, roots and all.  But I did it.

So that's complete.  We also have two planters hanging off the deck rail in which I scattered marigold seeds last Monday, and some sprouts are beginning to appear.  What else?  Whacked weeds coming up through the crack across the driveway, and followed up by pouring cleaning vinegar in it.  The hope is to put some sticky black stuff in the crack to get us through one more year, then having the whole driveway re-done in 2025.

Pulled some weeds near the dying cherry tree out back in preparation to cover a piece of the ground with a thick tarp.  A few weeks and everything under it should have died, at which time I'll lay down fresh fabric and cover that with brown mulch.

Back inside, I worked on my monthly assignment for TP, involving spending time with kittens and talking to people who are fostering kittens.  I forget who said it, but they advised seniors to have not only something to retire from, but also something to retire to, and Kitten Fund letters fit the bill.  Piecing together notes from the foster humans and choosing photos they've provided, plus evaluating kitten videos and deciding how to put them into one quick but entertaining YouTube video.  That's about the hardest part, because I'm now learning OpenShot for the video production; Inkscape for static title production, and today I downloaded Blender to create moving titles.  This is a perfect example of my natural impulse to stress over making stuff perfect instead of settling for good-enough.

Finally, I came up here at 8:00 and fiddled around with practice, not stressing about the slow progress I'm making but instead appreciating that this exercise is intended to be difficult.  By now I know that Repetition and Patience will get me through it in the end.  After 90 minutes of that, I set aside the sheet music and got into Blogger to get it down in writing before I forget (to coin a phrase).

In Google Keep I put together a list of several tasks I began and which are still unfinished because the person who can help hasn't returned my call or my text.  The landscaper was supposed to re-seed the front yard, where his heavy machinery had worn away the grass -- non responsive.  The rollover from my 401(k) to the existing brokerage account -- the 401(k) side says "Rollover Mailed to Institution", while the message on the brokerage website reads "Awaiting Arrival of Rollover."  They've read that way since late March.  So I followed up with the 401(k) team, and after 20 minutes on hold yesterday, I left my number and am awaiting their callback.  

Then, there was the guy who phoned out of the blue about something personal to me.  I emailed him back and asked him to put it in writing, but two weeks later, there's been no response.  If only I could get rid of the spammers who insist on regularly leaving messages for me to call them back at once.  Star-60 blocks the number they claim to have called from, but I know and they know that's not going to stop them for long, if at all.

Way, way back when

Shortly after my 2nd birthday, NBC, whose compatible color system gave them a big lead in the early decades of commercial television, broadcast ("in living color", as they liked to put it) The Kraft Music Hall, starring Milton Berle.  

Only recently, a Berle family member provided it to UCLA's Film and Television Archive, where it became the oldest known color videotape in existence.  Until then, An Evening With Fred Astaire, from later in October 1958, held that title.   EDIT:  Network color videotape, I should emphasize.  Or maybe, full-color videotape.  Neither of which applied to the dedication of color studios at WRC, Washington DC in May 1958.  

The Astaire show was rightfully viewed as an event and worth keeping.  The Berle show, not so much.  But it's color videotape from 65 years ago, plus it contains a brief clip from Bill Cullen's The Price is Right, so it's catnip to me.  

"That's all well and good, but I know good and well..."

A three day weekend is nearly over, and none of that time was spent with cats outside our home.  (As much time as possible was spent with Good Queen Swirly.)  Even with 8 hours of sleep a night, that still left 48 hours for doing useful things.  The above expressly excluded baking and eating chocolate chip cookies, making Lindt chocolate pudding, or any other high-caloric sweet treats.  I did pretty well there.

Some house cleaning, some yard work, but also some cinema (finished Zelig, deleted Whiplash after the first scene), some reading, and some drumming.  Even some dicking around with games like Spelling Bee, Connections, Strands, and WordScapes.  

Vacuumed the car... drove to Walmart for potting soil... dug two planters out of the shed and put marigold seeds in the potting soil... used the new weed whacker to clear the area around the shed, and an area on the landscaped island where a new tree is going to go.  That'll be on the north side, while on the southern end the existing ground cover of wood violets will be encouraged to continue to spread naturally.  

But eventually the cherry tree at the south end is going to die and will have to be chopped down.  This spring, there are a very few areas that contain leaves and blossoms, as in the image above.  The rest of it is bare and brittle.  Still, the tree was in just about the same condition last year, and it made it through the winter to our surprise.  Just glad I got some pictures.   

A squatter on the property

For years, the shed at the back of our property has sheltered local suburban wildlife.  Mostly rabbits, but we believe the little black pooshka took refuge under it as well.  

There were a pair of hollowed out spots on the south side where the current residents could come and go.  But now, one of those hollows that formerly consisted only of Pennsylvania earth has on top of it a layer of stones that had been excavated from under the shed, as in the photo above.  Out of the frame were some wads of fur on the lawn nearby.  

Searches online this morning were inconclusive as to the responsible animal.  I've never seen groundhogs or skunks around here, but when we were feeding the pooshka we'd also be visited by raccoons.  

I posed the question on Facebook, and one responder advised, "My guess is a raccoon burrowing underneath to make a spot for babies especially if finding fur which they pull out to use in their dens." 

Further online searches included useful ways to learn more (sprinkle a layer of cornstarch at the entrance to obtain paw prints) and discourage them from staying (used cat litter and human urine at the same location).  

 

White on White

In this area, a lot of farmland has been converted to housing, including the development where I live.  Near the development, there's a field that hasn't undergone that change, but the township installed a blacktop road through it a year or so ago, and since then it has been left unplanted.   

I drove by it a few days ago and saw these flowers standing alone in the fallow field.  An image search identifies them as Ornithogalum nutans, more commonly known as Drooping Star-of-Bethlehem.  The text at the link calls it "charming and underused", but soon after warns that "it is considered an invasive species in ten Eastern USA states...", including this one.

Besides that, another source reports that it is toxic to dogs, cats, horses, and humans, and is extremely difficult to get rid of due to the depth of its roots.  That's a lot to lay on a pretty little volunteer flower.

Imaginary Conversation

Harvey Haddix (at right):  No, son, I didn't say I went 12 *batters* without giving up a walk.  I said 12 *innings* without a walk.  

Nolan Ryan:  That's super, pops.  It must have felt great to pitch nine hitless innings.  I know that's how I felt all seven times I did it.

 

Spring Wildflowers

Seen all over the place during the drive yesterday, but this one in particular was next to the parking lot at the Flemington Costco.  Google Image calls it Eastern Redbud.  

 Appears to be wintercress, growing in the unlandscaped area behind Tabby's Place.  Both photos taken 4/19/24.

Fact-checking the New York Times

Well, not exactly.  Close, though.  A quick check of the indispensable Baseball Reference shows that Jim Qualls was not in the lineup for the Cubs on July 8.  The next day, the Cubs lost 4-0.  (That's the one where Qualls broke up Tom Seaver's perfect game with one out in the 9th.)  

July 10, however...

 

Keeping Busy

As far as 67-year-old Robert Young is concerned, "Real fulfillment is knowing what you want to do — and being allowed to do it. ... I want to work 'till I die." He says this after having tested retirement for six years...

"There were some of the unhappiest men in that retirement community," he reveals. "Former chairmen of the board — some who had ruled business empires. I'll never forget the day one of them complained, 'I woke up this morning and thought, what in the hell do I do today?'"

 

Credits for the above video:

Video production (OpenShot):  JM (also age 67)

Videographer (Samsung Galaxy 23+):  JM

Graphics (OpenShot and Inkscape):  JM

Still photo:  JM

Music production (Mixcraft):  JM 

    Mixcraft is Ikea build-it-yourself music.  They give you the instrumental loops, and you put them together however you see fit.  In this case, four bars of the solo acoustic guitar, then layer in loops of the bass and organ, and some percussion.  Fade out at 0:42 or so.

Next:  write the Kitten Fund monthly letter to its supporters.  Plenty to write about, and plenty of kitten photos to display.  All I have to do is show up, play with kittens and pay attention.  

Yes!

Been waiting for this day for months.  When I reached 229, I baked a small batch (cut everything down so it made 1 dozen instead of 4) of M&M cookies, which was the first batch I'd made since last July.  In the days since, I've crept up to 231, but have stayed there.  So this weekend the gang is having a shindig and needs some light refreshments, and I took it on myself to make Ghirardelli 60% Cacao cookies.  Three dozen go to the group and PG and I will have the other dozen.  

Light breakfast, light lunch, then time to bake the cookies.  I sampled several throughout the afternoon.  Then pizza and Pepsi for supper, followed by a cup of vanilla pudding.  Thousands of calories, but it seems to have worked, because I have no cravings now.  Tomorrow, back to normal.  

A warm welcome to...

I only check blog stats to see if anyone's dropped in lately, and lately it's been scraper bots from Hong Kong.  Those are for the past seven days.   They've even found my unlinked, unpublicized other blog and left more hits than there are posts.  Can't imagine what AI is going to learn from either of them.  

Making something out of a nothing day

This past Tuesday was cloudy and cold, so I didn't want to go outside.  Inside, work was slow, and neither PG nor I had any appointments on the calendar.  

There was nothing to look forward to.  

I decided to make something happen.  In mid-afternoon, I baked a blueberry streusel cake for her breakfasts.  When I came downstairs to take it out of the oven, I sat in the recliner and Good Queen Swirly took the opportunity to hop into my lap and lie down.  Minutes later, I was napping.

Close to sunset, I took a brown banana to the shed in back, and spooked the rabbit who's the intended recipient of the fruit.  The cottontail ran to the maple stump, then disappeared around the side of the house.  But when I checked this afternoon, all signs of the banana were gone.  

Pangram-ish

All together now!

 

Early spring wildflowers

Just around the corner from Tabby's Place, there's a tiny stream that's visible from the road.  Yesterday, these yellow flowers were sharing space with blue speedwell.  Based on the photo at this link, which has not only the yellow flowers but also the speedwell, I'm going to say it's Ranunculus ficaria.  

 

Adding to the sum total of human knowledge

First came this...

...and I contributed the bit on the right below.  Which was followed a few hours later by the post on the left.  (Click to embiggen)

 

Speedwell in morning sun

 

Spring: The Return

The creeping speedwell has blossomed once more in our yard.  There's also some red dead nettle that's starting to show its colors in the background.

Making an effort

90 minutes with a little cat on my lap this evening.  I watched an old movie on TiVo while she napped.  From 6:30 to 7:00 I listened to Kaleidoscope, which tonight featured Pearl Harbor and Wake Island and the events of December 1941.  

Then I came upstairs and watched a few informative things on YouTube, including another lesson in how to use OpenShot.  Not a whole lot of initiative, but with the exception of preparing photos for TP on Sunday night, more get-up-and-go than I've shown for a couple of weeks.  

For the record:  I TiVo'd Withnail and I some weeks ago, and at last got around to watching it in half-hour bites over a few days recently. It was great to see it available on TCM, as I'd heard so much about it since its release in 1987.  Maybe back then I would have seen it the way they did, and I'd have enjoyed it more too.  As it was, I made it through the entire film, which is more than I can say about some of the movies I've recorded, but it was easy to delete when it finished.  Ah, I'm sure I'm the outlier here.  I'm supposed to laugh at the talented actor who's wasting it with self-destructive behaviour.  Okey-doke.

A little extra cash in pocket -- wonder what to do with it?  I know:  I'll pay off the bills PG and I ran up yesterday!  First Costco, then Wegmans, then Wild Birds Unlimited, and finally to Weis for stuff we didn't find at Wegmans.  [insert "chi-ching" GIF here]

Windows 10 Bluetooth pairing dialog box too small

After visiting TP, I came home and tried to download photos from my phone.  I got a message saying that Bluetooth between the phone and the downstairs laptop was not connected.  I tried following the instructions in Settings, and this came up:

No yes-or-no buttons, not scrollable, not enlargeable.  The pairing failed time after time until I found that not only had many others encountered this problem, but also that it was a bug in Windows which was first detected in 2021.  Here's more info:

I ended up getting a USB adapter and plugging it in, and downloaded the photos that way.  But here's an answer I can vouch for:

So there's a bug that prevents people from pairing their phones and their contents to Windows 10 via Bluetooth.  We're coming up on the 3-year anniversary of its first appearance.  And it hasn't yet been fixed.  

When I get around to the new laptop, I'll see whether it still exists in Windows 11.

Insomnia

Awake since 2:15.  After a largely sleepless night last night that I blamed on the caffeine in the Pepsi I had with pizza, I don't have a similar easy explanation for this.  

Anyway, I lay in bed for an hour before giving up, getting up, and going downstairs.  Xitter doesn't work with Google Chrome, either upstairs on my PC or down here on my laptop, but it does work on Edge, which is based on Chrome.  I'll use that workaround rather than clear all cookies, which would force me to sign in everywhere else all over again.  

I had to wrestle the snow thrower once again yesterday in the wake of an unexpected storm that left six more inches on the ground.  A body would think that would tire out a body.  

Completed the Connections without a mistake, and even began with the tricky purple one.  Some are harder, some are easier.  Some days I don't even get one correct answer.  Followed Connections with Spelling Bee, which is generous with pangrams today.  I found two in the first three words, then checked the Buddy and learned that there are six in the puzzle.  So I found a third pangram and sent an IM to PG, telling her only that I had found half the day's pangrams and was leaving the rest for her.    

Yesterday, no drums, not even a half-time shuffle.  The day did have its share of things that kept me busy in an interesting way.  Now that the new laptop is here, I went through the app executables on file and deleted some outdated ones.  Unlike Samsung phones, Microsoft will only re-install apps that were on your old Windows machine if they are also in the Microsoft store.  That leaves out a few, like ACDSee.  

Not sleepy yet.  Watched another OpenShot tutorial video, and will bring up France Info after I finish writing.  Tried to find a free open source Windows video clip manager, without success.  I want to organize the video clips, recognizing that I'm probably the only person who cares about them and that after I'm gone no one is going to save them.  

C'est midi passé de six minutes quelque part, je viens d'entendre.  Moi, j'ai besoin de sommeil.  Bonne nuit à tous.

Focus

I was just reading an article from today's Le Monde, and I was doing fine with the language.  Not quite as smooth as English, but I knew what was going on.

But while I'm reading something in another language (one of the stated activities set for retirement) I'm not practicing any of the variations on the half-time shuffle; I'm not watching a tutorial on OpenShot; I'm not creating a video in OpenShot.

I already know what I want to do first.  Months ago, I saw a WWII cartoon with a character like Private Snafu.  In it, there was a section of gibberish consisting of a speeded-up human voice.  I recorded the audio and slowed it down in GoldWave, and found it was the same voice as the lead character in the cartoon.  It shouldn't be difficult to put together a video that reveals this fact to anyone with ears to hear.  Call it my latest contribution to the sum total of human knowledge.  

OK, kid, focus.  Back to Le Monde.  The rest can wait until tomorrow.  After you clear the latest snowfall on Saturday, and before you visit the cats on Sunday, there'll be time for creative activities.  (After you visit the cats, there'll be photos to go through, tag, file, and touch up for publication.)  Remember that Monday's an off day, too.  You can't do it all at once, but you can do it all at one time or another this weekend.  

Conversation

Me:  I've heard the stories, and it sounds like to become a major star, a woman had to be hard, tough as nails.  Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck.  

But then I read about Jack Benny and Bob Newhart, and the impression I get is that they understood that letting the rest of the cast get the laughs was the way to success.  Not tough as nails at all.  Are there any women like them who made it big ?

PG:  (after a moment's thought) Carol Burnett.

Content

Accent on the second syllable, to be clear.  

Around noon today, I drove somewhere, parked, got out, walked in, a minute later walked back out.  No pain in my back, in my knees, in my feet.  Blood flowing without any problem.  Breathing normally.  Recognizing how fortunate that makes me as a 67-year-old.

After six inches of snow Sunday night, I wrestled around a heavy snow thrower to clear the driveway, the brick walk behind the house, the sidewalk along the house, and the sidewalk along the street.  Later in the afternoon, came back out after the township plowed in the end of the driveway and shoveled the wet, packed snow onto piles on either side.  No trouble.

Floaters in both eyes, tinnitus in both ears, some plumbing problems, but the kind to have (the kind that doesn't require Depends).  

I love my wife, I like my job, and whenever I want, I can go spend time with cats.  They've asked me to take pictures and write about cats, I didn't have to apply for anything.  I am reasonably competent reading and hearing a second language (speaking it is something else, since I don't get any practice).  I am learning a musical instrument, taking lessons on drums for the first time after my most recent birthday.  

While putting together a piece for Special Needs cats, I found that it would help if I knew a little something about video editing and creation.  I had made a hundred or more short YouTube videos over the course of a 10-year period, then ran out of inspiration or something and stopped completely.  

Sony Vegas isn't available to me now, so I went looking for a replacement, free and open source if at all possible.  OpenShot seems to be the answer; it's installed now and I've been checking out tutorial videos on (what else) YouTube.  This of course leads to the realization that although I've done a better-than-average job of tagging the digital still photos taken over the past 25 years, the video clips aren't nearly as well-documented.  There's a project, and a big one.  It'll keep me busy when I'm not taking pictures and processing them, or loving on cats, or writing about them, or reading/listening to French, or practicing variations on a half-time shuffle.  

Back in time

This is genuinely for me only.  Most if not all of the other posts in Before I Forget can be read by anyone, on the off chance anyone else finds them.  But considering the miniscule chance that anyone will find this, and the even smaller chance they'll be as interested in early videotape as I am, I recognize this one's for me and me alone.

Back when I watched broadcast television, there was some special probably related to the history of a network.  I saw a clip of Sinatra and Bing and my mind snapped to attention.  From the live look of it, I could tell it was a videotape, and I knew that black-and-white clips from early TV were always in the form of lower-quality kinescopes.

On YouTube, I learned that it was a clip from The Edsel Show, which aired on CBS on October 13, 1957.  More about the difference between videotape and kinescope at Kris Trexler's website, King of the Road, as well as the story of how he helped make The Edsel Show available.

Also at KOTR is the story of An Evening With Fred Astaire, broadcast just over a year later on NBC, "in living color" as they used to say.  That used to be on YouTube, too.  

It also used to be the oldest existing show nationally broadcast on color videotape, until the announcement of the Kraft Music Hall that was on October 8, 1958, nine days before the Fred Astaire show.  

I have a little list of YouTube-available shows from way back when.  Some are videotapes, some are kinescopes dating back to 1948.  Near the top of the list:  the oldest color videotape of any kind:  dedication of WRC-TV studios, May 22, 1958, featuring President Eisenhower.  Here too, Kris Trexler had a hand in putting that up for everyone to see.

As of tonight, 13 of the shows I put on the list aren't available anymore, including the Playhouse 90 telecast of Judgment at Nuremberg.  When Rod Serling complained about serious shows that were interrupted by six bunny rabbits selling toilet paper, that was one of the commercials on this show.  

Also, this show was sponsored by the gas company, and for that reason, all references to gas chambers were muted.  Someone with a black sense of humor could come up with something far worse to take their place.  My sense of humor only goes so far:  I liked it when margarine ads, which were forbidden to use the word "butter", made the most of it by referring instead to "the high-priced spread."

My Day

Yesterday, we went out at noontime to pick up the usual weekly groceries, down in Macungie at the Nice Weis.  By the end of the day, my stomach was upset and I didn't know what I'd done to deserve it.  I got through the night without regurgitating anything, and in the morning PG and I made out another shopping list.  Time for a bland diet, at least for a few days.

This time, we went to the nearby Giant, because I knew it carries Vernor's, and ginger ale was one of the items on the list.  By the middle of the day, PG had made a pot of chicken soup and a bowl of applesauce with cinnamon.  We also had fresh bananas, a box of Rice Krispies, and a loaf of Sara Lee Butter Bread for toast, which is the "T" in a BRAT bland diet.  

Back home, I napped deeply enough that vivid dreams occurred, none of which I can remember now.  Other passive activities:  watched the first half hour of Harold and Maude; read chapter 2 of Surrounded on Three Sides, a book first published in 1958 with pop culture references like Norman Vincent Peale and radio-TV columnist John Crosby, both of whom are forgotten today.  I got them, though, and even look forward to digging for more information if the author drops a name unfamiliar to me.

Tragedy, Farce, Etc.

2016:  #ButHerEmails
2024:  #ButHurSays

One More Thought

Watched Nuremberg on Tivo and was astounded as ever to see the hundreds and thousands of German citizens who enthusiastically sieg-heiled throughout the reign of the Third Reich.  Smiles on their faces, right arms raised high.  Were they all really true believers at that point?  Wonder whether any of that film had been shot in Dresden.  If so, wonder how many of that group of people survived.

Thoughts While Scrolling

I'm not paying close attention... well, in a way I am, following political Xitter and Bluesky regularly, but more on the Headline News level than in depth.  OK, that said...

Things I've read online, things I've seen or at least heard about on TV, and I haven't heard or read this next put this way:  anti-Trump people are working together with the same goal.  Extreme example: Liz Chaney (who, it must be admitted, was plugging her book) and Rachel Maddow.  True, neither of them are in office, so it's not the best example of politics-makes-strange-bedfellows, I get that...

Being anti-Trump has brought them together, and they're working together without getting deeper into political beliefs.  They treat each other with respect.  If MAGA is defeated, then won't that respect carry over into day-to-day governing?  

These days, the overview seems to be that Democrats think Republicans are evil and out to destroy America, and Republicans are just as sure the opposite is true.  In the good old days, it is said, they'd disagree without being disagreeable, and after the day's battle would go out together for drinks.  So I'm thinking, isn't all this working together now going to help down the road, too?

Fooled twice, almost

There was something in the New Yorker that referenced someone whose TikTok videos were popular.  I followed the link... and you know what?  I'm not going through the details of what happened after that.  It's enough to say that they now have a junk mail email address of mine and a made-up date of birth, and whatever got left behind after I deleted the app from an old phone, less than 10 minutes after installing it.  It wasn't worth it.  

I'll have to remember this for future apps.  It's going to have to be awfully good, because now signing up is more than an email and a password entered twice.  There are other hoops to jump through, and it's either their way all the way or no way.  

You'd think I would have learned from making a half-hearted attempt to sign up for Threads, which also failed, for the same reasons that I stopped trying to sign up for TikTok.  Oh well, they've got plenty of members already, they don't need me.

It was a good day

Didn't sleep well Thursday night, but made up for it Friday night.  Stayed up going down rabbit holes until after midnight, and when I finally went to bed, I slept the sleep of the gods for 7 1/2 solid hours.  No bathroom visits overnight, just blissful slumber.   This happens very rarely.

So I woke up at 8:00, and the sun was shining, and I showered and put on clean clothes, and I felt like doing stuff.  Not Immaculate Grid or Spelling Bee, but breaking down boxes to recycle at the township and loading the car with them.  

That was the first task on the list, since all the boxes piled one on top of the other blocked my view of the rear view, so getting rid of them had to be first.  After that, to Wegmans for the standard list of groceries; milk, sugar, salsa, and bananas (yes, we had no bananas).  

Stopped at the Wild Birds Unlimited a couple of blocks from the Wegmans, and was impressed that the manager behind the counter remembered us, even though it had been weeks since our previous visit.  I mean, not only did he recognize us, he pulled up our frequent shopper account and helped remind us what we usually bought.  He had a shaved head and a bushy beard, but he's as good a businessman as any clean-shaven man in a gray flannel suit.

Returned home, dropped off the groceries, had half an apple with peanut butter, and back out again to shop.  First, though, to the new car wash a couple of miles from home.  We had been mass-mailed a card containing a code for a free wash, which I had forgotten but which PG remembered, saving me thirteen bucks.  You bet I thanked her.

At Costco, it seemed like every space in the parking lot had been filled, so we gave up and instead got a few things at the nearby PetSmart.  Then home again for the rest of the day.  We made a pot of chili and ate some of it, and I took a nap in the rocker/recliner with Good Queen Swirly on my lap.  She got down eventually, I woke up soon after, and fiddled around with the drumsticks on shuffle beats for some time.  Play for awhile, watch a video lesson for awhile, play some more, watch some more.  Nothing intense, just a low simmer.  

PG wanted a kitchen gadget from Amazon, so I ordered a couple and added some small stuff for myself.  We'd just bought a set of kitchen chairs to replace the worn-out set we'd gotten in 2006 or so.  That purchase was good for 5% cash (or store credit) back, so today's much smaller purchase cost us nothing.  

Today's mail brought the yearly letter from our accountant, providing a checklist of required tax documents.  We'd been dumping the W-2, the 1099's, and cumulative statements in a tray, and today I went through them, organizing and listing them on a cover letter that will go out soon.  Not expecting a big refund; in fact we try to break even or owe a little bit, hanging on to our money the way tax advisors recommend rather than make interest-free loans to Uncle Sam.  

One last thing:  in the Philip Wylie rabbit hole last night, I learned about a 1915 book which described a superweapon that strongly resembled an atomic bomb.  Immediately I went to Gutenberg and downloaded a copy of The Man Who Rocked The Earth.  The book looked a year ahead and described the destruction caused by the world war, and while I don't know my history that well, I bet the story wasn't way off in its predictions.  I don't take for granted having near-instant access to documents and information that were out of reach the first forty years of my life.  What a time to be alive, y'know?  

Friday night

A thought while scrolling:  "That's all well and good.  But I know good and well that..."

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Seen any good stuff lately?  Yes, the Mike Wallace Interview, a half-hour of picture radio from the late 1950's, conversation with the up-and-coming (Henry Kissinger), those past their prime (Mary Margaret McBride, Dagmar, Gloria Swanson, Philip Wylie) and those still riding their 15 minutes of fame (Ralph Lapp) or infamy (Eldon Edwards, Grand Wizard of the KKK).  A few people at the top of their business (Steve Allen, Eddie Arcaro), and some near the end (Commando Kelly, Diana Barrymore).

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As a child growing up a couple of decades after World War II, I learned about the war years through history, not as an eyewitness.  The Manhattan Project had been top secret, I read, except for a few pesky leaks to the Soviet Union, I read later.  When Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked, it was a huge surprise to everyone outside that small cadre of nuclear physicists.  No one had ever heard of such a thing.

And so it wasn't until tonight, following up on the Mike Wallace Interview with Philip Wylie, that I learned that the atomic bomb had been the subject of numerous articles in the 1930's in newspapers, in magazines like Popular Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated, and short stories in pulp science fiction magazines.  People knew about the sudden cities in Oak Ridge and in Los Alamos.

Actually, the pulp stories continued into the early years of the war (so I found out) until a government agency said in effect, "Ix-nay on the Omb-Bay.  The enemy can read, too."  Philip Wylie had written a story that brought together a great deal of knowledge about the progress being made on nuclear weaponry, and he was taken to a quiet room by several serious men who wanted to know how he knew so much and why he was telling so much about it.

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I was in the basement last night, and I looked across the floor and saw my little cat, Good Queen Swirly.  She saw me and ran to me for some affection, and I was happy that seeing me made her so happy.

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Symphony's determined kitten

A cat foster parent provided this footage of a mother cat and her kittens at feeding time.  The video was cute all by itself, and then I touched it up a bit, using Handbrake to convert it from .MOV to .MP4, adding a little background music from Free Music Archive, and learning how to use Mixcraft Acoustica 9 to tighten up the shot.  

Time Well Spent

Sunset in a few minutes, but the overcast sky already has made it too dark to get around outside without artificial light.  It rained all day, so I haven't been outside the house.

Inside the house, I did some more organizing of the basement's contents, so there's my stuff, PG's stuff, Joyce's art stuff that can be given to granddaughter D, Xmas stuff that will be offered to family before being donated, and housewares and other small items that are likewise earmarked.  There's one other pile, consisting of boxes for packing the small stuff.  

In a Times article about a modern production of Once Upon a Mattress, pleasantly surprised to find a link to a 1964 CBS videotape of the same show, this one with most of its original cast, including Carol Burnett as the prospective princess.  Then on that YouTube page was a link to Carol's opening number, "Shy", as done on the Garry Moore show in 1960, while she was still in the show on Broadway.  That led me back to "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" from the Ed Sullivan show of April 6, 1958, when she was 24, and from there I got a link to her April 2023 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, just before she turned 90.  

Finished "On The Town" and deleted it from Tivo.  Some time on Facebook, putting in a plug for Tabby's Place Kitten Fund.  Some time playing WordScapes.  Practiced drums.  Watched others cover the same songs to try to learn from them.  Some time learning about chords and how Steely Dan used them, adding jazz elements to keep themselves interested and to create new music.  Paid the trash and sewer bills at the credit union website.  

New information on Slack from a TP foster of a cat and her five kittens.  There's a little video; can I edit it and add a little free music?  While I'm at it, January is almost over, so I'd better start thinking about the February correspondent update.  I organized the field reports (you could call them) and their photos today.  Soon, some word processing and uploading.

Soon, a new laptop for downstairs, replacing the 2016 Dell Inspiron that can't be updated to Windows 11.  

Things that produce a sense of accomplishment on a wet, gray Sunday.

One Extended Moment

Before we went out for bird seed and one or two other things at Walmart, I locked the front door.  From there, I could see two robins in the yard across the street.  I had read that the temperature reached 80 degrees in Washington D.C. yesterday, although it had been 30 degrees cooler north of Philadelphia.  At least two birds took the unseasonable warmth as their cue to head north.  They were too far away to photograph, as if they were any different from any other robins on the continent.  But either they're very smart, and they know something about the upcoming weather that I don't know, or life is going to be mighty difficult for them over the next couple of months.  

However, when I pulled into a parking spot at Walmart, this sparrow was much closer, in the cart corral just past the hood.  Unlike the birds who frequent our back yard feeders, this one doesn't fly away at the sight of a human.  I had several seconds to unpocket the phone, enter the unlock code, call up the camera app, and set up the shot, then take three pictures.  

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Girl Scout cookie sellers at Walmart and at Tractor Supply just down the road.  No thanks, I can live without it.  I made cinnamon buns this morning.

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Took the broken-down boxes from the basement to the township yard waste site and plopped them in the cardboard recycling dumpster.  More physical activity than I've had in many a moon, but at least I'm not broken down.  And the basement now has more space than it has had in years.

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"On The Town" on the TiVo.  I can take or leave the dancing, and shrug at the songs and the story.  But those 35mm Technicolor views of late-1940's Manhattan make me reach for the pause button every time.  Somewhere someone has a website with a detailed list of the billboards in Times Square, and I wish I could find it.  Muttering, "... in the 30's it was Planters Peanuts, Chevrolet, and Coca-Cola.  Then in the early 40's it was Four Roses/Kinsey whiskey, Ruppert beer, and Pepsi-Cola.  After that, Canadian Club whiskey and Admiral TV and appliances from the mid-50's to the mid-60's... after that, who cares..."  

Is That So?

Sociology

Professor Lehrer, although not available for comment at this time, has already made his thoughts clear on the subject...

Less Eventful, mostly

Today's event:  a cap fell off one of PG's teeth, leaving a sharp stub behind.  She phoned her dentist, but got no answer and no return call, so I looked for something I didn't know existed:  an over-the-counter tooth repair kit.  Not entirely surprisingly, they do exist, and after supper we went to the Walgreen's down the street and picked one up.  It'll do until she can get an appointment for a professional job.

Years ago, there was a webpage called The End of Free, documenting the gradual shift toward no-holds-barred capitalism on the internet.  I submitted an entry back then with the story of a person who advertised free web sites, and who later tacked on mandatory fees while nominally retaining the no-cost price tag on sites.  

Free is still out there, if you're in the right place at the right time.  I was telling PG that I wouldn't have started learning the drums if it hadn't been for the YouTube videos that showed me it could be done, and the emergence of Moises, which splits songs into separate "stems", or audio files, of vocals, bass, drums, and all else at no cost*.  

* - Five songs per month, no longer than five minutes each.  

With a drum stem, I can use Audacity (free open-source audio editor) to slow down the part until I can understand it.  

No Quality Time with any cat tonight, but PG and I watched Graham Norton together, and I made some chocolate pudding from a recipe by Epicurious.  After she went upstairs, I went downstairs and broke down some cardboard boxes for recycling.  The basement looked so cluttered a few weeks ago, but come to find it out, a lot of the objects that were taking up space were just the empty boxes from a microwave, a PC, and a toaster oven, to name just three.  

Ongoing project:  Gathering tax documents.  Notifications are trickling in daily, and I've been diligent about fetching them from the individual websites.  All we need now are her Social Security and her pension 1099.  

Ay caramba

PG received a document from Medicare that said she could be billed more than $2,000.  There were charges from some place in Brooklyn with "Ortho" in its name, submitting claims for catheters for six months from May through October last year.  So ay caramba, or oy gevalt, or heck, even bozhe moi.  

We checked Medicare and the Medigap carrier and found claims from the supplier on both sites.  Next, we called Medicare's toll-free number and only had to wait five minutes or so before someone came on to help.  Twenty minutes later, we'd given them all the facts we had to report on what was likely a series of fraudulent claims.  I'm hopeful it will all work out, and I know did wonders for PG's blood pressure, anyway.

An hour later, I logged off and went downstairs for supper.  Before I could take a bite, a phone call came in from a collection agency that left a message for me to call them back.  I looked up the number they left, and found detailed descriptions of a no-doubt scam.  So then, no, I'm not calling.  Any other questions?

Four Things

1.  At Tabby's Place, a woman I didn't know approached me and told me she had adopted Sabrina, and she thanked me for the Throwback Thursday pictures of her cat that had been posted about a month ago.  

2.  Recently, I was in the $1.25 Tree store, and on the bookshelf I found Funny Girl, a novel by Nick Hornby.  I had a vague memory of him associated positively with Steely Dan, and that he'd written a couple of other critically-praised things I'd heard of, so I bought the book.  Last night, as I scanned the Sunday night Tivo listings, I found Funny Woman, a British show based on the book.  (Good idea changing the name.)  "There are no coincidences"?  Ha!

3.  Xitter has its lower-class neighborhoods, I'm told, but where I hang out is perfectly OK.  Still sharp and intelligent.  For instance:

There were several dozen responses that referenced Steely Dan, and every one of them was a reference to something in one of the first seven LP's,  Can't Buy a Thrill through Gaucho. Nothing from Two Against Nature (Grammy Album of the Year!) or Everything Must Go, and zilch from the solo releases. 

My response was slow, and a quote tweet instead of a direct reply, but it works while still fitting in with the crowd.  My excuse is that I had to narrow things down, discarding 11 Tracks of Whack and Circus Money, where others already had a limited list of sources.    

4.  I had a podcast on while driving home yesterday afternoon, the OMG (Osnos, Mayer, Glasser) Political Scene from The New Yorker.  Shortly after crossing the PA border, it ended and unexpectedly, another podcast began, this one devoted to drumming history.  This one, a look back at Neil Peart's gear.  This one, designated as Part II, and just for the years 1982-1994.  This one, nearly two hours long; 1:47.31 to be exact.  (My eyebrows raising higher and higher as I realized all this.)