The new couch came on time. I’ve assembled my share of Ikea furniture, but this time after unpacking everything and looking at the directions, I felt overwhelmed. Ikea partners with a company called Task Rabbit. I went to the link, said ASAP, and ZOOM! a clean young man with a backpack full of tools arrived the next morning. I had my pick of people. Each had a brief bio and list of experience. The guy did a great job. Task Rabbit folks do other things also. If you need something done, you should give them a look-see.

Mom had a zillion doctor visits. She seems to be settled in with a modification to her meds. She has a follow-up in a couple of weeks.

JaMM came down so Jiajia could attend a seminar in DC. We spent a day with Mark and Mira Friday. Then we went to the Natural History Museum Saturday. The museum was crowded and noisy, but Mira did pretty well. Then Mark & Jiajia found an amazing restaurant for lunch (with the help of a little serendipity). If I have the story straight, a Spanish chef offers a Peruvian – Chinese fusion menu. Whatever. The food was fabulous. And it was only a few steps from the Metro. Double win!

We wrapped up the week with a BSO concert this afternoon (Mozart Piano Concerto 24 and Dvorak Symphony 7). It was great music well played. We had a good time. When we started attending Sunday afternoon concerts, I had a hand full of places where we could park for free. The spaces were taken away, one by one. This was our first concert where I paid for parking in a garage. I have to admit, it was nice not to have to walk very far in the rain.

Unfortunately, the Ravens let out just before the concert was over. Ravens fans sat in cold rain watching their team lose 20 – 23. So 70,000 Ravens fans (out of 70,000 seats) joined 2,000 music lovers (out of 2,400 seats) trying to all get out of town at the same time. As disgruntled as they might have been, Ravens fans were mostly courteous on the road. Nevertheless, it was a slow drive home.

This is the 40th year for the Meyerhoff. It led me to some sad thoughts. 40 years ago, Sergiu Comissiona, Joseph Meyerhoff, mayor William Donald Schafer, and governor Harry Hughes built a $25 million music hall. Today, the BSO is downsizing. Nobody is thinking of building anything of substance in Baltimore. Irrespective of vacant commercial real estate and strength of the economy, we just don’t have leadership that capable.

Enough of the downer. There are some cute baby pics on the web site for ya. I hope all are doing well. By the way, that “house” in the pics is a piece of art. If you look closely, it looks a little off. If you walk past it, you would swear the house is moving. I don’t have any idea how they did that.

Mom’s computer didn’t work. The symptoms clearly pointed to the button cell battery. I replaced the battery and did a quick test. Done! – Not. If the problem isn’t the battery, it has to be the motherboard. The rather expensive motherboard. I started look for a new computer. I saw that Dell was having its semiannual sale. Usually, they take 10% or 20% off on selected computers. This time, it was $1300 off of a business-class laptop that was very nicely configured. I couldn’t believe it. Over 60% off. The new computer should be in this week. Mom will have the best computer in the family at an extremely attractive price.

Mom had a bout of high blood pressure. She ended up in the hospital for several hours. It was late at night when they released her, so they got her an Uber. Charlestown has the logistics for hospitalizations down pat. They could install a monorail from Charlestown to St. Agnes and make very good use of it indeed.

Our neighborhood had a big shindig for the construction crew. They’ve been working on our buildings for the last three years. They’ll be finishing up in a few weeks. We had very good BBQ (four meet choices), hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, baked beans, mac & cheese. In case that wasn’t enough, several people brought deserts. Danita found a box mix of brownies for sale at $1.25. They were fancy brownies with a sweet topping. They disappeared quickly.

Mom’s computer started acting up. The symptoms indicated she needed a new CMOS battery, but the computer was only 3 years old. I tried pretending the problem would go away, but it wouldn’t. So I removed about 25 tiny screws of 5 different sizes, removed three major components, manipulated dozens of plastic snaps, and inserted a new CR2022 (about $1.25 retail). I’m out of practice, so it took a few hours and some intense language. The good thing is, Dell puts their service manual on the web. Thanks to having the manual, I knew exactly what I had to do. Everything is working.

We have a black couch/sleeper in the basement with a pleather covering. The pleather was not very good. It shed zillions of BPBs (Black Pleather Bits) even when nobody touched it. There were always BPBs around. We finally found and ordered an acceptable replacement. With a new couch coming, it was time to disappear the old. 1-800-Got-Junk. Came to our rescue, leaving a trail of BPBs behind. As soon as they left, I got the vacuum out and vacuumed intensely. Then we emptied the play room. I waited until Danita was going to be gone for a few hours, then I Bruced the floor. Twice. I made sure there were no BPBs anywhere. The next day, I went downstairs to do some stretches and found 4 more BPBs. Danita is highly allergic to Bruce. But Danita was out for several hours and everything would have been fine. If she hadn’t fallen asleep in her TV chair. She wasn’t feeling the best the next morning. Today, Danita is better and I haven’t found any BPBs for several hours.

We had fun getting rid of the couch. Our neighbors had some chairs they wanted to get rid of. We sat down and called Got Junk together. Apparently very few neighbors get together to call Get Junk. Everybody we talked to was very accommodating, but it was clear they had never done this before. For example, the driver couldn’t figure out whether he should call our neighbors while is was parked outside my house, telling them they would be there within a half hour. In the mean time, our neighbors came out to find out why they hadn’t been notified the truck was on the way. We had lot of laughs throughout the process.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Henry’s funeral obviously dominated the week. The support we received from family and friends has been awesome. All the arrangements worked extremely well. For the last many months, Henry said he wanted to be with his sisters. I’m sure he’s happy to finally be with them again. The last of our house guests went home Saturday morning. Our house chores are caught up. Life is quickly returning to normal.

Today we are making good use of a rainy day. Danita is Henry’s executer. She spent most of today getting herself ready to talk to our lawyer.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We were fortunate to have family with us the day Henry died. JaMM were up for what they thought would be a couple of days of family fun. Ed & Lynne were able to stop by after visiting with Henry. We are truly blessed to have a wonderful family. I put some pictures on the website. Click the link above if you are interested.

Danita’s dad Henry died earlier today. He has been very ill for a number of years. His death was expected. By great good fortune, Mark, Jiajia, Mira, Ed, and Lynne were all at the house. We were able to talk with the rest of the family by phone. We have agreement on the arrangements, but with the holiday, we won’t be able to address the details until Tuesday.

Henry – Faith and Family

Mom’s printer has had lots of issues over the last months. It finally gave up the ghost. We decided a laser printer would have fewer problems. I found a very nice Canon for $100. I could have put the old printer in the trash, but the county recycles electronics if you take them to the landfill. Thinking about it, I realized the landfill is within biking distance. The printer was too big for my panier bags, but I figured out a way to lash it to the frame. It was a fun ride. Bonus highlight: a small detour took me by the best snowball stand in the county. Chocolate raspberry with marshmallow. Yummy. I wonder how many times cyclists deliver recyclables to the land fill.

I use my smart phone for GPS guidance when I ride. It has a map and display as do most GPS units. But there’s no place to mount a GPS on my bike where I can see the display. I found a program that gives audible directions as I ride. It’s a really cool feature. I wear the phone in a pouch around my neck and follow the verbal directions. On the way home from the dump, I came to a turn and realized the GPS wasn’t prompting me. My phone (a Google Pixel 5a) was completely dead. I knew the way home, but obviously I need a working phone. This one was less than a year old. I called Google and was very impressed. They gave me the magic key sequence to restart the phone. Everything was fine. The agent told me that the phone shuts down if it gets too hot. It was a hot day, but we have had hotter. The other possibility was that the phone decided to install the Android 13 update, and it collided with the GPS app, causing it to get terminally confused. The term “smart phone” is a misnomer. It’s used for texting, computing, web surfing, GPSing, gaming … in a pinch, it will even work as a phone.

I updated our community website today. This was a major update. I hate large updates. Something always goes wrong. This time they added new security features. None of the people who post information could see, add, or delete the documents and pictures that are posted on the website. That’s extremely secure. It took me two hours to find the new settings. What a waste of time.

We’re looking forward to company for the holiday. JaMM should arrive this afternoon. It will be fun having an infant in the house. Danita’s cooking up a storm. There just might be pictures next week.

It was a quiet week. We’re looking forward to the ice cream social this evening. Come and get a ice cream sandwich, cone, or similar treat. You have to buy a house in the neighborhood to attend, but other than that, it’s free!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

When I took Bryon to NY, we visited a cave. I bumped my head and fell on my butt. After we ate lunch, I sat on my sweatshirt as I drove to NY to keep mud off the seat. (We were in a cave, it’s cool.) Unfortunately, some blue die got transferred from the sweatshirt to the driver seat. I tried leather cleaner and mild soap with no success. This week, I took the car to a detailer to see what they could do. I have to say, they did a great job. The car looks new. Except for the driver’s seat. I have the world’s only Honda Accord Hybrid Touring with red paint and white leather upholstery that has a blue streak on the driver’s seat back. It doesn’t affect the car’s performance, but it sure makes it unique. After I brought the car back, I decided I should wash the Leaf. We wouldn’t want the Leaf to feel unloved. I also cleaned the deck and porch. That used to be a one-day job. Now it’s a definite two-day job.

Bud is still having problems adjusting to his new quarters at BrightView. The staff have been excellent. They communicate frequently and clearly. Danita had to sign some permission papers, including one that was eleven pages of dense legalese. The staff were surprised when she had only one question.

This was a week of some misplaced excitement. Danita has been trying to get Bud’s 1099 since February. We saw a document in the mail preview that we were getting something from the Office of Personnel Management. It looked like we were done. Unfortunately, it was only confirmation that our address was corrected. Danita requested the 1099. Again. Her goal is to be able to submit Bud’s 2021 taxes before the 2022 taxes are due.

I don’t remember if I already said this, but we hit the jackpot with Mom’s I-Bonds. The Treasury Direct folks beat their deadline by three weeks. All of Mom’s bonds are online and retitled.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Bud’s old room is cleared out. Almost everything has been relocated, donated, or disposed of. We have one more Goodwill trip. Not surprisingly, Bud has had some trouble adjusting to his new surroundings. Hopefully everything will settle down quickly.

We’ve had a nice break in the weather. I’ve had some nice bike rides. There’s not much else going on. I hope this finds everybody doing well.