Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Tuesday lunch in Newburyport, hummingbirds & other things
Today we had lunch with a friend at an Indian Restaurant in Newburyport. She asked me how I liked retirement, and I said that I can't find anything NOT to like. Having lunch with someone on a beautiful day near the sea on a Tuesday is pretty great.
I am surprised how fast the days motor on. I can get into a project, look up and two hours have passed. There is a long list of things to accomplish, and George and I whittle away at it as we motor through the day. Today he mowed the lawn, and washed out the hummingbird feeders. We had our usual 3 hummingbird summer -- that is, we fill and refresh the feeders over and over, and each summer, we have very few hummingbirds partake of anything we offer. This past week, we had a lady hummer visit us on the back deck. She was interested in the small but prolific pink Penta plant that I salvaged for a dollar from Lowes - because it was a plant that looked like it needed saving. It thanked me by blossoming and Mrs. Hummer came right to the table where I was sitting to graze on my little plant. Amazing. Then, off she flew over the roof - too quickly by far.
Our projects take us to places like beneath the bathroom sink, to reorganize and clean with new shelf paper, and into the basement to do more throwing out of stuff, and into the refrigerator to throw out, clean and add new. There are lots of places in our little palace that always can use a little visit to make things better. Working full time has a way of eating the time that you would normally spend "bettering things". When we tire of making things better, we always seem to find a project that will make things worse. When my son was small, he went to Montessori class in the morning. I remember his first teachers meeting. The teacher said that he was REALLY creative about use of the toys and tools, but he was having trouble getting the knack of putting things away.
I know the feeling.
Have a GREAT day!
I am surprised how fast the days motor on. I can get into a project, look up and two hours have passed. There is a long list of things to accomplish, and George and I whittle away at it as we motor through the day. Today he mowed the lawn, and washed out the hummingbird feeders. We had our usual 3 hummingbird summer -- that is, we fill and refresh the feeders over and over, and each summer, we have very few hummingbirds partake of anything we offer. This past week, we had a lady hummer visit us on the back deck. She was interested in the small but prolific pink Penta plant that I salvaged for a dollar from Lowes - because it was a plant that looked like it needed saving. It thanked me by blossoming and Mrs. Hummer came right to the table where I was sitting to graze on my little plant. Amazing. Then, off she flew over the roof - too quickly by far.
Our projects take us to places like beneath the bathroom sink, to reorganize and clean with new shelf paper, and into the basement to do more throwing out of stuff, and into the refrigerator to throw out, clean and add new. There are lots of places in our little palace that always can use a little visit to make things better. Working full time has a way of eating the time that you would normally spend "bettering things". When we tire of making things better, we always seem to find a project that will make things worse. When my son was small, he went to Montessori class in the morning. I remember his first teachers meeting. The teacher said that he was REALLY creative about use of the toys and tools, but he was having trouble getting the knack of putting things away.
I know the feeling.
Have a GREAT day!
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Do or don't....lets don't.
Two weeks ago, my 2 year old Dell Inspiron laptop slid off my lap and fell against the corner of an open drawer. The impact with the sharp corner broke the screen and created a Rorschach test on my screen. My heart broke. When George told me that I was two weeks out of warranty, my heart broke again. What a waste. We did some research on the web. George found out that you can purchase a new screen for a Dell Inspiron from Amazon for $50.00. When I called Dell, they said they would fix it for $260. Mike said I could buy a new Chromebook for about $260.
Also on the web, George found a YouTube about how to replace the screen yourself on a Dell laptop. He thought maybe we could bring it to Mike's house where they could work on it together. That seemed like a terrible option, since it would clearly waste a whole day with two nice guys fussing and worrying about a thing gone wrong with a good chance of terrible results. We delayed a couple more days while we considered our options and then George said, "Lets at least watch the YouTube of how to repair it ourselves."
The man in the video first explained that it was a 20 minute video so we needed to be patient. His screen was broken exactly like mine. Then he said, "take a guitar pick and gently gently slide it into the edge of the screen, careful, careful because you don't want to crack anything, and there is a web cam in the way. If you can't get a separation, try in another place on the screen..." George and I looked at each other and he said, "Ok, lets send it to Dell".
Sometimes big decisions come easier than you thought. We both knew instantly that we would not be able to fix this ourselves.
We didn't even know where to get a guitar pick.
Have a great day.
Also on the web, George found a YouTube about how to replace the screen yourself on a Dell laptop. He thought maybe we could bring it to Mike's house where they could work on it together. That seemed like a terrible option, since it would clearly waste a whole day with two nice guys fussing and worrying about a thing gone wrong with a good chance of terrible results. We delayed a couple more days while we considered our options and then George said, "Lets at least watch the YouTube of how to repair it ourselves."
The man in the video first explained that it was a 20 minute video so we needed to be patient. His screen was broken exactly like mine. Then he said, "take a guitar pick and gently gently slide it into the edge of the screen, careful, careful because you don't want to crack anything, and there is a web cam in the way. If you can't get a separation, try in another place on the screen..." George and I looked at each other and he said, "Ok, lets send it to Dell".
Sometimes big decisions come easier than you thought. We both knew instantly that we would not be able to fix this ourselves.
We didn't even know where to get a guitar pick.
Have a great day.
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