Poststream

New TV

bgibson135

I had been thinking that I was going to move my dining room table (which I never use for dining & always has “stuff” on it) over to my green wall, where the two TVs are currently located. But, this morning as I was sitting in my easy chair, I looked down at my striped coffee table. It dawned on me that this would be perfect for my new TV. It appears to be long enough to accommodate the TV width.

I had carried the TV box in to my apartment on Thursday afternoon late. I opened the Chromebook box and the Chromebook was okay.

A few days later, still having not opened the TV box, I looked over and saw that one corner of the box had been crushed, which meant it had probably been dropped from a fairly good height. This was the first time that I had the thought that the TV might have been damaged before delivery.

I waited another couple of days and bought three surge protectors at Walmart. All three were different. Not sure what the Joule count means, but figured that the higher number would provide more protection. I had one each of a 500, 900 and 2K+ Joule protector. I put the 500 in the bathroom and hooked my old Chromebook up to it. I put the 900 in my bedroom and hooked my new Chromebook to it (also for my hearing aids). I put the 2K+ surge protector in my living room and hooked my new TV to it during installation.

When I finally turned on the TV, sure enough the screen showed that it had been damaged. The TV still worked, and I went ahead with the install as practice for when I get a replacement. I am currently watching “Dalgleish” on the damaged TV. The 4K is an awesome step up from the previous technology. My 40″ Hisense TV had been dead for many months. It is still attached to the living room wall. I’ve been using my old 30″ Samsung that is attached to my portable (on rollers). *Hadn’t planned on buying a TV, but when Prime Day came (the first of two days), I found myself ordering a new Chromebook, as a backup for when my current Windows laptop dies. I wanted to be able to connect to Amazon to choose a new Windows laptop. I probably could have used my old Samsung Chromebook. They stopped supporting Chrome updates on the old Chromebook many months ago (maybe more than a year now).

**I had a first generation Chromecast still attached to my 40″ TV, which I moved over to the 30″ Samsung. I had forgotten how to get this all working. I had to attach it, and login to the network with the Chromecast. I was able to get the Chromecast working again. Although at first the new Chromebook was showing two older Chromecast ‘feeds’. I think it was the old Chromebook that first found the new ‘feed’. Once I saw this, I knew it would just be fiddling to get the new Chromebook to cast successfully. You do have to switch the HDMI input to where you have the Chromecast plugged into, for casting to work.

So, after I ordered a new Chromebook (as backup), I shortly thereafter thought that I should purchase a new TV for when the old Samsung 30″ dies.

I saw a 43″ FireTV on special for $256.79. There was a slightly cheaper version, but I ordered the one, “Omni” which would support attaching web cam for two-way video conferencing. *Not really planning to do video conferencing, but…

You can really “count the bricks” with the 4K TV. Dalgleish locations often have old church buildings, with tons of bricks & stone, and the detail is so vivid.

I am planning to get a pair of head phones with a long cable to hook up to the new TV.

Bought a roll of the clear mailing tape at WalMart for about $3.98 to pack up the damaged TV for return.

NOTE [07/19/22]: I’ve thought about this in recent weeks… after years of enjoying “Midsomer Murders” and “Poirot,” I no longer enjoy watching re-runs. This also applies to “the Glades” and “Morse” although, I might still like to re-watch “Lewis”. I am also about spent on “Endeavour”.

ADDENDUM { 07/29/22 ]: A note on the note. For most of my adult life, I ate breakfast out, and usually at the Rainbow Restaurant (in Fayetteville). The fare was usually a couple of eggs, “Over Medium” (which is runny yolk and no runny white), bacon/sausage/country ham, grits/potatoes, toast/biscuit, and coffee/tea. I ate so many of these, even with the various combinations from above, that I began to bring various “additions”. Little ‘flavorful’ tomatoes (Campari/Sweet Bites) or a special hot sauce ( for the potatoes ). *I had created a special herb/spice mix to go on my tater-tots from Burger King (with catchup & a Honey Mustard): curry & garlic powder, dried oregano/onion flakes/marjoram/crushed red pepper flakes/thyme/celery seeds/freshly ground pepper & salt. After a while, I started adding the tater-tots to the plastic baggie, closing it up, and shaking vigorously. This would normally coat warm potatoes with the spice mixture. **I came up with the idea that Burger King and other fast food restaurants should come up with various spice mixtures to apply to their tater-tots. They could call them “Shakers” because you would add the spice mixture to the bag with the potatoes, close it up and give it a shake. You wouldn’t use plastic bags, but have a long paper bag that could be rolled up at the open end to close it off when shaking. You could have several “Shaker” flavors, such as a Southwest blend, an Oriental blend, the Curry flavored, etc.

The time of COVID really changed things. For one thing, I started cooking most of my meals at home. Even now, I rarely eat breakfast out, although I did go to the Rainbow for lunch recently. *I ordered the Liver entre and brought several slices home afterwards.

I found Zorba’s Restaurant after retiring. Where it cost a good deal extra at Rainbow to have a pancake with my eggs/sausage/grits meal, at Zorba’s you can ask for 2 pancakes instead of toast. But, after eating at Zorba’s quite a few mornings, I became tired of that breakfast.

I am running through a stage where I like to fix bacon and fried apples on the stove-top. I add Splenda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace and cloves to the fried apples.

Sometimes, I will boil several eggs for breakfast and make Egg Salad from a couple of eggs (w/ mayo/margarine, S&P, marjoram, dried basil. I may toast the bread, or not. *When I drink hot tea, I normally make either “Earl Grey” or “Constant Comment,” both from “Bigelow” tea company. I like cream with my Earl Grey although sometimes it is enjoyable with lemon. *Some time ago, I had bought some dried orange slices. The slices were dry and hard, and not sweetened, so at first I didn’t have a way to enjoy them, “straight out of the box”. But, fortunately, I kept them and after months, one day I thought to add one of the dried orange slices to my hot Constant Comment tea. That version of tea has orange as a major flavoring. The hot tea rehydrated the dried orange slice, and not only did it add to the tea flavor, but the slice also became completely edible.

“Sweet Bites” were a small, roundish, flavorful tomato from the Sunset Company. I think I first found them in Walmart. They were probably around $4 for a small plastic basket. After a while, I started seeing the “Sweet Bites” at other grocery stores including Food Lion & Harris Teeter. I bought a bunch of these at $4 a whack, because they had that classic tomato flavor. I enjoyed these better than the larger Campari tomatoes, but Campari tomatoes are still the best, that remains. I say, ‘remains’ because the company stopped making “Sweet Bites,” and they disappeared from all store isles. I don’t think that I have bought any small tomatoes since. I do still buy the Campari’s, and I’ve been buying full sized tomatoes at a local farmer’s market which are pretty good, but no where near as flavorful as the Camparis or Sweet Bites. *I have tried quite a few small tomatoes. Many of them “look good” but they just don’t step up.

Oh, I’m going through a hot pepper stage currently. I don’t want really, really hot peppers, but have tried various hot & mild peppers I’ve purchased either from the State Farmers Market in Raleigh, or maybe Compare (like Poblanos). Recently have wanted a more savory dish, so am not adding Splenda or Agave Nectar to the pasta dish. But, have been adding some flavorful green, pitted olives (from Whole Foods) along with various hot&mild peppers and a few small tomatoes. *Don’t add too many tomatoes or their flavor will take over, but don’t do without them, or the final dish is lacking. **Same thing happened with my shrimp/zucchini/kielbasa/onion, hot pepper flakes & cayenne pepper and pasta dish. Just a few tomatoes gave the sauce a slightly reddish tint. In that dish, each item became a little “island of flavor” so you wanted each for variety, but not so much as to overpower the dish.

Ruining old standards… The last time I had the shrimp/zucchini/kielbasa pasta dish, I think the shrimp (frozen) had started to go bad and they distracted from the consistently good flavor of this dish. It has been quite a few months since I have made this, but at one time was making it quite often. **I let some of the Ciabatta Rolls get moldy, the last time I made “homemade pizza” with them. It just threw everything off and made what is consistently a good pizza into ‘not enjoyable’.

The replacement “Fire TV” from Amazon arrived several days ago. I wasn’t happy with the audio, and decided pretty quickly to order a Bluetooth Audio Transmitter and a pair of Bluetooth headphones. They arrived a couple of days ago, and are working pretty well. *I can turn up the volume on the TV without fear of disturbing the neighbors. No telling how loud I have been tuning the volume, just so I can hear well. I do have a pair of cheap hearing aids, and they actually make listening to the TV better. **I bought the hearing aids to use in the courtroom, when I went for the ‘Vehicular Manslaughter’ case, of the guy who was driving behind me on February 15, 2021 and was hit and killed by Shirley Mae Barath in the Honda Odyssey she was driving. I found that I could not hear enough for understanding when I was in the courtroom. Even when one of the deceased’s daughters was right next to me trying to explain things.