I'm Not in Trouble

I went to the cardiologist's office today to see Mary the Nurse Practitioner and I didn't get in trouble. She didn't like the idea that I was shoveling snow, but didn't give any guidance on how I could remove it without shoveling. My blood pressure is good, my blood work was good, so I'm allowed to keep going for the time being, but I should be very careful shoveling snow. Hopefully, that won't be a concern for too much longer.

I have been spending my time trying to organize pictures on Anne's new computer. We transferred a lot of files from her old one and somehow, there were a lot of duplicate pictures. There were over 2,800 of them and I had to delete each one individually. Not a fun job. I think I have things in some order and now I am setting about to organize them so that they are easier to find.

I'm In Trouble Come Tuesday

Yes, I will be in trouble. That is if I turn myself in I'll be in trouble. I have to go there, but I don't have to tell on myself, do I? But, then, what's the point of going if I'm not going to be honest. I hope I don't get recalled or sent away for evaluation. They like to evaluate me though. They always come up with something to do to me. But, this appointment is with the nurse practitioner, not the cardiologist. She's a tough cookie and won't let me slide, so I don't know what will happen if I tell her about the snow shoveling that I did today and will probably do tomorrow.

I did a little more shoveling than I thought because a sheer bolt on my snow blower broke so that only half of the tines were actually pushing snow. I thought something wasn't right, but I realized that when I engaged the tines (you have to keep your hand on the lever), I couldn't see around to the front to see if both sides were working. I had to have Anne come to the window to look at it from the house. Fortunately, I had another sheer bolt, but I had already put the machine away, so I just finished shoveling by hand. I have replaced the bolt, so now I'm, hopefully, ready for tomorrow and, hopefully, tomorrow's snow will be not as heavy as today's. If it's heavy, I'll really be in trouble on Tuesday.

Monkeys in the Cellar

There were two monkeys in our cellar yesterday and today and they can even do jig saw puzzles. We had Timmy and Bridget overnight last night as their parents went skiing at Camelback. At one point, Timmy said to me, "Grampy, can we climb the poles?" I said, "Sure, you can try." I thought it was just something they would like to be able to do, but wouldn't. I turned around and, both of them were climbing like monkeys up and down the poles. Later I mentioned to Timmy that we had monkeys in the cellar climbing on the poles and he said, "No, Grampy, that was just us."

We had a jig saw puzzle set up on the table in the cellar which Anne and I have been periodically working on. It has 500 pieces and for persons 12 and older. I had actually set it out because a few weeks ago we had some company and I thought that maybe someone would like to try their hand at it. It is one of those puzzles with an irregular border and is a little complicated so I haven't found it very easy, although I did find the challenge enjoyable. We had the puzzle about three quarters completed when two five year old monkeys descended upon it and finished it up in about fifteen minutes. Anne asked how they were able to do it so fast. Did they look at the colors or the shapes, or what? They said they looked at the shapes. Well I've been looking at the shapes and the colors too.

We also painted two bird houses that we had in the attic. The twins did a very nice job and hopefully some bird families will think so too.

This has been a rough week for me and we didn't even get the next round of snow yet. Sunday, I was eating some snacks including some nuts and found that a part of a tooth had broken off. I saved it and went to the dentist on Monday. I gave him the piece and said that if he would just be good enough to glue it back on, I would be on my way. Unfortunately, he said they wouldn't work and now I have an appointment scheduled for next Friday for a root canal. In our family, this is not supposed to happen to me. It is Anne who has all the appointments with the dentist, endodontist and and oral surgeon. I still have all of my original teeth with no bridges, aqueducts, canals or anything, so it is very traumatic for me to have to go through this. Today, I went to the dermatologist for my two month checkup and in addition to finding more spots on my face to squirt with liquid nitrogen, she took another biopsy. The last two times they have taken biopsies they have been negative, but I have had to have several surgeries on my face, so I don't like the idea of another biopsy. I have an appointment with my cardiologist on Tuesday. I feel okay and I'm hoping my luck is better there. Well, I think it was Red Buttons who said that you know that you're getting old when all the names in your little black book end in MD.

My one year old grandson, Tyler, gave me a hat that says, "Old Guys Rule." He knows.

Four Months More / Snow Blower / Computers

According to the Charlie Gibson/Bill Bradley formula for retirement, one should wait about nine months to decide what to do with the rest of ones life. It is about five months since I have retired, so I have four months more of reading and thinking left to decide if I want to climb Mount Everest, or to continue on with the reading and thinking. I think I won't climb Mount Everest, but I might like to read about someone else doing it. Oh my, have I become so complacent, such a couch potato? My friend, Angela, mentioned that she and her husband, Bob, were planning an overnight in New Hope with a visit to a nice restaurant and wine tasting. That sounds so much more civilized than getting all dressed against the cold and trudging up the side of a mountain, although, I imagine that like apres ski, you could have an apres mountain drink by the fireplace in some lodge. I'll think about it.

I believe that I mentioned in an earlier post that my snow blower has been running rough of late. The carburetor probably needs cleaning and maybe it needs a new spark plug. To clean the carburetor will require either, sending it off to some service to do it, or to do it myself. I'm not a small engine expert by any means, but I think I could do it, given the time and without any pressure. Since we may get more snow Monday night into Tuesday, I think I will wait and hope for the best for now.

Anne got her new computer, but keeps using the old one. After the old one was giving us trouble, and we decided to get her a new one, I tried the old stand-by fix of unplugging the thing from the electric and from the cable, and it appears to have fixed it for the time being. The thing is seven years old so, even if it continues to chug along, I think it was time for a replacement. My computer, a Mac, seems to be slowing down and the screen seems positively dull compared to Anne's new one. Macs are nice, but expensive. Even taking into consideration the software that comes with the Mac, a laptop is still a lot more expensive than a PC laptop. I like the Mac, but do I like it that much more. After all, either a Mac or a PC will last just about the same amount of time with software updates constantly making everything obsolete. So, do I think about a Chevy or a Caddie? In terms of cars, I've usually found that a Chevy will do just fine to get from point A to point B. I don't have to make that decision just yet, because the Mac, despite being five years old, also keeps chugging along.

So, there, I have posted a post. There are those readers who were alarmed that I hadn't written anything for a week and were concerned about the state of my well being. My being is well and I will try to post more regularly. Generally, my life isn't that exciting that I think anyone else would be interested in what I'm doing or not doing. I think I don't want a life all that exciting that I feel compelled to write about it. But, I know my responsibilities to my public, so I will try to do better. By the way, public, you too could start a blog if you so desired. Your life is probably more interesting than mine. I must now again get busy reading and thinking and, I almost forgot, playing my banjo.

Verizon, Line Repair, Etc.

When the phone and cable lines fell down across the road on Wednesday night, the fire company told me to call the cable company and the phone company. I called the cable company and they were out the next day. I called the number for Verizon residential repair in the phone book and spent ten minutes on hold. When a real person came o, I explained the problem, gave my address and phone number and he said, after asking if there was any other Verizon service that I would like today, that he would transfer me to the repair service. I waited on line another ten minutes and was then disconnected. I went on line to the Verizon repair site, but when I tried to email them, I was told that they couldn't complete my request, why don't I call them. I'm glad I don't have FIOS or we would really be in trouble.

More Snow and The Olden Days, Almost

We had more snow last night, a lot more. Early yesterday, I had removed the mass of snow the plow had left in our alley blocking our garage. Anne went out in the afternoon and saw that it happened again. She saw the plow driver and told him about it. He said the next time he came through he would pile it the other way. She thought he was going to plow some of ours away, but, no, he just came through and piled another mass of snow on the other side of the alley. So, I had to remove it again. My body feels like I just spent a week at the Fitness Guru.

Last night, about 8:30, Anne said that there were police and fire trucks outside because our power line had fallen in the street and that our neighbor had no power. I thought that was odd since all the lights were on in the house and why should our power line falling have anything to do with our neighbor. I got on my coat, put on my boots, put on hat and gloves and went outside to have the fire company warn me to stay back because there was high voltage in the road, which was now blocked by the police to all traffic coming in both directions. Realizing that the power line wasn't down, I quickly determined that what had fallen were two old telephone lines and our cable line. When the fire company became convinced of the same thing, they simply cut the wires and traffic resumed.

I called the cable company at about 10:00 last night, got to talk to a human and was told someone would be out by 8:00p.m. tonight. At 4:00p.m. the Cablevision people arrived and put up a new wire in about an hour. Pretty good service, I think. However, their fast action deprived us of the opportunity to find out what it would have been like to live without TV, internet or phone. We do have a cell phone so Anne called our daughter to tell her so that she could pass the word in case any family member wanted to contact us. We also didn't get a newspaper today, so I said, "My gosh, we're actually going to have to talk to each other." The whole thing did make me wonder what we would do with ourselves all day without the now  traditional pastimes. I was reading a book, so I spent time doing that, played my banjo and, oh, how could I forget, shoveled snow. Hopefully, shoveling snow won't become a daily, winter occupation. What else would I do? I think I need another hobby.

Snow, Snow, Snow & Computers (or I Need a Drink)

Well, it is certainly snowing in ernest now (3:15p.m.). It snowed over night and I went outside to see if I should try to remove the wet snow. The walks were relatively easy, but when I came to the alley, it was another story. The plow had come through the alley during the night and contrary to prior practices, had piled the snow all on one side of the alley - ours. This left a three foot pile of wet snow that had to be removed before we could get cars out. My 9 h.p. snow blower had a tough time with it. I'm glad I did it though, because with the next round of snow that we're getting now, it might have been an impossible task.

Anne's computer has been acting strangely so we decided that it was time to replace the seven year old machine. I had thought that she might want a laptop, but she was pretty sure that a desktop was for her. Since she was the one using it, that was fine with me. Then I saw an ad for an Acer 23" all-in-one with a touch screen and she liked that. We went to Best Buy and saw an HP with a touch screen and she liked that. Then the next day we went to Staples and she saw the 17" laptops and thought one of those would be nice. Then we went back to Best Buy and saw an 18" Toshiba laptop which she liked. We went home and I found out everything that I could about that computer. Anne talked to Christine and I emailed my friend, Mary Jane, who counseled to use Google tools instead of Microsoft Office and to get a desk top. Anne decided to get the 18" laptop, so back to Best Buy we went and as we went in, what to her wondering eyes did appear at the end of an aisle, but a 15" Dell which had a superb picture on it. That's what we got and I have spent most of the time since, when not shoveling, transferring stuff from the old computer, downloading updates and doing all the stuff you apparently must do when getting a new computer. No wonder people are willing to pay the Geek Squad and similar outfits to do it for them. My gosh, is nothing easy or straightforward? I love it when you get a message that you need to download a certain program for which you are provided a link, but when you get to the page, Microsoft tells you it doesn't know what program you're talking about. I will not shovel anymore today, nor will I do anything more with the new computer today, I hope. I am having a drink and I think I deserve it.