- Enter head scratch moment here -

 It's 6:53am on January 25, 2023 as I start writing this blog post. I need to try to not spend 3 hours writing it because I've got to drink my coffee and get ready for work. 

But..

WTF Yahoo: Front page news has "Hurricane Ian Wednesday updates"? From the News Press, with yesterday's date? (see here if the link is still relevant by 7pm tonight)

I'm confused. 

Who is not doing their job on your end? Why is the article talking about there being no make up days in November and the curfew is in effect - just like a boil water notice? Did we not pass Christmas a month ago? This makes no sense. 

Even all the comments on the bottom of the page are questioning the legitimacy of the people behind the postings. How can someone in the news room not realize this is a past event that ruined a lot of lives? 

There are way too many times you've got to look at something and be like  because it just doesn't make sense when a "reputable" (lol) business posts news about a storm update from four months ago. 

I really have no words to try to explain this. It's either too early, my coffee isn't kicking in, or some glitch in the Matrix happened and we're going to hell, again, and it'll be worse off? 

I don't know. I've got to get ready for work though,

Try to stay safe??

Cheers;

Everything really goes in threes?

Thursday I was talking to a coworker about her upcoming wedding (February 4) and we were joking about decorations (she thinks she'll be getting more "yes" RSVPs than anticipated, and will have to scramble to buy more linens off Amazon and rent more tables and chairs).

Something came up relating to the decoration, and I told her she should get this Dragon "Your Butt Napkins My Lady Tin Sign" and hang it somewhere. 

She laughed and made some excuse not to get it, but when I saw the raccoon one, I immediately had to forward that to Emi, as she's had a raccoon incident at one of her jobs (long story short, she named him Meeko and was living in her office area for a while. Hopefully he has escaped and found his way).The response to the message from Emi was "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I love that so much! 😁" and she went on to tell me about catching up on the DVDs I set her. If she buys it, she buys it, but I know she will be thinking about it. 

That was number one. 

Number two is the fact I saw that white Mitsubishi yesterday that has the crying animal on it. I had posted about it in the summer, so look backwards if you want to find it. 

I know the animal on the sticker is not a raccoon, but I think the timing is quite funny, since I haven't seen the car lately, and I was just talking about the butt napkin sign. Yes, I realize the only correlation to both instances is the animal referenced is a nocturnal trash thieves, but it's still something to discuss. Especially when you consider the timing of it all and the Mitsu being MIA for a while. 

I mean, usually there are certain cars you recognize on your daily commute because of their stickers and what not, and sometimes you see them every day. But when you stop seeing them for a while, you suddenly pay attention when they pop up again. 

Which means the big 4x4 needs to show up again.. the one with the political sticker and the vanity plate. I saw him about 2 weeks ago but hadn't seen him in a while either. 

The third thing that I wanted to talk about... now I forget. I should have written it down before I started this post because I had three things in mind to talk about. I hit the first two, but the last... completely fell out of my brain. I'm sure I'll remember it later. 

For now it's time to watch the rain clouds roll in and the birds go crazy. 

Stay sane.

Cheers

Haven't had the coffee yet

But I've had my smoothie. 

I started adding Organic Pomegranate Juice Powder from the Micro Ingredients brand to my smoothie. It oddly comes with a shrink wrapped scoop inside the bag, which is fine, but I've not come across that before. 

Of all the powders I've used, with all the scoopers buried inside, no scoop comes shrink wrapped. This was a first. So I had to semi dig it out and cut it open, wash both my hands and the scoop (because I think somehow heat or humidity got to the bag and warmed up some of the powder, causing it to stick together. Man, is it sticky). Then I was able to use it the next day in my morning drink. 

It's kind of still sticky, over a week later, but I think that also has to do with me doing so many things in the kitchen while I'm trying to make my liquid breakfast. Once added to the blender, I have to be careful because it doesn't all blend evenly. Due to it becoming clumpy in liquid, it does stick to the sides of the blender sometimes, so I have to spoon that bit out. I don't mind that it does that, it's still drinkable. 

As a whole, depending on what else is in my drink, there is a sweetness factor now to the smoothie. Not the stevia / fake sweetness everyone is used to from the protein powders, but a fruit sweetness you can't put your finger on. Like a natural sweet. I'm not looking for fillings in my teeth, but I'm looking for something "healthy" to help me with some challenges. And stay not sick.

Which brings me to why I said I haven't had my coffee yet.

It's 49° out right now. It was colder over night. 

So cold, I had condensation on the inside of my bedroom window this morning.

No, I didn't take a picture because my dumb ass wiped the water droplets off and then thought to provide proof we got a little chilly here. 

I've got to be the 30 watt bulb among the hundred watt case some times...

There goes "proof or it didn't happen"! Maybe the next time I'll start my morning routine first (smoothie, coffee) and then take blog pictures because it doesn't work the other way around, apparently. 

Even though I saw it, I don't believe it was warm enough in my room overnight (with the heat off), that condensation arrived on my window. I am not a scientist nor do I play one on TV, so it still is something weirdly odd. 

I think I want to jump in the shower now, as it's 9:53am, I've finished my liquid breakfast, and I'm sitting in front of an open window hoping not to get sick.....

Until I learn a lesson in change....

Cheers

Tell no one & it won't get fixed

For some reason, I've got Madonna's Don't Tell Me stuck in my head. Until I got to somewhat "sample" it with the Amazon Music player, it's now unstuck. 

Since Amazon decided to take the thirty second sample away to allow everyone access to the music player, it makes things hard to link individual music on here. I like to share certain audio clips, but don't like that my readers (or even me, for that matter) need to go diving into the entire album to hear a partial song. 

I get it; it's another way to generate income for Amazon. Considering any Amazon link I post on my blog is an affiliate link, I get something in return for purchase(s). It's the same with Ko-Fi - Donations are widely appreciated because it's a helpful piece of change that will get me towards proper editing machines to continue posting (like I keep saying, I don't use a spyder or anything on my old laptop, so none of my photos are properly calibrated to their high quality best).

But overall, I'd rather not have people buy an entire album for one song suggestion. Sure, you can make the individual track purchase, but having to scroll through 7 titles to get it to the track in question, and then push play to get the music to start at track one, is such a pain in the ass. It was so simple when you could link to the specific song and share it among friends. 

Way to ruin technology?

-shrugs-

Much like the point of the post I wanted to make today. 

If no one vocalizes about something, it can't get changed. So, if no one tells the community board members that there's a broken sprinkler head, it won't get replaced. 

Back when Ian came swimming through my complex, the wind knocked down the bougainvillea plant (you try spelling that when you don't know all the letters involved! Shit on whole wheat...) that was between my garage and the upstairs lady's garage. All the units here share a small path of plants that separate the driveways and units. So at the end of the path, attached to the building is a bougainvillea that tries its best to flourish in the Florida sun. 

Well, when it went crashing down, we needed to get it out of the way of Arlene's garage because it can't stay blocking her in. 

So when it was safe for the outside landscapers to come clean up piles of debris, we got a pair of technicians to cut the plant down at its root. The problem is, the guy doing the hacking, inadvertently severed the sprinkler that was at the base of the plant. 

No one reported it broken then... and no one has reported it broken now... four months later. 

Don't mind the pictures looking a bit arid and dry. It was about 55 degrees this morning when I took them and doing auto tune on them, makes it look like I've been playing rock city in the desert.

I know the ones looking at the broken pipe hidden in the rocks may be blurry, but I was trying to not face the sun so much when getting the pictures. It was hard to focus myself, to be able to focus the camera. 

I used my Canon EOS Rebel T7i to talk the photos. Saving the fruit phone for another day.

With everyone out walking when I was taking the pictures, I'm sure they thought it funny that I was randomly shooting the area. 

But at least there's some new landscape shots I've not posted yet.... ?

It's weird how the irrigation trucks are always around but don't realize there's a broken pipe. I guess they're not looking for problems closer to the houses and only on the street level? Who knows, but if this pipe stays broken for an entire year (or more), whatever bushes are (re)planted won't get water. And then what?

Stuck like Chuck trying to get it all sorted. 

For the sake of crazy train, I edited two of the fog pictures from the other day. The zoomed in ones where I said they'd look funny as auto correct. 

They still do. 

Definitely something different. Kind of makes it old school grainy in a way. 

Until something else changes... happy weekend!

Cheers

Last night's fireworks set off this morning's low hanging clouds

 Happy 2023.

January 1, 2023. 

Need to keep writing "2023" so the next time I write a check, I don't write "2022" on it. 

Ever notice it takes a couple weeks to stop writing the previous year's date on checks?

Who still writes checks??? 

Me. 

Anyway, I didn't make it past 9pm last night, but at one point, random fireworks woke me up. I didn't go see where the boom was coming from. I just went back to sleep. 

I haven't checked in with all my friends yet, but I'm sure the ones who treated themselves to expensive drinks, probably didn't make it til midnight either (yes, Foamy, I'm talking about you. LOL). But I am sure everyone did fine. Even the ones with sparkling cider in their mugs. 

So this morning, we wake up, and the sky has fallen. 

What a way to start the new year?

I didn't do any major editing on some of the photos because the "auto" created a bit of crazy on the zoomed in pictures. It was interesting, but not worth posting. Maybe next time, though. 

All the photos were taken on an iPhone 11 and edited on an HP Pavilion G6. 

Oh, I found out something interesting the other day - speaking of the fruit family. 

My Apple Watch Series 3 can no longer be updated to the newest iOS. It's going to be permanently on 8.7.1 as Apple stopped supporting the watch. 

Wait... what??

Apple officially stopped supporting the Series 3 watch back in October (2022). So the last update it got was 8.7.1 and will not go further. Upon research, everything points to Apple going forth to launch all the newest models, so the one I own (which I bought November 2019, so it's not that old fer Chrissake) basically is literally on borrowed time until I decide to get the newest and greatest. 

Which is a waste because it still works. It still does its thing. It just can't update anymore. Yet, my 11 keeps getting new updates. I bought that at the same time I bought the watch. 

Which now that I talk about it, it'll stop being supported to. I bet anything. 

No wonder why Amazon is listing the 3 as either "unavailable" (no price) or some third party seller has it for over $150. The Series 4 and 5 are being listed as "renewed" which means they're refurbished and on the way out too, considering the brand is up to 8 right now. 

How sad; a product not even 5 years old and already "obsolete" in tech times. No wonder why people go broke over technology. The depreciation value of your device far exceeds being able to use it for the six months it's working. Wait a year and there will be two more products on the line that push yours further down the "do not use" rabbit hole. 

Sorry, but I don't have money readily available to update my phone or watch at a sneeze. If I am still using an old HP laptop, there's no way I am getting a spanking new phone every year. I've updated my Canon Camera, sure, but that's because you can't buy 35mm film anymore and no one processes it. So I get as new of a model as I can afford that will gain me the right experiences to continue to take photos. 

Of which I still don't like using my phone, but this morning I didn't feel like setting everything up.

And if you couldn't tell, the palm trees are starting to grow back from the hurricane. 

The area is still having challenges and still picking up. It'll take well into the next decade to complete things. Definitely a scary thought and makes me want to get out of this place even more. Maybe the new year will bring a new job and something good? 

Until we can figure it out...

Cheers