It's Still Dead, Jim

The lap top remains steadfastly dead.  There were two episodes of a check sum bad error message, but it would turn off after a second, too quick to repeatedly press F10 to get the attention of the BIOS.  Finally there was the zzzzzt crackle noise which signified the end had arrived.  It's dead, Jim.

 Costco tracking says my new laptop will arrive tomorrow. We will see. I have discovered that there is speech to text capability in blogger. It's really awful.  I'm not sure if it's faster to talk or type. Talk requires a lot of word fixing.

I have learned how to upload pictures from my phone into a post. What I don't know is how to de-res the photos.   Google does not like photos photos larger than 800 pixels.

 These are my incredibly cute bears. 

 

I  don't know how people do everything on a phone. This is driving me crazy.. I think I will close now.

 

Update to post.  I got a new laptop. I have found an ancient .exe for picassa 2.7, which is not so great.  However, it will de-resolution the photos so that is good.  Now I am continuing with the laptop set up. 

 

It's Dead, Jim

  If you are a Star Trek fan you will recognize the reference to when Spock died saving the ship, and Bones told Kirk, He's dead Jim.  So it is with my laptop. This morning the battery was completely discharged, it would not charge, and while we were at the grocery store it died.  Posting maybe a little light in the near future.

Thanksgiving After Action Report

While I was making our sumptuous Thanksgiving feast, Jim went downstairs and retrieved the small box we used to travel with that contained Christmas.  We had the little white (18 inches) tree and some ornaments.  There is a turquoise tree skirt that matches the star.  He decorated and put out some additional seasonal stuff.  I think it looks fabulous. The original lights chose to die as soon as he decorated and plugged the tree in, so we put new lights on it.  It is never going back in the original box again.  Cute, eh?

The Butterball de-boned rolled turkey breast was an epic fail.  It was very salty.  Butterball injected it with something to keep it from drying out.  It was eerily soft when you pushed on a slice of it with a finger.  Never again.  Next year we're going back to cooking a chicken in the cast iron skillet in the grill.  It doesn't put food smell into the house the way the epic fail did.  We tried eating some last night for left overs, but didn't make much headway, so it's over the side along with the remaining stuffing.  You can freeze stuffing, but I forgot that and pitched the leftovers.  Maybe next year.

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny.  It was a gorgeous day for awhile.  Then it clouded up. 

Jim wanted to assemble his new toy.  Yep, we live in snow country now.  Fortunately we have a very short and narrow driveway.  This is big enough.  Our neighbors across the street bought a self propelled giant gas snow blower, but they have more driveway that is steep.  We're flat.  It's corded electric, note that it has an LED light for night  time snow removal.

Anyway, I went over to the side yard to get the leaves off the path.  I've quit bagging them and throwing them away, we're putting them under the rhodies and around the trunk of the Japanese Maple.  Anyway, much to my displeasure, the damn cats are wiggling their butts in behind the pavers and continuing to poop in our yard.  So it was off to Home Depot for more pavers and more bricks to stop the pooping.  Now it looks like this.

They don't dig along the pathway because that dirt stays wet and heavy, they use the dirt that's protected by the overhang of the house.  They're starting to irritate me greatly.

Today was the opening day of Christmas.  We put up our new artificial tree (with flocking), the Dickens Village and a collection of shiny things on top of the gas log mantel.  It's tiring.  We spent a lot of time on our feet.

Collection of shiny things on the mantel.

The Dickens Village. 

This is a tree skirt I made a long time ago.  It was before I quilted much and before I knew I would need a walking foot for my sewing machine to quilt anything.  After sewing the top together (those are individual fussy cut strips) I attempted to quilt it, but no.  The three layers did not travel as one, it bunched up, and it ended up being hand quilted.  The trim around the edge is also attached by hand.  It's a huge skirt.  After leaving Bellevue it hasn't been used, because it's too big. 

So that's it!  An epic turkey failure and Christmas decorations.

Happy Thanksgiving

Greetings Citizens of the United States!  How goes your Thanksgiving?  Thus far today I have made corn bread and cooked sweet potatoes.  The oven will be tied up for two hours with the de-boned rolled up turkey breast (which looks a lot like a football) so the sweet potatoes will be mashed and reheated later.  There is something of a timing issue because the football cooks at 325F, which is not hot enough for stuffing.  I suppose there will be resting of the football and turning up of the heat in the oven to finish the stuffing.  It still feels weird not getting up at oh:dark:thirty and putting a 20 pound turkey in the oven for the day.

It was 41 degrees at noon today.  We went for a lovely walk up the hill.  We're doing laps since the trail is so short.  I saw this in the woods.  The white spots are lichens and the green spot is moss, I think.  They're everywhere up there.

 Here is some obligatory Thanksgiving humor from Twitter.

Some people have a lot of time on their hands.

Hope you all have a happy day with you and yours.

November 23, 2021

Next November, when I'm wondering if it snowed this early the previous year, I will have a historical record.  Yes, it did.  The real estate agent who helped us buy this house, Jamie DeHaven, brought us a pie today.  She brought pie to many people, she's really nice.  Anyway, Jim asked her if fog would be frequent in the winter and the answer to that was yes, as well.  So, snow and fog will be on tap.

This is what we saw this morning.  Apparently it snowed much of the night.  It's been off and on all day.

The agave that came with us from Tucson is enjoying his time under the grow lights.  Another petal has unfurled.  We may keep him in the house all of the time, that new pot is so heavy we're afraid to try lifting it.  Dropping him would be very bad.

That's it!  That's all I've got.

Medicare and Fog

By now everybody knows that their Medicare payment is going up next year, right?  Want to know why?  NYT did an article about safety concerns about a new "treatment" for Alzheimer's disease.  A recent report of drug trials reported the following:  "The data showed that 425 of 1,029 patients, or 41 percent, who received the high dose of the drug — the dose that the F.D.A. later approved — experienced either brain swelling or bleeding. Sixty-four patients had to stop participating in the trials because of swelling or bleeding."  From the NYT article, we also learn that, "The F.D.A. approved the drug in June even though a council of senior F.D.A. officials, an advisory committee of outside experts, and many Alzheimer’s specialists said it was unclear whether Aduhelm could benefit patients and that the drug carried serious risks of harm". Not only this, but the drug does not appear to be effective.  Did I mention that it will cost $56,000 a year?  Medicare is going up because CMS is setting aside a reserve fund in case it decides to cover this Alzheimer's drug, Adulem. We have a drug that causes bleeding and swelling in the brain, doesn't work and costs the earth.  Welcome to the United States.

Today we signed up for a high deductible Plan G Medicare supplement and the Aetna Siver Scripts Plan D.  It's giving me a world class case of the willies to leave the plan we've been on since 2007.  It was very comfortable and convenient.  We will ultimately save money, but one of my drugs goes from $30 for 90 days to $98 for 30 days.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I'm sort of pissed about that.  However, our Medigap monthly premium goes from $402 to $47 so that's a win.  There will be more spread sheeting to determine which drugs to fill with Plan D, like the Tier One drugs that don't trigger the deductible, and which will go to GoodRX.  It's all dreadfully tedious, it gives me a headache and makes me very cranky.

Yesterday we went for a walk, the sun was out briefly and so we went up the hill.  Also, we'd been spread sheeting for awhile and I was cranky.  My new Carhartt gloves are much warmer than the cute gloves we got at Kohl's.  I was happy about that.  There was some fog visible out in the distance.  The wool socks are working, as well.  My feet were happy.

This afternoon it is really foggy.

So, other than working with the spreadsheets and fretting, there is not too much happening here.