We had lots of Zoom seminars this week. The funniest one was a seminar about Beethoven’s 9th symphony. It featured the conductor of the Johns Hopkins Orchestra and the acting manager of the local classical music station. Both have impeccable music backgrounds. But I found their presentation so far fetched as to be humorous. They were talking about specific musical phrases and associating them to specific events such as the creation of the universe. There’s no doubt Beethoven had a large vision and high ambitions, but somehow I think he probably good a good chuckle out of this detailed analysis. Who knows? Maybe they’re right. To me, there is no physical meaning. I enjoy the music.

This is the holiday season, but severely lacking in holiday activities. It strikes home as we go through days with traditional activities that aren’t going to happen this year. In spite of our self-imposed restrictions, we’re doing what we can. Notably, we had ginger snap cookies and port wine cheese after dinner last night. This is extremely noteworthy because it portends a dinner of sour beef and buttons. For dinner tonight! Woo-Hoo! One recipe makes a lot of food. We plan to freeze leftovers and enjoy multiple dinners.

A new bagel restaurant is doing a soft opening. We had their omelet and bagel breakfast this morning. It was pretty good.

I’ve written a couple of times about neck and upper back pain from bike riding. After spending weeks looking at options, I decided to get a recumbent tricycle. I literally considered every recumbent trike sold in the US. Many of these are outrageously expensive. I selected the Hase Trigo. It has a good reputation. It’s expensive but half to third the price of many others. It has a very tall seat for recumbent. That makes for good visibility. There’s nothing in stock, but a shipment is due in December. For now, I plan to keep both bikes. I have some rides I like to take that the trike might not work for.

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

It was a fairly normal week. We had some Zooms. We had some carry out meals. We had several really good home cooked meals. Nothing unusual happened.

I’ve been having problems with my neck and upper back being sore at the end of a bike ride. I tried Danita’s bike. Hers is a “crank forward” design. The idea is that I would sit more upright and not have to be as flexible. It was great for eliminating my neck pain, but my upper back pain persisted. I guess I’ll try something else.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We are having unbelievably nice weather. I did a ride today in 75 degree weather. I was in summer clothes, and sweating! I wasn’t sweating a lot, but I think this is the first time I ever sweat outdoors in November. I’ve missed two interesting Zooms. I carefully planned my day Friday so I could watch a Zoom from the Museum of Industry about Baltimore industry during WW II. I was going to hit the road immediately after that Zoom so I could get home in time for a Circle Zoom. About an hour before the Zoom was supposed to start, I learned that the Zoom would be an hour later. It was too late to get a ride in and catch the Zoom. Danita enjoyed the presentation.

We usually watch a couple of hours of TV after dinner. We ran out of interesting Amazon Prime videos quite a while ago. We’ve been using Netflix. We’re getting pretty good at finding interesting content. Right now we’re watching Lucifer and Queens Gambit. I didn’t think a series about a woman who plays chess could possibly be interesting. But there were so many good reviews that we gave it a try. It’s quite good.

Bud called Sunday and said his mouth hurt from his tooth extraction. He’s doesn’t normally complain. Danita and I spent almost all day Monday taking him to the oral surgeon and the regular dentist. It seems to have been a false alarm. That took a lot of time, but the good news is quite welcome.

Our class about detective novellas is more work than we intended. The first book was a fun read. The next book was written in England in the 1950s. The third was written in New Zeeland in the 1940s. There’s too many English words! Even the Kindle dictionary doesn’t recognize them all. Plus there are allusions to pop culture of the day that we don’t get. Still, we’re learning interesting things about how detective novels are constructed, and some of the things that make them interesting.

That’s the news for this week. I hope all are doing well.

I spent several hours Saturday finishing up the computer swaps in our clubhouse. I also made progress on our clubhouse WiFi. We purchased an outdoor WiFi device to cover the pool area. I spent several more hours Saturday plus most of this morning taking data and coming up with some options for installation. We’ll have to find a way to route Ethernet cable through the clubhouse to where the WiFi device will be mounted.

Danita and I took Bud to the oral surgeon to have two teeth removed. Bud did well. By the end of the week, he was eating real foods.

The front derailleur stopped working on my bike. That’s the part that changes the gears. I was having trouble shifting down to the low gears. I took it to the bike shop. They mis-diagnosed the problem and did an adjustment. Two days later, I was back at the bike shop, completely unable to shift into low gear. This time the problem was obvious. The bike works great.

The backup sump pump is not doing very well. We have a water powered backup pump and it didn’t work. The pump company sent me a new pump under warranty and gave me a lot of advice on how to make it work better. One thing that was needed was to enlarge a hole in the sump cover from 2″ to 3 1/2″. I bought a hole saw, and learned that while drilling a 3 1/2″ hole isn’t very hard, enlarging an existing hole is a whole lot harder. A plumber came by Friday and spent 3 hours installing everything. When all was done, it still didn’t work. In fact, it’s possible that it never worked. I have some things I want to do yet. We’ll see how it turns out.

I was so busy dong stuff that I missed three Zooms that sounded interesting. One was about Baltimore Arabbers. We still have them. In fact, there are two active arabber horse stables. Unfortunately, the main guest either didn’t show or couldn’t get their computer to work. Danita told me they did a brief interview of an arabber. He told stories of the 500 days he spent in solitary while in prison. If you don’t know abut the arabbers, here’s a YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5h5LDVwZHg The other two zooms were about Day of the Dead dancers. Danita told me the videography was so bad she stopped watching. It’s not easy to make a bunch of people dancing look good.

There aren’t very many Zooms for us next week. But the rain should roll out, allowing more time for bike rides. In low gear!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Most of my cycling is done on the road. But I also ride paved trails where I need them to cross major highways. That has been a challenge this week. In places there are so many leaves on the ground that I can’t see where the pavement is. I just slow down and aim for the center of the trail. It’s kind of like a winter white-out, but in the fall and with leaves. My other issue lately has been my back and neck. My body isn’t as flexible as it used to be. In the last few weeks, I’ve been getting pains in my neck and upper back. I’ve found some relief in doing “yogling” (yoga cycling). I stretch my head out and keep a straight line from my sitz bones to the top of my head. But I don’t close my eyes, say ooom, or put my hands together at the center of my chest.

Bud is turning 90. We’re having a small shindig this afternoon. It will be Ed, Lynne, Danita, and me in Bud’s apartment. Lynn and Gene will participate by Zoom, as will Rick and Suzy. Bud asked his neighbor to attend, but the neighbor declined due to Covid concerns. Tuesday we’ll take Bud to an oral surgeon to have two teeth extracted. I won’t be welcome in the waiting room. I’ll bring plenty of reading material.

A lot of our Zooms are ended or ending. The Fitzgerald and Hemingway class is done, as is the Maryland Music class. We have our last Jazz class this week. Other Zooms are picking up the slack. There are several presentations about Baltimore architecture, Day of the Dead traditions, and art topics. The Walters Art Museum had a wonderful presentation on transparent enamels. Plus we start a class about Mystery Novels under 200 pages. Danita found so many Zooms that I don’t watch them all. I missed two yesterday, trying to figure out where the pavement is that gets me over US 29.

Our neighborhood finally got our door security software moved to the new computer. That meant I was clear to do the last computer swap. I did that Saturday. The new computer is installed, but it took so long that I didn’t get everything done. One issue is that the monitor is so old that it doesn’t have an HDMI port. The computer offers only HDMI. I am lending my monitor to the neighborhood for now.

Another interesting development was the outdoor WiFi. The question was whether we can use existing security camera wiring to get an Ethernet signal outdoors. It took many hours of poking around to figure out what the security folks do. (They are habitually secretive.) Eventually I was able to figure out how our existing security camera wiring works, how to use that wiring for an Ethernet signal, and that the solution costs several hundred dollars. I suspect we’ll be looking for a cheap way to run an Ethernet cable through the wall. It took a year to do the computer swap. We’ll see how long it takes to install the poolside WiFi.

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

We had lots of Zooms this week. The sleeper was a tour of Clifton Mansion. This estate was owned by Johns Hopkins. He wanted his university to be on this property. It didn’t happen. The mansion was used as a golf course clubhouse for a while. One of the chimneys fell down along with part of the roof. It was a mess and an eyesore. Today its being renovated. The roof and chimney are fixed. Many areas are completed. It has a commanding view of Baltimore. Here’s one pic. You can find plenty more on the internet. We were inspired to put it “on the list”. But we weren’t inspired enough to donate money or volunteer.

Danita and I took Bud to the podiatrist Tuesday. Ed and Lynne took him to the dentist Wednesday. It takes two of us to get him between his wheel chair and the car.

Our clubhouse WiFi was very slow. I don’t know what the problem is, but there’s no doubt it was the WiFi Access Point. Another guy and I installed a new one today. The speed is back, but the signal isn’t as strong. We’re considering how we will get WiFi poolside.

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

Not much new is happening here in Columbia. The food truck was a success. Instead of eating in our driveway with a few neighbors, we moved the cars and ate in the garage. With cooler weather, it was good to be out of the breeze. It was also nice to have the garage lights to counteract the earlier sunset. Unfortunately, the free ice cream was a dud. The freezer in our clubhouse stopped working. Instead of ice cream, we had melted goop. Fortunately, I was able to buy a key-lime-pie-in-a-jar. We also enjoyed an evening of wine, snacks, and conversation with the Jonses this week.

Other than that, we’re watching educational Zooms. I’m bike riding. Danita’s walking. We’re reading. We even watch a little TV.

I hope this finds everybody well.

I reached a milestone this week. To my knowledge, the house works. I’m sure that means I’ve overlooked something. But for the moment, I’ll accept my false sense of accomplishment.

Danita is the queen of interesting stuff. We are taking our Osher course on Hemmingway and Fitzgerald. We are taking a course on jazz, taught by a Peabody professor. We are taking a course on Maryland music, taught by another Peabody professor. This week we start “Quantum Sensing for Everyone”, taught by an APL PhD. We have prep work for Quantum Sensing. The first class will be about error estimation. There’s no math in this course, just general concepts. I think starting with error estimation is an excellent beginning. It’s a far cry from college. But it’s good to keep the mind active. We’ve never benefited so much from being Hopkins Alumni. As an extra bonus, UMBC has a twice a year lecture series that is available through video streaming this time around. We will attend a lecture about Cleopatra.

I’m enjoying an almost embarrassing level of good food this week. Danita made meatloaf last night. That means meatloaf sandwiches for lunch. Plus we had our big Sunday breakfast — from Bob Evans this morning. Plus we have a neighborhood food truck dinner this evening. Danita and I will be ordering from the seafood truck. Danita is looking forward to crab cakes. I want the shrimp salad sandwich. They also have Key Lime Pie in a jar. It is quite tasty. And the neighborhood is giving out free ice cream — Nutty Buddies or ice cream sandwiches. By the end of the week, I’ll be waddling around the house.

This is the last day our pool is open. Danita has been going in the afternoon after temperatures are 65 or so. The pool has a heater, but it isn’t keeping up. Danita plans to try walking for exercise next week. I’ve been riding in the afternoon to catch warmer weather. It’s going to be a long winter. We’ll be finding lots of ways to keep our spirits up.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There’s been a lot of activity on Endless Ocean Way this week. The new storm door is installed. The contractor did a great job, but I’m pretty sure they lost money on the deal. When they measured for the door size, they decided a 36″ door would work fine. Actually, the trim on our house was a little smaller than they thought. The installer had to saw 1/4″ off the trim for the entire height of the door. It took two men 4 1/2 hours to do what is normally a 2 hour job. The end result is wonderful. We really like the new door.

Speaking of doors, the condo association finally decided to order the new sliding doors to go out to our decks. We had 3 days to get our order in. That wasn’t much of a problem for us.

We had a plumber replace our old sump pump. In the process, he broke the backup pump. We use a water-powered backup pump. Very reliable. Needs no electricity. Has one moving part (the on/off float/valve). The plumbing company said they don’t install water powered backup pumps. What? A plumber won’t work on a water powered pump? We got another plumber in to install a new backup pump. There’s a switch that sends a message to my phone when the backup pump kicks on. It doesn’t send the message. Hopefully I’ll get everything working before something else breaks.

Danita is a genius at finding Zoom presentations. Of course we’re still taking our Fitzgerald/Hemingway class. We’re also watching a several-week series about music in Maryland. Danita is watching a series about tools for care givers. We have seen several presentations about various interesting topics, and we have 4 more coming up this week.

Our community decided to keep the pool open another week, so Danita will be able to use the pool next week.

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

The week started off wonderfully. Our neighborhood had three food trucks Sunday evening (BBQ, Mediterranean, and Gelato). The food was good. The weather was perfect. A few neighbors joined us in our driveway. It was an extremely pleasant evening. This is the last social activity for our neighborhood this year.

We had our first class Monday. We covered a brief biography of Fitzgerald and Hemmingway, followed by a discussion of the first half of “The Great Gatsby”. There are over 80 people registered for class. 72 showed up for the first class. The Zoom servers seemed to choke. Things got better after most students turned off their video. The instructor encouraged comments from the class, but of course with such a large class, only a small number could offer comments. The instructor has an interesting way of handling comments. He puts on a thoughtful face and lets the student have their full say. Then he generally says something like “I agree” or “That’s insightful”. Immediately after that, he extends the comment to include other points. Sometimes he says something like “That’s an interesting reading”, following that with a viewpoint that is more plausible. We learned quite a bit.

We found two presentations from the Walters Art Museum. One was about Islamic metal work. The other was about ancient glass. Both were quite interesting. Unfortunately, the ancient glass was immediately after lunch. We used our very comfortable setup in the TV room with our reclining chairs. I had a predictable reaction. I still managed to catch enough that I knew the answers to the questions the audience asked. The presenters faced quite a challenge because until a few days ago, the building was closed. They had to do their presentation from photos that were taken pre-COVID.

Danita started a virtual class for people who are care givers for parents.

I did my fall cleaning of the deck, porch, and garage. That’s a 3-day job for me these days.

Thursday Bluetooth stopped working on my Dell laptop. It was particularly irritating because I had just cleaned my desk and removed all nonessential wiring. I had to go back to a wired mouse. This happened precisely 17 days after my extended warranty expired. How do they time these things so precisely?

Mark asked us what our plans are for Thanksgiving this year. That triggered a discussion we had been putting off. We finally decided to celebrate at home without visitors. Usually Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It certainly won’t be a traditional Thanksgiving.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.