Monday, February 23, 2026
Saturday, February 21, 2026
TO PUBLISH NEW POST
To publish a new piece, and make sure the “comment” part works. Madeleine re-explained everything:
1. First, just START the new post, just the title and a line or two:. in HTML mode.
2. look at an older post. Look at the BOTTOM codes
3. Copy everything between the two “ ”
4. insert/paste that into the NEW article’s “ ”
5. Take the new article’s Post ID, which is the last part of the URL on top
6. replace the old article’s Post ID with the new one’s (which is on top) Make sure you only copy the number after ID= Dont copy anything else
However: I followed all these steps, but there was no Post ID anywhere on top of the new post! What am I doing wrong?
Read more...Friday, February 20, 2026
European Holiday
My wife Anita and I took a long European trip this past fall - first a couple of weeks in Holland, then three weeks in Rome. We are old and have several ailments that make travel increasingly onerous, but we have persisted. We both walk slowly and use sticks. Stairs and cobble stones are a challenge. So it wasn’t easy. And there are always “surprises.” First, let me dispose of the negatives. Then I’ll get to the positives.
For one thing, we had difficulty accessing our bed and breakfasts . They were great once you were in, but they closed before our arrival time. Another surprise was a flat tire on our second day in Holland. That’s when we learned that most advanced cars no longer have a fifth emergency wheel. Instead. our rental had a repair kit, but I had no idea where it was located and how to use it. We called a Dutch friend and she called the Dutch equivalent of the AAA to help us out. Bummer. Using my iPhone internationally was also a major challenge.
For some reason, I was able to use my iPhone at will in Holland, but not in Italy. When you use your American iPhone internationally, you have to start out by dialing the prefix +. This is a combination of the international access code (01) and the US exit code (1). So using a landline, which doesn’t have a + key, you must first dial 011. Then you enter the code of whatever country you are calling. For some reason I was not able to do this in Italy.
In Rome, we took a day trip to Pompeii, just outside of Naples. This was a bus with about thirty tourists. It picked us up at dawn in front of our hotel, but dropped us off at 21:00 hours about two and a half miles from our hotel. We needed help to find a taxi stand in the dark.
There were various malfunctions and discomforts. Our rooms were too cold, both in Holland and in Rome. At least the hotels provided an extra heater. In Rome, the toilet seat kept coming loose. They fixed it after three days. And there were the usual irritants: a last-minute change of gate for our Amsterdam-Rome flight, forcing us to run through a mile of airport. Also, a two-hour delay of our Rome-Atlanta return flight, jeopardizing our connection to Sacramento .
But enough bad news. All in all, we completed this elaborate trip without any major issues. As the cliché says, it’s made us more resilient. Plus, we have fond memories. This was a joyful experience and an achievement for two old geezers.
Read more...
For some reason, I was able to use my iPhone at will in Holland, but not in Italy. When you use your American iPhone internationally, you have to start out by dialing the prefix +. This is a combination of the international access code (01) and the US exit code (1). So using a landline, which doesn’t have a + key, you must first dial 011. Then you enter the code of whatever country you are calling. For some reason I was not able to do this in Italy.
In Rome, we took a day trip to Pompeii, just outside of Naples. This was a bus with about thirty tourists. It picked us up at dawn in front of our hotel, but dropped us off at 21:00 hours about two and a half miles from our hotel. We needed help to find a taxi stand in the dark.
There were various malfunctions and discomforts. Our rooms were too cold, both in Holland and in Rome. At least the hotels provided an extra heater. In Rome, the toilet seat kept coming loose. They fixed it after three days. And there were the usual irritants: a last-minute change of gate for our Amsterdam-Rome flight, forcing us to run through a mile of airport. Also, a two-hour delay of our Rome-Atlanta return flight, jeopardizing our connection to Sacramento .
But enough bad news. All in all, we completed this elaborate trip without any major issues. As the cliché says, it’s made us more resilient. Plus, we have fond memories. This was a joyful experience and an achievement for two old geezers.
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