Last week I forgot to mention we watched a delightful movie last week. It’s “My Cousin Vinny” (1992). If you haven’t seen it, it’s a hoot.

I help count the collection for our church once every four weeks. There’s been a strong push to make the count exact. The collection is comprised of many separate collections (regular weekly, Easter, Missions, etc.) We count each collection separately, recording results in an Excel file, one worksheet per collection. Then we throw everything into one pot and count the whole enchilada. Cash is tedious but fairly straightforward. Checks have been troublesome. Checks can have any value. We can’t bin them by check value because we don’t know ahead of time what all the values will be. With no bins, we don’t have a way to focus on where an error is. Last week’s count was $30 off. We had been working for four hours. It was 2:00 and there was no way we could re-count all the checks again.

This week I wrote a new worksheet that reads all the checks, bins them, and prints the sorted result. We ran the new spreadsheet against last week’s file and quickly found the error was in a small subset of all the checks. The next time this happens, we should be able to quickly find and correct the discrepancy.

The worksheet consumed me for most of the week, but it was a lot of fun. I have done a lot of this kind of work with Access and Word but not with Excel. Plus I have forgotten much more than I remembered. I had two screens. The left screen was for Google searches. The right screen was for the spreadsheet. I spent more time reading than writing. Now it’s done, it works, and it should be a big help going forward.

Danita ran into an unexpected obstacle when visiting Bud this week. Because there is a COVID case in assisted living, visitors have to have evidence of having passed a COVID test before entering. Visitors can go to the medical suite and get a test, but that would take a lot of extra time. There were several people trying to get in and much confusion. One couple decided to do a “window visit”. The weather was nice and their parent is on the ground floor. The parent didn’t know how to open the window, so the they used their cell phone to called the parent. It was a kind of low-tech Zoom.

Danita happened to have a picture of the results from our Easter test on her phone. She offered that and was admitted. She was lucky to get in because the entry clerk can swipe up and see the date the picture was taken. Moving forward, she will take a test at home before she visits Bud.

We were supposed to have the “Greek on the Street” food truck Friday. This is one of the better food trucks that visits. The Joneses and we were planning to have a food truck dinner together. Unfortunately, the bums cancelled. We decided to do a carry out dinner instead. Cheese steak sandwiches aren’t very healthy, but they’re no worse than Greek French Fries with Feta cheese.

That’s a lot of news for one week. I hope everybody is doing well.

This was a quiet week. I passed my pre-surgery physical. I’ll good to get cataract surgery in a couple of weeks. Danita had her pool training. She will have her first pool duty day tomorrow. An experienced operator will be with her for her first duty day.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Wednesday we got new blinds for all the doors and windows on the back wall. Drapes left by the previous owners had done their job, but they were definitely past their prime. Several had fallen off the wall, either because of poor mounting or failed hardware. We didn’t want new blinds until the builder had finished banging on the back wall. We were supposed to get new blinds before Easter. Unfortunately, Rin and Racheal didn’t get blinds for their bedroom. It’s not a serious issue. There is nobody living behind our house. The bedroom is on the second floor, and there is quite a hill behind the house. Still, it would have been nice to get the blinds in time. It worked out well in the end. We really like the new window treatments.

Construction on the back of our unit is almost done. The builder cleaned up all their trash from behind our building. They decided to replace the vinyl trim around our deck, which made us quite happy. The builder has another couple of hours of work to wrap that up. This phase of construction is down to parts of three buildings. The HoA board decided we should get new flashing on the front and sides of the buildings. This affects every building in the neighborhood. They will be working on this most of the summer. There’s also a matter of the mud behind our building. The board has not decided what to do about that.

Danita and I have been discussing the second COVID booster. Our understanding is that the booster gives two-stage protection. First there are about 8 weeks of antibodies, which prevent one from getting COVID. Then there are 6 months of T-cell protection. These don’t prevent infection, but they prevent an infection from being severe (hospital visits). It’s been about 6 months since we got our first booster, so a second booster made sense to us. We went out yesterday to get our boosters. We arrived at 11:00 when they opened. Another couple arrived at about the same time. Danita and I had trouble filling out the electronic form. The other couple had problems because the administrator couldn’t locate their original vaccination, which they got in Delaware. (Remember people driving all over the place to look for a vaccination?) After all this, the other woman was denied the booster because she wasn’t 50 yet. All in, we spent an hour and a half getting boosted. But it turns out we were far from done. Driving home, I hit the curb.

There was a huge gash in the side of the tire. Cars don’t come with spare tires any more. Our car insurance includes towing. We called. We answered questions such as “What is the VIN number of your car?” We got cut off. We called again. Answered questions again. Waited a couple of hours for the tow. Fortunately we were close to home. Danita walked home and made me a nice lunch. When I got to the tire place, they had several other cars in front of me. It’s only a mile and a half to home, so I walked home and awaited their call. We were all done by 4:30. Fortunately we had really nice weather.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We have a fabulous Easter. Jul was a sweetheart and drove up from NC with Bryon and Elizabeth. They arrived in time for dinner Friday. Saturday morning we visited DoodleHatch. This is impossible to categorize, but it’s a kind of art / imagination / fantasy place for children, merged with a woman’s clothing design, manufacturing, and sales. We had such a good time that the owner promptly put us to work. They want a 20-foot robot made of bamboo poles, old furniture, zip ties, and miscellaneous junk. Later on Saturday Rin showed up with Rachael, a colleague on the farm. Of course Rin had the very best self-made clothing item — a way cool vest that everybody admired. After Church Sunday Ed and Lynne drove down and I picked up Mom for Easter dinner. With all the construction mud, an egg hunt was out of the question, so Danita made a treasure hunt that lead to Easter baskets. Addie and Suzanne were with Ed and Lynne Monday, so after Rin & Rachael left, we drove the kids up up to Ed’s for a “cousins day”. (Julia had to work.) Ed and Lynne surprised us with a real egg hunt, which was probably the highlight of the holiday for the kids. Today we went back to DoodleHatch. This time, in stead of paying admission, we were building robots, fantasy chairs, and admiring “Bear Bare Beer”.

If it sounds busy and confusing, it was also a lot of fun. I did a lousy job with pictures. I didn’t get shots of the adults. But you can see a few pics on the website. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

They finished construction on our unit. The porch is clean. The furniture is outdoors. When it warms up we can sit outside and contemplate the field of mud. We have the steepest hill in our condo. More than one neighbor tried walking behind our house, being lookie loos, and ended up falling down in the mud.

We are trying to buy new blinds for all the doors and windows on our back wall. The blind company has an excellent reputation, but we keep on getting different stories about when we will actually have the blinds. They sent a man out to measure everything, and promised to call within two days. That was 4 days ago. Bummer. After they call, we will pay for the blinds and they will submit them for manufacture. It’s supposed to be a two to three week process, but it’s going super slow so far.

During the pre-season, we open our pool for residents only. Life guards are there only on weekends. We use resident volunteers to keep the chemical levels correct and scoop out the dead critters. This year, Danita volunteered to help with these chores. To meet county requirements, volunteers have to be CPOs (Certified Pool Operators). To be a CPO, one takes a test that covers everything from pool construction to hot tubs. Danita took her CPO exam Friday. She passed, of course. She had put a lot of effort into preparing herself for the test. It’s no surprise to me that she was the first person to complete the exam. She’s certified for five years. After that, she would have to take the CPO exam again, but that probably won’t happen. She plans to retire after one 5-year stint.

Easter is coming. So is company. It should be fun. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We were planning to eat dinner with the Jonses from the Italian food truck. The food truck was a no-show. This happens surprisingly frequently. The four of us decided to go to the local deli. The pandemic has really dropped. The advantage of eating at the deli instead of bring food home is that we can get the salad bar (very important for meatless Fridays), and we can enjoy the free soft-serve ice cream. The deli gets most of their business at lunch. They never have people waiting for tables at dinner time, so we don’t mind sitting and chatting. The down side is that Carmel offered to drive, and we accepted her offer. She drives like a New Yorker (which she is, but still, they’ve been here for a good while).

The bigger news was Mom’s birthday Saturday. Many people remembered her, which she really appreciated. We took her to an afternoon concert, then went to Catonsville Gourmet for dinner. Plus desert, of course. This place is one of the few that offer Smith Island cake.

The still bigger news is that Easter weekend has been organized. Jul, Brian, and Elizabeth will come up. Kathryn and a friend will come down. Ed, Lynne, and Mom will join us for Easter dinner. Mark & family will be in Boston — Mark is running the marathon. All together, we’ll have 10 people for the holiday. It promises to be a good time.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had a delightful anniversary. We went into DC to enjoy an Van Gogh immersive experience. They had reproductions of many of his paintings along side interpretations of the art and important events in his life. Then we went into a huge room where themes based on some of his work were projected on all four walls and the floor. One of the themes was a river. The projected the flowing water on the floor. It was disorienting and hard to walk, but also quite interesting. We stopped at a deli for lunch afterwards. Thanks for the tip, Lynne.

One of our residents organizes a “Lunch and Learn”. A resident discusses their profession, personal history, or other aspect of their life. This month we had Bob. Every three years, our houses are appraised. The appraisal and the tax rate determines our property taxes. If we disagree with the appraisal, we can ask for a review. If we don’t like the results of the review, we can appeal to the county appeal court. Bob is one of three judges on the Howard County real property appeal court. He is an entertaining speaker and, of course, highly knowledgeable about property assessments. He told us exactly how to appeal our appraisal, some likely arguments we could use to get a lower evaluation, what documentation we would need, and how to get that documentation. Unfortunately, he gave this talk a few months after our appraisal. We will have a chance to appeal our next appraisal, which will be in three years.

Mom got a quite unusual letter from Chase Bank. They said there had been no activity in one of her accounts for a long time. If she doesn’t take action by April 4, they will turn the money over to the state of Maryland under the abandoned account law. I found this quite surprising because the account is a CD. One does not expect transactions on a CD account. Mom signed and mailed the letter stating this was her account. A week later, I called the bank. They said they couldn’t see whether the letter had been received or whether it was considered a correct response. Both Mom and I have to visit a bank branch. (So much for the Power of Attorney.) When we arrived, the person we had an appointment with wasn’t there. The replacement didn’t know that one can’t add a deposit to a CD. After two hours, we had done nothing and learned nothing. Except I forgot to feed the meter, and got away with it. Actually, my beautiful wife explained that if I pop the handicap tag, I don’t have to pay for parking — it’s the Maryland law!

We had a wonderful dinner with at the Sochurek’s Sunday afternoon. Life can be very good.

I hope everybody is doing well.

We just wrapped a wonderful weekend with Jiajia, Mark and Mira. We had a little rain, but mostly the weather was grand. Our highlight activity was a visit to the National Zoo. Mira learned the difference between a tiger and a lion! Grandma joined us for breakfast brunch this morning. Other things happened this week, but who cares about that stuff? There’s more pics on the web page.

We’re having a mix of rain and wet snow today. The temperature is near freezing and dropping. The low will be 17. Fortunately the precipitation is tapering off. It looks like the roads and sidewalks will remain clear. Still, it’s nasty, sloppy weather which makes it a great day to stay inside.

We went to a BSO concert last Sunday. Neither of us enjoyed the first half very much. The second half was much better. We have another concert tomorrow. The BSO usually has a contemporary piece, which we sometimes like but more often find not very pleasing. But with Beethoven and Shostakovich on the bill, the concert should be a good one.

My phone has become unreliable. It works most of the time, but sometimes it stops working. I use the phone as my bike GPS. It usually starts acting up after an hour or so of riding. The symptoms are varied. The phone is less than 2 years old. I’m disappointed in the phone’s longevity. Trying to get it fixed does not seem to be wise. I replaced it with a Pixel 5a. The phone came in yesterday. I’ve been using my stay home time to master some of the improvements changes Google has made over the last two years, plus the customizations they put in their Pixel phones. Now Danita and I both have Pixel 5a phones.

I use Google Authenticator for two-factor authentication at some web sites. The process of changing phones made me realize my authenticator keys aren’t backed up. That means if my phone suddenly died, I wouldn’t be able to access those sites. I was quite surprised that Google doesn’t support backing up the authentication keys because it opens the possibility of a hacker getting to them. I see their point, but I think loosing access to the sites is the more important issue. I was able to back up the keys by taking a picture of the bar code used to transfer keys between phones. I was able to upload the keys from the photos and confirmed they work.

Danita and I ordered a Pickle Ball set. Our neighborhood has a Pickle Ball court near the swimming pool. We got our first game in yesterday. The weather was sunny and warm (near 60). We are far from proficient, but it was fun to move our bodies around and do something different.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Both the ophthalmologist and Zenni were most helpful with Mom’s glasses. The Ophthalmologist confirmed the glasses were made to his prescription. He noted that one eye had a significant difference between his prescription and Mom’s old backup glasses. He suggested we try getting glasses half way between the old and new. I returned the glasses to Zenni, who gave us a full credit towards a new pair of glasses. We ordered new glasses yesterday before her retina specialist’s appointment. They should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Work on our house is continuing. The upper wall and deck are done. The lower back wall of our house was stone. The new stone is up. This is faux stone that has no structural function. The faux stone is made from spun cement, shaped and colored to look like stone. There are several layers involved in the stone wall. They start with a cement and chicken wire layer (just like ferrocement). After that sets for a couple of weeks, they glue each stone to the wall with more cement. After the cement sets, they come back and put in the mortar. The next step for our unit is to put up the mortar. It feels like we’re coming to the end of the construction on our unit. They still think they will be done with the entire neighborhood this spring.

We have a very steep hill behind our house. It’s on the north side, so the house blocks the sun. It’s extremely muddy and slippery. The construction crew has a hard time moving themselves and their material to the back of the house. Several of our neighbor “lookey loos” walked behind the house only to fall in the mud. The board felt compelled to issue a warning. Whatever “they” say about old people being wise is continuously being proved wrong by example. It’s going to be a tough job restoring the grass when construction is done.

That’s in for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.