Last night, Hazel came in for help. She had, earlier in the day, brought John over to the apartment and he could not get his Fox news on the TV. Only Netflix (which is her channel). The most difficult part was understanding what the problem was. The answer was the cable box had been turned off. Hit that button and all was fine. She thinks I'm a genius.

Just now, Jim, knocked on the door and needed me. Jim moved in just after I did. He's been on a neurological decline ever since. His ability to articulate is nearly gone. Today, he poked his head in and said he needed me. I said here? or your place? My place. So we went over. And here was the conversation:

Me: So the problem is the TV?
Yeah, this is what I want [pointing to the TV] but I can't get it.
I got up and got something and when I got back, this [pointing to the TV] is all. And, nothing has changed [pointing to the coffee table].

Jim, where's your clicker? Your remote?
Oh, I have to find that. And he immediately opens his refrigerator.

I looked around and spied it on the desk next to his computer.

Is this the missing link? Now will it do what you want? I put the remote in his hands and he punched a few buttons.

You are a genius.

I am kind of proud that I cracked the case with so few clues.

The two things I need to do today are play volleyball and distribute the Timber Ridge Times on my little hallway. Done and done.

I saw yesterday that the aqua yoga class has now been renamed aqua stretch. All the things - class schedules and descriptions and the calendar have all been changed. Interesting. Our first class since the change is Monday. Be fun to see if they have more changes there.

In other big news, tonight is pizza night at the buffet. They make very very good pizza here and I have meal bucks to spend so I will be at least doubling up and maybe tripling up on the pizza dinner and stocking the freezer.

I saw John yesterday. He has probably lost 25% of his body weight. His smile is the same size, though.

Bonny needed to buy a bunch of birthday and other cards for people here in our neighborhood. She's taken over that job from Joan and, I must say, really stepped up to the plate and has been doing a good job. She had gone to Target and was appalled to see that the cheap cards were $6. "Will you go with me to the Dollar store?" hahaha She's always bragged that she's never been there. So for the second day in a row, I went to Dollar Tree. Bonny was impressed. She got a boatload of cards and a Happy Birthday sign. $10.63. She is now a Dollar Tree advocate. I will say that their $.50 card aisle is pretty rich in selection and quality.

I had two baseball games yesterday at the same time - one on the computer and one on the TV. They sucked neck and neck until the very end. Yikes. Today only the Phillies play.

And that's it so far today from the cult. I need to get dressed and go out and finish up the puzzle in the elbow. There are only about 100 pieces left so it won't take long.

The laundry is laundrying, the dishwasher will be washing as soon as I get up and put this plate in. Half the fog is gone but I got a swim in while it was still sunless. I had the pool to myself and it was lovely.

My bank swap seems to be going well. I need the initial funds to show as available in the new Chase account and then I can close out Key Bank entirely. They are showing as pending now. Should be able to get it all done by Friday.

My return phone hit a bit of a UPS snag over the weekend but it, too, looks like it will hit Google tomorrow and, hopefully, I'll have my refund shortly thereafter.

I have the final episode of Hostage (Netflix) to watch. I could have watched it yesterday but I didn't want to rush it. Great little series. I do love Suranne Jones.

Now the sun is breaking through. So glad I already got my swim in!

So I finally got the app to work correctly, with no help from Audible. But, I decided to cancel anyway. 20 years ago, actually even 5 years ago, Audible was great. Easy and with wonderful customer support. You could return any book you didn't like and buy another. Easy and simple. Even after Amazon bought them. But, gradually, that simple totally disappeared and started to take easy with it. In order to return a book you had to go to chat and beg. They always granted but it was annoying. Cut to this morning.

My annual membership renews at the end of September. I had used up all my credits. I pre-ordered 3 books but two of them won't be available until the end of October. I wanted to make sure I could listen to those books without a membership. So I went to Chat. Holy fuck. You've seen those chats that won't transfer you to a live person until you categorize your reason in about 20 different selections? Then finally you get a 'chat with representative'. This was like that except there were only 5 choices and no other options. I finally cracked the code and got a representative who told me I didn't have 3 books on prepay but only 2 and why did I want to cancel??? We finally after 45 fucking chat minutes got the 3rd book back into my account. And the reason I am canceling is that. 45 fucking chat minutes??????? And my experience on Reddit the other day when they asked for my operating system 3 different times. Audiobooks are not tangible. It's not like I can take my goods and leave. I am totally dependent on their customer service which is not even trying to rise up to the level of sucks.

Hilariously, because the agent fucked up and put a credit in my account, I need to spend it before I cancel. ha! But, at least I'm not longer on the fence about leaving.

EXCEPT. When you actually cancel, they throw some pretty serious discount offers in your face. Now I might have to think about it some more. And, just now, I got a comprehensive, well written, easy to understand email* from the chat agent who - in chat - consistently did not answer my questions or use understandable English. Wild. Just wild. But, yes, I guess I'll sign up for another year with their 40% off. Fuck. Oh well.

*The email was probably written by some AI app but that's fine by me. It spells out everything and provides me with a paper trail if I need it so I'm fine with that.

In other news...

It's raining! Well dripping really but there are raindrops on the sidewalk. Yesterday, it stayed beautifully cloudy all day and today looks like maybe more of the same. My kind of weather.

Today will be baseball and other TV and knitting. Maybe some puzzling but maybe not. And tomorrow, with the holiday, will be the same and I'm perfectly happy with all of it.

I finished (probably) the Halloween dolls and ghosts and made one of the regular mini monsters but didn't get a photo yet. I need a better photo background, the one I've been using is kind of beat up. Maybe today's project. Maybe not.

Charisma is such an interesting thing. I rarely run into it but, man, when I do... Jeff Jackson (the attorney general of North Carolina) has it. He posts videos online that force you to watch to the end. It's not so much what he's saying but the way he says it. His manner, his eyes.

I saw it again this morning. Maria has lived here for a long time. I know her to see her but we've never met. She's not very mobile. Her son, Chris, lives in Atlanta and comes about twice a year. He usually plays volleyball with us and is great fun to have in the game. This morning, mid-game, he showed up pool side to say hi. He is here this time because his mother is dying - 2 or 3 days. There were 8 of us in the pool at the time. He squatted down and explained the situation. I was on the other side of the pool so ended up in the back of the pack. So I watched and it was fascinating. He doesn't really know these people. And, yet, he spoke so kindly and clearly and patiently and answered all the questions and I'll bet you every single person thought he was talking directly to them. I sure did. Doesn't help that he's very pretty. I don't know what he does for a living but I'll bet he's spectacular at it. Really interesting. I am sure sorry he won't be playing volleyball with us ever again.

My Apple+ and Masterpiece subscriptions are up, so it's time for another month or so of Netflix. I have accumulated a lot of Nexflix titles I wanted to see so it was time. And, then, I discovered another round of British Bake off is starting soon! So okdokey! Last night I watched the first few episodes of a show that I didn't know anything about. I have no idea how it even got on my list. BUT it's fun. Leanne. I think there are 12 or more 30 minute episodes and it has a nice cast and some great lines. I literally laughed out loud more than a few times.

I need cucumbers and peanut butter so I might venture out today. The dining room is serving some fabulous lamb chops this week and some very good scalloped potatoes but their salads kind of suck. So I need something to go with.

Dick made meatloaf earlier in the week. He came down yesterday just as I was, out of desperation and poor planning, getting ready to have another peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. He wanted some stuff printed and copied and as he was leaving he said "If you want some cold meatloaf for a sandwich, come on down." Honestly, it was probably not the best meatloaf when it was hot but damn that was a fabulous sandwich. And I have enough for a repeat today. I told him now that he knows the price mi printer es su printer.

Time to get dressed for Elbow coffee.