Updating again, again

In July of 2019, I published a post updating earlier posts. It was my first such post in about three years, and today I’m bringing them back again. This is nothing new for me: I have a long and cherished history of starting and stopping series of posts, and sometimes re-starting them again (sometimes again and again…). These updates are to recent posts, from newest to oldest. Sometimes they’re quite minor updates, but changed enough to warrant an update. In my opinion.

Reminders do their job

This past Saturday, I wrote about using using an App to remind me to take my prescriptions. This has turned out to work really well. What I said about it in that post is still true, namely, that I take the doses roughly 12 hours apart and that “I don’t have to rely on my memory to make sure I take my prescriptions,” which is important (and the whole point, after all).

Since that post, I’ve noticed that my watch does tap me on the wrist when it’s time to take my pills, however, I don’t always notice because other alerts are coming through at the same time. That, and it’s quite a gentle tap, so I often miss them.

There’s something that doesn’t work as well as I’d expected, but it’s actually okay: It’s about the way Reminders’ alerts are shared on my various devices. I usually mark that the alert is completed using my phone. However, that doesn’t show up to my laptop (which is my main computer at the moment). I think that may only be happening if the device was on at the time of the alert, in which case the pop-up has to be manually closed. Still, having to click “completed” isn’t exactly a burden—in fact, doing so gives me the same sense of accomplishment I get crossing any task off my list. So, I get a sense of accomplishment twice from the same action. That’s a bonus, in my opinion.

Smoothing it out

Last month I wrote a post about aging as shown by my birthday selfies over the past several years. In that post, I mentioned using moisturiser on my face. Since then, I remembered that Nigel bought a similar one a few weeks or months before what turned out to be his illness first emerged. It turned out to be a different version of the same men’s product I’d bought, and that he’d never used it (it was still sealed). I’ve decided I prefer his because it seems to do a better job. It also claims to be “24 hours”, which, let’s face it, is always a better option for me when I forget everything all the time.

The important thing is that I think, as marketing for such products usually puts it, it “reduces the visible signs of ageing”, or “reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles”. The reality is that no ordinary lotion or potion can actually “reverse” ageing, but they can reduce how obvious it is. The products generally work by helping to keep the skin hydrated, and that, in turn, make those “fine lines and wrinkles” less visible. I mentioned in that post last month that my skin was dry in places, so, at the very least, it’s helping with that, which is reason enough to use it. As for whether anyone else can see the difference, well, that’s still an open question.

Spilling the tea

Also last month, I thought I found one partial solution to my lack of good sleep and I wrote about that: A chamomile hot beverage before bed. Since then, I’ve had mixed results (as I even mentioned in that post). I also had one total failure: The tea in the photo I shared with that post.

I didn’t try it until some days after that January post, and instantly regretted buying it. I’d had a very similar brand (maybe the one I referred to in that same post), and thought it was pretty disgusting. I think this one is somewhat less disgusting, but I’d definitely prefer an ordinary yucky chamomile hot beverage. Live and learn.

One thing I haven’t been able to find out is why all the labels say to not add milk. I tried looking it up online (of course), but there was nothing beyond admonitions to only put milk in “black tea”—and with an undercurrent of “if you simply must”, but maybe that was just my perception. In any case, it struck me as being like the declarations that one must not drink red wine with fish or chicken, nor white wine with steak. Yeah, nah (as we say in New Zealand): I’ll make up my own mind about such things, maybe including milk in a chamomile hot beverage (many years ago I tried it and thought it made the drink somewhat less yucky).

Trolley dolly

I’ve been talking a lot about projects lately (with more to come), but last month I wrote about a minor one, my “Garden hose trolley project”. In that post, I wrote, “I know I have some [hose] connector bits somewhere, but nowhere I could find easily (and garage was way too hot to spend any effort searching), so I don’t want to buy new ones just yet.” I got impatient and bought some, anyway (it’s okay—they were cheap). That means I’ve been able to use the new hose reel, and found that the “pulley on a threaded rod thing” does help “keep the damn hose from tangling” sometimes. It has an annoying tendency to just stop, which means the hose winds all in one spot, just like the old one did. I don’t know if it’s just not equal to the task for some reason (like the weight of a hose with water in it, or if it needs silicon lubricant so it moves more smoothly, but I noticed that the problem seems to be that the wheel thing stops turning sometimes. A subject for a future update, I suppose.

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As I said in my last Update post back in 2019, “Time doesn’t stop for anyone or anything”, and that includes the subjects of previous posts. At least some have been updated.