Coffee and Comprehension

After >50 years of wedded bliss, Sue and I still talk different languages and, at times, have trouble understanding each other. At this point, our plight will ever be thus.

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The Backstory

Usually I wake up early and brew a single cup of coffee on our tassimo machine.

Sometime later, I brew a large pot for her as well as for my second mug. At 10 cups, it is large enough for Sue to also consume several mugs.

On the morning in question, I arose later than usual.  Thinking that Sue would be up shortly, I skipped the tassimo and went straight to the big pot.

Of course, she picked that morning for an extra long sleep. Go figure. But still, the coffee kept well, so that is not really part of the story.

Thereafter, followed one of our conversations in which we typically misunderstand each other.

She explained that she had slept in because she had gotten up to visit the facilities in the middle of the night. This is unusual for her as she can usually sleep for a very long time without having to make a nighttime foray to the loo, latrine, commode or whatever have you. I am jealous because such nighttime journeys are quite the norm for me.

Now, wouldn't you assume that she then had trouble getting back to sleep and that is why she slept in so late? Well, even if you wouldn't assume that, I did.

After some time discussing this, I was finally made to understand that she hadn't slept in because she had missed much sleep after her wandering. No no no! It was rather because she had gotten up in the middle of the night and so hadn't, therefore, been subjected to the need to arise at her usual hour.

It took some explaining, but we figured it out.

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This sort of difficulty with communication also happens in reverse, I will say something that is very clear to me but leaves her perplexed.

I don't think we need to get divorced over this, but I am afraid to say this to her, in case she misunderstands me.

An Experiment in Black and White

On a rather nippy morning, I wanted to experiment with my camera, so we took a little walk to the park and trail.

With no great subjects at hand, my experiment was to take shots in b&w straight from the camera. The idea was not just to take them in colour and convert them to mono in post as is usually the case but instead to shoot b&w from the outset the way that I could see them right in the camera.

I not only wanted to see if  I could accomplish this feat but also wondered if actually seeing the world through b&w would help. I am not sure that it did.

A dive into the camera menu system allowed me set the camera up to do that. Each press of the shutter would give me a processed b&w photo and an unprocessed colour photo. But all I could see in the camera was b&w. This is what I wanted for a temporary trial.

Once I got home I decided to process the colour image into mono as I might do normally and then to have always done and then to compare the two versions -- mine and the camera's. My conversion is on the left, the camera's bw on the right.

There's not a huge difference. My conversion is slightly more contrasty in the trees; you can see the snow on the branches better. There is also more contrast in the reflections on the pond. Conversely, I have tamed the snow on the bank a little and made it a little less contrasty, but now I am wondering if I should have done that.

Next: my processed fence and grasses are on the top in the next pair. I think my version is brighter and preferable to the camera version. 

Finally. a close up of some of the same grasses as above.Once again, my processed version from colour is on the top.

It was an experiment, mostly to see if I could actually figure out how to shoot in b&w. It wasn't so much about comparing versions: not until later anyway. 

I am not sure what I accomplished except for actually figuring out how do do it, and also for doing something different on a cold winter morning. Do I think that shooting in b&w helped me to see the composition better if I were to know in advance that I wanted a monochrome photo? Maybe, but I am not sure. But now I know how to go about it if I want to do it again. Assuming that my addled brain can remember how, which is a rather big assumption.

Impish Danica Explains Loops

A week before Christmas, the extended family was having a little facetime chat about our holiday plans, but Jonathan was a little late to the session. When he came online, he wanted to tell us that he had updated his Christmas wishlist.

As you have read above, Sue responded by thanking him for keeping us in the loop. (I was not part of the conversation at that point, for I was out at the time, shopping with Alexa and trying to figure out Saint Gibbets Oil, but I caught up a little later.) Anyway, the boy was perplexed at Sue's answer about keeping her in the loop.

We are not born knowing the meaning of idioms, so Danica provided the explanation.

You may have noticed how JJ is named on my messages: Not Favourite Grandkid. This is easily explained by me telling you that Danica got ahold of my phone at some point. For awhile, she had herself listed as Favourite Grandchild, but she was just Danica in this conversation, and he was identified as Not Favoured. She is an imp: a smart imp, but an imp nevertheless.

Somewhat of an Ordeal

I am not a guy who enjoys being on the phone. This is partly explained by my innate introversion and partly by my auditory woes.

So, why did I spend 2 hours on the phone?

W e l l . . . just yesterday I posted about watching tv on Sue's little laptop. It turns out that we were lucky to do even that.

Our internet had been off-kilter for a few weeks, and so had our Apple TV.

I had been waiting for the cessation of the holiday season to see if the situation would right itself, for I wondered if our problems might be due to the increased holiday load.

It seems that was not the case, so right after New Year, I began to make inquiries or perhaps enquiries.

After awhile, our SiL was able to figure out and fix the TV part. It was an in-house situation, and so we went to bed Saturday night in a good frame of mind with the situation, apparently, resolved.

But then, we woke up on Sunday morning to no internet. This has happened before, and the situation has resolved itself. So, I waited for 4 hours.

When the problem didn't resolve itself, I called my internet provider, who then hooked me up with the phone company. The phone company rep checked the line and said that the problem wasn't the line and to call the provider back.

I thought that was wrong and that I was being given the runaround, but the provider also found this to be the case. Therefore, the modem would have to be reconfigured and new firmware installed.

Somehow, we were able to accomplish this, but it took a long time as I painstakingly followed instructions to do this and then that and then the other thing, both to the computer and also to the modem.

After two hours, internet was restored, and after resolving in-house problems on the previous evening, we also were also able to stream over the tv.

How crazy that two separate problems occurred simultaneously, which made the situation harder to analyze and then resolve.

And the phone calls? The first to our internet provider was with an accented fellow who also spoke quickly. I found it very difficult.

The phone company representative also had an accent, but it was French, and she spoke English fairly well and clearly, especially after I made a special request for her to do so after some initial difficulties in understanding her.

Thank the heavens that the third person, the one with whom I spent by far the greatest amount of time, was a native English speaker who also spoke clearly and unhurriedly.

I was also helped throughout the process by the streaming device that links the phone with my hearing aids. It enabled me to hear fairly clearly (at least the last person) but also move about and change my position during the protracted process. The device was extremely handy when I had to do things to both the computer and the modem and was able still to talk with tech support while my hands were also free to follow her instructions. Phew!

So that is the story of the end to a month of internet and streaming problems and how an introverted, hearing-impaired bloke somehow managed to come through the ordeal not much more insane than he was previously. 

Although that last assertion is disputable.

Why in Tarnation

Why in tarnation were Sue and John watching tv on a small computer in the den on uncomfortable chairs and not in the comfy living room on the big screen? Since they were not doing that, why were they then watching on the little laptop with poor sound and not the big monitor just behind it?

No, we haven't lost our minds, not completely anyway, although recent occurrences aren't exactly helping our sanity. 

For about the past month, something has happened to either our internet or tv system, or actually both. Our internet has been known to drop for hours, and whether that or something else affected our Apple TV Box is yet to be determined. Whatever the case, we can't stream on the big tv.

Until recently we could stream alternatively on my computer -- when we have had internet, that is  -- but I did something or other to the sound system, and now there is no sound coming through the speakers. Nothing.

With one program that we wanted to watch, Endeavour Series 6, episode 4, about to be dropped from the streaming lineup that we are using, we did what we had to do. We set up the little laptop and strained our ears because the volume emanating forth was not exactly thunderous.

We do have a little external speaker that we can plug in. We have taken it to the park to listen to podcasts or music in good weather. But we couldn't find it that evening.

All in all, three things went wrong: Apple TV, the sound system on my computer (with the big monitor), and the inability to find the portable speaker.

On the next day, we did find the speaker, and we can use it on my computer, so we did have a bigger screen and better sound for the next viewing: Endeavour Season 7, episode 1.

Still ... two out of the three problems remain. We are looking into them, but it has been ongoing and frustrating to get it all sorted with various phone calls and texts to various parties occurring.

Caturday 25: Plush

Has it really been close to three months since I did a Caturday post? Well, 2.5 months anyway.

In that one HERE, back in October, Lacey had snuck her way into the guest room and buried herself under the blankets to avoid detection. Her sneakiness has since achieved a similar entry a number of times, to the point where we were forced to bolster the barricade.

But I digress.

At one point, in her almost 2 years with us, she liked to make herself at home on my chair. Somewhere along the line she stopped doing that.

But now I have a plush electric blanket, which I have posted about HERE. And of course .you know what happened next.

I don't really leave the blanket on the chair when I'm not using it, but sometimes I forget to remove it for awhile, and she tends to find it.

What?

The Perils of Editing

Before publishing my blog posts I try my best to review them and edit as necessary. I almost always find that, I leave things out. What I mean is that I tend not to give a full explanation. I have all of the details in my head, but I tend to leave gaps in the telling. So, once I am done with the draft, I need to read it over, and I more often than not feel the need to add the pertinent details.

Additionally, I see where I might say things better, and I make phrasing alterations as well.

But sometimes, editing just creates new problems, for I may decide to write something differently but then fail to clean up the previous wording carefully enough.

In fact, recently, after editing well, or so I had thought, I smugly scheduled my well edited post for publication. Later, after some people had already commented, I happened to notice a very bad mistake in the very first line. Unfortunately, I forget what it was now, but it was a typical case of making one change but not fully excising the previous wording.

Sometimes, however, the problem is opposite.

Many of my posts are pre-written and scheduled for later publication, so I have plenty of opportunity to revise. I normally schedule them to post at 7AM. This almost always works well because I generally rise long before then.

Recently however, after a rough night, I slept in long enough for a post to be published before I was able to look it over just one more time.

This was the final line of that post.

Whose old? I'm not old. They're old.

Mary G picked up on that, immediately, in Comments.

... I hate to say this to you since you are a sleep deprived person, but sleeping in makes old age almost worth it ... 'who's' = 'who is', contracted. 'Whose' is the adjective. I guess obnoxious ex English teachers never really retire. They are just tiresome.

 My reply.

I know Mary G but I get careless. 🤓😇🥺🙄

Her reply.

Very seldom. I can find a lot of messes in my own stuff if I review. Better not to do so?

My final follow up.

Nary G: Trying my best to edit often leads to more mistakes than if I had left it alone. I recently went through a post with what I thought was a fine-tooth comb. I congratulated myself and hit Publish. But when I looked again later, I found a mistake in the very first line.

I made my error (above) red just for this post to draw your attention to it. As you can plainly see, we had been writing back and forth about editing, and I wrote Nary G instead of Mary G.

BTW, in case it needs clarification at this point, I am a very poor typist (keyboarder). At some point, I should do some screen captures for your benefit to document this, but I think I have exposed my incompetence enough for one session.