Uh Oh! And More Saplings

 Felt a hair move on my wrist.  Black spot.  Then it jumped away.  Danm, a flea!  Not after me, but it means it is time to change the 8-month flea collars again.  I thought they were good for another month, but I suppose their effectiveness diminishes toward the end.  

Brought a trailerload of cut saplings to the Mulch Center, but there are many more to go.  I cut down a dozen but haven't dragged them to the trailer yet.  My neighbors are probably tired of seeing the trailer full of them.  So I'll leave them in the back yard until I have a full load.

Need to get the brush-mower fixed.  I left gas in it 2 years ago and I can't start it.  Thought I had drained the gas then but I didn't.  I tried to clean the gas lines, but gas engines aren't my best skill.  On a scale of 10; maybe a 2.

My eyeglasses went weird lately.  One lens keeps dropping out.  I keep screwing the tiny screw tight, but it won't stay tight.  I need to dab it with a toothpick drop of cement.  But to see it well enough enough I need the funny on-head magnifier and I can't seem to find it right now.   

And the frame suddenly didn't sit on my ears properly.  I had do to twist the nose rests, bend the ear holders, even twist the frame a bit.  Why it changed, I haven't a clue.  It's not like I sat on them or something.

Well, I need new ones anyway.  A weird thing (to me) is that my vision is actually getting more normal.  I've lived most of my life far-sighted.  Could see a hummingbird 150' away but couldn't focus on a book without reading glasses.  

Now I actually need less close up help.  I can still see the hummers but can't see the colors well enough to tell males from females.  A few more years and I will probably see the car dashboard better!  

Maybe I'll die with 20/20 vision, LOL!

Time For A New Keyboard

The keyboard is failing.  A few months ago, it started doubling my "h" key.  A couple of weeks ago, the "y" key.  Now it is doubling some numbers.  GRRR!

Well, I type a bit hard, so I shouldn't be surprised.   I hunt&peck (but rather well after all these years).  In fact, I don't even have to look to type some common short words.  But I do beat on a keyboard.  

And it is probably time anyway.  Some of the keyboard letters barely show the letter anymore, LOL!  I've worn it out.  I suppose replacing a keyboard once a year isn't the worst thing to have to do.

Actually the "daskeyboard" (brand name) has done pretty well.  Some others have lasted only half as long.    

I have another problem.  The Mac Mini has limited ports.  The monitor, mouse, and printer fill them.  I bought a multi-port base that fits under the Mac Mini and provides 4 more (but 1 is used to connect to the Mac Mini.  I bought another aftermarket multiport for additional ports, but even that of course uses 1 to connect.  So 4 ports per device actually means "3 and 3 and 3".  😒

I have 2 cameras (temporarily) with individual cables, an external hard drive (for backups).  And the keyboard has 2 port inputs (for reasons I do not understand).  And I'm still running out of available ports, LOL! 

New Camera

 My old digital camera got to the failure point.  It seriously favored making everything very orange.  But I only use a camera for the Mark's Mews and Cavebear blogs.  And I reduce the pics to about 300 KB anyway.  That's because I keep them on my hard drive.

So I bought a really cheap one that does flash on or off and outside shots.  I have to laugh; even that cheap one will take 30MB pics and has a serious zoom lens.  But I don't need that.  I do like the promise of improved stabilization (I have shaky hands sometimes).

But the battery died and I needed a usb cord (instead of a separate charger).  I had plenty of those of various connections) laying around so I grabbed one that fit.  

The battery wouldn't charge!  I tried a wall outlet using the provided charger.  I tried direct charging from the laptop and the desktop.  No luck "battery low"...  And I was ticked off that the cable kept coming loose when I checked the camera.

Read the manual once, read the manual twice, read the manual 3 times!  They mentioned "the cable that came with the camera".  Well of course!  Wait, I was using one I had sitting around...  Well guess what?  I thought cables were designed so no cable could fit in the wrong port.  Yeah there is.  

I don't know the identification, but there is at least one that fits easily into a wrong port.  It is smaller but fits.  So it was a "duh" moment.  It kept coming loose because it wasn't the right one!  Searching around the loose cable box, I found the right one.  Charged up the battery in 3 hours.  

I am so stupid sometimes...

Now I can use it and learn to download pics to iPhotos.  The camera display suggests the pic are true to color.  I'll set the camera to the lowest resolution it allows (about 12MB I think) which is way more than I have any use for.  

I still have some pics on the old camera that I will process.  It does natural light outdoor pics well.  But I will retire it after that.  Assuming the new camera pics process well.  I like to adjust the "definition" high, adjust the light level up or down, and straighten and crop the pics.  

But maybe the pics on both blogs will start to look better.  I'll like that and so will you.