Author: Peg

Went out to find butterflies. No luck, Hopefully, this fine fennel will reseed itself. 

Last Friday wasn’t my finest ever day. Lost glasses, expected dental problems and the hygienist  found an enlarged lymph node in my neck. Well, the dental problems were fixed. The glasses replaced. But, the most troubling thing remains – the lymph node. 

Today, I did the grownup thing. Made an appointment to see my nurse practitioner  tomorrow afternoon. I know that she will be as clueless as I am about the cause. I am prepared to postpone my trip (I guess) if testing is required to rule out something really serious. This sort of comes under the “don’t ask questions you don’t want answered”  rule.

Don’t want to go down that rabbit hole, but… 

Had a lovely dinner out on the patio this evening. We have heaters so 65 degrees is fine – especially if one is all sweatered up.  Sometimes I get very frustrated living here with 500 of my closest friends. But, it is really nice to get away from myself and my own poor company and be with friends. No need to call, text, email or facebook – just go down to dinner at 1815 and there is good company. And if you a lucky good food too. 

 

Think it is going to be an early night tonight. I seem to be slowing down these days. Of course, I did get up at 0445 this morning. But, I am just feeling creakier and wearier. It is taking more coffee and ibuprofen to keep me functional. 

Trying to avoid anything remotely political these days. But, I notice at The Orange Lord seems to be gearing up for a donnybrook with John McCain. He doesn’t seem to realize that people with terminal cancer are absolutely fearless. And congress is in dire need of absolutely fearless these days.

Been trying to use Safari since I updated to High Sierra. It is just different from Chrome – my browser of choice for the last 8 years or so. It uses the funky Touch Bar, a not very useful part of newer MacBook Pros. It has a built in “Text” mode which I rather like. And, it does a good job of killing off zombie-like tracking ads.  

I may try to use Safari on my iPads too. Speaking of iPads. I decided that the Facebook App on my iPad Pro was sucking too much battery and doing goodness knows what “in the background” – so, I deleted it. The Pro is big enough to use the browser version. Maybe facebook is doing to our minds what it was doing to my iPad????

Note to Carlton: You are not missing anything at all here on Planet Earth. The Nats are still breaking hearts, The Skins are still suspect, golf is still boring and your tennis courts are fine. Also, I haven’t done anything crazy with your money. Oh yes, it is still “your” money. I’ll let you pay for my room in Hawai’i this winter. Other than that, I am “self supporting through my own contributions”.  

Oh one more thing Carlton, remember that Fitbit that you scoffed at. The one I bought the spring before you died? Well, yesterday, I got an email telling me that I have logged 5,500 miles since April 2014. Not too shabby for a creaky old woman. I’d say that the Fitbit was successful retail therapy and was the Olympus OMD – the rest not so much. 

And you readers might think I am crazy, writing to Carlton. Don’t tell the Asylum, they will move me off to The Terrarium aka the “memory care unit”. 

 

It was too dark to walk my usual 1.2 miles to the hospital outpost and catch the shuttle bus to the main hospital this morning. I wasn’t afraid of being attacked. I was afraid of falling on wet leaves or acorns that I couldn’t see because it was dark. Can not be too careful with these old bones. 

So, I took buses.  

Crazy busy day at work. Then I walked home and did zip for the rest of the day. 

This is a “whatever happened is what I planned shot”. The Pen F and I were having a hard time with focus. After much hunting, Pen F focused on the flowers. Not the butterfly. Still – an OK shot.

Late this afternoon, I took the Pen F out with the really cheap 300-600mm zoom attached. Trust me it was pretty silly looking. And, it hunted focus like crazy. But, there were butterflies. 

I was happy to be shooting something that didn’t complain. 

I spent a nice normal day. Catching up on personal chores. Napping. A little yoga. And, this evening I am dining on crab cakes and salad here in the Old Bat Cave. 

It’s a wrap. More or less. I have 4 perfectly fine little movies all ready to show on our TV monitors. If something or someone wanders in front of my camera and if it is sufficiently wonderful – I can redo one of the videos – but – I am considering The Last Great Photo Shoot in the can. 

The Asylum was having some sort of “Reimagine Aging” fund raising dinner tonight. That sounded like ZERO fun to me. But, some of my friends had a fund raising progressive dinner party. We had beer, wine, cocktails and wonderful munchies, and moved on to a great salad bar, and finally super good cake and coffee. The apartments were very spread out – so – we even got some exercise and collected a couple of hundred bucks . All to the bottom line. 

Lots of fun. Lots of laughs. 

Spent most of the day making the videos. It didn’t seem like I was missing all that much outside. However, a tiny fly-like creature landed on my window. Making for a fine Halloweenish image. So, I got the chance to use my camera for something other than the Last Great Photo Shoot. 

Oh, Forbin seems to be happy with High Sierra. And, the old iPad mini is running iOS 11 fine as can be. 

Not my very finest day. Let me count the ways:

1. Trip to the dentist resulted in 2 fillings and an $800 bill.
2. Dentist – well actually the hygienist – pointed out an enlarged lymph node in my neck. I immediately leap to the conclusion that I have cancer. 
3. Lost my glasses. Yes lost. Not misplaced. 
4. My cell phone company double billed me this morning.
5. The happy hour pupus were consumed by vultures before I arrived. I sulked back up to my lodgings and ate my own damn cheese and drank my own rather good wine.
6. Went down to dinner and there was no place to sit. So, I waddled off in a snit and once again returned to my lodgings and ate my own damn food from my emergency stores. And sat in my own chair. And let Alexa read to me. Which might have been better than bitching at my friends about my crappy day.

Now – on to the gratitude side of the equation.

1. I am glad that I still have teeth. And that I can afford to have them fixed.
2. Lots and lots of things cause enlarged lymph nodes. The left supraclavicular lymph nodes drain the thorax and abdomen. So, I might be a tad concerned. But, what can I do? Nothing right now. Nothing at all. And, I need to remind myself that I didn’t even know about my left supraclavicular lymph nodes 12 hours ago. I don’t spend much time looking at my neck. 
3. Glasses can be replaced. And, I have a spare pair.
4. Cell phone company says “you will receive an email as soon as we have an update for you. We appreciate your patience while we work on this for you.”
5. No free pupus?? Seriously woman, get a grip. That is not a problem.
6. As for the lack of seating at dinner. That isn’t a problem I can solve. And, I don’t see it going away. Time for acceptance. 

After seeing the dentist today, I went for a little walk about the old neighborhood. Checked out “Carlton’s Tennis Courts” and went to see if Jackson street was ready for Halloween. It is getting there. 

On the technology front. Today, I upgraded Forbin to High Sierra. Most of the changes are under my radar. But, I might give Safari a try. It is supposed to be much improved. And, I put iOS 11 on my old iPad mini. 

 

 

Now that is depressing… This afternoon I found out the I am the owner of the only unit on my floor that is not getting its own personal wifi access point. I am seriously miffed. Passover.

I believe that the gray gentleman is in charge of wifi here at the Asylum. He will be hearing from me.

Wandered around the asylum this morning – looking for people/things to photograph. 

Not everything will be making it to the big screen.

The  telcom closet on my floor was left open this morning. It isn’t pretty inside. I always feel that electrons are happier when they are running around in neat, organized and labeled cables. I know that makes no scientific sense. Tidy cables are just one of my little fetishes.

Not surprised that my WiFi is:

 

Starting to consider what toys to take to Kona. Clothes – not a problem. Cameras, lenses, computers, iPads, etc. That is a problem. Looking through old photos to see what cameras/lenses I used the most. This shot was taken with my plastic fisheye lens. Not leaving that thing behind. It weighs one whole ounce.  

She who travels lightest travels best. But, four months – I need my toys. Lots of them. I am taking Alexa with me. Sort of used to talking to her. Alexa, how are you doing? I have been thinking about dinosaurs she answers…

And while I am at it, need to get back into an island frame of mind. Need to get out of the political morass that is the east coast mindset. 

I have a folder on my desktop called “HappyThings” and these guys getting ready for a hula competition are one of my happy places. Or at least peaceful places.  

 

 

 

Well, that was unfriendly. The WordPress app ate my new post. But, l discovered that I don’t really need the app when using the big iPad.  

I wonder how pictures work? Well here goes

That is my room as seen from my bed. You don’t think I was going to do a selfie, do you?

so this is a pretty poor blog entry but I learned something. Ditch the WordPress app on the iPad Pro.  

Going to try posting now…

Worked fine. WordPress app will be removed. 

I got the Last Great Photo Shoot covered. Not done. But, done good enough so if I get hit by a bus… my client will not be left with 60 minutes of a blank screen.

And since I have been exercising HandBrake – I ran a little beach video through and am using it as a header – to remind me of good things that are coming.

Life is different here at the Asylum. We have Bring Your Own Dinner parties. If you have a dishwasher – and I do – oven NO – dishwasher YES. If you have a dishwasher – all you have to do is fire up the dishwasher and take the empty plastic dinner takeout boxes back downstairs. 

Listened to some chatter about problems with parking. That was a topic of interest at our last house meeting. As was the status of our cable TV. Neither of these discussions made me want a car or a tv. The Mercedes hood ornament up top notwithstanding. 

Thank you HandBrake. Some of the best things are free. 

 

I spent all day working on the output part of the Last Great Photo Shoot. 

Our staff come from an impressive list of countries. I had to incorporate the list some where. StarWars to the rescue.

Too bad I am making silent movies. Cue up John Williams. 

This is a sample 10 or 12 slides. I have about 350. What you don’t have a manicurist on staff at your old folks asylum???

Technical Note: Lightroom, iMovie, Photoshop and HandBrake. I am running the slides twice as slow as I would like – but my audience – well, some of them may have actually been to a silent movie.