This, That, and Electronics - It Might Be an Interesting Day

I'm looking for my second set of Aftershox Waterproof Conductive Headphones. These are what I wear in the swimming pool (and occasionally when I'm housecleaning). They are headphones that don't sit in the ear, but instead loop over it so that I can listen easily, but still have my earwax in my ears to keep the water away from them while swimming. They make several different models, one of which is specifically for swimming and other immersion sports. I love them. I listen to audio books on them while I'm swimming and it makes the time and my laps go faster - or at least it seems like that. 

Aftershokz has the best bone conduction headsets 
in the industry. Chickie wears hers all day at 
the shop. It enables her to keep in touch with her phone, 
if necessary, and also listen to audio books while 
she's packing and labeling product. I could be a 
total PITA and insist that she leave them in the 
back room, but they don't seem to be negatively 
impacting her work, so I let it ride. 

On Wednesday, it was a little cranky getting turned on, but sometimes I'm not hitting the button exactly right, so I didn't worry about it. But, yesterday, it wouldn't turn on at all. So ... I have a second set here at my desk area. I just have to find them. Then I'll load my current book onto them and start listening to find out where I left off. It's really boring to swim without my books, so finding my second set is a priority item. I do know that REI carries the waterproof version, so if I can't find mine, I can pop over there and pick a set up. It's frustrating, but not the end of the world. 

I love my "Ogre Juice" and can really tell the difference 
when I don't have my four per week. I make them on 
Fridays, so I'm off to the grocery store to buy green veggies 
for my weekly ration. 

There's also grocery shopping and "Ogre Juice" making on my agenda today. I don't need a lot at the store, but I do need a few things. My major shop is always on Wednesdays. I received a package at the shop yesterday with two new batteries for my little drone. I've been charging them, and they're ready to be used. If it's not windy, and I have a bit of time, I'll try to use the little guy again, and maybe this time the software and my phone will communicate better. It's a fun little thing, and I'd really like to use it the way I had intended it to be used. I'm still into the whole package for under $50, so it's an experiment that's well worth trying. 

My drone is orange where this one is black, but 
except for that, they are identical. I purchased 
an additional two batteries for it, though. A battery 
is only good for about 10 minutes in the air, and that's 
really not a lot of time. If we don't have a breeze 
today (and I have time), I might try again to get it 
coupled with my phone. Apparently it works easier 
with Apple phones, but I don't have one of those. I love 
my Android phone. 

And, of course, I have some computer stuff that needs to be done. So, despite the fact that I haven't got a set agenda today, it seems as if I'll have a busy and rather full day despite it all. LOL - no rest for the wicked, I guess - as the old saying goes. I guess I'm quite wicket because I don't seem to get a lot of rest all around. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Electronics - The Joy and Bane of My Existence

Yesterday was the beginning of Daylight Savings Time again, so we "Spring Forward" in the Spring and "Fall Backward" in the Autumn. We basically lost an hour of sleep between Saturday night and awakening on Sunday. Normally this wouldn't be a huge deal - there are several clocks that need to be reset, but it's minimal and quickly done (I leave the clock radios to DH since I seem incapable of setting them accurately without messing up the alarms and causing the darned things to blast out at full volume at extremely early hours of the morning). 

We've had matching clock radios in the bedroom since we 
were college students. They're quite old fashioned, but DH is 
that way too - a bit old fashioned. I never have to deal with 
the darned things, so have no idea how to set anything on 
them properly. It's better taken care of by DH - LOL. 

I, however, have a new digital watch that I have had for less than a week. To change the time on this, it needs to communicate with my phone since it sets itself via Bluetooth to the settings on my cell phone. It decided, however, it wasn't going to communicate, and sat in a funk for the entire day. I took it off my wrist in frustration and cast it upon my computer desk, leaving it there until this morning. 

I love the watch, but getting it reset for the 
correct time for Daylight Savings Time was 
an exercise in frustration. 

This morning I decided I would try once again. I downloaded the appropriate app one more time onto my cellphone and told the watch, in no uncertain terms, to start talking or I would sent it back to Amazon and buy something else (I really like the watch, so that's something I didn't want to do). But, to my amazement, although I was doing nothing differently than yesterday, it worked! I now have my watch functioning once again. I don't have the watch face that I want on it, but I can figure that part out later. At least I'm back up and running. 

I'll get that watchface changed to one I like better 
later today. Right now, I'm just grateful to have a 
functional watch once again, with the proper 
time displayed on it. 

Electronics - they are a joy and a royal PITA and sometimes the bane of my existence. I'm sure it's similar for many of my readers as well. On that note, I'm out of here. DH has to be awakened early so that he can get some blood work done at the clinic before an appointment later this week, so I'd better get going. Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Phone Saga - It's Going To Be An Internet Hunt

I dragged a very crabby DH to the Verizon store at 11:00 am Sunday to look at phones. After spending a half-hour looking through a variety of brands and models, he ended up with the very model I thought he would want - the Samsung Galaxy S22. It's an older phone, but it's narrow and only 6.1 inches tall, as close as we could get to his old Motorola. Looking through Amazon this morning, I'll have to order the phone directly from Samsung, but I can get an Otterbox and some screen protective glass from Amazon. I should be ready to switch him over within 1-2 weeks. Of course, I know nothing about Samsung phones, but Chickie has used Samsung phones for more than a decade. She'll be his lifeline for this one. 

After looking at a lot of phones, he decided on the 
one model I thought he would - the smallest of 
the bunch, but still a good one. The Samsung 
Galaxy S22 isn't the newest phone out there, but 
that's not a problem. It's a good, reliable phone from 
a good manufacturer, and it's a size that he 
thinks will be good for him (he wanted something 
small). Now to get it ordered. 

He also wants a new tablet. We looked at several at Verizon, but couldn't quite decide. We have a old tablet on our phone plan, but it probably won't move over when they upgrade to 5G later this year either, so I'll have to spend a little time researching things on this end. I wouldn't mind a tablet for myself either, and if we get a fourth phone line on our plan, we could switch to a different Unlimited Plan and suddenly DH would be able to get all of the TV streaming choices he's been wanting to get. That does nothing for me - I'm not much of a TV fan, but he'd enjoy it. As long as he's paying me for the bill (and he'd have to increase the amount he pays for it), then he can do what he wants. 

He also wants a tablet to replace his old one. No problem, 
I just need to find the best deal for him. He doesn't 
use it often, but there are some good reasons why he 
would want one that could be more like a laptop 
and less like a phone. More research. LOL

So I'll be playing with amounts, offers, options and techniques today while continuing to try and get the final pages of my Swarovski cubes up on Etsy, and helping whatever customers decide to come out on a frightfully hot holiday Monday. On one hand I'm hoping we won't be busy, on the other hand it would be good to have a good volume of people and some good sales by the end of the day. I'm divided - LOL. 

At this point I don't even remember which sizes 
I have made live, and which ones I'm still working 
on. I'll have to double-check that - LOL. I think 
I have the 6mm and 8mm sizes live now, but I don't 
think I had time to upload the 4mm size. It's probably
minimal work remaining on that final size, so I'll
probably have it up today. 

Thanks to those of you who voted for my CRAIC story on LJ Idol. I'm not at the top, but I'm far from the bottom and I received a lot of very positive comments on the work. I'm very happy with the results from the week. I'm sending congratulations out to bleodswean for reaching "Luna Level" - 159 weeks of posting in LJ Idol. That's an accomplishment well worth celebrating. Bleodswean was directly responsible for my joining LJ Idol, so all blame and approval lie with her. Congratulations! 

Thank you for your votes for my latest story in 
LJ Idol. I'm still in the mix, and that's what's 
important to me. Now to see what the next 
prompt will be ... LOL. As always, I love and 
appreciate ALL of my readers and those who 
comment and vote are very appreciated. 

I'm cutting this short today to research the phone a bit more and maybe get the orders started. I'll be much more comfortable when DH is actually set up with a new, functional phone. He'll still be annoying about it - growling at it all the time - but I won't have to worry about him being without one when our area gets our 5G upgrade. Have a fabulous Monday, if you get the day off for Juneteenth, enjoy your holiday. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini! 

Snow and Slow Progress, But Progress is Good

Ideally, in 3-1/2 hours I'll be on my way to pick up the truck from the repair shop. The two parts they needed finally arrived late in the afternoon, and although they said they "might" have it done by last night, they actually close before we close the shop, so I told them first thing today would be better. It does mean that I have to drive out in the snow to pay for the repairs, but hopefully, after that, DH can head over to the shop to work for the day and I can return home and hibernate for a few hours before beginning my shoveling the driveway regime. 

By the end of this storm (in this case, by Saturday), we should 
have a total of 4.8" in the Twin Cities. Just a little bit south 
of us, though, the numbers are a LOT higher. It all depends 
on the winds, and I'm hoping that 4.8" total is accurate. 

We're supposed to get anywhere from 3-9 inches of snow over the next two days while this storm blows through. DH is working for me today and I'll work for him tomorrow. He has his driver's license renewal appointment tomorrow morning and if we switch days, he won't be rushed. I consider that a good thing, and I don't mind taking the Thursday instead of the Friday this week. 

I chose this frame for my main set of glasses. I'm a 
bit disappointed in them - they're much larger than 
I thought they would be. I prefer a smaller lens. Still, 
they seem sturdy and well made, so I just won't 
re-order this frame again. 

My two sets of Zenni.com glasses arrived yesterday. Now that I have glasses I can actually use to see with, I can send my favorite frames off to LensesRX and get them re-lensed. When those arrive, I can shelve the Zenni.com glasses on a shelf for emergencies. I'm not fond of the frame I chose for the main pair, they're too large for my face. But the computer glasses aren't bad. Either way, though, it's the lenses I really needed - the frames don't matter. I'm happy to have an up-to-date prescription again, it was sorely needed. 

I chose this lens for my computer glasses. I do like 
this frame - it's a good size and shape. Still, I like 
my specialty frames much better, and will be happy 
to get them back with my updated prescription. 
I'll make do with these two for a while, but they're 
not in my "favorites" list. 

The modem switchover went relatively smoothly. I had to phone Comcast and work with them to get it recognized properly, but it's happy now, lit happily in the corner with my Fing keeping guard on the castle walls. Now I won't have to worry about the modem for a few more years, and it's even 5G capable, if we ever manage to move out of the cave-bear age in my little corner of suburbia. I swear, we have the worst upload and download speeds in the nation - like watching honey move down a wall. 

On that note, I need a cup of tea. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thursday and I plan on being back tomorrow. As always, please be kind, stay safe, and wear your mask. 

Electronics - The Bane and Boon of My Existence

When I want to check the weather now-a-days, I click the "Weather Channel" icon on my phone. It's usually fairly accurate, except it keeps placing me in Milwaukee, Wisconsin instead of home in Minnesota. It's set to always use my current location, but more often than not, I check, then look more closely and realize it's moved me across Wisconsin once again. Stupid electronics! I'd be a lot warmer right now if I was in Milwaukee. Instead, I'm in 15 degree temps right now, creeping up to a few degrees above freezing. 

There are five hours of travel between St Paul (left)
and Milwaukee (right). But my Weather Channel app 
keeps on trying to place my location in Milwaukee 
instead of back home in St Paul. Sometimes I don't 
catch it right away and wonder why my weather 
doesn't look like their description. *sigh* Silly machine! 

When I order Subway sandwiches on-line, their program consistently pushes my location approximately 15-20 miles south. I always have to change it back to my suburb and the location of my preference. I only order from one computer, and it's a desktop - doesn't go a-wandering or walk-about, but Google consistently claims I'm not at the location where I actually am. 

I'm sure most of my readers have heard about 
the aboriginal "walk-about" in Australia. Did 
you know there is a quilting pattern that's also 
called "Walkabout"? It's quite lovely, isn't it? 

It does make me wonder, though. As we progress through human intelligence into cyber-intelligence, are we really gaining anything? The military talks about flying planes remotely half a world away. That's great for our military forces - people won't be in harm's way, they'll be in a control room flying as if they were in a video game. But if there are problems with locations similar to what I experience with Google and the Weather Channel, what's good for the operator may be deadly for the non-combatant citizens who may end up as collateral damage because of poor location plotting abilities. 

I grew up with this style of telephone. It was bulky, 
heavy, and there were two options - desktop 
or wall mounted. I still remember my telephone 
number from when I was a kid - before area 
codes. I also remember that we had a party line 
for our Aspen house phone. That phone was a 
wall mounted style. 

When we were kids, we all learned our addresses and our phone numbers. It was drilled into us by our parents in case we ever got separated in a mall, at a fair, or just trying to get home in a rainstorm. We knew where we were, what was around us, and how to get from Point A to Point B in our neighborhoods. We knew what bus to catch to go shopping; either the broader area or even downtown. We didn't need to ask Google, that option was far in the future. Heck, we still had telephones with actual dials and heavy receivers that were wired to the walls. 

I might grumble about my electronics sometimes, but 
really? I can't imagine being without my little black 
box of magic at all. I read on it, play games on it, text 
back and forth with DH and friends on it. I keep in 
touch with the world with it, and even call people if
I have to. I'm quite fond of my modern electronics. 

Have we improved our options because of our electronics? I'm not sure ... I certainly can't give it a 100% "Oh Yeah!" cheer. But, there is so much to love about the world we live in today, even compared to only 20-30 years ago. I'll choose today, thank you. I'll take my phone, remind it that I don't live in Milwaukee, check my weather, play my games, and read my books. All on one small light-weight black box of magic that I carry with me at all times. Life is good. Have a wonderful day and please, be kind, stay safe, and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Old Isn't Always Bad - Why I Still Own and Use Dinosaurs

I've already established that I'm a dinosaur - I don't mind that. I'm old and so are dinosaurs, and I've always loved them since I was a small child. I'm a bit of a dinosaur electronically too. Although I operate a lot of different computers for work and for home, nothing is more recent than Windows 8, several are still Windows 7, and I'm still working with Win98 at the shop because that's what our semi-broken inventory program requires. 

The computers that run my shop are Win98 and I have 
two of them. They're chugging along, not as well 
as they used to, but still there. The inventory program 
itself has developed quirks over the years, and we have 
various work-arounds that we do. But it still functions, and 
the thought of re-entering 50,000+ items into a new 
program? No. No way. Not going to happen! 

My Email is also a bit of a dinosaur. Although I use Gmail on my Android phone, on my computers I run AOL. Yes, the same AOL that sent discs through the mail for each update for years and years. Billions and billions of them, more than likely. But I like AOL because it has some features I haven't found on any other email program yet. Primary of these features is the ability to delete mail, but get it back if needed. That's been a real life saver sometimes. I get hundreds of emails in an average week, and every once in a while I'll hit DELETE when I don't mean to. That single feature has more than paid for itself over the years. 

DH still uses the stock photos for Windows 7 as his 
splash screen for his home computer. I, on the other 
hand, have a file of photographs - Egyptian monuments, 
glaciers, Hubble photos, etc - that I use as a rotating 
background splash screen on mine. 

I love old fashioned crafts - although I'm not doing any beading right now, I have done a lot of it over the years. I also sew, and lately I've been getting back into my fiber arts - weaving, spinning and now (with my new knitting machine), knitting. I'm having a lot of fun with my crafts, and that's really the important thing because if you have spare time, you want to spend it doing something you consider worth the time. 

My laptop runs Windows 8 which has this screen 
as a default. I like it, but I only see it long enough 
to get to my next screens and start work.

The thing is - all of these dinosaur computers I operate
are on and operational every single day. (Except I
don't turn on the shop computers on Sunday.) They
might be old, but they still work and they're still
something we depend on daily. 

And of course, there are books - hundreds and thousands of books that I've read or that I have on my electronic TBR list. I stopped buying physical books, with a very short list of exceptions, several years ago. I buy my books electronically, usually on Barnes & Noble's Nook format, very rarely on Amazon's Kindle format. My preference for B&N also makes me a dinosaur, but with 1900+ ebooks in my NookBook library, I'm not switching over to a different format now. . 

My phone is also a bit of a dinosaur, 
although not quite as much as my 
computers are. I use a Google 
Pixel 2. It's paid off, and I've been thinking 
about upgrading, but it still seems to 
work fine, and I'd rather save the 
money for a bit longer. So I'll stay 
with it at least until next year. 
I use a standard splash screen 
choice on it. 

To wrap this exploration into prehistory down, there's room for dinosaurs in this world. Not everything needs to be cutting edge, it just needs to work well and work properly. My computers might be old, but they do exactly what I need them to do. My Email program and my ebooks format are old, but they work exactly the way I want them to. My crafts might be old fashioned, but I can make beautiful things and make myself and other people happy with them. My phone still manages to connect me with the people I want to talk to and disconnect the spam. It's also a wonderfully entertaining device with my puzzle games and my ebooks at my fingertips. 

All things considered, being a dinosaur really isn't too bad. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Healing Thoughts, Shoes and Earbuds Recommendation

Thoughts of healing go out to my long-time friend Shirebound today, whose lovely dog Pippin has been fighting an infection and is in care at the Veterinarian. I'm hoping things turn around for poor Pippin quickly. It's always difficult to see the ones you love in pain, and her family has had enough of that this year already. 

I ordered one of the KIDS Bryn Twill shoes instead of
the ones I purchased a few days ago. The toe is much less
covered on this style, and I think my foot will fit the
shoe better. At least, that's the hope. The two I purchased
last week are getting returned today. 

On the shoe front, both pairs of KEDS are being returned to Zappos today, and two different pairs are on their way to me - this time sets with a much different look that I hope will feel better with my crazy feet. This is why I shop for shoes with Zappos - free shipping to me, and free returns to them for a full year! It usually doesn't take me very long to know that a shoe won't fit me properly, but I often will have to try 6-8 pairs before finding one that's good. For those of you with good feet who adore shoes, I envy you. I have horrid feet and can rarely find a pair that actually is comfortable to wear. 

We have a variety of household fans. I use a box fan in
the computer room, and we have two round fans on stands
for the bedroom and living room. There's a desk-top
round fan in the guest bedroom for times when Sharon
comes to visit. 

We're in the middle of a heat wave right now, which leaves things uncomfortable. I think I'll enjoy my grocery shopping later today - the store has air conditioning, and that's very pleasant. I have A/C at my shop too, although we run it as rarely as we can get away with. Our utility bills are through the roof if we run it a lot. My home, however, does not have A/C. We live with fans in the rooms we are more frequently in - the living room, the bedroom and the computer room. The lower levels are usually fairly comfortable, but the upper levels can be an oven at times. Not good, but it's one aspect of summer that I don't like combined with a lot that I love. I'll tolerate no A/C. 

I bought a set of the TOZO wireless bluetooth earbuds on
the recommendation of a friend. I love them and I'm passing
the recommendation on to you. I chose the beige color, and
they're almost invisible in my ears, but they have a variety
of colors available. The sound is great, I get a lot of play
time on a charge, and the recharger is so convenient. 

On the recommendation side, I purchased a set of TOZO T10 Bluetooth earbuds a couple of weeks ago and have been using them a lot. I'm recommending them to you, if you're looking for a good pair, because the price was right and they're working like a dream. They're waterproof  rated IPx8 and I could wear them in the pool, but getting any Bluetooth signal in the pool is always iffy, and since they're wireless, they would be too easy to lose. I have wired headsets for my music and audio books in the pool, and they'll be used again starting on Tuesday when I can return to the gym. (I'd be there on Monday, but I have a dental checkup that conflicts Monday morning.) 

On that note, I'm off to start my day. Have a fabulous one and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Doom, Gloom and Destruction - Electronics Style

Yesterday was better for tech in my life, but what a horrible several days! I'm so happy they seem to be over. I ended up working through the sign-on to the Business portion of Social Security with them on the phone with me just in case something went screwy. No faith, me! But everything actually went really smoothly and my questions were answered. I was able to get the data entered correctly and ready to print out. 

HOWEVER 

My printer at the shop, that had been warning me that it needed new ink soon, decided now was the time. I changed the requested ink cartridge and suddenly what had been aligned and beautiful printing, was corrupt, horrible, and unreadable. Call me unhappy once again. After fussing with it for more than half an hour, cleaning, testing, re-cleaning, aligning, etc., I finally gave up and decided to print the forms from home last night - which worked out fine. 

I have an old Epson NX-420 at the shop. We don't do a lot of
printing there, so it's fine, and it's been used and abused for years.
I might have to declare it dead, although I'm still going to try
a few things today to see if I can get a few more months of
printing from it. 

That left me with a single program that wasn't opening on my home computer. Unfortunately, it's one I use every day and really can't be without. I can access it on the laptop, but the laptop is MUCH slower, and I am not patient with that. Additionally, the desktop is really where I need to be accessing it. 

This is NOT what I want to see when I'm trying to access
a program. It took a while (it's an old program and I had
to do some digging), but I finally was able to download a
new copy of the program and it seems to be operating
correctly now. Thank goodness! 

After research it came back as a corrupted file, so I had to do some digging and eventually found a link to download the version of it that I use once again. After downloading copy number 2, it seemed to operate correctly once again. I left it open overnight (didn't want to be caught short this morning when I needed to access it), but it now seems to be restored. I guess the trial by fire will be tonight after I've shut the main computer down for the day. If it is still accessible and still opens correctly, then I might finally have resolved all of the computer issues of the weekend - minus the printer mess which I will try to work on during the day today. 

I'm putting away my tiny violin of saga and doom and
trying to resume my crazy life once again. I still have
to finalized the taxes, but as long as my electronics
stays together, it'll be a breeze. 

So, I'm putting away my violin, the saga is over and I will allow life, such as it is, to return to normal once more. Electronics - the things I love to hate! They may drive me crazy, but I'm married to them. Come to think of it, I suppose my marriage could also fall under that basic description. Have a wonderful Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Wednesday - Busy But Good

Today is a very busy morning, followed by a more "sedate" afternoon. Somewhat, at least. That's the goal. I start out by going to the "other" gym because I have a 7:15 am appointment to get my car looked at and I would rather drive to the far ends of the city at 4:30 am than at 6:30 am. Construction - the bane of easy access to anywhere in my metro area - is in full bloom. I'm trying to avoid it. 

Winter is over and Road Construction season is in full bloom.
Orange and black are NOT my favorite colors. 

After the car gets done, I can start my day - grocery shopping and lots of laundry loads. I suspect I'll be drying my final load around dinnertime tonight. It's a crazy day. Still, it could be much worse. The weather will be wonderful and we'll have one of the warmer days of our Spring weather. 

I've been using Spotify for less than a year now, but
I really like it. I can access it at my gym, but it's
easier for me to just use the app on my phone. 

I'll have my earbuds and phone with me, so I can plug into Spotify while I exercise and afterward at the car place. There's nothing quite as boring as a car place when you're waiting for work to be completed, so I can read and listen to music while I wait. 

I have a small Uninterruptible Power Supply from APC on
my computer, and a larger one on DH's computer since his
is on the side of the room where more electronics are located. 

I must have had a power surge last night because my UPS was beeping a continuous beep when I got down to the computer room this morning. I shut it down and then restarted, and it seems to be fine now. I'm crossing my fingers that it remains that way. It's always annoying when it goes off, although it's doing exactly what it's supposed to. 

Happy Wednesday to all of you, and have a great day! 

So have an excellent Wednesday. I'll finally be able to talk with Aearwen late this afternoon after two weeks of messed-up schedules. I can hardly wait to catch up with what's been happening with her. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Sometimes Electronics Is A PITA!

I'm having electronics problems in my life - little things that are driving me CRAZY. Two major ones right now are the issue with my "N" key on my computer keyboard and a problem with my phone. Both are pretty important. 

It's hard to write smoothly without a
reliable "N: key. It's used in so many words! 

The "N" key on my computer keyboard is working every other time I push it. Hmmm .... Have you ever thought about or calculated how many times the letter "N" is used in the English language? It is the 5th most frequently used letter in English - that's a lot of relying on a key that is wonky. Argh. For now, I'm typing with greater care and a bit less speed and that's catching almost all of the non-appearances, but it a word looks wrong to you, the reader, I might have missed a missing "N". It's not quite bad enough to justify purchasing a new keyboard, though. I'm going to try and hang onto this one for a bit longer. 

I love my phone. I have it with me all the
time. The fact that it isn't working properly
is really bothering me - a LOT. It's getting
worse, so I'm hoping my local computer
repair store can replace the charging
coupling. It will be less expensive than
buying a new phone. 

My phone, on the other hand, is becoming a much different problem and that's always a very expensive thing to replace. I love my Motorola Droid Turbo 2. I've been using Motorola phones for more than a decade and they work really well for me. But the charging receptacle in my phone has gong wonky and I have to fuss and fight to get the phone to accept a charge. I can't be without a phone, so this is a serious problem. 

ARGH!!!!! I adore my electronics, but hate it when they
won't work the way they are supposed to. 

I'm going to take some time at the shop today (provided I can eventually get the phone to charge back up once more), take screenshots of my icon arrangements and notes about my icon clusters, and tomorrow, I'll take a look at phones at my local Verizon store. I am not due for an upgrade until later this year, so I'd have to pay off my "old" phone in order to get my "new" phone. I really don't want a new phone, so I'm also wondering how difficult it would be to get a new female charging coupling replaced in my current phone. The problem with that is I might have to leave the phone, and I can't do that. The phone is my emergency contact for too many things and it's with me pretty much 24/7. 

I'm hoping for a repair, though. I've set up an appointment for 10:00 am tomorrow morning at a local computer and phone repair store, that just happens to be in the same shopping center as my Verizon store. If they can't fix my phone, I guess I'll go down the block and shop for a new one. I really hope they can fix my phone, though. Much easier and less expensive that way. 

When everything works well, it's like music. Today, things
seem a bit discordant, instead. *sigh*

What the heck did we all do before smartphones, computers, and these wonderful communication devices that allow us to make friends across the world? There is so much good that can happen because of those hands reaching out and contacting each other. Of course, not everything is daisies and lollipops - communication is as two-edged as any other sword. But I think the more we know about each other, the fewer monsters live in the closets. So, on that note, have a wonderful Tuesday. I'm hoping I won't be driving on ice to the gym today - we had freezing mist last night, so ice is a distinct possibility. I just might grab a walking stick for extra stability today. 

Electronics - My Own Personal Mountains to Climb

My Computer Guru simply rocks! He had DH's computer up and running within 1/2 hour and because it was such an old part that he had "just sitting on a shelf for the past year-and-a-half", he didn't even charge me. I agreed to read some inter-faith research he's been compiling, but that's no problem at all - it's actually interesting stuff that he's really gone in-depth with. Should be very different from my usual reading material.

Today's stage leaves the hills of central France and goes into the
"flats" in preparation for Wednesday and Thursday's challenge
of the Alps. We're getting down to the final few days and with
less than 30 seconds separating the top three riders, anything
can happen. 

I'm putting today's Le Tour de France out into the world right now before returning to the next step in my electronic issues. Today we're moving into the flats before hitting the first of two days in the Alps tomorrow. Today is the final sprinter's stage, with a good run into the final kilometers for the stage win. The peaks along the way are only Cat 3 and Cat 4, so not the challenge of the past week or of the days to come. It should be a good day.

Now - to continue the electronics saga. The new video card works beautifully, but refused to recognize DH's old monitor - so I ended up pulling my monitor over and giving that to him. He hates it - it's bigger and wider - but he'll have to deal. That left the new monitor that I purchased as an emergency "just in case" on Saturday for me. EXCEPT, it uses a different connection to the CPU and I don't have an adapter plug. *sigh* The plugs are common, and I was sure I had one or more than one, but I can't put my hands on it. So, the new monitor is sitting in the other room waiting for me to pick up an adapter at the office supply company this morning. Hopefully I can get everything properly connected tonight and have two functional computers once again. Then my only problem will be the fact that my printer seems to have decided not to communicate with either computer. OY!

Have a wonderful Tuesday and think kind thoughts while I wrestle with my varied electronic devices. I'm seeing the finish line, but I'm not quite there yet.