Paris Montmartre

A planning blog entry for a few destinations … here’s a few, all in the same area:

• Sacré Coure
• Moulin Rouge (the show not the cafe)
• Museum Montmartre

The subway is a novel way to approach the area, rather than walking the whole distance — but, tempting to figure out the equivalent to an Uber (in the US, I mean) to get home after the show. We thought 11pm maybe ok, because it would have been only 5pm back home. The show is about 150.00 euros each — well, unless you get the champagne option.

Montmartre, Arr 18
(Sacré-Coure, Moulon Rouge)

Google Maps, excellent “immersive” view… like driving a drone nearby 🙂

We want to go into the basilica, but are intomidated by (1) The Crowds, and (2) the steep hill

A show on our first day in Paris maybe a disaster (due to jet-lag) or an opportunity to take a brief nap; and, Moulin Rouge maybe less likely to lead to a nap than most shows / movies would be.

Subway, near Moulon Rouge: Blanche
(check Google Map’s Directions)

Moulon Rouge (night view, video)

Review comments (after our trip)

Retirement destinations

Just starting a list:

• Yorkshire, England
• Alaska
• Greece
• Cross Country rail (maybe Canada)
• Portland / Seattle
• Northern California, San Francisco and wine country, Oakland
• Southern California, LA
• return to London
• return to Florence, Venice
• Rome
• Iceland
• Maybe New Zealand and Australia
• Maybe Hawaii
• France (would have been the top of the list, except we have already bought our tickets to travel in May 2024).

More Details:

Yorkshire, UK

The region of York, UK around where they film “All Creatures Great and Small”.

The town of Thirsk where PBS interviewed locals, like Jim Wight son of author, James Herriot (James Wight, from ~1970). Hotel Triki, “no pets”.

<LINK>

The “World of James Herriot” in the UK

Long Trail

Maybe we could set a retirement goal?

Better yet, even before we retire — maybe we can set an intention for having turned 60? And, while plenty of hikers are well into their 70’s or older, a very real issue lurks (maybe just for us!) which is: “should we do this, before we are too old?”.

…we are starting a tradition, or two which sets the pattern for our accomplishments, even if small things we managed to achieve: a first blog post, a first day hike, or first overnight at a LT lodge or tent site.

A beer, to celebrate.

A beer, from the Long Trail brewery, of course.

Our’s Forever #34

Celebrating our anniversary today, from way back in 1988 — it seems like a lot of years ago. But, in other ways… just a blink of an eye; the time flies. And, yeah… we have been having fun!

VT State Park: Half Moon Lake, Hubbardton (near lake Bomoseen)

For this year’s anniversary, some of our celebration ideas centered on hiking — and, specifically on Vermont’s Long Trail “LT”. There are sections of the LT near Rutland that we have talked about for a while but never have gotten a chance to visit: White Rocks Ice Beds (near White Rock peak) and the gorge at Clarendon — both, are just south of Rutland on Routes 140, and Route 103 respectively.

VT State Park, lean-to accommodation for weekend

For our weekend plans: to go camping (in Vermont State Parks — we snagged a “lean-to” in the VT Park’s Reservation system), we’ll go canoeing, relax a bit, eat out, see some historic sites and yeah: include some hiking! As it turned out, we did a fair bit of driving as well. With an “extra day” by taking time off from work, it meant we can enjoy a more relaxed pace, and still be staying at the State Park when most of the regular crowd has gone back to work. The Park Staff really was closing up for the season as we left (most VT State Parks close for the season after Oct 12th).

looking like an “Onion River” Outdoors Bill Board

Some of the hiking was directly along the LongTrail “LT” route. And, some was in nearby paths of interest (the WhiteRock ice fields) that we’ve been meaning to explore for a while.

A few favorite photos and images, from our weekend:

Foliage Colors – still a bit early

The VT Parks location we chose was near Rutland, a bit north and just past Bomoseen on Rt30 (near Hubbardton’s battleground) and close enough for some LongTrail exploring.

Rt30 near Castleton, is the Seth Warner highway

On the way home, we stopped at Yellow Deli, in Rutland.

Yellow Deli, Rutland

We also made a detour over to the VT State Park, called Taconic Ramble — the name, is indicative of the Taconic Mountains which seem like part of VT’s Green Mountains but that really are related to the string of mountains which tie into mountains in New York. It’s also a name based on the Rambling trails and walking gardens and waterfalls features which you can explore near a 800 acre property which had been donated to the state of Vermont. It’s an experience, and a beautiful location.

Taconic Ramble, State Park

WoodenClock – steps for building

A few images from the plans, to the scroll saw cutting… thru to assembly and tuning of the parts and connections.

cutting the main front frame with a scroll saw —

and, then:

The pendulum, is one of the coolest looking pieces.

The gears, are laser cut – meaning, the way the kit came to me was with those pieces already pre-cut in the 1/4″ plywood veneer. It only required removing them from the sheet. And, resist sanding down the nicely discolored brown edge (from the laser).

Leaving the edges intact; well, except for the few sections where the edges are key, like in the lever and gear escapement which will be the pendulum’s action which interacts with the main gearing that drives the minute hand.

And, the minute hand … has a clever pair of gears with the right combination of teeth to translate into the hour hand

<<insert photo – hour hand’s gear>>

The biggest piece of advice, wasn’t in the booklet that came with the kit.

The advice was written on one of the design pattern, full scale, drawing sheets, where it said “use a template from cheaper plywood rather than cutting the holes initially in the walnut veneer”. (Or, something close to that).

<<insert photo – quote>>

The relationship of that escapement was key:

From there… it all came together smoothly.

And, finally:

Day One Week one

On the first day, we rested.

No, just kidding … we worked. Diane had received her notification that a new Samsung Galaxy S9-Plus was going to be delivered by 8:00pm Tuesday. So, we were at work (we left a note for the Fed-Ex delivery person, to assure they don’t send it back).

Welcome to the 21st century, and a brand new mobile phone. and we were pretty sure, it would mean it comes before 5pm while we’re away; and the voice mail message made it clear, we should expect the package. If we don’t want to arrange a location to pick it up, we need to leave a signed and dated note that a driver can easily see at our door.

We did all that. Fed-Ex delivered. No fuss, no muss, no bother. Literally three days from when she ordered it; A new phone! (Should we explain that Diane has used a Windows based, Microsoft smart phone for about five years).

Maybe we should also just make clear that our data plan of 2GB per month is almost exclusively used on one device (mine) and that her Windows phone has never consumed even a small fraction of that data allotment.

With an Android “latest technology” from Samsung — that story may change. Truth in story telling: it’s NOT the “latest” because the TV ads have been touting the new Galaxy 10 features. But, even using a Galaxy 9 means the “facial recognition” feature is pretty cool (is that WITH the reading glasses “on” or do you need to remove them?).

In any event, on the first day connecting to a Google account was working within minutes of powering on.

Should we also mention… from the time you power on, the delay before you start using the phone is measured in seconds — that’s pretty quick! Even if the phone were completely off, you could power it up and take a photo within 30seconds.

And, next, connecting on our home’s WiFi was almost as quick – so, we could have used a web browser to immediately ask Google “how to disable Bixbie?”

Who thought a button dedicated to the voice response system was a good idea? I mean, we are getting used to Alexa on our Amazon Echo but still find Siri useless. So, the jury is out on how frustrating the voice attendant can be. Let’s turn it off!

A phone call from Robin (our oldest daughter) and a complete dyed-in-the-wool believer in Google software tools, operating systems, browser, and everything else they make — advises that the auto-assistant is one of the first things that’s needed to be installed.

Who, wait… let’s slow down, we haven’t even opened Facebook.

So, on day one of week one, there’s no “App Store” purchases of any sort … and, other than a few contacts that got entered (magically?) it’s just the basic functionality that we’re figuring out. Haven’t even made a call. It keeps saying, “dial #8899” which is the message it says when you dial #8899…

This device is not yet registered.

Well, on the second day… before breakfast we were able to “make a phone call”; and, suddenly the flurry of incoming TXT MSGs also start working.

Yay, the device is registered!!

A smart phone, is acting pretty smart, it knows how to make calls; and it can do TXT MSG and even browse the web. Should we expect anything more than that?

One piece of advice that Robin provided was wise beyond her years: “you don’t need to register as a Samsung account”, and “you don’t need to use the Samsung Store”.

It makes sense that Samsung has a copy of every utility that Google provides (it’s similar with Apple: you can use Apple Maps, or if you prefer, use Google Maps; you can use the Google Mail “App” or just stick with the one from Apple. So, the same questions arise with Samsung…. or any other manufacturer.

Diane doesn’t need to use Google Mail, nor does she need the mail that is built into the Samsung; it was just an example.

She does want Dropbox. The best way of sharing photos from her devices to keep them nicely organized on a home computer and to be able to share any into Facebook or Instagram — it’s flexible, secure, and free. Dropbox wins the prize for being the first App loaded from the Google “App Store” called Google Play.

There is no doubt that Drive.Google.Com would probably provide a similar feature set that Dropbox offers, and Microsoft had “one drive”.

The other early download in the race to get setup with a new SmartPhone was the IM features that works with Facebook and Instagram.

So far only a couple of apps and a whole lot of searching for the right phone numbers and addresses for our family contacts. No matter how well organized a list of Google Contacts and Outlook emails and Christmas card spreadsheet and family tree genealogy … it’s never quite gotten consolidated in one place.

So, backing up, and taking it slow is a good way to get started with a new Android smart phone, and … next week we’ll summarize week two of the first month.

Have you had surgery before? No…

They ask all sorts of questions. Do you have embedded metal devices; have you used controlled substances. Do you now or have you ever had a problem with alcohol? Do you have concerns about the financial aspects of this procedure? Have you had general anesthesia in the past? Have you been in a hospital in the past three months?

Do you have any questions?

No questions — I should have had one.  It was awesome that Diane was with me in the prep area and she knew a few of the questions we should ask: “how is this anesthesia  different than when he had a colonoscopy?”.  It always seemed like the colonoscopy was “completely under”, but I hadn’t understood that general anesthesia meant that the anesthesiologist is supervising your ability to breath. They use the respirator to assure you’ll keep breathing during your operation. Really? Ok, now it sounds even more serious!  Are you afraid? (how come no one asked that question?)

When it comes right down to it … it’s pretty amazing that I have lived more than fifty years and never have an operation. I feel pretty lucky.

To be sure … various people had asked me: “why are you having surgery?”

What sort of work do you do that you wear out your shoulder? Yeah, it hardly feels like I’ve been a construction worker when my main complaint has been avoiding certain yoga poses that hurt, or having to suffer after tossing a Frisbee (well, really it was from starting a chain saw or other yard work and using a shovel!!). Does it sound frivolous?

A few weeks before… I’ve had an X-ray, and the Orthopedic doctor draws a line, “we’ll remove about a centimeter of the end of your clavicle”. If the vocabulary evades you like it does me, the word is distal (it means, the end of the clavicle) — maybe that will help me to understand the computer printout for the procedure’s description (and, what shows up on the bill).  Here’s the image she provided.

Distal re-sectioning – 1cm (at the line drawn by orthopedic doctor).

While in the prep room, the nurse mentions my wedding band is still on my finger. On reconsidering, we tried to take it off; but, it wouldn’t come easily. So, they put tape over it… and, it seemed like that was fine.

The operating room was cold.  There are a couple of very large funky looking light fixtures which can be aimed in any direction — and, I bet they are brighter than most lighthouses down on the coast of Maine (but, I’ll never know — I didn’t get a chance to see them when they’re turned on). Well before I saw my surgeon come in, and in fact … even before I saw the anesthesiologist again… I was out like a light.

It was a quick procedure (well, I didn’t know that… it was zero time as far as I knew).

As I woke up… my throat was sore.

Then I realize my finger is sore — oh, hmmmm the wedding band is gone (and, there’s small scrazes and scrapes on both sides of my knuckle).

Here is another image to get some perspective about which bones make up the shoulder joints; man, I’m glad I don’t have to keep all this stuff straight for the work I do. I’m glad there are people who make a career of understanding it! Suffice to say, a lot of information is available on the internet; quite a bit of it just adds fear and misinformation to confuse the decisions that need to be made by a patient.

Without getting carried away — here’s a link – to one of many YouTube videos: <link> Seriously — don’t use that link unless watching x-ray and MRI images doesn’t make you queasy (it may be even worse for the graphic images which can be created from cadaver cutaways). I don’t want to even know the circumstances which lead to some of those images. But, see the link at the very end for a more marketing or sales tool type of video which shows an animation of fixing a distal fracture of the clavicle. It would have been a much more invasive procedure than what my doctor had performed.

Now, after having a surgery, I am pleased to admit that it came with some pleasant surprises.

Well,  it was not a surprise that I’m hungry (hadn’t eaten since 7:00PM the evening before); nor is it really that I’m awake as soon as I was after surgery. What is a surprise, is that it doesn’t hurt.

The couple of pieces of toast, and a glass of apple juice totally hit-the-spot. It was good to eat something, anything … and, happily doesn’t cause any nausea or discomfort.

It was a funny surprise how much yellow junk had been slathered on my arm, and all around the upper chest and shoulder area. Well, completely to be expected, but not something I would have thought about. And, the IV tube which had been put in my right arm wasn’t the only IV they would need during the procedure — so, a second bruising in my left arm where another IV had been added is also just “to be expected”, but I just hadn’t known what they do while you’re unconscious.

I barely remember getting home, except that I do know we made a quick visit to the pharmacy on the way.

The ice pack — was maybe a bit awkward, but made for a lot of the relief which I’d feel over the next few days.

A couple of days later … I was willing to “see what my shoulder looks like”

nice, clean bandage — pen marking on the distal clavicle

It is indeed a bandage which can hold up even in the shower. And, last a couple of weeks until my next appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon for follow-up and replacing the bandage.

Here’s the promised link: <link> (The animation, of fixing a fracture in the end of a clavicle — this video is only offered for it’s entertainment value).

It was a great experience — primarily from having a chance to see our “American Healthcare system” working; albeit knowing it all probably cost more than any other country would have required for a similar procedure — but, knowing I got the benefit of many top quality professionals.

E-Cars — which one??!?

We visited the VEIC “Drive Electric Vermont” event on Saturday (Sept 16). They have a web page (see: driveelectricvt.com) but one of the most valuable takeaways from the event was a quick reference sheet (see full image, below). Well also, maybe the absolute best take-away was the collective opinions from actual owners who would freely discuss what they liked about having an electric car — it was excellent how we could ask: “so, is there anything about an electric car you don’t like?” and they gave honest answers which were thoughtful, and sometimes frank, and not-at-all like speaking with a car sales person. Oh, and, yes there was a car dealer there — it was a pleasant experience to speak with Shearer Chevrolet, their sales person was super nice, and had done her homework in learning about the Volt and the various models and options available.

For the uninitiated, VEIC is the Vermont Energy Investment Corp, which funds the “Drive Electric Vermont” efforts. They have often provided us information on home heating, or other energy saving ideas — they always provide a wealth of information, and seem to have the real consumers in mind for everything they are involved with!

The event was on the Burlington Lakefront, on Lake Street.

Burlington National Drive Electric Week – 2017

The table in the brochure lists MSRP prices, battery sizes, and range for most of the popular “all electric” cars, and also listed the “hybrid plug-in” models.

The most practical electric car options from our visiting the event: Nissan Leaf ($31k), with 100mi range on a 30kWh battery; the Ford Focus ($29k), with 115mi range on a 33.5kWh battery; and, the Smart Electric Drive ($25k), with a 68mi range on a 17.6 kWh battery.  There’s a footnote about the SmartCar, because they don’t have a dealership here in Vermont, but there are some in nearby states, and of course an on-line option too.  There were plenty of other choices for e-Cars too, but these three came to the top of our lists (and, we’d admit we are focused more on the completely electric, so your own investigation would likely come up with other options as well).

We talked with owners of the VW e-Golf, who were enthusiastic. A couple of Tesla owners were also pleased with their purchase (one guy has owned a Tesla for almost ten years and had then actually purchased a second one which he said he has now driven for almost 100,000 miles). The stories of software upgrades on a monthly basis were pretty entertaining. It’s nice to hear of a car company who can deal with software as a corporate asset, rather than just coping with it almost like a liability, which seems to be the norm in the auto industry.

A number of people made comments about the “lack of a spare tire”, most manufacturers seem to have made a similar decision regarding the spare tire (some of the companies view that “run flat” tires are an acceptable compromise. The Tesla owner commented that those tires run rough, or just don’t have the performance of a normal radial tire.

We especially enjoyed talking with the couple who live in Bradford (and, she drives to Hanover for work) where the real-world issue of having no plug-in parking spots meant using the home charger most every night. They have a 110v outlet, rather than the 240v option, and it seemed like it is manageable. It does seem very clear that you change how you drive, and start being more conscientious about your driving destinations.

A few “references” for the reader who is seriously interested in MORE DATA:

• VEIC – report <LINK>   (it’s a PDF file,  ~43 pages)
• WCAX – video <LINK>  (~1min 10s) titled: Electric Car Ownership is Up

https://www.veic.org/docs/resourcelibrary/veic-drive-electric-vermont-case-study-march-2016.pdf

http://www.wcax.com/content/news/Electric-car-ownership-up-444927683.html

Boston Globe, article.

In short, well… we are holding off — but, we will likely make our NEXT CAR an electric choice. We have a 15-20 mile commute, and it seems like a perfect fit — especially, because we have a second car for those days that we can’t share the commute together, and we know that at least having ONE electric car in the family seems like the right thing to do.