Soccer? Really?

I knew next to nothing about soccer, but we happened to catch the soccer world cup last year when we were on our Caribbean cruise because it was playing, live, on every big screen. We saw Argentina win with the hero Messi. Also, we follow some YouTubers named Snow and Curt. They happened to be in Buenos Aires when the final game was played and they showed the city's celebration: 5 million sing and dance in the streets of Buenos Aires. When we heard that Messi joined the Miami team, we understood why it was so exciting. Then, tonight we hear that the first game where Messi will play is right here at the DRV PNK stadium. It's just a couple of miles from our house. It used to be Lockhart Stadium, the place where my high school played football games and I marched on the field as part of the drill team. 

1970 - Lockhart Stadium where my high school played footbal. Photo shows the Titanaires drill team on the field. Notice how the stands end and it is just opened to the surrounding parking lot. Not even any stands in the end zone. I doubt that it had seating for even 2,000.

Here's what it looks like now. It seats 21,000. It was reconstructed in 2019 when David Beckham wanted his Miami team to play there.

When w heard that Mesi would be playing here,  And a local brewery was promoting it,  we decided to make a night of it and visit the prison pals brewery.  We sat at the bar and chatted with the women next to us. They were consulting their phones, learned that tickets at the stadium had come down to $70  so they bought 3 and called an uber to take off.  The uber arrived so fast that they needed to chug their beers.

Their seats were immediately filled with two young men.  I made conversation with them too. I just mention what a boring game this is ... 1 hour in and the score was 0 to 0! Just as I said that a cheer went up in the room Miami scored! Messi was not playing yet. We finished watching the game on TV at home where Messi made the game-winning goal. I'll bet we could hear the cheer from the stands at our house if we had gone outside. What an event. I may become a soccer fan yet. Since I like world travel - I like that this game is truly worldwide.

Starting a new Podcast

 What's a podcast? Well, the term has changed over the years. Apple made the iPod in the early 2000's. It's main purpose was to play your music collection. The device advertised that you could have 1,000 songs in your pocket. Then people came up with the idea of recording people talking, like radio talk shows and recording them like 'songs.' "Podcasts" was born.

Fast forward to the YouTube era and podcasts could also be video. We started doing our live YouTube show "What Does This Button Do?" in 2014. Now, 9 years later, we have 260 episodes and YouTube suggested that we use their new classification of Podcast for it. On our YouTube channel, you'll see a menu item for Podcast and the only thing there is our Button show.

We're doing pretty well with our Youtube channel - just passed 10,000 subscribers! And, we're actually earning a few hundred dollars a month. It's got our attention. We won a review on YouTube Channel Reviews and they had lots to say - some good, and lots of suggestions for improvement. We took it to heart and made lots of changes - like the new banner art. It's really fun to have this outlet for our creativity and learning.

Meanwhile, we also told Tech for Seniors that they need a photo segment in their show and I'd be happy to do it. They said yes. We needed to come up with a name for it, I wanted it to be catchy, but friendly and I turned to my trusted sidekick - ChatGPT, Bard etc. to come up with something. Instead of asking it for a title for a segment of another show, I decided the best word to use to describe what I wanted was a title for a "podcast." We weren't really doing a podcast, but it's kind of like a podcast? It was a regular segment on a particular topic delivered every other week. As we continued tweaking a title, I decided I kinda liked the idea of making a podcast! We have one podcast listed on our YouTube channel, why not 2?

So, we produce the 10 minute video for Tech for Senior, they use it on their Monday show, then we can repurpose it and post it on our YouTube channel maybe a week later and call it a podcast.

Fun with Photos

A Podcast from Geeks on Tour. 10 minute episodes answering your questions about taking, making, keeping, and sharing your lifetime of photos.

1. How can I fix my dark photos?
2. What is the best way to take Fireworks photos?

Those are the 2 we've done so far, we're waiting for a third before we create the podcast. My 3d topic is scanning old photos. I figure I'll show just snapping photos of old photos, using my phone, using Google's PhotoScan app, and maybe a minute on that cool Photomyne app that can capture a whole page of an old photo album at once. Lo and Behold, I look at Google Photos where it links out to PhotoScan and there's Photomyne as well. COOL! My main objection to photomyne in the past was tht it was dificult to get the results into Google Photos. Now, it's automatic! I will definitely use that! And, I never would have known about it if I hadn't taken it upon myself to do more teaching!

I Love my work!

I Love my life?

My Hippy Husband

 You probably think Hippy should be spelled Hippie? Well, he's that too. We were both hippies in the 60s-70s, but now hippy takes on a new meaning so I figured I'd spell it differently. Jim's hip has been bothering him for several months now. He traces it back to about fall of 2022. He doesn't remember it hurting when we were in Italy in May, it wasn't even bad when we were in the UK in August, but when we were home in December and January, doing our walks around the neighborhood, he started telling me to slow down. It's usually me telling him to slow down, so something was wrong. It got to the point that he just wouldn't walk at all, it hurt too bad.

He got a referral to a hip doctor and the doctor told him he had 3 choices:

1. continue taking Aleve, like he had been doing
2. get an injection that may or may not help. If he did this, he would have to wait several months for it to work it's way thru his system before he'd be eligible for #3
3. have hip replacement surgery - FIX it!

Jim opted for #3. We're on medicare plus an expensive, good, supplemental insurance - so it wouldn't cost us anything. He's a good candidate and it's no problem to stay home for a few months. Surgery was scheduled for June 5.

I drove him to the hospital and we got there at 6:30am, he was home by 2:30 and walking. He had the required walker, but after a few hours he decided it was more awkward than helpful. He took it easy and just stayed home. He used the wall bed in his office downstairs.

Less than a month and he was cleared for activity. He'd been climbing stairs at home after about 2 weeks, driving in 3. At one month, we stayed at a hotel on the beach for July 4 and he went swimming in the ocean and walking over a mile to dinner.

Here's a before and after xray - after is on the left.

He's doing great AND walking without any pain now.

Happy 4th, and 25th

 We got married 25 years ago today, July 4. We picked the day because it would be easy to remember and there would always be fireworks for us. 

To celebrate this year, we booked a room at the same hotel where we spent our wedding night all those years ago. What a perfectly gorgeous view of the beach and the ocean we had!

It was hot, but beautiful, weather. No rain. They had a bottle of champagne and 2 glasses waiting in our room. We booked 2 nights so we could get there the night before and spend the whole day and night of the 4th just enjoying life!

We even got wet!

That sunscreen is a bit too white, isn't it? 

We walked down strip and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was great. And, so fun. That sign you see on the table, "Run Forrest Run" - if you turn it over it says, "Stop Forrest Stop" - and that 's the signal that you want your server to get you something!

For Dessert, we got a box of chocolates!

Sunrise and Moonrise were just exquisite.

And the fireworks did not disappoint. The best part was we had the best view right from our room.

25 years, plus 5 more before we actually got married, and I don't see how we could be much happier. We both have the same mission - to make the other one happy while completely enjoying ourselves as well. We're so lucky that we enjoy the same things. And, where there is potential for conflict we separate our activities just enough. For example, for our YouTube shows, I create the content - and Jim doesn't second-guess anything I do there. He handles all the production, and I don't even know how he does it, so I never bother him with back-seat driving there. 

And, we both know that life is for having fun. We have fun with our work, but even so, it is important to have a break - thus the 2 nights at a hotel. 

So, what did I do? I brought my Google Photos book along and went thru it getting inspired to work on an update. Like I said, that's fun.

Our July 4, anniversary dinner was outdoors, right on the beach, at the Marriott Harbor beach hotel, right next door to ours. We walked along the beach to get there. It was delightful, delicious, and memorable.