Cop Car's Beat

More catching up -

And the catching up effort resumes. I was under the weather for about 10 days - not helping.

Lawn work & foundation plantings

JoJac’s landscaping team is scheduled to do the work on about 2/3 of the width of our home on May 1 & 2.

Per Bogie’s request, I’ll try to remember to get some photos along the way. I may not have mentioned it, previously, but the “used” camera that I purchased in late 2021 conked out, having provided nearly exactly one years’ service. (That camera was a year-later version of the camera that I had been using since about 2006  which, itself, had conked out.) Never mind.

My iPhone, now my only camera, takes photos that are “good enough” - which is all one can say about my photographic skills, anyway. (I had pitched the Nikon some time ago.) Truthfully, the iPhone is an order of magnitude or twenty better than would be required to match my photographic skills.

HH’s Health

HH saw his audiologist and was given a new hearing test to see how much, if any, his hearing had been impacted by his COVID-19. The answer was, “Who knows?” Although his hearing acuity had not suffered enough to tell, his understanding of the spoken word had deteriorated significantly. “Why is that?” one might ask. The answer would be that he has not, from Day 1 of having hearing aids, deigned to wear them any more than 2-4 hours per day. Some days he wouldn’t wear them at all. Casey gave him a “talking to” about that and, now, he is wearing the aids for at least 8 hours each day. We’re hoping that will help.

CC’s Health

I saw my Primary Care Physician after several days of being under the weather. She had x-rays taken and a couple of other more-or-less routine tests in diagnosing, treating me, and getting me back to what passes as “normal” for an 85-year-old female. My annual "Wellness Exam" and lab work are scheduled for this coming week.

My hearing test showed that my post-COVID-19 hearing acuity differs little from HH’s. Bad news. Our otolaryngologist prescribed an MRI before having the audiologist fit me with hearing aids. Always something to anticipate!

Taxes

As it turned out, we ended up owing the State of Kansas enough more in taxes (than we had had withheld) that we had to pay a small penalty. OTOH, the Feds owe us four times the amount of the deficit owed to the state.

Local family gathering

For personal reasons that shall be unspecified, although quite benign, Elder Brother and I colluded - planning for him to come visit us for St Patrick's Day, and to stay for his 87th birthday, the following day.

Being a good cook and a generous person, Dudette volunteered to bake a birthday cake for her uncle, which offer I gladly accepted. The local tribe gathered for Dudette’s delicious cake, and Tillamook’s Old Fashioned Vanilla ice cream on the appointed day. The next day, EB started his drive home, taking an extra day to do more birding in the Great Bend KS area.

Week in Review - 12/10/2022

Wednesday - Physics

The last physics seminar of the semester was presented by my friend, Professor Nick Solomey (here, here, & here): Dark Matter Search Experiment Inside an Asteroid. I gave some consideration to actually driving up to Wichita State U for the presentation, but with COVID-19, the seasonal influenza, and some other bug on the increase decided against it and logged into the session via Zoom. That turned out to be a good decision as Nick had a horrid cold (two tests for COVID-19 had been negative, Nick said) and made his presentation from his home.

 

Professor Solomey is shown at the right end of the third graphic - in the green shirt.

 

Friday - AT&T Fiber Optics Cable Installation

Bright and early Friday morning, a crew of workers showed up on our street to begin installation of AT&T's fiber optic cable. Notably present were about eight men, each of whom was assigned to manually dig holes. They were hard workers and quickly completed the digging of four holes at the curb edge of our front lawn - each about four feet deep.

 

They worked until nearly sundown but had filled all but one of the holes in our lawn and removed the equipment at the end of the day and took off for the weekend.

Saturday - Finally, a good mowing

Our front lawn had not been free of the little flags that were installed to mark the paths of various utility lines across our lots, so the grass had not had a good mowing since the 8th of October. In addition, the leaves from neighbors' trees had accumulated within the areas that could not be mowed. Following the workers' having removed the little flags, I mowed - Saturday afternoon. I previously noted that our lawns needed major work. The first photo shows a bare spot that, presumably, resulted from our drought of late summer and fall. Nearly every year of the past dozen or so we've had to reseed large portions of our lawns. I decided not to have that done this year due to the dry conditions. I've not settled on what I want to do - and am not quite sure on what I can obtain concurrence from Hunky Husband. Later.

The orange "fencing" is warning people away from the hole that is still open in our front lawn.

Mea Culpa - I am oblivious

Why, in the digital age where (at least in the United States) only about 1/3 still have landline phones, and thus possibly have dial phones, do people/companies/organizations insist upon displaying their phone numbers in a cute combination of letters? For instance, this morning I was trying to add an organization to my contacts.

I gave away my last phone that would help me translate "JO-MINER" into numerics some time ago - to Elder Brother who still has a landline. I worked it out, but went online to check my translation.

I was somewhat amused to note that the image that I chose to use was of a phone in the Washington DC area code region. I used that area code a lot when volunteering with the American Red Cross and dealing with federal agencies.

ADDITION of 11/12/2022 10:23am

I am even more greatly amused since learning that the number in the above image is a number to the White House switchboard. (I just had to look it up, didn't I?)

As far as I can tell, things are back to normal for this blog.

He knew!

You may/may not recall that I've been having troubles with getting Microsoft Outlook set up on a computer that I bought in April, and I don't know how long it's been since I've been able to use Microsoft Outlook (or Mail) to send emails from either of my two machines that I allow to access the Internet - perhaps a year? (A secondary issue was that I had great difficulty signing into webmail to use my email account. Sometimes it would take me 24-36 hours to get through the error message stage and sign in.) For at least eight months, I've been wrestling with our ISP's techies trying to solve my email issues - not continuously, but every several weeks/months when I've felt up to the challenge. Today, the stars aligned and, while Hunky Husband took his early morning nap, I contacted the ISP's (Cox's) Complete Care - for which we pay an extra $5/month. Today, it was absolutely worth it. I spent one hour and 42 minutes on my phone while working with "Jason" to un-honk my email capabilities. 

Jason was the 2nd or 3rd techie to try to use remote access to figure out what's happening and to fix it. He had a hard time establishing the remote access. Either of my two computers acted as if it was not receiving Wi-Fi. Hmmm...I kept switching the two computers, physically, to the location in which I normally operate this computer. Jason did establish remote access with the "new" computer - in "this" position - and started looking at my settings. Eventually, he discovered that I had VPN turned on for our Wi-Fi (through Norton). It took a while, but between us we figured out how to turn the VPN off. After that, in relatively short order, Jason was able to set up all three email accounts to operate successfully in both computer environments. Wowee!! Who knew that Norton's VPN does not play nicely with Cox ISP - or is it vice versa? That incompatibility seems to have been the root of all of my email issues.

This "old" computer and the "new" computer now are running Microsoft Outlook with our three email accounts, without a hitch, in either physical location. The Wi-Fi, as such, was not the issue. I'll have to check out to see if Wi-Fi works in the downstairs location from which I had removed the "new" computer a few weeks ago - after having one of the Cox techies convince me that I was not receiving Wi-Fi in that location. (I know that it's asking a lot for the Wi-Fi to punch through two walls, one metal file cabinet, and one metal bookcase to provide line-of-sight service, so I didn't really contest the idea.) 

Now I need to decide whether I want to upgrade the memory in the "new" computer. Somehow, I managed to buy it with only 8 GB memory - probably because I thought it would be used by Hunky Husband who doesn't demand much from his computer. The question is: Which machine becomes my primary computer, and which becomes my backup. This (the "old") machine has 12 GB RAM but has a hard drive while the "new" machine has but 8 GB Ram but has an electronic drive.

ADDITION of 10/15/2022 3:48pm - No dice

After going through several iterations of attempting to get the HP people to sell me the chip(s) to upgrade the memory of the "new" computer, in multiple modes (online messaging, phone, email), I have determined that the "new" computer will henceforth serve as my backup. Although I was once (or thrice) able to buy pieces and parts from HP to install, myself, they seem to be out of the pieces and parts business as far as I could determine. Oh, well. It isn't terrible to have the more reliable computer with the electronic drive as the backup. I'll quit worrying my pretty little head, as HH tells me to do.

_______________________

I did tease Jason about his company's being challenged in the near future. AT&T has just had all of the utility lines marked on our street (flags, galore!) in preparation for installing fiber optic cabling. Cox cabling is metallic. I don't really have a problem with Cox's speeds, so it makes no difference to me.

I am surprised. #2

The other day, Wichidude picked me up to take me to The Tap, a plumbing supply company that I've visited many times over the years. They've always had good people working the counter, there. I never felt stupid for not being an expert plumber and not knowing the correct terminology. I looked forward to going and it turned out to be more fun than I had imagined. The Tap didn't have the part that I needed (I didn't know the part number, but I had the photos, below, on my phone), but the guy had two worthwhile suggestions: 1) go to the Phoenix Supply from whence I had purchased the faucet in 2013, and 2) call Delta Faucet Company (he gave me the phone number - not having reason to know that a phone call makes me break out in a cold sweat). Here comes the surprise: The Tap guy told me that Delta guarantees their products "for life". Even if I was told of the lifetime warranty when purchasing the faucet assembly, I would have taken it for promotional hyperbole.

I didn't really wish to leave Hunky Husband at home, alone (he had not wished to accompany WD and me), much longer so I asked WD to skip going over to Phoenix for the time being. WD brought me home and HH and I had a good time visiting with him for an hour or so.

While HH took his mid-day nap, I decided to do some online research. Going to the Delta Faucet Company website, I located a faucet that looked similar (4380-DST - PILAR^® Single Handle Kitchen Faucet With Spray In Stainless). Of course, the design of the faucet assembly had surely changed over the years. The spare parts for the PILAR did not match up to what I had in-hand, nor did any other parts that I could find.

The Delta people made it simple to send them a message. I gave them the model number of the "looks like" faucet and included the three photos of my own installation at the top of this page, asking if they could provide a part number for the little black jobbie that I needed for my 2013 faucet. Immediately, I received an acknowledgement of my communication and, this morning, two more emails awaited me. One thanking me for my inquiry, saying that I had given them sufficient information to order the parts I would need, and saying that I should soon receive an email with the order they had placed on my behalf. The email with the order came and is shown, below. Yes, the design had changed so they are providing all of the updated parts that I need to replace the old design.

I don't have the parts in hand. I haven't yet installed the parts. So far, I am very impressed. What a pleasant surprise.

P.S. The Tap is located just one block away from the eCycle place that I use, American eWaste Recyclers. Having mentioned the eCycle place to WichiDude & Dudette a couple of weeks ago, and their having expressed interest, I took Wichidude by after we finished at The Tap. The address of the eCycle place is on the same street as is The Tap, but one can only access it through the back alley. Wichidude allowed as how he would have had a really hard time finding the place had I not shown him the way.

I was surprised.

Having one more desktop computer than my number of monitors, I went online the other day, and found a reconditioned monitor at WalMart*. The monitor was intended for use with my backup computer - the computer on which I back up the files from this machine and Hunky Husband's machine - and the price was right.

Surprise#1: It arrived within one week of my placing the order - several days earlier than I had been told to expect.

Surprise #2: It arrived clad only between two thin, formed sheets of expanded foam and the none-too-sturdy box - as shown in the photo, below.

Surprise #3: Everything seemed to be in good shape. The box was scraped up, but nothing inside seemed damaged.

Surprise #4: Obviously, the Sceptre company has received complaints from their customers that, if they require one to have a certain size screwdriver (small Phillips head) it should be supplied. A screwdriver was included for the two screws that attach the flatscreen to its pedestal. Photo, below, showing the screwdriver and its safety cap. (As if I didn't have a plethora of screwdrivers in my home and car.)

After setting up the monitor, checking it out, and realizing how much larger it seems than do HH's and my current monitors, I installed it with HH's desktop computer (photo, below).

Surprise #5: I would be remiss not to mention that, unlike Bogie, I no longer do extensive research before making such purchases. Although I knew that the monitor was described as a "gaming" monitor, I don't recall that the website said that speakers were built into it. The speakers have not yet been checked out. (I left HH's separate speakers connected for the time being. I want to spring new things on him, slowly. After/if/when he tells me he wishes to keep the monitor, I'll worry about changing over his audio and getting him accustomed to that. He may never wish to go that direction. As it is, now, he doesn't need to know how to cope with the onscreen settings display.)

ADDITION of 7/17/2022 11:05am

I didn't recall the size of HH's and my old monitors (different models, same size) but I finally woke up to having my computer tell me to what monitor it is connected. It's 22" (see added screenshot & photo, above) diagonal measure, one assumes. All of our newer monitors are "landscape" orientation.

______________

*   

Product details

This item is Refurbished. Whether you are a gamer or a movie buff, the Scepter E248W-1920R monitor is the way to go. 1080P resolution (1920 x 1080 Pixels) delivers stunning color and picture detail on a 24-inch screen. A 5 millisecond response time displays action sequences with the highest degree of clarity. Enjoy HDMI, and VGA inputs to connect all video and gaming devices. Refurbished Scepter E248W-1920R 24" Ultra-Thin LED Monitor HDMI, Metallic.

Refurbished Scepter E248W-1920R 24" Ultra-Thin LED Monitor HDMI, Metallic

• Metallic Ultra Slim Design. OS Compatibility- Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan.
• Ultra-Slim Profile Contemporary Sleek Metal Design Slim Bezel with Thin Chassis Metal Brushed Back Cover
• 3.5mm Mini-Jack Audio Out. Dimensions without stand (inch, W x H x D): 21.45 x 12.52 x 1.24. With Stand (inch, W x H x D): 21.45 x 15.67 x 6.57
• HDMI and VGA Up to 75Hz refresh rate. Brightness: 230 cd/m2, colors: 16.7M (6-bit Hi-FRC)
• Blue Light Shift Reduce your monitor's blue light to protect you from eye fatigue, irritation, and strains. This enables you to work on your documents, watch movies, or play games more comfortably for extended periods.

1. This product may not have been manufacturer certified but has been professionally inspected, tested and cleaned by Walmart Restored Program Sellers and Suppliers
2. Fully functional product in Like New Condition that may or may not have minor cosmetic defects, blemishes, dents, scratches when held approximately 12 inches away or less
3. This product includes all accessories that will be compatible and fully functional but may not be original. Packaging may be generic
4. This product may be returned within 90 days for free return or replacement if you are not satisfied
5. Battery capacity exceeds 80% capacity relative to its new equivalent

A Weighty Matter

When I go to see my nephrologist, on the one day of the month on which he is in Derby, he is ensconced in a rented space within a cardiology clinic. Dr M hasn't the backup of assistants or administrative folks, nor does he have most of the paraphernalia associated with medical practice. Thus, he asks me my weight, which number he inputs to his records.

Knowing my propensity toward forgetting to weigh myself, I weighed myself this morning before stepping into the shower. Wow! I had gained five pounds since my last weighing. From the fit of my clothing, I found a gain of five pounds to be highly doubtful. I concluded that the strain gage(s) in the scale might be broken - or - the batteries might need replacement. I couldn't remember the batteries' ever having been replaced. The scales belong to Hunky Husband. They are HealthKit, but I don't recall his having purchased the kit nor do I remember his assembling or maintaining those scales. Hmmm.... HH could not enlighten me. He didn't recall, either. We surmised that it may have been while I was still living in Albuquerque NM. I tore into the scales.

 

The above, right photo shows most of the bottom section of the scale. (Aiming the camera from above, I failed to get the second battery carrier into frame.) Even with enlargement, I doubt that you can read HH's written note about the date of replacement of the batteries, so I'll give a closeup, below.

 

Yes, the batteries were last replaced 24.5 years ago! The expiration date on the six C cells was March 2014. The batteries all tested marginally "good" and none was showing any sign of leaking. The Energizer Bunny did well! Regardless, I shall replace the cells with fresh ones. That may not tell me much about past and current weight readings, but it will remove one uncertainty from the process.

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.

___________________________

* 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.