5C's Que Pasa

Last Saturday, Opera Kelowna had its fourth full opera performance.  Opera is young here in our small city but  so very well received.  They now have one full performance per year.  I only discovered the Kelowna Opera society last year and we attended The Magic Flute last year.  This year they moved to a larger venue ( the largest that we have,  853 seats ) and were sold out both performances. The opera was La boheme by Puccini.  We had excellent seats and I must say that for Kelowna theater they were well priced.  I am overjoyed that we were able to get tickets.

It was a fairly large set.  So difficult to take photos while trying not to disturb the other patrons.  As you can see on the upper right there was a rather large screen translating the words being sung into English.  There was one also to my left.

I really found the screen distracting as it was so large.  At the Met in New York, they have tiny screens on the back of the seat in front of you which is easily ignored.  My eye did wander from time to time to the screen which distracted me from the music.  I will say that the words were not true to the original as written by Puccini.

This particular performance had been set in the 1920’s rather than the normal 1860’s.  That is Musetta center stage in flapper style dress complete with headband.  Mimi is the first female on the right sitting at the table.  They were both exquisite vocally.

The final scene just before Mimi dies.

I have a special friend who has seen as many La bohemes  as I have.  She told me that if I cried at the end then it was indeed a great performance.  Well my dear amiga, I teared up but did not have tears falling done my cheeks.  It was very emotional and as I said I had tears.  However I do believe that the opera experience we had in Venice may have spoiled me for the rest of life.  I mean who has such an up close and personal experience.

We loved the performance and when I read that that next August the opera was going to be Carmen I was overwhelmed.  That is my most favorite of them all.  Why?  Because my mother was in it and I had a small part in the children’s chorus.  I know every word of that opera.  Even better it is in French, my first language.  Be still my beating heart.  If they have 2 or 3 performances I will be at each, front and center.

Saturday knocked me back to reality.  I had to pick up just a very few things at Walmart, eggs and cheese. This fellow hanging out his laundry in the parking lot soon brought me back to reality. Seriously?

What is special about the previous photo is that I did not have my camera with me but I did have my iPhone.  So I was able to take the photo.  However selecting the photo and emailing it to myself and then transferring it to iPhoto and touching it up a bit was a chore.  Note to self, always carry your regular camera.  I think that my camera would have done a better job.

Also on Saturday I had to hit our only large mall to make a return on one of our personal travel items.  We are now happy with our selections.  As I was walking the length of the mall I noticed a shoe store.  I have had serious left heel issues the last few days  and realized that I may need to change my footwear.  My over 10K per day ( today is day 40 ) is taking a toll on my feet.

So I tried these on and although I do not like the look of them they are very soft, cushioned and comfortable.  However the right foot is not quite right on the arch so I will wear them inside for a few weeks before I decide to keep them or return them.

Well this is a first in our lives.  Side by side charging of our phones.

We have had a busy few days.  Stay tuned for an early post Tuesday as we make our next move.  Yes that reads  m o v e .

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.