5C's Que Pasa

Thanks for all of your comments the past few posts.  I really appreciate them and most especially the ones dealing with tips on using my new iPhone.  For those of you who have one and didn’t see all the comments you might want to go back and read the tips.  And if you have more please add them 😎   Just to be clear on my post yesterday, the title was in reference to what the people standing in the square in Barcelona were chanting in unison ” I am not afraid” the day after the attack.

Sadly there is no news on the laptop situation until next Thursday.  I can’t believe that the only Apple store here in Kelowna only has one tech and he called in sick on Friday and is away now until Thursday.  Somehow I do not believe that he was ill but rather just added an extra day to his vacation.

The smoke has returned and we just have to deal with it.  Colin was able to get a few jobs completed this week.  Tomorrow he has a home with a view shoot to do in Oliver  for an architect, about two hours away.  So hard to tell what the smoke situation will be there.  The homeowner will be calling here at 6:30AM to let us know if it is a go or not.

Are any of you going to be watching the solar eclipse on Monday?

Just saw this today.  These are new sleep capsules that have been opened at Terminal 1 airport in Mexico City for those who need a place to rest for a few hours.  Could you sleep on one of these?

I certainly couldn’t.  I am too claustrophobic.  Click here for the full article.

There are kids running around outside screaming that they lost their drone and does anyone know where it landed?  I am talking tiny kids, like less than seven.  Gosh I sure hope that it didn’t land on my neighbors brand new Lincoln.

Just had a bit of a chat with a good friend who lives in the US but is actually in Canada at the moment.  Turns out she was dictating her text while I was painstakingly typing my words out.  I have to look into this dictation thing.  I wondered how she was typing so fast.  It was a fun thing to do.

Time to dash as we have an event I need to get ready for this evening.

Yet another effect of the flooding.

Having a snooze beside Colin in the RV.  Not sure when it was taken but they sure are cute and we continue to miss them.

Charlottesville, Cambrils, Turku/Finland, Barcelona….will it ever end?  What has become of our world?  It only gets worse day after day.  Can the madness be stopped?  How can we help on an individual basis or can we?

We will be in Barcelona next June and plan to walk in that very same area but ‘we are not afraid’ !

Amazed at how I am figuring out my smart phone.  It truly is smart and constantly amazes me.

Today started out with my driving Colin to the dealership to pick up his car.  As the Jeep is still under warranty there was no charge.  So far it is driving as a car should with no problems.  Hopefully the issue has been resolved.

Just for the heck of it I used my very new to me cell phone to take photos of the transfer of equipment from the Lexus to the Jeep.  The photo was straight when I emailed it to myself from the iPhone.  You just have to tilt your head to the left to see how much stuff Colin had in my trunk.

Okay, the second photo of the trunk of the Jeep has the same problem. I have no idea what went wrong. Frankly I thought that I was pretty darn good for figuring out how to take a photo and then how to email it to my desktop.

So just now I put that photo into my iPhoto on my computer and then exported it back to my desktop.  No touch ups at all but the photo is now straight.  So there must be a step that I am missing.

Regardless I think that the colors, sharpness, etc look great.  So that was my first attempt at using that smart camera.  Now I just have to figure out a better way to transfer the photos.  Also I could only email one photo at a time to myself.  There must be a better way.  One day when I have time I really have to figure this stuff out.  Do you all just go by the seat of your pants?

Colin has been gone for over eleven hours but he is on his way home finally.  However he is back at it early tomorrow morning.  Fortunately we only had about 50% smoke today. Tomorrow’s shoot is very lake view orientated so the smoke situation is critical.  However over the past 24 hours there have been many small fires crop up here and there within the community and the city of Kelowna.  All human caused, deliberately set.  Fortunately our fire personal are on top of things.

I was out myself today doing errands and such.  Once I got Colin sorted out with his vehicle I had just over an hour to kill before the stores opened so I went the mall and walked.  By the time I walked it four times and did my errands I was over 10,000 steps.  Now at 11:00PM I am just over 16,200 steps, a new record for me.  I will admit to sore feet, well actually sore heels.  I may have to start looking into different footwear for all this walking.  At least in Mexico most of my steps are on the beach in bare feet.

Still no news about my laptop.  I will call them tomorrow.  I did get a call back from someone willing to put a used hard drive into my computer for the same price as Apple would charge me for a new one.  Not a difficult decision.  Of course we have to ascertain what the exact problem is first of all.

One of the things that I was shopping for today was a personal item for each of us to travel with.  What we used ( tote bags ) to travel to Venice was not practical.  Too much space for things to get lost in and crammed.  I am looking for something with lots of compartments for things like the laptop, Colin’s chess set, a few books, travel documents and printouts re hotels, maps, etc.  I also want space for snacks, water bottles, toiletries and a change of clothing for those 15 hour plus flights.  I found a few that I really liked and I want to show them to Colin first, then I will share them with you.  Many folks use backpacks but that is not our style.  This item will be in addition to our rolling carry on luggage.

We are still going to Mexico for the winter in the RV but have planned a trip in the late spring to Europe.  We will be gone four full weeks.  At this point we think that we may need to buy a slightly larger rolling suitcase and travel with that as well as one of our carry on suitcases and since we have to check the larger one we would check them both.  This explains why we need a larger bag for our allowed personal item.  I really don’t see how we could travel for four weeks in just the two official sized carry on pieces.  When we traveled to Venice last June, both of our bags were full to the brim and we used at least 90% of what we had packed.  I know that Ruth & Kevin do it all the time with the minimum but again that is not our style. Rae also did it for a full five months, I really don’t know how.  We like daytime clothes and dress clothes for the evening plus pants or shorts depending on the weather.  I need at least three pair of shoes so that I can do all the walking that we do.  I like to have  3 or 4 different sweaters or jackets.  Colin changes his shirt every day and he wears a full shirt, not T-shirts which take up less space.  It is all a learning curve for us at the moment.

Speaking of learning curves, I got a text from Colin earlier this evening asking me to send information to a client via text.  This person only uses text.  It was a good deal of info to text but my iPhone surprised me by anticipating the word I was typing which saved a lot of time.  It also changed my i to an I when appropriate.  I sort of figured out by accident that hitting space space gave me a period and then the next letter was already a capital.  Simply brilliant.  I was amazed at how quickly I got done what I had to send.  Now I just need to find the courage to wake up the mysterious Siri.

Then there is the story that Colin told me of one of the homes he was in today.  Everything is controlled by an iPhone or an iPad and the lady of the house is desolate as she can’t figure how to turns things on, never mind off 😯

I know that Rae will respond to this, but it simply amazes me at how quickly this smart phone is fitting into our life.  She has been after me for two, maybe three years to get with the program as we used to say.  I only wish that I had done it then, as she would have been there to help me.  I may just have to fly to Merida, Mexico this winter for lessons.

Finally got a call from the dealership today about our Jeep.  The service manager took it home last night and with a bit of experimentation was able to replicate the problem.  It appears that the driver door may be slightly out of alignment which caused the transmission not to work.  Of course Colin asked about the computer not reading the code.  Turns out that because the door is only open just enough that the contact points were not aligned there was a problem.  However it was not enough of a problem to create a ‘bad’ code on the computer.  So they were going to realign the door which should alleviate the problem.  We are picking it up at 8AM tomorrow.

We woke up to a fairly blue sky day. Wonderful.

By 10:00AM Colin was booked for full day shoots for the next five days straight. Of course that is only based on clear skies.  Does anyone know the dance to keep the smoke away?

Colin put in a 13 hour day today and has the same hours booked for the next five days but that is what he does.  Of course for each day taking photos he has another two days on the computer before we can churn out an invoice.  Fingers crossed that the smoke stays away for a few days.

No news on my computer today.  I did call several places only to discover that the 2015 Mac Air is a particularly difficult case.  Apple parts can only be used as it has a particular interface that requires a special proprietary connector.  Sounds like Apple is making it more difficult for techs to go around their system.

Thanks for checking in.  Taking things slowly and we will see what tomorrow will bring.

As I often publish my post as the end of the day I want to clarify a few terms.  Because we are on PST time a great many of my readers are already in bed when I publish a new post.  So when I say yesterday, I really mean Monday which was my yesterday as I wrote this on Tuesday evening.  But when you read this post, likely on Wednesday, yesterday will likely mean Tuesday to you.  So I just wanted to clarify that yesterday really meant Monday, is that clear? 🙄

So yesterday morning ( Monday AM ) we both headed out in two vehicles.  Colin was dropping the RV off at United Hitch for the final electrical wiring required to tow the Jeep.  Once back home he went to do some work on his computer and I head out for my morning walk.  Once done I stopped to chat with a neighbor.  It wasn’t long before Colin came to find me.  I had missed my scheduled 11 AM phone conference.  It had totally slipped my mind and I of course had neglected to check my calendar.  Fortunately I was able to reconnect about 20 minutes later.  My walk had started on a clear cool morning and by 10:30AM it was smokey once again 👿

Basically I spent the day catching up with paperwork as Colin did with computer work. He has been photo shopping grey skies with blue sky.  A client had a deadline of today (Tuesday ) to enter photos for a commercial project competition. I call it faking reality but what can we do with our current circumstances.  This is one of the very few jobs we have that he can do this with.  He later headed out in the Jeep to pick up the RV.  This was the big moment when he would connect them together for the first time and also set up the Brake Buddy.  I have to say that I was beyond shocked when he called to tell me that we was waiting for a tow truck for the Jeep.  Apparently he was all set up to tow it home when the car refused to move forward. It was locked in park.  Unknown to me Colin has had this problem several times over the past two weeks.  The Jeep refuses to move into gear but after much giggling with the gear shift it does eventually get into drive.  So he called the Jeep dealership which here is with Chrysler and they sent a flatbed tow truck.  Off went the tow truck with the Jeep.  Colin finally got going and just a few blocks later came to a full stop in the middle of the street.  He put the flashers on and went out to tell the tow truck driver that we was unloading our Jeep at the wrong dealership.  I guess the good news is that he actually was driving by as it was happening.  Meanwhile the road was being blocked by our RV for a short period of time.  Also it is good to know that this problem will be covered by our Jeep warranty.

Instead of coming home Colin drove onward to Vernon to Okanagan Glass to have some measurements made.  You may recall that two years ago we had some interior renovations done on the RV.  I promised a post but never did it as it was too distressing.  The work cost a bundle and it was not to our standard.  The fellow was/is a great craftsman but not in our case.  Colin has photographed his work for years.

One of the things he did was replace our beveled glass panels.  Well just a year in, the glass began to have black spots.  We found out that the fellow had likely used the wrong glue.  So now we are replacing all the glass panels.  They look fine in this photo which was taken almost two years ago.

The woodwork in the photo is of new stained wood cabinets and he did a good job on that as well as the rest of the kitchen and bathroom.  However these two cupboard doors used to have a glass insert.  I don’t know why he didn’t to it as requested.  I find it too dark and we will likely get the center insert replaced with an opaque glass panel.  To the right of this photo we have cabinets all the length of the living room with opaque inserts.  One of the things I did not like is that he re hung two doors opening the wrong way and it is impossible to fix unless we redo the cabinets from scratch.  To this day, two years later, I am still upset each time I use those two doors which are situated in the bathroom.

So at this point we are getting two tables refinished (by a different highly recommended wood finisher ), as well as the chairs and also the wood moldings on the floor.  Today ( Tuesday 😎 ) we took the chair backs and cushions in for recovering and the fellow insists on redoing the foam also.

Colin never got back till after 7PM yesterday ( Monday ).  Meanwhile I was reeling from the news of a very special friend who has been told chemo is no longer in her future and that she must come to terms with what will be.  Enough said.  I can say that there was wine consumed yesterday.

This morning ( heh, we are still on Tuesday 😀 ) Colin turned on our very seldom used 2015 Mac Air laptop and……..

…….. got the prohibitory symbol.

Yup that is what it means. Bad news.

So of course being my most efficient self I set to work to resolve the issue.  None of the many suggestions on Google helped.  I called the place we bought the computer from and they pushed us off to Apple Support.  They now only sell new items and no longer service anything.  So after two hours of time spent trying this and that online with the Apple lady who happened to be in Georgia it was obvious that we had yet another major situation or crisis as I prefer to call it on hand.

So we had to wait until the chap who was cleaning our very dirty carpets and dusty upholstery in the RV was done.  He was not impressed with our new storage area, stopping short of calling it Hades.  I don’t think he will be available to clean for us in that location again.  Pity as we have been using him for over ten years and he does a wonderful job.

Finally we were free to dash into town to the only Apple store where fortunately the Apple Support lady had made us an appointment for 4:20PM.  The place was packed with people seeking advice and help for their broken devices.  I saw someone come in complaining that their iPhone would no longer charge.  The manager merely took a sharp tool and picked out over a teaspoon of lint.  Problem solved.  There wasn’t much help for the gal who had dropped her laptop into a basin of water.  How did she manage to do that?  But they said that they would try.  Good people.

So it was our turn.  They really tried, in fact two of them did.  Sadly our laptop appears to have either an easy fix, a loose or broken connection between the hard drive and the software, an easy inexpensive fix.  Or which they suspect might be the case a failed hard drive which the manager has only seen 5 times over the years.  With our luck guess which it might be?  The cost for a new hard drive is $500.00.  We have owned this computer for two years but have used it very very little.  It gets turned on 3 or 4 times per month.  Its purpose is for travel and the very odd time that Colin will take it on a job.  So we will know it’s fate by the end of the week.  Cost to us $55.00 thus far.  Then we have to make a decision.  They do say that they might still be able to get my data off of it and transfer it to ??????

So as you can see, life has been a challenge to us this week.  Well actually it has been a challenge since the end of March.  That one week in Venice stands out like a bright light.

Oh, how could I forget.  We did make contact with the Jeep dealership at the end of the day, today, Tuesday.  According to them there is nothing wrong.  They say that their computer would tell them if there was a problem and there were no bad ( my words ) codes indicated on the computer.  So why on earth could the Jeep not be towed or even moved at all.  In our minds there is an unsafe situation but the dealership says that all is well.  If there was a problem it would be indicated in the codes.  So are we not telling the truth???  Colin asked them to please have someone take our car home and drive it around a bit and see what happens.  We can only hope that tomorrow ( that is Wednesday 😆 ) they will find a solution to the issue.

Seriously I am almost ready to give up.  What next I ask?  Other than another glass of vino!