Voice to typing makes me wordier

I put together a recipe the other day called Crock-Pot spaghetti.  The outcome was a little bit overdone on the spaghetti part. I had a recipe for this years ago and looked for it but couldn't find it. The one I used was not the old one. But what I've discovered is I can modify it and make it work. With all the sauce ingredients pre-cooked or even crockpot cooked except for the spaghetti, you can add 2 cups of water to the crockpot, add the broken up spaghetti and cook it for one hour and it should be fine. I will try this in the future.
Yesterday Butch and I went to Ogden for the football game. Great-nephew Devon is working with the media/tech section of the school. He is one of the people running video and he's also part of the football team's manager crew. So while the game is taking place he is one busy boy. It was definitely football weather last night. The game score was a route. 54 to nothing. Ogden lost. I found out today that they were playing a team rated either third or fourth in the entire state. It looked that uneven. My sister Jayne, Devon's grandmother, would be very proud of him. I am very proud of him. He has been through a lot in his young life and is still a fine young man.

Our thoughts are turning South. It is a short three weeks before we'll be on the road. There is a Par 3 Golf Course connected to the park that we will be in this next season. I am taking a few clubs in case I want to give golf another try. The jury is still out.
A cold front went through yesterday and this morning's temperature was 43 degrees.  That fact is enough to bring on a severe bout of hitch itch. It is supposed to warm up again into the 60s.
 That should be warm enough to make loading the motorhome quite pleasant.
The story of Floyd and Eva Foot.
When we first started going to the park they had to be in their seventies probably late 70s. I remember that Floyd was having trouble with his hip and could not ride a bicycle. He loved riding the bicycle. They lived in Iowa half of the year and when he returned to Iowa he decided to see a doctor about getting his hip fixed. The doctors came to the conclusion that he was too old for the surgery. This was Floyd's estimation. So he returned to Texas and found a doctor there to do the surgery that he wanted. It was successful. At ninety years of age, he was still riding his bicycle. Floyd lived to be well over a hundred. his wife Eva was a very active lady. She took up tidying up Allen Hall after events up till the time she left the park. The most surprising thing about Eva was that she was a pool champion. She was winning the women's tournament at Pool when she was in her 90s. I asked Eva once what she did to remain healthy. She told me she takes a shot of apple cider vinegar every day.

Our son Jason and his wife Laura have recently started the keto diet with great success and they have a metabolism boosting drink that they drink every evening and I decided to give it a try because it contains apple cider vinegar. I have been drinking this every evening now for over a month and although subtle I can tell the difference. I recently had a fasting blood draw and my blood sugar was 106. I have not had one that low for quite a few years. I would not qualify the way I have been eating as a diet. The drink can take a little getting used to but once you do get used to it it's not that bad. I even enjoy it now. I think Eva was onto something.

Here is the recipe if you’re interested.
Metabolising Booster drink
1 teaspoon No Salt brand substitute (It is a source of potassium. They sell it at Fareway)
1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt 
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice 
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (I use the cheap stuff but the recipe calls for the kind with Mother)
8 ounces of water. (I use sparkling mineral water because I like it.)
Enjoy!!

Using the Trail?

I biked out to the big bridge today on the bike trail.
When I returned to town I decided to go by Mickey's but she wasn't home. So I came home.
I always have a gazillion things I could do. I never lack for imagination.
It is the gumption that may be lacking. I noticed I had an email from son Gary, titled 'Been on your trail '. I knew immediately what he was referring to and answered him right away. Here is our exchange:

From Gary-Was shocked to see this paragraph when reading about the suspect who stabbed to death the Iowa State golfer from Spain.

Two other witnesses told police that Richards asked them for a ride to Jefferson, Iowa, and had given them a knife, according to the complaint. While driving to Jefferson, Richards told the men he needed to return to the homeless encampment because he forgot his tent, according to the complaint.

My answer to him-Yeah, it kind of rocked my world. Ironically, I have just returned from a bike ride, alone, on the trail. I have been reasoning with myself ever since it happened on why I should not be afraid. And then to have two very similar stabbings targeting women in isolated areas doesn't help. But why should it change my way of life? Another instance of male intimidation of women. Maddening to me! Your Dad would not let it stop him from riding the trail if he wanted to and it didn't hurt his man parts.  Did you read how they caught him so quickly? The police were searching the trail next to the golf course. One of the homeless people approached them and asked, "What did he do to her?" So they had name and info almost immediately. This stupid-ass kid was REALLY stupid but obviously quite dangerous. I will continue to ride the trail. After all, he will be in prison now.

Here are pictures I took on the trail and a couple after I returned home.

Northern Flicker

RRVT Bridge

Raccoon River

Colleen gave me the geraniums she had decorated graves with on Memorial day. They were a little worse for wear when I recieved them but have recovered nicely.

"The Pig"

Written yesterday-posted today

Now that I have found this nifty Voice typing tool it has changed the way I do the blog.

Before I would type it directly on the blog entry and then publish it but now I will type it in a
Google document using this voice-to-text tool and then copy and paste it into an entry.  
I then have all my entries in two places, the blog itself and in Google Drive. I like this idea!
Should probably have done it this way for a long time. It is the perfect backup for the blog.
Way back in the early days of doing the blog I would make an extra copy because of losing
it a few times just from accidental deletes.
That doesn't happen so much anymore but it's still nice to have two copies of it.
Paper is cheap on the internet.
Every now and then I think about when I'm actually gone as in deceased and realize
it is probably true that nobody's ever going to look at that blog again.
I have had a great time adding to it all these 16 years. I've done the blog since 2002.
I have kept a journal periodically throughout my life but never for as long as this one.
 Blogger.com and the internet have made it so easy to do journaling.
I have always thought that everyone ought to do it.
It would so be so easy to catch up on people's lives if they had a journal, even if they used it for just mundane things. I know how it goes though.
I used to keep up with everybody's blog if they had one but as I get older I get busier.
It seems I have less free time. Why I have not yet figured out.
If you are one of my friends who has a Blog, I still check in occasionally. I promise!

There is a learning curve to this tool. However, the more I use it the easier it gets.
That is true of most things.

Humerus

Best Voice to Text

The Voice typing in documents on Google Drive works 100% better than talk to text on
Microsoft  Dictation. I can even say Peculiar Missouri!

Type with your voice
You can type and edit by speaking in Google Docs or in Google Slides speaker notes.

Note: This feature is only available in Chrome browsers.

Step 1: Turn on your microphone
To use voice typing or voice commands, your computer microphone needs to be on and working.

Devices and microphones vary, so check your computer manual for instructions. Microphone
settings are typically in the System Preferences on a Mac, or the Control Panel on a PC.

Step 2: Use voice typing

1. Start voice typing in a document
2. Check that your microphone works.
3. Open a document in Google Docs with a Chrome browser.
4. Click Tools and then Voice typing. A microphone box appears.
When you're ready to speak, click the microphone.
Speak clearly, at a normal volume and pace.
When you're done, click the microphone again.

I must thank my Great-nephew Devon Hiller for this tip. I think I might have known about it but didn't remember it. It works so much better than Microsoft Dictation. I think Devon may be my go-to guy in the future for techie stuff. He plans to make that his field of expertise and he is getting a great start.

On to other things.

 I should be getting rid of this heart monitor in about an hour and I am ready. Done deal now!

I just notified Discover Card of our trip plans. It is hard to believe that in 3 weeks we will be on the road. It can give me a panicky feeling knowing it's only 3 weeks out.  Lots to do between now and then. But Hey! It's not like we haven't done it all before. New destination makes it slightly different but only slightly. Having Keri and Leo use our house for their "townhouse" last winter simplified our leaving but now it is back to full winterization of our tiny house.

Heart Monitor

Last Spring my heart doctor, Dr. C, wanted me to wear a monitor for 24 hours. He had put me on a new med and he wanted me to take it for a while before the monitoring. So today is the day. I went for a walk and then walked to the clinic for the installation. Got an A1C while I was there so I could kill two birds. No, I do not consider myself diabetic. I have had only one elevated A1C in 20 years but that one, the very first one labeled me pre-diabetic. You know how hard it is to get rid of labels!
The A-Fib is a bit harder to shake. I used to be able to tell when it was happening but not so much anymore thus the monitor.

This morning did my heart good. Beautiful day!

*Trip South info 2018*

We have our winter trip itinerary planned. Our first night will be in Peculiar, Missouri.
 And that will be on October 12th and 13th. Staying at the Peculiar RV Park Place. $33 a night because we are Lifetime Good Sam members. If I had known what I was doing back in 2000 when we were planning our retirement years I would have saved our money. It cost around $300 for a lifetime membership and at $2 savings per use, I am not at all sure we have recouped our money. I expected a much bigger payback when I purchased it. Life lesson.

We will be there until Sunday morning when we will be going to Quapaw Oklahoma and the Downstream Casino. Free stay if we go in and show them our player's card. It is only a 149-mile trip that day but it makes our stops work without having a 500-mile day in there somewhere. We like to take it easy on ourselves. Staying overnight and then proceeding to the Winstar Casino at Thackerville Oklahoma on that Monday night. Our last stay here was $20 and I think it was because we had a players card.  Did not reserve and we were lucky to get a spot. That is happening more and more often. Our route from Thackerville is taking I-35S to Gainesville TX and Hwy 51 to Decatur TX picking up 380 to Jacksboro TX. We do not go all the way to Jacksboro as we turn south instead of north on Hwy 281 south to I-20W, then to hwy 16 south following it all the way to Llano TX and the River Way RV park. It is a Passport America park so it will be $17 a night because we are Passport America members. Staying 16th and 17th leaving on the 18th, a Thursday. We will be leaving Llano Texas and going to Alamo Texas unless the plans change.
Plans could change because we do not have to be in Trophy Gardens until the 20th. That too could change with a phone call.
When we leave Llano we plan to go south on hwy 16 to Fredericksburg and then on hwy 87 to Comfort TX and I-20 E, joining up with hwy 1604 southbound to I-37, followed by hwy 281 south to Alamo TX. I have checked all my directions...twice.

All that above is for my future reference.
Now if you have read all that CONGRATULATIONS! And as a reward, I will tell you that I tried to use the dictation on the first part of this and when I said Peculiar it translated to several different phrases without getting it correct. The last one was the funniest and when I quit using it. Peculiar translated to "we can kill ya".
Oh, and my asterisk trick does work. I did a search after the fact and it found every post with an asterisk.

*RV Journaling

I sure wish I had been more diligent about the info below. I have used the blog to find info because I know I wrote about it. The only problem is the searching for it. I have thought of one way to make it better. If a blog entry contains info I think I may need to reference later I have decided to put an asterisk in the title. Time will tell. Will I remember to asterisk? Will I remember that I did asterisk? Time will tell.😀

RV journal writing
A journal is not a diary with your innermost thoughts. It’s a chronological list of what happened in your life. Not everything, of course, just the things and events that you think you might possibly want to know a year from now.

Here is a partial list of the kind of things and events that you should consider recording. What went wrong with your rig. What you did to fix the problem with your rig. What date you installed that new refrigerator. When you replaced that tire that blew out and how much you paid for it. (Of course, if you keep a maintenance log for your RV, you don’t need to put this information in your journal. There’s no need to list things in two places.) When you bought that new keyboard and how much you paid for it. The names of the camp hosts where you stayed when you were in AZ. The names of people and the names of their dogs you met at different campgrounds. Nothing impresses people and makes them feel like you really remember them than knowing their dog’s name.

Basically, jot down anything you think you might possibly want to know a year from now. Three to five minutes a day is all it will take, and you will be surprised how much you will use and appreciate this information. From — RVing: Less Hassle—More Joy: Secrets of Having More Fun with Your RV—Even on a Limited Budget.

*13 year old Iowa Kid builds his own house

Someone shares my fascination with tiny homes.

https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/13-year-builds-1500-tiny-house-familys-backyard/story?id=50132212

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=332&v=dJ-9i88O6MI

Can you relate?

So many can relate to this on so many levels.