Monday, June 01, 2026

IT HASN'T OCCURRED TO ME YET

Andrew popped over Sunday evening and finished refining my Eastlink TV provider's 'stand by' problem.  Although my newly installed SiriusXM channels play continuously with no standby interruptions, my Eastlink channels were still going into 'standby mode' ever two hours.  To solve this problem, Andrew hooked up an 'Apple Box' gizmo that I had recently purchased and this has basically turned my smart television into an even smarter, Apple Television.  It was no easy task, having once again to use passwords, verification numbers, my iPhone, and even my laptop.  But Andrew, very methodically and patiently worked through each step and challenge along the way.  With all the trouble I've had in this past year and a half with passwords and stuff, I never thought we'd make it.  But luck was on our side, and the passwords I entered for SiriusXM, Eastlink, Apple, and Microsoft, all seemed to somehow magically work.  I could hardly believe that they did.  Instead of me just sitting and watching Andrew do everything, he had me operating the new Apple remote for much of the whole operation, which probably took well over half an hour to complete.  So, it's a different way of doing things now with the new Apple system and remote.  But, by golly, I'm getting on to it, despite my continuing memory challenges.  Andrew has also offered to come over and install Amazon Prime (movies) and YouTube.  Incidentally, YouTube is one of my Aunt Jean's favorite things on her TV way down there in that Sarasota, Florida place.  So, again a big thank you to Andrew for all his patience, his wealth of knowledge, and his time in helping with this overall TV problem that I had been enduring for quite a while now.  I marvel at his calm demeanor and ease in working through what seemed to me to be one big huge schmozzle of mind-numbing techno stuff. 

 THE WHITE BOX ON THE LEFT IS EASTLINK'S EERO BOX AND THE SMALL BLACK BOX ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE IS THE APPLE BOX....IN BETWEEN IS A LONG BLACK BOSE SOUNDBAR

With a full Moon scheduled to rise a short time after 10 p.m. Sunday night, I slipped out to my night sky spot and took a few photos.

I skipped my walk this morning because I had a few household chores I wanted to wrap up before the Inspector General arrived later.  Vacuuming, dishes, laundry, and some dusting.  Outside, I fired up the leaf blower and blew all the peanut shells off the front porch and deck that had accumulated from my little Chipmunk Pals, leaving them behind.  Of course, it hasn't occurred to me yet that if I didn't feed the little monkeys peanuts out there, I wouldn't have that messy problem.
 A ROW OF OSAGE ORANGE TREES ALONGSIDE THE ROAD
Woodsy rolled in somewhere around 1 p.m., and luckily, the house and I passed inspection with barely a shaky quiver on my part.  All was good, but of course....why wouldn't it be.  It didn't take us long to saddle up our E-Bikes and head on into Bayfield on this sunny, warm, but windy cool Monday afternoon.  We stopped at the Shop Bike Coffee Roasters for coffee and sat outside along Main Street.  It was chilly in the shade.  From there, we headed for the south end of Bayfield to a mobile home Park called, Paul Bunyan Lakeside Resort.  After a ride through Paul Bunyan, and with the wind blowing from the northwest, it was a long and sometimes quite chilly ride all the way back home.  Probably about three miles.  But, it was okay and just nice to get out on the bikes and get some much-needed leg exercise.  And, keep in mind that these are E-Bikes, which means one does not have to pedal if one does not want to.  The bikes have battery power and can be pedaled manually, or power-assisted while pedaling, or full on power with no pedaling.  We always ride with the 'power assist' on, so sometimes our legs add the power, and sometimes the bike's battery supplies the power. These E-Bikes are somewhere between a manual bicycle and a motorcycle.  And, by golly, I have now had experience with all three.

 PARKED IN FRONT OF THE COFFEE SHOP

I think Aunt Jean, who will be turning 99 in about six weeks, is mixing it up in Sarasota Florida's manic traffic chaos again.  Aunt Jean's best friend Pat, somewhere in her mid-eighties, fell and broke her hip and right wrist last week and is currently hospitalized, and possibly staring down the barrel of a lengthy re-hab.  She offered Jean the use of her car while she is recuperating.  This will enable Jean to still go a few places on her own, like her hairdresser, and the bank, etc.  Aunt Jean does not like having to depend on people to do things for her.  Hmmm, that seems to run in our family.  A friend of Jean and Pat was going to drive Jean over to Pat's place Saturday morning for Jean to pick up Pat's car.  I haven't heard anything different since Friday night so I'm assuming Aunt Jean has been out there in that Sarasota traffic showing the young folks how to drive.  She is an excellent driver, by the way, because Kelly and I rode with her a few times, nearly a decade ago, when we twice decided to drop in to see her either on our way to the southwest or on our way home.  I think I posted some pictures of that about three months ago or so.

 THERE ARE TWO PLANETS IN THIS iPHONE PHOTO...JUPITER ON THE FAINTER LEFT AND VENUS ON THE LOWER BRIGHTER RIGHT
Al's Music Box:: Under The Boardwalk by The Drifters.


GROANER'S CORNER:(( A c
ouple in their nineties are both having problems remembering things. 
During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're physically okay, but they might want ton start writing things down to help them remember. Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair.'Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?' he asks. 'Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?' 'Sure.' 'Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?' she asks. 'No, I can remember it.' Well, I'd like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down, so's not to forget it?' He says, 'I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.' 'I'd also like whipped cream. I'm certain you'll forget that, write it down?' she asks. Irritated, he says, 'I don't need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!' Then he toddles into the kitchen. After about 20 minutes, The old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs. She stares at the plate for a moment and asks, 'Where's the toast ?'

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- What do you call a four-foot-tall psychic that escaped from jail? A small medium at large.

- If Shakespeare were alive today, he'd write Oil Wells that End Well.
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An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled, "Stop! Acts 2:38!" (Repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.) The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done.
As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture at you." "Scripture?" replied the burglar. "She said she had an ax and two 38's!"
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Al's Art Gallery










Sunday, May 31, 2026

MUSIC PLAYING SOFTLY AND UNINTERUPTINGLY IN THE BACKGROUND

I recently blogged about the trouble I've been having with my TV automatically going into 'Stand By' mode every two hours and how frustrating that has been, with seemingly no way to change that with the new equipment our internet company had installed.  I am accustomed to sleeping all night with soft music in the background, and that wasn't happening anymore.  And, anytime I wasn't home or was outside for two hours and walked back in the house, it was walking into a tomb.  For me, the silence was deafening.  What to do, what to do!!  Enter my good neighbor Andrew, who came over Saturday night and wrestled my TV problem to the ground.  And here's the added bonus, he was also able to, through a lot of complicated wrangling involving passwords, and log-ins, etc, and more etc's, find and install SiriusXM on my TV.  And there it was, my favorite channel, 'The Spa'.  But, we weren't out of the woods yet.  Would the TV still go into its dreaded 'stand-by' mode after two hours??  We both felt it would:((  It didn't with the XM music channel, but it still did with the Eastlink TV channels stuff so Andrew came back this evening and made more changes, which I will talk about tomorrow.  But last night, I blissfully slept all night with my soothingly soft ambient meditative music playing softly and uninteruptingly in the background:)))

A QUIET SUNDAY MORNING ON THIS FARM
THIS FELLOW IS GOING TO DO SOME SPRAYING THIS MORNING
 HERE'S A FARM LADY USHERING SOME HORSES FROM ONE PASTURE, ACROSS THE FARM LANEWAY TO ANOTHER PASTURE
 HORSES?  WHAT ARE HORSES??
 ROADSIDE FLOWERS
And yet another beautiful late May day, I thought to myself, walking along my country road this morning.  I followed that with a slow drive around the lush countryside.  Everything is growing full tilt right now.  So lush and so green.

 SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A GOOD FRIEND TO GIVE YOU A LITTLE PUSH TO GET YOU GOING
 A FEW MORE PICS FROM MY FRONT PORCH THIS AFTERNOON
 HEY IS THAT DARTH VADER IN THE FRONT YARD
A short drive into Bayfield this afternoon netted me a foot-long hot dog and a small ice cream cone at the Woodland Drive-In.  A few photos down around the beach area as well.

ONE SAILBOAT AND A GROUP GATHERING A FEW HUNDRED YARDS OFF SHORE AS SEEN FROM PIONEER PARK
 A SAILBOAT HEADS DOWN THE BAYFIELD RIVER HEADING FOR THE OPEN WATERS OF LAKE HURON
Al's Music Box:(( She's Got You by Patsy Cline.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Rick, fresh out of accounting school, went to a interview for a good paying job. The company boss asked various questions about him and his education, but then asked him, "What is three times seven?" "22," Rick replied.
After he left, he double-checked it on his calculator (he *knew* he should have taken it to the interview!) and realized he wouldn't get the job. About two weeks later, he got a letter that said he was hired for the job! He was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but was still very curious. The next day, he went in and asked why he got the job, even though he got such a simple question wrong. The boss shrugged and said, "Well, you were the closest."
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An 8 year old girl went to the office with her father on 'Take your kid to work Day'.
As they walked round the office she started crying and getting cranky. Her father asked what was wrong. As the staff gathered round she sobbed loudly, "Daddy, where are all the clowns you said you worked with?"
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Its been a couple of years since I actually worked in an office, so I thought I should do something to prepare to get back into the typing, filing and phone answering, and what not. So what I did was I had a friend of mine go with me down to the local swimming pool, and I had him tie me up in a burlap sack and sink me to the bottom of the pool. And then just as I was about to suffocate, he yanked me up and gave me a lunch break.


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Al's Art Gallery