I appreciate the opportunity to help you today.
Jean, just want to inform you that you are the best patient customer of mine for the day. Thanks for being so kind with me.

That feedback means a lot. When I faced up to the problem I knew it was going to be a hassle, and soon as I started to feel frustrated, this question popped up in my mind:

What’s the opportunity here?

Yep, another chance to practice patience and persistence. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been working since 2018 on focusing on how I handle things rather than letting my mood depend on how any particular situation turned out.

That’s all very well and good, and it mostly works, but connecting with a real person, one that is doing more than just reading a script, is a powerful reinforcement. It doesn’t always happen, but I treasure the times it does.

(It’s not over yet, the technician isn’t coming until sometime Friday, but in the past that part has gone smoothly.)

2. My Driver’s License: I had my appointment with the Motor Vehicle Department to renew my driver’s license. We have to do it in person every year in order to take the eye test, and I did fine. That’s always a huge relief.
The woman there was friendly too.

Now it’s time to goof off and recharge my batteries. Have a great day, everyone!

May 27, 2026

Betty

About Amazon’s Alexa — She forgot why I asked for help. My present MP3 players stopped linking to the computer I mostly use. I can go to another computer with an older operating system, but it’s less convenient so I wondered if Alexa could help. She recommended a new MP3 player she claimed would solve the problem, so I ordered it. Fortunately I double-checked and and saw it would have the same problem. Not a good show, Alexa.

She did apologize:

You’re absolutely right, and I sincerely apologize. I made a serious mistake.

You came to me with compatibility concerns about your Olympus DM-620, and I recommended the Sony ICD-PX370 saying it “works with Windows 10 and Mac” and has “built-in USB connection for direct file transfer to any modern computer.” That was wrong—it does NOT officially support macOS 15.7.5.

I should have asked about your Mac version first before recommending anything, especially given your original compatibility concerns. This is my fault, not yours.

Here’s what we can do right now:
Since your order was just placed yesterday and hasn’t shipped yet, you have a very good chance of canceling it:

• Visit your order page
• Look for “Cancel items” button
• If it’s already shipped, you can return it for a full refund once it arrives

I genuinely apologize for this error and the inconvenience. Would you like me to help you find a voice recorder that’s actually verified to work with macOS 15.7.5?

It was easy enough to cancel, and I’m glad I checked in time. I’ll stick with my present system — it was worth a try. Hopefully Alexa learns from her mistakes,

May 26, 2026

Shoe

Shoe

This reminds me of a Reader’s Digest issue a while back. I was amused by two of the articles. The first was about the soothing effect of nature — why we should go out and experience it more often. The second was written by a fellow who was doing just that with a friend, and the friend was attacked by a mountain lion. The fellow managed to save his friend, but it was fierce fight!

Which got me to reading more about how we can enjoy some of the benefits of nature while still enjoying the pleasures of home. It’s called biophilic design. So, of course, I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions.

So Ginny was right on when she suggested English cottage!

May 25, 2026

Betty

It looks as if Betty and Bub are moving on without telling us what they’ve decided. Sigh.

I’ve been having a merry adventure with Amazon’s Alexa AI. I think it helped me find a new printer — which won’t come for over a week, so I won’t know until then. But last night I gave it a complicated problem about MP3 players and we went around in circles. It gave me some wrong answers, and it mostly apologized when I looked more deeply and told it why it was wrong. I didn’t mind because one reason I was doing it was to test its usefulness. It needs a lot more work, but I’ll probably try it again to see if it has any useful ideas. It helps that it’s easy to return things if I buy something on faulty advice.

May 24, 2026

Betty

Ginny said she likes pastels and light, but the Nordic scheme mentioned in yesterday’s post was too spartan. Maybe we should try English cottage? I told ChatGPT that, and hopefully if you click here you can read its full answer.

It did like Ginny’s suggestion:

English cottage could be a very natural fit here because it softens the starkness problem without becoming overly themed. It’s warm, layered, forgiving, and especially friendly to quilting.

and

A quilt in progress can look like part of the décor instead of clutter….
And quilting naturally harmonizes with cottage and English-country styles in a way that feels effortless rather than staged.

So that was a great suggestion, but we still don’t know what Betty and Bub decided.

May 23, 2026

Betty

I looked up those three styles and I loved this picture ChatGPT showed as an example of mid-century modern,

But the room was so light and airy because of the windows, which Betty and Bub’s basement doesn’t have. The other examples of the style had wood walls and no windows, so the rooms were a lot darker.

I thought the light walls of Nordic might be better — it was closer to what ChatGPT had said about light-colored walls keeping the basement from looking like a dungeon.

This is an example of a Nordic basement:

I was surprised by Chat’s answer about Pirates of the Caribbean — it included these pictures:

And it said,

Honestly, among the ideas so far:

Mid-century = social and stylish
Nordic = calm and functional
Pirate/caribbean = immersive and atmospheric

The pirate concept has the strongest storytelling energy.
If Betty and Bub enjoy humor, imagination, music, conversation, or collecting odd treasures, it could become a very memorable room.

But again, notice the light coming in from the windows in the pictures! The basement would be a lot darker. And Betty needs good light for quilting.

Fortunately, it’s not my decision to make. We’ll have to see what Betty and Bub do.

May 22, 2026

Betty

I asked ChatGPT what it would produce for a “Rock ‘n Roll diner” mood board. (Click on images for higher resolution.)

It gave me this:

And this for “dive bar.”

Do you think that will shake Betty out of her doldrums?

May 21, 2026

Betty
Click on image for higher resolution.

About Saturday’s get-together: The wife of the fellow who helped us after the first flash flood in 2011 said she would like to gather some pictures of what the the area looked like before the fire. So I sent her the link to this Flickr album of pictures Andy took as he was driving home.

The flames in the pictures were moving up towards our house.

The pictures do show how beautiful the area was before all the trees burned.

May 20, 2026

First Betty:

Betty
Click on image for higher resolution.

Shug suggested Betty could use a designer. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a person. Kaitlin had good luck with ChatGPT, so I told it Betty was having trouble with colors for the basement. It was going to have a pool table and she was going to do quilting there. This is what ChatGPT suggested:

Even if Betty didn’t agree with all of this, it’s good food for thought and would help her get started.

The story Andy found:
Andy was culling a pile of old papers and found this story on one of them. I asked Claude AI if it knew the author so I could credit them. Claude said it was a well-known joke, published many times over the years, but never with an author attached.

Anyway, here it is.

How Life Changes Over the Years

A group of 15 year old boys discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at the McDonald’s next to Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because they only had six dollars among them, they could ride their bikes there and Jennie Webster, that cute girl in Social Studies, lives on the same street and they might see her.

Ten years later, the group of now 25 year old guys discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the beer was cheap, the bar had free snacks, the house band was good, there was no cover charge and there were lots of cute girls.

Ten years later, at 35 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was decided they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the booze was good, it was near their gym and, if they went late enough, there wouldn’t be too many whiny little kids.

Ten years later, at 45, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the martinis were big and the waitresses wore tight pants.

Ten years later, now 55, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the prices were reasonable, they have a nice wine list and fish is good for your cholesterol.

Ten years later, at 65 years of age, the once again group discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the lighting was good and they have an early bird special.

Ten years later, at 75 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because the food was not too spicy and the restaurant was handicapped accessible.

Ten years later, at 85 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. It was agreed they would meet at Captain Jack’s Seafood Grille because they had never been there before.

May 19, 2026

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson

There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk

I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I still don’t see it. I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
It isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there, I still fall in.
It’s habit. It’s my fault. I know where I am.
I get out immediately.

IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

V
I walk down a different street.

I suppose I thought of it because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how most of our lives are run by habits — for good reason — and how we can change some of the habits that aren’t working for us. I also thought of a recent question by James Clear:

If your body could vote on your daily schedule, what would it immediately veto?
—James Clear

I receive Clear’s letter every Thursday, and I like a lot of what he says. But not this one. It violates one of the great principles of behavior modification:

It’s hard to stop a habit. It’s a lot easier — but often still challenging — to replace the habit with a better one.

That’s what Nelson does in her story. And no doubt that is why I still remember it after 30 or 40 years.

May 18, 2026