Signs of Progress

Some of our landscaping items were delivered yesterday in preparation for the start of our project tomorrow AM. It wasn't much, but a good sign that things are beginning to happen. Stay tuned on that project.

Other signs of progress are on the football front. The new power rankings in the NFL were released and the Seahawks and the Cardinals both moved up two spots in the rankings. The Hawks are now #15 and the Cards are #28. I'm encouraged by the direction that each team is going. Also, the Bears are in better standing at #10 which will make Patty and Mark happy. They have a pretty good team this year.

Josie is getting along fine at work and worked over one extra hour yesterday. She is beginning to get a better feel for the job now and is liking the folks she works with which is super important - in any job. There is some concern about half the ownership - Wanda - as she is out a lot with illness. So far, Josie has not worked with her at all but has spent a lot of time with the second half of the ownership team - Stanley - who is responsible mostly for the delivery side of the business. She is absolutely loving her new commute!!...

Landscaping Bumped

The main activity yesterday turned out to be a rescheduling of our landscaping  project. Our landscaper stopped by in the morning and indicated that he needed to order some of the items he needed and would therefore begin work on Thursday morning. He estimated that it would take 2-3 days to complete the project once he started. We are definitely anxious to see it done.

Josie and I went to the rec center and played another round of miniature golf. She did much better than the last effort and I played to the same score as before. We have started a kind of competition where we will keep track of our scores and see how we improve. She is gaining on me, so I need to really concentrate on my game.

Sometime during the day Josie received a call from the shop owner asking if she can come in to work to help catch up with some orders. She didn't get the message until last night, so it was a shame she couldn't help yesterday. That is another problem with our AT&T service. Sometimes we don't get messages delivered to our phones until much later in the day. She is back to work today on her normal schedule...

A Couple Wins

A rare thing occurred yesterday in the 2018 NFL season. Both the Seahawks and the Cardinals won. The Cardinals beat the 49er's (18-15) for the second time this year for both their wins. If they could only play the 49er's every week, they could go undefeated. That game was ugly. The Seahawks, on the other hand, played a great game throughout not allowing the Detroit Lions to show any kind of momentum while winning 28-14. The Seahawks now have a winning record (4-3) for the first time this season and are showing signs of becoming a force in the league once again.

I failed to mention yesterday that Penn State won on Saturday against Iowa (30-24) in another squeaker. Once again, they couldn't put away a team after leading big late in the fourth quarter as they allowed Iowa to score and move the ball freely during the final minutes of the game.

We are expecting our landscaping project to begin this morning so I will keep updating the progress on that situation. Other than that, it is business as usual as we enjoy the second day off in a row for Josie...

Positive Job Feedback

The way Josie's new job is starting out, it appears to be a near perfect fit for her. She worked all day yesterday as an unscheduled day and enjoyed it more than any day in the last several months. Even though the owner is still out sick with the flu, the feedback she got yesterday was excellent. The owner's husband is always in as he is the primary delivery driver and he keeps complimenting her on her work. The coworkers are overjoyed with her and they are beginning see her worth to the business. Yesterday, Josie did normal arrangements to fill orders, did a funeral, one corsage and many arrangements (of all sizes) for the cooler. So far, so good. Even her commute cheered her as she drove herself without any stress. She is now off until Tuesday.

I had our landscaper out yesterday to talk about some planned changes to our back yard. He offered some nice options for us and we will go forward with some of those. Work will begin tomorrow on the first phase of what we have planned and I will provide photos - before and after - of the progress as it is completed during the week. Our goal, as mentioned before, is to "connect" our two patios and this will be an excellent solution toward that end...

Busy Shop

The second day for Josie at her new shop was a very busy one. She worked an hour over and will go in today - an unscheduled day - to help them get caught up. She is getting acclimated to the job and met more folks yesterday. The owner is still absent with the flu, so she hasn't had the opportunity yet to ask her about a couple of issues - the main one being the required early departure for Thanksgiving. One thing is for certain though, and that is that the shop is seeing that Josie is not just one dimensional (a great, and fast designer), but can do everything in the shop. I'm proud that she makes a difference everywhere she works. She is getting a taste of commuting herself today as I drove her the first two days. Wow, five minutes is a breeze.

So far, everything that I have tried to do on my new computer has worked. I really love it and hope that It continues to be a smooth transition. Today's schedule includes re-activating my anti-virus software. The system came with a demo copy of McAfee software which I am not so crazy about, so some research is in order...

Innaugural Day

Josie's first day of work at Sun City Florists was a successful and satisfying start to her new job. Although the owner was out sick with the flu, she had a very busy day, doing many arrangements, meeting a few of the employees and learning many of the shop procedures. The commute was fantastic! She is anxious to talk with the owner - hopefully today - to get a few things accomplished. The main thing is to get approval for taking the Wednesday off before Thanksgiving so that we can travel to Chicago for the Thanksgiving holidays. It is very encouraging after living through the bad experience with the AJ's situation. She will also get an opportunity to meet more employees today and to get a better feel for how things will work going forward.

I have been enjoying the time to get things organized on my new computer, Yesterday, I spent a lot of time organizing my music on the new system. The sound quality on this system is so much better than the old system that I will make better use of that feature. This system has Bang & Olufsen speakers and they are superb! The next big project will be to organize all of my photos which promises to be a long and tedious effort. That is because I have photos from many different sources and formats that need to be organized. It will be a fun exercise - I hope.

In the meantime, the golf course re-seeding is moving along nicely. Below are a couple shots of the frequent watering that is taking place following the seeding application:

Anxious Moments

The anxiety is building for Josie as she starts her first day at Sun City Florists today. She is entering this experience with a different kind of attitude than she had with AJ's. First of all, there is very little - 5 minutes - commute, and secondly, it is a flower shop where she feels much more comfortable. I drove her to work this morning just to help relieve some stress and to make sure there were no surprises when she got there. We hope for the best and I will review her first day tomorrow.

We played a round of miniature golf at our rec-center yesterday. It is the third round for us and I have improved each time. Josie had a rough front nine and, even though she improved dramatically on the back nine, she didn't have her best round. It is fun to play and the fact it so close and free, it is a great form of entertainment. Our next goal is to try the bowling alley which is also part of the rec-center. That will be interesting as neither of us has bowled in about 20 years.

It is very quiet around our golf course these days as we watch the work crews during the re-seeding project. It's easy to see where the most seed has been spread as that is where the birds are congregating. There will be no play on the course until November 10...

Monthly Bout With AT&T

Well, we received our monthly bill yesterday from AT&T for our phone service. Once again, for the sixth month in a row, I have to call them to fix the same problem. I was assured by the representative that I spoke with last month that the problem was permanently fixed. I don't know what buttons they push when I call, but it is just another example of the rampant incompetence in this country. There is $65 extra each month that they are charging us for equipment and services that were included at no charge in our sign-up contract. Unfortunately, we still have 1.5 years on the contract before we can pitch them.

While talking about AT&T problems, we are also still having the same problem with DirecTV (now part of AT&T) that we have been having for the same amount of time. Our recorded list of programs is not complete without resetting the receiver each time we want to view the list. This is the problem where they implemented a software fix to eliminate the problem, and the software fix didn't work. Otherwise, we love DirecTV.

Enough on the AT&T rant. Today is Josie's final day off before starting her new job. We plan to just enjoy the day by visiting the rec center again and playing the round of miniature golf that we were too tired to play yesterday following our exercise. We also get to enjoy watching the new grass grow on the golf course.

I also received an unexpected $42 rebate from the purchase of our gas grill two months ago. The free service (Paribus) that we signed up for spotted a price reduction and sent us the email with the instructions on how to claim our refund which I did in less than 5 minutes. Great service!...

Voted

After watching a sickening number of "bashing" political ads on TV and one debate that was televised, we filled out our early ballot and sent it in yesterday. It is really sad that there isn't some control over the ads that appear on TV. Almost all of the ads are about why you should not vote for their opponent rather than why you should vote for them. There are two weeks to go before the election when we can finally get rid of these woeful ads. The real pity is all the money that is being wasted on so many ads, shown over and over, that could be put to better use.

We did some outdoor gardening yesterday to "kick-off" the Fall season. There are about 20 cactus seedlings that have popped up in our back yard that are obviously the result of birds "pooping" the seeds all over the yard. We dug out some good ones and transplanted them in pots, and threw away the rest. I hope they grow fast enough for us to enjoy.

There are two more days before Josie begins her new job and we will be trying to do some things that help her get mentally ready. One thing we have planned for today is to go to the rec center to do some exercising and playing some miniature golf while there. The main golf course is now closed for a couple of weeks while the re-seeding takes place. It is quite an operation to watch...

Looking Ahead

For a long time we have been looking forward to Patty and her family coming out to visit us over the Thanksgiving Holiday. At least, we were looking at Patty, Mark and the twins coming out for Thanksgiving. We were not able to put together that plan and decided it would be a lot cheaper if Josie and I would fly to Chicago and spend the Thanksgiving weekend with her family. That would also include Austin and Michael who would not have made it to Arizona for the weekend. So, we purchased the tickets yesterday for our trip to Chicago which will be from November 21-25. It will be the first time we have spent Thanksgiving together with her entire family since I can remember.

One thing we are hoping for during that visit is - nice weather. It should be before the worse part of winter hits (snow) so we are obviously looking forward to a great trip.

Josie is recovering nicely from the last couple weeks of physical problems. She begins her new job at Sun City Florists on Thursday, so she is getting herself mentally prepared for a wonderful, new experience...

Crazy Season

The football games yesterday were full of surprises. Actually, there were only two games that I will mention here. The Penn State Game was a disappointment - again- as, even though they won, 33-28, they tried very hard to give away the game for the third straight week. They had a 12 point lead with 4 minutes to play and the game ended with Indiana on the 30 yard line of Penn State. Like I said before, they just can't seem to put away a team when they have the lead.

Number 2 Ohio State lost in a route by unranked Purdue, 49-20. Wow. I would say that, once again, the class of college football is Alabama who just rolls along each week, stomping every team they play.

This weekend will be a lonely one as far as my favorite pro teams. The Cardinals and the Seahawks are off today.

Our Sunday is wide open today following our attendance at church. Tomorrow is the scheduled over-seeding on our golf course which means it will be closed to golfers until November 10. They sure do take good care of these golf courses as they were out at 4 AM this morning with preparations for the project. It will be nice to see the real green grass again in a couple weeks...

Good Results

The appointment with Josie's doctor yesterday was kind of short, but very good. The test results and cat-scan were confirmation that she had Diverticulitis and she had already begun the antibiotic. She is feeling much better already and the only outstanding problem now is her lack of appetite which will be addressed at her next appointment in a couple of weeks.

We followed the doctor appointment with a trip to the Home Show at Westworld in Scottsdale. We got there when it opened (10 AM) and took advantage of "Senior Time" which was between 10-12 AM when tickets were half off. There are several areas that we wanted to get information for including landscaping, roofing options, kitchen and bath ideas and other areas that we might be interested in making changes down the road. Here is one shot we took of one of the outside areas:

We would need to win the lottery for most of the changes we would like to make.

Speaking of the lottery - the Mega Millions drawing will now be for $1.6 Billion. That is mind boggling, and we will definitely be buying a few more tickets...

Horror Show

That describes the Cardinals/Broncos game last night. The Broncos won, 45-10, in what has to be the worse game the Cardinals have played in years and years. I said (unfortunately) in the beginning of the year that this Cardinals team had the wrong quarterback and the wrong coach. Even though they have changed the quarterback, he is still the wrong guy. The main problem, I believe, is that the coach is a total mismatch. Ho, hum, the season isn't even half over yet.

I took Josie to have her cat-scan done yesterday and also to have her bloodwork done for her latest physical issues. We have an appointment this morning with the doctor to review the results of those procedures. She has lost almost 30 pounds in the last three months without dieting. Her appetite has been non-existent for that period of time and we are trying to get to the bottom of this situation. We are hoping that all of this goes away very soon.

Don't forget to buy your Mega Millions lottery ticket for the drawing tonight - $970 Million!!!...

Back in Business

Now, the real work begins. I have my new computer all set up with the old files from the previous system and I now have to perform the difficult task of placing all the icons and shortcuts where I can gain easy access and locate all the data that goes with the different applications. It also means reloading the applications as the data transfer only included the data and not the programs. It will take a very long time to finally get it fine tuned to where I feel comfortable with the total system.

My initial reaction is very positive to the new system. It has all the new technology, plenty of storage and the touch screen feature is sure a big help negotiating some applications. Most of my time in the near future will be spent getting things together.

Josie had to make another visit to the doctor yesterday. She has had a severe pain in her left side that she suspects might be Diverticulitis. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic, a cat-scan of her abdomen for today and a return visit for Friday. We both will be very happy when she is back to 100%. In the meantime, she has been traveling on a rough road since her decision to leave AJ's. As a result of her physical issues, we have postponed our scheduled trip to Laughlin which was to begin this Sunday...

On Time Delivery

The delivery of my new computer occurred a bit later than anticipated yesterday (2 PM) so I actually had only half the day to begin the setup. I powered it on and performed all the initial steps to get it ready for the data transfer. I took it to Best Buy after making an appointment with the Geek Squad for 3:20 PM and they took me right on schedule. The net of the appointment is that I left the computer with them plus the hard drive from my old computer for them to perform their transfer magic and get it ready for my "tweaking". I am waiting for a call from them to come pick up the unit this morning.

I am really anxious to get started on that project as I am getting frustrated with Josie's computer. It has served its purpose, but many of the applications I use need to be re-initialized as they recognize a different computer. It's the same old problem - remembering and entering passwords all over again. Of course, I will most likely go through the same frustration with the new computer until everything is reloaded and active again.

I see where the new NFL power rankings are out for week 7 of the season. The Cardinals are still near the bottom at #31 out of 32 teams. The Seahawks are moving up and are ranked #18 this week. There is still a long way to go in the season, so we hope both teams move up to more respectability.

OK Best Buy, I'm ready for your call...

Delivery Today

We have finally reached the big day - computer delivery day. After waiting over a week without a computer, I get to experience the feeling of meeting an old friend. There is so much that I need to catch up on that I really don't know how long it will take to get back to 100% operation. I'm looking forward to the effort. It will begin with a trip to Best Buy to have the Geek Squad load my old hard drive into the new system and get it operational. I was told by a Geek Squad techie on my last visit that the old hard drive is a solid state drive that is larger than the solid state drive in my new computer. They will try to swap the drives which will make the new computer super fast and with plenty of storage. The clock is ticking, and I pray for an early delivery.

We worked outside yesterday to move a couple plants around in the front yard. It was an easy beginning to projects we have targeted on our yard, both front and rear. The goal is to ultimately join the two patios we have in the back, without breaking the bank. We may visit the home show which is in town this coming weekend to get some ideas.

We got the very sad news yesterday, along with the rest of the world, about the sudden passing of a giant in the business world - Paul Allen. He is the owner of the Portland Trailblazer's basketball team and the Seattle Seahawks. He was directly responsible for bringing respectability to both teams. Not to mention his generosity and contributions to the community. I will also never forget watching him and Bill Gates in the early 80's develop Microsoft into a world computer software giant. RIP Paul Allen...

London Gold

The Seattle Seahawks discovered gold in London yesterday  They played the Oakland Raiders and controlled the game from start to finish with stellar defense and a balanced offense to win 27-3. It wasn't that close. The only negative for the Seahawks was that they are on track to be the leading NFL team in penalties again this year. The score should have been at least 40-3. At least two scores were wiped out as result of penalties. They are really improving, rapidly, and appear to be regaining their swagger.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, are still struggling as they lost 27-17 to the Vikings. I think the season is getting away from the Cardinals and I don't see much hope for them having any kind of respectable season.

I also want to mention that Austin was attending the Broncos game yesterday against the Rams in Denver. He received a ticket and airfare to attend the game and spend the weekend from his best friend Troy Fumagalli who is still on the Broncos injured reserve list. It was a terrific, close game, won by the Rams in 25 degree weather. Brrr!

I have one more day before I receive my new computer. This has been the longest week that I can remember...

Lingering Symptoms

The slow recovery for Josie continues. She still feels the effects of her Vertigo, and the side effects from the medications she is taking are not helping. They are making her drowsy and she is fighting episodes of diarrhea. We will pass on church today to give her more rest.

I watched the disappointing game yesterday between Penn State and Michigan State. PSU was favored and played like they didn't belong on the same field with Michigan State. As bad as they played, they still had a chance to win if they could have gotten just one first down with 1.5 minutes to go. The game was almost identical to the Ohio State game the week before when they blew a led at the end of the game only to lose (21-17). They just can't seem to be able to put away an opponent. Their season is now going to be a long one as the loss probably removes them from consideration for any of the top bowls. Oh well, we have the Cardinals and Seahawks today. I hope they have better outcomes but my expectations are low.

Yesterday, the owner of the shop where Josie will start working in a week sent a copy of the schedule for November. She will be working 4 days a week - at least starting out. Josie drove to the shop just to see how long it will take. The total was 10 minutes - round trip. She is excited about the new job and especially about the commute. We hope it all works out...

Climbing Out of Hole

Between Josie's mysterious illness and my battle without my computer, it is like we were dropped into a hole and are trying to climb out. Josie is slowly improving, but it seems like the medications haven't "kicked in" yet. I would have expected much more positive progress at this point since she is totally done with AJ's and has a good two weeks before starting her new job. As far as my computer situation, it seems like every day is a week. I never expected to go this long without access to my most used applications and data bases. I will have a lot of catching up to do.

We received our early voting ballots in the mail yesterday for the midterm election in November. We will wait just a little bit before completing them. There are a couple candidates we aren't totally sure about as yet and there are some debates scheduled which will help us decide. As registered Independents, we will most likely split our votes. The political picture right now is so clouded that it is hard to determine the right course for us. We see three political parties now: Democrats, Republicans and Trumps. I'm sure that by 2020 the picture will become very clear as to which direction to take...

End of AJ's Association

It is now, literally, the end of job for Josie at AJ's. Unfortunately, her recent attacks of Vertigo, stress and anxiety, plus her bladder infection, have resulted in an early departure. Her big boss called yesterday and agreed that, with her illnesses, she was excused from any further work assignments. They were very understanding and sympathetic and, at the same time, tried to get her to agree to to some kind of part time assignment. He indicated that she would be missed and that he would do whatever he could to keep her active on the payroll. Josie is now ready to move on to her new job at the Sun City Florists where she will be in a more friendly environment for her needs.

Her recovery is slow as she is resting quite a bit and still not eating properly. She does have some time to get back to normal which is a blessing.

I got very upset yesterday when I received an email informing me that my new delivery date for my  computer would be Tuesday, October 16! I was all set to transition to the new one beginning on Saturday, as originally promised. After coming off the ceiling, I called them to find out what happened to the 2 day delivery for which I paid extra. They apologized, of course, and reminded me that the upgraded delivery was actually a 2-4 "business" day delivery. In reality, it will be one week from the day it shipped as there is the weekend in the middle which doesn't count as business days. They also refunded my extra cost for the faster delivery. Unbelievable!...

Unscheduled Detour

Josie suffered a steady decline in her physical stability yesterday. She felt OK for the first hour she was awake, then complained of dizziness, nausea, and stress. Her plan to go to work for the first of three final days was postponed. She kept getting worse during the day and I finally decided she needed to go to the emergency room at the hospital. At 5 PM last night, we left for the hospital. They took several tests - blood work, urine sample and even a cat-scan - and determined that she had a bladder infection along with Vertigo. After getting treatment while there (medication and IV), she was given two prescriptions and instructions before releasing her at 10 PM.

This morning, she is felling well enough to attempt to work for her next-to-last day. She is scheduled to start work at 10 AM and I would drive her except that I have my own appointment this morning with the Dermatologist to evaluate my own concerns about some skin issues. I believe that once we get to the weekend and AJ's is behind her, she will improve dramatically with all the stress removed. At least the stress from that source. She will have some time before she starts working at her new job on October 25, but that is more to her liking - close to home and a real shop that is not in a grocery store.

My new computer has shipped (finally) and will be delivered on Saturday before the end of the day. Hallelujah!...

Crawling to the End

I drove Josie to work yesterday and waited outside while she gave her notice. The plan was for for her to try to end it yesterday without any more work days in which case I would bring her right home again. She didn't have to work yesterday, but her manager asked her to work three more days this week before leaving and Josie agreed. This morning is an early day - 8 AM start - and she is having anxiety attacks and dizziness. She sent a text to her manager telling her she may be a little late this morning. Trust me, I will be so thankful when she has all of this behind her.

I did take her to the doctor yesterday afternoon to try to get some medication for her anxiety and stress. He gave her a prescription, but the effects of the medication will not be felt for 1-2 weeks. Not much help. She will just have to crawl to the finish line.

The good news for today is that my computer is scheduled to ship. My tracking feature is turned ON!

Anxious Moments

The next several days are sure to be anxious days. Josie will give her notice - today - at AJ's that she will be leaving in 1 week. The reason for the one week notice is twofold: she wants to end the commuting sooner than later and she has to start her new job at Sun City Florists on the 25th of this month. This gives her some time to relax and de-stress from the AJ's experience. We have tentatively planned a trip to Laughlin on the 21st and 22nd of this month which should be the short vacation she needs to get into good spirits again.

I plan to drive her to work today (starts at 10 AM) and again on Thursday which is another late day. That should end my days of driving the round trip twice on each of those days. I also will be happy to see the commuting end.

All of the steps are identified now, including the requirement that she let the owner at Arrowhead Florist know that she will not be working there and to thank her for the offer. The issues are all resolved at Sun City Florists and the owner is anxious for her to start.

Did I mention that I am anxious to get my new computer?...

Waiting for New Computer

One thing that has been a challenge over the last several days is getting all of my daily "computer" chores done without my data bases from the regular computer. I will have a lot of catching up to do when it arrives, hopefully late this week. There are many things I can't do (on Josie's Chromebook) without a major effort that would be a temporary fix - such as applying photos to my posts without being able to save them to my data base. I had a few photos I was going to post but I will save them for later. Did I say that I was anxious to get my computer?

The job scene has come closer to a conclusion. Josie was assured of her full time hours this morning at Sun City Florists, so she will start working there the third week of October. She will work two days each of the last two weeks in October, and on November 1 she will begin her full time schedule. The next step is for her to give notice to AJ's (tomorrow), and then to inform the owner at Arrowhead Florist that she is taking a different position. I can already see the reduction in her stress level as we get closer to putting this to bed. Her daily commute will change from 3 hours round trip to 10 minutes round trip. The gas savings will also be welcomed. Hallelujah!!...

Late Post

Sorry for the late post today but there were several distractions. The first one was an effort to put some things in place outside that got wet and windblown from an overnight storm. The second distraction was a decision to go to the first service at church at 8:30 AM which meant a hurry-up to get ready.

Yesterday was an uneventful day. Josie did get her schedule for this week, which starts today, and she has today and tomorrow off. Our plan is for her to visit the Sun City Florists tomorrow AM to try to knock-down a firm commitment for her schedule at that shop. If she doesn't get a commitment, she will opt for the offer from the Arrowhead Florist which comes close to what what she is after. In any case, she is preparing to give notice at AJ's this week. The commuting time to Arrowhead would only be about 15-20 minutes from home. That sure beats 1 to 1.5 hours...

Jobs Merry Go Round

This is the latest update on Josie's job situations. We stopped at the Arrowhead Florist (10-15 minutes away) for another check on their scheduling for her. Originally, they offered her about 20 hours/wk and after the conversation yesterday, they upped the commitment to 32-40 hours per week. They also want her to begin work on November 1. The update on Sun City Florists is that there is no update. We also stopped by that shop yesterday to drop off the paperwork and to ask some questions. Unfortunately, the owner was not in, so she is still waiting to talk with her. The only issue there is, again, the schedule. They have only committed two days per week so far and Josie needs to remind her that she needs at least 4 days to make it work. We'll keep trying, but she has the Arrowhead commitment for sure. It will all work out.

I'm looking forward to watching some good football games this weekend. I haven't settled on the games yet except for the Cardinals and the Seahawks. The Cardinals have a shot at winning their first game of the season as they play a "hurt" 49er's team. I don't think the Seahawks have a prayer to win this weekend as they play the LA Rams. I hope I'm wrong...

Computer and Job Updates

It was a significant day yesterday on the computer and job front.

Josie went to a scheduled interview at Sun City Florists at 11 AM. Two and a half hours later, she came out and gave me the news. She did three arrangements for the owner and had a long conversation with her. The net of that interview is that she is offered a job, will complete the application and turn it in today, will get clarification on a couple issues and then decide how and when to give notice to AJ's. Sun City Florist is about two miles from our house and her commute will be less than 5 minutes. Oh, and one of the arrangements she made sold before she left the store.

I stopped at a couple of stores- Costco, Sam's Club - looking for a computer and found nothing at either location that was acceptable. I decided to order directly from HP and went through lots of configuration details to arrive at a good one for my use. I will get an HP Envy system that is configured to last a long time. And, I got an employee discount to make it a better deal. You see, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) was acquired by HP. My retirement checks from DEC are signed by HP, which makes me an official HP Alumni. The only problem I have is the delivery date which will not occur until late next week. In the meantime, I will still plug along using Josie's Chromebook which, so far, is doing the job with a lot of extra steps.

Things are looking up a bit....

Computer End of Life

While working on my computer yesterday, my screen decided to die. I could power it up, but could get no boot sequence to appear. I couldn't get anything to appear.....total black screen. I packed it up and took it to Best Buy to have their Geek Squad check it out. Well, the news was bad. The panel or controller for the screen was bad and would cost about $300 to repair, plus take about 2-3 weeks for the whole process. That would not work. I checked their inventory of new computers and found nothing that would work for me. In a nutshell, I have to get a replacement and it most likely will result in disruption of my normal computer activities - such as the blog. I am writing this on Josie's system which is a Chromebook computer but I have found a way to get to most of my key applications. I will check local sources for a new one, but suspect I will end up ordering one from HP directly. That's how I acquired all my previous systems anyway. That is the only way to get exactly what I want.

Josie has an interview this morning at a local flower shop and we hope that goes well as it is a big shop. She is also going to contact her doctor to get some help with handling the stress that she has been suffering with since she started her job at AJ's. I think a change to a local shop with a short commute will certainly help with reducing her stress.

That's about it for now and I will keep you posted on all developments...

Rain Rain Rain

We really needed all the rain we got the last two days. There was a record set for the rainfall - 2.66" in one day which equaled the total rainfall for the entire monsoon season. It is just about over now, but we are sure enjoying the cooler weather that accompanied the rain. We are fortunate to not have an flooding situations in our area but some have been hit pretty hard. Even with our flooding, it pales in comparison to North Carolina and other areas that have recently been victims of heavy rainfall.

Josie drove herself to work yesterday which was an early day (7 AM) and she also handled the rain well along with the darkness that she had for the start of her commute. As today is a late day for her (10 AM), I will drive her and pick her up at 6 PM so that she doesn't have to fight the traffic in the darkness.

Just a side note: the new NFL power rankings came out today and after four weeks the Cardinals rank 31 (out of 32 teams) and the Seahawks rank 21. My teams have a long way to go...

Jackson Memories

Today would have been the day we left Jackson following the 2018 season. We are very sorry that it is not happening this year for us as we always looked forward to the trip back to AZ with stops along the way. Particularly, the stop in Laughlin for a couple days. We also will miss our annual trip to Patty's in Naperville which was always following the Jackson season. Perhaps next year we can get back on track.

Instead of the Jackson departure, Josie left the house at 5:15 AM this morning, in darkness and in a steady downpour to arrive at work by 7 AM. I was going to drive her, but she insisted on driving herself as part of the job. She made it OK, Thank goodness. It's times like these that we would like to reset and go back to our RV'ing lifestyle. Our goal now is to make every summer a "time away" from Phoenix and to keep our hands in the fun RV'ing occasions as long as we can.

One thing is certain with this storm that is going through: we need all the rain we can get and hope that it continues for a couple more days...

Different League

While watching the Cardinals/Seahawks game yesterday, I couldn't help but think these two teams were in a different league. There were lots of dropped passes, penalties, missed field goals (4) and generally, bad football. The Seahawks won 20-17 on a field goal as time ran out, but it could have been the Cardinals in the same situation. Neither team is going anywhere this season which is kind of sad after seeing these two teams battle and threaten to win it all for many seasons.

The rain has finally arrived and is expected to be around for at least two days. We sure can use it - and more. That also means cooler temperatures for the next several days. We went from the 100's to the 80's without even looking at the 90's. Of course, we may return to the heat after the rains leave.

Josie was concerned about her commute in the rain but this morning she made it to work with no problems. She left a little earlier and went on the surface roads instead of the freeway which gives her a better comfort feeling. It will be another day tomorrow similar to today, except she may have to leave the house in the dark which could be a problem. We'll see how it goes...