Tuesday, August 26, 2025

a few accomplishments



Wednesday night when we were heading to bed, our 2 year old (we think, can’t remember exactly when we bought it but not that long ago) TV would not switch back to TV from streaming and then wouldn’t turn off. Buttons on the remote either didn’t work or got squirrelly. Replacing the batteries had no effect. Marc managed to turn it off by pushing actual buttons on the TV. It did not self heal Thursday or by Friday morning. Friday we were going to drive to the electronics store but rain was threatened all day and we didn’t want to get caught on the highway in the rain. So Walmart it was. We have a small TV, 32”, the biggest that will fit in the cabinet/shelving unit. We have a small living room and art on the walls and don’t want to have to rearrange the wall, move the art, to accommodate a big screen. Also we don’t want a TV to dominate the room. All the TVs at Walmart are big. We did find a 32” Walmart brand smart ROKU (we have a fire stick) set tucked in a foyer like area to the employee break room/bathroom? for cheap. Yeah, no and we left but not before we looked at the printers which I need one of but also did not buy one of those.


At home Marc looked at TVs on Amazon and bought one and Saturday I searched for the best inkjet printers for home in a price range I was willing to pay and compared several and bought one, also on Amazon. I know, evil empire but that’s our choice out here, one evil empire or another unless we want to take a road trip to the outskirts of the city. Don’t judge us. The new TV and printer both arrived Sunday and while Marc got the TV hooked up and functioning we put off hooking up the printer until today. Figured one frustrating tech job a day was enough. Turned out getting the printer hooked up was pretty much a breeze, the instructions were clear and easy to follow. 


In other accomplishments, my blank watercolor note cards came today and I’m going to do a series of quick little paintings with watercolor pencils and scribble sticks planning on a loose not fussy style. The point is to not spend a lot of time on them. Hesed House is planning to do an expanded market day with not just their vendors in the store but inviting other local artists to set up a booth or table so I want to have more stuff. It’s going to be the weekend before Thanksgiving. Here’s the first one, the card is 4" x 6" folded, the other woodland violet I had drawn. This one was done with the watercolor pencils.


I finally got the two watercolors, the pomegranate and zucchini, framed. I bought the concrete adhesive and glued the two halves of the birdbath pedestal together. 


A little front blew in Friday and Saturday was less horrible, only got into the high 80s with a pleasant little breeze, and I decided I would get the trimmer out and go around all the flowerbeds but by the time I got out there my enthusiasm had waned so I went around cutting down all the stubborn hackberry and pecan tree sprouts (eventually they will die) and did some weeding so I didn’t entirely waste the good day. And then early evening we got a visit from our daughter Sarah and great granddaughter Paisleigh. They had been out shopping and Paisleigh showed off her new sparkly shoes.


I had my 6 month primary care visit today and didn’t forget this time. No significant changes, I’m holding steady.

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Trump is continuing his power grab today, issued an EO for national guard units in each state to be ready to "assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances.”, in other words any gathering protesting Trump and his policies. He won’t tolerate another No King’s Day, peaceful or not, laying the foundation for turning our Armed Forces against the American people saying “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator,’”.


No DonOld, no one is saying that but you.



26 comments:

  1. Codex: which TV and printer did you end up getting?

    The cards will be fun. Watercolor pencils are really good for experimenting.

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    1. Printer: Canon Pixma TS6420a. TV: Samsung F6000F 32".

      Yeah, I'm having fun with them.

      Delete
  2. Well, you certainly got a lot done! The birdbath repair looks great and so does the card. That top photo is spectacular. I love the light on the flowers.

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    1. Not so much and spread out over a few days.

      It freezes down every winter. That's just this year's growth.

      Delete
  3. Well done on the primary care results, keep it up!

    I hate setting up new appliances. When my father came to visit us, he always somehow messed up all the TV settings until nothing was working and then he said something like, you should invest in a better class of appliances, this is trash, and leave before I could show how mad that made me.
    Now, we watch online via a cable to a big screen.

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    Replies
    1. We have cable because out here general reception isn't great. Mostly we stream via the fire stick.

      Delete
  4. That’s a very constructive day. I don’t think I’ve gotten that much done in a week. Bird bath looks like new! The woodland violet is a beauty. How fortunate to have a Paisleigh to show off her sparkly shoes.

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    1. It was a couple of days worth really. I've got the birdbath set up and so far the dish hasn't been knocked off again.

      Delete
  5. Cooler here today and it's wonderful.
    You DID get a lot done. Go, you! Don't you hate it when things just stop working for no apparent reason, especially when they're not that old?
    And I do not judge you. Trust me. Amazon knows our address.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This country used to make quality goods witness my very old fridge and dish washer and we only recently replaced the very old washer and dryer because repairman Matt couldn't get parts anymore. Now everything has all kinds of fancy electronics and built in obsolescence. Gotta make that money!

      Delete
  6. Every time Trump says, "A lot of people are saying," substitute "I want" and what he means becomes clear. I had to laugh at your use of the concrete adhesive -- and not because you did a bad job. I laughed because it reminded me of the highlight of my week: gluing all the fingers of my left hand together with superglue. I managed to accomplish my project in five minutes, and then spent about three hours getting the glue off my hand. I hadn't used superglue in years, and sort of had forgotten what it's capable of.

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    1. He's repeated that several times and also claimed in his so called cabinet meeting which was nothing more than 3 hours of but kissing and shoe shining to be tactful about it (don't any of those people have any self respect?), that he's president and he can do whatever he wants.

      Superglue, the worst product ever. Bad becaue you don't want to get it on you and because it's not that great a glue.

      Delete
  7. Today, in his three hour cabinet meeting with all of the suck ups, he was heard to say that he's the president and he can do anything he wants. He gives me a headache.

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    1. And this vindictive resentful of anyone else's accomplishments little grievance baby has revoked Kamala Harris' Secret Service protection because her book is already a best seller. I hope when he finally keels over that this whole 'movement' unravels. No way Vance can carry it.

      Delete
  8. We have a small TV. The screen is about twenty inches. I could get up and measure it, I suppose. We don’t want anything bigger. Certainly not one of those screens that transform a house into a movie theatre! In our house we don’t even know how to spell Amazon!

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  9. Nice job on the violet - those cards will sell quickly! You certainly are getting a lot more done than I do, Ellen!

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    1. thanks! I'm really happy with it. These watercolor pencils and crayons are a lot of fun.

      Delete
  10. I can only get large jars of mentholatum through amazon. so I do. It is the way of the world now and if I adhered to a strict boycott of everything vile owned by shite men, I would not have mentolatum, and that is what i require ...so...is the way it is. I ma humbled.

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    1. Problem is that even if you buy from a storefront odds are whoever owns it is just as evil.

      Delete
  11. I'm sitting in my office with the little heater on (69 degrees outside, which is great for doing outside chores, but not so great for just sitting on your butt). I stopped buying from Amazon for about 6 months & then I started back with a vengeance. I'm using it for retail therapy because heaven forbid that I would just walk into a store. Can't have that!

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    1. Gonna be months before I bring in our space heaters.

      Delete
  12. We just bought a tv ourselves, the smallest one we could find in Costco, which isn't saying much.
    Uncanny how often Orwell's 1984 pops into my mind lately. As Wikipedia's AI describes the tvs in that:
    "Omnipresent and almost never turned off, they are an unavoidable source of propaganda and tools of surveillance."
    Hmm.

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  13. The president of Argentina, mini Trump named Milei, was pelted with rocks, bottles and potted plants yesterday and I would really like to see the Trump skull dented by a can of beans. Trump is going to die soon and we have to figure out how to navigate a post-Fascist USA

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    Replies
    1. If only the people here were just as angry. The question is how fast will it all come apart after he dies.

      Delete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.