First of all, on this Veterans' Day, let's remember those who have served, some of whom didn't come back or came back with injuries from which they would never recover.
When I was a child, this day was called Armistice Day. The holiday was to commemorate the armistice after World War I (aka The Great War, because they didn't know others would follow), the day they laid down their arms and stopped the killing. In the UK and some other countries it was called Remembrance Day. Then, after WWII, the celebration was extended to honor all veterans and those who died in later wars. In the US, the name was officially changed in 1954 to Veterans' Day. Our flag is out today. We don't just leave it out. As children we were taught that flag etiquette required the flag to come down at sundown and need not be flown except on national holidays or other special occasions. So there it is, until sundown.
One of these things is not like the other, and this will explain my absence last week
I hope no one worried about me. It's the first time since I started writing my blog that I missed a post. Well, this is what happened:
You may remember that in January 2023 the keyboard on my laptop went out again after having been replaced in 2020. It was a major headache to get it replaced the second time because Simply Mac, who replaced the first one, went out of business during the pandemic. Geek Squad was handling repairs for Apple, but they sent it off, kept it for three weeks and then sent it back because they said I needed to pay for the repair before it was sent, even though it was still covered by warranty. I called Apple, and they sent me a box and had me send it directly to them. They had it back to me in a week, good as new. At least until now. The keyboard is called a "Butterfly" keyboard and, as I've learned, it's prone to going out. There was even a lawsuit, which was settled. I'm still waiting for my check, but it won't be much.) What happens to me is the space bar stops working. It's hard to type without spaces. Well, there I was with the same problem as before, so I decided the heck with it; I don't want to have this issue every couple of years, so I called Apple to get information about a new laptop. I had to consider what I needed and how to pay for it (I didn't have the Apple Card yet, which gives you free financing on their products), and I wanted to trade in my old one. It arrived on Friday. There are many steps to transferring the data, which I was able to do by myself (yay, me!), and then getting help from Apple to wipe my old laptop clean. That's done, so now I'm waiting for the shipping box for my old laptop to arrive. It saves me some money to trade it in.
The new computer is similar, but I have some new features, like being able to use my thumb for the computer to recognize me without having to put in a password every time. So far, I'm liking it. The keys seem much easier to depress, so I think this is going to work out better for me.
Sunday, November 3, we went to a concert put on by the Central Oregon Symphony. It has been a while since we attended one of these. We sat in the back and wore masks. They are performing now at Caldera High School, because the auditorium at Bend High School, where they used to perform, is being rebuilt. It was a lovely performance.
A good part of the week was spent with the usual cooking and laundry duties, walks with the pups when it wasn't raining and calling to make sure everyone registered had voted. I worked on stories that will appear in upcoming weeks, so I wouldn't have to do that when the kids are here for Thanksgiving, as they will be here all that week. I also did some research to see how to delete my data from Twitter, because I won't be going back. It used to be a good source of news and chit-chat, but it has become a cesspool.
The weather was nice on Friday, but I couldn't walk because my new laptop was going to be delivered. Saturday was cool and overcast, but it wasn't supposed to rain, so we took the pups to Good Dog Off-Leash Trail.
The pups had a great time. We met up with some other dogs along the way. There were a lot of poodles this time. The best part was getting to the water, even though it was cool
.
Sandy has turned out to be a real water dog, just like Rocky. He also is very interested in people, more so than in dogs, we think. That was another Rocky trait.
The dogs had a good time playing with the other dogs while we were at the river. Sandy would go out into the river to retrieve a stick, but Dusty would just wade in a little bit. He won't swim without a ball being thrown, no matter how warm it is.
He really enjoyed romping with the other dogs on land, though.
We started the Walk for a Dog app when we got out of the car, but for some reason it had our beginning location about a mile before we reached the parking lot. I don't know why that happened. I know I started it when I got out of the car. Maybe some kind of glitch. However, I'm pretty sure our hike was about three miles. The red marker is where we started and ended up.
It doesn't matter, though, because they count the number of walks and donate to your selected dog charity based on that. All walks count as long as you go at least 1/4 mile, which we always do.
I think the dogs covered three or four times the mileage we humans walked, because they ran ahead and back and then out away from the trail, and they took a lot more steps than we did, when you consider that each of them has four feet. Saturday is a good day to go, because there are a lot of people and other dogs, and the coyotes will stay hidden.
Dusty was wiped out when we got home,
I got in some knitting during the last two weeks and almost had the border motif on the sleeve finished when I discovered that I had misread the color letter a few rounds back and had to frog back. I'm not much further along than I was, thanks to that, but I might as well have the sleeves match. It's hard to see the difference in dim light, but in bright light it really shows up. So here I am now.
For some cuteness, here's Katie, our grandkitty. (No cat can resist a paper bag!)
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is Twinkle, Twinkle. Why di stars twinkle, and why does the song say stars are little? Mandy to the rescue!
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