life in the old lane

It is getting crazy around The Asylum. Crazy enough that I had to drape my never used pearls around the monitor to remind me to wear them to Pearl Zoom tonight. One of the regulars wears her pearls to exercise class on Friday and to all zoom meetings. So, in her honor, tonight is Pearl Zoom.

Chatting with an “elder” this morning. He is 90 something. He said that this Covid period was the strangest and most unsettling period that he had lived through. He didn’t so much miss meeting with friends and family, but he was very tired of eating alone day after day after day.

And, he had a suggestion. Management is always trying new things to amuse us. And, we all know that they are worried that the Dinning Services staff will all be in quarantine on Thursday and they will have to serve frozen mac-n-cheese for the “feast”. So, this guy’s suggestion is: Management could tie a turkey to our door knob and put an ax by the door and we could really make our own dinner! And another person thought that management could just let the turkeys loose on the floors – toss them out of the elevator – and then the residents would have to catch the turkeys.

As I said we are all going a little bit crazy. Well, a little bit crazier.

Gratitude

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Grateful that while much has been taken humor remains. I feel very sorry for folk who take life very seriously. We are just here for an instant. We might as well hang on and enjoy the ride.

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Mālama Pono

And it doesn’t get much lighter than this.

Today, the Goodwin House Foundation gave $50 gift certificates to each and every employee. I believe they were for a grocery store. Which gets you beer, wine, and ciggies or milk, peanut butter, and bread. Totally your choice. It would make anyone happy and for most of our staff, it could make a big difference in what shows up on the Thanksgiving table. That is all good.

But this is magnificent. An employee who works in the one of the lowest paying jobs in the asylum waited in line to return the gift card he had gotten earlier in the day. He said, “I’ve been thinking I want to donate my card to someone who needs it.” Asked if he had someone in mind. He said, “Anyone who has been out with COVID – I know they’ve had it worse than me.”

Mālama Pono

The above image is totally photoshop.

That sure doesn’t look much like Kona. In fact, it is looking a lot like winter. But, it wasn’t too cold. So I went out for friluftsliv around 8am this morning.

The goal today was to rest and give the old eyes a break. I made some origami cranes out of 12inch paper. Also made some soup. It was sort of “garbage” soup. Which is to say, anything that looked like it was dangerously near going to the compost bin went in the soup. When it was done I attacked it with my immersion blender. It is definitely soup weather.Garbage soup used to bother Carlton. He would say, “Hey, this is really good.” And, I would have to tell him that it would never happen again. And sometimes, that was a good thing.

Gratitude

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Grateful for nice lazy Sunday. And for peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s kisses stuck in the middle.

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Lots of COVID creeping back into the area. Hope we Asylum rats are as lucky this time as we were in the spring.

Mālama Pono

Spent all day working. That’s good, I guess. Well, it is good if  what I built is what they need/want.

Now I am listening to Bob Seeger, and wondering where did all the years go. It used to be “sex, drugs, and rock and roll”. Well, I still have rock and roll. One out of three, not bad. And, there is still coffee, beer and chocolate.

Gratitude

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Grateful for Excel. It was my goto tool today.

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Got another new toy for my ZigBee network. A little Phillips Hue mini-light. It cheers up my office corner greatly. One of my friends suggested that I should get a life. After all I live in one room. So, what’s so hard about turning lights and coffee pots on and off? She has a point. But, I am ignoring her point.

Mālama Pono

This is Dennis, our bartender, and Justin, our fearless leader. The bar hasn’t opened yet and Justin is getting a Hurricane in a go cup. I guess it was that kind of a week for him here at The Asylum. I was patiently waiting for 4PM when I could get my Hurricane, to go. They serve a pretty good $2.50 cocktail. They are trying to keep us happy.

Speaking of happy… My office has a huge new reporting requirement for the COVID vaccine. So, lucky for me I have lots of work to do. The next 6 weeks will not be boring. Funny how all the brain cells just sprung into action this afternoon with the reporting problem showed up in my email. In a secure email at the that. First I had to figure out how to get it opened. I hate secure email. Sort of like safety lids and caps. Damnit, just give me my ibuprofen!

Gratitude

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Grateful for a lovely warm afternoon walk.

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I wonder how many of our residents or management know that our staff stash prayer rugs in the stairwells. During Ramadan I pay extra attention to prayer time so I don’t disturb anyone.

Mālama Pono

Friluftsliv got back on track today. Not only did I go out for my regulation walk, but I turned off the heat and opened the window to let some fresh air in. Figured that was a good thing.

Origami. I spent a little time this afternoon making a set of cranes. I think they look like pterodactyls. Except, I don’t think pterodactyls had tails. I remember riding a bus in Australia and seeing a large flock of emu stalking around the desert. Looking for all the world like a scene from Jurassic Park. I didn’t get any pictures of that. But, the scene lives on in memories.

And, I decided that what I was trying to do to “my” hospital database couldn’t be done. I am operating on the “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again. Then stop. Don’t make a fool of yourself.” principal.  But trying kept me amused for most of the day.

Gratitude

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Salmon. Avocado. Chocolate. Not only am I grateful but, it sounds like dinner.

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Uptop – today – and below. Is one of the last pictures of almost normal times. March 6, 2020.

Mālama Pono

I didn’t do so good with friluftsliv today. I did take one fast lap around the outside of the building. That was it. Will try to do better tomorrow.

Spent all day trying to make something work for work. Didn’t work. Will try to do better tomorrow.

Seems like I am going to be trying to do several things better tomorrow.

I will also try to make the blog more interesting tomorrow.

Gratitude

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About gratitude. There is a dead tree down in the lobby. Apparently it is a Gratitude Tree. People put what they are grateful for on little chunks of wood and hang them on the tree. Most are the usual warm fuzzy friends, family, health, caring staff, etc. But up at the top of the tree a few elders show their real feelings.

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Mālama Pono

Friluftsliv, Again. It wasn’t too cold. Still above freezing. I made it out for my strip mall hike. And then I went off the The Asylum’s new barre class. It wasn’t like a real barre class. But, this is The Asylum. After that zoom yoga. Then lunch. And snuggle down in my comfy chair for a little rest. I have already decided to take tomorrow off from all things physical. F… Friluftsliv

But, Carlton always said: “If you think you are having fun, then you are having fun.” So, it must have been fun.

An absolutely insanely unqualified person was nominated by the Orange Lord to the Federal Reserve Board. Today her nomination was blocked by the Senate. Among other things she wants to bring back the gold standard and abolish the FDIC. That all worked really well in 1929. Due to the arcane rules of the US Senate, it could still happen. The Orange Lord’s march to the sea. Or to Florida. Or jail!

Gratitude

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Grateful that my body was up to what I did to it today. Honest body, we will take it easy tomorrow.

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Mālama Pono

Friluftsliv, I will try to go outside. And like it. Or not. Today, I walked quickly around my one mile strip mall course. Also went to in-person yoga. Zoom yoga tomorrow.

Didn’t accomplish much of anything today. That is one of the joys of aging. You aren’t expected to accomplish much.

Gratitude

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Coffee.

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No serious grief with BigSur. The mac version of Excel has some problems, but I am sort of an Excel power user. And, Excel for Mac has never been as good as excel for Windows. No surprise there. I still haven’t troubled myself to see if the printer prints. But I see no reason to suspect that it will not. Not loving Safari yet. But, I haven’t bailed on it yet either.

Covid cases are creeping up in our area. Think I might have made my last excursion into a grocery store for a while. No reason to die over Trader Joe’s Tiny Avocados.

Speaking of food. Veggie Chili on the menu tonight. With just a little tweaking I will soon be enjoying a fine Taco Salad.

Mālama Pono

Doing some Death Cleaning today. Death Cleaning is what comes after downsizing. Which comes after decluttering. There is an order to these things.

Today’s target was my “electronics” box. That is where I store all of my electronic extras. Cables, retired external drives, cables, connectors, cables, blank CDs and DVDs, cables etc. Basically stuff that I don’t use or actually need. Last time I cleaned out the box I got rid of all of my printer and  RJ-45 cables. Today I got rid of all of my audio and tv cables. I am never going to need a RCA jack again. Of this I am sure. Or a cable-tv coax. Or a really long head phone cable.

But, I hope that I will need my Europe, Australia, and British plug adapters again.

The plan is to spend 20 minutes a day going through my “stuff”. And hopefully cleaning up my closet in the process.

Gratitude

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Grateful that “the weekend” still seems special.

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This is a great webcam. I think I got my big external monitor so I could enjoy these birds to the max. Don’t know what will happen to them in the winter. But, I am guessing that I’ll have lots of time to find out this winter.

Cornell University Bird Cam

Mālama Pono

I think from the looks of the Washington Monument, which is usually white, that George is telling the Orange Lord that it is well past time for him to say Bye Bye.

It seems to be OK. But Forbin has been a little flakey since mid-September. So, I am not 100% sure about it. I was able to connect to the hospital computer, but had to Force Quit the session. I can live with that. I haven’t tried my printer or my scanner or any of the external drives. The scanner is so old that it shouldn’t work at all. But somehow, a couple of updates ago, I forced it to work with an “incompatible”  driver. So, every update, I am sure that kludge will fail.

Short review. It sounds different. It looks different. The “control panel” thingie will be useful. But it would be better if you could tweak it a bit. And the notifications panel that I didn’t use very much on the Mac has been completely redone. They took away the calculator, and that was the part that I used most often. Which I suppose shows my age.  The system fonts have changed as have the sounds. And for the first time in almost 20 years it is not OS X. That’s a hard one to give up.

And, I decided to give Safari a go as my “default” browser. Chrome which I have used forever really is a resource pig. I have tried this before. I usually end back up with Chrome.

Gratitude

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Grateful for an uneventful, so far, upgrade to OS 11.

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Mālama Pono

My walk-in closet has become a toss in-closet. I have a real problem with empty boxes. “Hello, my name is Peg and I am powerless over boxes.” Little boxes, big boxes, what is this obsession? Anyhow, I have to do something about this closet. I started today. The boxes went to the trash room.

Gratitude

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Friends are well, did the best I could today, grateful for what I have. I am sort of mellowing out. Which is strange for a wild child like me. I am turning into a Hallmark card.

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Forbin is happier today. I didn’t make it pretend to be a PC. I didn’t do any work today. I did think about upgrading to Big Sur. I am usually a day one upgrader. I don’t foresee any problems. Forbin isn’t really “mission-critical” at this instant.  So, I might do it tomorrow. Or I might be totally cowardly and wait until 11.0.2 comes out.

Mālama Pono