The Cloud, The Dryer and The Electronic Device in Everyday Ramblings

I did take this photo. Just not recently. It is from July 2005. Most Honorable and I were on a photo adventure that summer and this shot is from a hike at the Oregon Coast. I had purchased a camera because I was going to, umm, Tahiti, and we decided it would be a crime if I went and didn’t take pictures so I was practicing.

Little did I know I would fall in love with taking pictures. Though I had done some of it as a younger person with a non-digital camera, just as I dabbled in many of the arts at various times.

Anyway, the reason I am looking at old pictures, particularly the oldest I have in the digital realm is that this last weekend as part of my retirement planning extravaganza I purchased a powerful full sized iPad Air.

The plan is to replace my 9 year old MacBook Pro and my iPad mini with one device. The trick is to get all my photos, all 13,000 plus of them out onto the cloud so I can view them on my phone or new iPad.

This required more storage but now I have enough to last me for a good long while unless I fall in love with making movies or something.

Getting the photos over to said cloud is not the easiest thing in the world. We tried a transfer the very personable young Mac guy suggested but it only kind of sort of worked. He was thrilled that I both knew what I wanted and was going to make a purchase. Our big downtown Mac Store just reopened after a remodel and it was hopping. But we didn’t have to wait.

For my birthday Most Honorable surprised me with the purchase of an Apple pencil. He uses it for notes when he is teaching and loves it. I have been a bit busy since we got it so am looking forward to opportunities to play with it. I am waiting for my new cover and it has a place for the pencil. One has to be careful about curious cats.

Right now I am waiting for the dryer repair person. I so hope they show up and are able to effect a repair! It has been over a week since I could do any wash and then dry things.

Yeah, yeah I know I could string a clothesline across my patio well and I may do that if this doesn’t work out. Us wasteful Americans and our clothes dryers!

I have the day off work, (no I am not going to say anything about work on my birthday), but I am teaching tonight.

I had a fun class on Monday as a number of my regular students are back from their travels. One of my students is bravely taking her 10 year old grandson on a Road Scholar trip to Australia in a few weeks. She has to be in her mid to late 70’s. I can’t wait to hear about that.

A few of my students have already volunteered to let me practice my meditation “stuff” on them. I need to record some of the practices as well. It is not like I don’t have anything to do.

Yesterday I had my teeth cleaned and the hygienist asked me if I had any health changes in the interim since my last visit. Yeah…So I had to try to figure out all the medicines I am currently taking for the heart “thing”. This turned into a guessing game. I know what they all do but not what they are named.

She says that she heard that in two years or so they are going to switch to the same electronic medical record the health care providers all use so they can actually look instead of guessing. It is crazy to me that the mouth is considered a separate thing to be treated. Of course two years from now I probably won’t be able to afford anything but the bare basics anyway.

Tomorrow morning I have the big determinative CT scan. I’ve had one of these before and it is uncomfortable but blessedly quick. My insurance did approve it thank goodness. Then I will know what the next steps are.

While I was typing the above my iPad cover was delivered and the repair guy came. He showed me how to make the dryer work until the building owner is able to make the decision about fixing the dryer or replacing it.

In the meantime though I will be doing the wash. Happy big 65th birthday to me.

Last updated June 19, 2019