We had outings 5 days in a row. Wednesday we went to Houlihan’s to get Danita’s free entree. Thursday was a neighborhood party because they got new furniture for the clubhouse. Friday was a neighborhood hot dog and hamburger grill. Saturday we went to an outdoor concert in Catonsville, followed by an ice cream in Historic Ellicott City. This morning we went to First Watch to get Danita’s free breakfast. We got a lot of other stuff done last week. I got my “Real ID” driver’s license all squared away. In addition to all that, Danita took her dad to his last PT appointment. I had 3 doctor’s appointments. My urologist decided he wants to look at my bladder again. That’s certainly not my favorite test, but as he said, it eliminates all the bad stuff.

Our printer stopped working after 8 years of faithful service. It was time for a new one. It took almost an entire week to get the new printer up and running. I bought a Canon color laser all-in-one. I’ve always had good luck with HP printers. Their physical printers are good, and their drivers are excellent. Unfortunately, HP has fallen behind the competition, so Canon it was. This is an extremely well-built unit. In other words, it’s heavy (60 pounds) and large (18″ cube). We decided to move furniture around to make a spot for it. When it arrived, it was quite an effort for Danita and me to get it upstairs and on the furniture. It comes with a 3-year warranty. If we exercise the warranty, we have to have the original box to ship it in. The box became a nice sized table with the addition of a table cloth. The day it arrived, the only thing we did was to get upstairs and on the furniture. Most of the installation was easy, but as expected, configuring the “scan to computer” option was cumbersome. Fortunately, that only has to be done once, and I am supposed to be an IT guy.

We leave for Italy in two weeks. The travel prep list is taped to the door. For the next two weeks, we’ll be busy scratching things off the list.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The feds passed the Real ID law several years ago. Maryland issued Real ID drivers licences but failed to scan identity documents required by law. Now everybody in MD that has a Real ID drivers license (such as me!) has to go to the MVA with identification papers. I need to prove who I am (passport or birth certificate), where I live (utility bills, etc.), and that I am using the SSN issued to me. This last one is tough. I could use the original letter sent by the SSA, if I had it. Or I could use a 1099, if I had one with the full SSN printed on it. Unfortunately, my 1099s haven’t had the full SSN printed since 2014. Fortunately, I keep 7 years of tax records. On paper. My appointment is Monday. Maryland has done a good job of setting up centers to accept the ID papers. I expect I won’t have to wait long.

I also visited the SSA office, on the theory that it’s probably a good idea to have that SSN issuance letter. I couldn’t believe how fast the SSA was. When I went, they had me fill out a form that said I would need my birth certificate. The office is 5 minutes from home, so I went home, got my birth certificate, and came back. By the time I got back, they had already called me. It turns out I didn’t really need my birth certificate. But I only waited a few minutes for my second call.

Danita’s birthday is this week. She has done an outstanding job of getting freebies. So far, she has:

• $5 off a bottle of wine
• $10 off at the restaurant Cinco de Mayo
• A free entree at Houlihan’s
• A free entree and desert at the Silver Diner
• Another free entree at First Watch
• Free pancakes at IHOP
• A free desert at Tino’s

We don’t think we’ll be able to use all of these before we leave for Italy, In part, that’s because we also have 5 neighborhood parties. Who knew retirement is so hard?

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Jul and the kids went home late Tuesday afternoon. After all the disruption in their travel plans, they had to suffer one last disruption. Their flight didn’t have a pilot. They sat on the tarmac for an hour before they could take off. Danita and I took advantage of the two extra days to take the kids to the cryptographic museum at NSA Monday. Tuesday, we took them to the Lego store. Both trips were very successful. You can see some pics on the website in the previous blog.

We spent most of the rest of this week getting the house back to normal. We finished the last of the leftovers last night. Danita’s last PT appointment is this week. Basically, they plan to document her range of motion and cut her loose. She’s tapering off the Prednisone, but it’s a very slow process. My PT is ongoing. I still have quite a bit of trouble with my right shoulder. I’m back on the bike, so that’s good. And I can sleep at night almost normally, which is also good. But I can’t carry even the lightest backpack on my back. I certainly hope that clears up before we leave for Italy in just 4 weeks.

There’s not much else going on here in Columbia. I have to prepare for my last presentation on “Cutting the cord”, which I will give tomorrow. I’ll talk about using TV antennas. It’s an amazing contrast between how easy it was to do back in the day, and how complicated it is today. We have a neighborhood concert with wine, cheese, and desert this evening.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Secret Messages from the NSA

Monday, we took B & E to the National Cryptologic Museum at the NSA. The museum is much more kid friendly since the last time we went. The hobo codes were quite popular. The other big activity was decrypting secret messages with a ring decoder. Whoever set this up was quite clever. Most of the secret messages were near the floor – kid friendly while simultaneously discouraging over-pushy parents. There are 15 secrets. The most popular station was encrypting your name with an Enigma machine. The kids enjoyed learning how to operate the machine. Elizabeth encrypted her name, and checked the result, twice!

Planet Explorer Vehicle

Today we went to Arundel Mills Mall and visited the Lego store. The kids started out just looking at the kits. About the time they were done with that, the play station opened up. They worked together to build a vehicle to explore a planet. The staff was going to assemble a new Lego display, and asked if Mark and Elizabeth wanted to volunteer to help build the display. They finished the first part together. Meanwhile, Nanna built her own “Explore a planet” vehicle.

Building the Big One

Nanna’s Vehicle

Now it’s time to go to the airport. Happy travels, Reeds. We enjoyed visiting with you!

Jul arrived Thursday. She took the kids to DC Thursday and Friday. They had a good time in spite of the tremendous heat. I was surprised at how popular the National Archives were. Both B & E were excited to visit. Jul got timed-entry tickets, which was a good thing because the line to get in was hours long. The Reeds were set to go home today, but last night E came down with a stomach virus.

Fortunately, Jul was fast with the recycle bucket. They decided it would be unwise to fly home today. Southwest is very flexible about changing flights, even on short notice, but they require that passengers pay the fare for the new flight time. Jul had the choice of going back Sunday for a hefty upgrade price, or waiting until Tuesday afternoon. She wisely decided to wait. Her total extra cost was $15. We don’t have a wood pile any more, so I’m preparing a spot for them on the back porch (LOL).

Danita and I are still going to the neighborhood dinner and concert this evening. There’s plenty of food in the house for Jul and the kids. Danita took Brian to the used book store, where he picked a book for himself and one for Elizabeth. For now, the kids prefer to watch their tablets.

Tuesday evening our condo is holding a “town hall meeting”. Our lawyer will be present. They’ll be going over the lawsuit settlement. High attendance is anticipated.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

I didn’t get any pics of the pay date yesterday. The Pirate Cruise wasn’t running today. That might have been a good thing, considering the temperature got up to 95 with very high humidity. Our alternate activity was the movie “Spiderman” (whichever one is playing right now). The kids had a good time, but I decided it would not be cool to take pictures in the movie theater. So I got this snap in the Monster Golf. After that, we had snow balls from the best stand in the state.

Danita has basically recovered from her pains. She has one last PT appointment in 2 weeks, and she’s still weaning off the Prednisone. Fortunately, she avoided the side affects some people experience on Prednisone. I’m still not sleeping well, but I’ve been able to take some shorter bike rides. I am starting my PT tomorrow. I got a very early 7 AM appointment so I won’t interfere with this week’s major activity, which is the grand kids. They’ll be arriving about 3:30 today. They will be with us all week. Last year a full week was a few days too much away from home. Jul is coming up Thursday to visit and escort the kids around DC. In the mean time, we’ve thrown the “adventure” rules out the door and allowed the kids to pick their activities from a list. We’ll be visiting the  American Visionary Arts Museum Sunday, Aquarium Monday. Tuesday is a play day with Suzanne and Addie. We’ll wrap up the Baltimore activities Wednesday with a Pirate Cruise in Baltimore. We also have a stack of videos about 2 feet high, special meals, and more. We had a neighborhood party last night to help us get ready for our exciting week. We’ll have another neighborhood party Saturday to help us celebrate a fun week.

I’ve given two “classes” on cutting the cord. We have a small class, which is nice. One of the residents decided this was such a good idea that he should buy a new TV. His wife told my wife it is the most expensive free class they ever took. I’m not offering a class this week. Next week, the room isn’t available. We’ll finish up by talking about TV antennas and such the following week.

That’s it for us. I’ll probably be posting grand kid pics on the website this week, but I won’t send Emails. Some folks still have slow internet, and I’m too lazy to delete the photos. Feel free to visit the website this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Danita’s doing great. I’m still recovering. I’m sleeping in a bed, but I wake up and move around a lot, so I’m upstairs for now. I had a strange experience in Church this morning. I experienced much more pain than normal. I’m thinking that was not a message from God. I feel much better now. It must have been my posture.

We had a neighborhood party this week, but we didn’t attend. It was free hot dogs at the pool July 4. Neither Danita nor I are interested in hot dogs, especially if there’s no fried onions and peppers for toppings. In addition, it there was  a heavy rain. Those who were so desperate that they were willing to go were all huddled under the roof of the porch. That’s not our idea of fun.

Columbia had their normal fireworks show which I’m sure was spectacular. But there was still a pretty good chance of rain. So we stayed home, had some sangria, and watched a movie that was partially shot in Venice Italy.

Having skipped the party and fireworks, we decided to go the the Howard County summer theater yesterday. This is a group of amateurs that put on one production a year at one of the high schools. Without exaggeration, there had to be 100 people involved one way or another. We saw The Pajama Game, a 50s era book, play, and movie. Doris Day starred in the movie version. Sometimes life isn’t fair. Danita was sitting in an aisle seat. They had happy dancing girls coming down the aisle. After intermission, I asked Danita to swap with me. I had angry striking factory works coming down the aisle. NOT FAIR!

Mom is excited because her kitchen cabinets came in. They’ll be rebuilding her kitchen next week. Her bedroom is done but the master bath stalled, waiting for a plumbing inspection and permit.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.