Back to the Water

It's a Tuesday, and the first of my three days of swimming instead of the treadmill. I don't think I'd be super happy with either activity being a six-day-a-week requirement, but three days and three days works really well for me. I don't get bored. Of course, I never truly get bored. I listen to Sirius radio's "Turbo" while on the treadmill (good music is always a help when doing boring things) and I listen to my latest audio book while doing my laps in the pool. I don't particularly like repetitive actions, and exercise is exactly that. So, I make it work for me by joining it with audio. 

I was quite disappointed to discover that Target no longer 
carried the Skull Candy brand of earbuds. I've used them for 
years and they're dependable and inexpensive. I bought 
the brand they're currently carrying, but I also ordered a set 
of Skull Candy buds from Amazon since I had a cart in progress. 

I did buy a new set of headphones yesterday at Target. Unfortunately they no longer carry the Skull Candy brand, but I got what they had that was inexpensive and added a set of Skull Candy to my current Amazon shopping cart. I'll be ready when this set of earbuds dies - I'll have one set in reserve. There's nothing much more boring than being on the treadmill without tunes. LOL Swimming without an audio book is like crickets - I have no patience for it. 

Calendula cream was recommended by my Radiologist 
when I was undergoing cancer treatments. I've found 
that it works super well on anything requiring a bit of 
first aid, and my hands which react very poorly to 
the chlorine in the swimming pool are much happier 
when I regularly put the cream on. So, I ordered some 
more because I'm running low. 

I've found that my Calendula Cream which I was given to assist with any burns from the radiation treatment works splendidly on my chlorine-based skin issues. I refuse to give up my swimming - it's an essential part of my weekly exercise regime. But I'm very sensitive to chlorine, and my right hand has two areas where the skin dries up and breaks open if I don't keep things moisturized. Standard hand lotions or creams don't work to heal, but my Calendula cream has been working very well indeed, and I'll keep on using it for as long as necessary. So I guess there were some good things to come out of my cancer treatments, the discovery of Calendula cream being a major benefit. 

Byerly's always has excellent sushi available. It's made 
fresh daily and they sell a lot of it. On their Wednesdays, 
when they have $3 off all sushi, they bring in two extra 
workers to make the sushi - they go through that much! 
It's always fresh, though, and I always enjoy it as a 
treat. 

DH and I treated ourselves to sushi for dinner last night. Although they didn't have the hot honey version I was hoping they would have, they still had a nice variety of rolls to choose between. We both ended up with very delicious rolls for a nice meal. I generally eat sushi fairly often - usually at least once a week, sometimes more. I've been known to pop back to the store in the afternoon just to check if my hot honey version has been made and is available for purchase. Yes, I like it that much. Of course, since the store is only a mile from my house, it's not a major trip either - LOL. 

I was hoping they had their newest roll available when I 
got there after work last night. The Mike's Hot Honey roll is 
awesome and so VERY tasty. They didn't have any left, 
but I still found a nice dinner in the choices that they had. 

I'm off to the pool. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Huzzah! It's Saturday - Headphones, Range Extenders and LJ Idol

Huzzah! It's Saturday and we've all made it to the end of another week. Well done! I'm trying to continue cooling off from my run this morning - in our summer humidity, that can take a very long time. I've already had a cold shower, a morning munch of fresh strawberries, and made two cups of tea - both of which will be finished before I leave for the shop in less than two hours. 

I'm actually not at all sad that DH returned my bone 
induction headset to me. It allows me to have my 
backup in place once again, so that if my primary breaks 
for any reason, I won't be without my books while 
I exercise. 

DH returned the AfterShokz to me saying they were only for MP3, so he couldn't use them. He kept the HUB ear buds, though. I'm quite happy to have my AfterShokz back, it's my backup set for swimming and since I really can't swim without sound - preferably audio books - it's good to have a backup available. I've put it back into the drawer where I got it from so that it's ready when needed. 

I'm not super happy with my range extenders 
right now. I'll work on them a bit more on 
Wednesday, hopefully with their customer 
service department, but if I'm still not happy, 
I'm going to return them and get something 
else. 

I reset and moved all three of the range extenders for our WiFi yesterday, but I'm really not happy with the system in general and will possibly return them. I'll work with them again on Wednesday with their customer service department (I assume they have one), but if I can't get a consistent internet boost after that, I'll pull them, return them, and try a different system. I would need to upgrade at the end of the year in any case, when our WiFi switches from 4G to 5G so I might as well get something that can take the change. I'm worried that this one may take a bit more doing to return since I didn't buy it through Amazon, instead I purchased directly. The only reason I use Amazon is easy returns, this one may have me doing gymnastics or throwing my hands up in the air and saying curse words while moaning about the waste of money. But ... I'll get it figured out. Initially the set-up was really easy, it just didn't stay that way once I needed to shift the location of two of the units. 

It started out really well and installed easily. But 
now that I've had to change the locations of two 
of the three, it's not installing well at all. I tried 
a factory re-set and re-did all three units, but I'm 
still not happy. I'll probably end up returning them 
and getting a different system. 

I did get to spend a half-hour or so in the garden yesterday afternoon. That was delightful. And I had a hummingbird at my feeder for a good, long drink. It was actually perched on the feeder, and it seemed quite happy and as if it felt very safe. I was delighted. I would have taken a photo, but I didn't want to move and spook it, so I just have the memory, not the pic. 

This is not my feeder, although mine's almost identical, 
but this is very much like what my own hummer 
looked like yesterday. It settled down on the perch, 
and had a nice, long drink. It had to have been there 
for at least two minutes! 

Voting for my dark story of rebirth ends tomorrow evening. If you feel the story merits your vote and you haven't done so yet, I'd certainly appreciate it if you voted for it. These next 24 hours are rather crucial, and even though I'm holding up OK right now, positioning can shift quickly from being in the top tier to being in the bottom. Once again, I'll reiterate that my story could be a trigger for some people. But, if you are triggered by it, that means I wrote it well, so please consider voting for me anyway - *hugs*. Once again, the link is: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1123027.html .

As always, I appreciate your votes. I'm in the thick of 
it this week - I think a few people were surprised by how 
I approached the topic, but I saw my character in my head 
and walked the path that she showed me. 

I'm wrapping this up, moving on to my second cup of tea, and getting ready to start my day. Sharon's birthday is at the end of the month, and I need to find the PERFECT thing for my long-time best friend and sister. It probably won't arrive on time, but it'll be on it's way, so I'll count that as a win. I should probably adjust my calendar to warn me two weeks ahead, instead of just one - LOL. Have an excellent day and weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Audio and Video - Audio for Streaming and Video of Our Tree Saga

Today I'm sending DH to the shop with two different types/sets of headphones/earbuds. Chickie will talk him through getting them recognized by his phone and tablet. He's discovered the joys of streaming on Peacock, and wants headphones so that he can hear "Longmire" with greater ease after I've gone to sleep. I'm a headphone/earbud junkie - I have a lot of different sets - many for swimming, others not. I chose two for him - my spare set of underwater AfterShokz, and a set of HUB ear buds that are magnificent, but I prefer my OlyDance bone inductions instead when I'm not using my AfterShokz. 

I love my AfterShokz OpenSwim bone induction 
headphones. The best I've ever used in the pool and on 
the treadmill. I have two sets, because when one didn't 
work properly, I immediately ordered a second set on 
overnight shipping. Meanwhile their customer service 
department sent me instructions for resetting the device, 
which I did when DH was looking for headsets. I think 
he'll like them as much as Chickie, ChickieMama and I 
do (I've managed to convert everyone over to using 
AfterShokz - although they aren't using the underwater 
model). 

I use my AfterShokz for the pool. I load up my audiobook of the period onto them using a convoluted, semi-legal method, and then I'm set for 11-13 hours of swimming before I need to download and upload the next volume in the series. This particular series I'm in has more than 20 volumes, so I'm set for the year - LOL. 

My HUB ear buds are excellent - great sound 
reproduction, enormous battery power, very 
compact design - basically it hit all of my 
buttons. But ... this fancy case? It's really hard 
to open and close. I always have to fight 
with it. So I'm giving these to DH also - he can 
see what he prefers - buds or bone induction. 

I got the HUB earbuds on Indigogo - I buy a lot of things via them. It was a good price, and they are a quality product, but I really don't like their case. It's all inclusive and a sharp design, but it's also a PITA to open to get to the buds themselves. The buds give excellent sound, but I decided they weren't worth the trouble I had to go through to open and close the damned case. So, I'm giving them to DH instead. He can figure out which style of earpiece he wants to use. He might use both of them. That's fine. They're his now. 

When DH came into the upper back yard, this is what 
confronted him. A huge branch had broken from our 
neighbor's Silver Maple tree and fallen directly into our 
upper yard. 

Silver Maple trees can grow 50-80 feet tall. 
His tree is massive. I can't estimate the 
height, but it's BIG. 

I haven't told you about our tree saga. As many of you know or may remember, I have a LOT of trees on my lot. But the tallest tree in the neighborhood belongs to my next door neighbor, Chris. His Silver Maple is huge and extremely tall. Silver Maple trees can grow to a height of 50-80 feet, and his is definitely in that upper category. On Tuesday shortly after noon, I got a message from DH: "Have time go out and see if it was our tree of Chris's that just made big boom. Thank goodness it didn't take out power." He sent a photo of a HUGE branch that had fallen off the maple into our upper yard, barely missing our crabapple tree and the fence between our yards. 

I'm just going to give some photos of the 
tree. Here, you have our crabapple, a tree we 
dearly love, and the branch barely missed it. 
DH did say that it had smashed a younger 
crabapple that he had been growing nearby, though. 

Chris and DH worked for an hour or so to brace the 
fallen branch so that it would be stable until it
 could be removed. That evening, DH was 
mumbling BS to me about being able to remove 
it himself, if he could get it braced correctly, but 
I told him - "Not our tree, not our problem. Let 
Chris handle this one - it's his responsibility." 

The guys braced the tree so that it wouldn't move until the arborist Chris was going to call could come, look at it, and then take the fallen limb apart. I spoke to Chris the next morning and the arborist came at the same time, so he, I and the Rainbow Tree guy spent almost a half hour looking at the damage and figuring out the best way to approach the cleanup. Chris' insurance won't pay for it of course, because it didn't cause any property or home damage, but he'll pony up and pay for the removal, which is only right. It is his tree. He'll drop a couple of the fence panels to allow easier access, and the tree guys will start removal on Monday. It's a bummer that we both have to work that day, but it's probably for the best - DH won't be able to hover - LOL. 

Amazingly enough, the fencing was 
completely untouched. That's a six-foot 
fence, and that branch extends WAY above 
that. It's unsafe for DH to do any cutting, so 
the professionals will take care of it on 
Monday, and Chris will pay for it. His tree, 
his responsibility. (I might sneak him a 
hundred or two - he has three kids in private 
school, so this is a financial blow, I'm sure). 

One last overview. You can see the bracing at the 
end of the branch, helping to keep the whole thing 
stable until next week. It should be OK unless we 
get tornado-level winds. Chris said he's going to 
drop a couple of the fence panels to allow easier 
access to our yard, and the tree dudes will start on 
Monday, hopefully finishing within the day. 

So that was our excitement this week. It's always something - if not an appliance breaking, then a windstorm, or a tree. Life is always unpredictable and it would do us good to remember that - LOL. As for me ... I had a lot of fun writing on the dark side for the current story, and have been thanked for putting down the warnings of trigger possibilities. I enjoy writing gritty. Maybe I'll have another opportunity in future to explore the dark side once again. In the meantime, however, it's Friday, it's my ONLY day off this week, and I have a slate of things I need to do today that's as long as my arm. So I'm out of here. Have an excellent Friday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow.