Random 5 for July 21, 2024 – Time, music, fantasies, technology, renovation

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July – Every year the month of July seems to go faster than any other month. It feels shorter than February. This year is different. We have a house project going on and I’m looking forward to it being completed. That should happen by the end of July or beginning of August. So…sayonara July!

Getting out – We went to an outdoor concert last night. It was oldies music from the late 50s through the 60s. There were songs that put me at the big graduation party our class had. It was the most fun event I attended throughout my high school years. A classmate’s parents had a small horse farm, and they invited the entire class. Music, food, gosh it was fun and no one got in trouble!

The power of time travel – I’ve written this before but hearing old songs takes you right back to where you were when they were popular. I had that feeling last night. High school, dances, my old transistor radio, even junior high. I got so into the music, I felt a warmth in my loins. At my age, you must be sure it’s a “dry” warmth. All was gone by the time we walked back to the car as my 16-year-old self transformed back to today. Youth is definitely wasted on the young! I sure hope they have oldie concerts at assisted living places. It’s a great tonic for the blahs.

Technology be damned – No this isn’t about that outage this week. This is about my car’s lights. I love the new car features. My car beeps if I’m close to something and automatically stops if it thinks I’m going not braking fast enough. Last night I found a clink. My inside overhead lights turned on when we got into the car at dusk. I couldn’t turn them off. I hit every button multiple times without luck. I finally figured out how to turn them completely off (which I can’t replicate if my life depended on it!). That means they don’t go on when I open the door. I must pull out my owner’s manual today to figure it out. Some things should be kept simple.

Sanity check – This week the bathroom shower tiling job was finally finished after 3 weeks. I’ve never had this take so long and I have no idea why except maybe he was slow. We are now on the downside of the bath reno with just the finish work to be done. It’s still impossible to project a date as it depends on the availability of the subcontractors. So far, except for the pace of the tiling, we are happy with the project.

So how was your week?

63 thoughts on “Random 5 for July 21, 2024 – Time, music, fantasies, technology, renovation”

  1. Some things should be kept simple.

    I hear ‘ya. We got a new car a few weeks ago and it’s depressingly complicated. Buttons you push, dials you turn, those would be nice, instead of screens you navigate.

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    • And the icons that you can’t figure out. Oy vay! I hate getting new stuff for this exact reason yet I love the new safety features. Mine beeps for almost any reason at all.

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        • The beeping was nerve wracking at first because we didn’t know why it was beeping which made up expect impending death. It beeps whenever we are near something. It beeps backing up. I swear it beeps when it sees a squirrel. We have figured out where to look on the dash for the actual “hazard.”

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  4. Boy can I relate to that high school feeling. I’ve been struggling so much with my age. I’m having mid-life/old-age crisis. This summer I’ve been going to festivals that have 80s cover bands. I can’t find any girlfriends to go with. Wish you were here. 😕

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  5. I have been to a few of the concerts you described. They do take me back to my youth and you just can’t help but smile at the memories. I also had a small transistor radio and anytime I wasn’t at school, I had that radio close by my side.

    I have made a funny observation. Currently I really am sticking quite close to home and with all that I have going on one would think time would be slow. Not so! This month went by so quickly I can’t believe it. If I’d been busy I might have missed July entirely! 😉

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    • That usually describes my July. Zip and it’s gone and I’m not sure why. We don’t take vacations in July. If the weather is good (too hot this year) it flies by. If the weather is super hot it still flies by!

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  6. The music from the ’60s and ’70s has kept me sane! Sirius is my go to for “Yacht Rock” in the house and in our vehicles. I am glad to hear you are happy with the bathroom project and the tiling of the shower is behind you. You are almost there, Kate!

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  7. Music is magical. You certainly had a beautiful night for an outdoor concert.

    I did laugh out loud at your story about the lights. Only because I know it’s the damn truth. Good luck with the manual.

    Enjoy your new bathroom!!!!

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  8. There should be a second youth people get in adulthood. Too, bad though, it is definitely wasted on teenagers. I think they are missing it because they are on their phones. One more week… hang in there.

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    • I was going through old photos a few weeks back. When I was a teenager I didn’t think I was particularly pretty. Just average. Nothing special. Well, damn! I’m looking at pictures of my friends and me and we were beautiful. There is nothing like a touch of youth to make someone perky.

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  9. I was thinking of a concert in the park tonight, but I didn’t like the group. Next week sounds more fun. It will be a taiko group providing lots of energy in the serenity of the park. Too bad I don’t see any sixties music on the list of upcoming concerts. It’s fun when you know the songs and can sing along. Thanks for “Brown Eyed Girl.”

    Three weeks for the tile? Sounds awfully slow.

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  10. I love the songs I can sing to and sometimes I haven’t heard the song in years, maybe decades, then I hear it and remember all the words, especially those albums that were replayed ’til I knew them by heart, especially the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt. I know none of the current singers, nor bands … oh well. We have concerts in the park a block over from me – they are every Thursday night, all tribute bands. I can hear them on nights when the A/C is not running continuously and no one is doing yardwork and they are pretty good. The City videographer also records them for the City’s YouTubee site, so that’s my lazy way of going to outdoor concerts now. No mosquitoes anyway. I always liked this feel-good song.

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  11. I have discovered how to add an extra week onto July… We have an event happening next Friday (July 26) for which I need to do a ton of stuff in preparation. For a good portion of the month, I had the date off by a week and I was getting more and more nervous as the deadline approached. When I realized that, in fact, I had an additional week to prepare, I was so relieved. Unfortunately, I still have a lot to do…

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  13. You are completely right that music transports us back to where we were when the song or songs were popular. Because my mother was a music major in college, I learned not only the classics but also music from the 1920s on. I could spend hours listening to music from the 60s and early 70s and re-live, at least in my head those years in my life.

    Being so close to the end of the renovation and having others in control of when it gets finished would have me internally stirred up. Congratulations on not killing anyone… at least not yet!

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  15. You said it about July. It’s almost over. How can that be?

    You have to be very distracted since, not one mention of the fab 4, and no, I don’t mean the Beatles. I have visions of Gracie at the country club playing golf with Gus as her caddie. As far as Morgan and Sasha go, are they away at camp? Just asking.

    As for your homestead, I’m envisioning Chez Kate in its majestic completion.

    Hey, where did we go?
    Days when the rains came
    Down in the hollow
    Playin’ a new game I’m singin’ 🙂

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  17. Glad you’re seeing an end to the project! Our “new” car is already four years old, and I probably only know about half of what all the buttons do. If It’s not lit up, I just ignore it. 🙄 Rock on… – Marty

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  18. Oh, music and taste/ smells both take me back. You’re right about going back to high school with the music. Today, though, my husband cut up some mango for breakfast and I went straight back to the first time I had it–in Hawaii, the summer I spent with my grandparents.

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  19. Comin’ round the bend on the bathroom project and I’m SURE you’ll be glad to save goodbye to that crew. That oldies concert sounds GREAT…..Much of the “new” music is so out there I don’t even understand what some of the lyrics mean. I never thought I’d have to admit that! LOL We should be getting our new car in about another month or so. We ordered it and while of course it will have a lot of new doo-dads and complicated “stuff” I’m going to read and re-read that manual like it was a best seller! I’ll still forget things about the car but I figure if I know the BASICS – aka the stuff I NEED to use and forget the fancy stuff I don’t – maybe I can make it. I hope.

    Hugs, Pam

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    • You will adjust to the things you use all the time. It’s those things you don’t use often you have to work on. The control gizmo on the roof has so many buttons and adjustments, I’m never quite sure what I’m doing when I press something. Last night in the course of trying to turn off the lights I opened the moonroof a couple of times. I never use the moonroof normally. It came in the package I wanted because of other features. Good luck with your new car. It’s always exciting.

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  20. Outdoor concert with beloved classics sounds great! I love the music from the 60’s and 70’s and it is like time travel . . . until I get a look at myself in the mirror. HAH!

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  21. {July – Every year the month of July seems to go faster than any other month} Is THAT why there’s Christmas in July??

    Sounds like great fun at the outdoor concert. Just like certain features in these new fangled cars, some things were better “back in the old days.” I’ve had my new car for a while and I still have to refer to the owner’s manual but too often I have to spend tons of time trying to find the issue I’m dealing with and the table of contents is more aggravating than helpful. Automakers (especially Japanese automakers) and consumers apparently speak different languages. 🙄

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  22. Hooray for the slowpoke tiler finally getting the project done. Phew. Our fairly good-sized walk in shower only took 2 or 3 days, and he didn’t take Wednesdays off. But I’m glad the project can move on to completion now. At least it wasn’t as bad a time as the kitchen renovation!

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    • Mostly I’m missing my bedroom. Our upstairs is warm because of a large arch window. Sleeping in 77 to 81 degrees isn’t agreeing with me and makes me cranky. I’ll never know what took so long. I know he said that he just got back in the “trades” after taking a decade off. Not sure what that means but he may have been “rusty.”

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