Things you recently bought or got

I'm the only one in our family not to have had the dreaded swab digging around in the brain through the nose. My son claims he now knows what it must have been like for the ancient Egyptians during embalming when they took the brain out through the nose.

I hope your result is negative.

 

I had a really bad ear infection about ten years ago and they had to put a little vacuum tube up my nose twice a week for about a month. Fairly sure I felt it thread its way under the corpus callosum.

 

Yeah, I said to my son he had it easy. Years ago, I had an urgent sphenoidectomy as the optic nerve and carotid artery were impacted by an unusual sphenoid sinus infection. The first time I sat in the doctor's chair, he shoved a 7 inch needle-like probe straight up without any warning. It was a deer in the headlights moment. I kept very quiet and still. I was praying all the time that I didn't sneeze!

 

Reminds me of the first and only time I had a straight-razor shave. There was a fly in the barber shop, the barber had a, well, razor on my neck, and the damn bug buzzed my eyeball. Never focused so hard on not moving in my life before or since.

 

Could have been worse. Could have been a catheter.

 

I finally ordered a new one, too, after my current one left me stranded in the night with "no battery" icon (jumping there from 75%...I knew that the battery was at the end, and had the age to be there, but still...) Fortunately, I could finished the current read-in-progress before.

 

Depth perception.

(I had a cataract operation in my other eye today, and can now see out of both)

 

So, as mentioned, I got a new Kindle. Nice. It now got background light, which I really need these days.

It also got bluetooth, mostly to hook up headphones, and can play audiobooks. Sounds awesome at first, but I found out that it only either plays the audio, or displays the text. You cannot listen to the audio and read along at the same time. Which kinda sucks tremendously.

 

I just now purchased The Wood Beyond the World, Morris, 1894. I'm on a roll regarding archaic/classic fantasy this year. More of Dunsany, and discovered Macdonald, Ashton, Eddison, Holdstock (not quite classic), and Mirrlees...

 

Congratulations! Having been partially blinded myself recently, I can fully understand your excitement at getting your vision back.

 

They need a new product line to keep you buying. First it was the addition of a keyboard, then it was backlighting, screen touch, ads to "reduce the price", and no ads versions allowed them to hike the price again. So now it's audio books. The next iteration will be audio books you can read along to followed by a singalong karaoke. Like it or hate it, their marketing department are clearly all singing from the same songsheet.

P. S. My kindle keyboard from 2011 is still hanging on by sticky tape and a prayer. I bought it for a song as a refurbished unit so it wasn't new even back then.

 

Well,...

I did not buy the new Kindle for any of the new features. The old one served me actually quite well and had all I needed, and then some that I did not need... it simply got old. In that the battery wouldn't work anymore for any length of time and would quit at inopportune times, with bad charge indicators. It was old enough to do that (I know how those batteries work, having worked in research of related systems), so I'm not surprised or angry having to buy a new one.

Still, I do appreciate the backlighting ... but I wouldn't have bought a new one just for that.

 

My household is also now almost completely Microsoft free. Our Windows 10 laptop refused to connect to WiFi since some update, and I couldn't figure out why. The settings and service software in Windows 10 for that are a mess, and all online DIYs I could find directed me to change my router settings, but given that my iPad, my Mac and two Kindles continued to work without a hitch, I highly doubted that turning off the encryption or switching the radio bands and channels (which was the recommendation) would actually fix it.

Given what I use the machine for, I went and installed Ubuntu on it. There was nothing of worth on the Windows system, and I didn't even took precautions to go back.

Best decision I made. And the thing now goes online via WiFi as it should.

 

Interesting, my Kindle Fire HD 10" lasted almost exactly a year. I was using it as a bedside reader, charging when indicated (<40% left) but after a year it started going from 100% to dead brick nothing charge overnight. I tried switching it off (instead of sleep mode) and it would drain even faster, going to brick in an hour or two. It was a gift so I can't complain, but not the lifespan I expected.

 

A dark brown corduroy suit.

Yes, a Dark. Brown. Corduroy. Suit!

And a pair of separate beige corduroy trousers.

If I can get my tailor to put elbow patches on it, I'll be the professorest professor EVAH!!!!

 

A certain kind of professor at least.

 

I've got a meerschaum pipe too

 

A checkbook.

I mean, seriously? In 2020? This must be the first account I've had in nearly 15 years where I've had a checkbook.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think my pet dodo has arrived.

 

Finally bought a hot tub this last weekend. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait three to five months for delivery, but it's finally on its way. Absolutely can't wait for a daily unwind massage.

Spoiler: Chose this one

 

Who’s your account with, The Bank of Yesteryear?

 

I got gout. I wish I could return it.

 

I like my checkbook. Especially for home repairs; piss me off, or do a crappy job... you’re getting paid by check. Auto repairs? Take longer than you told me it would be or go to far over the estimate... you’re getting paid by check.