life in the old lane

The new macro lens arrived just before I went off to the dentist. Stopped off at the Nature Conservancy weed lot on my way back home for a few test shots. I am going to love this lens. I don’t love it yet. We only just met. But, I will love it by the end of July.

Today’s (and tomorrow’s and maybe the day after that) technology adventure is to get my vintage t-mobile number ported over to Google’s service. I don’t have a good feeling about it. Worse case – I’ll just get a new number – but I don’t want to do that.

Dentist appointment went smoothly. Young Doctor Reyes just sort of stuck some superglue sort of stuff in my front tooth. Hopefully, it will last 5 more years. Especially if I don’t eat taffy, caramels, candy apples or corn on the cob.

UPDATE: Got the old t-mobile # ported over to Google’s experimental cell service. (It took 2 calls to support. 0 time waiting on hold – but, I found the answer myself – Google search provided the answer.)

No bee hunting today. Went to the dentist instead. Going to the dentist again tomorrow afternoon. My front tooth is chipped. I knew it was chipped. I figured that it would take a couple of weeks to get an appointment. But, NOOOOOOO, I had my choice of appointments tomorrow. Seems that nobody wants to see the dentist in July 4th week. I shouldn’t have been surprised. We have darn few appointments in our office this week either.

In case you were wondering, I am not going the enter the Republican Presidential Primary. And, I decided that I am too old to go to an outdoor late August afternoon Beach Boys concert. It was easy to say “I don’t do that anymore”. “I don’t do that anymore” is an essential part of the old bat vocabulary.

Now, what if it were a Dead concert? Would my answer still be “I don’t do that anymore”? I know what my answer would be if it’s a Barry Manilow concert!

Speaking of “I don’t do that anymore”… I don’t have to do everything move-wise. I have a meeting with a senior move expeditor next week. (Note to Carlton and Cal: Widow woman spending the old man’s money alert!)

Thank you Bob Z, for teaching me “I don’t do that anymore” years ago.

Lovely day today – weatherwise. (no complaints about anything today actually) Went out on a little bee hunt this afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon is the dentist. I know that my front tooth need repair. Hope everything else is OK.

The move to the asylum is three months away – but – my planning/actions have sort of ground to a halt. So, I am calling in a “senior move consultant”. Mr C would not approve of “throwing money at a problem”, but, it is my problem and my money – so – deal with it, sir. I am OK with downsizing, hiring movers, packing, unpacking, etc. I am not OK with getting rid of everything that isn’t going with me.

And, I need to give the apartment building notice and start trying to play let’s make a deal to get out of as much of the lease breaking penalties as possible. I think I am willing to move me and my stuff into the studio that I “own” already down at the asylum- if the landlord makes me a deal I can not refuse. They might rather re-rent this very costly apartment in August vice October.

Note to Carlton: It is Wimbledon time again. The usual suspects seem to be playing. Hope you will excuse me if I don’t watch. It will be 9 months this Friday. I still miss you. Not raw grief. Just a nagging memory that life was sweeter before you moved on to Georgetown.

Time for a little yoga.

After yesterday, being locked inside due to the rain – I decided to walk the three miles down to the asylum for lunch. I was underwhelmed by my previous meal in “my” dining room. Today’s meal was perfectly fine. The soup was excellant. The roll soft, warm and wheaty. The salmon was not overcooked. Carlton would have complained that the broccoli wasn’t cooked enough – so I liked it fine. The carrots – were carrots. I also had cherry pie. Not as good a my cherry pie. But since I have no intention of ever making a cherry pie again – it was a fine slice of cherry pie.

The old bat cave is going to be a tchotchke-free zone. Things are heading out. But, first… if anyone wants anyone any of these – email me – and the first one who emails a request gets it. I’ll mail them. Anywhere in the US. Love flat rate boxes. Take one. Take’m all. Or be smart and let them go to the Goodwill.

These will be heading down to the Goodwill.

Note to everyone who doesn’t have a presidential library: This is what is going to happen to all your stuff one day. It’s just stuff. One step away from the Goodwill.

Yes, Carlton – I am taking care of the sword, the bolt and the steam engine. After I go – well, no promises…

 

It rained all day – as promised. I had several tasks that kept me busy enough.

First – get snail internet running again. It died last night. My router is old. My modem is antique. I dug up my modem manual – stashed in evernote. They had instructions for setting up the internet using “Microsoft’s Latest System – Windows 98”! The modem must be over 15 years old. The router is  younger – about 10 years old. And why might you ask do I have this old internet setup… If you knew Carlton, you know why. Why haven’t I replaced it? The asylum provides wifi to all the apartments in the building. If I don’t like the wifi service – I’ll get cable internet.

So, early this morning, I strapped on the headlights and went to work. The router is toast. Not going to buy a new wifi router for 3 months max. So, I reset the modem to get it out of bridge mode, round up a 25 foot LAN cable and it worked. Blue wire snaking around the living room is better than hotspotting via the iPad’s cellular connection.

Speaking of cellular – converting to Project Fi – from T-Mobile next week. Not exactly leaving T-Mobile since Project Fi uses their network.

Second. Spent the afternoon running tax numbers. The asylum, since it caters to rich people is awash in tax breaks. Not that I am tax-break rich. I am getting the second cheapest apartment in the joint. Following the old real estate rule “Buy the cheapest house in the bestest neighborhood”. But, if you put a tax break in front of me – I am smart enough to take advantage of it. Limousine Liberal.

PS – love that headlight. Every old person should have one.

Lots of weddings for Mr C and Me. Glad that everyone can have an computer full of these memories now. Thank you America.

PS – Carlton would have loved this week in America. Sorry you missed it, Carlton.

Carlton and his washboard – the Yosemite Stradivarius. For now, I still have his washboards. Don’t imagine I’ll keep them. He didn’t ask me to take care of them. And, I don’t imagine they are of any value. So, off to the Goodwill they will go. If you want them (I have two, a big brass one and small tin one) speak up. Well, actually email up.

And why didn’t I start to try shooting lightning years ago. Not just now that I am getting ready to move. After I move, I’ll have to shoot thru the window. But, maybe the screen will slide out of the way and I can shoot out the window. We’ll see what next summer in the old bat cave yields.

Speaking of the old bat cave. The deed it done. I am now an official non-resident resident of Goodwin House at Bailey’s Crossroads. Yup, it is filled to the gunnels with old people. People with walkers. People with failing memories. People with caregivers. People who play bingo. I will go from being the oldest person in the building to being one of the youngest. Not the youngest. There are a few who are younger than I am.

FYI – Goodwin House is a “tertiary care facility” If you are healthy and mentally OK – they let you in. Then they take care of you. It is sort of a combination rental apartment and good long term care insurance policy. Most people are there because they don’t want to “be a burden to the kids” or because they have no kids to burden. Most of the residents of my place are “rich, old, white, liberals from Arlington”. The building is literally just inches away from liberal Arlington, the parking garage is in Arlington. But, the building – and hence our voting residence – is in way too conservative Fairfax. This is a big deal to every politically active person. Which is just about everyone in this area.

Ten summers of lounging around the rooftop pool. But, not more. And since Mr C. had terminal skin cancer – it might be a good thing. My pool lounging will be limited to winter time in Kona.

Yesterday I got a really funny email from Tech Support…

Peggy,

The option to open an encounter is a separate window has not worked since it was introduced.  It has not been worked on or corrected because no one has used it.  However, it is being looked at now.

Please continue testing and let me know if you have questions.
Thanks,

What I am missing here? The option doesn’t work. It has never worked. But, they haven’t fixed it because no one uses it.

Going to go down to the asylum tomorrow and give them a big check. Then I am their problem. And, I’ll have to get serious about relocating.

I wasn’t very enthused about moving to the asylum. That is an understatement. I am entirely too young to move to an old folks home. But, it will be good to have this done. Old age is scary. Especially scary when you are alone. By this time tomorrow I will have done all that I can do – short of marrying a younger doctor or nurse. And, that’s not happening.

Hot today. Almost 100 degrees expected tomorrow. That is hot. (That is about 38C to my non-US friends.) Thankful for A/C. And, the ice maker.

Just a normal summer day. Walked to and from work. That provides almost enough exercise to make the Fitbit happy. Do a little yoga. Go out on a Bee Hunt. Bee hunt yields a nice flower and a strange beetle-like thing. But no bees.

It will be interesting to see what happens with South Carolina and the Confederate Battle Flag. Would it be OK to fly a swastika? It think not.

Just a nice lazy day. No Energizer Bunny activities. No widow-woman-weekend-meltdown. Back-to-back lazy days.

Good news. I figured out what was “wrong” with the Airness. When all else fails RTFM. I failed to turn FireVault off before trying to repair my disk structure. Everything is good now. No need to do an emergency clean install. Of course it is still reporting that it has 140.83 TB available. But, this is apparently just a “cosmetic” issue.

Did some paperwork/tax research/organizing to get ready for my “commitment” down at the asylum this coming Wednesday. I am considering the asylum as a good long term care insurance policy with a nice hotel suite thrown in for lagniappe.

Is lagniappe a French word? Or just a Cajun word?

My origami dog looks more like the late great Aibo.

I wish Aibo hadn’t been put down. I could get into a robot pet.

Will work more on the origami dogs. This dog will be converted into a cup of coffee tomorrow morning.

Getting an elderly – but strange – computer ready to go to where ever old computers go. Starting wiping the disk and went out… Fortunately the FBI didn’t raid my apartment while this was running.

Anyone want a 7 year old Fujitsu u810? I can not imagine why you would want it. It runs XP. But I used to play around with various versions of Linux. I’ll mail it to anyone who wants it. Otherwise – it goes off to goodwill next weekend.

Then – I’ll decide what to do with my ever so much more useful Lenovo.

The Airness is acting a little “wonky”. I am going to take it down to see the “geniuses” on Monday. I think it needs to have a clean install of OS X. I am just sort of lazy – clean install wise. I could convince myself that if I am going to clean install – maybe I should get a new Airness???

Got a letter from the asylum:

I am pleased to inform you that we have received all relevant medical information and the findings from the social and medical assessment indicate that you meet the conditions of occupancy … Should your physical condition change between now and your scheduled move, please contact ….

I told you it was like trying to get into a country club, or a NYC Coop.

So, all I have to do is stay well and mentally fit until Wednesday afternoon. Then they own my sorry old bat ass.

On a serious note. I am an unabashed atheist. But, I was powerfully impressed by the family members of those massacred at Emanuel AME Church. Rarely, if ever, have I seen such a demonstration of faith in action. Most of us find it difficult to forgive a perceived insult. These people found a way to forgive the killing of beloved family members. May they all find the peace and comfort that they so richly deserve.