A COUPLE OF WEEKS

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Well another day has passed and the OFM is still breathing and getting close to being 80 years of ancient. The memory ability is going bad fairly  steadily but that includes bad memories disappearing also, I think. Today was a reasonably nice day over all. A couple of light showers happened but mostly it was slightly sunny and nice weather. Yep got in some serious back patio time visiting with other occupants of this assisted living facility. 

My fingers did a good bit of Amazon shopping today but it was little stuff like a spool of strong twine to replace the one I just used the last of yesterday. It lasted about 6 years I think.  Just for the heck of it I counted the coloring book pages I have left at this time and the total was about 145 pages left to mess with. That should last me a few days don't you think.

Walking this morning was very nice before the rains started to fall but I finished the outside walk about 0900. But it was a nice day all around.

And that is another day gone getting me closer to 80. 

YA'LL have fun out there in blog world.

INTERNET ORDERS GOT HERE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Well something went right for a change and my multiple orders through Amazon came in during the last three days ON TIME for a change.  This no driving life I lead now means I depend on computer shopping heavily for items for daily life. It has taken a while for me to get used to how to make life flow a little better. But I seem to finally be getting the hang of doing it in a timely fashion. There are no stores within comfortable walking distance of this facility. But it is home now so I have to figure out a few more things in the future. It is pleasant over all though.   Everyone have some good fun please.OFM

COLORING LESSONS

MADISON, ALABAMA

Today was a nice day of visiting with folks in the assisted living and helping a friend with his art efforts. He is trying to learn the tricks of coloring in coloring books for adults. His attitude is excellent and his abilities just need a bit of practice to move him into some good work. We probably spent over five hours discussing techniques, color theory and lots of opinions. He is a student that will not need long to flash on past my abilities to help him. I wish him luck.

That was just about the sum total of all of the excitement in this place today. So it was a pleasant day and relaxing for a change.  Good night all. OFM

SNAKE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

As I walked into the main room of this facility this afternoon there was lots of excitement at the back door and loud talk about a snake being inside. Pretty quick I found out it was a small rat snake baby of about 8 inches of length and thinner than a normal pencil. Sure was a lot of excitement for such a small critter.  The cook from the kitchen reached down  and picked it up. Then the took out to the back of the back yard near a ditch and dropped it in the grass and came back inside.  That was all of the excitement except for some knuckleheads that wanted it killed cause all snakes are bad.  I was happy to stay out of the discussion at this point.

The facility here is under going several changes in operation soon and in about two weeks we are supposed to have a gathering to be told all the new changes about to be enacted.  One of the changes we already had was the owner quit supplying toilet paper that the contract says will be supplied. The latest rumor is they will start charging a laundry soap fee to do the laundry we are promised in the contract. It will be interesting to see what other improvements the new system will bring.

Meanwhile the OFM is looking around to see if he has any options for where and how he lives.

Have fun folks. OFM

CLEANING OUT AGAIN

 Madison, Alabama

Yesterday I got into another spell of cleaning out. Now and then I realize I have not used something for over a year or so and spend a few minutes wondering why I still have it. Then I notice another thing etc. Well yesterday afternoon it happened again.  My art/computer desk was getting crowded and seemed to need to get another table here. As I looked at possible solutions to my lack of space I noticed several things that had no business taking up space in my world any more. Thus the clean out got going.  Now the dumpster is filled again and I have plenty of space for my play things and exercise needs..  

Once again I have proved to myself that simple living is MY best way of life.  Maybe even a truck mounted camper would be plenty these days. Hmmmmm.

GOOD NEWS FINALLY.

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Finally some decent news. The computer system guru caught me finally and we had a great productive happening.  The system had some trouble and my ancient over 30 years old computer had some trouble also.  He reset this and that. I had been wise to keep my fingers out of most of what he tweaked.  The main trouble was my internal antenna was only working at 10% now. The new antenna from a couple of weeks ago was working but I had not installed it correctly since I misunderstood the instructions. He did an look around in the computer and changed a few "automatic" upgrades or ????? that needed tweaking. etc. The end result was a screaming fast solid performing computer  BUT his diagnostics program found a few components in my machine that need a big updating but this old machine does not have the parts available any more on the market. His recommendation is when things evolve enough to cause trouble again that I update to a current computer. But for now it is screaming faster than ever before and I am a happy little fool. 

I just finished my daily torture walk as some folks here call it and now I have a little catching up on my computer based messing around. See ya`ll later,

STILL BAD INTERNET

 Just an update. Still no functional internet. I am at a half hour of effort for even this message. Thank  you for your patience.

INTERNET MESS

 Madison, Alabama

Just to let folks know my internet is not performing very well at best. The repairman is due to get to it today.  I will return when it works properly again.

INTERNET REPAIR REPORT

MADISON ALABAMA

 The internet still did not work this morning but the fixit fellow was due in today from Denver Colorado to see about repairing it. I had a stage show involving my grand kids to go see so I went on to the very nice show they preformed in and really enjoyed it. Then we stopped for a late lunch or early supper that was really excellent also. So it was already a very good day  when I got back to my home.

WOW the internet was running decently to my surprise. When I reset some of the parameters to my preference it was great again. Tomorrow I should be able to get more details on what caused the trouble. So it has turned out to be a wonderful day over all. We will see if it all is still doing well in the morning,  Good night. OFM

SPEED BUMPS REPORT

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Today we had good busy day of vehicles going through the parking lot with the new speed bumps in it. The results were fantastic. Vehicles would turn into the lot like before and then hit the first bump and continue their way at a nice reasonable speed. OR They were a frequent cut-through vehicle and their speed was good from the minute they entered. I would call it a great success.

Have fun every one. OFM.

DESK REARRANGING

Madison, Ala.

Tonight started the reorganization my desk top of the last few years.  With my art efforts using the desk top now along with my usual other daily chores like paying bills I have been fighting with a very  cramped desk top. So tonight started the latest effort and it has been productive.  By no means are the quirks all worked out but progress is being made to handle all the different types of efforts the desk is used for. 

In the mean time the OFM has been putting effort into losing weight. As of a couple of days ago I broke below 200 pounds for the first time in about five years and it feels really good. We will not discuss how much I got up to.  And that is it for the latest in my plain, dull  life . OFM

 

SPEED BUMPS

 Madison, Alabama

We had a new addition to our parking lot today. The parking lot  for our facility is reached by a driveway that makes a 90 degree turn near the front door and exits to a side street.  This leads to folks short cutting through the parking lot to miss a traffic control light they would otherwise have to obey.  The traffic coming through is at times fast and furious.  The speeder I saw quickly shut the speed down after she got the vehicle back down on the pavement after the first bump.

She took the slow style for the rest of her trip through the parking lot.

From my window I got to see some pretty good bounces a few times today.  It kept it from being a boring day for sure. HE  HE HE

Have fun, OFM.

Just Getting Along

 Madison, Alabama

Not a lot going on as usual but nothing planned either. The weather has warmed up to hot in the last couple of days so summer must be here. My son and his family stopped by for a nice long visit yesterday with big news. Both his kids have been approved for home schooling so they can  move faster on learning than the school schedule allows. That is a good move since they are extremely sharp kids.

In my world a desk drawer seam on a drawer broke and I have added splints glued to the drawer. When the glue cures we will see if I was successful with the repair or not.  Doing repairs without my home shop I had for years is a lot more difficult now. That was the big excitement for the last few months. Tomorrow is testing day and we shall see what is next. And that is all for now. Good Night OFM.

FINALLY

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Hello folks.  We now have internet again after a lightening event blew out several components of the Assisted Living facility internet system a couple of days ago. It took the repair fellows a couple of days to get all the parts delivered and installed. Maybe the OFM will have something to say but mostly nothing happens around here. Hopefully I will find something to write about in the near future. OFM. 

MOTHER NATURE WAS MAD

Madison, Al.

Mother Nature had a temper tantrum right over our building this  to afternoon.  The OFM was at his computer doing high level personal work when it sounded like lightening struck the shrub just outside his apartment window.  Then the clouds above got into a lightening fight that lasted a long time 3  minutes.  At least the strikes were cloud to cloud instead of hitting the ground or building. But the OFM got real interested since it was just outside his window. Then Severe rain with huge raindrops slammed us for about ten minutes and poof it was over. The light flooding slide out of sight in about another ten minutes.  Then it was nice and calm.  It was not much but it was the most exciting thing that happened around here in many days.

I hope everyone has a lot of fun. Good night.

HUMAN POWER SHORTAGE

 Madison, Alabama

Caretakers are in extremely short supply in this area. Tonight we are down to one on duty when three are the design number to be here. This shortage has been going on for a few months. They had a job fair Friday and only five folks stopped in to check out going to work. Every now and then they hire a person but they usually do not make a month before they disappear.   The care takers that have been here for the year I have been here say the new folks just do not seem to want to have to do anything for their money.  If they last two weeks it is a miracle. Anyway things are decent even with the shortage of workers to take care of things. This is certainly a lot different than what I had hoped what retirement would be like.  Have fun. OFM

SAME OLD SAME OLD

MADISON, ALABAMA.

YEP it is Thursday evening and not a critter is stirring.  But the OFM is still looking for something to put into the blog that is not so boring as lately.  It has been calm around here and nearly boring. But at least everyone seems to be healthy and doing well.  

We have a new coloring fellow in the building.  His grand kid gave him some colors and a book while he was on vacation recently. He is finding out how much fun it can be. We had a nice show and talk after supper tonight. He might get the itch to do more.

Other than that things are just going boringly smooth.  Have fun. The OFM.

NOTHING MUCH

 MADISON, AL.

Really close to nuttin going on around here dees days.

Sitting on the back patio after meals seems to be the exciting portion of the day. Maybe that means I need to stir up some trouble eh. 

Any way have fun and smile as the sun keeps on shining. OFM

SURPRISE SHIPMENT

 MADISON, ALABAMA

SURPRISE MAIL

Yesterday I got a big surprise when two coloring books I did not recall ordering came in. Upon checking more carefully it showed that yep the OFM forgot what he had done. So now I have 110 new flower pictures to color and/or mess up.  Of course I had to piddle with one of them and sure enough it was fun as usual. Part of the fun is that the OFM does not bother with what are the normal and proper colors to use. What does he want them to look like is much more fun. 

Have fun. You can guess what I will be doing. OFM

COLOR PENCIL TEST

 MADISON AL.

How about a colored pencil comparison test. Since OFM does a lot of color pencil coloring for the fun of it, how about a test of good stuff vs cheap stuff. The OFM has been playing with colored pencils for a couple of decades now and is still not an artist but he does do a lot of coloring book coloring for several years now.

In the past I had made a choice to use Prismacolor coloring pencils for my coloring book fun. They are a professional grade and very first cla$$. I have had wonderful times with them and had no performance complaints at all. Keep in mind I am a mildly accomplished knuckle head coloring nut. Prismacolor is definitely an excellent performer for coloring but expensive.

A couple of years ago cheap coloring pencils of decent quality come onto the market from overseas manufacturing facilities.  Several brands are on the market.  I piddled around for about four years with several of them and at first they were kid level junk art wise. But about a year ago some major improvements came onto the market by those folks. So today I ran some testing efforts of my Prismacolor pencils against the Kalour brand of cheap pencils.

Prices are a lot different between the two brands. Prismacolor I normally buy and use is about $38  for a 36 pencil pack.  The cheaper Kalour brand is about $12  for a 72 pencil pack. That is a bunch in my wallet.

Quality of Prismacolor is extremely high in every respect.  Kalour is too new for me to find out a lot of things about them to report like how long they do not fade and things like that.

What I do know is the color of either is very good but how long til Kalour fades is not known.  The lay down of both is very good.  The burnishing of both is really good. The color trueness from one box to the next is very good.  The laydown of color and lead strength of both is very good.

Since all of my coloring is just for fun and gets thrown away a couple of months after completion, the time before fading and things like that are not known. I have thrown away over 200 colorings this year alone so I do not know about color fading time at all. But for my style the cheaper Kalour brand is making a serious drop on cost happen in my hobby with no drop in color quality or workability.  I hope this info is helpful.