Addie, Suzanne, Bud, Gene
We have a neighborhood breakfast once a month. I was the guest speaker this month. I talked about our new website. It went well, but I had a panic. A neighbor generously offered to let us use his projector. I hooked the projector up to my computer, and got — “No signal”. After a half hour panic, I figured out that the solution is to hook the computer up to a monitor, then switch it to the projector. I thought everything was all set. Then, 7 minutes before the presentation was to start, I found the same problem. The first two monitors I went for didn’t have the correct interface. I was quite relieved when the third monitor fixed the problem.
Pete, Ed, Lynne
Lynn (Danita’s sister)
My 4-year-old super-fancy Android smartphone started acting up. Sometimes when I answered a phone call, the phone didn’t connect the audio. I couldn’t hear anything, and I think the other person couldn’t hear anything either. Not only was this was happening more often, but it happened when Mom tried to call me. This added to her anxiety. The rest of the phone’s features are working OK. I decided that a phone isn’t much of a phone if it can’t be used to answer phone calls. I couldn’t bear to buy another expensive smart phone. I went to Amazon, and found a flip phone for $100. That seemed a little expensive. I walked down the street and into our local brick & mortar AT&T store. I found the same exact flip phone for less than $20. The guy even switched my account over to the new phone. How they can sell it that cheap, I don’t know. I have a pre-paid plan with no contract. But I gave them a Jackson and took the phone, plus some pocket change. With a one-year warranty, how bad can it be? It turns out to have good sound quality. And there’s no phone that’s easier to use. Well, it’s not so easy to load phone numbers and such. But I have a super-fancy Android smartphone for that. Now I use the flip phone as a phone, and the smartphone as a camera and very portable computer.
Mark, Joe
Ed, Toni, Joe
Our big news this week is the sour beef dinner. Bud turned 85 recently. He really likes sour beef and dumplings. We hosted a birthday sour beef dinner for Bud. Ed and Lynne brought the dumplings and made some vegetarian chili. Danita made the sour beef, appetizers, sides, and desserts. I bought the wine and beer. I think the sour beef was great, but Bud cast the important vote. He took seconds, and he doesn’t do that very often these days. A good time was had by all. Danita’s sister Lynn and her husband Gene don’t come to a lot of family events, but they made this one. Danita and I had a miscommunication with Mark about transportation. Mark ended coming up by bicycle.
At the Table
Bike Back
We had an entire week of fabulous fall weather. I find it’s a lot easier to appreciate dead leaves when I know I don’t have to rake them. I finally got my bike squared away. There are some pics below. I’m particularly proud of the bracket I made to mount a second rear light towards the outside of the bike. It was a simple thing, but it came out well.
Bike Side
Our other activity this weekend was a BSO concert . The second piece was Mozart’s Piano Concerto #20, with Valentina Lisitsa our pianist. I saw an article on the internet that she has quite a Youtube following, and she is controversial. The rest of the article was paywalled, so I had no idea why she is controversial until we heard her. There’s no doubt she played more note than Amadeus wrote, and I’m pretty sure she did it on purpose. All those fussy music purists need to get a life, because she did a fine job of it. And whose to say this wasn’t closer to what an audience would have heard in 1790?
I hope this finds everybody is doing well. I’m off to find some piano Youtube videos.