To which list I thought, um... the names are those of players who had been, or were rising stars, along with those whose prime was in 1963. But I held my tongue.
Begun in 2020 as Pandemic Quarantine Diary, and now it's whatever strikes my fancy.
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Kids these days
To which list I thought, um... the names are those of players who had been, or were rising stars, along with those whose prime was in 1963. But I held my tongue.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
1st of the year
At mid-day yesterday, I saw one chicory flower growing along Grange Road. The first of many...
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Thoughts while strolling
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Another first
My Day
(1) caregiver (meds, prescriptions, appointments)
(2) TP volunteer image-link fixer
(3) info on cat-calming products
(4) make vanilla pudding? make cinnamon buns?
(5) cranberry juice sweetener - how much / proportion?
(6) Dr ___, GI specialist - look up
(7) Take a walk and look for interesting images
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Tiny and Tinier
Monday, June 2, 2025
Sunday, June 1, 2025
And another one
Thursday, May 29, 2025
An unexpected visitor
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Monday, May 12, 2025
Spring flowers
I didn't bother
Things I saw but didn't photograph: At the traffic light exiting a shopping center, across from the former world headquarters of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. In the grass between the sidewalk and a chain link fence, two Canada geese were walking. As I turned onto the road, I saw several goslings walking with them.
I took a shopping list into a store, and in one aisle I found someone else's shopping list. Both lists had been written on paper that bore the name of the same children's charity.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
At the end of the day
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Extra pep
Pretty good at staying focused today. Besides the longer walk, I took an hour for practice at home and filled it with meaningful action. No naps, and just one Pepsi in the category of junk food. Good cereal for breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch, and... and... no memory of what I ate at 5:00. I think it may have involved whole milk yogurt from Whole Foods.
I wish this photo had been better, but at least I got a picture. There were a couple dozen rabbits in the yards I passed during my walk, including this one, who was stripping a young plant of the highest leaves it could reach.
Google Maps and my timeline say I walked a mile and a half this evening. Must have had some extra energy and motivation.
Forget it
The internet is forever. Even irrelevant little online journals like this.
Which is why I'm giving no details of a meeting PG and I had this afternoon. That's the when, but nothing else. Not the who, the what, the where, the why, and not even the how.
Maybe 20 years ago I would have put it all down in black and white, and never mind the consequences. At 68, I'm less adventurous.
It was a totally mundane, yet stressful scene. Anyway, it's over. This, I can forget.
At least, I hope so.
Monday, May 5, 2025
Calls
Calls all day... along with the usual spam callers who wouldn't leave a message, there were calls from PG's dentist office, her sister-in-law, three calls from the pharmacy with status updates on a prescription, along with a call we made to one of her specialists to postpone a scheduled appointment due to a time conflict.
In between, PG rested, which with prescription meds helped keep her pain level manageable. We're waiting for test results from last week and when they are posted, we will see what options are available next.
Saturday, May 3, 2025
My day
Pat's back has been bothering her a lot lately, and early this week our family doctor recommended some tests. First, he gave her a prescription for an x-ray, and told her she could get that without an appointment at a nearby satellite office of the area's largest hospital system. In addition, he told her that she should have a bone density scan, which could be done at the same office, but would require an appointment because there was more to it than just an x-ray.
Back home, I set up the appointment for the scan and made a note of it. But this morning, when I wanted to make sure of the date and time, I couldn't find it. It wasn't in her email, not in my email, not in my Keep file, and not on the wall calendar in the kitchen.
I found it soon after, but until then I was upset that I hadn't handled that important information properly. Pat did her best to talk me down.
When I remembered the information could be in Dropbox, I knew where to look for it, and calmed down. I had printed the appointment from the hospital system's website to a PDF and filed the PDF in Dropbox. At the time, I couldn't get the .ICS file to make an entry in the calendar program. When I relocated it, right away I wrote the appointment info on the wall calendar and input it on the calendar program so it wouldn't happen again.
This afternoon, I drove her to the satellite office for the walk-in x-ray. The technician who called her name to come back to the x-ray room was friendly and outgoing, and I told her that we'd likely be back next Tuesday morning for the scan. Then another woman approached and interrupted the technician, and momentarily I started getting hot at the interruption. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut, because the other woman was the manager, she had overheard me and had contacted the main office to change the 2nd appointment. After the x-ray, Pat could go down the hall immediately to the room for her bone scan so we wouldn't have to make a second visit next week.
Just nitpicking: if she had first said "Excuse me, but I couldn't help overhearing... I'm the manager and..." Otherwise, 10/10, no notes. If the hospital doesn't do a follow-up, I'll have to email someone in charge. I know that when I was working, it was always good to hear from a satisfied customer. (And then I would forward a copy of the message to the boss.)
Friday, May 2, 2025
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Second sight?
Second chance
Last year about this time, I spied one white flower standing out in a fallow field of green.
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Wildflower at sunset
Down it goes, too
Down it goes
In bloom
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
A particularly good specimen
Saturday, April 19, 2025
Outside looking in
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Strolling with a camera-phone
Monday, April 14, 2025
Our back yard
Let me see...
"Rory McIlroy got a huge monkey off his back on Sunday afternoon, and he replaced it with a green jacket."
Saturday, April 12, 2025
Coincidence?
Friday, April 11, 2025
A Good Day
I baked a cinnamon streusel coffee cake early this afternoon. Then, went to Costco for one or two things and came home with four or five. (The eggs were $5.79, but that was for a dozen and a half; the Diamond Crystal salt was 37 cents a pound; the pint of Kirkland vanilla, as yet unaffected by the Trump tariffs, was $10; and the Kerry Gold butter and the Rao's marinara sauce both had sale prices that put them below those on supermarket shelves (less than $6 a pound for the former and less than $5 a quart jar for the latter).
As mentioned above, the coffee cake was made with cinnamon, but our open container of Kirkland (again) cinnamon, although it contained enough for the cake, was at a low level that made it difficult to reach with a measuring spoon. The answer was readily at hand, though.
Both PG and I save glass jars just for occasions like this. There's a shelf in the pantry that holds a dozen or more jelly jars, home canning jars, and other glass containers, and from the stack I picked out one that had held Bonne Maman preserves.
Maybe a visitor would wonder, but maybe not, if they understood that's how both of us were raised. Our mothers and fathers had to quit school in their early teens and were thereafter blocked from high-paying jobs, which is why they insisted that their children get as much education as possible. My mother said again and again that when you had an education, nobody could take it away from you.
I got there in a roundabout way, which I can attribute to being the first in the family to go to college, but the inexperience that led me to take the scenic route on the road to a diploma also resulted in lasting memories of interesting detours. That was back when a young person and average student could pay for college with federal grants without signing up for student loan debt. Any advice I might give now based on that era is as out of date as cookbooks from the 19th Century.
Supper was homemade pizza, washed down with Pepsi, which I've otherwise given up to keep my blood sugar score out of triple digits. It tasted terrific. I'll be craving it for days to come.
Rather than buy Pepsi in bulk, which would be a mighty temptation, I got two cold 20-ounce bottles at Wawa. The price was $2.59 each, or two 20's for $4.00. (Don't want to forget that I saw a caramel Lindt bar at Wawa and picked one up for PG.)
That's enough detail about the past day. Time to go upstairs.
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Spring in name only
Friday, April 4, 2025
Still at it
Just nothing particularly noteworthy these days. I'll know it when I see it, and then I'll write about it.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Everything all at once
Early in the week, I ordered some everyday household stuff from Amazon, and on impulse I added a paperback to it. Then I took a good look at my everyday black shoes and realized it was time to get a new pair. I'd be curious to know when I bought my first two pair of SAS Time Out. Wouldn't be surprised to learn it's been 10 years between buys.
Yesterday, part of the order from Amazon arrived early on an Amazon truck, with the rest coming later via UPS. After that, the SAS shoes were delivered by FedEx. Neighbors with an inclination toward minding someone else's business got an eyeful of delivery drivers carrying boxes to our front door.
Next week: Naming Names paperback arrives via USPS. That's pretty much all of them, except for DHL.
Neighbor cat
Monday, March 10, 2025
Once around the neighborhood
Tomorrow, it's supposed to feel springlike, but today was another late-winter day with cold wind throughout. Not as cold as it has been, granted, but when I decided to go for a walk after finishing off the last of a pint of Graeter's Black Raspberry, I layered up and was glad I did.
Just before the last right turn into the home stretch, I looked across the street and saw two rabbits in the yard of the house on the northwest corner. Encouraging, as was hearing robins at two separate times during the walk.
Also heard a favorite song right after walking in to the Macungie Weis (aka the Nice Weis) this afternoon. PG looked and sounded much better than she has in the weeks since she came down with a virus. It was a good day, pardon the expression.
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Costco Wardrobe
After losing weight, my XL clothes are overly loose. I picked up long-sleeved Woolrich t-shirts at Costco in size L, which are heavier than the average and which fit well. When I put them in the closet, I saw two pairs of casual pants and two sweatpants that I realized I'd also found on large flat display tables at the Costco down the street. Functional good-quality clothing, that's what I'm after.
Tell you the truth, that long winter underwear in one of those closet cubbies also came from there.
Friday, February 28, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
Don't ask...
A day in a hospital, a day visiting the TP cats, and then three days down with some kind of virus. Still hacking, but appetite is coming back, as is energy.
Sunday morning, I woke up in a dark bedroom. It was darker than usual because the power had gone out. The electric company's website said the reason for the outage was unknown, but that it would be back online by 10:00 a.m., or eight hours later. It was hard to get back to sleep, so my eyes were closed when it came back on at 2:35. At that time, PG's iPad lit up, making the room bright enough to get through my closed eyelids.
Monday, February 10, 2025
There is this...
The headline read, "Coke’s $7 Billion Bet on Milk Hits Big, But Wall Street Wants More". Turns out all that expensive Fairlife brand milk in the dairy section belongs to Coca-Cola, Inc.
QUOTE: "Fairlife filters its milk to boost protein, reduce sugar by half and eliminate lactose, while also, according to fans, being creamier."
And this: "Despite being about three times the price of traditional milk, retail sales topped $1 billion in 2022." I was at Wegmans today and can confirm that. $2.42 for a half-gallon of whole milk, or $1.21 a quart, and the Fairlife on the shelf just above it was going for $3.30 a quart.
But here's what got me: "The US milk industry...has been facing declining demand for decades as kids aged out sooner and cereal’s popularity waned. US per capita milk consumption has sunk nearly 30% since 2010." Also during that time: "Since 2000, data analyzed by Beverage Digest, a trade publication, shows that the total amount of soft drinks consumed each year in the US has sunk by 37%."
Well, my weight and blood sugar levels have forced me to cut way back on soda, so that last part is understandable, but I've been a fan of whole milk ever since grade school, when it came in half-pint cardboard containers and cost 2 cents. Here it is, 60 years later, and I'm still drinking whole milk, putting it on my cereal and making homemade pudding with it. For all I know, 2 cents in 1965 dollars is worth 30 cents a half-pint today. (However, now the president wants to stop minting pennies, and I'm with him on that.)
Life goes on
A week and a half without anything to say. Winter in these parts. Late sunrise, early sunset. Multiple weather systems passing through, one after another. Snow thrower is in the garage, but isn't much good when the storm brings freezing rain.
The PC updates appear to have been successful, and all 13 DVDs of home videotape have been HandBraked into MP4 files. Still need to document the activity on them. After that, maybe offer a copy of certain footage to family members.
Most of the time, though, it's retirement. She and I shop, we go to doctors' appointments, we play games on our iPads and sometimes play games together on her iPad. We appreciate each other's company.
Friday, January 31, 2025
I think I've got it now
What I had:
(C:) SAMSUNG 980 SSD 500GB PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280 10.21 7.22
(D:) ST1000DM010-2EP102 Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD
(E:) CD/DVD optical drive SATA
(F:) Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD 9.2020
(S:) ADATA Swordfish 1TB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Read 9.2020
(with S:) QNINE NVME PCIe Adapter, M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD M Key to PCI Express 3.0 x2 Expansion Card with Low Profile Bracket for PC Desktop
I proceeded to add a 2TB Crucial SATA Internal SSD, used Macrium to clone the existing F: drive (the main data drive) to it, then Disk Management to expand the volume to make the entire 2TB accessible. Then I changed the drive letter so the 2TB is now the F: drive.
The power cable in the 2.5" slot had two inputs, but not two data cables, so I ordered one. That arrived today, and I installed it without any issues.
What I have now:
(C:) SAMSUNG 980 SSD 500GB PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280 10.21 7.22
(D:) ST1000DM010-2EP102 Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD
(E:) CD/DVD optical drive SATA
(F:) Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD 9.2020
(G:) Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD 9.2020
Missing:
(S:) ADATA Swordfish 1TB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Read 9.2020
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
One-man Geek Squad
The CPU cooler/fan arrived today, and with the prior research and due diligence, was installed without a hitch. CPU temp went from 75C to the 50's at once, and now is comfortably hovering in the low 40's.
The 2TB SATA SSD arrived this morning, and after the CPU cooler/fan got installed, I used Macrium so it would mirror the soon-to-be-replaced 1TB SATA SSD. Then used Disk Management to change the drive letter and replaced the 1TB drive with the 2TB drive. Tomorrow a part will arrive so I can re-install the 1TB drive for other storage. Also scheduled to arrive is a "be quiet!" brand 92MM fan to replace the 80MM fan presently in place.
Is that enough upgrading? Is that enough expense for now?