Water Damage, Tree Removal, and Video Issues – Thoughts from July 8, 2023

The other day, Patti and I noticed wet spots on our carpet in the den. We had problems with water leaking before, so we knew something was leaking. It’s the only time in my life when I wished it was a cat urinating. I checked the water heater and, sure enough, it was leaking and had been leaking for some time. We replaced the water heater and cleared that area. Not only had it leaked, but it had been leaking long enough to eat through the carpet and into the bottom layer of a DVD holder. Two of the DVD boxes had worms living between them. They were South Park DVDs. The worms were trying to tell us something. We had to toss the first few seasons of South Park. With everything streaming these days, there’s no reason to keep DVDs anymore. Someday, we need to get rid of them.

Yesterday, when we were putting the new water heater in, we also had a tree removed from our yard. I would say it was to the stump, but it was actually below the stump. They had a machine that was like a large chainsaw that grounded the stump into wood chips. They did not touch the roots. Patti arranged all this. She didn’t really discuss it with me beyond telling me she wanted the tree gone. I like trees. They offer shade, homes for birds, and fill me with calm. Unfortunately, they also ruin plumbing, raise sidewalks, and drop leaves. Ours was dropping leaves on the street by our house and we got a notice to trim it. Instead of trimming it, Patti went with option number three (which was no more tree).

I edited together one video from a grocery shopping day from my dashcam. It was a test for my future editing. The first thing I found was the three-minute videos it takes outside and inside the car don’t sync up. I have to sync up the videos individually. Hopefully, I’ll find a way to sync them all up at once. It will not be as easy as I thought it would be. License plates are an interesting challenge. I tried to manually blur them as an experiment, but I know there’s a better way to do it automatically. It’s only a problem when vehicles are right in front of my car. I’m tempted to use the footage to get people in trouble, but that’s more trouble than it’s worth.

I just looked up a video on how to automatically blur the license number and other things, and there is a much easier way. YouTube is the modern encyclopedia on how to do anything. I use it all the time. It has saved me time, money, and effort. It only requires putting in the right question or issue. Reading user manuals is for suckers. I can say that because I used to be one of those suckers. You would look for just the right section to find out what you’re looking for and find general information that doesn’t help you with your specific question. I have no nostalgia for those days. The future is always a better world.

One of our new employees was talking about working on a film set. I was just thinking how miserable I would be on a film set. He said they left him stranded in the middle of nowhere for hours because they left without him. It was dark, and he didn’t know exactly where the truck with all the camera equipment was that he was supposed to drive. He made it to the next location the next day at 8:00 am. He didn’t sleep the whole night. These other people who left him were not good people. They don’t care about other people or anything beyond whatever they are in charge of. Apparently, no one was charged with making sure everyone was accounted for. It’s not surprising, but it’s exactly why it’s not for me. I’m not willing to suffer for my art, let alone someone else’s art.