I tried to figure out when I had posted last and what I have been doing since then. There was too much mind clutter, and the only way I could remember was to download the photos I have taken since last Friday.
Here's what I found.
Saturday Tom and I and Tom's sister Jan drove to Clatskanie, Oregon for a family memorial service. Clatskanie is near the Columbia River, a two and a half hour drive from Seattle.
After the service we explored a bit before getting back in the car for the long drive home. We found a small farmer's market and a fun antique shop.
Then it was back across the Columbia River at Longview and north on I-5.
Sunday was Father's Day. We worked at home and kept track of World Cup games until it was time to meet up with the kids for dinner at Azteca. Tom enjoyed his margarita.
Monday we worked on more projects at home until it was time for the USA vs Ghana. We won!
Tuesday we worked at home until the afternoon. It was the last day of school and we went over to help Jill clean up her room and then took the kids out for frozen yogurt. They were too busy staring at the video screen to look at me.
Tom turned the garage into a workshop this week to build picnic tables and benches for the Whidbey cabin. He started on Sunday and just finished the last bench today!! Hooray!
Now he's cleaning up the garage. I spent time doing my exercises and walking, sometimes in the rain. I also worked on plans for a big birthday party I am throwing for myself in July. Finally the rain let up and it was time for me to get out in the garden and begin to put things back in order. Wind and rain had knocked stuff over, caused lush growth, including weeds, and lots of things just needed deadheading and grooming.
I spent two days and filled a yard waste bin.
Now the vegetable garden is weeded and things are tied up and growing.
The first raspberries are ripening already, and we have harvested a few strawberries.
Last night we attended a Sounders soccer match at the small Starfire Center, as the Sounders took on a top amateur team in the first round of play for the US Open Cup.
I loved the colorful shoes on our team starting line up.
It was an easy victory, 5-0, and now the Sounders move on in play. Next up, a perennial MLS nemesis, Real Salt Lake. We'll be on Whidbey Island then so we'll have to see if we can find a way to live-stream it on my lap top.
Correction: My son informs me that we play San Jose Earthquakes, next, not RSL. I knew that but somehow......... At least I know he read this post :-)
So there you have it. We've been busy. Next up - a four day conference called the Hardy Plant Study Weekend, where we will attend seminars and visit gardens all over the area, including gardens on Whidbey Island on Monday. I'll take pictures. And we'll deliver the picnic tables, and Tom will finish the shingles on the shed, and I'll tend the garden, and we HOPE for one day to just relax!
Now here are a few photos of my garden, all cleaned up!
Roses!
The first dahlias.
A study in green.
Flopping peonies.
Ground cover tapestry.
Lavender and columbine.
Pot explosion!
That's all for now, folks. It may be awhile before I'm back, but I'll try to keep up with your posts.
My grandson Isaac was over at our house several weeks ago and decided he wanted to "play" with the Smart TV hub and the keyboard used to operate it.
Sure, I said. Let's set it up.
Well, we couldn't. What had worked some weeks before now would not, and while the TV connected to the WiFi, it would not connect to the Internet. That Smart TV wasn't so smart.
Last week, I finally set aside the time to work on this problem. On Monday I went on line to see if this was a common problem. It was for Samsung Smart TVs. I read about possible fixes, and then tried my hand at finding and resetting some of the settings. That didn't work. That's when I called Comcast.
The first level of tech support tried some of the same setting changes I had tried. When he reset the modem, we lost phone contact and had to wait about a half hour until the phone was restored and called us back. Nothing was solved. I got a case number and gave up for that day.
Tuesday I called Comcast again to get to a higher level. This time we tried the same stuff again, and resetting the modem, we lost contact completely. After about a half hour I called again on the cell phone and got someone in Texas, who took over and restored the modem and the Internet and the phones and then sent us to a higher level tech guy. Again we tried new settings and finally he was checking the Internet and reading the same articles I had read. By now were were just joking around, not knowing what else to do.
What we did decide was that it wasn't a Comcast connectivity problem and I should now try Samsung.
While trying various things the Comcast tech turned off the firewall, and at some point the email must have been hacked, because some people on our e-mail contact list got Phishing e-mail. Tad, our personal tech guy, got one and asked if we had been hacked. We had to change a whole bunch of passwords. Sometimes that is easy, and sometimes it is not. What fun.
Wednesday I called Samsung. We went through settings changes all over again. It was decided that we should update a program in the TV. In order to do that we had to go buy a flash drive, then download an update to it, then plug it into the USB on the TV and download it there. I did all of this and it didn't work. Then we realized we hadn't unzipped the program file, so I went back to the desktop to figure out how to do that. Note - the key word here is extract, not unzip.
That done, I plugged it back into the TV and updated the program but that did not solve the Internet connection problem either.
Now it's Thursday. I called Samsung back and after some time I got to a higher level of tech support, a person with "real" English. We tried a bunch more things, with me "driving" with the remote. I don't know how many times now that I have entered and reentered the 16 figure pass code, numerals and upper case letters, using arrows on the remote and the qwerty keyboard on the screen. The Samsung tech woman even set up a conference call with Comcast so we could work together. The Samsung tech support woman did suggest there might be an issue with the distance from the modem to the TV but I said it used to work just fine. Finally she fixed me up with a local electronics repair shop that would call me to schedule an in home visit.
We began our weekend, while keeping a phone handy so as not to miss the call. Fortunately contact was made Friday afternoon, with a call back on the cell phone to be made on Monday, when we would be going to Whidbey Island.
The next call informed us that we were set for a service call the following Thursday afternoon, which meant we had to go home from the island Wednesday evening.
Thursday afternoon Juan arrived about 3:00. What a great guy. He again tried some settings, the checked connectivity and a bunch of other stuff and then said he was taking the TV upstairs, closer to the modem. This is a 55 inch flat screen, but he picked it up like he did it all the time and carried it upstairs and set it on the floor of the bedroom, close to the upstairs office. He even had his own power cord, so we didn't have to unplug anything. To make a very long story come to an end, the problem was that while the TV used to be able to bring in the WiFi Internet signal, it got tired and quit reaching so far. Apparently this happens often enough that Juan knew about it, even though the phone support people didn't.
The fix was to get a WiFi booster, except that he called it an Infrared Booster and when I called Samsung, I got shuttled to three different people before the third person, a woman, figured out what I needed and that I could go buy one at Best Buy.
So we did, right then and there. This had gone on long enough.
This plug in device cost $80.00, well worth it if it works. It took us about an hour to get it programmed, failing several times before the directions made sense and worked. And Hurray! we now had Internet connection with the TV. It was now smart again! Finally! It only took two weeks!
But then we noticed that our iPhones were no longer able to SEND email. What? The message was that the web address or password were not correct. I don't know how many times we each entered what we knew was the correct new password in the settings, with no luck. So yesterday we called Comcast again. We got a great technician who walked us through the steps through several screens on our phones to a "hidden" password box just for outgoing mail. There we once more entered the verified password. Wah-la! That problem was solved.
I wasn't sure what to call this post. An alternate title was "Technology Wars". I certainly feel like I have been through a battle. I do love technology, when it works, but when it doesn't I am easily in way over my head, and that is very frustrating.
All's well that ends well, I guess. Everything is working, for now.
And I did learn a lot in this process. That's always a good thing.
There were jobs to do. There was time. There was clear weather.
Monday morning after my last physical therapy session ( I graduated!) we drove to Whidbey Island to take on some projects.
Our ferry boat awaits.
It was a very pleasant day on the lagoon.
Tom's project was to build a storage shed under the deck stairs. My jobs were to clean up the garden and oil the deck furniture.
I got started on the garden after lunch, while Tom cleaned out the area of construction and went to the builders supply to order materials.
The garden was very dry and some of it was burnt up. We have had very little rain for weeks now. I deadheaded and weeded and clipped and cleaned out dead and drying stuff. I found a bird's nest, probably a Junco.
I worked for three hours and didn't get finished, but it was time to clean up and fix dinner.
We went for a walk after dinner and then I connected my lap top to the cousin's WiFi next door and read blogs. Then I worked on my memoir. Oh, I guess I haven't mentioned I am writing my memoir. That's another blog post.
The building materials were supposed to be delivered in the morning, but they didn't come. I finished my gardening job and then set to work on applying teak oil to the deck furniture, while Tom did some more cleaning up around the yard. We have a lot of stuff sitting around from the construction of the cousin's cabin next door.
Tom found a pile of old bricks and extended the fire circle. They will have to be set in at another time, or by someone else.
The delivery finally arrived about 1:00 and then Tom got to work, and I was on standby to assist when needed.
This was my "stand by" location. I read and dosed.
The ceiling was attached under the stairs and then the walls went up.
After dinner I went for a long walk up the hill while Tom worked. Then I took my camera over to the beach on the bay side to watch the sun set.
Everything glows in the golden hour.
Cotton tail rabbits enjoy the new lawn next door.
Tom got the construction finished and began putting the shingles on before we quit, both very tired.
Tom enjoyed some deck time and I read blogs and worked on my memoir.
By the next morning the garden was looking better, cleaned up and watered.
Tom got busy on the shingle siding, feeling his way as he went, working on a system to keep the rows even.
We used the door from the old shed which was next door, a piece of cabin history.
Tom got one panel on the back side done and then ran out of steam. He'll finish it when we come back up in two weeks.
After dinner we walked over to the beach to look for a few pieces of driftwood to use as door "hardware".
Tom moved stuff into the shed.
There will always be some left to lean up against it.
The yard is looking cleaned up, ready for the next cabin guests, who are there now.
I found this little creature to help welcome them.
We got home about 11:00 last night, and have spent some of today just recovering from our working vacation.
