It seems like it has been a while since Music Monday has highlighted Kenny Chesney? Maybe it hasn’t been that long, but then again, it has been a year … and I haven’t been streaming the No Shoes Radio channel on SiriusXM for a while lately.
That aside, I did listen for a while while working out in the yard a week or so ago and screen capture the sone “I Go Back” that had me fondly daydreaming … hm, perhaps Jimmy Buffett’s “Havana Daydreamin’” will be making an appearance soon?
Our old John Deere 330 16HP diesel tractor, that we use for all kinds of yard chores, required another battery this spring. It seemed like just yesterday that I replaced it, but then I realized it was replaced back in 2012! Amazing longevity for a Walmart Ever Start branded battery … so I’ll go with one more again (although this time one of their no-maintenance versions — the only one available). Hm?
Iran has threatened to retaliate for an attack in Damascus, Syria, that Tehran said was an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic building. The strike killed several top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force. According to the WSJ on Friday, “the U.S. rushed warships into position to protect Israel and American forces in the region, hoping to head off a direct attack from Iran on Israel that could come as soon as Friday or Saturday.”
After a solid first quarter for investors, the markets jitters are probably normal considering the geopolitical events … but added to that were inflation numbers rising again putting a damper on the thought the Federal Reserve cut rates in June. Now June cuts look off the table and cuts by the end of the year look questionable — unless you believe the Fed will act political because it is an election year?
Who isn’t … or more appropriately wasn’t … fond of listening to the interesting and smooth-toned audio that was part of National Public Radio (NPR) in the previous century. I spent an exorbitant amount of time in my car back then and listened to static-riddled politically conservative radio talk shows on AM radio and liberally slanted … but somewhat fair … NPR reporting and stories on the HQ-audio FM dial. Besides the better quality listening found on FM radio, I always felt it helped listening both perspectives when it came to the political news.
Unfortunately over the years, the news segments being reported by NPR took a similar extreme slant, but from the political left. I accepted the slant from the political right on AM Talk Radio, but like many, was turned off by the woke slant of NPR. I questioned and harassed Congress why taxpayer funds were continuing to support this progressive “one point of view” radio?
As for the Tech Friday component, I wanted to retest the improving and impressive text to AI voice from ElevenLabs. Unfortunately the beta version that I’m using has size limitations, so I’ll share only the first portion of Uri’s article read by “Antoni” AI — still pretty impressive (see what Musk and Dimon are predicting). So start the article by listening and finish reading at yellow link above or the PDF version below.
EDIT add: Testing Amazon’s Polly AI for the balance of the article. Give it a try even though the voice is different.
Brenda has been bugging me to remove a couple of pine trees (one 30 yo Blue Spruce that was nearly dead) from in front of the house (photo – house without the drooping pine). They were on the “to-do” list last year, but I’ve procrastinated until this year … and in my mind, I was planning to take care of them this summer .. cough, cough.
We had a wind storm and it took out tons of branches and limb which we took care of last weekend, but the neighbor lost a White Pine. So while Precision Forestry was in the neighbor, I opted to have them quote and remove these trees. Although this isn’t the first time I’ve used an outside company to remove a tree … it is usually something I have done myself since I worked cutting trees and firewood as a part-time job in high school. It feels wrong to have hired someone?
We have been using the economical Wyze Cams to monitor things around home for a few years now, along with leftover Canary Cams … and our old school original wired security system. I do like the way these inexpensive cameras have held up and are improving, but the speed and notification tweaking of their Wyze Cam Plus service could use some improving.
That said, this month I noticed a $2/month price increase from my “promo” rate and had inquired about a special they were running on March 1st. I checked in with customer service back then about opting for the one-year promo, but was told my current $7.99/mo plan was almost the same deal and billed per month — so I didn’t switch. One month later, my current “deal” expired and so now I’m left paying $9.99/mo. After complaining, there wasn’t any recourse but to wait and hope a better deal appears (not the way to keep a loyal paying customer happy).
Since I’m not all about complaining … cough, cough … I’ll include a few different videos. One of a bee being picked up on the cam and the other a time-lapse test (see tomorrow’s post) and finally getting out the 1982 Mercedes300D Turbodiesel for the first time this spring.
Our backyard may not have been the absolute best location to view a perfectly covered sun for thesolar eclipse, but it was very impressive.
Taylor took an afternoon off of work and came up with Gigi in the afternoon (we are north of Cincinnati), and I suspect he enjoyed the viewing. We were on the edge of the “full solar eclipse” path, while Katelyn, Drew and kids were equally at the other edge in Whitehouse, Ohio (map below). Nevertheless our views were impressive as you can tell from my photo with my LumixGX8 and 100-300mm lens above (the full perfect corona was SOOooo close). 😊
It seems like it has been a while since Music Monday has highlighted Kenny Chesney? 
Maybe it hasn’t been that long, but then again, it has been a year … and I haven’t been streaming the No Shoes Radio channel on SiriusXM for a while lately. 
