Right now I'm typing this on a cold, frosty, early morning, and I've been recuperating from a lengthy period of longer-than-usual hours at work.
I don't talk about work all that much here on my blog, but I presently work in the legal field, working for a couple attorneys as a non-attorney assistant.
The past two years we have been representing a client who had a serious issue against a large, national corporation. The ensuing lawsuit was a bit time consuming. Naturally, when you are involved in a lawsuit, you want to make sure everything is done right. We finally had four days of trial last week, and it was interesting, stressful, and when all was done, I was exhausted. I am just now starting to feel 'normal' again.
It was a sunny day in Seattle as I was driving in to work Downtown. The Columbia Tower is the tall, black glass clad skyscraper in the center of the skyline. Once it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The Smith Tower is the white, classic looking building to center left. For a long time, it also was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
This was the view from my car as I was driving home on my birthday, after the first day of trial. It was a grueling day, and I ended up working with my boss at the office after hours, until ten at night, going over preparations for the next day in court. The building on the left is "Seattle Lighting", just off the Second Avenue Extension on the southern edge of Downtown Seattle. I think there are at least a couple fixtures in my house from that place. They used to buy lighting fixtures from old, old houses before they were torn down. One wouldn't think there is a market for old, 1920's era light fixtures -- but there is.
The trial phase of the lawsuit took me to downtown Seattle for the first time since April. I usually don't go downtown very often, as it is 15 miles from where I live, and I no longer work downtown, so I have no reason to go there. Besides that, going downtown can be expensive, as parking is expensive (over $15 a day), and if one wants to take a bus, that means your car is in an open, non-monitored, non-patrolled, suburban Park-N-Ride lot for eight or more hours, where it can get broken into or even stolen -- which often happens.
And bus travel into town can be very slow.
Anyway, it was interesting being downtown last week. The city is a LOT bigger than it was when I worked downtown in the radio industry from 1990-2006. Back then, I worked in Belltown, which -- at the time -- was a somewhat Bohemian neighborhood of Seattle just north of downtown which -- after I was laid off in December 2006 -- became more than gentrified with all the cool haunts and dive bars and restaurants being torn down and replaced by tall, soulless towers of million dollar condos.
A local display, from last year. The same house has a similar display this year.
Downtown itself -- the financial and retail core -- has grown, with tall, blue glass spires everywhere. Some of the photos in this article reflect that.
The four days was an interesting glimpse into the workaday world for the thousands of people who work Downtown, most of them who obviously make a lot more money than I do -- who maybe take the bus in from an inner suburb, or perhaps can afford to park their SUV, Lexus or Prius in a $18 garage all day, everyday -- while working in one of the tall office buildings.
The stores, of course, were a different matter. In April, when I was last downtown, if I looked in through the front windows of the clothing shops and other stores in the city center, I didn't see a lot of shoppers. This time it was no different. There were all these fancy shops with all these cool looking, and somewhat expensive looking, fashionable clothes, and there were few people shopping. I parked inside a popular building downtown, which is designed to be an indoor, fancy mall (which has a 6 floor parking garage beneath it), and none of the shops had shoppers.
Tall spires of steel and glass, and on ground level, shops mostly devoid of shoppers.
It was like walking into a Depression. The only people in the "mall" section of this fancy office building were people like myself, who were parking in the underground garage. Very sad.
Hopefully, the absence of shoppers in these stores was just a fluke.
Inside the Pacific Place indoor mall. One floor down from street level. It's afternoon rush. Where are all the people?
Inside the Pac Place indoor mall. One floor down from street level. The City has grown. But where are all the people?
Hello Seattle. Where are all the shoppers? They're missing. Very sad.
The skylight to Pacific Place. It really is a nice mall. It's just sad that there aren't more people inside the stores and shops.
The view of Westlake Avenue from inside the Westlake Starbucks. Starbucks had quite a few customers. Their 'Everything Bagel' was excellent. The baristas were into alternative music, and had a Starbucks music channel, alternative playlist on the soundsystem. As someone who used to work in radio and dealt with music formats, I was curious about what platform they used. It definitely wasn't 'radio.'
The Starbucks up on Westlake (an avenue that exits downtown, and also the name of a major 'square' on the north side of the financial and retail district), however, was busy. During the last day of the trial, I went for a short walk during the lunch break and got a 20 ounce latte and an 'everything' bagel. The 'everything' bagel was toasted, and awesome. The coffee was good, too. Some people thumb their nose at Starbucks' coffee but I am not one of those people.
A billboard on the side of a downtown Seattle building, promoting the local Duwamish Indian Tribe.
My city, Renton, was the site of one of the largest Duwamish settlements, and my valley was used as a trading route between the Duwamish lands in western Washington and other tribes' lands east of the Cascade Mountain range.
All in all, working Downtown like we did those four, long days was in interesting experience. I can't tell you how things came out during the trial, but working in a trial like that was something I probably won't experience again.
So, right now it's late October, and my goal is to continue to get some extra sleep, make sure my cat eats enough, and attempt to get ready for Halloween.
Already, some houses in the area have some really cool decorations up.
I'm not looking forwards to the holidays in general, but I always like Halloween.
However, as it's been 21-25 degrees F every night and morning (around -6C or more) over the past week and a half before Halloween, I haven't felt like doing a ton of outside work when it's cold and I'm still tired a lot of the time.
Spooky Pumpkin Monster! This pic is from last year (I couldn't get a good pic of it this time around), but the Spooky Pumpkin Monster is up and delighting little kids this year!
UP THE TATTS, AND MICK COCKS LIVES!
I will end this with a couple videos by one of my favorite Oz pub rock bands, Rose Tattoo. I got into them soon after I saw their import LP for sale in a local record store, and was hooked. Mick Cocks, the rhythm guitar player, was one of the best in the world. He was like a fast Malcolm Young, with the amp cranked up a little bit higher (he had a Super Distortion pickup installed in his black Custom Les Paul in the bridge position, and also had a custom bridge installed on his guitar).
One astute, online genius described Rose Tattoo's music as "Humble Pie with Ry Cooder, all jacked up on speed." He wasn't too far off the mark in that description of the Tatts' sound.
The first vid here is a track from the Tatts' first LP, which was called "Rock N' Roll Outlaw" in the US, but was just self titled in Australia. The track is a blaster called Remedy. From the first jagged chords, you can hear how good Mick Cocks was.:
Here is a live vid of Rose Tattoo playing a couple songs in France in 1978. The show includes live versions of the Tatts' tracks "Remedy" and "Astra Wally". Here you can hear slide player Peter Wells, and if you listen to the drumming you can see that drummer Dallas Digger Royall was an excellent rock drummer -- he could deliver the classic, Oz-rock one-two punch, but at the same time provide just a bit of finesse and swing.:
Here is the LP track to Astra Wally, followed by a live track. It's a shot of boogie adrenaline. Mick Cocks' guitar is featured throughout. This song is quintessential Tatts.
Rose Tattoo, sadly enough, never took off in the US, and they didn't really have a large following in the UK either. I think they had a bigger fan base in Germany than they did in the US or UK. In Australia they didn't sell a ton of records, but they were well liked by the pub goers in the inner city 'hotels' and suburban beer barns, RSL's and Leagues' clubs throughout Australia.
I shall end this by adding the Tatts' ode to the state of Texas, apparently a US state they enjoyed playing. It's about the hot (and hot blooded) women in Texas, and women in Texas are different from the ones in my section of the country, I'm certain. :-) At least Angry Anderson thinks so. :-)
And here's the US FM Rock radio hit that should have happened in '82, but never happened, because most US FM Rock stations were too stupid or too afraid to play some hard hitting, Australian rock 'n' roll. Scarred For Life. Great guitar chord riff, courtesy of the guy who replaced Mick Cocks, Robin Riley.:
In this last vid you can see the guys playing, miming to the album track of one of the Tatts' three radio hits, We Can't Be Beaten. They are staged in a junkyard, as they were in another video I've added here below, their single Branded. The music on this track (and on Branded) was written by Robin Riley, who was (and is) a great rhythm guitarist in his own right. You can see him on the right hand side of the video screen, playing a beat up looking Strat (or maybe a Strat-copy, perhaps an Ibby?) outfitted with what looks like a Super Distortion pickup (and a mid-position P-90). It also has the name "Julie" painted on it.
Mr. Riley once talked about having to use Ibanez guitars, which he described as 'working muso's instruments', which Ibanez players can tell you they are. Ibbys get the job done. :-)
For slide guitar aficionados, Peter Wells is on the left side in the vid, and he's tuned to Open E. And bassist Geordie Leach appears to be playing a Thunderbird bass.
Branded, released in the US, never got airplay. MTV may have played this vid a couple times before junking it. Such is life for an Oz band Stateside much of the time.
The Tatts never made it here in the States, but they did influence Guns N Roses and Motley Crue, however, so their impact did have some lasting importance here in the US. Sadly, all of the original members are gone, except for long time touring and recording bassist Geordie Leach, who retired from the Tatts in 2013 and apparently fronts his own band, and singer Angry Anderson, who -- despite his hardcore, rock 'n' roll rebel image -- is a very literate, well read, and a well-spoken man.
Until next time, I hope all my readers worldwide are doing well.
Happy Halloween.
Peace,
C.C., October 19th and 31st, 2023.
Two photos added November 3rd, 2023, and a little more description.... and a correction. Rose Tattoo's former bassist Geordie Leach is still very much alive!!
December 10th, 2023. I realized I had more photos of my Seattle sojourn on my phone, and I added about seven of them to this post, as they covered the things I wrote about.
This past 4th Of July, 2023, at least one neighbor was having some fun, lighting off some safe-and-sane fireworks for his daughter. You'd think people would be OK with that.... But in 2022, someone apparently saw the neighbor doing this and dialed 9-1-1. SMH.
Yes, 'Higher Than The Fourth Of July'....It's the title of a great rock song by the 1970's UK glam/hard rock band The Sweet.
The title itself doesn't exactly fit my mood, but that's OK. I don't really celebrate the 4th Of July anymore, especially as fireworks are expensive, and technically they are banned in my city. I can't even light a sparkler in my back yard without committing a crime. Isn't that awesome? 8 years ago the hills were lit up with skyrockets. Now it's more-or-less dead at night on the Fourth.
I didn't put out my flag(s), as I usually do, after the second one was ripped off on Memorial Day weekend by some thieves, as I noted in a previous article here.
I went out on a couple bike rides during the evening this Fourth, as I always do, to take in whatever fireworks displays were occurring, either in the neighborhood (there was only one to speak of), or in and around the valley where I live. Periodically there were large, colorful starbursts over the nearby hills, and I also saw some that appeared over the river about a mile upstream, where a large nature park is located.
I was able to talk with a neighbor a couple blocks away, who was lighting off a few small fountains for his 10 year old daughter, along with some sparklers. He told me that he had done the same thing last year, and someone had called the cops on him for lighting fireworks for his little girl to enjoy.
Imagine the pettiness -- someone calling 911 because a neighbor's little girl is enjoying a couple of sparklers, and a fountain or two.
Such is the state of the world today, where killjoys don't want a 9 year-old girl to be able to enjoy holding a sparkler or watching a small fountain shoot some colorful sparks maybe four or five feet in the air, surrounded by bare pavement.
Overall, however, my neighborhood was quiet though this Fourth, with almost every house as dark as Halloween when people don't want trick-or-treaters coming near. :-(
But it's nice that the holiday's there, just the same. Very early on the 4th, in the morning, I went out on a fairly long bike ride just after sunrise. It was cool out -- about 50F / 10C. And quiet. I saw maybe 5 homeless people near the trail, going about their business. I said "Happy Fourth" to one couple. They said the same back, but I wasn't sure how "happy" one's Fourth could be if you are homeless.
At times like that, I always count my blessings. I have a roof, I have food to eat, I still have my health, and my cat is alive and getting better.
Then when I got home from the Fourth of July evening bike ride I worked on some fiction. Fed my cat.
Of course, there is always that old standby -- my radio hobby.
A pic I took when listening to a rare night time propagation opening to Oz and NZ on the 20 Meter ham band. My DX-398 is working normally again, after I cleared some oxidation from the positive battery terminal.
HAM RADIO IS DEAD.... OR JUST DYING
During the late afternoon on the 4th I tuned the SW ham bands. After all, it was a national holiday, and we're entering the "peak" period of Solar Cycle 25 (which solar scientists are saying will top off near the end of this year, rather than 2025 as they said previously). Being that it was early evening, and the 20 Meter Band is the most popular ham band, and late afternoon / early evening is the time when the 20 Meter Band is kicking in the most, I expected some decent ham activity. But basically, it was dead.
I heard a guy from Hungary, at low signal levels, but he was still readable. So, obviously, there were some conditions over the polar regions. The Hungarian guy had a couple guys from the Eastern US trying to talk to him. But otherwise, there just were a handful of QSO's / convos on the 20 Meter Band. A guy from New Zealand was calling "CQ". He got only one response and then he gave up after calling "CQ" a few more times afterwards. Overall, considering that it was a holiday here in the US, a country where most hams live, and that the Solar Cycle is on an upward swing, it surprised me just how dead the band was.Even the CW/ Morse Code section of the 20 Meter Band was sparse.
In 2012 or 2002 or 1991 it would have been slammed with signals. Certainly, in the 1980s 20 Meters would have been wall-to-wall.
Which begs the question: Why the change?
First off, I do not agree with the Rah-Rah-Rah people that this Solar Cycle is great. I think it's a fizzle, and I think the solar radiation data compiled by the solar scientists at NASA -- and a couple other solar scientists' studies -- back my opinion up. Sure, the ionosphere is better on SW and MW than it was in 2018-2021 (when sometimes it seemed it was Nuclear Winter SW conditions), but still not up to the level of previous Solar Cycles (I am working on an independent article on this Solar Cycle, which I hope to post within a couple weeks). Although the Solar Cycle obviously is improving the SW and MW propagation, it is still nowhere near what I think it should be, compared to previous Solar Cycles.
Secondly,amateur radio operators today simply don't get on the air when compared to previous decades. It's like the Shortwave Broadcast bands: even if you have improved conditions, if there are less stations on the air, you're going to hear less.
With both the HF ham bands and Shortwave Broadcast bands, we radio aficionados are being hit by a 'double whammy' -- the Solar conditions are still a bit mediocre for peak ionospheric conditions, and there are less SWBC stations on the air, and there are less hams using the HF ham bands than in the past.
So, even though it was a holiday, and often during the holidays the ham bands historically packed with hams on CW and Sideband, this Fourth it was about as dead as a burnt out Bottle Rocket or a spent Piccolo Pete (a whistling firework that used to be quite popular).
The experience only reinforces my motto to other DXers, be they MW DXers or SWL's: you've got to tune each channel, and listen. You have to pay extra attention to the weaker signals. If you're using an SDR, pay attention to the weaker looking indicators on your SDR's waterfall.
And 'get 'em while you can'. There are stations to hear, you just have to work at it more than even 10-12 years ago.
A small fountain a neighbor lit off in the street for his little girl to see. Call the cops! :-)
The night of the Fourth was at least mildly eventful. There were a lot of boom sounds from the valley and the surrounding hills, but nothing like the late 2000s, or the 1990s when the center of my neighborhood would have a big fireworks party, complete with buckets of water, hoses ready, and sand. And the neighbors also had brooms, to clean it up.
I remember one Fourth in the mid-1990s, when I went over a few blocks on my bike, and I watched the gala. They were all having fun -- parents and kids, and neighbors who didn't have kids but just wanted to celebrate the holiday. They were all taking turns lighting off Mortars, fountains, strings of firecrackers, little black 'snakes', Ground Bloom Flowers, and some bottle rockets, too. All to the soundtrack of a neighbor playing Nirvana's In Utero CD really loud on his truck's stereo!
That, of course, all went the way of the dodo. Neighbors moved away, other people -- who weren't into fireworks and celebrating -- moved into those houses; some neighbors were retiring, a lot of newcomers at the time had no kids, and the 2008 Recession and City laws to ban the fireworks all stomped on that sort of 4th Of July celebration like a boot on an ant. All of it, of course, is gone. No neighborhood gala, no fireworks, and no one plays Nirvana on their car stereo.
My trusty Realistic DX-370, still working.... and bringing in KBRE 1660, Merced's Rock station.
MY DX-370 STILL WORKS AFTER 3-4 YEARS ON THE COUNTER, GATHERING DUST
Speaking of radio, I cleaned off the dust from my Realistic DX-370 and fired it up. Surprisingly, it still works perfectly. I had it sitting on a shelf near my guitar gadgetry, and it had built up a pretty decent amount of dust. I basically had overlooked the fact it was there, and had forgotten about it. A bit sad, ain't it.... But it's the truth. The batteries inside the DX-370 were dead, dead, dead -- but there was no corrosion anywhere. I popped in some fresh AA's and DXed with it that night. Works great, sounds great on my new Sony $25 headphones.
The LCD readout still is a little funky, but it's still readable, and the rest of the radio works well.
My Panasonic RF-B45 in happier days -- the BFO worked better. But the radio still works otherwise, and is one of the best MW DX portables made, and the last Panasonic SW radio that was made in Japan.
My trusty Panasonic RF-B45, however, has been acting a little funky lately -- not on MW, where it's an excellent DX radio, but on the SW ham bands, where I switch on the BFO. A few weeks back, it started to drift when I'd switch on the BFO to hear Sideband and CW. That was a bit disconcerting, because I wasn't sure I had the capability of fixing the drifting. I figured there was a component on the PCB in the sideband decoder that's acting up. At first, cleaning the clarifier control didn't really change it much. Neither did new batteries. But the RF-B45 still worked perfectly otherwise -- for MW, SW broadcast, and FM, so I decided to just live with the issue. I have three other radios with sideband / CW or BFO capability if I want to tune in the ham bands.
Tuner Cleaner To The Rescue!
I didn't give up on it, though. I sprayed the contact cleaner down both sides of the knob, hoping more of the cleaner would get to the twin controls (one potentiometer adjusts the frequency, the other potentiometer adjusts the Local Oscillator apparently). I'm not sure if both potentiometers need to be in absolute sync or not, but if either one is oxidised, I can see how it would mess up the BFO tuning.
To be sure some of the DeOxit got into the controls, I sprayed it down both sides of the knob a second time. I could have taken the back off the radio and sprayed it that way, but I really don't like taking radios apart unless it's absolutely necessary.
As it was, whenever I used the RF-B45's BFO without touching the control, it was stable as a rock! I could listen to CW and sideband for an hour without any drift. So the issue wasn't in the BFO circuitry, obviously. It had to be in the control somewhere. Lately the control has been acting normal, so maybe the cleaner I sprayed down the sides of the knob finally worked its way into the controls where it was needed. I suppose to keep it working well it probably needs a few more shots of DeOxit. :-)
UPDATE: Later, of course, in the first week of October, I took the back off to make sure I got some DeOxit into the control a lot better -- and the control is very small.
This is my Panasonic RF-B45's clarifier / BFO control up close (circled in yellow), after I took the back of the radio off. As you can see, the actual control is very small, maybe 5-10mm or so in size (I neglected to actually measure it with a ruler). The pic is a bit blurry because of the lighting. You can just fit the nozzle of a can of tuner cleaner in between the PCB and the open side of the control. Spraying some down the side of the thumbwheel (just barely visible below the control, in this pic) will help in a pinch.
A pic of my Panasonic RF-B45 with the front off. The buttons are discrete buttons, and the general build quality is excellent, as the RF-B45 was the last Panasonic SW radio portable made in Japan. Later Panasonic radios were made in China.
SOMETIMES THE FIXES ARE VERY SIMPLE
One thing I've found recently is that a lot of times the issues you get with radios are quite simple: a bad solder joint on the battery terminal (DX-398); oxidation on a battery terminal (DX-398) or on the batteries themselves (Radio Shack 200629); radio needing a re-set now and then to clear any bugs in the firmware (Sangean PR-D5, PR-D14, and PR-D18); whip antenna needing to be hard wired to the antenna pad on the main PCB because the spring / fork / thing doesn't contact it enough (DX-440, DX-390, Radio Shack 200629); INT/EXT antenna switch needs exercising or a shot of tuner cleaner (DX-440); tuner mechanism needs a shot of cleaner down the side of the shaft so it will again tune in both directions, not just downwards (DX-394); radio needing full battery recharge and a re-set to regain memories and proper operation (Grundig G2); exercising the bandswitch to bring a 'dead' SW band back to life (DX-160); and spraying the tuner capacitors with canned air (Yaesu FRG-7).
I could go on. A lot of the fixes can be due to simple faults that are easily remedied.
So if your radio develops and issue, look for the simple potential issues first. Then consider digging in to troubleshoot, or otherwise getting it repaired.
SPARE BL-5Cs AND A NEW CHARGER
I also got a couple spare BL-5C batteries for my Grundig G2, and a charger. The charger charges a battery in about 4-5 hours. Not bad. Being that I get 1-2 months off a charge, if I have three batteries, the two extra batteries will give me another 4 months between charges.
I always like to talk about emergency radios on the blog here, and if you have a radio that uses rechargeable batteries, spares are probably a must, being that if there is an extended power outage you'll be hard pressed to recharge your batteries. That's why a charger and a few spares will help get you through things like outages, earthquakes, grid failures, and the like.
And, of course, if you're using headphones, you extend battery life as well.
The spare batteries and charger cost me around $25 online, and I also got two more spare batteries for a little less than $10. The expense was worth it, being that my G2's original battery is dated 2012 and seems to be getting a little finicky when the radio hits one bar of battery.
And being that I use my G2 on a daily, or nearly daily basis, the spare batteries will definitely help keep it running. :-)
My cat Squeakers, at the vet's office in mid to late September. After the 4th, she started eating more, and she is doing OK now. The vet, a real nice woman named Danielle, was surprised.
It always feels better when your little pal is doing well again.
Last but not least, over the Fourth, my cat wasn't eating as much as I'd like her to. The pet food company changed the formula of the food she liked the best. Why they did is a good question. Maybe they couldn't get certain ingredients anymore. And it's hard to get her to eat the other brands of food. I have five different brands of dry pet food and she only wants to eat one of them, and they changed the formula. She also is picky about her canned food. I'll have to take her back to the vet again anyway, as they wanted to re-check her vitals.
Until then, I've been trying to get her to eat as much as she can, and I supplement it with kitten formula, which is also good for older and ailing cats. Today, the evening of the 5th, my cat is acting normal again, and wanting to eat.
(Later, in mid-September, I took my cat to the vet and she had gained weight. From 6.5 to 8.4 pounds! -- C.C.)
There is something about holidays.... They are fun times, but they are also a time to keep your eye open on your family and pets.
HARD HITTING GLAM WITH AN ES335 AND H&H AMPS
Well, it's time to close. Being that I titled this article with the name of a great rock song by The Sweet (4th Of July) I suppose a video is appropriate. The song is off The Sweet's 1976 opus, Give Us A Wink. The album should have broke them into the US Rock market, but the band was unable to tour enough to support the album, and too few US FM Rock stations wanted to take a chance on a known pop/glam/hard rock band.
Even so, Give Us A Wink is full of hard rocking songs. 4th Of July has some cool soloing on Fender Rhodes piano in the middle of the track, by studio musician Trevor Griffin (who co-wrote their later hit Love Is Like Oxygen). This song was released in Australia as a single, but unfortunately didn't chart.
Here's one of the rockers off the album, a fast paced opus called Keep It In. It highlights Mick Tucker's awesome drumming. Mick Tucker was one of the most underrated rock drummers of the 1970s. And yes, I know, nearly every YouTube comment section refers to this muso or that one as "underrated", and that term gets tiring -- but in this case, the word applies. No one seems to mention Mick Tucker in drumming circles -- but he should be.
And here is The Sweet, circa 1972, when they were still turning out light pop singles (like "Co Co" and "Little Willy"), but the B-sides to the 45 r.p.m. records showed a truer side of the band: Done Me Wrong Alright. Andy Scott turns out a terrific guitar solo on the neck pickup of his red Gibson ES-335 -- played through H&H Amps!:
With that, my online friends, I hope all of my fellow Americans had a safe and sane, and fun Fourth, and my Canadian readers enjoyed Canada Day on July 1st -- their national holiday -- and everyone else is doing well.
I have been experiencing some internet outages recently, so although I'm still working on some new blog articles the ability to write, edit, add photos, etc., has been somewhat limited. The problem appears to be a wiring issue out near the street and the repair company is apparently backlogged.
I have some new articles in the works nonetheless. :-)
My little cat Fluffy in better days.
IN OTHER LIFE….
I
wrote most of this article on my computer while I was internet-free for more
than two weeks. The experience of being internet-free was interesting,
to say the least. It was like being forced back into 1991, without the
cool grunge and alt rock music on the FM radio.
And hearing some online customer service determining that the problem is in your home wiring, while
you’re 99.9% certain that the wiring problem is on THEIR end, in THEIR
pedestal -- it's frustrating.
Mount Rainier from the Columbia Tower, looking south from downtown Seattle, April 2023.
On the other hand,
being internet free makes you realise very quickly just how important the internet
is to day-to-day life. No looking up something on Bing, DuckDuckGo or Google…
No double checking news items you hear on the radio… No research on submarines
you’ve been reading about in Naval history books… No checking out YouTube music
vids. Most of my reading was in paper books, instead of internet articles. And
I was unable to communicate with a few overseas friends I have. The cellphone’s
OS Update eating up all my cell internet data definitely did not help, as I was
counting on that to access the internet to keep track of friends.
I ended up getting
a data plan card, which helped. But I still have to watch the data usage.
LIVING LIKE IT’S
1991
The experience has
been like living back in the 1990’s – minus all the great stuff to hear on Shortwave.
😊 I didn’t use my
cell phone much, either, as I don’t really text or call people a lot. Most of
my day-to-day communication – unless it’s work-related – is via social media.
So I was forced to live life differently, and it was very much like a pre-internet,
pre-cellphone existence. I did a lot of work around the house and yard (which
was stacking up on me over the past year or so due to my long recuperation from
the year-and-a-half with basically no sleep whatsoever when my mother was ill
and staying with me 24/7). I’m not certain
I’d suggest that everyone try to live like it’s 1991, but it’s not the end of
the world. You don’t have instant access to information. So you find other
things to do. Along with the housework and yardwork, I did a lot of writing,
petted my cat a lot, and played a lot of guitar. The weather here
has been moderate and warm. The days get up into the 80’s F. Nights are around
50F. I am not looking forwards to freezing weather in Winter and Autumn, but I
am attempting to prepare for it ahead of time.
Anyway, I had planned to post this article in late July, but -- as I've previously mentioned here on my blog, the local telco connection developed issues, especially inside their pedestal, where the wiring had issues (one of the twisted pair serving my residence had rusted apart). Hence an article about the 4th of July being posted closer to the 4th of September, and then delayed to the 10th of October. :-)
C.C. July 5th, 2023, August 12th, 2023, September 7th, 2023 and October 10th, 2023.
I finally have finished this, added some necessary pics, and posted it, in October, three months after I started it. Obviously, it took a long time for me to finish this article. I was slammed at work, and kept putting off loading the pics onto my computer. But here it is. I hope to get some more articles posted before the end of October. C.C.
PS, I have no idea why some of the last few paragraphs are scrunched looking, but it is what it is. I tried to fix it more than once, but no-go.... Oh well. :-)
