Every day's a holiday

 The new computer migration has not been without a hitch.  While adding a monitor to the computer that I'm not even keeping I killed my good monitor that had another couple of decades of use.  My friend in the computer world gave me a set of matching monitors and I discovered what a bad monitor was like.  So I found a new one on Amazon for a reasonable price and it is clear and clean and crisp and HUGE.  It is a 27 inch which was the size available in the monitor that was reasonable.  But it  takes up too much room so I've got to juggle everything to make it work.  Which I will eventually.  I'm now waiting for another two weeks for the Chromebox that I want to arrive.  Until I've got that I can't really arrange things the way I want them so it is currently all a mess all over the place.

So now I've got one broken monitor and two that work but I either can't use or don't want.  And no one wants to recycle monitors.  Zero money in them.  I've decided to put them in my attic.  They can either come back down when I find a place that will take them or live up there permanently.  Either way is fine.

And I've got a great all in one Brother printer that I put on FreeCycle.  I did get a nibble but no bite yet.  If I don't get anything by the weekend I'll put it out elsewhere.  It needs to go to a good home.  Anyone without Chrome.

One really nice thing is that I found a BW wireless Brother printer that Chrome loves.  Set it up without a manual in about five minutes and printed from my phone and from my computer.  I've never had a wireless printer before.  It is wonderful and perfect for what I want and was cheap.  The cartridge will likely last for a couple of years.

No idea what I'm going to do with the computer.  I'll probably pull the drive and put it up in the attic with the moniors.  Maybe I'll stumble across some Linnux guy that wants a computer.  It would kick ass with Linnux.  

I'll be really happy when I can clean up my office.

Meanwhile Dana went up to Tyler to see her granddaughter for a belated birthday celebration.  Dana was feeling good enough to drive although she took her rolling walker just in case.  She got there.

The upshot of all of Dana's hip stuff is that it is not currently infected.  All the bloodwork markers say so and the redness is slowly going away.  She's still got some weird issues that the doc says are stitches coming up to the surface.  They call it medical practice for a reason, I guess.  This was certainly not medical excellence.  

She'll be years knitting all the stuff back up in her thigh but it will eventually be better and is now, obviously, serviceable. 

I'm enjoying the time and quiet here with the dogs.

I'm watching Alcaraz and Sinner walk out to the courts ready to play.  Last time they played, in Paris, it was a five set battle more like a boxing match than tennis.  I would expect today to be no different.  It is so nice to watch, from the comfort of my home, a match of tennis on a par with any I've ever watched.  As always, I've got Mom on my shoulder saying 'I wish John [Mcenroe] would shut up'.  He still hasn't and won't.  The reason I'd love to have a button to push that would silence the commentary but not the crowd and pop of the rackets.

I expect Alcaraz to win but both are so deserving that it would not matter.

In the family tradition I'm collecting Amazon returnables.  I've got two.  One is a monitor connection adapter I no longer need since I broke the damn monitor and the other is a backup set of what was supposed to be bone conduction earphones but is actually over the ear speakers, not what I want and not what was on the site.  I'll also be returning the Chromebox I have once I've gotten the new one with more oomph.  I've done my bit to keep them profitable, though.  Shoes, another headset, a monitor, a Chromebox and all kinds of 'stuff' critical to my existence.  I'll probably take the returnables with me tomorrow to Georgetown.  There's a UPS there that has an independent set up where you grab a bag, Scan your code, print off the label to seal the bag with and drop it in the hole.  It is a great set up that is as efficient as it can be.  Rather than separate packages it all goes into large boxes for the return.

Today is a rain-ish day.  We now get flood watches all over Alexa and Google if the humidity is even high.  It does not apply to us.  I'd rather have a heat gage warning that I could set for my specific age and such.  If only we had Artifician Intelligence to help with that kind of thing.

I get annoyed frequently that AI is not incorporated into daily existence.  I'm sitting at a red light with traffic backing up behind and traffic backing up on the other side and no one crossing with the green light and it is such an obvious opportunity to use AI.  There are cameras that can see what it happening and even a low level computer system would be able to change the light based on reality.  Can't figure out what that doesn't happen.

First world.

Rplacing the PC has been a bit of a bother.  I bought the wrong one.  Once upon a time Chrome OS would easily run on a Celeron with 4GB of RAM but no longer.   Small cars get bigger.  Thin operating systems get fatter.  

I did some more research and have ordered a beefier CPU and 8GB RAM so I should be in better shape when that comes in.  

In addition to the computer problem I destroyed a monitor hooking it up.  My best monitor.  I cracked the LCD.  Fortunately my computer friend had a bunch of monitors and gave me two matching ones that are not as good as what I had but have the advantage of actually working.  While doing this I bought an adapter (Display port to HDMI) and, of course, bought the opposite male/female combo from what I needed.  So I bought a new one and returned it.  Second one I got wasn't even close to the right thing, not what was on the site.  So I ordered number 3 and returned number 2.  The third one was right but I figured out that I had actually not needed one at all but could dailsy chain the monitors and needed only one port on the computer in the first place.  It is why there is only one display port on the computer.

So I'm returning number three too.

These adapters are not available IRL at Walmart or Best buy so Amazon is pretty much the only choice.  So nice their returns are way more than reasonable.

It's going to be another week since the new computer is not in stock and won't be here for a bit but I think I've got my computer things under control or at least in sight of under control.   

Now to decide what to do with the printer situation.  

Well, Amazon is letting me down but other than that.

When I wrote yesterday the water was at its height in our back yard.  The rain stopped and everything has been receding since then.  The areas of Georgetown and Williamson County that are getting all the attention are east of us.  There are trailer parks near the river and they were evacuated as were some apartments also overlooking the river.  The bridges were closed near downtown mostly to keep people from going out there and taking pictures.

Although this has happened three times since we moved here in 2005 the population has boomed in this area and, yeah, climate change.  The combination of the two will continue to result in this every year about this time.  I've been watching the developments move closer and closer over the past couple of years to where I know the river will rise.  No one should be surprised but, of course, they are.

As for Amazon they were supposed to deliver three things yesterday one of which was my display port to HTMI adapter.  Now it will not be here until Tuesday.  I may go to Walmart and buy one.  Once you miss a promised Amazon delivery they kick it way down the road.  And of course they are in the midst of one of their most active times of year so who knows what will happen and when I might get the adapter.  So I might not wait.

Meanwhile, I ordered some protein drink for Dana that arrived same day.  So strange.

Nothing on the schedule today.  

I buy coffee from a company by the name of Fara.  It is an Austin roaster that gets the coffee I like from Nicarauga.  For the past few years I've been waiting until they have a sale of 20% and buying 10 pounds of beans at a time.  Costs about $80.  Free shipping.   If Amazon carries it (and now always) it costs $100 for 10 pounds and free shipping.  

This is the one area that I can say the tarrifs have screwed us.  Coffee has gotten more expensive and they no longer offer 20% off.  And today it is not even available on Amazon.  

But maybe it is getting a bit better.  They had a 15% off offer to celebrate the 4th.  Good a reason as any.  I bought my usual 10 pounds and was happy to have the choice.  

Meanwhile, even as I write this, I'm wondering if I need something different.  I don't mind the Chrome but the graphics of this mini are so slow there is a very discernable and annoying lag in loading pages.  Enough that I'd rather use my phone for some things.  I think the combination of having only 4GB of RAM and running a Celeron means things just run slowly.  I opened the diag app and it shows most of my RAM being used and about half of my CPU and I'm not doing much.

Five days until Amazon Prime Days so I'll likely just spend the time looking at choices.  I think the Asus is what I want but I need more RAM and a faster processor.  The price is a couple of hundred bucks more but will be worth it.  We'll see what the prices look like when the sale starts.

Dana had her CT this morning.  So nice that things moved fast.  The results are already in and she does not seem to have any infection but has some pockets of fluid that might be three different things.  They have to aspirate to find out.  Pro:  No major infection noted.  Con: they need to aspirate.  And we're still not certain.  But it is progress.  The doc put in a referral to 'interventional radiology' so they can do the aspiration.  And we have a prescription for some high falutin antibiotics.    All good and all moving forward.

And ALL BEFORE the long weekend.  Typically Dana has some major thing on a Friday late or over the weekend on a long weekend.  So this is a plus to have things moving before the weekend.

We have a wonderful doc who finally got, I think, fed up with the emails going back and forth and decided to jump in.  So nice.  

Was my brakes testing my printer with the new Chrome computer.  My printer is not one of those that works with Chrome.  Never occurred to me.  Even a bit.  Turns out the list of Chrome compatible printers is pretty short.  And the ones I've seen so far are color (don't need it and don't want to pay for it) and pushing for subcription service for toner, et al.  I was using my printer quite a bit when I was working with the Ranch.  I'd print out the dog walking check list for each day.  Now I'm not doing that I hardly use it at all but I still need one.  Just barely.  But I can't see not having one.  Black and white laser is what I love.  Cheap by the page and reliable.  And Brother is the printer I've been using forever.  For good reason.  I'll figure something out.  The OS lists three Brother printers as being compatible two of which have been discontinued by Brother.  

Just an annoyance.  Someone may want my printer current printer.  It has about a year left of toner for the average user and I just replaced the guts of it.

Meanwhile Dana's incision is still a bit of an issue.  I raised hell in Scott and White and we're getting some attention now.  Her Ortho refuses to discuss that the incision might be infected and it is really hard to get someone to do the kind of standard thing which would be a second opinion.  I finally got our primary care doc to help get a referral to the infectious disease specialty but that's not until the end of the month and I'm not sure we want to wait that long.  The home care nurse things she might have cellulitis or some other infection which, in her case, would be a huge issue left untreated.  After having told us overnight that there is no problem now the Ortho wants us to make an appointment.  He heard my banging on the table, I think.  My take is that he's not up to it.  

We might also go outside the system we use and get another opinion.  It is not easy to do that but I think it is worthwhile.

My day has been a bit frustrating so far.  But it will be better. 

I've found a system to cook brisket that is not too complicated.  It is smoking in the outside cooker for a few hours then into the oven to finish.  The oven has a controllable temperature so I can ensure it is evenly finished off and not dried out.  It is kind of a chore to do it especially in this heat but the payoff is huge.  I end up with a lot of brisket that I slice and vacuum seal in half a dozen bags and freeze.  It freezes well and we can pull out a bag of it to cook with eggs or add bbq sauce to and make sandwiches or just finger food.

Big bonus.  Zoe has to take pills two or three times a day and is resisting the standard rolled into cheese slices.  I discoverd that if I chop up the brisket really finely and mix it with flour and peanut butter and a little beef broth I can make pill pockets that she loves.  It is not expensive, not too difficult and she loves it.

I'm off to buy a brisket tomorrow to cook this weekend. 

I'm not likely to go back to the shelter.  They might need dog walkers but if they do it is in the afternoon and I'm not built to walk a dog in 90+ heat. I went today and found what I had feared.  Fifty to 60 dogs build up a lot of cleaning issues.  Laundry and bowls and toys.  They have two commercial washing machines and two commercial dryers and a three deep sink set up. to wash and sterilize the toys and bowls.  There is a lady I met last week who is a volunteer that works there four or five days a week.  She is on vacation for a couple of weeks.  She does the laundry, cleans the toys and bowls and sorts the donatoins.  Laundry is washing, drying, sorting and putting on a shelf.  Far as I can see she gets no help of any signficance.  There is not a full time staff assigned to the area.  Nor was there a plan to have any of it done while she is on vacation.  

Surprise.  The place was a shitstorm pile of stuff to do.  I thought it would be but never thought that no one would be there to work on it.  There was not.  I put in two hours and made a decent dent that will be completely run over in another 24 hours of dog generated bowls and laundry.

At near the end of the two hours one of the staff who was cominig back to collect clean bowls and toys said thank you.  Other than that my existance in two hours went completely unacknowledged by a hello or fuck you or anything.

So I won't be going back I don't think.  I can't fix their issues and helping them will only make them think that they don't really have issues.

I hardly even saw a dog.

So it goes.

There was an ADHD test I saw on my phone yesterday.  I started to take it but it was too long.  True story.

I'm in cool down mode right now.  Then shower and I'm not sure what else.  Dana has a medical appointment that starts in five minutes.  The location is half an hour away.  She hasn't left yet.  I'm staying in my office.  No need to be around that kind of stress.

Dana is at the grocery store.  By herself.  With a cane.  So there's that.  A victory.  

She is obviously doing much better.  The Ortho doc saw her most recent xray and proclaimed that her cracked bone was growing back together (aka - fuzzy stuff on the xray - the way it always looks to me).  And she is in much less pain.  So now it is about getting stronger and regrowing her resiliance.

And I finally had to replace my cycling shoes.  The ones I had disintegrated last time I rode them. They were about 20 years old and had maybe 5000 miles on them.  Got my money's worth.

The big problem is finding shoes that are wide enough for me.  Cycling people are tiny and have tiny feet.   The last that was used for the shoes I finally received last night was a special wide one for people like me.  I'd already bought and returned one 'wide' sized shoe.  The pair I got last night feels right.  I'll give them a run tomorrow.  I can tell a huge difference on the pickleball court now I've been riding.  Much better balance.  And I've not done much.

We did have a good group this morning playing PB.  I was the only male there but I knew everyone in the group and they are about the same level as me so it was competitive.  And fun.  I won some and lost some and played for most of two hours.

Not much else going on today.  I do need to catch up on some sleep and I need to decide whether to watch the Austin vs Seattle soccer game tonight or in the morning.  It doesn't start here until 9:30 so I'm not sure.  We'll see.  

I'm kind of spinning my wheels waiting for Wimbleton and the Tour de France to start.  The tennis starts Monday.  It is on ESPN+ and I bought three months of that for cheap.  Then the Tour starts on the 6th.  I will watch the first stage and then pick it up in the mountains.  And watch the end.  Always a busy time this time of year.

Now to get serious about the nap.