life in the old lane

Had a fine sleep last night so, I opted for action today.
Water orchids.
Wash inside of windows. Nope the Asylum doesn’t do that.
Make soup.
Cleanup after making soup.
Walk 2.5 miles.
Read trashy novel.

Admire orchids, clean windows, and clouds.
The Cloud Appreciation Society. Of course, they are British.

Play with the Pixel 11.

This is rather stunning – The Shrine isn’t easy to see from my window. At least not with my elderly eyes.

Grateful for all the good years.
And even the not so great ones.

There is no reason for Google to make phones
Almost no one buys them.
They are stunningly expensive.

But Google makes Android.
And they make phones to show off what Android can do.
And hopefully, the Not iPhone phone manufacturers will continue to use Android.

So today I played around with Pixel 11’s “Super Zoom” feature.

For the record. It was cloudy. I was hanging out my window, handheld. No post-processing.

Woke up around midnight to a fine thunderstorm. I was hoping to capture some lightning strikes. But the rain hid the lightning, and the sky was an interesting shade of yellow-gray.

Well, the weather was back to normal. The country is still SNAFU.

Since I don’t want to go into the long weekend with a political rant so put up some old photos.

And maybe a picture of one of the orchids.

This orchid is almost 8 years old. And for the last 5 years it has been blooming continously. I feel sure it needs repotting, but the “If it works don’t fix it” rule seems to apply. 

Now enjoy the last weekend of summer.

 

 

Trying to get in some good cardio early this morning.
Of course, I was distracted by a bee.
First bee shot with the new phone.

Discovered a new use for my VPN.
I moved myself to Canada.
And Lake Ontario was back.

Late summer weather. Currently enjoying a large thunderstorm.

Today’s adventure: A visit with the phlebotomist.
What you don’t want to hear when you present your unfed and uncaffeinated self to a very young man:
“I am having a bad day, and this is my first day.”
He promptly added that it wasn’t his first day as a phlebotomist.
Maybe it was his second.

He wasn’t able to print labels for the vials.
He was resourceful.
He wrote my name on the vials.
And the results have appeared in my Epic record.
So, all is good.

And. The results look fine to me.
Not fine for an old woman.
But fine, fine.

My friends have pictures in their bathroom.
Who knew?
Anyhow, I now have a cat cartoon for my bathroom wall.

11 years ago this month, I moved into The Asylum.
It’s about time to get around to decorating the loo.

September.
Already?

Twenty-Five Years Ago: 01 Sep 2001

We had no idea what was coming.
Sadly, we have inflicted much damage on ourselves in the last 18 months.
With no assistance from foreign terrorists.
Well, except one from South Africa.

Twenty Years Ago: THERE WAS NO ENTRY. 31 AUG 2006

Only in recent years has it been necessary to try to post something.
Post anything.
Every day, to prove that I am still alive.

Carlton maintained that I periodically suffered from “unresolved discontent”.
I am just grumpier and bitchier than usual.
For no apparent reason.
However, if you think about it…
There is a hell of a lot to be discontent about these days.

I wonder if I would have purchased a new Google Phone if I had known this:

What a stupid time we are living through.

Maybe September will be an improvement.
But I doubt it.

A lazy, minimal-tech day.
It is really hard to just stay away from the screens.
Do something offline.
Fold paper.
Take a walk.
Cook a meal.
Read an analog book.
Water the orchids.
Just sit and think.
Don’t feed the algorithm.

Another thing you can do is look at old scans of even older photographs.

I wonder where we were or what we were doing.

Great fun this afternoon.
All 8 of us trooped over to The Lost Dog Cafe for dessert.
In the middle of the afternoon.
Eight 80-somethings eating ice cream, brownies, chocolate peanut butter pie.
Acting like 8-year-olds.
Old age.
It’s interesting.

My new Pixel 11 proudly announces that it’s good for 7 years.
The damn thing will outlive me.
And that’s OK.

After four days of busing around the DMV, taking a little downtime.
And I have a new toy to set up just my way.
Continuing to ignore my 170 apps.

August is almost over.
I really thought that August would be a great time to deploy the 25th Amendment.
But I guess it isn’t going to happen.
67 days until the midterms.

Once I was invited to a barbecue at a crematorium.
Still regret not taking them up on that one.

Today, I went to Georgetown to the Google Store to collect my new Camera. Pixel 11 Pro.
I can also use it to hail an Uber and board an airplane.
And DoomScroll.

Bus. Metro.Bus.

Before I got too far from the Google Store, I wanted to make sure the camera actually worked.

Came home.
Walk. Bus. Walk.
Fiddled around getting the non-camera parts working.
Amazed to discover that I have 170 apps.
Might need to do some app culling.

This was sort of a snap decision. I had been thinking about replacing my phone later this year. Yesterday just seemed like the right day to buy a toy.

This is a proof of life blog entry.
Love that sign.
I wasn’t brave enough to enter.
There might be explicit lyrics.

No worries about missing the bus.
Buses are like men…
If you miss one, another will be along soon.

It would have been a much better photo if I had taken it before getting on the escalator.
But my train was due in 2 minutes.
I know it takes 1 minute to get down that escalator if you just ride.
Running down escalators is not advisable at my age.

Tomorrow’s adventure: Go to Georgetown and collect my new camera.

Phone attached.