Whatever

on/off/on/off

Seems like I’ve fallen into an every other day posting schedule here…

It’s Friday the day started with the usual, Fred Meyer for groceries, Stomping Grounds for a latte, and then a short cameo appearance at the coffee & donuts. The rest of the day was spent reformatting the hard drive, loading a fresh copy of Windows and started the process of putting all my programs back on.

For the past week or so the computer has been acting slow and videos off the web were buffering. My C:/ drive is 300 gigabytes and all that was free was down to about 25GB. I tried several hints off the net on cleaning up the files and when I was done it jumped all the way to 30GB free.

While I haven’t put everything back on I’ve got most of the big stuff reloaded and my my free space on the drive is now 250GB! Eighty percent free space compared to the previous 10%. Everything is a whole lot zippier now.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 5.9%

 

Bye Buds

While chatting with neighbor Tere over the fence several weeks ago, I noticed an odd-looking thing that sort of surrounded her ear. At first I thought maybe they were cochlear implants, so I didn’t ask. I did what anyone would do; I entered long strings of words into Google until I got a picture of what she was wearing. They were bone conduction earphones.

That sounded really good to me because I have several in-ear earbuds that I have trouble keeping in my ears. I have three sets, one for each car and another to use while in front of the PC, and all of them don’t stay in my ears very well. They all came with three different sizes of the flexible cones to allow for a fit in many sizes of ear canals. I’ve tried all three, but none stay put.

I’ve been mulling it around, and then on Saturday the person in front of me in line at the coffee shop had a set on, so I went home and did some research. I searched for reviews and tests, and then I put in “best bone conduction headphones,” and the consensus winner is the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, which retails for $180. Wow, I have to think about that. Of course if you check Amazon for these things, they start at $20 and work their way up to that $180.

The clincher was that just two days later, after the Google and Amazon searches, what should appear in my Instagram feed but an ad for bone conduction earphones. Nice work Internet! I figured instead of getting something via that way, I’d go to a review site and click on an Amazon affiliate link. Instead of the $180 top-of-the-line, I’d just buy the regular OpenRun Pro (no “2” on the end) for 70% the cost of the big boy.

Fedex arrived this afternoon with one wheel and tire for the GTI. Hopefully tomorrow the other 3 arrive…

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 14.0%

 

Two Days In The Life

Monday was pretty much a washout as well, but at least I got out of the house for a coffee. I also swapped vehicle order, putting the GTI up front; it is its week to be driven. Also yesterday, I pulled the trigger on dedicated summer tires on new wheels for said GTI. They’ll be here tomorrow.

Today I got out. First was a trip to the ATM to take out some cash, then I went to Fred Meyer for a couple items I should have bought on my regular Friday trip. I know I could have gotten cash out at the grocery store, but I like to take it out in a big chunk, which exceeds what Freddy will let me take out. Plus I needed to take the GTI out for a spin. I needed the practice too; I actually stalled the car taking off from the first light I came to. On the way home I grabbed my usual latte, and even though I had ridden the exercycle for 45 minutes this morning, I walked a mile and a half while sipping on it.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 17.3%

 

How Was Your Weekend?

Thanks for asking.

Saturday was a washout, literally. I rained all day. I only stepped outside of the house onto the side porch once to verify that the loud noise I was hearing was in fact a downpour. The Miata had just its fabric cockpit cover on. But that was just fine, as the cars are covered by an awning/portico, and unlike the southern thunderstorms, the rain falls mainly straight down, not sideways.

Neither car moved today either. I did get out for my typical Sunday bike ride to breakfast at Stomping Grounds. And in spite of the promise of no rain, when I started out, it was cold, damp, and lightly misting. Instead of turning downhill to start the usual route, I turned right and went to get the muffin and latte first. I figured if it still felt like that when I was finished eating, I could just go home and get on the indoor bike. But afterwards it had started to warm up a touch, and the mist was gone, so I did my route backwards. The only downside to going in the opposite direction was it finished on an uphill instead of a downhill blast.

I am about 4 episodes from the end of season three of LOST, and it is starting to get weird, which is saying a lot for the show.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 22.0%

 

Allergies?

Sniff, sniff. The last week or so whenever I’m out walking, my nose will get all stuffy, and my eyes will get a little teary. I don’t remember this problem in the spring before, and this is my third one here in the Portland area.

After a couple seconds I realized this is actually my first spring here. In 2023 I was hardly getting out of the house much, what with taking care of Donna. Last year I was gone on the big road trip from mid-April to mid-June. All three of my usual paths are typically lined on both sides with all these springy, flowery things. Maybe pop a Benadryl before heading out and/or some tissues.

Today’s evening movie showing was Life of Crime a movie based on an Elmore Leonard book…nuff said. Oh, and I restarted watching LOST yesterday. So far I’m just watching one episode a day, not like the 2 per day clip from before.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 17.9%

 

Potpourri

  1. Today would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. Missed it by 19.
  2. Yesterday I tried a different place to walk, Powell Butte. It’s a couple more miles further away than my usual haunts.
  3. Today while walking in one of those usual haunts, a decent-sized black cloud appeared about a 1/2 mile away toward the road. Later I could see flames, but then it seemed, wherever it was, there were people putting it out. I started to hear sirens about the time the smoke stopped.
  4. Yesterday evening I finished one jigsaw puzzle, tore it apart, and started another fresh puzzle right then.
  5. Today I watched the Boston Red Sox lose their 34th game against just 25 wins.
  6. Day before yesterday I binge-watched season 2 of The Four Seasons. I don’t recall the first season being that great, but, this one felt comfortable enough. If they do a 3rd I’d like to say I won’t watch it, but I know me better.
  7. Last week I stopped watching LOST at season three, episode twelve. I’ll probably start again. Once I finish the stuff in my Netflix queue.
Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 26.8%

 

Honky Tonky

I almost didn’t blog tonight, almost.

I didn’t yesterday because, about the time I would have, I was nearly 100 miles away at a bar in Lebanon, Oregon. Four of us from the community piled in one car at about 6pm and made a beeline to Sam’s Place to listen to the folks above. The drummer and his wife used to live in Quail Hollow, but moved south of the city to help the wife’s mom on her farm. We only stuck around for the first 1-1/2 hour set so we could make it home by midnight and not turn into mice looking up at a large orange cultivated winter squash. Unlike my last foray into a bar to hear a band with my neighbor, there was no dancing. Nobody was dancing except for the birthday boy and his wife, who slow-danced one song…

Today was a typical Sunday: bike for breakfast, wash clothes, watch Red Sox, lunch, jigsaw puzzle, random YouTube vids, dinner, and now doing this.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: 21.5%