2018 Summer July 15 Sunday

78 degrees this morning, walk 35:24 minute

Walk this morning was ok, humidity wasn’t too bad.  No moon, very dark etc.  Not a lot of wind.  

Pace was 21 seconds slower than my goal.  That basically means I am taking 21 seconds longer to walk a mile than my goal, which actually is quite a bit, unless I am delayed for some reason.  

There is almost no traffic, usually I don’t even see a car etc.  I do keep a watch for snakes in the road, although I have never seen a snake in the road at the time I walk.  If I ever do, it will be one too many!

Sitting on the patio, nice although there is no breeze.  This is the ‘anniversary” of my entry into the Air Force, a real shock to my system to say the least.  For a while I felt like everyone was acting out a part they saw in movies, and I’m not real sure that isn’t true.  

Yesterday was the France Bastille Day.  In their honor, I played the "La Marseillaise," on the Amazon Echo.  An excellent version, the best I have heard, by the Red Army Choir.  I do prefer to have a female singer also, it seems to blend better, but this performance was really excellent.  

I looked up the translation of the "La Marseillaise," and it is better to leave it in the French language, it would be difficult to sing in English and sound as soaring as it does in French.  

In my most positive and imaginative moments, I have always wanted to perform “Orange Blossom Special” on the fiddle and sing "La Marseillaise” in French.  I tried on the Fiddle (about 10 years, although not strictly to perform the “Orange Blossom Special” and I probably will never try the Fence national anthem in French, but it is fun to dream about it and imagine myself doing it!  

I have to admit I went over to the “dark side” and now have an Echo Dot and an Echo Show.  And I have ordered  another Echo Dot for my office.  At $34, I figured it was worth it. 

In addition, we ordered the “Nest” door bell and lock and are getting a free Google Home mini with it, so we can try both.  

I hate to admit it, but the Apple Siri is a very poor third to Google and Amazon.  I really don’t know where Apple’s head is at on this and on the matter of a touchscreen for their laptops.  

The Echo Dot and Show are  hardly perfect.  They are too much of a marketing tool for Amazon, it seems that Amazon is shameless in that regard. About 50% of the time it prompts you to order from Amazon.  The Echo Show has too small of a screen etc.  As I have mentioned before, I’m not much of a “video” person, so that isn’t really an advantage for me.  

The main reason I ordered it is I understand it can be connected to the Nest door bell camera so you can immediately see who is there without messing around with the iPhone. 

We have found it is excellent for “lists”, reminders, alarms, scheduling etc.  It isn’t always all that intelligent when you ask it a question, but Siri seems to have dumbed down also.  

That’s it for now,  Sunday, July 15, 2018.