Chat

pianolady831

Thank you for this list, Connie. Isaacson is the only author I recognize, so there's lots to explore. This audio book thing is growing on me. I tried increasing the reading speed on my first book a couple of days ago, but found it hard to keep up with. I started a new mystery last night and the reader is much better, also goes at a faster pace on the 1x speed.

Woke up to a beautiful snow this morning and it's still snowing. Today's high is only 27, so there will probably be some ice in the morning. May have to do church online again.

Restfinder

I see a lot of contemporary romance authors on there and I just don't read that genre very much at all. Right now I'm reading fantasy, historical romances (medieval and regency, sometimes Revolutionary War), and suspense. I'll have to look into that on YouTube.

Very windy but warm here today. The temp is going down now though - 70 when I got up at 8 and it's now 63 at 12:26. Oh my!

I do text to speech at 1.5. I tried faster but my brain can't keep up! LOL! Mom used to listen at 2! Oh dear, she was 20 years older than me with dementia and she could keep up with 2!!! I did speed up an audible book this last time and liked it faster but still couldn't get into the story.

pianolady831

Still loving my audio books! Can't believe it's taken me this long to discover that they will work for me. In fact, I'm like a child with a new toy. I bumped one of my Libby books up to 1.25x and that seems to be fine. Don't think I could go any faster, though. That's funny about you mom going up to 2x, Kim.

It got down to 12 degrees last night and since there was a warning about black ice, I stayed in this morning. Now it's in the upper 40s and most of the snow has melted. Sure was pretty yesterday.

connierandel

It is a glorious day today in Kansas! Finally most of the snow is gone and it was about 65 degrees. This week is supposed to be really nice. I hope to get Bill out a bit more. We are supposed to have a luncheon on Thursday and we are talking about going back to church on Wednesday nights. With daylight savings time and less chance of bad weather, I think it will work. We will see if he still wants to go when Wednesday gets here.

pianolady831

Those weeks between cold and hot weather are really nice for getting out. I hope Wednesday nights work for you and Bill, Connie. The fellowship is just as important as the food.

Our church just started Wednesday meals back after two years off, but I haven't tried going yet and probably won't. During the Covid break, Tim - our pastor - started a Wednesday night Zoom session where we chat, talk about Sunday's Scripture, and pray. I actually started joining in before we moved. The 10 or so of us who stayed committed have grown close, so Tim is going to continue it even though meals have started back. With the meal being at 6:00, I couldn't eat and get back home by 7:00 for the Zoom meeting.

Looking forward to this week's mild days and cool nights!

connierandel

We don't to Wednesday night meals....but it sounds good. We just have an in depth Bible study and a couple older hymns. It is the one time that we really enjoy all of the older hymns! Our pastor is a wonderful teacher and we love his studies.

Restfinder

We do meals following Sunday Morning service. Each family brings their meal and we all eat together, a very special time. It's easy for us, the building we meet in is in our neighbor's (Pastor's) back yard! LOL!

Lovely weather here. I got two walks in yesterday and will do just one today, my legs are bothering me.

connierandel

Well, Bill opted out of Wednesday night service. We did enjoy the luncheon at Cracker Barrel yesterday, though.

pianolady831

Your Wednesday night service sounds nice, even without the meal, Connie. I hope Bill will feel like going next week. And Sunday dinner in the pastor's yard next door ... what could be better than that?!

I will always treasure the hymns and am glad to be at a church that frequently sings them. Last Sunday, I played for the men's chorus as they sang "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" and got so caught up in it that I forgot that I was supposed to give the chord for the Doxology afterwards. I finally remembered after an awkward pause.

Beth received a Cracker Barrel gift certificate at Christmas and took us there this morning. First Cracker Barrel visit in Johnson City! I love the food and atmosphere. Since Dwight grew up in rural north Georgia, he always enjoys the signs and antiques. I got the breakfast combination that included hash brown casserole, a favorite of mine.

Still enjoying my audio books and am experimenting to see what type of book works best for me. A lot of Christian fiction, especially romances, has so much rehashing of thoughts that the book seems so very long. Maybe books with more dialogue or that moved at a faster pace would work best. I'm listening to a Peterson/Woodhouse book that lasts 10 hours, but the 1.5x speed makes it go faster.

connierandel

We had a good service this morning, but the pastor caught me on an old chorus at closing that I didn't really know. I rather stumbled through it but got the chord progression a little off at the end. I'm going to need to sit down at the piano and work it out! I hate when that happens. I wrote down the name of it and will see if Bill knows it or I can find on YouTube. I should have already done that.....

pianolady831

What was the chorus, Connie? And were you playing without music in front of you?

I occasionally help out a small church in Unicoi, about 15 minutes from where I live. I'm always a little reluctant to go because I'd rather be at my own church, but greatly enjoy it when I get there. It's a rural area, but they do a lot of things to reach out to the community and are slowly growing. The pastor is young and enthusiastic, a seminary friend of Beth's who just graduated.

Restfinder

I really enjoy singing the old hymns too. We had three at mom's Celebration, two of her favorites, "Amazing Grace" and "I Surrender All", and "It is Well with My Soul". All favorites of mine as well. We have just a guitar for our service singing. When the group sings Wade will either play his guitar or his bass guitar. We have two young girls in our church (10 and almost 13) who play piano, harp, guitar, mandolin, and are learning to play the drums. They are just so musical, whatever they pick up to play they just get it - of course their middle names are Harmony and Melody! Seriously! The Harmony was because Mom and Dad met through e-Harmony and they thought Melody would go with that beautifully. They were in for a big surprise when their girls were so musically inclined! They sing beautifully too!

We went to Cracker Barrel several times when we were in Hickory. I was really surprised to see that they were serving alcohol now! And several of our favorites were no longer on the menu, but the service was still very good and the food excellent.

A bit chillier today so may rest my knees some more. They don't hurt as much today as they usually do, so no walking yesterday may have been good. If it warms up I may amble about outside just to get the fresh air.

connierandel

The chorus was from You Can Never Outlove The Lord. I was playing by ear and the Pastor just started singing it after finishing another older chorus (that I knew). He is good about just throwing things in. I had heard it many years ago, but had forgotten it, and just was working through it. I came home and looked it up online. I have hundreds in my files, but this one I had to look up. Needless to say, it is now in my files.

cmsienk

Well, I've been awol for awhile. I've been having trouble with my phone. It finally got wet - water got in through several cracks in the screen - and quit on me. I just bought the same unlocked phone online for about $180 instead of a lot more and put my sim card in it. The new phone works well except I put a tempered glass screen protector on it and I have to get used to the fact that my screen is now a little less touch sensitive.

I typed up a note to you Kim, about your mom, about a week ago, but I don't see it anywhere. I probably did something wrong when I went to post. I was sorry to hear of her passing because I know how much you'll miss her, but rejoicing with you that she's with the Lord.

Restfinder

Thanks, Cindy. Still getting used to it being just Wade and I in the house, but going through her things has been "fun", seeing things we had no idea she had!
So good to see you again! I have a screen on my Apple watch and it makes it less touch sensitive, and if I get water on the inside it won't work at all until it dries out. I may have to get rid of the cover that came with the new watch band. My watch band will be pink and the face black or gray again! Hmmm??? My phone doesn't ring any more either, the watch just vibrates on my arm and lets me know something is going on with my phone or I have achieved some goal! LOL!

I bought a new knee brace. It's a pull-on kind but not neoprene so it doesn't get hot and sweaty under it. It has the metal side braces as well as a gel ring around the knee cap. Yesterday I realized that I could stand up without having the sharp pain shoot through the side of my knee! Woohoo. So glad to have found it. It does give me some pain at the top because the very top rolls over and squeezes my thigh. I put a headband under the top today to see if that would help keep it from rolling, but so far it's not working - sigh. Back to the drawing board.

connierandel

Cindy - I am not a huge proponent of the fanciest and most expensive technology. I do want plenty of storage, though. I have loved my Motorola phone since I bought it over two years ago - until my carrier did away with 3g and messed up the 4gLTE on their network. I had to go back to my old iphone (that doesn't hold a charge well) two times, but they have it all cleared up again, now. I don't understand how the ancient iPhone would connect and my android wouldn't, but they said they connect differently. It made me start looking at the new 5g phones, but since this is working again, I'm happy.

cmsienk

The Samsung 9 I replaced with another Samsung 9 is a 4G phone with 64 GB of memory and a card slot for a 128 GB memory card. All that storage makes me happy.

Restfinder

Wade and I got the iphone 11 when it came out. We could get two of those cheaper than we could get two older phones separately. They've been working great. Wade does a ton on his phone, I just call, text, and occasionally look something up or do some e-mail on it, but that's about it. Oh, I do use the calculator and found that one of the note apps I have has a scanner and that came in handy doing Mom's stuff. Took us a couple years to pay them off so these are going to have to last for quite awhile. They are 4GLTE, I have no idea how much memory they have but Wade has a lot of pictures on his phone and I have some Kindle books on mine, but not a lot. I only read on it when I stay in the car and Wade goes into a store, or I'm waiting at the doctor's office - that's been awhile!

We got quite chilly again so I am going to try and do some house walking today. I haven't been feeling well, I think I got too much pollen on Saturday when I was outside quite a bit. I was coughing, runny nose, watery eyes and very fatigued. Yesterday was a little bit better and today a smidge better than that, so we'll see. I have several things I need to get done so we'll see if the energy holds out.

Have an awesome day, y'all.

Restfinder

Turns out I hadn't put my allergy med in my pill keeper so I'd been without the help from Sat through Mon night - sigh! Am taking it now and feel better!

cmsienk

Glad to hear it. After a warm up last week, it got cold again. I'm trying to keep moving, so I've been bundling up and getting out for decent walks every day this past week. I'm so frustrated that I can't seem to lose anything right now.