It's a bleak-looking day

In spite of the clouds, our temperatures are heading to the sixties today.  Gabe and I are back from our walk, which called for a light coat over the sweatshirt I'm wearing.  I also wore my KC Chiefs sock hat, and kept both coat and hat on all the way.  Many times I'll start out with a coat and end up laying it on the ground to pick up when I come back that way, but not today.

We went to a funeral Monday about 80 miles north of here for a cousin's husband.  The cousin is one of us four baby girls born in 1944 in the Allen family.  Norman hadn't been really well for some time.  We noticed how weak he seemed at the reunion in August.  His passing is a poignant reminder that this is the time of our lives when any one of us could be the next one to go.  Ah, but I've had such a good time on my pilgrimage that even when the time comes, I'll likely be reluctant to go.  

Cliff has been piddling in the shop quite a bit with his tractor project, which the grandson helps him with when he comes home from work, as well as on weekends.  He supplies a lot of muscle that Cliff no longer has.  Arick had Covid early this year, and it had just lately been enough time since he had it that he could get a booster; it made him pretty sick and very tired for one day, then he was fine.  They warned him that would probably happen; he's a believer and doesn't want to have covid again.  I wouldn't be surprised if all of us eventually have it, the way it keeps morphing.  More and more I get the feeling it's going to be around forever.

Oh, I MUST recommend the book I'm reading:  The Boys, by Ron Howard and Clint Howard.  I haven't read far yet, about 100 pages into a 500-page book, but I was hooked immediately.  I'm a big Andy Griffith Show fan, even now.  Ron credits his dad with teaching him how to act when he was a childhood thespian.  He obviously has a profound love and respect for his parents.   

Below, I took a photo of one page, just to help you get a feel for the tone of the book.  Click on it and it will appear larger, if it seems hard to read.

This book has given me a smile on almost every page so far.  Your library will have it, but you'll probably have to get on a list.  I'm pretty sure I waited a month or so before it showed up on the iPad.  

That's all I have today.  Let's hope we all have a happy weekend.

The day Alexa lost her skills

Yesterday morning I awoke at 2:30 A.M.  I never went back to sleep, but since I have an Alexa device who answers to the name of Ziggy in my bedroom, I had him (he has a male voice) play my Pandora station that plays hymns sung by country music artists.  I kept it turned low, and lay there in bed listening until 4 A.M.   But later, when I told my living room device (actually named Alexa) to play a song by Marvin Rainwater, she repeated my request and then said, "I can't access Amazon music right now".  

I then asked the kitchen device, named "Echo", to play the song.  Again, no access to Amazon music.  Finally I tried the one named "Computer" in the master bedroom.  They were apparently all on strike.  

Cliff suggested I unplug each of them and plug them back in to reboot them.  I told him I had a hunch this was an Amazon problem, not a device problem, but I tried it anyhow.  It didn't help.  Finally I tried to contact Amazon and that didn't work.  Their help page wouldn't even show up online, and this confirmed that they were having a very large problem.  The six o'clock news further confirmed it.  

However, by the time I turned in last night, all was well.  I told Ziggy to play the meditation music I always use to fall asleep by, and he obliged.  I understand that some folks with those robot vacuums couldn't use them without Alexa; I guess those need her to work.  Anyway, I'm glad my devices are done going on strike.  We use them for music, grocery lists, and weather checks.  We also ask them fairly often how many miles it is from our house to various locations, and ask questions about whether our favorite actors and singers are dead or not.  Trust me, we'd really miss them if we didn't have them.  Especially for the music.    

I think I'll listen to those Marvin Rainwater songs now.

PS:  I'm back, having listened to Marvin sing.  I didn't know he was such a terrible singer!  He's a little before my time as far as listening to country music is concerned, so I wanted to see what he sounded like.  It seems as though he's trying to copy Hank Williams, but doing a poor job of it.