life in the old lane

There were also big ass bats in Darwin. But I didn’t happen on a whole bunch of them like I did in Cairns. 

Yesterday I allowed myself to be Tom Sawyered into becoming a “share cropper/weeder/fieldhand” in our community “garden”. I was told my section “is the sunniest location” Well, that just means that the weeds will grow all the better. And, it has some serious weed issues. 

But, I am not doing anything until the weather improves. Today I inspected “my” location and ordered a weeding tool. 

In the meantime – I am continuing to turn origami paper into recycling in my attempt to figure out how to fold a nice looking cat. Actually to day I switched to using money. That way, I can still spend the mistakes..

I have about aced the Japanese 5 year old kid version of neko – 猫 But, the more advanced models still escape me.

For years I made photo year books – because Carlton liked them. And, it was sort of an annual ritual. Sort out the prior year’s images. Make a book and archive off the images for that year. That would free up heaps of space on the computer. But, I haven’t done this since 2015. I may skip making the book. But, I really need to keyword and archive 2016 and 17. That will free up about 70 GB. Will make a concerted effort to get 2016 on the new little SSD drive this weekend.

Yesterday was International Bat Appreciation Day. I was so fixated on Carlton Birthday that is missed it. It will not happen again.

I love bats. Always have. Christmas 2016 I went to American Samoa just to see bats. So, I was overjoyed to discover that Cairns was stuffed with bats. Great big fruit bats. And, they lived in great numbers right out side the public library.

I did not have anywhere near correct gear. But the bats were big (2-3 foot wing span) and close – so even my 35mm lens got some good bat shots. 

The Cairns Central Library has more bats than Pago Pago. 

Yet another reason to go back to Northern Australia. 

 

Sorry, I am going to bore you with some more old Carlton pictures. But, I loved that man. Still do. He was my best friend. He left me all setup for my “next life”. A life that has been made much easier just by sheer luck of falling into a new  “family” here at The Asylum. 

This feature collapsed in May 2003. Carlton made it for another 11 years. 

Carlton is just kidding you. He didn’t catch that fish. Not even close. He would never willingly step foot on a boat unless he was water skiing. Not wake boarding. Old school water skiing.

Carlton lost his wedding ring in our yard whilst raking leaves. The guy who strung his tennis rackets was a relic hunter. The ring was found and I was incredibly touched that he cared enough to go to all that trouble to find it. 

Note to readers: you have been subjected to all these old photos because they are on my cute little SSD drive.

Note to Carlton: You wouldn’t believe what has happened since you moved to the next level. It is sort of like we are stuck in a Kabuki drama. Or maybe a really  bad production of Waiting for Gogot. 

Carlton had two birthdays. His mother said he was born on April 16. Carlton said he was born on April 17, I insisted that he “pick one and he picked April 17”. I explained to him that my earning capacity was directly connected to my security clearances and it was hard enough explaining that my father didn’t know exactly where he was born. And to add a husband that didn’t know when he was born might just find me sans job.

I tend to think of Carlton in “places” these days. Carlton on those crazy road trips we took. 

Carlton would be 83 tomorrow. But, I don’t think of him as 83. Or even 79 and in failing health. To me he is forever young and in some exotic place. 

I, however, am getting older by the minute. And in The Asylum.

Time to learn a new model. Last year was butterflies. I still rather like butterflies. But, time for a new challenge. The small green thing is supposed to be a cat, neko in japanese. I feel sure that I can get it figured out after a couple more sessions. Right now it. looks rather like a horny toad. A roadkill horny toad.

Weather permitting it will be back to the office tomorrow morning. 

Decided that my photos needed a sleek new home. And they needed the home RIGHT NOW. So off to the Apple Store. (Hey, I am old. I am into instant gratification.) 

All of us antique computer hacks remember when disk drives were as big as washing machines and held about 12,000,000 bits of data. So, this thing is seriously cool. Too me. Most likely not to anyone else. 

And in keeping with the new/old theme. A couple of my oldest digital photos. Taken with a Kodak DC260 in January 2000.

So what got me into this gotta have new external drive mode. Well, At breakfast this AM a friend was afraid that her computer had died and taken her photos with it. The computer was revived. And I copied her documents and photos to an old flash drive. Her computer is about 9 years old.

BUT WAIT … my photos live on a 10 year old FAT32 formatted drive. Time for an upgrade. 

Trying to learn to like my neighborhood. I adored my old neighborhood. Absolutely and completely loved it. My new neighborhood, I barely tolerate. But, hey – this is my forever home so I might as well try to at least “like” it.

To that end, after I finished up a fine 6 hours of telecommuting, I went in search of “critters”. And this is what I found at the Long Branch Nature Center/Park about one mile from the Asylum.

Spring came blowing in today. It was too windy for photography – but I am not going to complain. It was warm and sunny.

I am doing some rather tedious work on “my” hospital system. So, I telecommuted today. It is VERY quiet in the Old Bat Cave. And the new speedy wifi service here is good enough to connect to the hospital system. So for about 6 hours today my Mac pretended to be a Windows 7 PC.  Feel like I should rinse Forbin off or something! 

Faithful readers may recall that my computer’s always have names and this one is Forbin after the human in Colossus: The Forbin Project, a 1970 sci-fi book and movie.

It wasn’t all work today. I did make it out for a few photographs. And a little warmness. 

This really bad “starving artist sofa painting” appeared on the wall right outside my door. I open my door and there it is. It showed up while I was in Hawai’i. When I went to Hawai’i there was a door. But, the door was removed when the across the hall apartment was renovated. And, someone must have died and left this “art” behind. Well, at least it isn’t in the land fill.

So how is this “new improved” wifi network.

I switched over to the bad-old network and got this reading:

And then back to the new network:

Not earth shatteringly good like a couple of weeks ago. But, way better than the old 2.4 Gigahertz network.

Reminder from Carlton:
Avoid Beginnings. That was one of his little sayings. I need to avoid a beginning. I told someone that I would help  convert a photo catalog from Aperture to Lightroom. I haven’t a clue how to do that. I will never need to know how to do that. It is only my ego that says “Sure I’ll help” Absolutely no good can come from going down that path. I said I would. But, I am going to bail before I mess something up.

 

Computer – which is what I call “Alexa”. Today I got the Echo and the Dot connected to the WPA2 Enterprise system using their MAC addresses. Life is a little less secure for the Asylum’s network. And a little harder for the IT Department … but I am good to go.

So, what do I use these toys for any how?

• Computer – Good morning
• Computer – What’s the latest?
• Computer – what time is it? 
• Computer – what is the temperature?
• Computer – add granola bars to my grocery list
• Computer – what is on my calendar today
• Computer – when is the next bus? This one isn’t perfect – it tells me all the nearby buses not just the one I want. But, it is a start. 
• Computer – play pandora grateful dead or slack key or jimmy buffett.
• Computer – read my Kindle.
• Computer – read my Audiobook. (It reads audiobooks. and plays music)
• Computer – set timer for 25 minutes. Good for laundry day.
• Computer – set alarm for 6AM tomorrow.
• Computer – tell me a story
• Computer – set sleeptimer for 30 minutes
• Computer – I am home
• Computer – Good night

“Computer” isn’t as good as the one on Star Trek, but she is getting there. And I am really interested to see if Amazon, Google, Apple or someone else wins this race.

Today is the 4th anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day that I first heard and promptly googled Merkel Cell Carcinoma.  

 

Took that shot on Saturday. 

And a little post processing fun never hurts.

Just an ordinary day. No complaints. Well, except that spring is still MIA. And the “new improved” Asylum WiFi is a bitch to connect to – so for now – I still have good speed. Suspect that will come to a crashing halt when I have to share the bandwidth with 500 of my closest friends. 

But, the deployment has been such a clusterfuck that I may well decamp  to FIOS.  I could be over reacting. Or not.