{"id":10119,"date":"2022-03-19T11:39:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T16:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/?p=10119"},"modified":"2022-03-19T11:39:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T16:39:51","slug":"anniversary-of-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/anniversary-of-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary of Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been just over two years since I retired, and what a span it has been! I’ll review the last two years in brief, then move on to activities of the last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I retired in Colorado during February of 2020, then joined Pam in Iowa. In the intervening two years, much has happened. Pam had her gallbladder removed, COVID-19 hit, much work was done on Heart House, and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The garage addition was built, we acquired Elmo the Cat, and Pam’s sister Becky moved in with us during her house hunt. My mother passed away. And those were just the major events! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must say retirement is not what I expected it to be. While I anticipated the work on Heart House, I also expected we would be traveling more to visit family, friends, and take in local events. I envisioned concerts in the park and trips to antique stores. Instead I got vaccination cards and KN95 face masks. Yes, this retirement is not what I expected when I was making my plans more than two years ago. I can only hope it gets better as COVID-19 and its variants decline from this point forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on, this past week saw well above-average temperatures that led us to begin outside activities, such as lawn clean-up and removing mulch from flower beds. It is not full spring yet; it was below freezing this morning and there is a good chance of accumulating snow one day next week. It was very satisfying, though, to sit on the porch in the sunshine wearing only a light coat this past Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam had mentioned to her Florida friend, Julie, that tulips are beginning to pop up in the Mary Lynn Memorial flower bed. Julie requested a photo of the spring growth, so here it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tulips beginning to sprout, March 19th<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pam has not removed all the mulch; she knows from experience below-freezing temps are still a pretty good possibility. Once NE Iowa is safely above freezing weather, the remaining mulch will be removed. While snow is gone from the yard, a few stubborn ice patches remain in shady areas near the dog run and north side of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam moved ahead on the bathroom project, doing more stencil painting and putting up a few “whimsey” items (such as this sign over the shower):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hot Bath plaque<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Bathroom stencils on east wall<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another sign was added to the laundry room, referencing our dogs and cats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Addition to laundry room decor <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of cats, I have not included an update on our youngest troublemaker, Elmo, for a while. Here he is during a nap on a seat cushion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Elmo White Paws<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Elmo has more energy – and curiosity – than the other cats (combined!) and continues to find ways of getting into trouble. Most recently he has decided to remove the decorative tacks that Pam added to secure the stairwell ribbon. Possessed of endless patience, he will work on a ‘project’ until it is completed to his satisfaction. This feline project activity usually occurs at night, when “correction” is not an issue for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tacks in decorative stairwell border<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I spent quite a few hours working on my newest project, converting VHS tapes into a digital format. While the work is not difficult, it is time consuming. Here are the steps involved:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Digitize the VHS tape using “Video Capture” from a company called Roxio.<\/li>
  2. Edit the tape using iMovie on my Mac. (Mostly this is adding transitions and a titles.)<\/li>
  3. By default, the edited tape is in Apple’s .mov format. I have to convert this to formats of .mp4 and .webM so the video can be viewed on other operating systems. The conversion can take hours as the converting program, called Prism, is pretty slow. It can take over an hour to convert 10 minutes of video into the .webM format, less time to create the .mp4 version.<\/li>
  4. Create an HTML page that will play the videos and includes background information. Web browsers all read HTML code making the videos playable on almost all common operating systems. These pages are patterned after my gallery web pages so I don’t have to build the new pages from scratch, but it still takes some time. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Below is a photo of my set-up. The TV (at right) is not required but is useful for previewing the tapes. Center screen is running the Video Capture program while the screen at the left is running the Prism conversion software. On the table in the right foreground is the VHS deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    VHS conversion set-up<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    I have converted a few tapes so far which include Felicity’s 4th birthday party, Toby’s baptism, and a 1987 Halloween party. It is a real trip back in time to view these tapes again! I don’t plan to put these up on my web site; I will put them on thumb (flash) drives and send them to the kids. They may (or may not) view the videos but at least I will have converted the now-obsolete VHS footage into a more modern format. I have another 25+ “family” tapes yet to convert and will be kept busy for many weeks (years?) before I’m finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Photo Archive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Waterfalls and mountain scenes make up this week’s archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Red Mountain near Silverton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Black Bear Road, Pandora, Colorado<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Tomboy mine near Telluride, Colorado<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Jerry travels an old mining road in Colorado<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Aspen leaf and running water<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Hanging Lake near Glenwood Springs, Colorado<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pam’s Penny<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Tulips! Robins! (Daffodils still underground.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Himself contacted a Charles City painter re: exterior house completion. Painter is already scheduled into 2023. Crap. The couple running the local Elma building materials center are retiring April 1. New management taking over. Ga-a-a-a! Then, of course, Bob the Builder is still recovering from heart surgery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To date, the Universe is not cooperating re: Heart House projects for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Happy Trails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It has been just over two years since I retired, and what a span it has been! I’ll review the last two years in brief, then move on to activities of the last week. I retired in Colorado during February of 2020, then joined Pam in Iowa. In the intervening two years, much has happened. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10119"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10175,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10119\/revisions\/10175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}