Sunday, April 26, 2015

Time and Perspective

A few years ago, Mr. Fixit and I were in the parking lot of a strip mall. One of the stores is a regional clothing chain that seems to draw older women. I think it’s because they actually have pants that reach your natural waist. They also have lots of bright colored fashion. I don’t shop there except to check out the shoes because most of the clothing is double knit. I realize that there are people who like double knit because it so easy to care for—wash, dry, put on hanger. I don’t really care for double knit. I’d rather iron a little or even go a little wrinkled if I’m in a rush.

I noticed something a little strange. Almost of the ladies going in the store had the same hairdo, most had  fanny packs, their sandals were all metallic colors,  wore more than several bangle bracelets on their wrists,and a large percentage of the ladies wore ankle bracelets.

There was a time when I was in seventh grade I wore ankle bracelets but not since then. I do have a sandals that that a little bronze color on them, and if I had some curl in my hair I guess I would have the hairdo. The fanny packs were just a bit too much for me. I told Mr. Fixit, “If you see me looking at fanny packs or if you think I am even thinking about fanny packs, go out and find a gun and put me out of my misery PDQ.” I don’t know why I had such a visceral reaction to fanny packs.

The other day as I preparing for my morning walk I saw that it was warm enough to go without a jacket or sweater. I grabbed my phone, keys,  a handkerchief since it’s allergy season my nose is always runny, my little counter to keep track of the laps, and  my mp3 player with my book queued up. I needed to get my sunglasses from the car and get a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. (Bright sun causes a little discomfort for me. There is one lady in the neighborhood who seems really interested in my hats. I think she thinks I’m a little peculiar. She may be right.)

I then started to fill my pants pockets with my necessities. Horrors, no pockets in the pants I was wearing! Then this crazy thought struck me, “I need a fanny pack.” I was stunned. I was ready to join the legions of older women who don’t leave home without their fanny packs. No, no way! Mr. Fixit thinks it would be very handy, darn him.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

The End?

Mary Daheim is the author of one of my favorite “cozy” mystery series—The Alpine series. Each title was alphabetized (The Alpine Advocate, The Alpine Betrayal, The Alpine Christmas, etc). This series is not as “cozy” as some are, relying on the mystery plot. Still it has the strong, female lead character (as in most, but not all, cozies), and  recurring rather eccentric characters to add a little humor.

I just finished The Alpine Zen. Now what? Is the series over? I hope not. Does she start a number series a la James Patterson? Or being the clever writer she is, will she come up with some other title gimmick to continue the series? It’s a cliffhanger for me.

Sue Grafton is also teetering on the brink. Her alphabet series is nearing an end also (A Is for Alibi, B Is for Burglar, C Is for Corpse, etc.)  Her “X” book is being released in August. Only two more to go. This another one of my favorite series and there’s nothing “cozy” about this one. Then again, it could be described as cozy noir because of the female lead, eccentric recurring characters, etc.  I hope she finds a way to continue the series.

Steven Havill writes a series, the Posadas County Mysteries set in New Mexico. His main character, Sheriff Gastner, is 74 years old now and retired, leaving the office in the capable hands of his staff. He is still involved in crime detection, of course, and from what I’ve read of the first pages of  his 2013 book, no one is opposed to using his expertise and experience solving crimes. I hope he has a few more years, he really is a likable character, but this series can continue with the new sheriff and his staff if and when Gastner goes to the great mesa in the sky.

Hmm. . . As I was proofing, it occurred to me that I may be just tad overly involved with my friends fictional characters. Nah, I can tell reality from fiction. . . most of the time.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Going About Our Lives

Mother Nature has played another little trick in the weather department on South Carolinians. We’ve had our April showers—yep, we’ve had LOTS of showers. The azaleas are breathtaking this year though. Even the blah pink one (“blah” is my opinion) are outstanding. We turned off the heat, and the AC came on a few times. A cold front came through yesterday. This morning the temp was down in the 30’s. That nice for my morning walk, but it was a bit chilly at Levi’s game when the sun set.

Mr. Fixit is doing okay physically. He has an appointment Friday just for blood work and a chat with the oncologist. He seems to be a bit depressed and a little testy. I can’t say as I blame him much.

I have neglected my teeth for the last few years. It seemed there was always something more importatnt going on. I guess there is a major flaw in my philosophy of “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” When I went for a checkup a few weeks ago, several cavities were found that need attention. The first filling was no problem. Monday the dentist filled two more. My face is swollen and the inside of my cheek is a mess. It’s very sore from the numbing injections I assume. There was a bruise on my face at the lip line. It should be better in a few days, I hope. I still have two more to go. Penny wise, pound foolish.

The doctor also changed my insulin at my request for a less expensive kind. The type I was taking before worked well and I was down from 50 units a day to 25 by staying a a very strict diet. It was so expensive that for the last two years I hit the Medicare gap several months before the end of year and had to pay 80% of the cash price of the drug. That was unacceptable for us.

I started the new stuff today. I have to have two injections a day because it is not as efficient as the other one. The first one was  worked for 24 hours; this new one has a shorter effective time     thereby necessitating two injections a day. That’s a little inconvenient for me, but it will keep me out of the gap unless something untoward happens.

And in the News:

Ted Cruz did not lie about “pressing” Sen. McCain to hold hearings concerning service members carrying concealed weapons on military bases, he “misspoke.” Hmmm…

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Tech Savvy–Not!

This morning I woke early as usual. Getting out of bed before dawn just starts my day wrong. I picked up my tablet to read the news in bed. When reading the news, I always change the orientation of the tablet from “portrait” to “landscape.” It usually changes immediately. It didn’t change. I couldn’t think what the problem could be. I clicked on “Settings” but nothing there seemed to be relevant to my problem. I clicked on every icon in “Setting.” Then I clicked on “Help.” It didn’t—help, that is. There it was 5:30 am and I was already p.o.ed. Yeah, a great beginning to the day.

I gave up and finally got up. As soon as Mr. Fixit came down to breakfast, I asked him if I could use his tablet (they are identical) to check the settings on mine. The settings were exactly the same except for the eye thing. (The “eye thing” puts the tablet to sleep if it doesn’t detect your eyes. I turned that little gadget off on mine.) I was stumped.

I said, “I don’t know what to do. I’ll have to call Jason to ask him how to fix the problem, but I really don’t like asking for help with the computer stuff.” I think he has other things to do besides listening to me whine and bitch about my lack of tech skills.

I heard an notification alert, so I opened the alert and found the answer to my problem. I had never really looked at the tool bar on the notification screen. I assume I accidently hit the screen rotation icon and turned it off.

tablet image

(Click on photo for detail.)

I felt a little silly. I glad I didn’t have to ask for help on this one.

And speaking of my lack of technical expertise, it took me almost an hour to take the above picture and put in the arrow (which is still a misaligned a little). It involved my digital camera, the camera on my phone, removing  the case from the phone, removing the SD card from the phone, downloading the photo to the laptop*, sending the photo via email to my pc, and adding the arrow with Paint. The arrow alone took me about 20 minutes. It may have taken me a long time and a circuitous route to put that picture on this post, but, by golly, I DID IT! Whew!

Note:  Darn it! After all that the picture is blurry. The little icon below the arrow is “Screen Rotation.”

*The PC doesn’t have that little slot to use an SD card.