Cop Car's Beat

Miscellaneous

I was somewhat surprised, this morning, by two things: 1) HH and I had each had a good night's sleep, and 2) the radio station to which I "listen" all night (it helps me ignore my tinnitus and HH can't hear it) announced that it was snowing in Wichita. Surely enough, upon arising, I found that the world had developed a white blanket - and that big, fat snowflakes were (and are) still falling. Just yesterday I had heard a report about how, on average our temperatures are rising but that the occurrence of freeze-thaw cycles was increasing. The white blanket, once again, made it easier to see clumps of daffodils and narcissi.

A few years ago, I planted rings of daffodil bulbs around our newly planted pink-flowering dogwood trees, one ring of which is shown in the next photo.

Solution to a pressing domestic problem (possible TMI warning)

For the past 30 years, HH and I have followed the examples of our two sets of parents by maintaining separate bedrooms. No, we don't hate one another, but we are practical people. HH suffers from being cold nearly all of the time and I suffer from being too warm most of the time - in addition to which, we are both fitful sleepers who may gasp or snore. Separate bedrooms work and we've always known where to find one another in case of a low-hanky/panky warning light's illuminating.

But...things change. With that in mind, every few years I've given HH the option of sharing a bedroom. The answer had always been "No, thanks." until last Fall. Last Fall, mindful of HH's changing states of mind brought on by progression of his dementia, I asked again. He replied that it would "comfort" him to have the closeness. So I started spending my nights in his bedroom. What to do about the hot/cold difference? I sewed one of HH's heavy cotton/wool flannel sheets to one of my cotton broadcloth sheets, with the seam running down the centerline of each. The next photo demonstrates the placement of the sheets on the bed. As placed on the bed, HH has one layer of my sheet and two layers of his sheet over him while I have but the single layer of my sheet.

Depending upon the temperature, there is usually (at 72 degrees F in the bedroom) a light quilt atop the sheet that is shown. As the weather warmed up (it was 77 degrees F in the bedroom night-before-last), I sewed two of my sheets together in a similar fashion. With the newer sheet, HH has three layers of sheet while, again, I have a single layer.

This is a good compromise. I am usually a tad too warm, but not so warm as to be daunting, and HH is not freezing. (In my own bedroom, usually at 68 degrees F during the winter, I slept under but one sheet most of the time - two, when the temperature dipped a few degrees.)

Spring is Bursting Out

This (below) is the last little bunch of phlox that I set out a few years ago - some generation sprung from Bogie's starts that she sent me about 12 years ago. The die-back in the center of the clump is obvious, but I don't know whether it is from dogs that have been walked down our street or from the really low temperatures that have visited us every so often over the winter.

Below is the only survivor of the three Autumn Joy sedums that I set out several years ago. I think the placement is too damp for them.

Lastly comes a clump of weeds. Bogie has probably identified them for me in the past, but I don't recall. They are pretty, so I'm letting them stay in the little space where the Autumn Joys are failing to thrive.

I mowed, yesterday, for the first time since 11/6/2021. There was more chopping of leaves involved than was there mowing of grass, but front and back lawns look so nice, now.

ADDITION of 3/26/2022 - Photos of weeds from May, 2008

Bogie, I didn't waste my time trying to find photos of creeping speedwell in my blog, but I did find a photo from my photo files from 2008. There were photos of Weed #1 and Weed #2 - showing similar color, size, & shape of blossoms but neither of which I had gone back to ID.

 

Bogie, I did find the original posting that I had in mind. It is here.

Choosing onscreen buttons to click - (Pet Peeve #19)

Original Posting of 2/27/2022

In the photo, below, there are a lot of gages, dials, switches, and buttons, but there probably isn't one of them that I couldn't figure out with a moment to ponder. (I'll grant you that past experience and training make this so and if my pondering isn't productive, I have a friend on whom to call - eh, Stu?) They are unambiguous to me - I know which switch I need to flip/push/turn and what will happen when I flip/push/turn it.

Compare the above display to the onscreen display, below. The display, below, is clean, uncluttered, and has few toggle buttons* on which I might click. I've seen similar displays hundreds of times, as I'm confident have most of you. So why can I not interpret the meaning? Why do I not know whether each item is in a "disabled" or "enabled" state?

This lack of comprehension on my part is undoubtedly an error in the wiring of my brain. My brain readily accepts the task of interpreting a toggle button that has both options listed and a means of indicating the button's current state, but faced with the above toggle buttons, I am flummoxed. I don't know whether the label indicates the current or desired state - until I've studied the heck out of it. (And, even then, I'm not sure.)

Confession: It took me decades to be able to visually determine the state of the electrical circuit controlled by a rocker or push-button switch on an appliance when the options were labeled as shown, below. What in the world do "O" and "|" mean? It's a mystery to me. Yes, sometimes I feel like a complete, gibbering idiot; but I'll wager that I'm far from alone.

How did this all come to mind? I was getting ready to write about having solved a household problem...which led me to thinking of "Hints from Heloise" that was a feature in our local newspapers for years and years - 'way back when. I searched on that title and was amazed (goodness knows why) to find a Hints from Heloise website - that promptly assaulted me with a demand that I allow it to use cookies. Hoo, boy - that set me off on Pet Peeve #19.

 

ADDITION of 3/25/2022 - Toggle Button

This (below) is how I wish to be led by the hand. (From an email from Apple - available here.

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* A nice explanation of the difference between a "toggle switch" and a "toggle button" is provided in The Full guide to UI [User Interface] design at Toggle switch design.

A toggle switch operates in changes in the system. Think dark/light modes on the iOS settings, or a privacy mode in a navigator. The toggle switch represents a decision that can affect all screens of the app or device – this means that switches deal in system states.

Find a grand variety of toggle switches on the Justinmind UI kits page!

In contrast, a toggle button refers to a change that only takes place on that screen. Think flight dates and search filters. Toggle buttons are meant for contextual states.

Kicking and Screaming

I'm being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the third decade of the millennium. In February, 2007, preparing to go on assignment to the FEMA Region VII Emergency Operation Center (Kansas City MO) for the American Red Cross, I stopped into the local Sprint store to buy a cell phone. Yes, I was ready to join the 21st Century. My trusty Compaq pocket PC had lost it's mind and, besides, HP (who bought out Compaq) had never seen fit to add phone capability to it. On a disaster, it had turned out in my previous (it was my first) assignment, a cell phone was darned nearly required. I bought a TREO.

The TREO had a lot to recommend it, to me, starting with the fact that its operating system (OS) was Windows. Many people don't care for Windows, and I've (over the years) had a lot of beef with it, but my familiarity with it and its ubiquitous presence on so many computers made it my choice of OS. Another factor was that I could pay for a service plan that was for phone service, only. I saw no need to get on the Internet, being quite satisfied with only synchronizing the phone with my desktop computer.

In 2009, in a fit of frugality, I dropped Sprint in favor of joining Hunky Husband on Verizon which he had been using for several years. I had to buy another phone, and opted for a TREO identical, physically, to the Sprint TREO (this was in the days before laws required that original service provider allow cell phone owners to jail break them for use at a different provider.) At that time, HH ditched his flip phone to buy a TREO like mine.

Over the years since 2009, HH has had at least three or four (or more) different models of cell phone, his most recent being an iPhone SE.

Verizon has told me for at least three years that they would be dropping service for 3G cellphones such as my TREO, but I held out. Finally, they set a deadline of 12/31/2022. Since HH is developing less and less capability of coping with his iPhone on his own, I broke down and bought a matching iPhone SE (with slightly more recent software), yesterday. Actually, HH bought it for me - he has wanted to do that for 10 years or so and my 84th birthday looms.

My hope and plan is to become proficient enough with the iPhone that I can actually be helpful to HH when he forgets how to do something on his - or, as happens not infrequently, when he can't figure out what happened and what he needs to do.

When I put my old TREO in with the other "dead soldiers", I was reminded that I should take a run to the Wichita e-Cycle yard.

One assumes that people recognize charging cords and batteries when they see them, so I'll skip right over them for comment.

The three identical phones are the TREOs: 1) mine from Verizon, Spring 2009; 2) mine from Sprint, Feb 2007; and 3) HH's TREO from Verizon, Spring 2009. In about 2013, I had dropped my Verizon phone (one more time) onto the concrete garage floor and it would no longer ring. I used HH's TREO from then until today, although I had to use my Sprint TREO for charging the battery because the power input plug to HH's TREO was broken. In addition, I scavenged the back closure from my Sprint TREO when I lost the back to one of the other TREOs.

You might recognize my HP camera that went belly up about a year or two ago, and which I replaced with a slightly newer, but used, version. The camera in the photo was purchased from Sam's Club in 2004. Next to it is the iPAQ H1910 PDA that I purchased in 1995. It served me well until after I retired in 2004. I loved being able to carry Excel, Word, and Power Point files with me.

What I had been missing

Only because we received a little snow overnight did I notice, this morning, that our Daffodils had broken ground sometime in the past few days. Does that mean that I'm too late transplanting a small crepe myrtle bush that came up last summer? (I don't know whether it propagated from seed or the root of one of the three nearby bushes that have been there for 20 years. I have, in general, pulled up seedlings all over our yard that I know had to have come from seeds.) It'll probably be okay if I get right on it. I've just not decided where to plant it.

It's found!

Someone from Eddy's Lincoln service shop will be picking up my car, tomorrow morning, to take it into Wichita for tire replacement. In preparation, I unloaded all of the "stuff" that I normally carry in my car - for two reasons: 1) They shouldn't have to be bothered with all of my junk, and 2) If I am missing something when the car is returned, I want to avoid any thinking on my part that "they" might be responsible for it. I lose stuff, all on my own, and don't need to be blaming anyone else. I started the cleanup in the trunk.

My normal complement of stuff in the trunk includes one fake leather tote (with jumper cables and windshield shade/cover), one duffle bag (with electric air pump, basic hand tools, and a good tire gage), one wool blanket, one terrycloth beach towel (full bed sized), and two bussing trays. I started by stacking the bussing trays, as they were nearest to me, and hauling the fake leather tote toward me and into the top bussing tray. The photo, below, is how the inside of my car's trunk looked.

Do you see what jumped out at me? I'll give you a close-up, below.

OMG - that's the top to one of our gasoline "cans" - missing since early November - My fun for the morning. My puzzlement over what happened to that cap has been settled. See? I lose stuff all on my own. No need to blame anyone else although I've always felt (and told my friends) that the sooner I accuse someone else of taking something from me, the sooner I shall find it. Finding the cap at this late date goes to show that it has been months since I've delved into the nether regions of my car's trunk - although the bussing trays have seen much use when I was picking up groceries, taking donations to Goodwill, or taking electronics to the e-cycle place. Obviously, I had done a poor job of looking for the cap in my car's trunk in the first place!

I can now put away/give away the new gasoline can that I bought as a replacement and not have to use pliers to unlock the pouring spout each time I wish to refuel the lawn mower from it. We're back to having two easy-to-use gasoline cans - a bit less safe, I know.