Happy Saturday! We’ve had a busy week, trying to get ahead of the fall lineup. Not baseball, I’m a Pirates fan, my season ends after game 162 is in the book. This fall lineup is a the annual list of things that have to be done before it snows. After a week like this, it feels good to relax, enjoy a couple of beers and maybe grab a bite to eat. While we’re yacking, we might even work on Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt:
“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘me.’ Find a word that starts with ‘me’ or use the word ‘me’ as the theme of your post. Have fun!”
If we were having a beer, you’d be wondering about my schedule.
“Hi Dan, I’m glad to see you.”
“Hi David. You make is sound like I’ve been gone a month.”
“I pay attention to things. You’re three, four sometimes five days late leaving replying to comments, leaving comments, and you answered my email yesterday – an email I sent on Sunday.”
“Hey, it’s Saturday and he’s here on time. Cut the guy some slack and buy him a beer.”
“Yeah, what she says. Thanks Cheryl.”
“You were kind of late getting back to me, too, Dan.”
“It’s not me, It’s Google’s fault.”
“Google?”
“Well, gMail, but, you know, that’s still Google.”
“Here you go, Dan. A Corona. The Modelo keg kicked, but, you know, Corona is still Modelo, brewed in the same place.”
“Thanks Cheryl.”
“And for you, David, a glass of John Howell’s Bourbon, a snifter of seltzer, a glass of ice and a few cherries. I’ll leave you guys a menu.”
“OK, Dan. Now that I have some bourbon to sip when I’m bored, tell me, how is Google responsible for your screwed-up week.”
“I use the filter feature in gMail that sorts the mail into columns.”
“How does it do that?”
“My filter is based on the subject line. For example, if the subject includes ‘NoFacilities’ I know the email is about my blog. If it includes ‘Comment’ I know the email is a comment on a blog I’m following or someone liking a comment, I made. If…
“I’m going to run out of bourbon, Dan. I get it. You put your mail in different columns. Why?”
“I had this setup in so that new notifications from blogs I follow are in one column. Personal email, like the one you sent me, is in a different column.”
“So what went wrong?”
“WordPress changed the subject lines on certain emails.”
“I think I noticed that: ‘So and so commented on such and such blog.’ Is that what you mean?”
“Yes, but ‘commented’ includes ‘comment’ so the filter should still work.”
“Dan, this is fascinating. Meanwhile, NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid. Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris’ home run record. Even you had more interesting things than this happen this week, The Big-E, the Tea Party.”
“What are you saying?”
“One, I need more bourbon. Two, I think we need a pizza. Three, and I hesitate to ask this, but did you get this Google thing fixed?”
“Hang on, Dan. I’ll take care of numbers one and two. What do you want on that pizza, David?”
“Everything.”
“No olives.”
“Dan, another beer?”
“Yes.”
“OK, you can answer question three.”
“Actually, I can’t.”
“Back to you, David.”
“Why not, Dan?”
“I removed all the filters and created new ones, but I won’t know if they work until more mail flows in.”
“Wow!”
“Wow? You’re impressed with my solution, David?”
“No. I’m impressed with the fact that you gave a short, succinct answer I could understand.”
“Here you go guys. Fresh drinks. The pizza will be up in a few minutes.”
If you like magical realism with suspense, action and a bit of family sarcasm, you will enjoy these books:
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The Evil You Choose
When Evil Chooses You
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No Facilities 
Hi Dan – good looking pizza … and yes – the shadows are getting longer, and the cool is setting in … here’s to Autumn – cheers Hilary
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Thanks Hilary. My favorite time of year is here.
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Once again I thank you for the laugh. As I recall, you have modeled these characters on your friends, and I have to think that you and your friends must have a great time polishing your sarcasm skills. “Gold Hartford” is a great capture, but so are the leaves: the wonder of the large and the small, yes?
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I’m glad you enjoy these visits. Yes, David is a collage created from many friends, most of whom I have spent some time with at a bar. I should explain them all in separate posts, maybe some day. I am taking traits out of context and mixing multiple people in the stew. I love them all, including the bartenders represented by Cheryl (as well as Cheryl herself).
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Shadows are longer, days are shorter. But I’m loving the temperature falling and the turning leaves. It’s the best time of year! Bunny agrees.
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It is the best time. That bunny was hiding. I have six photos of the bushes where “there used to be a bunny.” But I got one. I thanked him.
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And I appreciate the effort.
👍
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38°F here this morning so getting ready for winter is a good thing. Speaking of winter, do you know of any battery operated snow blowers that people are happy with? I don’t have any Gmail filters because I wouldn’t have a clue how to do it, but for about the last week or two I’ve been getting two emails for every comment so my email has sure bulked up.
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I will ask a friend of mine about the batter operated snow blower. He was studying them last year and I think he bought one. The extra notifications, and the fact that gmail forgot where to put them, was making me crazy. I hope the changes I made work. I hope you have a nice cool weekend. We’re going to be wet.
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There are shadows everywhere, but not on the flag – as it should be. 👍
Don’t you love it when wordpress changes things on you?!! 🙄
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These services are driving me nuts, GP. I know they do it to drive traffic to their sites, to show us more ads, to make more money, but WordPress actually caused me to miss visiting several posts this week.
I was happy to find the flag blowing in the breeze. I haven’t seen that for a while. I hope you have a nice weekend,
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WordPress, filters, columns, comments/commented, I’m so glad not to be troubled by these pesky things. I just read the blogs I love, make my comment, and call it a day. At almost 83, that’s about all the excitement I can handle!😵💫
Those “cat” leaves are hysterical. Gold Hartford and that sunset are just beautiful.
Yes, long shadows everywhere Dan…and we both know that the Shadow knows what that means… it won’t be long until you’re taking pictures from the snowblower!
Old Glory is looking spiffy waving in the fall breeze from on high, not at half mast. Always a wonderful sight.
Sure hope you get to relax this weekend with your bride.
Ginger
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Thanks Ginger. I think the rain will convince me to relax. I won’t get out for a walk, but I got a few extra photos from the park, so I’m good if I need a new post for Monday. I have to see what Cee is looking for in her Fun Foto challenge. IF I can dig those out of the archives, I’m good until Wednesday :-)
Winter is coming, but it has to get through fall, and that’s my favorite transition. I hope you have a nice easy weekend.
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“No. I’m impressed with the fact that you gave a short, succinct answer I could understand.” Thanks for the morning chuckle. Great post & great gallery. Mostly I was a pizza with everything for breakfast. Lol
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I’m glad you enjoyed this. That pizza looks so good. The place doesn’t open until 11:00, but I might have to get one for lunch.
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Terrific photos, Dan. I did wonder why your responses and visits were later than usual. I figured you were busy with book stuff. I hate that Google filter and have left it off on my Mac. It is still there on my Dell to remind me how much I don’t like it. I get over 200 notifications and emails a day and I just take them one at a time. I hope the filter works better for you. Good job on the prompt.
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Thanks John. When I opened my mail on Tuesday, there were almost 600 emails, and they were scattered here, there and everywhere. Part of the problem is WordPress seems to have added notifications for comments I didn’t ask for. I think I have it sorted. I’m sure I missed some posts, but it got out of hand very quickly.
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Yes I don’t like what WP has done. For every ‘like’ there seems to be two e-mails. A comment generates a third. Go figure. My 200 was before this change. I swear there is a group of people at WP who’s mission statement reads, “Do your best to screw the customer today.”
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Haha – you might be right, John. So much for Happiness Engineers.
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Yes indeed.
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Wait, no black olives either? Pshaw! I’m glad you got your problems fixed and I’m so proud that you keep up your daily walks! Good job on the prompts! I noticed “numbers” made it in too!
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I can’t eat olives. I have tried, but nope. My wife and daughter love them. My brother is actually allergic. I don’t suffer any ill effects, but I just can’t hike them down. My email seems to be working better today. I hope you have a nice weekend.
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Thanks, you too!
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It would be nice to blame this on technology. Except it sounds more like a case of marketing with a complete lack of testing. What they really need is some filters on the marketing group.
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That would be nice, John, but I’m guessing it won’t be forthcoming. Those guys seem to be off their chain. I remember testing every change we made to our website on every major browser, on Windows and Macs and on iOS and Android devices. I guess those days are gone. When I’ve contacted tech-support lately, the standard answer is “try using Chrome.” I think that’s the only place they test anything.
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The leaf photos are beautiful–both ‘downward facing cat’ and the one with raindrops. And the golden hour photos…! I am loving the long shadows and waking up to temps in the low 60’s.
WP has gone nuts. Someone makes a comment on my blog, and I receive three emails: one saying they commented, second one allowing me to read the comment or trash/spam it (why??) and third letting me reply to or like the comment. Again: Why???
I think we have one final mow of our front yard, and we will be winterized. Have a great weekend, Dan.
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I am so jealous of the extent of winterization you have to go through, Lois. The extra emails make no sense, It’s exactly what Facebook does – “you have a new like” “Lois reacted to your post” “Lois commented on your post” “You have a new comment” – It’s all really one transaction!
I’m glad you like the photos. It’s that time of year, and I’m loving it. I hope you have a nice weekend.
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Yeah, cut the guy some slack! Email can drive me crazy if I let it. The simpler, the better for me. Remember the days before email? I love those leaves making cat shadows. It looks like the two cats are playing.
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I’m glad you like those photos, JoAnna. I do remember days before email. I also recall that I’m the person who introduce email to my coworkers and my family members. I guess I can’t complain too much.
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Email has its benefits. I forget that sometimes.
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Lots and lots of leaves! Thank you my friend. Looking at your pizza makes me want one. I changed something on Facebook (Try it! You’ll love it! They said.) and I couldn’t get it back to what it was before fast enough. I hate change. And yet I embrace it. And then hate it again. I have a love-hate relationship with technology and I own it.
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I generally despise what Facebook thinks I will like. WordPress is working its way up there, but I do love the community, and I would never leave. I’m glad you like the photos. I hope you’re having a great weekend.
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Good idea to sort the email, Dan. I love the golden light on the cityscape. That pizza… OMG… :) Hugs on the wing.
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Thanks Teagan. You know the food photos are days old by the time they’re published. That pizza picture is making me hungry!
Hugs.
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Hey. Love the leafy pics but have a question…my email has been going to spam and my regular mail is going to my inbox even though I’ve sent it to junk many times. It is yahoo mail but I cannot see how to change the filters which google says is how to fix the problem. Any ideas?
Sent from my iPhone
>
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If you’re using Yahoo Mail, click on the Gear icon (I think on far right of tool bar). As to show all settings. In my inbox, the Filters option appears as a menu option in the menu on the left side. In gMail, the filters are under the settings, but you have to ask to see all settings.
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This is what I see: Unread
Flagged
ADDRESSED
To: Me
CO
Cc: Me
Only Mail with Attachments
Only from VIP
Only Mail Sent Today
When I push on little circle on bottom left of screen
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Hmmm. I’ll take a look tomorrow. I don’t use my Yahoo account very often, but I can ty to set up a simple filter.
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That would be helpful. Thank you!
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Here are the steps I took to establish a working filter:
Gear-upper right
Settings
More settings
Menu-Left side
Filters
+ Add new filters
Select Filter criteria (I chose ‘contains’)
Set filter value (I chose ‘[New post]’)
Decide if you want to match case, (something gMail doesn’t let you do).
You can add criteria for [from, to, subject, body, etc.] but you don’t have to fill out every field.
Once you’ve set all the fields you care to include, drop down to the bottom and choose (or create) a folder in which to put the mail that triggers your filter.
Save
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😩Not snow preps already! What? You don’t like Black Olives? I love those kitty shadows. Ihave a weird google thing. Or WP or who knows. I suddenly started recieving notifications to a few blogs I have never followed. 😳And it had me subscribed to comments on a few blogs. I never subscribe to comments because it fills up my mailbox. 🤷♀️Happy Weekend Dan. ‘I need to blog, I need to blog, I need to blog!’
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I only ever subscribe to comments when someone has a post about me. But you’re right, it looks like I’m subscribed to comments everywhere. No, I do not like black olives or green olives or any other shade of olive there might be. I’m OK with olive oil, the kind you use in the kitchen and Popeye’s girlfriend. I’m glad you like the cat shadows. You need to blog ;-)
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I don’ like anything but black olives and only sliced on pizza or other Italian things. Martinis? 🥴
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No olives there either. Although, if I’m with my wife or daughter, I will get olives in the drink so they can have them.
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Aren’t you the chivalrous one. 😉
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:-)
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I’ve learned something here today. I’m going to explore putting my email into columns. :) Good response to the prompt, also, Dan.
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Thanks Jan. When the filters work, it’s fantastic. You can pop in and ignore 2/3 of your mail and concentrate on the cool stuff.
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I don’t mess with filters. I tried it and ended up missing a whole lot of important stuff…
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They can cause problems, but when they work, they are great. I should just go back to Outlook and use rules.
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Love the gold Hartford!
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I’m glad you liked that. It seemed to only last a few minutes. I’m glad I was there at the right time.
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that seems to be how photography operates. to modify Kodak’s slogan…a golden moment.
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What an excellent autumn gallery, Dan, and especially enjoyed because it’s so different from what I see here. Not complaining but there’s certainly a big difference. :-) I had no idea you could do that in Gmail. I keep busy trying to delete all the emails I’ve let languish without dealing with them and just last night I caught my foot on the power cable, pulling my open laptop to the floor. It seems to be completely fine except that something must have come loose in the mouse pad so I can’t find a an arrow anymore. Fortunately I had a touch screen or I’d be in real trouble and my husband wireless mouse works, but someone’s coming out next week to see if he can fix it. I keep trying to use the mouse pad out of habit. :-)
janet
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I hope that’s a minor repair. I’ve tripped over those cords too many times to count. Gmail’s filter isn’t as powerful as Outlook’s rules, if you’re familiar with those, but they can work like them if you set them up well, and if it “feels like working.” Google says the results can be unpredictable. After all these years, they still hide behind the notion that their software is still in a beta form.
We are starting to see definite signs of fall.
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I love when the sun gets lower in the sky and lights up the landscape as it is setting. Enjoy the changing of the leaves in your area.
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Thanks Janis. That change should start in earnest in a couple of weeks.
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Congrats on finding a solution to the emails. I’m always impressed with your ability to navigate all the quirks of WP and blogging. It’s fun to see the fall colors and leaves on the ground even if that means snow isn’t far behind. It’s nice to see the flag flying high too. I hope you have a great week of nice weather so you can get more projects done. Our weather has made the honey-to-do list grow instead of shrink. 🤣
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Autumn has a way of doing that.
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Indeed it does!
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Great visit to bar and thank you for the shout out 💜💜💜💜
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I’m glad you enjoyed this, Willow. I think we have to return the favor and bring you in for a proper New England beer.
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Oh! Boy I’d love that but I’m not a published author 😳
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Doesn’t matter. Not all of my guests have been authors. You have an interesting story and a wonderful blog.
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Well thank you Dan, that’s very gracious of you 💜
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Hmm, that filter feature sounds like something I should try. My Gmail is just one big inbox. Well, except for how Gmail separates it into Primary, Promotions, and Social, but it did that automatically (and it doesn’t work on my phone).
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It works pretty well, unless you try to get fancy.
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Pretty pictures. In the second leaf that looks like two cats, I saw one big scared cat.
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Hmmm, that’s a possibility.
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Hi Dan, that sounds like a nifty way to sort your emails. I just have the focused and general split, but it helps. At least I don’t miss personal emails. I respond to comments through the bell in the reader. Not a perfect system, but it is more or less okay.
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I have been responding to comments through the alerts as well, Robbie. WP has been sending multiple emails, and it’s hard to know what is a new comment and what is one I’ve already read. The filters in Gmail would be much better if they worked consistently.
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It sounds frustrating.
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One of your best Saturday bar banters, Dan. Cheryl was at her best, reminding you that the world had bigger stuff going on. Actually, I hate Google mail. I’m forced to use it for my classroom. So, I am in your corner. Wonderful photos, especially Hartford gold.
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Thanks Jennie. I’m glad you enjoyed this. They are my favorite posts to write.
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And my favorite to read.
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