#StayHome days 67-69 Rain Rain Rain

Well, if it's gotta rain, it may as well do it when we're stuck at home. I was beginning to think about building an arc, or at least getting the kayaks out and ready. I think it rained for 5 days straight. And, I mean rain - not just drizzle but downpour.

Other than curtailing our daily walks, our life didn't change much although the rain may have enhanced the general melancholy feeling. 

On Sunday we had a Members only zoom meeting instead of our YouTube show - I asked 6 people to teach one of their favorite features of Google Photos - it was great. I'm quite proud that we have so many members of Geeks on Tour who are technology teachers themselves. They look to us to show them how it's done! I wanted them to know that the feeling is mutual - I learn from them too. 

Whether it's a show, or a member meeting on Sunday, I always feel justified in taking the rest of the day off. We have our traditional glass of champagne to celebrate our online session whether it went well or it bombed, then I can read or watch a movie, go for a walk, or just browse the web - whatever I feel like. 

Memorial Day

This was memorial day weekend - the start of summer. Fort Lauderdale beaches are still closed due to the virus and as I mentioned, it was raining. Not a very start-of-summer like day. Memorial Day always makes Jim think about the Pumpernickel. That was his family restaurant, a Jewish style deli run by a good catholic family, on the Jersey shore. 

He has many stories of those years when he worked so hard from Memorial Day to Labor Day, then closed up shop for the rest of the year. I've always thought that was the perfect lifestyle, so I love hearing his stories. This time his brain was cogitating on how he would handle business during a pandemic. He said, 

"I think we'd be alright. We already had a lot of takeout business, so we would just emphasize it. There was a big window on the parking lot side of the building that could easily be turned into a drive-up window, and we had a large patio with outside seating that we could promote." 

TeleMedicine

Chalk up another new experience that I'm sure will be mainstream even after this is all over - we had our first TeleMedicine doctor visit. It was just a routine checkup - "How are you? Any complaints? Are you social distancing?" Instead of driving for 20-30 minutes, sitting in a waiting room for 15-30, visit for 15-30 and driving home - a minimum hour and a half - it was just sit down at our computers and have the 15 minute visit. We did miss having breakfast at the Pomperdale's deli that is next door however.

More work on my book

I'm writing the sharing chapter this week. How to share your photos and videos with friends, family, or everyone. I'm tempted to say how glad I am that I've procrastinated so long because an important change to sharing just happened last week, so that will be in my book. But I can't celebrate to hard because you know as soon as the book is in print, there will be other changes. I've decided to deal with that in a couple of different ways

1. Each chapter will have an associated Google Photos album. At the beginning of each chapter in the book, I'll have a QR code that can be scanned, and a short link that can be typed in, that takes the reader to that album. An album can contain text, diagrams, photos, and most importantly, videos - my tutorial videos. These will supplement the written content and, since it's just a Google Photos album, I can change it so easily. New videos to show new features. I especially like the concept that I'll be using Google Photos to teach Google Photos!
2. For Geeks on Tour members, I will have the eBook available online. I'm experimenting with how to make the eBook available in such a way that I can make real-time additions and corrections and allow for comments and questions. I would probably use Google Drive to accomplish this.

Zoom call with Ann 

Another Zoom call - this one wasn't planned, it started out as a regular phone call but as we continued to talk, we decided to "meet." So I told her the meeting ID that we've set up for meetings with friends, and there we were!

Bad news

5/24 Sunday US cases-1.68 million. Deaths 98,011

5/25 Monday US cases- 1.69 million. Deaths 98,468

5/26 Tuesday US cases-1.71 million. Deaths 100,000 

Good News

Fort Lauderdale beaches opened up on Tuesday, meaning we will be able to go Kayak Diving as soon as the weather cooperates and we can gather enough energy!
   

#StayHome days 64-66 Happy Hours

Thursday started early, at 7am, for our zoom meeting with Early Bird Toastmasters. I so love that the virtual meetings allow us to have people from near and far. That includes Jose from Madrid, Spain! What a rich experience.

We ordered groceries from Publix (delivered by Instacart) at 11 and they were delivered to our door at 1. Got grapefruit juice to go with the vodka we already had. Yum. Is anyone else drinking too much in these quarantine times?

Last week's happy hour with Kim and Don was so successful, we decided to try it with other friends. On Friday we had happy hour with Chris and Richard who live here in the same county, and while we were on the call we decided to see if we could add our mutual friend Debby who is out in California. It only took her a few minutes to get back to her computer and join us. How great is that?! The 5 of us haven't seen each other in about a year and a half. It took a pandemic to get us to try this!

Saturday we tried it again and had happy hour with Melinda and Laird in Nevada. Melinda and I have been good friends, like sisters, since 1979, but unless we are together in person, we rarely talk. Melinda is the only friend I know who dislikes the phone more than I do. She was with us for our New Zealand adventure last February and I don't think we've spoken even once since. So, I was shocked and surprised when she agreed to try a Zoom call and clicked the link at the given time, and there we all were. The experience is so much richer with the video, she even took us around her paddock with all her "critters!" 

Bad news

Thursday US Covid-19 cases 1.61 million, deaths 95,087

Friday cases 1.63 million, Deaths 96,276

Saturday Cases 1 66 million, Deaths 97,494

Good news

For the 5th time in 2 months we've ordered toilet paper in our grocery delivery. For the first time, today, it was in stock and delivered! We were down to our last roll.

   

#StayHome days 59 - 63

Damn! How time is speeding by. With no travel to delineate time by location, I have no frame of reference. Just all of a sudden it's the end of the week. We did our YouTube show on Sunday, so that means that Saturday was preparing, Sunday was delivering, and Monday/Tuesday was writing notes and recapping. We also did our "Backstage" zoom meeting with Geeks on Tour members after the show. These are so cool. Our episode was back to basics with Google Photos. We had over 200 viewers at one point during the live show - that's a record for us. And, within 4 hours, the video had over 1,000 views. That's really a record. I still wonder if there was some kind of anomaly in that count. We usually have 300 or so in that amount of time, and many of our shows only have 400 views even a week later. I know Google Photos is popular, but ?? Here is Episode 191 on YouTube.

I love guacamole, and the avocados that Jim got from the Walmart order were perfect by Monday and Tuesday. And, the one thing we will always go to Walmart for is chips. Their hint of lime chips are the best. What a treat.

That's about it for the week. We've gone for our walk around the neighborhood most every day. We've also had a Zoom meeting just about every day, and I'm continuing to make progress on my Google Photos book. I'm especially excited about coming up with a strategy for adding videos and other dynamic info to the book. I'm making a Google Photos album for each chapter. The album will contain tutorial videos and text slides. Using Google Photos to teach Google Photos! Brilliant.

Bad news

Saturday Cases 1.5 million deaths 89,420

Sunday Cases 1.5 million 89,754

Monday cases 1.54 million deaths 90,694

Tuesday cases 1.56 million deaths 92,258

Wednesday cases 1.58 m deaths 93,806

Good News

Loved this story from NPR about how well different types of people got along when they were forced to be together at Hotel Corona Rough Translation NPR

And, you gotta check out this way of virtual travel. Control where you go virtually in Farrell islands tourism

#StayHome Days 54-58 I feel busier than ever

I'm working in earnest on my Google Photos book this week. I've changed the introduction chapter 3 times! But I think I'm relatively settled on the chapter topics. Now I'm getting down to the details of writing and reviewing. Reviewing everything in the old version so as to delete what isn't valid any more, and writing about all the new features and changes in general. We skipped our YouTube show last week so we better do it this week. I've set the title to "What is Google Photos and how to use it" so I can stay on topic. Here is the link to the youtube show. Speaking of YouTube, our channel passed 6,000 subscribers this week. 

Venture out

I had a mammogram a while ago, and the results were inconclusive, so I had to schedule a follow up ultrasound. I postponed it once do to Covid-19 shutdown, but I didn't want to put it off too long. I know too many women who have had breast cancer and early detection is most important. I heard back in 2 days and it's still inconclusive - they believe it's just a benign cyst. So I'm scheduled again in 6 months. Any time I venture out of the house in this dark time, it's an experience. This office set up chairs outside, only 2 people in the waiting room. Everyone was wearing a mask.

Walking

It's a simple enough thing to do. We have a beautiful neighborhood with a road that goes around in a circle. The circle is just over a mile so it's a perfect walk. Why don't we do it every day? I can tell you that I was proud of us for walking twice on Tuesday. But then I have to admit that the second time was to get ice cream at the convenience store an extra block away. 

My Yeti

I think I mentioned in here that our Toastmasters club had a special meeting called "Tall Tales" last week. Making stuff up is not easy for me and I really wanted to do it. I was inspired by last week's speakers so I told my tale this week. Since we're on Zoom, the meetings are recorded and you can see my speech here. It's just over 7 minutes.

Homeland

I'm done. I watched the final episode of Homeland. Wow. I really did like that show, and the ending was superb. I won't talk about it in case it would be a spoiler for you. But I'll just say it's worth it.

Phone battery running down

It's amazing how much I use my phone. It does everything for me. No, I don't talk on the phone. I can go days without a call, but I run all my streaming video from the phone, cast to the TV. I play music with it. I still take some photos, and I read my kindle books. I keep my todo lists with it and send and read email and Facebook. I definitely take it with me when we walk - I want credit for those steps! Unless my hands are on the computer keyboard they're on the phone. It's kind of like a TV remote - I am controlling what I see on TV with it most all the time.

Bad news

Mon Covid-19 cases 1.38 million Deaths 81,378

Tue Covid-19 cases 1.4 million deaths 83,019

Wed Covid-19 cases 1.42 million deaths 84,705

Thurs Covid-19 cases 1.44 million deaths 86,248

Fri Covid-19 cases 1.47 million Deaths 88,031

My God! 88 thousand deaths in this country in 2 months. I cannot wrap my head around that. For comparison - 2,400 died at Pearl Harbor, 58,000 Americans died in all the years of the VietNam war. Yankee Stadium holds 50,000. And, this may not be even close to over. We are SOO lucky that we are financially able to stay home, and we have work to keep us busy here. 

Less bad news

We've been getting our groceries delivered from Publix, but they've been out of toilet paper for 2 months now, so Jim thought he'd check out Walmart. They have a process where you can order and then go pick it up and they had toilet paper in stock! That was Tuesday, the pickup was scheduled for Friday. Jim got a message Friday morning that they were out of toilet paper. 

   

#StayHome Days 51-53 Music, Food, Conversation

For several weeks now, Elliott Masie has hosted a Friday afternoon Empathy concert. I've always loved the way Elliott packages his extensive knowledge with kindness and understanding. Elliott is a big deal in the Learning, Technology, and Staff Training industry, but you'd never know it just by watching him. With his success in the industry, he branched out many years ago into 2 other fields: horse racing and Broadway productions. He is nothing if not eclectic! On his Friday Empathy broadcast (using Zoom by the way) he has thoughtful discussions with people, but the best part is the music from actors in his Broadway shows. It gets me up off the couch to dance around the room, and when it's a song I know - watch out - I sing my heart out.

 

Some notes I took from the conversation: 

• There's freedom in not knowing what is coming next. That's the way I felt about RVing.
• "Capture your stories"
• Disasters bring us together. 9-11 brought the country together, this is bringing the whole world together.
• The power to reveal who we really are.
• A time for your true colors
• Masie concert fills our heart ❤️

More music

When the Empathy concert was over, I wanted more music. I used my Samsung phone, opened up the YouTube music app and found my Chris' Favorites playlist. I cast it to the big screen TV to get our surround sound speakers and a bonus was that some of the songs included videos. This meant more dancing, singing, getting choked up. Jim even joined in. When the music video came on for The Beatles Hey Jude, there were several closeups of the young Paul McCartney's eyes. Wow - no wonder teenage girls screamed over him. It's either scream or melt. I was one of those screaming teenagers. Who else thinks we grew up in a time of musical greatness? Have you seen the movie Yesterday? It's about how empty the world would be without the Beatles' music. 

Cooking

Jim does 99% of the cooking around here, but I do have a couple items that are mine. One is butternut squash, and it was on the menu tonight. I take a whole squash and cut it up into little cubes. This is something I learned on YouTube :-) Once it's cubed, I sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper and toss it with a light coating of olive oil and finally just a drizzle of honey. Then it goes in the air fryer for 20 minutes and comes out perfect. Me cooking! I enjoyed being in the kitchen, listening to music, washing dishes, cutting up butternut squash. I think I get why Jim likes it so much.

Conversation

Over dinner, Jim and I had a great conversation about milestones during our lifetime. Good and bad... Moon landing, President assassinated, creation of personal computer and the world wide web, terror attacks of 9-11, election of a black president. All of those were huge, but they affected us countrywide, not planet-wide. This CoronaVirus pandemic is the only worldwide event in our lifetime. World war 2 was just before we were born. Mind blowing. Magnified by wine drinking :-)

Happy hour with friends

No, we didn't break social distancing rules, we used Zoom for a strictly social purpose this time. We met Kim and Don Green because of RVing. They founded a company called Harvest Hosts (which they have since sold) and attended many of the same rallies we did in order to promote it. We hit it off right away and enjoyed their company any time we got the chance. We've visited them at their home in Prescott, AZ and they've been here to our place in Fort Lauderdale. We would love to travel with them someday as they have the most adventurous spirit of anyone I know. They had just returned from several months in South America. They shipped their truck camper there, traveled all around and shipped it back. It was great to meet up with them even if only virtually. ... actually I discovered one advantage to virtual happy hours ... you don't have to drive anywhere after so you can have as much wine as you want!

Exercise

I was so proud of us on on Friday, we did our neighborhood walk twice, once in morning and once after dinner. A total of over 3 miles. But then we didn't move at all Saturday or Sunday. We didn't even open the front door.

Sunday was Mother's day. An aid at her Assisted Living Facility offered to video chat using WhatsApp. Chat isn't really a good description, she doesn't talk anymore, and she has no clue who I am when I'm standing beside her, let alone on a little phone screen. But it was still reassuring to see her.

Bad News

Fri Covid-19 cases 1.31 million Deaths: 77,727

Sat Covid-19 cases 1.34 million Deaths 79,373

Sun Covid-19 cases 1.36 million Deaths 80,539

Dow Jones is UP - wait you say, shouldn't stock market gains be listed under good news? Although it may be good news for big companies, it does not represent good news overall and especially not for small small businesses. Read this post in Reddit and see what you think. Why the stock market is going up even as unemployment goes up. 

Good news

The pandemic is teaching us that the world has to learn to work together.

Drone planting trees - this news is not related to the pandemic, it's just good news. It makes me hopeful for the future.

Day 48-49-50 #StayHome Down the rabbit hole

Too much of a good thing? If you love learning, like both Jim and I do, this stay home time is like heaven. Endless YouTube videos to learn whatever you want.

Both Jim and I are geeks and love learning.  He has several computers and mobile devices as do I, so when we have a hankering to see what the new Google meet is like, we can each jump on a meeting with one computer. Then, so as to have 3 or 4 users in the meeting, we can use other computers and other accounts to create a multiple person meeting and put it thru it's paces. 3 hours later, we look up and say "Where did the time go?" I haven't even started on the project I hoped to accomplish, but damn! it's so fun and satisfying to explore technology and learn new stuff. Jim and I also played a bit with the new Facebook Messenger for desktop. Both Google Meet and Facebook messenger for Desktop are supposed to give Zoom some competition for the online meeting market. From our day of experimenting, and our 3 years with Zoom, we still think Zoom is the winner hands-down. That doesn't mean we should keep our eye on these competitors, there might come a time one of them is a better choice.

Toastmaster meeting - Tall Tales

Our Earlybird Toastmasters meeting (at 7am) had a special format this week. We call it tall tales. I wanted to participate, but I'm just not good at making things up. I almost signed up to force myself to do it. If I'm not good at it, it just means I need to work on it right? Well ... I didn't, but I attended the meeting and was inspired by our speakers (liars) so I will give a story telling speech next week. Stay tuned - our meetings are recorded so, if I do OK, I'll post the recording next week.

Dermatologist Appt

My only health issue is skin cancer. I spent my teenage years here in Fort Lauderdale and I went to the beach every day. That was back before sunscreen. We used baby oil on our skin to get deeper tans. I'm paying for that now. I've had half a dozen surgeries on my face to remove basal cell and squamous skin cancers. So, I hate to miss a dermatologist appointment. I had one this week, they called to adjust my appointment time a bit, but they said it was ok to come in. Here's a sight you don't see very often .. an empty doctor's waiting room!

Google Photos Book

OK, I gotta get back to writing the next edition of my Google Photos book. I had promised to have it done and ready for purchase at Amazon by May 1. I missed that deadline. I've done a lot of work on it, but there's still a lot more to go. I have a need to see the big picture before I can focus on writing the details. So, I've been re-working the overall outline. Since the beginning, I remind myself about the different parts to teach of Google photos by using the acronym GEECS (kinda like geeks, get it?) G=Gather all photos E=Explore your photos E=Edit your photos C=Creations from your photos S=Share your photos. But there are a few pieces that didn't fit in there. My latest list is:

G-getting started and gathering all photos
E-explore (by date, by faces, using search etc)
E-edit (using Google Photos and Snapseed)
A-albums (lots to know about the one organizing tool we have in Google Photos)
W-workflow going forward, organize and backup
C-create and print
S-sharing
O-other (Lens, Chromebook, etc)

Anyone interested in discussing this can join the Facebook group "Learn Google Photos"

Bingeable Netflix / Amazon / HBO??

Oh no! I only have 2 episodes of Homeland left. What should I watch next? Really - I'm looking for recommendations.

Bad News

Tue Covid-19 cases: 1.23 million Deaths: 72,054

Wed Covid-19 Cases: 1.25 million Deaths: 73,667

Thu Covid-19 cases: 1.28 million Deaths: 76,421

Good news

Being forced to use technology like we are is revealing. One friend who works in IT at a hospital is now working from home, as is all the rest of the staff. He heard from his boss that the company saved SO much money because of this that it might become a permanent thing. Who knew? 

Another friend does a lot of computer coaching and is now doing that via Zoom. She says that she is finding it is even more effective than being there. She's seeing the student's screen and can coach them, but they have to do it. It's less intimidating for them to have her remote. They can easily take a break and come back. Good stuff.  

Loving all our photos displaying on our TVs around the house. Lots of memories of our travels all around us as we #StayHome

Day 45-47 Lifelong Learning

Jim takes course on Snagit and earns a certificate. I get the new Camtasia 2020 and started tackling learning the new features.

On Saturday we were booked to do a remote seminar for the APCUG's virtual tech conference. We taught how to use Chromecast to display Photo Albums from Google Photos on your big screen TV, then we showed how to use your smartphone to digitize photos from old photo albums. Of course then I'm inspired to go thru a few old albums and do just that. Here are a couple of gems from Christmas 1993. That is my sweet husband-to-be in the Santa suit :-)

When we teach, we learn. On Sunday, we had a Geeks on Tour members only meeting using Zoom. I was teaching how to make a blog, One question came up about inserting photos into a blog from Google Photos. If you then delete the photo from Google Photos, will it be gone from your blog? I hesitated on that one - it certainly used to be the case that the photos would be gone from the blog, but I think maybe that has changed. After the meeting I did my due diligence and conducted some testing. Yes, indeed, even though you're grabbing the photo from Google Photos, the process copies it to Google Album Archive. So, if you later delete the photo from Google Photos, it's still in the Blogger album in Google Album archive. It's a lot to understand, but it's actually very nice. 

I also learned something about Google sites from one of our members. Jack explained how he uses Google Sites to embed Google Photos albums into a web page. I tried it and, yes - it is really slick. It replaces about a half hour of work, to a couple of minutes. You can see what I mean on the 'Our Photo Albums' page here in this blog. For all the albums before 2020 I hace to manually grab one photo and link it to the album. If you click on 2020 photos, it takes you to a Google Sites page which only took a few minutes to put together. 

Bad news

Saturday Covid-19 Cases: 1.15 million Deaths: 66,766

Sunday Covid-19 Cases: 1.18 million  Deaths: 68,040

Monday Covid-19 Cases: 1.21 million Deaths: 69,921

Good News

Tough times bring neighborhoods together. There are 4 units - townhouses - in our building. One of our neighbors, Keith, is a party planner by profession. Understandably, all his work has been cancelled for the foreseeable future. That could be why he arranged a sidewalk socially distant happy hour for our building. It was fun, reminded me of many a happy hour at RV parks.

Days 41-44 #StayHome Escape

Jim has gone out in the car a few times since this lockdown started. He was using his dive neck wrap as a mask. I had nothing, so I made one out of paper towels, coffee filter, and rubber bands based on some YouTube videos. You can tell it's been a while since our haircuts too :-)

My first time in the car since this started! I finally made contact with someone at Mom's assisted living facility. Someone who cares for Mom. I asked the front desk to have someone call me - there's no direct number to the memory care wing?!? Sofia called me back, I've met her before. I asked if there was anything Mom needed and she told me shoes and socks. I ordered them from Amazon and they arrived on Monday, so Tuesday was the day to deliver them. I dropped off the shoes with someone who came to the door - no one is allowed in the facility except residents and employees. Sofia used WhatsApp to send me a photo:

Jim drove and after Mom's we went to the Grocery store. Still no toilet paper! Luckily we had a good supply when this all started, but that was 6 weeks ago. Jim succumbed to an impulse buy of pizza dough. He said that making a pizza has been on his mind ever since reading Nick's blog the other day. We also both fondly remember a neighbor inviting us to pizza a while back and they cooked it on the grill! So, here goes nothin' ...

The crust got a little blackened with the nice hot fire, but it was mighty tasty. He can try that again!

Thursday started out with our normal 7am Toastmasters meeting via Zoom. And Friday started with our normal 8:30 am zoom meeting with our technology mastermind group. We don't feel isolated at all. But, everything should be in moderation. One of our toastmasters members said she would be in Zoom meetings for 7 hours that day. Yikes, too much.

What the hell is a pile of quarters doing on the floor at the top of the stairs? It's an idea I got from reading a book, many years ago, about Charles Darwin called The Origin by Irving Stone. You'd think, in a book about Darwin, the most memorable part would have something to do with the voyages of his ship, the Beagle, maybe the part where he studied species on the Galapagos islands? No, all these years later, what I remember is a story about Darwin at home. He liked to walk around his garden. It wasn't that big and he would decide to walk around it a certain amount of times. This is where he did his thinking, so he didn't trust himself to keep count of the laps. What he would do is pick up stones, 20 stones if he intended to do 20 laps, and put them in his pocket. Each time he passed the beginning spot, he would take a stone out of his pocket and drop it. When he was out of stones, he knew he had accomplished his 20 laps. I just thought that was such a brilliant idea ... I tucked it away for someday when I wanted to do laps somewhere. How about 10 "laps" up and down the stairs? Who needs a stair master machine when I have the real thing. 

Bad News (source)

Wed 4/29

US Covid-19 Cases: 1036652 Deaths 60,475

Thu 4/30

US Covid-19 Cases:1.09 million Deaths 63,538
Fri 5/1
US Covid-19 Cases: 1,119,253 Deaths: 65,138

Good News

Some see this global pause as a historic opportunity to brainstorm and think of fresh new solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. The story of Isaac Newton's year off is instructional. Isaac Newton Changed the World While in Quarantine From the Plague

Day 36-37 #StayHome: Still Blogging after all these years

Thursday 4-23

7 am Toastmasters meeting using Zoom, gets the creative juices flowing early, but that doesn't mean it will continue. I tend to feel like I've accomplished enough when that meeting is over. I take my cup of coffee, sit on the couch and browse my old blog books. I love me old blog books. What is a blog book? It is a book made out of the posts of this blog. I've had one printed for every year we were on the road. This is inspiring me to make Blogging be our topic for this Sunday's YouTube show. Episode 190 of What Does This Button Do?

I did eventually get some work done. I found myself rifling through old Photo Backup CDs and found some photos I didn't have in Google Photos, so I uploaded them, and made a video about how to do that. See video here. 

This was my week to contribute an article to the RV travel magazine, so I wrote about Blogging!

I'm not sure what Jim did all day. He has his office/man cave downstairs while mine is upstairs. I could hear him laughing several times, I also heard other people's voices - presumable coming from Zoom calls. He's a much more sociable creature than I am. He's also constantly learning new techniques for audio and video production. And, of course, he made us delicious meals for lunch and dinner. I live in the best restaurant in town.

It was another gorgeous day and we walked around our neighborhood circle after dinner.

Friday 4-24

We start the day with another Zoom meeting, but this one is at a more civilized hour - 8:30. This is our tech-sharing group, we always learn new things. Today we all jumped on a Facebook Messenger meeting to see what is changing. With the popularity of online meetings these days, lots of companies are trying to challenge Zoom's dominance. It worked pretty slick - and the article says you can even invite people who don't have a Facebook account now.

Facebook messenger has fun AR effects

I had zero motivation for the rest of the day. I broke my record - watching 4 episodes of Homeland. 

Bad news

Thur 4-23

Covid-19 US cases: 890,000 Deaths: 50,177

Fri 4-24 

Covid-19 US cases: 923,000 Deaths: 52,234

Good News

I think it's really good news that I'm blogging again. I've never been an every day blogger, but I was pretty good at writing 2-3 times a week. For the last year or so, especially when we're home, it's been an effort to write once a month. During this #StayHome times, I feel the need to document our life again. I think it's kind of like the prisoner who needs to scratch on the wall to attest to the passage of time. fyi - this is my 1,934th post in this blog.

Day 31-35 The new meaning of "Travel"

Sat/Sun Apr 18-19

Instead of our YouTube live show on Sunday, we did a private Zoom call with our Geeks on Tour members. We tried something new, asking them to "register" for the meeting ahead of time, submit questions beforehand, and share scanned photo albums. About 60 people registered, and 50 showed up. I felt the meeting went very well. It points out how you need some kind of agenda for an online meeting to go well - just like you do in an onsite meeting - who knew?!

Mon Apr 20

Online Toastmasters contest winner

Monday evening is our Online Presenters Toastmasters meeting. Unlike most Toastmaster's clubs, this one started out in the online/Zoom format. Jim and I are charter members, being with the club for about 3 years now. This club's experience really showed in Monday's meeting. They tried something new - an online webinar contest. 6 contestants gave a 6-8 minute "webinar." That means they were to prepare to teach a skill or promote a product using visual aids and speaking. Jim took the role of timer, and I was a judge. The 6 participants gave stunning performances. Jim and I have been presenting online for over 6 years now, but I still learned something from this group. If you'd like to watch, you can view the winner's speech, or the whole meeting on this blog post. To make it even more amazing, the winner, Krishn, is from Mauritius and it was 5am his time. He's so good, he can give a speech in his sleep!

Tue Apr 21

I haven't left the house, except to walk around the block, in over a month. So how do I satisfy my need to travel? Instead of traveling from the east coast to the west coast, I now travel from the couch to my stand up computer desk. Other times I start at my sit down computer computer desk. For a vacation I put my backrest on the bed and turn on that TV.
Another idea to ease my sadness over the lack of travel was sent to me by Ana from Toastmasters: 

Wed Apr 22

Where had the day gone? Where had the week gone? Time goes so much faster when were home . I wake up with the plan to get to work on my updated photos book, but first let me just look at the computer, check email, answer a few questions.

Oohh, Jim made a delicious omelette for brunch.

A question about photos prompts me to make a little video. Then, something put a bug in my ear to go thru some old backup CDs to see if there are any pictures on them that need to be uploaded to Google photos. OMG, it's almost 3pm and time to hop on a zoom meeting with some fellow Google photos teachers. They are so much fun. The 3 other women all know each other from teaching for the computer club at Hilton Head Sun City. We've presented to their group many times over the years, both onsite, and online.

Bad News

Sunday 

Covid-19 US Cases: 764,177 Deaths: 40,591

Tuesday

Covid-19 US Cases: 816,240 Deaths: 43,921

Wednesday 

Covid-19 US Cases: 847,849 Deaths: 47,349

Good News

Wednesday was Earth Day -although it certainly didn't go as planned with thousands of people celebrating, there was plenty of good news as lots of stories covered the reduced pollution and re-emerging wildlife that are a side effect of this pandemic.

• Pandemic side-effects offer glimpse of alternative future on Earth
• Wildlife in streets, less pollution in big cities: Earth looks different on Earth Day 2020

• Air pollution falls by unprecedented levels in major global cities during coronavirus lockdowns

  
  

Days 27-30 #StayHome - the new normal

Friday 4/17

Friday is the best day of the week. At 8:30 in the morning we have a zoom meeting with a small group of people who discuss technology news and we learn from each other. And, later in the day, since the Corona virus pandemic, Elliot Masie hosts a zoom based happy hour, called Empathy, with inspirational talks and performances from Broadway starts. It brings tears to my eyes and dance moves to my feet. Thank you Elliott.

Oh thank goodness, Jim has returned from venturing into the wild. He walked out the front door to take the garbage out and check the mail. I was so happy to they he returned safely. A touch of exaggeration here ,😮

Thursday 4/16

At 7am, we have our EarlyBird Toastmasters meetingon zoom, we had a guest from Paris who told us how pleasant it was that the French people were relaxed during this crisis, no sense of panic, no runs on toilet paper. We also had a guest from Moscow, and a member who lives in Spain. I am so loving this new way of having meetings!

We got our government stimulus payments. $1,200 each, showed up in our bank account today. We really don't need it, we're fine financially, so we gave 1200 to the Broward pantry. I just can't imagine not having money for food and so appreciate the work these food banks are doing.

I sewed today. Understand, that is just not something I do, but we decided to hang our T-Shirt memory quilt on the wall in Jim's office to soften the effect of that glaring green wall, and there was one T-Shirt that was completely disintegrated, leaving the upper right corner looking very ratty. I found another T-Shirt in the closet of "Defending the Caveman." This t-shirt has never been worn, but we would not throw it out because going to that play is such a strong memory for us. A perfect candidate for the memory quilt, but how to get it done? I hunted throughout the house and found a little packet with a needle and some thread, and set to work. I am SO proud of myself.

Our Work

Jim and I hug each other and whisper "We're so lucky" at least 10 times in any given day. We're lucky to have each other, we're lucky to have a wonderful home, we're lucky to be financially stable, and we're SO lucky to have work that we can do from home and that we are passionate about. We love doing our YouTube show, and filling our website with tutorials and articles. This is what we love to do whether it was our business or not. It feels extra good when we hear that people are getting value from our work. I want to share messages we got from two different GeeksOnTour members:

Russ Manhold: Your tutorials are really something I look forward to viewing on a regular basis.  Recently I've been enjoying learning how to use my SmartPhone to capture old photographs and slides, enhance them, add them to Google Albums, and finally view them on my television screen using Chromecast.

Michael Dorsey: A very BIG thank you for last week's Button show. I have shared my Google photo albums this week with family on Zoom and by links to my Google account. A great time to do it.

 Bad news

4/15 Day 27
Covid-19 cases in US: 652,196 Deaths 28,390

4/16 Day 28
Covid-19 cases in US: 675,243 Deaths 34,562

4/17 Day 29
Covid-19 cases in US: 692,169 Deaths 36,721

4/18 Day 30
Covid-19 cases in US: 723,729  Deaths 37,841

Even Worse News:

Back on April 1, I wrote about learning that a friend, Gary Bunzer, was in a Seattle area ICU with Covid-19. Today, Saturday April 18 we learned that he died. We knew Gary from being a fellow seminar presenter at RV rallies. He was known as the RV Doctor, and we sought his advice many times on RV issues. I attended a few of his seminars in the early days. I remember being impressed with the thoughtful seminar handouts he provided. You will never meet anyone as knowledgeable, helpful, genuine, kind, and fun as Gary. He was also a musician, an excellent guitarist. He and Jim would have animated discussions of sound and amplification systems.
We will so miss seeing his smiling face at RV Rallies - that is if there will be any more of them. All but one of the RV rallies that we usually attend have been cancelled through the end of the year.
We learned of Gary's passing from the RVTravel newsletter.
And, the FMCA also posted Remembering Gary Bunzer

Day 24 #StayHome Our Sunday YouTube show

Sunday is a workday for us. When we do a live YouTube show, it's on Sunday at 2pm. We've been doing this for over 6 years and it's become quite a routine. It has become a blueprint my creative process.  

• I think about the lesson plan throughout the week, usually I have an idea of what topic I want to teach by Wednesday. 
• On Friday or Saturday Jim creates the YouTube show and I get serious about it. 
• I start creating the slides, I learn the details about the topic and start playing with it, coming up with demonstrations. 
• Often I write the review questions first. I think of the specific people who are learning from us and I think, "what do I want them to learn this week?" I write the questions that I want them to answer then I back up and create the lessons and the demonstrations that will help them answer those questions. "Begin with the end in mind" is my methodology. 
• Learn more about the topic myself - watching lots of YouTube, and reading help articles
• Have an outline by Saturday night
• Use Sunday morning to put finishing touches on.
• HandWrite my "script" with timing notes as 2pm is coming close and piling on the pressure
• Ready at 2

In the process I learn so much, which is really the main goal. I love to teach, but the underlying passion is learning. The best and most thorough way to learn is to teach someone else.

This week's topic had been decided at our last show - Episode 188: 3/29/20. In that episode we taught about how to get old 35mm slides into Google Photos and at the end of the show I promised that our next episode would be how to get pictures from old family photo albums into Google Photos. In the time in between, during this #StayHome time, I was noticing how much I enjoyed having our pictures showing on the big screen TV. We have it set up like a screen saver. So the TV is never off. When we're not watching some show on TV, it is playing our photos. It brings us so much joy. In addition to the living room TV, photos are displayed on the kitchen TV and several smart screens throughout the house as well.

 Memories of our travels permeate the house. 

That's what I want people to know about! So, I decided on teaching a double topic this week. Getting old family photo albums into Google Photos, AND displaying them on big screen TV with Chromecast. Yes! 

Our living room TV is always playing our photos. A picture from 3 years ago when our RV broke down - not all memories are good.

This picture of the Grand Canyon was taken just 2 days after the breakdown. One of our favorite memories!

So, I started getting out my own old albums and going thru the process. I rewatched episode 134 of our show where we taught Google PhotoScan for the first time, so I could remember the finer points. I also rewatched episode 108 where we taught Chromecast a couple years ago. I had to reacquaint myself with how that is set up, because you only do that once, and Jim set it up several years ago. But, really, what I wanted people to know is just that - you only set it up once. From then on all you do is turn the TV on, leave it on the HDMI port and there are your pictures, playing all day long. 

By Saturday night I try to have the outline and the review questions done. Then, it's in my brain and I "finish" the plan in my sleep. Honest, I do. It's so important to have the pressure of that LIVE show on Sunday at 2, for me to get it done. This Saturday night, I didn't have the questions done - but I woke up in the middle of the night with the questions in my head and wrote them down using my phone and Google Keep note-taker. Then, if I get up about 8, I still have about 5 hours to put the lesson plan together. The combination of the pressure, and the timing works so well. We may not do a show every week now, but when we do, it's on Sunday at 2. I'm wired for it!

Episode 189 - Review Questions

1. T/F To take pictures of pictures in albums, you need expensive lights. 

2. The PhotoScan app improves upon a snapshot of an old photo how?
   A. Eliminating Glare B. Straightening tilt C. Cropping to the edge of photo D. All of the above

3. With PhotoScan, eliminating glare requires extra steps, you can turn off anti-glare feature by tapping the _________ icon.

4. When your TV or smart screen is displaying random photos from selected Google Photos albums, that’s called:
   ⬜ Photo Frames ⬜Screensavers ⬜Ambient mode ⬜Slideshow

5. When your TV or smart screen is displaying random photos you control which albums show by using what app?
   ⬜Chromecast ⬜Google Home ⬜ Google Photos Android app

6. Your smart TV may already have Chromecast built in. If not, you can buy a $35 Chromecast device and plug it in to an _________ port.

Same thing for Jim. He plays with the technology all week - the sound mixing and the different video streams. This week, I wanted a camera focused on the TV in the living room and to bring that into the show, so that, after I show which buttons to press on your phone, our audience can see the effect on the TV. It's Jim's job to make that happen. So, he practices on Friday and Saturday, then freaks out on Sunday. (Sunday morning is not a good time to visit us - we're both in freak-out mode) He's added another tool to his toolbox, called Voicemeter for mixing sound. It's getting really complicated, like he's a juggler with 6 or 7 balls in the air. 

I think the show came out pretty good, except for one spot where Jim dropped a ball on sound for a minute, but at least it was at a point where we were just chatting, nothing important. He was able to edit it out after the fact without losing any content.

Bad news

Covid-19 cases in the US: 560,402  Deaths: 22,105

Good news

The emergency of this pandemic is obliterating the competitive barriers that normally exist in the scientific and technology worlds. Scientists don't care who gets the credit, as long as they find a vaccine/cure, and Apple and Google are working together!?!?!? 

Science collaboration: Scientists around the world are pooling their knowledge and resources to determine whether gene variations make people more susceptible to serious Covid-19 infection, hoping to learn why some patients’ coronavirus symptoms are quite mild while others’ are severe.

Apple and Google collaboration: Apple and Google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology.

Day 22 #StayHome Is it bad to feel good?

It feels wrong, but today was a great day. It started with a zoom meeting with a group of people with whom we've been meeting for many years. At the end of our hour I didn't want it to end, but I had to let them go.

Because my morning meeting group let me record them, I got what I needed to make the last video for my Zoom course. I published it and felt very accomplished. Then I answered a few emails and felt justified to take some time off, so I watched an episode of Homeland. Ok, maybe 2 episodes.

I looked outside and saw a very unusual sight. Jim doing gardening.

Jim vs Leaves - today Jim is winning

He had an audience of one other besides me. Practicing social distancing, this cat took a seat in the balcony.

At 4pm I had signed up for a webinar by Elliott Masie. He's a special guy. I know him from 30 years ago when I was a speaker at his Computer Training and Support conference, and I've followed him every since. He is a major force in the Learning community, he also produces Broadway shows. During the Pandemic he is doing a Zoom-based webinar every Friday at 4pm called Empathy. He talks about how to stay positive in these times, the importance of learning and empathy, and he invites some of his Broadway performer friends to sing and dance. It is SO uplifting and inspiring, it brought tears to my eyes. Especially when a violinist played Somewhere over the Rainbow, which I just had to sing my heart out on. If you click the link for Elliott Masie, the video may be right on his home page. I know the first week's webinar is there now. Check it out.

A brilliant idea offered by Elliott was to hire performers to sing and dance on zoom meetings! You know there are lots of very talented folks out there and they are all out of work right now. Many of them are promoting that they will perform in your Zoom meeting!

I was able to caterwaul Somewhere over the Rainbow because Jim was outside. He was grilling salmon for our dinner. He says that he is so lucky because I let him cook for me?!? He likes to cook that much. It was especially good - I'm the lucky one. The salmon came from Tropical Acres where he went and picked up steaks the other day.

We used to go for walks in the morning, but that just isn't happening. By the time dinner is done, we're feeling the need for some exercise and the weather has cooperated beautifully. I think I like walking in the evening even better than morning. 

All in all, days just don't get much better than this. 

Bad News

501,821 US Covid-19 cases 18,695 deaths

Good News 

We're getting to experience a slower world. Seismologists are thrilled at the opportunity they're getting to study earth movements without the rumble of traffic and other human activity. See this article. 

   

Day 21 #StayHome - newsletter is done

Today is Thursday, that means a 7am toastmasters meeting, and I'm toastmaster today. I'm at my standing computer desk upstairs, Jim is in his studio downstairs. Another Zoom meeting. There are a few difficulties but overall it's so wonderful to be able to get together while we're all sequestered at home.

Ok, I've got to get the newsletter done today. With all the zoom meetings we've been having and teaching I decided to dedicate this issue to Zoom, which means that I am determined to finish my Zoom course on Thinkific so that I can announce it in the newsletter. I'll tell ya, my boss is such a slave driver!

Why do I have to do this? I mean nobody would notice if I send a newsletter or not, but I've created a newsletter every month since February 2004, I haven't missed a month. I'm driven, I can't help it. Anyway, I got it done. Apr 2020 News: Zoom online meetings issue

Jim has made every meal we've eaten during this #StayHome time. He's driven too! So when he suggested that we take advantage of Flanigan's ribs to go, I said that sounded like a great idea. He ordered online and drove to pick up the order. He said that once he pulled into the parking lot, he didn't even have to get out of the car. Someone greeted him asked for his name and order number, took his credit card and came back with the ribs. I made a salad and we had another delicious dinner.

Then we went for a walk. Gotta stop and smell the roses!

I know .. not a rose. I don't know what it is, but I just tapped the Google Lens button from within Google Photos and it reported that this is a Starburst bush.

Bad News

US Corona virus cases: 467,887 Deaths:16,642

Good News

There's some great humor coming out of the obsession with Zoom meetings.