“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.”
Today is almost my favorite sort of morning. It is cloudy and still. When I went to get the papers, I could smell the ocean so I stayed out on the deck a bit taking in the salty air and watching Henry in the yard.
Yesterday was frustrating. When I woke up, my two Alexas were not connected to the internet. I tried to connect them but failed so I called the help line. If I could have put my hand inside the receiver and shaken that woman I would have. She spoke too quickly and too softly. She repeated over and over during the marathon phone call. Not only did my Alexas not get connected, but I also could no longer connect to my network, Miss Kat. I had to use the unsecured Xfinity network. She told me that it was Xfinity’s fault. I pointed out to her that I had been connected until she got into the act and had doing all sorts of useless steps. She had me start all over from the Alexa site. I quoted Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” She didn’t say a word. I lost it and said she was useless and had made the situation worse. I just said thank you, being a polite sort, and hung up. A while later I got an email listing the same steps. I swore.
I did get my network back. I found a couple of sites which told me how. It was easy.
I do have to go out later. I’m heading to the dump and to Agway. I need more animal food.
When I was a kid, my summer wardrobe was shorts and mostly a sleeveless blouse and sneakers with socks. There was no such thing as sneaker socks. You could buy ankle socks and knee socks but not sneaker socks. We all wore Converse sneakers. My brother’s were black high tops and mine were white tennis shoes though I didn’t play tennis. I always wondered why they weren’t just called sneakers. Maybe calling them tennis shoes made them sound more sophisticated somehow.
All summer we mostly drank Zarex. The milk, even the chocolate milk, lasted. It was just too hot for milk. My mother would make Zarex in the morning in her blue aluminum pitcher. By nighttime, the pitcher would be empty.
I remember my two little sisters sitting outside on the back steps to eat their lunches. I have this picture in my head of Sheila sitting on a higher step than Moe. I remember their Zarex filled aluminum glasses which matched the pitcher though they were different colors. I don’t know why this memory stuck, maybe because it is a perfect picture of a summer afternoon.
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July 8, 2019 at 1:09 pm
I’ve learned that it usually works much better if one can check the net for answers when the internet fails on the computer, our mobile phones usually works and fails much less often to be honest. I also have a work friend whos brother is a computer genious and he can actuallu explain so one understands 🙂 🙂
I’m trying to remember what we drank, I’m pretty sure we drank home made juice,one of the few things my mother actually could do 🙂 If we were at grandma’s however it would most likely be some kind of soda like raspberry soda 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 8, 2019 at 5:10 pm
Hi Christer,
After a while hunting through the net, I was able to fid the solution. Not only did I get my wifi back but I was also able to get both Alexas on line. The only problem left is one Alexa who thinks I’m somewhere else when I ask for the weather. Back to the internet I go, but the solutions I found didn’t work. I asked Alexa where she was and she said right here. That wasn’t what I was looking for.
We had orange juice but it was only for breakfast. We seldom had any sort of soda.
Have a great evening!!
July 8, 2019 at 4:56 pm
Hi Kat,
If I have to do anything with Amazon, I do it via online chat as opposed to phone call. Typing and reading are much clearer than having to decipher soft, fast, probably young persons’ voices. And both sides of the conversation can reread the other side’s statement as many times as necessary. It doesn’t meant things get resolved but at least I’m not frustrated by having to repeat myself or repeatedly asking the CSR to “say again, please”.
Zarex was a luxury treat for us. The daily summer beverage was Kool Aid served from a plastic pitcher if at home or from the big green thermos with the spigot and the regulation dent in the aluminum cap. 🙂
I’m certain someone invented sneaker socks after their ankle socks crawled down under their heels once too often.
I wore Keds or PF Flyers with the white bumper toes. Always red because Shecky the raccoon would not follow on the leash unless the sneakers were red.
It was a beautiful day up here. Cool in the morning. Sunny and low humidity with a nice breeze all day.
Enjoy the sea breeze and the rest of your day.
July 8, 2019 at 5:42 pm
Hi Caryn,
I am if nothing else persistence. I went on-line. Yesterday I was fish with the success of my getting on my own network. Today I decided I would solve the Alexa problem. It only took about 40 minutes, far less time than I had spent on the phone. Not only that, she was wrong on a couple of issues.
My mother didn’t like Kool-Aid. She thought it had too much sugar. She always made it in the same pitcher all the time. It went in the plaid thermos wit the spigot when we went to the beach or drive-in.
I hated it when my socks slipped. My sneakers were always white. It was painful when they’d get the first dirt spot.
It was a beautiful day down here as well.
I have done nothing except take my shower and read. It has been a lazy day.
Have a wonderful evening!
July 9, 2019 at 3:09 pm
I hadn’t had Kool-Aid since childhood. A few years ago I took up spinning and dyeing wool. One of the dyeing techniques was to microwave the spun wool in a Kool-Aid bath. The wool I had spun was a natural dark brown and the Kool-Aid was raspberry flavor. The wool came out very definitely raspberry colored. I put it in a cool water rinse to remove the excess dye and set the color assuming that some of the color would run. No excess dye came off the wool. That stuff was solidly color fast over dark brown wool! And I thought to myself OMG, children drink this.:O
July 9, 2019 at 3:38 pm
Okay, I’m quite happy we didn’t drink Kool-Aid. Don’t try the same thing with Zarex!!
July 8, 2019 at 5:20 pm
Hi Kat,
I wouldn’t have Alexa or Echo or any other one of those things in my house. Google, Amazon and now Facebook are collecting everything you say. They are storing it forever and selling the information to the highest bidder. I even stopped using Google for search because if I am looking for shoes I get ads for the shoes I looked at on the periphery of every webpage afterwards. I rarely use Siri on my iPhone, she’s not that smart, and I browse the web with Safari and Duck Duck Go which neither one sells your data to anyone. They are as private as you can get online. As Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, told congress during hearings on internet privacy, “Apple doesn’t sell your data, they sell products.” I’m glad you were able to get your assistances back online, I don’t need a ditgial tattle tale to wake me up or tell me the weather. Everything has a price and I’m not willing to pay for that level of convenience with my entire life story.
When I was a kid we wore Ked’s tennis shoes. My mother called them sneakers, she was from NYC, which had it’s own language. 🙂 I called them tennis shoes regardless of the color or the height of the shoe. She also called blue jeans dungarees which has a more colorful sound. My summertime wardrobe was made up of tennis shoes, shorts, crew length socks and tee shirts. Since I have gotten older I have substituted the tennis shoes for New Balance cross trainers and the tee shirts for golf shirts. I like having the pocket for my reading glasses. Otherwise every thing is good in the world when everything stays similar. 🙂
Right now at 4:15 PM it’s a balmy 94 degrees under scattered clouds.
July 8, 2019 at 5:54 pm
Hi Bob,
I use the Echo to get the time, the weather, the Red Sox schedule and results and to play games and music. There isn’t a whole lot of information which can be gleaned from that. I never see the albums of the artists I listen to offered for sale anywhere nor have there been weather or Red Sox items. I also use Alexa as my alarm clock as I don’t have one. I use Safari as my browser.
We also called them sneakers so it wasn’t just NYC. We too called them dungarees.
I live for comfort now. When I have to get dressy to go some place, I’m not happy.
It is 78˚ and tonight will go down to 64˚. Both are perfect!!