Top ten list of things I loath about construction sites

Greetings, readers. Yesterday when I came up with this title, I must admit I was quite upset. Perhaps loath is a bit strong. Let’s go with perturbed; I think Rebecca agrees with me on the terminology. The construction, which really got started a few months ago, does irk me. So here comes my list of the top ten things that perturb me about the next door construction site, in no proper order except number two and one.

#10. The constant rumbling noises from 7:00am until 5:00pm. [Usually these construction sites are elsewhere and I’m in a car or on a bus when I go by them. I rarely hear them. Being right next to an active construction site is much different.]

#9. The on and off beeping of the Caterpillar machinery of various types moving forwards and backwards. [Yes, dear readers, these beep when they move forward as well.]

#8. The loading of the dump trucks. [When they drop heavy boulders in an empty dump truck, the noise could rattle Pittsburgh. Yesterday I jumped out of my chair to make sure nothing had tipped over. I do know, however, the area must be cleared and the debris taken away.]

#7. A large looming crane, that I estimate is 10 stories high. [I don’t know why I have an irrational fear of that thing, it seems to be sturdily mounted into the ground, but it is about 50 to 60 yards away from my window. If anything should ever goes wrong and it falls this way, I’m on the top floor. I will be directly in its path. Not good.]

#6. When sitting by the window, if I turn to the left, I may accidentally look at welding in progress. [I probably am far enough away that it will not hurt my eyes, but as some wise person once said, you never know. So I try not to look. Believe me, once they start putting the building up, they will be wielding all day long.]

#5. Multiple machines, such as the backhoes that pick up rocks, the Caterpillar with the jack hammer attachment, and a smaller four-wheel machine to move lighter items into place, all running at the same time in a small space. [Yes, each one is incredibly important for getting this building up in two years, but when you have four of them running at one time it gets a bit much. And let us not forget, when the dump trucks and concrete trucks pull in and do their thing it adds to the chaos and annoyance.]

#4. Dust on parked cars. [I currently don’t own my vehicle, but I’m sure that the folks that park downstairs got lots of dust in the late summer months when the bulldozer was destroying the old brick building that stood in the lot for many decades.]

#3. Mud, gunk, and snow. [So far I have seen multiple construction workers walking in pure mud, sifting through wet rocks with God knows what on them, and yes, they have already had to take a snow day the day central Pennsylvania got almost a foot of snow. They are certainly going to have fun when Mother Nature decides not to cooperate.]

#2. The lack of my beloved store that used to be next door. [Since I moved into Addison Court apartments, until the beginning of this year, we had a beautiful CVS store, one without a pharmacy in it, in the brick building next door. Two floors of apartments were on top of that. Those poor kids had to be either paid to move elsewhere or their leases were simply not renewed; probably the latter. Now I have to walk farther to a small Target store, or hop a bus and go to the Wal-Mart. It’s definitely not as convenient as having something next door. Now for the good news. When the building is completed, supposedly we will have two floors of stores and five floors of apartments for students and “young executives.” I hope to possibly be able to take advantage of one of these stores.]

#1. The all-day-long jack hammer. [For the last two days, the jack hammer began at 7:00am and did not stop until quitting time. I had to play loud music or have some other kind of white noise as background because the noise of the jack hammer was beginning to make my brain go wonky. They have been using the jack hammer for a few weeks, but only recently has it bothered me this much. Our office manager has heard that the jack hammer part of the construction may be over soon. Yay! We’ll see.]

Well, there is my list. If you wish, please drop me a Facebook note or write in the comment section things you hate about construction. Rebecca and I will be back next Wednesday; wouldn’t you know it will already be December. We’ll have another exciting blog entry for you to enjoy then. I have a couple of ideas in mind, however if major world news is in the forefront, that might take precedence. Have a great weekend, give your family a hug, take care, and, as always, happy reading.

Feeling better about myself and my new Keurig came

Greetings, readers. The other week I was horribly depressed as a lot of my regular readers could probably tell. Today, with a slightly better diet and a few sunny days, my mood is much better. Granted, my comfy blue recliner broke in half, and I spilled half a bottle of Coke on the carpet, but other than that, this week has unfolded nicely.

I had been fiddling with X-Plane 11 and I’ve actually found a way that I can make it run satisfactorily. I don’t think I am piloting the plane the way I am supposed to, for instance I don’t file a flight plan because I don’t know how to do that anyway, but at least I am not crashing it anymore. Yay, team. This morning, I got to my cruise altitude of 28,000 feet in a Boeing 737-800 and had blue skies ahead of me. This made me feel wonderful. I had the settings set to an early morning flight and the sun, which was behind the aircraft, was casting a shadow on the control panel. This was my first opportunity to use what they call sunglasses mode. From the view menu, you can select such things as sunglasses, which simply dims the picture, or night vision goggles, if you are flying one of the fighter aircrafts with weapons. By the way, that one I have not tried yet. Who knows, one day I might take one of the fighters, armed with a bomb, and blow up an empty field just to see how it works. It will be nice to see an explosion where I haven’t crashed first.

On to other news, as mentioned in the title, I got my new Keurig today. My old one went kablooey because of the hard water coming out of my faucet. I’m going to use bottled water for this one or pick up a faucet filter attachment. This should keep the new Keurig running much longer than the old one did. I am very pleased that it looks and functions exactly like the old one. This means I know how to use it already, though I will still keep the instruction booklet. I have a special drawer in my kitchen for such pamphlets. I have half a box of K-Cups, which should still be usable, and it is going to be so nice to enjoy making something other than instant coffee. I remember back in the 1970s, when I had to make instant coffee I didn’t like it because the taste was horrible. Today, it is actually pretty good, especially Maxwell House or Folgers.

Next Wednesday I will have a therapy session and I am happy to note that I have been in a much better mood and I am sure she will notice the change. I did take her advice on a couple of things, though I did not talk to my doctor about upping my anti-depression meds. If my depression declines again, I will call the doctor and take that avenue.

There’s today’s entry. We hope you all enjoy. Rebecca and I will be here tomorrow with another blog entry, that I will call The top ten list of things I loath about construction sites. The new building going in next door already has their foundation fairly set, but I’m going to have to endure two years of listening to all sorts of loud, abrasive noises.

We’ll see you tomorrow. I bid you a good day, stay warm if you are in the frigid air, take care and happy reading.

Re-remembering my good friend Terry

Greetings, readers. Over the last few days there has been a large spike in the numbers of reads of an entry I did after the death of a dear friend, Terry Stewart, posted on July 29, 2016. Both Rebecca and I agree that this may be because my good friend Terry loved the holidays. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up – and Terry was a huge Christmas fan – it makes sense that there would be people wanting to revisit Terry again this time of year. So, we have decided to re-post this wonderful and touching tribute to Terry Stewart. Every time my neighbor across the hall opens his door when I am in the hallway, somehow I still expect to see Terry. We were very good friends, and I miss him dearly.

This blog entry will be posted automatically at 2:00pm tomorrow, and when I get back from Thanksgiving dinner, I will post it to Facebook. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. Please, if you are traveling, drive safely.

 

R.I.P to my good friend Terry

 

Greetings, readers. It is with a heavy heart that I must let you know of the passing of my neighbor across the hall. Terry Stuart was a kind and gentle soul, always with a smile. He loved to play the piano, he laughed at my jokes, and enjoyed old movies.

I knew Terry for several years. Quite often he would come over and ask for help about a computer problem and I would be more than glad to lend a hand and solve it if I could. The last issue he had was with his printer; the problem was it kept printing the same page over and over. I never could figure that one out. That is where it gets funny. You always think you have more time to help people. But as Rebecca would say, Terry’s contract ran out.

I know all of our existences are finite, but somehow we always think we have more time to get things done. We really don’t know. Only the Lord does.

I shall miss my good friend Terry very much. During coffee hours he would often play the piano in the community room. I thought about asking our office manager to tape up a photograph of Terry, which I would give her, on the piano and she agreed.

Terry played the piano, sang, and read his own poetry at my performances. He performed during one of my Beatles shows, as one of the three Bedbugs who backed me up, on December 14, 2012. He played the piano and read a poem at my KISS show on December 20, 2013. Rebecca wrote about the Beatles show and the KISS show in these entries. I have a couple of pictures from his performances that I can share at the bottom.

It is a good thing that I had therapy yesterday. Among other topics I talked about, I talked about Terry quite a bit. I don’t like death, it scares me. Even though I believe in heaven and the afterlife, I still don’t feel like dying just yet.

I guess I’ll never really know what happened to Terry, my good friend, but this building, Addison Court, will be a lonelier place without him. Terry, I bid you a wonderful eternal rest. You were a good friend and I wish I had taken you to Maine two years ago. You would have loved it and the people would have loved you. Rest in peace, my friend.

Until next week, have a good weekend, give your loved ones a hug and enjoy them, and happy reading.

Terry Stuart playing piano and singing Christmas carols at my show of KISS songs December 20, 2013. Photo by Greg Brown.

 

Terry Stuart reading a Christmas poem which he wrote, The Christmas Star, at my KISS show, December 20, 2013. Photo by Greg Brown.

 

Terry Stuart at my show of KISS songs December 20, 2013. Photo by Greg Brown.

 

It’s holiday time again :-)

Greetings, readers. In just a few hours one of my favorite days will begin. I love Thanksgiving because it has a number of traditions I took part in as a kid and I continue to do to this day.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day. I’ll get up fairly early, have my morning coffee and take my meds, and get ready to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Then, a relatively new tradition, if I’m at home, I’m invited out to dinner with Traci and her family. Some years I’m invited to my best friend, David’s, house to take part in their celebration. That is always enjoyable, because I either go by Zipcar or Megabus and make a weekend of it.

After I get back from Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, I will watch what is left of any football games, and take a nap. After I wake up, I will turn on Spotify music and play my hand-selected Christmas Trax. I’d have to say of all the songs I have on that playlist, Earth Kitt’s Santa Baby is my favorite. I performed that at my last show; it was a hit. Please, if you have Spotify, find me, follow me, and subscribe to that playlist, or any playlists of mine you wish.

To me, the Christmas season, even though it might start earlier or later for other people, was always from Thanksgiving morning until the day after New Year’s. At home as a child, I would watch my parents put up the tree, most years a live tree, decorate it and plug the lights in; it was so much fun to watch it come alive, as I used to say. There are holiday parades and bowl games during this part of the year, the town is decorated with pretty lights and lit wreaths and a big Christmas tree, and yes, even those first snow storms are pretty. Once the car tires get into it and turn the snow black, well you can have it. Black snow might be the ugliest sight in the world.

I always get a tiny bit depressed on January 2nd. Some people in my building will already be taking down their holiday decorations and the season will be over. What’s left is three months of trees with no leaves, grass that does not look green, snow, cold, and wind. Oh joy, oh bliss. And yes, readers, I am being sarcastic.

With tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I will let you know what I am thankful for. I am thankful to have a roof over my head and that it is downtown close to many places I need to go, such as shopping and bus stops. I’m also thankful for my many friends and people I call family. I am especially thankful for Rebecca who has been my trusted friend, typist and editor for all these years. In the last year or two she has actually graduated to a title of personal assistant.

I am most thankful for Tasha, my former co-worker at my fast-food job, and her mother for providing me with a wonderful kitty cat. Princess Josie has become most affectionate and loving. We are really getting to know each other’s habits, and believe me she knows that when I wake up, it is time for her breakfast. She’ll make a mad dash for the kitchen. So again, thank you Tasha and mom.

If anyone would like to, please leave in the comments below or on Facebook what you are thankful for. I would love to compare notes. As always, I wish everyone a safe holiday if traveling, give your family members plenty of hugs, and as always, happy reading.

From Rebecca: Snow day

As Joe wrote in yesterday’s blog post, we are having a work at home day because of the forecasted storm over all of Pennsylvania. Snow day! State College is forecast to have about a foot of snow today, which is a lot for a first real snow of the season. This morning it looked clear and I was beginning to think that we wouldn’t get much after all, then just before 11:00 it began to flurry. By noon, we had steady snow and the beginnings of a lot of accumulation. Here it comes.

I am so glad that I can be home today – thanks Joe! – and look at my balcony get slowly buried. I feel so cozy in my warm apartment without having to go out in this. The newscast says it is slick out on the roads, and I send a prayer up for the safety of all the people who have to drive in this storm, especially the bus drivers. I take the bus to and from work, and no matter what the conditions I always feel safe with them at the wheel. We are lucky it isn’t freezing rain, like the western part of Pennsylvania is getting. Snow is tough enough for traveling.

My husband Darren is making Hamburger Helper for dinner right now, and it smells great. I have many blessings, including a spouse who cooks so well. I will be doing the dishes after we eat, of course. We also intend to clean the apartment later, which I guess is a good use of a day off work.

Where ever you are, dear readers, and whatever weather you are experiencing, I hope you are safe. May you end your day warm and comfortable.

X-Plane 11 vs. Flight Simulator X

Greetings, readers. Yesterday morning I purchased the game X-Plane 11, the newest Flight Simulator. If I had a more powerful laptop or a top of the line desktop, I could max out the graphics and make it look awesome. Right now I have a choice. Have it look awesome and run slow as molasses, or make it look average and have it actually perform correctly. The sim I was playing before was Flight Simulator X, from Microsoft. What follows is going to be my comparison between these two major flight simulator games.

Let’s start with Flight Simulator X, which I’ve used for years. I must say at this point I prefer it better, for you can actually choose a flight plan in the game and load it. Also, I’m quite used to this game and have accumulated many mods (aircraft, scenery, etc.), and have gotten the settings just so. I can fly almost any aircraft with relative ease. Take-offs are a cinch. Landings … well, that is a different story. I’ve made a few, but if they had been real flights, the maintenance crew would have had a lot to clean up. Lol.

Flight Simulator X, or FSX as it is known, to me is easier to use, and it is easier to designate commands and functions on the keyboard. Also, I know exactly how each aircraft’s switches and knobs are used and what they are for. In the other simulator I am still learning. I give Flight Simulator X a solid score of 9 out of 10.

Now for X-Plane 11 and I am going to be brutally honest folks so here we go. The graphics are stunning, even when set to medium. But in the $60 base game, there aren’t that many aircraft to choose from. When downloading after the purchase, the computer prompted me with this question, how many countries and continents would you like to load? The more I clicked the longer the download was going to take. I decided to run a test and choose all. The download was going to take 12 hours. OMG! I canceled that download and simply went with Canada, the United States, Mexico, and South America. That in itself took 3 hours. So far so good.

Now for ease of play. As Norman Thayer would say in the movie On Golden Pond, “Good Gawd!” To load a flight plan takes a PhD. Thirteen-year-old YouTubers make it look so easy, yet this 53-year-old dude can’t figure it out. To be honest, I prefer loading the flight plan in the plane’s computer page that pop’s up, for in real-life pilots load their flight plans that way. It gives it that extra realism and I will learn it so help me, I am determined.

I actually got a plane off the ground yesterday starting from a runway. I was so happy with myself. And noticed that even with medium graphic settings, the sun shone off the airplane’s dashboard and moved across the control panel with the turning of the plane. That I thought was extremely cool. It also has a feature to have an artificial intelligence, or A.I., pilot that can fly the plane for you. I think you actually need a flight plan for this to work. I tried it without a flight plan and the plane took off from State College’s airport and nose-dived into the downtown streets. Oops. The graphics were wonderful as the alarm bells were sounding: Too low terrain, too low terrain. Crash. Obviously, I’m still learning how the A.I. pilot feature. It’s got to be more simple than that. How I think it works, folks, is that you choose an airport and a gate with engines off, file your flight plan in the computer properly, key word properly, and when all the ground vehicles have left, click A.I. Flies Plane for Me. Click it any earlier than that, and who the hell knows what is going to happen.

My preliminary score for this game, and yes, I will update this score in a later blog entry, is a very respectable 6 1/2. I’m going to talk via Facebook page to a couple of YouTubers I know to see if they can help me. Here’s a little something about me. Once I get determined to do something I won’t quit until I do it. I will get this game to run and I will play it.

Finally, prayers go out to all the victims and families in the California fire zones and also continued prayers to families who lost loved ones in the recent shootings. I’m praying that one day soon that the insanity will stop.

Well, there you go. That is today’s blog entry. Hope you enjoyed it. Here is what is happening the next two Thursdays. Moderate snow is expected in our area, so I am giving Rebecca a work from home day tomorrow. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, an obvious day off. So one of us will have a blog entry up tomorrow, we will work together next Wednesday as usual, and then have a Thanksgiving blog post up on the holiday.

Until then, have a great weekend, love one another and give hugs, take care, and happy reading.

I’m about to be blocked out of my hobby!

Greetings, readers. As some of my regular readers may know, I am a flight simulator hobbyist. It is so relaxing to sit in my chair looking into my simulated cockpit and looking at the beautiful blue sky at 36,000 feet. I am a hobbyist pilot for PacificAirways.net. A couple of weeks ago I requested a hub (airport) transfer from Miami to New York, but I didn’t get an email saying it was approved or denied. Yesterday I got a message that I am about to be terminated.

I’ve been trying for several days to log on to the website and the page is asking me to enable cookies. There is only one problem with that. According to the computer settings, they are already enabled. What to do, what to do? With the help of Rebecca’s nimble fingers, we typed an email to Pacific Airways and explained the problem. Hopefully someone reads it in time and has the answer to my browser problem. I have 2,000 flight hours accumulated and would hate to see that all go up in smoke.

Usually I use simulators as an anti-depression tool, but pairing it with the airline hobby is an added bonus. I’ve flown everything from the smallest Dash-8 to the Airbus A380. Such fun it is. I actually wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid but once all my health problems hit, there went that dream.

Speaking of wonderful blue sky, it is a gorgeous day here is central Pennsylvania. TIs a bit nippy, but the sky is blue, the clouds are white, and the leaves are turning colors. All in all it is going to be a gorgeous autumn day. Tomorrow we are expecting rain and turning colder with temperatures really nose-diving over the weekend. Fun, fun, fun for the Penn State game.

I will close this blog entry with this paragraph, “Dear Lord, I pray that these senseless shootings happening across our country and around the world cease. They cause death, destruction, and misery. Absolutely nothing good comes of it, except temporary jollies for the shooter. Then that person’s fun is over, for they are either shot dead by police, commit suicide by shooting themselves, or spend the rest of their lives in prison. Please, Lord, make it stop. Let’s shoot love around the world, not bullets. Amen.”

There is today’s blog. We’ll be back next Wednesday. I’m going to try to have the first draft completed via the speech recognition program; wish me luck on that. Until then, love one another, take good care, enjoy your weekend, and, as always, happy reading.

Overhauling the apartment and me

Greetings, readers. Oh how tired I am this morning. I have decided to get my butt out of my chair and actually give this apartment a good spring cleaning a few months early. I’ve talked about it many times and even Rebecca giggles at me now, for she knows that I either won’t do it or can’t maintain the change. This time I am hellbent on doing so.

With Rebecca’s help before the blog entry time we cleaned off the desk and trashed lots of useless stuff. It looks a heck of a lot better already. Is it perfection? Not yet. But I still have big plans. Another big thing we are doing and still will be doing is shredding papers and the election mailers. I had tons of those. With the election now over, hopefully that will stop. The madness of the mailers must stop.

I am concentrating on one room at a time, because it is extremely easy for me to become overwhelmed. When I think of my bedroom, I scream, go into a panic attack, sit down and watch TV for six hours. Suffice it to say that room is my storage unit. That room may require outside help. What an embarrassment that would be. If I chose Molly Maids, or other such services, I would have to make sure to have all my laundry and unmentionables stashed away ahead of time. Then we would be able to plow through the boxes and throw the stuff out. My big problem in the bedroom, is that I am not physically strong enough to lift and toss out heavy boxes. It is true that I would want to go through everything one box at a time, but I am to the point now where I know what is staying and what is going.

I’m trying to concentrate on this blog today, as the construction demons are making their hideous noises next door. We tried to insert a picture of the construction site for you last time around but it got saved to cyberspace, for it was no where on my computer. The cheap digital camera we used has never worked correctly, so it was no big surprise that the attempt to save to the pictures folder didn’t work.

It is a beautiful semi-warm day here. Very nice for central Pennsylvania in November. We will see how long it lasts. I have a feeling I will be back in my down coat by the weekend. Speaking of the weekend, I’ll watch Penn State lose – um play – Wisconsin at noon. It should be a good game if we play well. That is the key. We are already Bowl eligible with six victories, but I don’t want this team to go to the pee-in-toilet bowl. I hate to say it, but maybe it is time for a change in the coaching staff. I like Coach Franklin, but it seems like he can’t motivate his team out of wet paper bag. The Pittsburgh Steelers play tomorrow night, so I’ll have to choose carefully on Sunday. Perhaps the Eagles will be on.

Lastly, continued prayers go out to all the victims and families who need prayers right now. Troubled times don’t pass in mere days. Sometimes they linger. We will continue to pray for you.

Rebecca and I will be back tomorrow with another blog entry, perhaps dealing with yesterday’s election, perhaps not. You know me, I hate blogging about politics. But one thing I can guarantee you of, it will be an interesting blog topic. So until tomorrow, take care, prayers, have a great day, and happy reading.

The verdict is still out on Nuance Dragon voice recognition program

Greetings, readers. I have tried the brand-newest version of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition program, which the creators call a solution. So far I like it. It’s obviously the same product only better. A couple of months ago, The Nuance company sent me a notice that they are discontinuing my version of the solution, and gave me a choice about what I wanted to do. I could continue to use my current version, number 13, without tech support and updates or I could actually purchase the newest version, number 15, at a big discount. I chose the latter. For a hundred six dollars and some cents I could own a three hundred-dollar product. I said yes, please.

I’ve tried it out a few times already and there are a few improvements I’ve noticed right off the bat. For starters, it did not have to relearn my voice. I believe when I was installing 15, it learned from the previous version before replacing it. That is awesome. I just wish when I am creating a new blog entry in the new post screen on my WordPress dashboard, that I could dictate with the voice recognition program. I still have to dictate in a word program then cut and paste it if Rebecca is not here. That is not that hard to do, but it is an extra step.

The one thing that I did that I actually regret – and it goes to show how impatient I can be – I downloaded the digital copy instead of ordering a disk through the mail. Somewhere in the downloaded content, I’m sure, is the instruction booklet with all the commands and other information about what’s new in the product. I’m quite certain I’ll find it somewhere.

The following paragraph has spoilers for the novel Four’s a Crowd, the book Darren Taylor wrote based on my play Kimberly. If you haven’t read the book yet but want to, you can skip the next paragraph. It is a fantastic novel.

Yesterday Rebecca and I were doing some research on a major health issue for the elderly. My new writing project very well could be either a brand new play or TV pilot script, Five’s a Family, based on Four’s a Crowd. The timeline would be approximately five to eight years from the end of the novel where Kimberly gave birth to Emily Alice. I would want the child to be old enough to interact and be an integral part of the family instead of just sitting there and being cute. The issue is can Alice still have the health to be living in the house as one of the main characters, or would she have to be in a nursing home, only seen once in a while. After a little more research, I will know what I can and cannot do plausibly.

And welcome back to anyone who didn’t read the previous paragraph. Both Rebecca and I seem to be unusually distracted today. Distraction number one is the multitude of construction noises from next door. Number two is my rather naughty kitty cat, Princess Josie. And number three is stopping to find the right words for the blog entry, which are not coming as easily as usual, so we have to keep stopping to find the right words and phrases for a clear meaning. But, we trudge through. Yes, we did have a moment there where we had to re-word almost the whole previous paragraph. We were almost finished with it, when Rebecca pointed out what a major spoiler it was. Oops, can’t do that. That is why she makes the big bucks. She catches things way before I do. Could I edit my own blog? Sure. Would it be edited as well? I don’t think so.

As I begin to wind this blog post down, Josie has finally located a comfy spot. Now she settles down. Haha. I guess it is a comedy of errors today. As I’m trying to dictate the next sentence, the jack hammer outside is wreaking havoc with my concentration. The construction progress of said seven-story building will take at least a year or more. When it is completed, I fear I will have no pretty view left. I took this eighth story apartment for the view. Dang it.

There is today’s entry. We’ll be back next Wednesday with more written goodies. Take care, have a wonderful weekend, give someone you love a hug, and happy reading.