life in the old lane

Everything was going fine until I tried to explain what a VPN is and why you maybe should have and use one. To my friends at dinner. 

I had to deploy my VPN this afternoon when researching transit from the Singapore Airport to Downtown. 

This is what I got from Safari and Chrome. Then I realized that it was my network that was doing it.

Fire up Tunnel Bear and

Bingo! Connected. 

I have never had to use my VPN to get to a website. I normally deploy it to protect me when using public wifi. 

But, it is impossible to explain just what it is that a VPN does. Or how it does it. I can not explain how lightning bugs operate either.

Scattered. Is becoming scatter-brained a sign of creeping senility? I have about 57 things started and 20% completed by no real plan to finish any of them. I didn’t have this problem before. I was the Energizer Bunny of to do lists. 

So, I decided that I needed to make a list. Well, I  put one thing on the list and promptly took a nap. Then I listened to that great old Arthur C. Clark space yarn, Rendezvous with Rama. But, tomorrow, I will work at regaining “focus”.

The saga of the $14.95 orphanage-size portion of lobster mac and cheese. More mac and cheese than lobster. It was hot and tasty and all the mac and cheese with or without lobster that I needed. But, compared to  other $14.95 items on the menu this one was not a good value. The chef heard about my complaint, came over and we talked about it. I told her that I felt that it was worth maybe $9.95 but only if they added a veggie on the side. She said that she would consider my “suggestion”. The Asylum is a rather special place.

This has been one of those days when I am glad that it is over. And that I am not going back to Employee Health until Monday when hopefully sanity will again be in play. 

And, I adopted two rather large planter boxes on one of our outdoor dining venues.  My friends and I eat on that little patio frequently – so, I will be able to enjoy them. And, last year a big fat black snake lived in one of the boxes. It would be sort of cool to have my own black snake. We have enough mice around the building to keep more than one black snake well fed. 

Good news just came across the phone. The BREXIT mess seems to have been kicked down the road to the end of October. This is good news for my trip. Which includes 10 days in and around England and another 5 in Bermuda. I do not need to have Great Britain in total meltdown during my visit. It is bad enough to be living in the formerly great USA during its total meltdown. I am trying to escape. 

This backside of a carpenter bee is nothing special. But, it is the first flying bee of the season and the first ever flying insect with the lens that I purchased in February. 

Just a normal old woman day. Went to the hospital. And to yoga. And back home. Little lunch. Little nap. Little stroll around the grounds to take pictures.  Not so little dinner with my Asylum Sisters. 

This dinner with my friends every night is so important to my mental well being. It brings a sense of peace and love my life. A treasured hour cut out of the day for friendship, support, laughter, sharing.  We are a wonderful “Accidental Family”. Ohana. 

The crows gathered on our roof tonight. Then they flew off in a big pouf. That was the most interesting thing that happened today. And there is nothing wrong with that.

After work and yoga today, I went and tweaked a friend’s computer.  (With the help of Google.) She lent me a little guide book to Singapore. So, I shall call it an early night and curl up with a little dead tree travel book. And figure out what I am going to do with my 5 days in Singapore. 

Oh, and I just had a jolly time filling out a Neilson survey. I told them that I don’t have a TV. I don’t listen to the radio. (I do have a radio – a little battery one for emergencies.). Pretty sure that they didn’t really want to hear from me. But, since they sent me two crispy dollar bills, excellent for origami, I felt like I owed them.

Did some thinking about my crazy stopover in Dubai in late June. When the average high temperature is 103°. And the sea is 88°. No need for a wet suit! On the plus side: I will miss Ramadan. On the other hand nothing seems to be happening in Dubai in late June.  Guess that everyone will have decamped for Geneve. Well, I really just want to see the buildings.

Lovely sunny warm but not hot springy day today. I was out enjoying it. Nevermind that my legs were very unhappy. Asked myself “what would Carlton do?” Well, he would say that is the legs problem and he would have gone on and done exactly what he wanted. Hard to believe that he has been dead for four and a half years. I still think of him as 79, but if he hadn’t died he would be coming up on his 84th birthday. Funny. I keep getting older. But he stays the same age.

it is 6 or 7 weeks from my great around the world adventure. I will endeavor to book lodging in Singapore and Dubai soon. And, think about what I am going to do with the 10 days that I have between arriving in Great Britain and leaving Great Britain. Still thinking about heading to Ireland or Scotland. But, first I have to check on the weather in that part of the world in late June.

Some times you just know you are going to have an adventure. “Those with pink trim have female drivers” definitely sounds like I am not going to be in Kansas. And, as I recall the Tokyo subway had “women only” cars last time I was there. 

I am going to try to keep the “stuff” that I will be lugging around the world to 15-pound absolute max. 13-pounds would be better. That would allow for 2 pounds of “creepage”.  Early in the adventure, I am going to a wedding. If need be I can mail my wedding togs home. But, I am thinking that my wedding wear might be appropriate for Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai. Athleisure wear is frowned on in all of those cities.   

This was fun. Deleting most of the Spring Fling images. But, these deserved a last look. 

What wasn’t fun was my credit card. Until this morning I have had exactly the same credit card since 1990. I believe that is 29 years. I know the number. AND, at least 21 establishments have said credit card number. Some for important recurring charges.  I spent the entire morning trying to get everything changed. I doubt that I will have to brain cells available to do this again in 29 years. Let us see that will be 2048 and I’ll be 104 years old.  Nope, pretty sure I will not be able to able to change my credit card number then. 

And, why did I change my number? It wasn’t my idea. “They” decided to swap my card from Visa to MasterCard. Nope. They didn’t ask me. Just did it. After all that, I hopped into bed for a nice nap on this rainy afternoon.

I am sure that I will continue to hassle with the credit card change. BUT, at least it is far enough ahead of my trip so maybe everything will be settled down by late. Another 1st world problem. Thank goodness for 1st world problems. 

I need some additional shots so I wouldn’t neglect too many people. So, I had to go to the “Talent” show again. 

I took this one as I was fleeing the scene. As soon as I opened the door to the Old Bat Cave, I shouted “Computer, Play Grateful Dead”. I brewed up a coffee and post-processed. 

And tomorrow is another day. Enjoy it. 

Well, that’s good the blog seems to be working OK. And I have taken my obligatory photos of the “Spring Fling” Talent Show here at The Asylum. This is the Asylum’s annual reminder that we are bereft of talent. The singing is astoundingly bad. But, many of the resident’s hearing is equally bad and the wise ones just turn their hearing aids off as required.

Nevertheless, I can usually count on getting an interesting shot or two.  

I rather like this one. Elderly Gentleman plays Brahms. And hits the correct keys.

And, what’s not to love about dirty dancing dinosaurs. 

But, it is still The Asylum. And note Asylum Residents for next year: Tony Bennett can still sing because he has a killer arranger. You don’t. STFU.

And, I leave you with an astounding array of rollators.  Rather like scooters around Metro.

 

 

I keep getting an error when I try to up load a new image. Wonder what went wrong with the blog. But, I am tired and I think I will just hope that it is magically healed by tomorrow.

It did seem to upload text ok. Maybe I’ll try another image. Nope, still doesn’t work. 

Back to wait until tomorrow. 

A little research tells me that I might have a problem that will take more brain cells than I have available at present to fix this. The error is: Failed to write file to disk. I no longer think it will heal itself. But, I am sure that I am not up to messing around the guts of the blog tonight. 

 

 

Yesterday, after dinner there were lots of fine crows outside my window. This evening I was ready for them. 600mm lens. Monopod. All ready to “shoot” some crows.

And not a single crow flew by. So, you shoot what you get. With what you got. 

I decided to stay in Tokyo. I like Tokyo. This way I can just stay in one place for my 5 days and not waste too much time moving from location A to location B.

Getting really lost in Tokyo is a given. So, I booked at a hotel between the main Tokyo train station and The Godzilla Statue. I hope that “Konnichiwa. Gojira. Domo arigato” (“Hello. Godzilla. Thanks a lot”), might help get me home some rainy evening. Rain in Japan in June is another given. Lots of Rain.