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So, our new printer came yesterday. It’s for Andy’s computer, and the one we had didn’t do two-sided printing, so we bought a Canon TS7720.

I managed to get it installed as the default printer without much trouble. But it asked if we agreed that Canon could see what we were printing and share some of that information with third parties. I said no to both of those, and it said then I couldn’t use its web services. I figured if it didn’t work without those web services I would just send it back.

It works just fine for what we want.

I did go back to the Amazon site and asked its AI, Alexa:

In order to use the internet we have to allow Canon to see what we are sending, and to share with others? Details please!

It answered:

That was helpful, but it didn’t mention the method I use. We don’t use AirPrint — I connect the printer to our computer with a USB cable. Someday — if I want to print from my computer in my study or from my iPad — I might ask how to use AirPrint, but for now we’re happy keeping things simple.

May 29, 2026

Speed Bump

May 28, 2026

1. Our Landline: Our landline no longer has a dial tone. Luckily we discovered it Monday when we tried phoning it to check our flip phones. I’ll spare you the details, but it probably took me about an hour yesterday to get through Lumen’s phone and chat AIs to reach a real person, Kaninglung K, on the chat line. The neat thing is that person was friendly and helpful. When I thanked them and told them how much I appreciated their help, they answered,

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

The creators of Betty have moved on from the basement renovation.

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

Bub’s looking at mood boards did get Betty out of her doldrums.

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

I do love Bub. He is so calm and good-hearted.

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