Fancy Computer Skins

Posted on June 23, 2026 by RegenAxe

This rocket trip home seems punctuated with errands and chores. The big chore of course were the new windows. They were installed yesterday and today we marked that chore done-done, when we put the house back together again. The biggest item involved with the windows was reinstalling the blinds. We had a fair amount of trouble with them, but persevered and got all of the blinds reinstalled, then put all of the furniture back where it was before. Other miscellaneous chores included a trip to East Kansas City, where our dentist has moved to. Anne got her hair cut and I still have to do that too. My other activity was replacing the laptop. Because of a clerical error, I thought that the computer store would fix the device, because it was still under warranty, but that was a mistake. I elected to get a new refurbished laptop, plus an in-store warranty. I’ll figure out what to do with the old laptop, when we get back to town in the fall. It is going to need a new mother board, so it will not be cheap.

Turn the radio on—Get in touch with God

Posted on June 22, 2026 by RegenAxe

Thayer Magic Manufacturing Company, Los Angeles, Spirito, 1932. The Spirito radio’s exterior appeared to offer cutting-edge technology in the 1930s. The inside, though, was completely empty apart from a hidden coil that allowed the voice of an assistant offstage to be broadcast as “the spirit.” Magicians played off the connections between science and the spirit world with their own devices such as Spirito. Thayer Magic, a company that produced equipment for magicians from 1907 to the 1930s, claimed “nothing supernatural for Spirito” apart from being “the master scientific marvel of the age!” The radio that tunes in on the mysterious unknown.

Today, we accomplished our main goal for returning home. Eight new windows were installed. A crew of 4-5 men showed up on time, went right to work and installed our replacement windows. The look nice, so nice in fact the few remaining windows now standout like sore thumbs. We’ll have to get their replacement scheduled ASAP. Watching them work was exhausting. So much so that it might takes a day or two to put things back the way they were.

New Neighbors

Posted on May 1, 2026 by RegenAxe

According to T. S. Elliot, April is supposed to be the cruelest month, but not around here. Instead of baby birds being plucked too soon, we seem to have a bumper crop. It started with the Mouning doves. They traditionally roost on our southside neighbor’s house and as is their like, mournfully call to us from there. This has been the situation for years. This year though, they seemed to have jumped the driveway and our now roosting on our house. This morning, I spied two doves on our dining room windowsill and while lying on the living room couch, I could hear them calling. I suspected that they are nesting either on the real chimney or the fake chimney, both of which are at the front of the house. Both masonry structures are too tall to see what is happening on top of them, but such lofty perches also seem too exposed to hawks. According to Wiki, Mourning doves are known for building very flimsy, minimalist nests made of twigs and grass, typically completed in few days. They often nest in trees, shrubs, or on human structures like gutters, with both parents sharing incubation (male by day, female by night) and raising multiple broods per season. I still have not located their nest, but while looking for it, I easily found the pictured Robin’s nest, at the back of the house, where breakfast is served all day long.

Guilty Pleasures

Posted on April 25, 2026 by RegenAxe

I started doing it first, but Anne has joined in too. We throw our empty boxes down the basement stairs and watch and listened to them falling down the stairs. It is the simple things in life that makes it worth living.

New Air Conditioner

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Tropical Heat Wave

Posted on April 24, 2026 by RegenAxe

We’re having a Heat Wave,A tropical Heat Wave.The temperature’s rising,It isn’t surprising.—Ethel Waters

Well, it is only in the sixties today. It is raining too, but we are ready for summer now. We have a new air conditioner. Starting at 7 AM this morning, installation commenced. It took six hours, longer than expected because the squirrels had chewed into the outdoor lines, necessitating their replacement and additional labor. I was wondering what those demon rodents were up to, since they have not attacked the car again recently. The new unit has an app. It also has Wi-Fi and can be remotely controlled. It also displays the humidity, which in St. Louis is usually half the summer air conditioning problem. It comes with a trial service agreement, where the vendor comes out to inspect the unit. This is how we got this new air conditioner to begin with, but I want some peace of mind knowing that it will run all summer long, even while we are away.

The other thing that occurred today, was that we were visited by a drive by notary, Pamela. We are closing on the Monterey house next week and things have progressed to the point where the title company is stepping in. So, you know that things are getting serious. The long and short of this experience is that I signed a lot of paperwork. Pamela had a rather laissez faire attitude. Whenever I had questions, she advised that I only fill out the minimum and let the title company complete the rest. Hopefully, I’ll get paid. When we do, Anne wants to flush a bunch of this money down the toilet, in the form of a new bathroom and I would like to have our current one-and-only bathroom updated with a walk-in shower, because we are getting older.