Week of 20260628 - Baptism; Robot Mopper; Laptop Sent; We're Club Officers; Bought Laptop Keyboard; Heart Monitor Attached; Spotify Karaoke; Temple Visit; Fast; Neighborhood Fireworks
= Sunday, Steph had been up all night; we arrived at church a half hour early. Some takeaways: Charity is the natural fruit of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Lord always wants a special place (mountains, temples) to give us instruction. Covenants we make in the temple bind us more tightly to the Savior; and we can serve as proxy for our ancestors as Jesus took our punishment as proxy for us. We know our worst days aren't the end of our story; we can find joy in Jesus Christ.
= We attended a 4 PM baptism. Then I copied key files in preparation for giving up the laptop.
= Monday, I had a fruitful day at work, and Montgomery County says I'm finally registered to vote. Steph had a good day also, and when she walked on break (almost a mile), she didn't need to turn on her neck fan. When leaving, we saw a robot mopper at work.
= I shipped my ailing laptop to HP. Quinton started moving in. Looking for one of Steph's scripture journals, we found other things we had lost.
= Tuesday, our Toastmasters club formally designated Steph as President and me as Sergeant-at-Arms [the master host] for July through next June. Steph finished arranging her craft room. Quinton brought us pizza.
= Wednesday at work, I continued to make progress summarizing and displaying data from AthenaOne.
= I bought a computer keyboard to use with an old laptop whose keyboard is compromised and whose disk space is reaching the limit. I'll use this combination until HP is done with repairs. A long-time friend, Kevin Lloyd, reached out; we'll correspond more frequently going forward.
= Thursday, a heart monitor was attached to Steph; she’ll wear it for two weeks without a break. I ordered new shoes. Steph cancelled boarding for our cat. We asked the Birmingham Young Single Adult conference to schedule a call with us and passed along a proposal to them from the Director of Temporal Affairs (DTA) for this area. Steph found Spotify lyrics synchronized with music and sang along with the artists for perhaps 45 minutes.
= Friday, we tried to sleep in. The AI meeting had been moved to yesterday, and some co-workers received specific assignments. Steph has been using Copilot to organize therapist information, their credentialing with various insurances, and interaction with specific insurance companies to have them agree to accept the work of specific therapists. I’ve used [Microsoft] Copilot and Google AI to learn and apply approaches I didn’t previously know to analyze, summarize, and display data in Excel. I can't iteratively run it to analyze data; it times out too quickly.
= Traffic was light; and we arrived early at the temple. We saw old friends from the Huntsville area (and from here).
= Saturday, we started our fast at Waffle House before 2:30 and prayed for increased religious freedom worldwide. I mailed a letter to a grandson and dropped off my notes from Sunday to a family I've visited with the missionaries. I fueled the minivan and topped off brake fluid.
= Our neighbors had great fireworks, and we watched them for a while. Steph finished recording at about midnight but still had edits to perform. I bade her good night at 0220.
This was on a bulletin board at church
We passed a discarded refrigerator on the way to church.
We have been asked to petition for increased freedom of religious expression worldwide in our fast this month.
With God, all things are possible.
(This "legacy" plate was on the same vehicle as the previous two logos.)
Our sliced bread was dead, but we made sandwiches from rolls left from yesterday's dinner.
This is an old political-campaign-style sign for Jesus
We wonder when someone will replace this pole.
This business placed small American Flags outside.
We came back to church for a baptism.
This card tacked to the board reminded us that the baptismal ordinance on the previous week had been performed in French.
We snacked afterward; here's Steph with a missionary.
It used to be that Vietnam Veterans (my era) gave us reminders like this that deterrence has its limits and military service is a sacrifice, not just a routine job.
On the same vehicle: Marine Corps
This vehicle has been disabled in the meridian for a while.
The flag indicates support for police. I couldn't interpret the gold logo..
But Google Lens found this matching image. (Then oddly, it insisted it was for University of Illinois instead of for University of Iowa; be careful with AI responses.)
Steph and I headed to work
As we prepared to leave, we saw the robot mopper we had only heard about.
It moved off of the smooth floor when it sensed our presence.
It decided we were still in the way.
It ducked into an office. If human, it would be asking: "Is it safe to come out now?"
We stepped outside the building
Things could always be worse.
HP sent this packaging to me to send the laptop for repair
The form gives three lines to describe the problem; I attached history and an email
and sent them with the laptop.
This was the back of an SUV.
We got to help Quinton unload.
Steph used a straw to remove air from Ziploc packages of buns
She blanched the rest of the green beans for freezing.
Don't Miss This (scripture discussion)
Quinton headed back out to clean the apartment.
Elsa usually sticks her paw in the water. This time, she has her mouth in the water.
(We only fill one side of that food bowl.)
We pass active trains on the way to Toastmasters.
This "goin' nowhere" logo..
was on a vehicle with this license tag and frame. The U.S.S. Hunley's role, first in a lonely part of Scotland, then Charleston, was to service and rearm our nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Google Lens found this reference - https://popularpatch.com/uss-hunley-as-31-patch/
Grady Springer (and Scott Burbank)
Liz demonstrated timing signals; I'm not sure what Beau Lore was reacting to.
Scott introduced Tammy Williams' speech
Tammy, with Meredith Pieper watching remotely
Want to join this group? See towertoastmasters.org
Ron called for individuals to respond to Table Topics (opinion-based questions), each for 1-2 minutes.
Exaggerating how short I am, as I point out that leaders tend to be tall.
Kenny Robinson, with Nadya Al-Khattab, Ben McGhee, and a guest looking on.
Tracy Baker, a Toastmaster from another club, responded with unusual fervor.
The yellow signal during Table Topics means you've spoken for one-and-half minutes. [The green signal meant you've reached the minimum time; the red signal will be shown at two minutes, giving you thirty seconds to wind down.]
Ben evaluated Tammy's speech.
Dorcas Opendi was in time for elections. The club had well over a quorum in attendance and accepted the slate provided by the nominating committee. That included Steph as President and me as Sergeant-at-Arms [host].
This monument is next to the downtown VFW.
It's "Dedicated to the gallant war veterans from the State of Alabama whose magnificent valor was shown in all wars."
Chick-fil-A on Ann Street did not come through today. Many of Steph's nuggets were this scrawny.
Walmart on Ann Street has painted over its regular signs and only has what appears to be a temporary sign. A sign in the parking lot speaks of preparations for a different shopping experience. I hope they don't turn this into a Walmart Neighborhood grocery, which tries to compete with Publix while retaining a limited non-food inventory.
We saw Quinton at the front curb. By the time we got in the house, he had brought his mattress in by himself.
Steph loves organization.
repurposed the card catalog (that I used to use for cassette tapes),
and stacked short dressers from Walmart.
You can easily remove completely to go through their contents.
Here's another, taller dresser of similar construction.
The desk is actually a sewing table.
Quinton brought us pizza.
Quinton pointed out that SaZa's tries to do everything; Pies and Pints has a focus on good pizza. We can say: *very* good pizza.
Those limbs at the curb are still attached to the tree!
When we see sights like this, we remember our RV.
I put Dollar Tree sunglasses over my distance (driving) glasses. My eye doctor advised sunglasses to reduce glare; I use tan ones without polarization so I can see the viewfinder, which is polarized.
When Dan Gordon's wheelchair wore out, they gave him one suitable for an invalid. It has an extremely high back and is quite heavy. It's harder for him to move himself around in, and its harder for others to give him a ride. It's so tall that it can't just be flopped crossways in the SUV.
Portions of the "bypass" have no shoulder for pedestrians where the road crosses broad, deep ditches. The travel lane is the only way to cross.
Quinton folded towels we had not removed from the dryer.
This is an odd company name..
[Stretched to counter the angle at which the photo was taken]
Malo {Bad} Services LLC.
[There might be some slang involved, as when someone says "bad___" to mean powerful.]
Some tomatoes were ripening
I left these little ones for another day.
(I added shredded cheese and bacon bits.)
The latch catches on the bar, but someone was able to bend the bar a bit and force the gate open. I had added a chain, but on the wrong side [flat forehead moment].
The vehicle gate is fixed now. The chain is on one side and the lock fastens it to the latch hardware on the other side.
I dissected the Costco rotisserie chicken that remained after the first meal from this carcass.
I added the useful parts to a soup base,
drained them (retaining the liquid), but found little flavor,
then cannibalized cheap ramen packets for their flavor. Steph preferred shrimp flavor to chicken flavor.
Yes. Steph usually works in semi-darkness except when recording.
The wall holds sticky notes.
This time, though, instead of working on the podcast, she had stumbled onto using Spotify to display lyrics synchronized with the original music and was singing along with the artist. :)
When heading to the temple at the top of Birmingham (Gardendale), this is the point past the Millbrook exit where traffic usually starts to clog when it moves from three lanes to two. Today, driving was a breeze.
Go to church, or the devil [wielding a scythe in this depiction] will get you.
The Way, the Truth, and the Life
is fainty written on a sign near the bottom of the cross.
This Confederate flag is maintained by Sons of Confederate Veterans. The sign is not currently legible.
[A man in this organization and a black Chief Master Sergeant founded a speaking club together and I saw that they remained friends until their deaths. People can be proud of their ancestors without carrying their prejudices forward.]
Seek the best from your past, leave the rest.
I'm waiting for this tree to fall over.
This is construction alley, but there's still no congestion today; perhaps travelers left yesterday, today being a holiday.
Perhaps you *can* do distance travel in your dune buggy.
The road we're on is high enough for a few seconds that you can make out Vulcan, raised on the other side of the approaching mount.
They are waiting for a light to clear this exit.
These flags are by a business cluster.
Mt Olive Road is aptly named from our perspective; it leads to a house of the Lord.
The Birmingham temple this is one of the first "small" temples created by the church, but it has everything we need.
We arrived in under two hours via a route that often takes two-and-a-half or three hours; we left at 3:19.
[This is an anomaly.]
(We weren't expected inside until 5:40.)
Steph Marcoed Shelley Patterson (and I ran the phone to where Shelley could see the entrance to the temple).
Steph displayed her hair today; often it's under wraps.
Her hair is still a crown. I remember when we walked out of this garden together after we were married.
This tag is owned by an educator, maybe an math teacher. The plate says {I Love PI}
It was dark by the time we reached the heart of Birmingham.
The blur to the left of the radio tower is Vulcan, but getting a good photo from this side of the mountain at night while driving is too tough for me.
When we went to Taco Bell and they offered sodas with meals, we picked Starry (their version of Sprite) and then thought to add our flavor packets.
Note: when you add drink powder to a carbonated beverage, expect it to fizz all over your stuff. These photos were taken after we cleaned up most of the mess.
(They tasted OK, though.)
Clanton has a decorative water tower
painted to resemble a peach. (The resemblance is clearer in daylight.)
Elsa didn't want to be alone and was mildly curious about my snack.
We usually start our monthly religious fast after eating at Waffle House (and then give more than what we would have spent on two big meals as an offering to help those in need).
This time, I went overboard and had a "firework" waffle. The candy didn't crackle, but its vanilla flavor was so good that I got almost halfway through my waffle before thinking to add syrup.
This is Steph's method of bumping pepper out of the pepper shaker evenly; she uses this method for salt as well.
This travel lane is explicitly shared by motorists and bicycles. Don't expect them to take the shoulder here; work around them.
Later, I came in to find Steph applying a light-blocking curtain to the window at the beginning of fireworks.
It excluded most light - but not noise.
Moving the camera while trying to line up the shot results in photos like this.
I'm next to my mailbox. We're grateful for fireworks set off by our neighbors.
A display a little too low for us to see.
..
I switched to burst mode to provide multiple shots per shutter press.
Steph had joined me a few minutes ago.
Moving the camera creates interesting patterns.
It's a sobering thought that we regularly re-enact with joy a real battle that had real cannon that provided real consequences.
"but our flag was still there"
(The author of these words couldn't cheer when he made this observation; he was being held on an enemy warship. But he wrote them, and we have them.)
(We went in at 9; fireworks continued for several hours.)
No comments:
Post a Comment