2023, Business, home, Technology

Photo Finish

42 Comments

In the last seven weeks I haven’t gone more than a day or so without having to stop by either Home Depot or my local hardware store.  There are only a couple of bits left until the bathroom is completely finished, but we are now slowly putting it back together.  This has driven me to the hardware store several times in the last week.  Screws, anchors, springs, plugs, paintbrushes….  I feel like I’m practically living there.

Last Saturday morning, they were slammed; I wasn’t the only one with a home project.  Rather than wait around for help, I ventured to the back where the entire wall is filled with drawers and boxes of nails, screws, bolts and the like.  I needed some kind of rubber plug for the end of a spring I had bought the day before to hopefully allow us to keep using our current shower caddy.  (Anything to staunch the flow of cash into this bathroom!)  I did actually find something that would work perfectly.

None of the store employees was at the back of the store and I didn’t trust myself to remember the part number or even the price until I got to the register, as I had a few other things to pick up.  Although I had a pen, I didn’t have anything to write on.  I was just about to write on my hand when I suddenly realized I could use my phone to take a photo of the price and sku.  Not an earth-shattering thought but I’d never thought of it before.  Snapped the above picture and headed back to pick up my other items.  The young cashier did actually thank me profusely.  Apparently most people expect the employees to know all the prices which means a quick trip to the back of the store to check; I got good-customer brownie points!

When was the last time technology pleasantly surprised you?

42 thoughts on “Photo Finish”

      1. Snort! I remember being relatively new to the trail, and cheerfully volunteered to arrange a baboon outing to the Guthrie. Man, that was like herding cats!

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  3. I recently discovered Spoonflower, a site that lets you design fabric and have it printed on any of about 20 different weaves. I’m late to this, apparently, since the site offers thousands if not millions of fabrics designed by other artists.

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  4. I’m usually more annoyed than pleasantly surprised by technology. That said, the tire pressure monitors on our Camry Hybrid take all the guess work out of checking tire pressure every month to make sure the tires are properly inflated. Especially in winter, I only have to fill the tires when needed rather than freeze my fingers off for two minutes working the pressure gauge and fumbling with the little tire valve caps.

    I didn’t expect it to work, let alone be accurate, but the darn tire pressures are exactly what shows on my manual pressure gauge.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Our hybrid car has been a wonder of tech combined with driving. So that is one positive. I recently made a trip doing errands and the car said I got 60 miles per gallon of gas. And the entire issue of a camera on the phone makes technology accessible at every moment. On my phone is an entire photo library of art projects I want to try. I will cook a turkey tomorrow, and a picture of that turkey will join the pictures of Tgiving turkeys from years past. 🦃

    Re: Barb’s email and meeting observation–now that Master Gardener season is done, my email is so quiet. Master Gardener projects require so much communication and coordination that email makes do-able.

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  6. I am doing a series of lessons and meditations on sensory processing disorder, which I have. Many of the guided meditations I want to try play background music so loud I go into shutdown in about 20 seconds. But having the guided meditations I can use has been wonderful.
    A sidebar: I have been wired lately. It does not take much sensory input to trigger me or give me a migraine. The maintenance man replaced the garbage disposal. Since then in my wired state the kitchen lights have triggered me. I thought it was just me. The building through a grant provides low energy bulbs. Today he stopped me in the hall asking me if I liked how much brighter the kitchen is. They got some brighter bulbs for the kitchens and he put them in when he did the sink. He is such a nice guy how can I tell him my problem?

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    1. Oh, that’s frustrating, Clyde! Those LED bulbs can really make a difference but for people with sensory processing issues, they can be a problem. I would tell him. Maybe he can find a different color that would be easier on you.

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    2. I agree with Krista. I’m sure your maintenance man is doing his level best to make to take care of your needs, and would not want to cause you additional issues. Please explain to him that these new lights are causing headaches, and ask him to replace your bulbs with a warmer wavelength of light. No need to go on at great length, but please do tell him.

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    3. I agree – tell him. Maybe you can say “thanks for telling me you changed the bulbs… I had thought my sensory issues were getting worse”…..

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  7. I like technology in general. I like the typing and editing capabilities of word processing software. It’s so much easier than the old typewriters or writing in longhand. We wouldn’t have all met each other if not for technology! I’m grateful for that!

    I’m very slowly getting new kitchen countertops, a new sink, and a new faucet. I used my camera in Menards to compare sinks at home, and then to order the sink and faucet with the countertop at Menards. It really is helpful. I just have to remember to bring my phone in the store with me. I have a tendency to leave it in the car, which is a bad habit. Now, how do I light a fire under Mr. Jensen, whom I hired to install all this? It has been since August! I’m hoping it will be done this coming weekend but I still haven’t heard from him.

    My friends and I are learning to use technology to plan our trip to Ireland. I have had the pleasure of meeting a woman who was adopted away from her birth mother in Ireland and brought to America. She knows some of the people in the film “Philomena.” She traced her ancestry back and has been to Ireland many times to get back together with her birth family. These stories are so incredible. I’m very impressed with her. She is very kind and has such wisdom. She’s helping us plan our trip and will travel with us in spirit.

    I’m grateful for friends, new and old. I’m grateful for the improvements technology has made in our lives!

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    1. I have a friend who did that with his birth family in Switzerland a dozen years ago. But he has relatives in four countries. It has been wonderful for him. His birth mother turns 94 tomorrow.
      Clyde

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  8. Technology is so great right until it isn’t.
    Two of my computers have turned against me and WordPress. Or it could be the 14 tabs I have open.
Writing a term paper before the internet would certainly have been more cumbersome what with actually going to the library and gathering books and all… not that there’s anything wrong with that, I have books from the library, but that would be harder at 2 AM.

    (Oops, put this in yesterdays blog first.) 🙂

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  10. I just went to Whole Foods for the first time in an age. When the cashier asked if I found everything I wanted, I had to laugh and tell her that I had only come in to return something at their Amazon kiosk and that everything in my cart was in impulse buy. She had me open the Amazon app on my phone and apparently I had a couple of items that qualified for a discount because I’m an Amazon member. Who woulda thought???

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  11. I ordered 6 lbs of our favorite coffee beans from a coffee shop in Brookings on-line on Monday. The beans were roasted Monday and were delivered here today. That is fast and efficient technology.

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  12. Sandra lives almost entirely on artitifial thyroid. Hers was ablated in ninnth grade. It is by far the best to be the brand name, which her health care insurance objects to, even though I pay for it, and the pharmacy objects to, for no reason I can see. Yesterday she was almost comotose. This morning her NP and I forced a check. The pharmacy had it on back order for 10 days and did not communicate that. They could have provided the generic as a stop gap. But did not. The CNAs knew the drug was not being provided and thus not being given to her and did not communicate that to me, the RN, or the the LPN. FOR 10 DAYS. The brand name came today. The system has built in checks, which the pharmacy turned off. All that technology is wasted when it is turned off.
    I had a long talk with her county social worker. There are two assisted living places here that are not owned by that evil company. She will try to get her into one and away from the lazy staff. And we are going to switch insurance companies.

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    1. That’s a major medication error. Those CNAs should be fired but I doubt it will happen. Those places are so desperate for staff… they will reprimand the staff and say that they’ll be re-trained, then it will happen again and again until the Department of Health gets word about it. Hopefully your social worker will do that. I agree with moving, even though it will be stressful. So frustrating… sorry, Clyde.

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  13. I cannot let November 22 pass without remembering 1963. I was in 6th grade at Park elementary in Moorhead. Principal informed us and dismissed the school. I lived just block from home and found my mother crying. I thought it was the end of the world.

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      2. Me too. I heard someone say once that the day is a touchstone for most every American — most everyone remembers. I was in school and the teacher got called away and when she came back, she was crying. Then we all got sent home.

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    3. Because I’m not quite old enough, I know where I was on the 25th anniversary of it, and it had an impact on me then. I can’t imagine how much that hurt at the time.

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  14. I went to start the pick up today and the batteries were dead. I’m thinking maybe I left a dome light on? I thought technology had put a timer on those so it wouldn’t happen.

    Because it’s a diesel, it has two batteries. I got the portable jump pack (thank you technology), but it wasn’t strong enough. I got the big battery charger, and a cord, and left it run for an hour. I changed my plans.
    An hour later, it still wasn’t charged enough. But when I put the jump pack on one battery, and the big charger on the other, away it went. Thank you Technology!

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  15. Our beloved IT guy, Brian, came to our house today to help Husband with his laptop and get it functional. Brian is also my IT guy at work who has a private sideline for community work. He also helps out the food pantry for free and makes Costco runs to Bismarck for the pantry. Thank you, Brian.

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  16. I like the feature in my latest vehicle that shows me the tire pressure on all the tires. I had to get a tire patched recently. Much easier to know there’s a problem when there is a little sensor on the rim.

    It’s a comfort when you’re driving on a rough patch of road and you’re hearing a little whump whump sound, and the car is bouncing a bit, and you start thinking, is that a tire going flat? And then you just look at the display, and it tells you all the tires are fine. Whew.

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      1. About many popular tunes, Fil has let me know WHY I’ve enjoyed them from a technical standpoint I’d never considered. Check out his channel. You Baboons who can read music will be impressed.

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