Stayed in last night…What?…WiFi outage in the US?…

Handbags are for sale in the souk and all knock-offs. For more photos, please click here.

With the family exhausted from many consecutive late nights of card playing, everyone decided on a restful night in their respective homes. We were happy to have a light bite to eat and lounge, streaming a few series. We hadn’t watched much in the past few weeks since we’ve been playing cards since we arrived almost two weeks ago.

After dinner, we sat on the sofa and the recliner and set up a series to stream, but we were having trouble with the stream. In no time at all, we determined we didn’t have a WiFi connection. Knowing Colleen was streaming her favorite series at home, I texted her to ask if she also had connection problems.

She responded promptly to say she was experiencing the same problem. I asked her for the provider’s name (Mojo) and looked up their number on Google Fi on my phone. No one answered when I left a message about our location, the lack of a signal and my phone number.

Within 20 minutes, I got a call back from Mojo, who told me they had sent a technician to their operations site to fix the problem. Thirty minutes later, it was back on, and we could continue watching our shows until it was time to go to bed. We started a new excellent thriller series, “Pieces of Her,” on Netflix.

Tom always prefers to stop streaming by 9:30, but I can wait longer. He doesn’t go to bed that early, but he prefers to work on his laptop. Since I wasn’t ready for bed, I watched a few episodes of American Idol, which was quite entertaining. When I went to bed, I used the Hulu app on my phone to watch one more episode but fell asleep and awoke to turn it off, finally drifting off for a good night’s sleep.

Since I began my new sleeping regime, I have been sleeping through the night while getting up early each day. It made all the difference in the world; instead of sleeping late when I was awake for two or three hours at night, failing to drift off again until 5:00 am. It feels so much better to be sleeping through the night.

Today, I’m prepping a few ingredients for a dish I’m making to bring to the family for tomorrow’s night dinner. Tom’s sister Rita arrives around 6:30 pm, and we’ll eat shortly after she arrives. Yesterday, Tom and I headed to Fry’s Market to buy the ingredients for Saturday night’s dinner, and we were amazed by the size of the popular grocery store.

We’ve been ordering our groceries from Fry’s but had no idea of the enormous size of this market, which included sections for clothing and household goods. We found all the ingredients easily, although it often required a long walk through the store to locate some of the items.

Without trying, I managed to finish getting all of my daily steps accomplished while shopping. I moved about the store as quickly as possible, Tom following behind, pushing the grocery cart. When we checked out, my membership number provided us with a discount of $29. Wow! That was unexpected.

We’ll only have to shop once or twice more until we depart on May 1. As always, we’ll be striving to use up a few items in the freezer while being creative with the other grocery items we have on hand. It’s hard to believe we’re almost halfway through our time in Apache Junction.

That’s it for today, dear readers. Thank you for all the supportive and warm messages we continue receiving while we wait to hear what’s in store for us shortly.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, April 12, 2014:

These are the walls of a double wall protected by ClubMed in Ouarzazate, Morocco. For more photos, please click here.

Had a good idea…It didn’t work…

Donkeys are frequently used in Morocco to transport products for vendors and shoppers in the souk and luggage for tourists.

Well, my good idea was dashed this morning when I tried everything possible to get it to work. Often, when doing the post, I like to listen to an online documentary or video podcast but prefer it to be displayed on the TV monitor instead of my phone. With my old laptop still here with an HDMI outlet, it sounded like a good idea to start using the old laptop with a broken monitor for streaming shows.

This way, I could still use my newer laptop to prepare the post while watching and listening to a streaming documentary on the TV. Sure, I could use my phone, but I often use it for other purposes while posting, such as setting the timer for walking sessions, conducting research and recipes, and responding to texts, emails, and comments.

My phone is practically glued to my hip. With a short attention span, I often refer to my phone while doing almost anything else, which keeps me entertained. Once done with the post, I set up my laptop on a chair close to the TV and HDMI cord, allowing us to stream throughout the day and evening.

No, we don’t stream all the time, but streaming is an excellent way to keep up with world news from various online news sources and to educate us on different topics. Tom doesn’t care to stream movies or series during the day and I’m okay with that. But, when I occasionally stream a documentary, he may pay attention along with me if it’s a topic he’s interested in.

I often walk indoors (as in the corridors on this floor). If a news show or documentary is on in the background, it helps me keep my mind occupied since I do not appreciate quiet contemplation, which is suitable for many but not necessarily for me. I don’t meditate or sit in silent repose while thinking of nothing. Although, while doing my daily yoga exercises, I do so quietly, paying attention to what I am doing.

While walking in the corridors, I listen to educational podcasts, making the time pass quickly. Walking alone is very dull as far as I’m concerned. Of course, conversation makes up for this if I’m walking with another person, which is a rarity. Tom doesn’t care to go for walks, especially since, at times, I’m slow.

Well, anyway, back to the laptop. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the old laptop online, although I tried several steps and reset the network to no avail. As it turns out, the network card must have been damaged when the monitor broke while we were in rough seas in the Galapagos Islands, the only time we ever suffered from seasickness.

As it turns out, we’ll take the old laptop with us to Arizona and drop it off at a recycling facility. We won’t have the rental car long enough to do this while still here. There doesn’t appear to be an electronics recycling facility nearby, and it’s not worth heading out in traffic to dispose of it. We can do this leisurely while in Apache Junction.

Today is another quiet day. We have fabulous leftovers from last night’s dinner, for which I made a salad. It feels good that all I have left to do today is more walking, the exercises, folding, and putting away one load of laundry. Easy peasy.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, March 20, 2014:

This kindly vendor allowed me to take a photo of his beautiful display. Most Muslim people do not allow photographs of themselves, which we respect when taking photos. As a result, he covered his face as I took this shot. For more photos, please click here.