Tuesday

As not turned outlay smart TV was smart I was the non-smart. This morning the cable company sent out a technician who spent about an hour setting up the TV and other things connected to the new equipment.

I don't want to ruin it because I am superstitious but right now it is working and hopefully it will continue to.

I was the non-smart because I was not able to figure it out but to my excuse there was not a shred of paper or a manual showing how to do the set up.

Something else.

Last night we were watching the Republican Convention. It was fairly entertaining and I think all the participants should be on the America Got Talent show. They might not necessarily win but they would certainly be entertaining.

Since I will be away next week, like in Hawaii for a week, I will not waste my time watching the Democratic Convention which promises to be dull and boring. And I will not waste my time on such a nonsense. Certainly not while we are in Hawaii and there are more interesting things to do there.

Monday

Sometimes life dishes out annoyances that can drive one crazy and at the end it turns out that there was no problem at. If I could see the end I would not be annoyed at all but right now the end is in no sight at all.

Sunday we bought two smart TVs. One we plugged in and it worked like a charm. The other just does not want to start up.

Today we had the cable company replace the cable box thinking that the other one was a non-smart box but we still can not get that damn thing working.

One of the problems is that neither the new TV or the cable box come with any instruction booklets. I guess they think people already know everything so why bother.

A while back I bought a new Apple computer. I thought there would be an instruction manual with it. But no, there was none. However, the manual can be downloaded from the Internet.

How does one download a manual if that damn computer does not work?

I think this is again the chicken or the egg syndrome.

Sunday

Lately we stay up doing things until one or two in the morning. Understandably we do sleep late in the mornings unless there is something pressing going on.

Last week we had a dental appointment for Abigail at the ungodly hour of nine. This coming Monday we are having the same again. On Tuesday I am having a dentist appointment at eight am.

Don't these doctors believe in letting the patients sleep late and stay healthy? I will have a skin procedure done in early August where I must be present at 7:30 in the morning. Make matters worse it is in Manhattan.

I will have to go in on the subway with the working people. Please!

A couple of weeks ago I had my bi-annual physical which included a complete bloodworm. On this past Friday I received a copy of the results from my doctor and I am happy to say that everything was perfect.

My lovely wife takes care of me, watches over me and protects me from everything that can cause harm. She also feeds me vitamins and it seems that all this care work because my results were never ever this good.

Now if I could go to the beach once or twice life would really be perfect.

Saturday

They say that bad things or deaths come in threes. This has not been scientifically proven but it many times happened that way in the past.

Well, it just happened that way in our house. Two television sets and a fairly large paper shredder just all died, mysteriously I might add at the same time.

One TV had a pretty large yellowish strip down the middle of the screen for quite a while, the other TV just begun to be very dark and with today's sophistication "brightness" was not possible to control. The shredder died because of my clumsiness. I was trying to empty it out when I dropped the heavy head and it just broke to pieces.

Today we decided to replace all these items. Final result: bought two new TV sets and a new shredder.

The last was easy to install. Open the box, stand up the machine, plug it in end it works. One, the smaller bedroom TV was just as easy. Place it on top of the cabinet, plug it in and it worked. The second TV is a bastard.

It was placed in its place, plugged in and into other locations and...nothing. The damned thing didn't work. We spent over an hour trying to figure out what was wrong and at the end just gave up. Since this is a "smart TV" we thing it is too smart for the current and fairly old cable box.

Solution is to replace the cable box. Hopefully it will solve our problem and it will not be necessary to call the cable company to send somebody out.

I think this "smart" Tv will be too smart for us, at least for me.

Right now it is 1:30 in the morning and I hope you can appreciate my dedication. After this, shower and sleep! Maybe!

Right now my lovely wife is standing very close to me while I am writing so I'm done.

Friday

Since we spent time on the beach we saw some very interesting happenings in Daytona Beach. At night we noticed a lot of people walking around in the dark with flashlights in their hands. Couldn't figure out what was the reason until somebody local enlightened us.

It seems at this time of the year sea turtles come to shore and lay and bury their eggs in the sand. These people were looking for the eggs. I don't know how they found them if they were buried but they did. I also don't know what they did with them. I'm sure they are not good for scrambled eggs. But maybe turtle eggs are.

Anyway these things are protected and not supposed to be disturbed. We heard that when they hatch there are thousands and thousands of young turtles trying to make it to the ocean and people come out and watch them. Must be interesting.

We don't have anything like this in New York. Anything that tries to make it to the sea is people in cars and nobody really watches them or cared if they make it or not.

Something else.

I noticed a phenomenon while on Daytona Beach that was not noticeable anywhere else.

Old people who were very useful.

At first at the airport the people who pushed wheelchairs on and off the planes to help the handicapped passengers were all older people. At the car rental desks there were not the usual "attractive" bunch but older people.

In town I visited a few large national stores and at the cash registers and the security guards were all without exception older people. When we left Daytona back to New York the airport security people working for the TSA were all upper middle age or higher.

This was very new to me. Living in New York I kind of got used to old people having no purpose in life. There is no place one can go where they can see older people working.

This is another reason I might consider living there. If I ever want to start a new career that is the place.

Thursday

Today is Thursday and I know I kind of disappeared from the scene for a few days. But I do have an explanation that at leas for me sounds very acceptable.

Monday morning my wife and I flew to Daytona Beach, Florida for a few days. We went there to take care of a few things that were absolutely necessary and could not be done through he mail or the Internet.

So, we had a choice of driving down or flying. We choose flying and I was very glad we did. Getting there inn two hours beats driving 17 hours anytime.

We bought a package which included flying and hotel and it worked out just fine. The weather was great meaning extremely hot and humid. We also had time to do some beaching which was great because the hotel was right on the beach.

My wife's daughter lives there so we had plenty of time to be with her, too.

We did our business then we beached then dinner and walked around a lot. Daytona Beach is a very nice seaside community with hotels and condominiums lining the oceanfront. One is larger than the other and each one is tastefully colorful.

I am nuts about palm trees and I was happy because I had the chance to see large and healthy palms. St. Maarten is also palm country but somehow those are all sickly looking now that I can compare them to another location.

The place is nice and quiet. There were many vacationers but the town was not overrun with them. Daytona has a few annual events like the Daytona 500 NASCAR Race, the Harley Davidson gatherings, antique cars show and these bring large crowds to the town.

Last year when we were there was one of the Harley Davidson gatherings and I tell you it was very interesting. It gave lots of life to the town.

I don't know, maybe when I get old I'll retire there. One never knows.

Thursday/Friday

I missed a day but it is excusable since in our household there is never a dull moment. And, time flies like a jet. By the time I realize what time it is it is already late night or rather early in the morning.

The past few days have been spent around Abigail and her well being.

Yesterday after her sleepover in a girlfriend's house we went with her to see an eye doctor and after the eye doctor immediately to the eye glass store to order new glasses.

This morning we had an early appointment with a dentist who looked over Abigail's teeth. The result was there were three baby teeth still stuck inside her mouth that needed to be extracted. To give her credit she behaved very heroically during the entire process.

Her teeth were x-rayed, examined, cleaned and some extracted and during the entire process not a word out of her.

Next week filling some cavities then talking about braces.

I had to go to a dermatologist today because the years of sunbathing created some problems on my gorgeous face and it need to be corrected.

Otherwise we are suffering just like anybody else because of the extreme heat in the city. But like in all previous years we will survive.