life in the old lane

Today is another leap back into normal. I rode the bus. I had forgotten how to ride the bus. I was at the stop looking at my phone trying to find out when the next bus would come by. And the next bus came by. Passed me right up. As it should have because I did nothing to indicate that I wanted it to stop. And, there really isn’t any reason to look and see when the next bus is expected. Because the bus will arrive when it arrives. Not when it is supposed to. But when it does. Fortunately, in less than 2 minutes, another bus came by. I hailed that one. 

162 zoom sessions in one year and one day. Our zoom support group had it’s last regular meeting last night.

Bring on “normal”. Having dinner with people tonight. How normal is that?

Pretty normal Tuesday.  Two exercise classes and work. We got work all wrapped up by 4pm so I was able to go out and enjoy a few minutes of spring.

Seems that Google finally stopped supporting Hangouts. For me at least. Sometime on Friday afternoon. Which is why my office didn’t tell me that they were going home. They did text me as they always; Google just didn’t deliver the message to me until this morning. Upon investigation, I discovered that they delivered the messages to Google Messages vice Google Hangouts. Much shuffling around ensued. 

Speaking of shuffling around. On my old external hard drives, I found copies of old Zip Drives (remember them?) Which turned up my computer backups from 1996. Carlton’s year ending bond portfolio calculations for 1988. A copy of Tiny Basic for a Trash 80. Hello. My name is Peg and I am powerless…

It’s been a great life for me with computers.

Speaking of computers. Time for me to kick off the last Asylum Sister’s Nightly Zoom meeting.  Hopefully, we will not need to reconvene online any time soon. But, you never know. 

Life is crashing back to “normal”.  And strangely enough, it is almost as unsettling as crashing into “lockdown” last year was.  But, this is a good “unsettled”. Wow. I have to put clothes on. EVERYDAY. Fortunately, my clothes still fit. I no longer have “lockdown” as an excuse to not do things. 

Worked on my external storage media project today. Well, mostly Forbin the Computer worked on it. Consolidating, deleting, copying and scrubbing.  All I had to do is admit that I really don’t need my Timemachine disk from 2012.

Today, I had my entire bed covered up with computer “stuff”.  

The interesting question (to me at least) is why didn’t I do serious decluttering last year? Goodness knows that I had the time. But, you actually declutter for the future. And this time last year “future” was even more uncertain than normal.  

Our Second Covid Easter. I think a lot of people went to visit friends and family on the outside today. My friends and I had our regular Sunday morning devotionals.

The weather is wonderful and “springlike”. I went out to take pictures of flowers.It was too breezy but that didn’t stop me.

And, being too old to handhold 600mm and behind double pane glass didn’t stop me from capturing an osprey. I am sure he/she is an osprey. It looked lots better through my binoculars.

Giving up another old 500 GB disk drive today. I had been old-school wiping the old drives. But, seems that the way one makes SSDs ready to trash or donate is the encrypt them and delete the key. I will have to research this more if I decide to get rid of an old 2 TB drive.

Last time I seriously decluttered was in the summer of 2015 after Carlton died and before moving to The Asylum. I am overdue for major donating and dumping. I am no longer the curator of the stuff. Well, except for my photos. But, I am aware that I am not Ansel Adams and my photos only matter to me. 

With much fanfare, The Asylum announced a 0.22 mile Wilderness Trail around our property. All I can say is that I hope they didn’t spend much money on it. Next, they want to install a basketball court and a bocce ball court. Just between us, I’d guess that ½ of our residents use a cane or some other mobility assistance device. What they really need is valet parking for rollators and scooters in the dining rooms.

Decided that there is no reason to keep the 1TB powered disk drive. Especially since I haven’t written any files to it in over 4 years. Tonight I will set it up for overnight “power washing” and it will go into the donation box.

The food here at The Asylum is going through a bad spell. Well, a nicer way to say it is that the food isn’t to my liking. Fortunately, I can still cook. And, get to the grocery store. And, afford to buy food. Nevermind that I pay for the food here even if I don’t eat it. There will be time enough to eat Asylum food when I get too old to cook. However, I did have a pretty good takeout pizza last night. But, woman should not live by pizza and beer alone.

The Asylum got decorated for Easter today.  

I worked on my “little” problem with external storage devices. I didn’t count them. BUT, today, I did get rid of one of the drives and a handful of USB flash drives. Well, I didn’t actually get rid of them. I wiped them clean and put them in the donation box for now. Now, I am starting to think about my DVD Burner and my DVD blanks. I haven’t burned a DVD since I moved here. Of that I am sure. And, if I get rid of the DVD Burner then Carlton’s collection of pirated DVDs can also go bye-bye.  I haven’t watched one of his movies since he died. They can definitely go to the dumpster. 

And I filled up a one-gallon ziplock bag with “just in case” cables/dongles/converters/etc.  They are leaving too. I saved one “just in case” mini-usb cable. Since my Kindle and Bose headphones still use that antique connection. 

Now, if only my office would tell me it was time to pack the data off to the state. I suspect they went home and forgot about me.  Well, I’ll hang out for another 40 minutes. But, then I have to go get my pizza.

Hello, My name is Peg, and I am f-ing powerless over external media. 

I don’t know what to say about this state of affairs. I clearly need to buy yet another big ass SSD and consolidate everything – NOT. I need a 12 step program for data hoarders. 

Christians are getting ready to celebrate their 2nd Covid Easter. We had no clue that it would be this long. I am sure that was a good thing.  

Today turned into cloudy and rainy. So, I didn’t get far from the Old Bat’s Cave. I did have a little walk this morning and balanced it with a little nap this afternoon. 

Continuing my “spring cleaning”. Today’s target was my “sewing box”. One has to ask “Why exactly do I have a sewing box?” I don’t have a good answer for that. When Carlton and I lived in a house I had a sewing machine and a big “sewing drawer”. Carlton was always needed this or that mended. And, I did things like upholstery furniture. Well, I don’t do major mending and I don’t even think about upholstering. I will sew on a button, darn good wool socks, tack up a hem, or maybe shorten a pair of pants. That’s about it. So, anything more advanced than those required for those simple tasks went to trash or the donation box. I had plans for things I was going to do when I moved in here. Things like rebinding and repairing my quilts. Well, I can safely say that that isn’t happening. Bottom line, I didn’t gain any space in my closet because I still have the sewing box. But, it isn’t overflowing.  

Next target is the “electronics box”. I have culled it once since moving in. It needs another go. I have a hard time with “just in case” stuff. 

Taxes are all done and shipped off to the governments. All that remains is to pay the tax guy. 

One year ago today this message appeared on my cell phone. And, today, I had Zoom Yoga and did 6 hours of Work From Home. I could have gone outside. I could even have gone to a store. I am pretty sure that a year ago I figured it would be over by now or I would be dead.

But, I was tired after Barre Class and Yoga. So, I stayed home today. Also, I was working. My job consists of 6 hours of monitoring the process and 15 minutes of actual work. While monitoring the process I can do things like order stuff from Amazon and listen to podcasts.  Or read a book. Not very hard. They pay me the big bucks for the 15 minutes of actual work.

Those two paragraphs don’t make a hell of a lot of sense. It’s been a very long year.

Gratitude

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Really grateful for COFFEE today.

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Last evening, I was curled up in my jammies playing a computer game when a friend sent me a text about a rainbow out of our windows. And sure enough. A rainbow. Good enough to photograph. This was with my phone. The one up top was with a real camera – but with the 60mm macro lens. 

Did some spring cleaning today. The Old Bat Cave has gotten rather cluttered up over the last few years. Especially this last year. Time to get rid of stuff. The what-if and just in case stuff. Plus the stuff that is just stuff.

It’s time to make puffy bunnies again. Finding the right paper. I had hoped to make great big puffy bunnies. But, when I tried to blow it up, I only succeeded in blasting out its back end. And, so cheerful but cheap paper didn’t work much better.  My best paper was very promising until it came time to inflate. It wouldn’t. Didn’t make puffy bunnies last year. We were not breathing on anything a year ago.

Observation: My friends all seem to be grownups. But, I don’t think I have made it to adulting yet. 

Work and exercise classes tomorrow. And more puffy bunnies. 

It rained today. And for me, it was a do-nothing day. Had a wonderful talkstory time with my Asylum Sisters this morning. Then I tried to wait in line and get my lunch. But, I really really hate queuing up to go through what is called a “Server-Assisted Buffet “Carousel”. Cafeteria line will suffice. Especially when I have better food in the Old Bat kitchen. I waited for a couple of minutes in a line that wasn’t moving. Bailed out and returned to my room and made a chicken, avocado, strawberry, and spinach salad for lunch. I may try again come dinner time.  

Spent some time getting photos together to make my 2019 yearbook. Last year, or maybe the year before, I decided to keep making them. I used to make them for Carlton.  Now, I make them for myself. And, after I am dead, they can go into the dumpster out back with the rest of my stuff.

So, more Singapore? 

Wait. I did accomplish something today. My most used iPad was being really cranky and it was refusing to complete a system update. Not to mention, it was just being “strange”. I got it beaten back into shape. 

Figured that since I may well have killed this good and faithful orchid, I should take a picture of it. Maybe I haven’t doomed it. Maybe it will be fine in its new pot and potting mixture. 

I am grateful that things are looking much more normal on the surface, but more than a little concerned about a potential 3rd wave of Covid. The anti-vaxxers are problematic. Frankly, if they were just endangering themselves they could just get sick and maybe (hopefully?) die. But, they are little Petri dishes for variants. One of which might sicken and maybe kill the vaccinated. AKA, me and my friends. It’s all about me!

I am going to enjoy this window of goodness. Oh and look forward to the return of the Cicadas.  Last time these bad boys were out in force was 2004. And, I lived in a house in an area where the land had not been disturbed since the early 1950s.  Revisit 12 May 2004 I am not expecting too many cicadae around The Asylum because there was lots of earthmoving and paving over between 2007 and 2012. But we shall see. Something to look forward to. BUGS.