It was a quiet week. We stole some cookies at the pool party Monday. Thursday we had Tino’s Pizza for dinner, followed by desert at the gelato truck. The highlight was Ed and Lynne coming over for dinner Sunday. It was a good excuse for Danita to cook a big pot of chili. Yum!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The title refers to the Resident’s Database. I was asked to add a feature, which I did. I was also asked what we know about when residents moved in. I tried to verify what the database has to offer, but there was so much dead code I got hopelessly confused. I spent the weekend “srping cleaning” the database.

The assisted living section of Charlestown had an open house. Mom and I went. The rooms are smaller than independent living, but they are nice — modern, bright, with several sizes to choose from. While there, we enjoyed a lunch in the garden. It was a huge layout. They had hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, beans, coleslaw, potato salad, brownies, cookies, beer, soda, and water. It was all good, and there was much more than we could eat.

Our neighborhood had a Caribbean evening Friday. Besides Caribbean food, we had a steel drum band to provide mood music. Unfortunately, the Jones couldn’t join us. They both got Covid. It turned out to be a mild case. They are fully recovered.

We can’t have a major holiday without having at least a minimal party. Tomorrow we have a pool party. This one is pretty laid back. We might walk over and grab a bag of cookies.

My bike needs attention. I took it in to the shop. Of course, the issues were more serious than I would have preferred. I’ve been without the bike all week. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon.

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

We’ve had quite a bit of fun. I had lunch with Tony. We are giving up on First Watch. It’s so noisy we literally can’t hear each other. We’re going to try Panera next month. We also had a food truck dinner with the Jones, which is fun. Unfortunately, they both came down with Covid. They think they know when they were infected, and we definitely know when we had dinner, and we don’t think they were contagious. Plus neither of us has symptoms. But we’ll be extra cautious for a few more days. For even more fun, we had a grandkids day at the pool Saturday. The weather was perfect. To attract grandkids, we had an Italian ice / soft serve ice cream truck. We don’t have any grandkids visiting us, so we just stayed young at heart while enjoying the treats.

For super duper fun, I started to add some features to our Residents database. I worked Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I had to re-learn lots of cool things that I had forgotten. It took me a day to do an hour’s work, but I had fun going through it. Today was more frustrating, because I became my own enemy. But I finally got everything working pretty well. I have a lot more to do. I look forward to lots more computer fun.

Mom’s been having brief power outages. Every time it happens, her caption phone stops displaying captions. Erickson came out with a “fix that” box. They came over to set everything up, and wa-da-ya-no, it didn’t work. And guess what, Mom had another short power failure. Getting the captions to work again is way harder than it should be. Hopefully we’ll get this ironed out soon.

That’s it for the Columbia contingent. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Dani and Gayle came down for several days to visit Mom. That kept us busy with snacking, shopping, and having dinner together. We enjoyed having them.

Wednesday, we were planning a Mexican food truck dinner with the Jones, but the food truck didn’t show up. Undaunted, we got Mexican food from a local restaurant and partied anyway. Friday we had a neighborhood hamburger party. Today we’re going to our meet and greet for our HOA. Busy busy. We’re enjoying some very nice weather, which should continue for most of this week. It’s great for cycling.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

For our excitement this week, we went to a concert at Luhrmann Woods. Danita made a stunning dinner. You can see it for yourself if you visit the website.

I love cool calculators. Not all calculators, just the cool ones. The very first CC is the Antikythera mechanism. Made in about 100 BC, it uses intricate brass gears and at least two face dials to calculate the position of the planets. Moving to modern times, there are slide rules. I have over a dozen. They are cylindrical, round, 6″, 12″, metal, wooden, and even a tie clip. My favorite is my well-used yellow Picket that got me through four years of engineering studies. With 18 different scales, it could calculate seemingly anything. It comes with a case and belt loop, and it bumped against my leg on many trips across campus. Another favorite is a rule that was supposedly owned by an engineer in the Russian space program.

When it comes to coolness, I have a special spot for HP handheld calculators. They are extremely well built and amazingly long lived. The first ever scientific handheld calculator was the HP_35S (1972). There were plenty of HP scientific calculators, but they were big and expensive. When HP decided to offer a handheld scientific, the design teem asked Mister Packard (the “P” in “HP”) what the dimensions should be. He said the calculator had to fit in his shirt pocket. So they measured his pocket. That set the size of the 35S. It was amazingly cheap compared to the old desktop calculators, but still far too costly for me to buy one.

Just one decade later, I bought the classic HP-15C (1982). This supported dozens of scientific functions including complex numbers, an equation solver, matrices — and it’s programmable. (Not that it’s likely I will ever again use the advanced features). And it still fit in Mr. P’s pocket. My 40 year old unit still works perfectly and until recently, it was the calculator I reached for. The keyboard is very good. The case looks nearly new. It was so popular that in 2023 HP made a 15C Collectors Edition. This used newer and faster chips, but the point was a celebration of calculator coolness. You can still buy a 15C Collectors Edition new in the box, but I much prefer my 40-year old version. The 15C had some interesting siblings. If you need cash flow, net present value, and other financial functions, pick up a 12C. This baby is so cool you can still buy it new today. If you were a programmer bit banger, the 16C was the one to have.

By 1988, advances in electronics made it possible to have one calculator that could serve all three user groups. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the coolest handheld calculator ever made, the HP-42S . The calculator supports enhanced versions of all the features of the 15C, 12C, and 16C. It still fit in the pocket. The 15C has 39 buttons, many of them with three functions. Clearly the button count was at its practical limit. The 42S overcame this by using a larger 2-line display and grouping functions into a multi-level menu. It needs only 36 buttons, none of which have more than two functions. The layout and design of the calculating features is incredibly good. It would have been the calculator I use — if it had worked. Unfortunately, HPs legendary reliability fell short. Some keys in mine didn’t work, making it completely non-functional until …

Imagine my delight when I found out the keyboard can be fixed! Thanks to YouTube, I saw what was required, I immediately decided I needed to find somebody with a prior experience and a steady hand who would fix mine for me. The fixed calculator came back this week. It is a real beauty. I enjoy using it immensely.

You may ask why anybody would want a calculator when they have a computer. First of all, it’s fun knowing I am using one of the coolest machines of all time. Plus I can use a calculator without opening still another window in my computer screen. Still, it is a good idea to have a calculator app on my smart phone and computer, just in case. Unfortunately, every scientific calculator app I could find had irritating quirks. And that lead to another delight.

Somebody wrote an app the perfectly duplicates the operation of the 42S. It’s available for both computers and smart phones. I love the way it works, both with a mouse and keyboard and with a touch screen. The program is Free42. As the name implies, it is available for a donation. My 15C is relegated to the bench. Long live the 42S. I am completely “wiggle my toes” delighted.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Columbia Association had their usual blow-out fireworks show July 4. But the weather forecast called for isolated showers and possible T-storms. We decided we didn’t want to spend hours in the extreme heat to get damp, and maybe wet, and perhaps even forced to seek shelter from lightening. So we didn’t go. Instead, we had dinner out at the Corner Stable.

We also got a food truck this week. It was a new truck offering Indian food with only one dish available — but we had a choice of beef, chicken, goat, or vegetarian. Danita and Carmel tried the food truck, while Jeff and I got Mission BBQ. It turns out the truck didn’t have the beef option. The dinner was mostly rice, and they wanted a fairly high price. The food truck was a bust but we had a nice dinner anyway.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

For our excitement, we went to Essex college and watched “Jerry’s Girls”, the music of Jerry Hermon (Hello Dolly, etc.). We managed to skirt the rain all the way home.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

This was a big mistake. Our vacation will be January 8 – March 1. I’ll let you know when I’ve figured out who I can blame for this mistake.

As big of a mistake as it is, it doesn’t compare to Microsoft. I was trying to get one computer with an extended warranty. There a website that shows all my devices and the associated warranties. The help desk person had a different screen with the same information (allegedly). My screen showed computer #1 had an extended warranty, the service desk showed computer #2 had an extended warranty. Which one is correct? Here’s an idea. I can live without the extended warranty! Microsoft refunded the cost of the extended warranty and I returned the second computer. At long last, an end to a month-long issue.

JAMMM stopped at our house for a couple of days on their way to San Diego. The extreme heat and the stress that comes with moving limited our activities. The big event was a couple of hours in our neighborhood kiddie pool. That wasn’t a lot, but at times it was quite intense, Fortunately, everybody made it to San Diego in good form. There are a few pics on the web.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Each of our children are going through major exciting times. (It’s all good.) Well I’m here to tell you we are no slouches for excitement right here at 8800. Why just today Danita went to the pool while I was on a bike ride. Add in neighborhood parties and food truck dinners with our neighbors and it’s easy to see just how exciting life is here in Columbia.

For the last month, I have been working on a new computer. I ordered a Microsoft Surface Go 4th edition. It’s 10.5″ display makes it perfect for travel. Adding an external monitor offers a nice big screen when using it at home. I received the new computer a month ago. It’s working fine, but the extended warranty I purchased was not linked to the computer. After 3 phone calls, Microsoft decided to swap it out with a new computer, this time applying the warranty to the new computer. I got the new computer, but the warranty was applied to my original computer. Now I have a month-old computer with a warranty, and an RMA to replace that same computer, and a brand new computer that doesn’t have a warranty. It’s all quite confusing. I hope I can get this settled out this week.

We’re getting serious about setting up our next trip. This one will be January 8 – May 1. It will involve ships, planes, trains, and automobiles. I don’t want to give away everything just yet, but it will include some quality time with JAMM in San Diego. Woo-hoo!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.