Chapbook

[sasha]

Not while my account's frozen......

More & more I'm finding mass-produced software violating at least two key principles of engineering: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) & "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Microsoft Word is one of the worst offenders - in trying to do everything for everybody, it's become so unwieldy that it serves no one especially well. Sure, it can do almost anything you'd ever ask of a word processor - as long as you're willing to dig through menus within menus across tab after tab, hunting for ways to turn off annoying features like automatically capitalizing any letter immediately following a period, or assuming you're listing bullet items just because you've typed an asterisk. God, I hate that program. I usually compose in Notepad, and even that's been infected with the "fancier is always better" pathogen.

It can't be a coincidence that open-source software is usually far more usable than the bloated crap profit-driven tech companies shit out. I've been using Audacity & IrfanView for years, & while they can be a bit quirky, they're nearly as powerful as their elephantine commercial counterparts, and a whole lot easier to use.

I don't want to waste time relearning how to use my tools after every release - I just want to USE them..........

[mnaz]

Parts of this sound like it was some sort of "phishing" scam. But ... probably not, I suppose. I've become super paranoid in recent years about electronic money transfers--but I guess that's just a phobia of mine.

[sasha]

It's not just you. I'm not willing to put my trust in any kind of payment vehicle I don't really understand. And turning off all of my mother's autopays is an exercise in bureaucracy I don't care to repeat or pass along to my survivors. The only automatic payments I have are for my Medicare supplemental, and then only because I had no choice. (I do pay $10/mo to what used to be public radio, but that goes against my charge card, not directly out of my bank account.) Everything else - utilities, casualty insurance, charge cards, charities - I pay by check. Charmingly old school, I suppose, but at least I know what comes in & what goes out, and have some control over the latter.

I was told that something about my application may have triggered PayPal's fraud detection. Sure would like to know what, but not enough to spend a morning on the telephone fighting my rage hormones, not for a lousy $60. Besides, my latest grocery tab of $90 was offset by a $150 reimbursement for a procedure ultimately covered by Medicare. I'm calling it breaking even.

[saw]

In my dealings with A I conversations I've learned that it's not progrmammed for obsurdity.....and have had good luck jamming the gears and getting this response...."hold on I'm going to get a human"......seriously......might as well have some fun in their bizarro world

Dealing with Allstate was a nightmare because of things missed in their artificial world of collecting data....it took 27 days for them to deem the other driver was 100 % responsible for creaming my car....keep in mind I was in my house at the time....and another week on top of that to determine he was uninsured....Guess what ?...they blamed the computer !

all of the sudden some supervisor must have been reading the scores of meaassges I sent, and they jumped into gear....things like, " So this is what you get for being a customer for 50 years ?".....so they came out to tow the car, and are offering me a rental...and getiing the Good Hands garage ( top of the line )....and sending me a greeting card in the mail telling me how much they appreciate my loyalty....All of ths great service 35 days after the collision.....I also mentioned in commenting that Geico fixed my daughter-in-law's car ( also hit when mine was ) in 2 and a half weeks....

I'm a huge beleiver in documentation.....I learned this lesson as a shop steward for 20 years.....especially when dealing with a federal arbitrator.....management was smug and sloppy....All I had to do was slap down my careful documentation and the the case was settled in my favor.....every time

As with my medical situation, documentation in black and white will take you a long way....and I never answer their surveys that they immediately send out ( while possibly you might be satisfied ).....because if something changes for the worse, they have a record of you giving them a big thumbs up

what a world we have to navigate....and if you're 77, the sharks are circling the raft

[sasha]

you are the Jim Bridger of this century......a pathfinder extraordinaire....with a gift for writing about your adventures

always enjoy your chapbook entries, despite my negligence in commenting at times.....I'm easily distracted and a bit lazy

but once I too was an explorer before the big C slowed my roll....but i can live vicariously here in the your pages of hikes

...apologies for not responding to this comment about one of my posts on the preceding page, the one just before the rant about my PayPal fiasco. I guess I was still so angry I just skipped over your reply without even seeing it.

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ChatGPT, an idiot-savant. I use it occasionally when I get stuck knowing that the perfect word exists to describe something, and knowing that I know it but just can't get my fingers around it. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not, but often the act of articulating my replies to its responses will jar it loose, or even remind me of a better one.

"Sharks circling the raft", I like that. The sharks, not so much.

[sasha]

on Rituals

Rituals. Rites, ceremonies… I imagine we all have them, of one sort or another. Regular church goers – as I used to be – certainly do, just in the very act of attending, whether or not they participate in the liturgy. There’s a kind of comfort in the repetition of familiar actions, a reassuring predictability, like the sun’s daily cycle of rising, floating across the sky, and setting; even moreso in the annual pacing back and forth of its daily arrival and departure points on the horizon. We like knowing in advance what’s going to happen; surprises are just as likely to be unpleasant as not.

So we develop rituals. They can be born of necessity, but they’re sustained by habit. I take my meds at the same time every day: blood pressure in the morning, glaucoma in the evening. But if they’re too trivial to justify a rigid schedule, then we call them “old habits”, or “just something I do” to excuse them. We needn’t bother. They’re hard-wired somehow. They’re nature’s way of automating periodic tasks without having to reinvent how to perform them each time. There’s something soothing about knowing that you’ve worked out a way to perform some chore that works every time without a hitch.

My ex is waging war against an uncommon variant of leukemia that attacks the immune system. Untreated, she could succumb to a head cold or an infected toenail. At one point in her treatment, she had to deep clean her house, requiring her to find someplace else for her dog to stay; I took it in for a few months. And during the time that we shared quarters, we developed several rituals of our own.

Making the bed, for example. I’d gotten out of the habit late in my working days, when I had to leave the house no later than 6:15 each morning, and any task that contributed nothing to getting me out the door on time was deemed unessential. Once the habit was broken, it remained so after I retired – until my first hip-replacement, when Home Health Care visited several times each week to audit the progress of my recovery. I began making up the bed each day, primarily for appearances, because that’s where I did most of my PT. Besides, it was much nicer to get into at night, and soon became a habit again.

But it didn’t become a Ritual until Willow the Dog arrived. She rarely let me out of her sight, especially in the early days, and she’d follow me into the bedroom when I felt the bed had aired out enough to be made up again. She’d stand watching as I pulled up the covers and adjusted things so they hung evenly from all sides – back & forth, one side to the other, tugging here, straightening there. When everything was finally to my satisfaction, I’d replace the pillows, and make eye contact with her. She’d begin trembling. Then I’d say “Okay!” in my happy voice, and collapse onto the bed. She’d jump up, pushing her face against me, licking my ear, rolling on top of me, batting or play-biting my hand when I tried grabbing her feet – a lot of pushing and shoving and snorting and laughing went on. I enjoyed it every bit as much as she seemed to. It became a daily Ritual.

As did suiting up to go outside for a Walk. As did Mealtime. And Bed Time. Dogs thrive on such rituals, on having each day unfold pretty much like the previous. They like knowing what’s coming. It’s just how they’re built.

And we’re no different.

Even the whimsical ones serve as a kind of all-clear alert – a small pocket of order in a disorderly world. Even if their intent has nothing to do with averting disaster, there’s no harm in devoting a little otherwise precious time on these meaningless little dances with ourselves. When all is well with the world, I can gather the same tools I’ve gathered every morning to prepare the same breakfast I’ve prepared ever since I retired. It looks like a lovely day on tap, so I shall walk the same stretch of the old Boston & Maine and take pictures of the same rock face, the same snowmobile bridge, the same vanishing point I’ve photographed countless times already. And when I get home, I shall prepare the same green salad I’ve made every night since losing all that weight back in ’98, the same one-skillet dinner I make every night (with variations), and watch the same “classic” (i.e., 1960-70) tv shows while dining. Because Life is good, I can do these things; and because I can do them, life is Good.

Amen.

[winddance]

who stopped over in LA to walk 3 miles out in the malibu hills to visit the MASH site?