Saturday Evening Post

On the ongoing effort to install the replacement password manager everywhere:  Figured out what I was doing wrong on the iPad, so that's done.  Then installed it on PG's PC upstairs.  First I had to update a couple of drivers on her 4-year-old machine, and reboot it.  Then the actual installation process.  Briefly, there was a situation when I couldn't proceed with installation on her PC because the password software installation security procedure sent a code to Gmail, and I couldn't get to Gmail because I couldn't get the password from the new, as-yet-uninstalled password manager.

Nevertheless, I persisted.  So now LastPass is gone and the replacement is working on her PC, my PC, the laptop downstairs, and both iPads, as well as on my phone.  That's everything, for which I'm grateful. That's all the detail I'm going into; I'm stretching things in thinking someone might be interested in the simple fact that we have a new password manager.  No sense going beyond that to expect anybody to care about all the steps (and mis-steps) required to accomplish it.  

In the further adventures of Handyman John:  Maybe I mentioned it already, but our refrigerator has a water dispenser and takes periodic filter replacements.  Somewhere in 2020, I'm guessing based on the receipt (literal, not the figurative sense used nowadays), I tried replacing the existing filter with a freshly-purchased one, but with the new one in place, no water was dispensed.  I forget what else happened back then, but what's beyond dispute is that I gave up.  I learned that the dispenser could work without the filter, so I re-installed the filter cap and left it at that.  

Two-plus years later, I scooped cat boxes in the basement like I do every day, and also like every day, behind the boxes I saw the pair of uninstalled filters on the shelf along the wall.  On this occasion, unlike every one before that day, I chose to ignore the fact that they're the same filters that didn't work in 2020.  Yes, yes, "doing the same thing and expecting different results" and all that, but I wasn't expecting different results.  I just wanted to refresh my memory, re-create the problem, and hoped to learn something that might help solve the problem.  

Can you guess what happened next?  I unwrapped a filter, used a flashlight to take a good look inside the area where the filter's supposed to go, and slid that filter inside until it locked in place.  And yes sir, the dispenser dispensed copious amounts of water, much of which splashed onto the floor around the fridge.   

So then, what was the difference between 2020 and 2023?  Installed incorrectly then, done correctly now?  There just aren't that many ways a filter can be installed and click in, that's just how they're engineered.  I think I read somewhere that the water line might have been frozen, and while I doubt that, it could be that the filter was properly installed, but that when the cover at the bottom of the fridge was re-installed, I put a kink in the water line.  

I'm leaning toward that, though I tried more than once back then, and doubt that it would have kinked in the same way more than once.  And hey, there's always the possibility that maybe there's a statutory limit or something on that kind of malfunction.  "Ho-ho, the two years are up -- time to get back to work!"  

But put that on the list of recent accomplishments that include fresh-baked homemade chocolate chip cookies (and for extra credit, cleaning up afterward); finding, ordering and installing a mechanism to fix the clock that broke years ago when it fell off the mantle; and replacing the password manager on every internet-facing device in the house.   

Friday This, That, and the Other

Baked chocolate chip cookies after supper.  Instead of mini M&Ms or Ghirardelli 60% chips, used Hershey milk chocolate chips.  First time I've baked cookies this year.

During the noon hour, PG and I got groceries at Wegmans and bird seed at Wild Birds Unlimited.  At Wegmans, a dozen eggs went for $2.99 instead of $4.99.  At WBU, PG said all we need is the same set of seeds we chose last time, and I felt like going inside and saying simply, "We'll have the usual."

Carrabba's tomorrow for supper, and paying for it with a couple of gift cards courtesy of a field account manager.  Also got word today that a new laptop is on its way to me.  That explains why IT support is ignoring my requests to install Acrobat and SnagIt.  Now someone needs to explain the difference between a thin client and a thick one.

Just looked up at the screen of the Cubs spring training game -- (1) is that old guy Rick Sutcliffe?  (2) it's the top of the 7th already?  Maybe some of these new rules ain't so bad.  I'll never get used to the Manfred Man in extra innings, though.  TV is still figuring out how to add the pitch clock to the screen.  Superimpose it at the bottom right?  Superimpose it within the info box at the top left?  But they'll figure it out, probably learning from how the play clocks in NFL games and shot clocks in basketball are handled.

It should be easier than it is to print a PDF from Pat's iPad.  She finds recipes, and we have to print-screen them or put a link to them in Google Keep, then create a PDF from a Windows machine.  

Despite painstakingly entering the assigned information, 1Password informed me that something was wrong and rejected it.  So much for putting it on an iPad.  Works like a charm on all Windows machines in our house.

Our Day

 Awake at 8:00, in the office and logged in by 8:15.  Corporate OneDrive hadn't worked in days, but yesterday I followed (mostly) instructions from IT and got it to work.  However, when I logged in today, it didn't start. The little whirl just kept circling and circling, just as it had done all day, every day, until yesterday afternoon.

Client Zoom calls at 9:30 and 11:00.  I didn't listen enough in the second call.  The client asked a question and I began to answer before she was done talking.  

Washed hair for the first time since the day after my Friday afternoon haircut. Short hair is really good that way.  

At noon, drove PG to her doctor, just to hand in the BP readings she kept track of over the past month.

Then to Trexlertown Giant, where we managed to find enough bargains to spend $103.01.  (The credit card reader didn't ask whether I wanted to donate 99 cents to a good cause.)  Grocery prices are way higher than inflation would seem to indicate.  

I almost bought a bag of chocolate chips from the clearance table, but just in time saw that they were non-dairy, made with oat milk.  Gack.  Next to it was another bag of chips, this brand made with stevia.  Ay caramba.

In Giant at the checkout was a one-shot magazine with its subject the music of the 1960's.  I wasn't really aware back then, but I feel confident that in 1963 there were no checkout magazines with headlines about the music of 1903.  

This is one of the two fat months of the year for me.  Pension payment hits the account on the 1st, and... oh wait a minute. Just because there are five Thursdays in March doesn't necessarily mean I get paid on 1, 3, and 5.  In actuality, the money comes through on 2 and 4.  But come June, it'll be pension on the 1st, and payday on 1, 15, and 29.  Not many of those months left in my working life.

The thought occurs that the boss should be phoning me soon with word about my upcoming pay increase.  If I got what I got last March, a nice increase paired with a nice bonus, I'll be well pleased.

Celebrated pension payday with a bottle of Mountain Dew from the Dollar-and-a-Quarter Store.  Looked for a Lindt bar for PG, but they had none, and I didn't see a bare spot on the shelf where they used to be. Has Lindt dropped that store chain?  They can't make money selling that size chocolate bar at that price?  Probably yes and probably no, to hear them tell it.

Got the notification that the electronic bank transfer from the local credit union to a different online account went through. If only they'd taken the cash from the account I wanted them to use. I know, I know, first world problems.

And no one in a third world country below a certain economic level would care about LastPass and its security woes. But me, I'm concerned enough to research and download a replacement. Pretty smooth transition so far, too.  There's still more than a week left in the free trial period, and LastPass has been deleted from my phone and its extension removed from Chrome.  I think PG uses Apple's password keeper on her iPad, rather than LastPass.

PG and I saw a robin on the ground at the corner of Auburn and Grange roads. I spotted two tiny speedwell flowers amid the remaining snow behind the house. There wasn't much snow yesterday, for which you can thank me, since I dragged the snow thrower from the shed to the house in preparation for the predicted 2-to-3 inches. It's March, and I have yet to shovel any snow since last winter.   

Yesterday, Big Brown delivered the Le Creuset mixing bowl that I chose from the selections which my employer made available as Xmas presents. Included with the bowl was a small bag of pancake mix, so after BB washed the bowl, I used it to make the pancakes for supper.  

Watched Beyond Paradise with PG while Kit sat on her lap and Good Queen Swirly leaned against my leg under her soft fleece blanket.  Lead character and girlfriend were in bed, and each called out a good night to the GF's mother. I quickly added "Good night, John-boy" and got a snicker from PG. 

Let's see, I made a donation to TP for the company's charity drive and earned two half-days off as a reward. Also entered volunteer time worked into company database and applied for a grant to go to TP.  That application was accepted yesterday morning. Finally, someone had a fundraiser for TP in Facebook and I put in a few more bucks.  It's all good for the cats.

Late in the afternoon, I looked over the status of the IT support tickets and wrote separate follow-up emails to IT for all of them.  Why are SnagIt and Acrobat in my list of software if I can't access them?  The snipping tool advises me to try its coming successor and to use Win/Shift/S as a keyboard shortcut.  That doesn't work, either. Don't forget the ongoing issues with OneDrive, either.  

On each email detailing the problems and IT's failure to get things working, I copied the boss, just so he's aware.  Escalation, here we come.  Maybe IT will listen to him.

Watched S2E2 of Yes, Minister. A few minutes of Chris Hayes, a few minutes of weather. Learned about The Melting of Molly, a trashy novel that was one of the top sellers of 1912, and downloaded a copy from Gutenberg.  Dropbox demanded  a password to permit Gutenberg's content, and LastPass's replacement came through without a hitch. 

Listened to some more French.  And so to bed, 900 words later.

Maybe more here than meets the eye

There were three possible solutions, and one of the words was not like the other two.  More than half of the Wordle players chose one of those two; interesting, I wonder why they did.

 

What is a Good Cat?

A good cat likes to take a nap and wants to be safe while doing it.  Good Queen Swirly used to mess up the green slipcover on the family room sofa, and then crawl under it for her afternoon naps.  After straightening up the slipcover a few times, we realized she was just being a Good Cat, and learned to drape a light fleece blanket over the back of the sofa for her naps.  

Only today, she's not as hidden as she might think.

 

Another Day

Around January 1 of this year, I started taking sertraline again. Not for depression, the official reason for the drug treatment formerly known as Zoloft, but an unofficial reason:  it helps me keep an even keel, without highs or lows.  I would take it before going to The Borgata so I could play video poker for hours without emotion at steady losses or the occasional hot streak.  A performance-enhancing drug, you might say, and completely legal.

A physician's assistant told me that it takes weeks for the drug to build up in the blood before benefits are felt, but that's never been how it's worked for me.  The first few weeks I took it in 2012, there was a sense of being wrapped in a thick cushion, apart from the world around me, but that eased back into a normal feeling, or one that felt so close to a drug-free normal that I could forget I was taking it.

There's an unclear memory of brief sudden images that I learned were part of the regimen, known informally as "brain zaps", but they too faded away over the years.  I can't remember the last time that they happened.

I was also warned not to stop taking it cold turkey (well, that's not how they put it) but to taper off, eventually reaching zero.  If I didn't, I risked something for which I can't remember the term they used, but that I remember translating as "withdrawal", and that makes sense when speaking of drugs.  But sertraline just works for me; I can take it or leave it.  When I take it, it works at once, and when I stop, there are no consequences.  Really good stuff.

Backing up now -- why did I start taking it again?  Because a stressful season was about to begin at work, one in which client demand would peak and waiting lists would stretch far beyond any other time of the year.  I wanted to be able to take things as they came, without emotional reactions.  Did it work?  Yes.

It's only after stopping, now that the busiest season is past, that I feel like I'm thinking a bit more clearly, that a thin hazy layer has lifted.  The biggest change is that I'm writing in here again.  Yesterday I took a bunch of notes that can be turned into separate posts down the road, maybe this weekend.  So I have more energy and interest in doing more than the necessary tasks of my job, followed by hours in the recliner listening to audiobooks.

This evening, I watched some of Vivement Dimanche and some of another film I can't remember now and won't boot up Tivo to find out.  For about an hour, I lay on the sofa while my little girl cat, "Daddy's Widdle Baby Durl" rested on my stomach.  

When she hopped down, I powered up the laptop and read some of Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, some of Valerie Trierweiler's settling-scores book en version originale, and some of George Ade's Fables in Slang, although the public-domain book contained references that have been lost to time.  I guess you had to be there, where "there" was the early 20th Century.  Also, I read part of Keith Gessen's New Yorker report on late-Putin Russia.  Maybe before bed I'll read another chapter of Fred Allen's Much Ado About Me, a mid-century book whose references should be clearer.

Wrapping up:  On sertraline for about six weeks, I could function at a near-normal level, but only after stopping could I tell the difference between full capacity and the thin hazy layer of lethargy I was working with before.  It wasn't an awful lethargy, it was a comfortable and quite a satisfactory lethargy.  

I could do what I had to do, and do a capable job of it.  Beyond that, I had no desire to do much of anything else.  I'm glad I had it before, and I'm just as glad not to have it now.

P.S.:  Sertraline also helps me lose weight, because I don't indulge in stress eating.  I'm down to 245; that's 10 pounds in 6 weeks.  I turn 67 in five months. let's see if I can keep it up without outside help.

Another day

Thursday is payday where I work.  The direct deposit record, without getting too specific, is for X dollars.  

This afternoon, plumbers told my wife and I that they recommend replacing the toilet in my bathroom due to nearly 25 years of hard water deposits that have built up within it.  Cost of replacement:  about 2/3 of X.

Easy come...