Bedroom painted, putting it back together was a PIA. So glad we didn't do the painting, too much work. Writing the check it much less painful.

The painter graciously put the hardware back up on the window frames. BUT a couple of them were backwards. Oops! Rick doesn't have full use of his right arm so reaching up to switch them out isn't fun for him. He didn't think we had enough room for the taller step stool to make reaching easier, but we did. We could have pushed some stuff out of the way.....Meanwhile, as we were moving stuff about, my aching neck was aching like crazy.

I take my hat off to anyone who still deals with the DYI after the age 50, 60, 70 and beyond.

 

Using Word, I literally saved 8 documents in the same folder. I go to save the 9th and it defaults now to a temp directory. WTF Microsoft! Do better!

So before you get AI to solve all (sic) of the worlds problems, how about a little basic AI to solve the small things that actually impact your everyday users.

Also, Apple can't figure out that when I misspell a word and there's an 8 in it-- Like 8mplement that the word is ****ing implement. It's the same key on the iPad keyboard. Stupidity!

 

I hate Microsoft Word. I have a lifetimes worth of Word documents so I have to stick with it. I cuss it out every single day. The original version used to work very simple but upgrades took care of that.

Apples upgrades have the same effect. It is maddening.

 

Don't get me started on the iOS 26.2 upgrade for the iPad.

Whoever looked at the new mail interface and thought "This is better" should be fired.
Whoever was responsible for the swipe up functionality that hasn't been consistent since it was released should be fired.
Whoever signed off that nothing broke that was already working, fired too - more specifically, the long hold "." when in the browser. Used to show .com/.net/.org/.edu etc... for quick domain selection. Now, its a ", Spanish Question Mark and some other irrelevant punctuation.

 

I've spent the past 8 weeks negotiating moving my mortgage to another bank. It should have been a quick, easy process, but between the endless questions and general worker laziness the interest rates have moved up 4 times. Rates that were in the 4% range for 5 years* are now approaching mid-5%. I ended up spreading the borrowing over a range of terms up to 3 years to pull it back down into the mid/high-4% range in the hopes world events will settle by/after the next US elections but I feel like I've been stiffed by the lack of momentum from the bank.

* In NZ the longest fixed borrowing rates available are 5 years. For a while 7 year rates were trialed but very few people took them up. We dream of 30 year rates, I would have gone all in in mid-2021 when I fixed last time.

 

ooh so you get have to refinance every 5 years?
Oh joy.

 

We have options of floating (rate of the day), 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, or 2-5 years. Most people fix for 1-2 years so were badly caught out over the Covid era when rates spiked over 7%, and were only just starting to recover before the latest crisis started pushing rates back up again. It means our economy is reasonably responsive to world events but there is a certain lag between rate adjustments and people feeling it in their wallet. Australia mainly floats so interest rate moves are even more immediately felt by them.

 

So sometimes the US gets it right. That would be nerve wracking for those on tight budgets.

 

I had a new spa control unit installed in my Loveland hot tub after I smelled burning wires and shut off the breaker. Total came to $1,700. I may have paid too much. I need to price the unit myself, now that I know what he put in. But that's not what I'm unhappy about...

This is... I went online and ordered 3 new headrest "pillows" at $77.64 for all three, and a new cover for the filter at $79.28. The pillows work fine and easily snapped into place but the drop on filter cover is too wide and won't fall into place. I've measured it. I called the company I ordered it from and they said it's the right lid. I called Master Spas and was told the correct part number of what was supposedly sent to me. Then why is it too big? There's no way of knowing the part number of what was sent to me by looking at it. The new lid is a quarter of an inch too wide.

I can either return it or I'm thinking about putting a couple of tie downs around it to see if they will smash the width down. Sort of the reverse of stretching out leather shoes.



^12-3-2025.




^Old filter cover.


^Old filter cover.



^New filter cover.



^New filter cover.

 

With that view I would be in there every night!