Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 14 June 2020

LOL!!

Enjoyed our walk but its been all downhill from there. I'm afraid I got to the point this afternoon when I would gladly have thrown all my technical gadgets out of the window! I do think (well, I do THINK...) I have some sort of a brain, but every time I get something new in the house, its all up to me to install it, and even though when its advertised by a charming man who says things along the lines of "All you have to do is plug it in and it will lead you through the installation process...." I seem to come up against some kind of brick wall.

I'm seriously thinking of Getting A Man In, as several do advertise around here. I wasted hours today on something I bought, and I still have lots of HW things waiting for me to finish. My OH has no sympathy, as he is just not interested, and says its my own fault for thinking I can manage. He was dubious about even having a PC until 2008, when I persuaded him that it was to our advantage: since then, he has benefited hugely from the email, the cheap(er) holidays, the ease of booking airline tickets, the comparison of cheaper insurance, etc. etc.......

Sorry, I just needed to rant to someone...... thank you for listening....

Lindybird: I had to smile - sorry! Such a familiar story. I do all the electronic hookups (routers/modems/computers-to-TV, etc., etc.) but have also fallen for the "easy to install!" sales pitch from people who - in the last instance - didn't warn me that one device would only be "easy to install!" if I had an Apple device and a Smart TV rather than a Windows device and a Stupid TV. Arghhhhh. Unless you have someone under 20 in the family who can zip by and fix it, I say Getting a Man in (or a woman) is the way to go at this point. :-)

LINDY - We've all had our rants on here and long may it continue!

Lindy - a sympathetic smile and a nod of the head as I read your 'rant'. If we can't have a rant on here, where can we?!?!? Living alone, I have to do all the 'installing' or whatever, as well as all the 'man' things like finding the right insurance, investment, television (I think mine's smart, but I'm not smart enough to find out!) and everything else.

For example - I want a new Fitbit-type fitness tracker. I have had a Fitbit for ages - one which quietly sits in my pocket and, apart from remembering to charge it every few days, and to check my steps, I don't need to do anything else. But it has become unreliable recently, switching itself off for no reason and therefore not doing what I want it to do. I can only assume it has reached the end of its natural life - built-in obsolescence! I've had my money's worth out of it, so would like to replace it. But now it seems that you have to sync new ones to a computer or a mobile phone. I don't want to do that! I want to replace the one I already have, which does what I want it to, with the only difference being I would quite like a bracelet model. So that's my rant for the day - why can't I have what I want?

(withdraws quietly, putting head once more beneath the parapet …)

Pat: I empathize. Why. WHY! WHY!!! do the powers that be insist that everything in one's life must be synced to everything else? I swear, the time is coming when we will have to sync our toilets to our computers and our smartphones.

Lindy: Say to heck with the housework and watch some good TV. Sometimes you just have to say "Enough." Take care.

Interesting to read all your posts, but when it comes to writing, I seem to have entirely lost the plot! I am struggling with the heat and humidity - making me tired and grouchy. Garden time was so lovely today, but I would love some rain overnight, please!

Sympathies, OG, I always feel it when it's stormy. I think that's been the last straw with me today! You can have some of our rain, as we've now had plenty - heavy rain in the night, showers on & off all day, and finally a complete heavy deluge at about 5.30 which had such big raindrops they looked like hail.

Thank you everyone for your understanding. I think I'd better go and put my head in a box for a couple of days! I've also been shouting at the tv, as its inexplicable to me that there have been so many new infections of the virus. If they are all sticking to the rules, then how are they catching it? If we don't get the numbers down, then lots of people will be shut up at home for a very long time indeed, not to mention the impossibility of people getting to work to keep everything going. Bah!

Evening all:  Well, they're slowing down various openings here due to an increase in cases, mostly up in the north part of the county, but our library did open for curbside service today. Currently, we can reserve books only from our main library and two associated libraries in the Santa Ynez Valley with the rest of the Central Coast libraries to be added later on..  I'm barely one-quarter way through The Mirror and the Light so no rush to get anything else right now.   I don't think we're going to be over this until they find a vaccine.  Arghhh.

I agree about syncing, although I find the Google Calendar sync with Google on my iPhone very handy indeed (of course that's when I actually have places to go and things to do!!).  On the other hand, my iPhone seems determined to download podcasts automatically even though I've told it not to several times.

Like OG, my brain is a bit fried - was feeling very sluggish today so am planning a simple dinner and a lazy evening watching TV (Diane's suggestion).  My lack of individual comments is no reflection on my interest in everyone's news/photos/rants.  :-)

Take care all.