Kaimusailing

The ride on the rented golf cart took only 20 minutes, but was very enjoyable, both to get out of the marina and get errands done. I now had wine and two packages from TEMU. The total for the TEMU purchase was about fifty bucks. In it I had a nice chef’s knife, a cheap hearing aid, five USB LED night lights, a mortar and pestle, a vegetable peeler, two long sleeved sweat pullovers, and two 17” square pillow cases (embroidered). The pillows didn’t have any filling and the LED lights weren’t the rechargeable kind, they come on when plugged into a USB socket.
.
I used the chef knife while preparing a cheese omelet sandwich for breakfast. I guess you would call it a prep knife, 6” blade, perfect for slicing cucumbers. I got the hearing aid because it was so cheap I had to see how it worked, can it be useful? It is rechargeable, thus no batteries. It seems to work. I will try it out in public when I am with the women artists who speak, usually, with quiet voices.
.
May I draw your attention to Parker Hallberg who has a channel on YouTube and a whole bunch of gourmet recipes. If you want to really impress your guests try some of them.
.
My 6 month Dr visit was due and I also shopped for more groceries. More berries, hot dogs, etc. One item was gourmet Sicilian spicy meatballs which I had a coupon for. I found the last package was marked “manager’s special” and 40% off. I was purchasing it for less than 1/3 its regular price.
.
Back at the marina I was exhausted. I fried the meatballs in butter and olive oil, then used jarred pasta sauce to simmer them for a while. I made an open faced sandwich of sourdough, 3 halved meatballs, and the sauce. Better than some of the restaurant fare around here. A jar of crepe batter was made and thrown into the fridge. The rest of the meatball stuff went in there too.
.
I made another batch of my vinaigrette dressing. I was using the California Olive Growers EVOO when I couldn’t find my usual. I had purchased avocados which were on sale, and a white onion, but no lime to make guac, so I sliced an avocado into a salad along with some monterrey jack cheese. Healthy.
.
We had a strong northerly flow, chilly overnight temperatures, and SUNSPLASH was bouncing around like she was at sea. I was going to try the bicycle, earlier than recommended by the orthopedics, but it was too windy. Later I did try it out and it was no problem, just don’t fall or crash the bike.
.
My transportation needs were being answered by three calls to ask if I needed anything from the store. Heck no, if I did need something there would be no calls. Later I asked Cornelia Marie if she would like dinner at the Legion. I hadn’t been out if a while and she is one of the earlier calls about transportation. We took a ride to the wine shop and then stopped at the grocers who had charged me the BOGO price for a single bottle of balsamic vinegar. It was about a 5 dollar overcharge, but I felt it necessary to have them correct it. Then it was off to the Legion. When we arrived the parking lot was packed. Uh oh.
.
It turned out the crowd was there for a wedding which was cordoned off from the regular bar and dining room of the Legion. The specials menu had baked chicken along with something called peas and dumplings. CM had a chicken salad sandwich and we both tried the peas. They were not too bad, but the serving was enough for a family.
.
I was moving around quite well and several friends remarked at my new mobility. CM rode me back to the marina. I did not use the bike at all after drinking. Too dangerous.
.
My lovely phone had been acting up, display going to a high frequency hash. Notifications still were beeped and the phone responded to display on and off with the button. Also two taps on the phone would turn the display on and off. The inductive charger would change the display to a muddy greenish brown, plus all the other modes, bright hash and totally dark.
.
It’s kinda scary when the phone is the primary contact with the outside world and it starts to malfunction. It had been doing this hash screen thing for a while. It was always possible to fiddle with the phone for a few minutes and then it would spring back to its old self, working perfectly. The direct replacement in Samsung’s Galaxy lineup would be the S23+, costing around a thousand dollars. I wanted the malfunctioning phone to last a while longer, but I needed reliability. I could get a cheap phone that does what I need as far as a phone goes and concurrently use the S20+ for its camera and data management. Or I could bite the bullet and order the new phone from T-Mobile. They could ship it overnight. I bought it.
.
The overnight shipping would put the phone at Cornelia Marie’s house. It turned out she wasn’t working in Baltimore this week and could sign for the phone when it arrived. Tracking said it was out for delivery by UPS at 9:42AM. I expected delivery early afternoon. Cuddily texted me about going to the Legion later, if I needed a ride. I had been biking around the marina and thought maybe I could bike to the Legion. It would be my first test biking around town.
.
I took a shower and saw an attempted delivery notice. I bike to the house and CM and Wilbur were obviously there with wheelbarrow shovels, doing yard work. The UPS delivery notification was laying in the grass. I suspected the driver didn’t do due diligence on the delivery. I biked to the grocers to get bread and blueberries.
.
I biked to the Legion. I was amazed that I had done my little bike trip in only 35 minutes. I was not winded although I had not been getting cardio exercise for a month. I ordered a merlot and a glass of Sierra Mist with a little ice, to properly hydrate. I was way early, took a photo of the bar, and sent the photo to Cuddily who replied it’s Teri’s birthday.
.
There was no phone number on the delivery notice. There was a reference number that could be tracked at UPS that resulted in a menu which offered “change delivery location”, but when I tried it would not let me do it. I wanted them to deliver the phone to the marina tomorrow. I knew someone would be there in the office to sign for the phone. Maybe I could call UPS in Salisbury, but there were several locations including a UPS Store which I called. I gave them my reference number and explained the situation. They gave me a number to call “where they have all the trucks”. I called and got a nice lady who was able to contact the driver, who was still in the Crisfield area and directed him to make another delivery attempt. I called Cornelia Marie and asked her to stick around and accept the delivery. I also said I would treat them to grilled chicken BLT for dinner if they came to the Legion, also that it was Teri’s birthday and she would be there at 5.
.
Cuddily, Teri, and I were sitting at a little 3 top with a view to the North, a nice view of the water going up the channel between Jayne’s Island and the Crisfield mainland. If we had two more joining us we would have to move, plus a couple, a new couple, who like the table we were at, arrived and were getting their drinks at the bar. We moved to a larger 3 top and the couple came by and thanked us for giving them their favorite table. They were organizing a veteran donation charity for Thanksgiving. We thought about what we could donate.
.
CM and Wilbur arrived with the new phone. Go get drinks, put it on my tab, it’s my first time out in a while.
.
The new phone is a Galaxy S23+, the logical replacement for my S20+, 3 generations newer. I loved the S20+ but it was going downhill fast, scary. I was working around its limitations. Don’t charge it unless you’ve turned the phone completely off. When it works it’s great.
.
It looked like I needed good WiFi to activate the new phone. It was all black and not as sexy looking as the cloud blue S20+. It turned out the old phone was low on battery, so I put it all away, deal with it later.
.
The bar doesn’t pour a new glass of wine for a refill, they give you a plastic cup of wine which I’ve found out is the equivalent of two glasses of wine anywhere else. Here they over pour but no one objects. The BLT chicken sandwiches were the special and we all ordered food. I had more wine. I think I took one bite out of the sandwich. It was good but for some reason I wasn’t very hungry.
.
The evening went on and on and we finally paid up and left. My friends deemed me too drunk to bicycle and threw the bike in the back of the pickup truck and drove me to the marina. I do not remember much of this, just little dribs and drabs. They walked me to the boat. I fell once on the dock, they said. I believe it, the next day I was a mess. What’s the number of that truck that hit me?
.
When I got aboard SUNSPLASH I started the charge the old phone which meant I had to turn it off. I woke up at about 4 in the morning and groggily went around on the boat, found my cold chicken sandwich and ate it. I took tylenol and went back to sleep. I awoke again with it all sunshiny outside, but I had a proper hangover. No breakfast. Make coffee. Phone turned on and the text messages came in. Alarmed that I was not responding. I responded. Took more tylenol. Made an egg toastie along with coffee.
.
The phone came with some accessories that I had ignored the night before. A little pin to eject the SIM card. A USB-C cable, what good is that? A quick start guide. I ate and read. Maybe I could just move my SIM card from the old phone to the new one and that would be that. I tried it. It took a while for the Samsung transfer apps to do their job and after my breakfast I kept watching the process continue. It seemed to work. All my vast collection of stuff was on the new phone, as far as I could tell.
.
I had watched several videos on YouTube about the S23+ including one that compared it to the old S20+. Basically the S20+ is still a very nice phone. 3 generations of improvements now are not the same as 3 generations of improvement of several years ago. Smartphones have plateaued out, but they rated the S20 as about 85% compared to the S23. I can see the difference. It was time to take care of my phone problems and I’ve made the upgrade about a year earlier than I wanted. Maybe I’ll get a prettier phone next time. This all black monster is a dire necessity.
.
There is a definite difference in how the two phones feel in the hand. After I broke the S20’s case, not that long ago, I began using it without the case. I could feel how it’s rounded edges and curved back edges made it feel smooth in my hand. The new phone has flat glass, a black plastic back, feels heavier, and looks more industrial with its 3 camera lenses at the back. The old S20 had a rectangular fitting for the cameras, so you could just wipe that off to clear any smudges. The new phone might require individually cleaning each lens.
.
It’s hard to compare cameras and display but right off the bat the display on the new phone looks great, but the old one does also. I haven’t taken any photos with the new one. The photo for the blog might be the last one taken with the old phone. The new phone is faster, noticeably, things transition more quickly, YouTube videos look great. I tried the bluetooth transfer to the old laptop and was successful. I can blog from the boat.