Electronics And Chickens Don't Mix

 I should know better than to try and fix all the phone "fixes" when it's o-dark-thirty in the morning.  For those other chickens out there who are early risers, we should just park it and eat something.  Maybe running around the roost a few times would help get the blood flowing to the brain.

It would have made yesterday's foray into the inner sanctum of my phone much easier to navigate.  You know what happens when you update your phone?  Nothing works like you want it to.  Getting everything set back to normal for me, was a test in patience.

I went through list after list, tap tap tapping to get to where I wanted.  NO WiFi since I have an unlimited plan and NO location services.  No one needs to be tracking me anywhere, nor do I want my searches to be snatched up by some spam company who will then inundate me with emails and text messages.

Here's an interesting one I found .... Exposure Notifications.  Should you come in contact with anyone exposed to covid (they of course have HAD to provide their phone number to the reporting services), your phone will light up like a Christmas tree.  Are you kidding me?  Without their permission, you are going to give me their medical information with an exposure notification?  Isn't that illegal?

So for anyone who has a new phone, or has updated one lately, be sure and turn that sucker OFF.  I cannot believe the phone companies think they can be so invasive and destructive to a person who just happened to get a virus.  Maybe we should shun them to colonies like the poor people who got leprosy. 

 Then I discovered my phone will now only charge up to 80%.  Why?  I have no idea ... I'm a chicken.  Once it's on the charger for a few hours, meaning I'm probably asleep, it will charge the rest of the way.  Why would you do that?  I really need the phone to charge up all the way during the day so it doesn't quit when I need it ..... but NO .... it will only charge up 80% so I'm constantly putting it back on the charger.

I'm pretty sure this is a way to get you to buy a new phone.  In fact I'm sure of it because almost immediately I got a notification that I probably should get a new battery ... at the Apple Store of course.

In the meantime, I couldn't seem to get the AllTrails App to work.  It shows all the hiking trails wherever you search.  It seems many of the apps were reverted to WiFi use only.  I think that's AT&T's way of pushing you off the unlimited program and making you use WiFi for which you pay a lot more, not to mention they can slow down your speed.

It took me quite some time to dig down through those menus before I was able to turn off all those settings that were looking for WiFi.  My phone immediately sprang to life.  Everything seemed to work much better.  That's probably because I don't HAVE WiFi unless I turn it on, so my phone just kept looking for it.  Oh the pitfalls of updating!!

On another front, I haven't heard a word from Apple about my new computer.  I finally called, after waiting the appropriate four hours in order to get a real human being.  They couldn't find any information at all.  Didn't even have my order.  You can imagine the cackling that could be heard around the neighborhood.  At long last they found the order and said I would have it by December 14th.  We shall see.

As much as I HATE shopping at Walmart, I needed a new popup for my phone.  It's a little handle so to speak that sticks on the back of your phone to make holding it for selfies much easier.  I don't do selfies, but it makes taking ANY picture easier, mostly because you don't drop your phone, which of course I do several times a day.

Wasn't I surprised to find almost every single shelf covered in plexiglass (or maybe glass) and all locked up.  Even the baby formula.  Really?  Looters take cans of baby formula?  This was only the beginning.  Almost every single item in the store was locked up except groceries.  Anything you want, you have to ask for them to unlock it.  

That would be great if they actually had people working there, but they have made the entire store check-out-yourself and fired everyone.  How nice of Walmart to make even more money off of your decision to shop their store.  

By the way, has anyone noticed the increase in the price of food?  My Lean Cuisines have gone from $2.59 to $4.88 each.  That was my last visit to Walmart.  I'm only shopping local small business stores from now on.

 

 

 And so as the day ended, the chicken coop was calling my name.  There was a gorgeous sunset on this day which rarely happens here.  It almost looks like a painting. 

 

Lastly, skunks LOVE chicken eggs, which is why I put one in the trap.  It's still there, so apparently whoever came wandering by is gone for the time being.  I'm not fooled.  I'm leaving the trap set up every day until I wander off to Arizona.  

What .... you heard there was a stay at home order?  Sorry but that hypocritical order-breaking smug tyrant of a governor in California (who travels to his winery often and attends dinners with crowds of people, no masks) is not going to keep me from going anywhere I please.  

To that, many Sheriffs in the State of California have posted a statement saying they will not, under any circumstances, uphold that ridiculous order, bother anyone about traveling anywhere OR respond to any call about the number of people you have in your house at Christmas.   Use your own common sense.  Finally someone with a little sanity stands up for our freedoms.  

In return, the governor has threatened he will cut their funding drastically.  That's funny since he was the one who threw a huge tantrum saying it was illegal when the federal government threatened to cut HIS funding for not following THEIR orders. 

If you are at risk, please stay home.  If you are worried at all about the virus, please stay home.  As for me, I'll be living my life as close to normal as I possibly can and traveling is a part of that.