Cop Car's Beat

People are hard to hate close up. Move in. - Brené Brown

Week in Review - 10/19/2019

Tuesday, as I mentioned in a comment to a post on Liz's Finding life hard? I had a neat, weather-related experience. As I wrote, there, "While working in the yard, this morning (a balmy 17 degrees C when I went out), I noticed that my clothes were suddenly soggy - and that the concrete patio was completely dampened. The dew point dropped, suddenly, and the moisture came out of the air in an instant! I've been caught in sudden fog while flying, but this was a new experience."

About an hour later, I noticed that the sun had come out, again. Looking out the window, I saw the fog bank that had just moved out. Grabbing a camera, I photographed the beautiful scene. In the first photo, below, The fog bank is the lower, dark mass of cloud, separated from the higher-level clouds, in the photo, by a small strip of blue sky.

Below is a zoomed-in photo of the largest piece of blue sky. Obviously, as is generally true when fog is present, the winds were light-to-non-existent; but, eventually, we had a totally blue sky.

 

This was the week to get a bunch of paperwork/licensure completed. Last week my renewed passport arrived, the old passport having expired in 2017 or 2018. This week, I took that passport plus a bunch of other paperwork to our local driver's license office (about 1 mile from our home) to get my "Real ID" driver's license, along with early renewal of the old license that was to expire next spring.

Below is a copy of information from Kansas Real ID web page delineating paperwork requirements. I have high-lighted the documents that I actually took with me. Please note that, by taking my passport, I was not required to present any of the documents listed in item 4. That would have been a real drag since I've changed my name twice and I'm not convinced that I have original copies of the documents attesting to those changes. Fortunately, for me, I proved to the Federal government, many years ago, that I am who I say I am, using my current name that was assumed in 1979, and they no longer require me to present documentation of name changes.

That same web site explains the need filled by a Real ID.

The REAL ID Act was passed by federal lawmakers in 2005 to enact the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation for a “set standard for the issuance of sources of identification.” This established a minimum security standard for state-issued driver’s licenses.

Beginning October 1, 2020, anyone 18 years and older will need a REAL ID compliant driver’s license or another acceptable form of ID to fly within the United States.

In addition, a REAL ID will be required to enter federal facilities where identification is currently required for entrance.

Courts, Post Offices, Social Security offices do not require identification for entrance, so they are exempt.

Kansas began issuing REAL ID credentials in August 2017. REAL ID is not a required credential but will help ease the check-in process when flying or entering a federally protected facility.

Since I no longer volunteer as a Government Liaison, I don't know why I should need to enter a federally protected facility - nor do I anticipate any need to fly; but, I've learned in life that I should be prepared. A couple of times I've been caught short by previously-made short-sighted decisions. The consequences of those decisions cost me money, time, and convenience.

Earlier in the week, I went into Wichita to renew my car tag which was set to expire at the end of October. Unfortunately, during the past year, the car tag office that had been in our City of Derby for several years had been closed. I wanted to go online to renew my tag; but, unfortunately, if I ever received a notice for renewal, I could not find it and a PIN from that notice is required to renew online. After waiting for 1.5 hours, my phone number appeared on the queue display as being the next person to be called. At that point, one of the employees got in front of our crowd of about 100 people to announce that another tag office, about a 7-minute drive away by freeway, had only one person to serve. About half of the crowd disappeared to avail themselves of a shorter wait. As I had taken Hunky Husband's tag renewal notice and check with me, I was able to pay for and receive the little stickers to add to each of our license plates (below photo).

Hunky Husband finally got around to opening the box to extract his new computer. In the olden days, one received an Owner's Manual with electronics. It was, for a computer, perhaps 100-200 pages long. Prominently featured in that booklet would be a cartoon of the front and back of the unit with arrows pointing to each feature and assigning a number. That number could then be looked up on the same/next page to give the name/description of the feature. Not anymore!

With this computer came an 8-page booklet, Quick Setup Guide. The front of the guide shows cartoons of only the ports into which one is to insert a plug with a representation of the plug to be plugged into each port. Well, I set about hooking it up (without need for the 8-page booklet!) and got to this point (photo, below) when I was stumped. Arrgh! This computer, being a new model, has no VGA port. Oh, swell. I hadn't even thought about HH's monitor being so old that it is VGA. **Gnashing teeth** Now, I must decide whether to go with an adaptive cable or bite the bullet and get HH a modern monitor. As this will probably be HH's last desktop computer system, I'll purchase the monitor. It'll work out better, in the end, I'm sure.

Take another look at the above photo. At the upper right-hand corner of the back of the unit you'll see "something" (closeup, below).

It looks like a short-wire antenna (WIFI?) to me. Whatever it is, it is flimsy. The upturned leg at the bottom was bent at about 45 degrees when I first saw it. I decided that it was supposed to have a plastic cover similar to the black plastic box 6" below it, below the upper fan. I looked for it in the plastic bag in which the unit had been encased, and found it; so, the fragile thing, whatever it is, is now protected by a black plastic box. (I can't really read the lettering on the thing or I might be able to learn definitively what it is.) I've made an exhaustive search, online, for labeled diagrams/photos of this computer. The online "User's Guide" to this computer has zero graphics included! In fact, by reading it one might conclude that software setup is the only real problem with computers.

Below are scans of the two pages (front cover and inside front cover) in the HP Quick Setup Guide that include graphics.

More absolute trivia - 10/12/2019

Usually, I have two books going at any one time - a habit established back in about 1983 when I lived in Albuquerque. One book is by my reading chair, the other by my bed. Usually, but not always, the one by my bed is lighter - something that I don't have to work at to keep track of (The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn having been one notable exception). Currently, I am nearly finished with The Big Kahuna by Janet Evanovich and Peter Evanovich. Unfortunately, Janet E who is known for writing chick books that are somewhat sexy and boisterously funny, had disappointed me with this book. (Should I blame it on Peter since this is the first book I've read on which he was listed as co-author?) Be that as it may, I read one sentence, this evening, that made it worth reading the other 267 pages that I'd gone through to get to it.

Kate (FBI), her father Jake (retired Navy Seal), and Nick (Kate's FBI partner) have abducted a leading crime figure from his well-guarded home in New Zealand by paragliding, at night, into his compound. After setting explosives off to light fires throughout the bad guy's vineyard as a distraction, they make their way into his house and taze him into submission. They send him, via dumb waiter, down into the commercial kitchen of his home.

Nick retrieved a shopping cart full of groceries and dumped its contents onto the floor. "Come on, Viktor. Time to go." He and Jake heaved the still scramble-brained [Viktor] Neklan into the cart.

I've high-lighted the "worth it" sentence. I'll give you a hint as to why by quoting from a radio program to which I listened as a kid: The Lone Ranger. As we heard horses riding off into the distance, the main characters shouted:

Lone Ranger: Hi-Yo, Silver!

Tonto: Get 'em up, Scout!

Dan (LR's nephew): Come on, Victor!

I'm pretty sure that the allusion was intentional since, in the preceding 15-30 pages several quotations from various sources are given as dialogue by one of the characters while another character identifies the source of each.

Perhaps I should go to bed, now.

Status Report - October 12, 2019

The bad news: In backing up my hard drive, Friday, my Outlook files got deleted (I'm blaming wonky response to mouse inputs, a problem experienced for the past several days that had driven me to pursue the massive backup to my laptop!) - and - the backup files won't work. All of my old emails are gone from Outlook. Only emails from the past few days were available from Webmail. I'm not a happy camper over that. I'll be installing Outlook on my laptop, shortly! BTW: Now the response to mouse inputs is "normal"! 

The good news: Hunky Husband's birthday computer arrived, Wednesday. When he feels like he has the patience to put up with it, HH will open the box. Part of his birthday present is that I will set up the computer; although, in light of item 1....

The best news: I had, at HH's last (left eye) post-op session with his surgeon, Dr Winn, asked if a different anesthesia could be used when she operated on his right eye - one that wouldn't cause cognitive dysfunction for a week. She seemed surprised that he had had that reaction. Dr Winn told us that she would ask that only half as much anesthesia be given HH for the right eye surgery - and made a note in his records.

A friend works at the eye surgery center. She came over to chat with us while we were in the waiting room, Thursday, and confirmed that the note about using less anesthesia was in HH's record. The "exit team" also mentioned that HH had been given less anesthetic - and - they gave him preventive treatment to keep the pressure from building up in his right eye (as it had done in his left eye) - eye drops and a huge (oral) capsule.

Yay! Although his memory was affected by the anesthesia, as expected, HH's cognitive dysfunction was much less this time and lasted but a very few hours - as far as I could tell. (My own cognitive dysfunction may make my judgement less than perfect – lol.) This was a completely different experience from last time.

When the pressure was measured at HH's (right eye) post-op appointment, yesterday, it was only 10 mm Hg. Terrific!!

City gets prime spot on plane’s nose

Previous postings about the city in which Hunky Husband and I live have been Their very own Tardis and City of Derby, Kansas, USA - 150th Anniversary. The following excerpts are from an article in the most recent edition of Derby Informer.

City gets prime spot on plane’s nose

BY DAVID DINELL news1@derbyinformer.com

Oct 4, 2019

One of the KC-135 air refueling planes at McConnell Air Force Base has a piece of Derby attached to it – literally.

In what is termed a nose-art ceremony, the city’s official 150th anniversary logo was unveiled on the pilot’s side of the aircraft at the base on Oct. 2 in front of an appreciative crowd of U.S. Air Force, Derby and elected officials.

The audience also included David Craig. And for the Derby resident, the ceremony had an extra special meaning as he was a crew member who flew on this very same aircraft back in 1978, a plane with tail number 357 that he called “an old friend".

David Craig views the Derby logo nose art on an aircraft he flew on back in the 1970s. It’s something he never expected to see. “It’s beautiful,” he says. “This is a special occasion.” DAVID DINELL/INFORMER

 

A different kind of critter in the window well

Continuing my change-of-season chores, I moved the big pot with the little oak seedling in it, today. A big hairy spider jumped out from under it and quailed in the corner allowing me to photograph it. Sorry, I'm not a handler of spiders so I photographed only the top surface of the spider. Excluding the legs, it is about 1" long. Can anyone identify it?

ADDITION of 10/8/2019 8:26am

Stu gave me a good laugh, this morning, by sending me the link to the following photo.

I'm not quite that bad; but, I don't handle spiders. I recall that, at a very young age, I became "covered in" tiny spiders when I delved into a sac of spiders hidden in the bark at the base of a walnut tree in my great-grandparents' side yard. I did not grow up to study Arachnida!

Bogie's Quilt - completed October 5, 2019

Freshly laundered and ready to go is Bogie's new quilt. It was a lot of fun working with her and the quilter on this project!

The back of the quilt shows the quilting design, better.

Annette Haga is credited for the quilting - "Quilting by Annette Haga". [The embroidery is partially visible at the bottom of the above photo, near the right-hand corner of the photo (left, bottom corner of the quilt).]

My trademark (digitally altered to "CC") appears in the right-hand lower corner of the quilt.

Another project in the woods

For the past few years I've become increasingly aware of fire hazards in our neighborhood and have been struggling to get large masses of vegetation away from our house. Some of this effort has been chronicled in  More tree work done; So far, so good; Final chapter; & Love it when a plan comes together. Further effort in our woods has me removing trees that are relatively near to our house and replacing them with trees farther from the house. After the great flood of May 2019, this (photo, below) is what a grouping of trees that I wanted to remove looked like.

I got out my trusty bow saws (below), oiled them up, and bit-by-bit went to work removing the grouping.

By early September, I had removed a total of about 20 trees - none of which was over 12" diameter. Since I am cowardly and don't care to have a tree, even a small one, fall on me, I stand while sawing; thus, each felled tree leaves a "stump" that is about four feet tall. The top of each stump gets sprayed with bright pink paint to, hopefully, prevent others (and me) from being skewered.

This past Wednesday, I sawed through the trunk of an ash tree that had grown up through the canopy in the shape of a corkscrew, more or less. It surprised me when the tree stopped toppling nearly immediately. It stood there with the edge of the trunk balanced on the "stump" but completely supported by the trees in which it had become entwined at the 30'-50' height. At this point, I don't feel very smart. (The photo below shows the above photo with the corkscrew ash indicated.)

After scratching my head a bit, I fetched a 2" by 4" board and gave the lower end of the trunk a few good whacks - to no avail. I eventually broke the 2" by 4" board (I had noted that it had a knot, so wasn't terribly surprised), but moved the tree trunk nary an inch.

Thinking further on the subject, and deciding that having the tree dangling in mid-air would be a dangerous result if I was able to move the tree off of the stump without also felling the tree, I went to the local hardware store to buy 50' of rope. Managing to throw the end of the rope over a portion of the tree trunk that was at about 45 degrees to horizontal, I was able to form a loop of rope around the tree trunk. Running the rope around a nearby tree, I was able to pull on the rope, getting the tree trunk to sway back-and-forth until it finally fell - just where I wanted it, missing the catalpa that had been planted in Spring 2018. Yay! The tree is down and everyone is safe!

Below is the scene with the corkscrewing ash felled.

And another photo, below (annotated), showing the felled tree (better seen by clicking on photo to enlarge it).

On my way back to the house, I pulled the banana pepper plant and hung it to dry. The season for growing peppers is over. (The weather turned cool, Thursday, so I brought in the house plants from their summer home on the front porch.)

In the first week of November, "my" tree crew from JoJac's will be here and, while hauling off the flotsam from the flooding and the huge limbs downed by storms, they can cut off the stumps that I've left, drill out the roots, and haul everything away for me. The total number of trees on which I've committed carnage approaches 30, now. Such carnage has become part of my fitness program.

I nearly forgot to show you the free food that I harvested, today. I bury our green garbage; thus, we sometimes get free produce. This cantaloupe (about the size of a large grapefruit) was among our free food, this year. Unlike the melons of last year which had crossbred with squash, this melon is delicious!

 

Critters galore - mostly in the window well

Photo of two critters in a pot with an oak seedling

(Of the four pots in the window well, this is the one that draws critters!)

     

Tiny critter with reflections in the window

(This is the smallest of the critters - body is perhaps 0.75" long.)

Spotted critter with the stones (on a sunny day a couple of days ago) & with the oak seedling (in the rain, today)

(This is the largest of the critters - body perhaps 1.5" long.)

 

 

This critter has feathers!

(This is an Eastern Phoebe who hangs about our back yard, uncharacteristically, perching on the table on our patio - with the rain gauge and rain sensor for the sprinkler system. Surprise, surprise, the fact that the tail is blurred is not from my moving. Phoebes have a habit of constantly flicking their tails. This one is no exception.)

I find Apple a bit late in catching up

In the past week or two, I've been treated to hearty laughs - occasioned by reading postings similar to the one, below, which I found on Slashdot.org.

New iPhone Feature Can Send Unknown Callers To Voicemail Automatically (economist.com) 89

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday September 28, 2019 @01:34PM from the not-talking-to-strangers dept.

An anonymous reader quotes the Economist: In its latest software release, Apple has made it possible for iPhone users to send all unknown callers to voicemail automatically.

Although the feature will no doubt prove useful to the millions of customers whose peaceful suppers are ruined by fake calls, it could be disastrous for the faltering public-polling industry. The challenges telephone pollsters face have been growing. Polling by phone has become very expensive, as the number of Americans willing to respond to unexpected or unknown callers has dropped.

Back in the mid-to-late-20th century response rates were as high as 70%, according to SSRS, a market research and polling firm. But the Pew Research Centre estimates that it received completed interviews from a mere 6% of the people it tried to survey in 2018. Although polls with low response rates can still be accurate, their costs increase dramatically as pollsters must spend more time and money calling more people.

 

Why am I laughing? Because while iPhone is touting this capability, now, I've been using the capability on my circa 2007 Palm Treo phone for at least a couple of years - and the phone had the capability at birth. Any caller whose number does not match one in my Contacts listing, goes directly to voicemail.

 

BTW: My phone runs on Windows Mobile. Sadly, my service provider, Verizon, tells me that they will discontinue service to such phones sometime in the next several months. One other neat feature about this phone is that, although it is a Smartphone, it operates for me as a dumb phone + digital assistant. I can carry Office files (Word, Excel, Power Point, jpg) on my phone; but, eschew the connection to the www. Much cheaper ($15/month instead of $45/month) and I see no reason to stare at a small phone screen to do what I can do on my 17" monitor + desktop computer.

Sounds Useful - from Slashdot.org

Photo from Letting Automation Read the Fine Print

Text, below, is from Slashdot.org.

AI Reads Privacy Policies So You Don't Have To -- and It's Actually Pretty Good (thenextweb.com) 33

Posted by msmash on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @12:10PM from the how-about-that dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Don't you absolutely hate how dense and confusing privacy policies are? Considering they're full of gotchas and intentionally obscure legalese, it's no surprise that hardly anyone bothers to even read them -- we've simply accepted we're giving up our data, and with it, our sense of privacy. But thanks to this new policy-reading AI, things won't have to be this way for much longer. Guard is a recurrent neural network-based app that reads and analyzes privacy terms, so you don't have to. While it can't yet examine policies on request, the AI has rated the privacy terms of a slew of popular services like Netflix, Instagram, Twitter, and Tinder.

What's particularly nifty about Guard is that it not only gives an overall score, but also breaks down the main threats included in privacy policies. It also lists the total number of threats, and looks at past privacy scandals a service has been involved in. Like I already said, Guard has only analyzed the privacy policies of a small batch of popular services, but you can easily suggest new apps for consideration. The app was built by developer Javi Rameerez, who created the software as part of his thesis on AI and natural language processing.

 

 

IT report from casa CC:

Finally, finally, got Hunky Husband's birthday present ordered, today - an HP desktop computer to replace the boat anchor that's been sitting, idle, on his desk for the past year while he has used his laptop. The computer should be configured and shipped by October 17.

Although good at it, HH hates to get down into the details [since he's never used any of his lifetime supply, he has copious amounts of patience!]; so, of the options I presented him for his birthday present, he chose my obtaining a new desktop for him with some software packages preloaded. The machine I wanted to order was out of stock, then; but, I was able to make the choices of options and order the machine, today. 

Already, I've received an email from HP sales wanting a phone number and "best time" for them to call me to chat about a 3-year extended warranty. Now, really, had I wanted a 3-year extended warranty, would I not have specified that option? Arrrgh!