Random 5 for July 20, 2025 – AI, Gracie, carpets, concerts, weather

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Sweet Gracie, dreaming of rotisserie chicken

That was weird AI – An update for Word resulted in AI intruding on my writing. Before I just started typing when I opened the program. This time it asked what I wanted to write about. By mistake I put the title in that box and it wrote a bunch of random things like a picnic in the park and other wonderful stuff that didn’t happen this week. I’ve concluded that AI has a more interesting life than I do!

The last trace! – We had the area carpets cleaned this week. During the last year of my cat Gracie’s life, she would regularly throw up, mostly on carpets. There are great spot cleaners, but this felt like the final cleansing of all signs of her. We still miss her, barf and all.

Now for the annoying part – We had a scheduled date for the cleaning. It turned out to be one of the hottest and most humid days we’ve had so the drying part took quite a while. Even with the air conditioning on and humidifiers and fans set up, it took a day before we could move furniture back and resume normal life. We’re adults (mostly) so hopefully we won’t have to do this for a while.

This was a concert from the past.

And yet again – Our local park has free concerts every weekend. It’s a great venue with easy parking and an open area with a bandshell. There were three concerts that I wanted to attend this year. The last one was last night and for the third time it was weathered out. Yesterday was rainy and the forecasts were for rain and thunderstorms. That would automatically cancel an outdoor concert. They plan to reschedule but my experience has been that it will be rescheduled for late October on the coldest day of fall. Usually, I attend at least one, but this year looks grim.

That’s me on the beach a few years back.

It wasn’t all bad – This past Friday was the most perfect day that I can remember weather-wise. It was gloriously warm but not too warm with a breeze that I associate with the beach. A little bit of sand and I would have had to order a margarita and set up my beach umbrella. It kicked up a lot of pleasant memories for me.

So how was your week?

 

50 thoughts on “Random 5 for July 20, 2025 – AI, Gracie, carpets, concerts, weather”

  2. Gawd if there was a way to somehow ban AI or better, jettison it to another universe, I’d sign up immediately. Hate that some algorithm is trying to take over just makes my blood boil. Foisting the block editor on us was bad enough. So far (knock on wood) I’ve managed to hang on the classic editor but expect its days are numbered.

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    • I’m still with the classic editor for creating posts but the comments reverts to block which requires multiple clicks before entering a comment. How is this better? Also editing in block is complicated especially with pictures. I haven’t mastered it so I avoid it. (I really tried with an open mind!)

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  3. I’m struggling to get comments to post on WP. Don’t know if this one will work. Sorry that concert got rained out. It’s been wayyy hot here. Not to my liking. We have outdoor concerts planned, but I likely won’t go if it’s THIS hot. Mid-90s, and with humidity feels like 110. 🥵

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  4. Gracie may have been fondly looking down and remembering each spot as it was cleaned. “Yep, that was rotisserie day, and that one was my biggest barf, ah, good times…”

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  5. AI is something special… asked for a picture of me with empty pockets… sent a photo and waited for the result… picture came, showed a women age same like mom theresa… waaah! said thats not me do it again… picture came showed a guy… uuuh…. naah really… :O)))

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  6. I’ve mostly steered clear of AI. I guess I’ll have to play with it and see what it can do.

    That’s such a touching thought about the Gracie and the carpet cleaning.

    I was near the beach a few days ago with my daughter and her family and ordered not a margarita but a fruity mixed drink with rum. I haven’t had a mixed drink lately, and about a third of the way down I felt very drunk. It was a delicious drink, but I had to quit. My son-in-law said I should have stirred it. I must have got mostly rum.

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    • Rescheduling is difficult because every weekend through September is already scheduled. Then you have to work with the band’s schedule too. It doesn’t seem to work out well. I was disappointed all three that I wanted to see were either cancelled or the weather was weird and I didn’t want to go.

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  9. Good beach photo. Glad you enjoyed a good weather day. Lately we are getting a lot of rain, even on days where it starts off sunny, there is always chance of showers in the afternoon/evening.

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  10. Our Friday was beautiful too – tomorrow will be the same before this “Ring of Fire” heat wave midweek to Friday. The Summer that is very forgettable Our concerts have only moved inside once this year which amazes me as we have had so much rain. At Heritage Park, they have music and art in the gardens every Wednesday night. If it is bad weather, they move to the large open air pavilion. I follow them on Facebook and I don’t think they’ve had one concert outside this year. Sorry the carpet cleaning wiped out the last visible memories of Gracie – good thing you have the memories in your mind and your blog.

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      • Time goes by so quickly with pets. I remember when I lost my white canary, the same year I lost my mom, I moved the stove and some of his white fluffy feathers from his last molt that got trapped under there started moving around … I didn’t need to see that at all. I lost Sugar just before Christmas.

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  14. We’ve had beautiful weather out here on the SoCal coast this week. Sometimes we have the marine layer of grey clouds in the mornings, but it clears up into blue skies and breezes in the low 70s. It’ll be miserable in August and September, but it’s amazing now. Of course, the further inland you go, the hotter it gets. Not nearly as nice in Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, or San Bernardino. I send pics of the backyard and the weather forecast to my siblings sweltering on the East Coast when they irritate me.

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  15. Kate, I think normal life looks like you on the beach! (your comment to Pam)
    So nice to see a photo of you enjoying the beach years. AI keeps showing up where it is not invited.
    Our week was… wait for it… HOT and humid. But mostly it was a nice week with sprinkled in good things—like pizza and SSNS grilled burgers.

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    • We went to our favorite pizza place the night of the carpet cleaning (we couldn’t use the eating area table) and it was disappointing. It was 5-ish and the pizza tasted old. We never get that at lunch. We should have bought a whole one. I divide it and freeze. So good on a busy day. Tonight is burger night! 🙂 Today is lovely but more humid. Occasional showers are predicted but not everywhere so maybe we won’t get any.

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  18. Nothing like a perfect summer day to lift your spirits and bring back fond memories. Sorry your concert was cancelled though. And as for the carpet cleaning, wouldn’t you know it?

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    • The carpets are amazing now. After the cleaner left, I vacuumed twice and got two more canisters of cat hair out of the family room carpet. It’s a totally different color now!

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  19. Nice to see a picture of you! And looking so beachcombingly stylish! Friday was nice here too – the kind of pleasant day you remember summer being like all the time…

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  21. Last Friday was fabulous! Too bad we couldn’t have a string of them, but at least it’s not in the 90’s, for the moment. We’ve had the same problem with all the free outdoor concerts in Hershey. Rain for most of them. Bummer. There are a few more scheduled before summer is out…paws crossed.

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  22. Some cleaning projects can be a royal pain but oh boy are they worth it. I bet you agree now that its’ over! Great photo of you – and I’m waiting for just one – only one if I have to choose – day in the weather department here. I’m hopeful but very discouraged so far. It’s been lightning storms, epic rain, humidity that’s unbearable, hot hot hot. I like your phrase “resume normal life”…….that’s another thing I’m hoping for !!!!

    Hugs, Pam

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