Scattered Thoughts . . .

Kenzie visited us again recently while Lukey was playing hockey.  She was cold and tired of watching hockey so Pop drove her from the hockey tournament to our house so she could spend time with Gee and Papa rather than sit at a cold ice rink all day long.   As always, we had a good time with her!   While she was here, she left us a little reminder on the home page of our Echo Show...  as though we would forget about her otherwise... Thanks, Mackenzie!  I'd rather do a longer photo shoot with you though!

I've been trying to catch up with the many tasks on my to-do list as the season changes toward winter. One of the things I have been focused on in recent is our furnace since winter is fast approaching.  I already did some annual cleaning of the furnace... checked and cleaned electrical contacts inside the ignition... and then turned my attention toward our thermostat. Our thermostat has been a little bit of a frustration for quite some time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We replace batteries regularly and have to clean contacts inside this old programmable thermostat approximately twice each season.  Programming that old thermostat is a pain in the butt with tiny switches on the circuit board and a very clumsy interface. Usually, we just avoid changing the programming because it is such a pain in the butt and, instead, just make do with the main programming. Whenever we need a change, we simply manually change the temperature and use the hold button which de

When I first unboxed my new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9", I immediately noticed how light it is compared to my much older 7" Kindle Fire. It was even lighter and thinner than Sheila's 7" Kindle Fire HD. We were immediately excited by this revelation! The back of the Kindle Fire with the Poetic GraphGrip soft rubber case. As I tried to hold my new Kindle Fire in one hand, my excitement waned a little bit. The surface of the Kindle is smooth on all sides so getting a good grip on it is difficult. Two-handed operation was a piece of cake but one-handed was a bit dangerous. This 8.9" tablet is a bit wide for even my rather large hands to securely hold the opposing edges in one hand. I figured that maybe I just need to get used to handling this newer, larger Kindle Fire. After a week of use, I can honestly say that I did indeed get used to handling this tablet with one hand. Then again, I do have larger-than-average hands. I still felt I should protect my new tab