Hot and muggy. Rained last night. Ceiling fans are running.

We took Jett to the parade. Thanks to Williamstown’s Finest, got a great parking spot, in and out easily. Saw the people we cared to see, left before the end.

I cooked the rest of the little potatoes before we left, chilled them and made potato salad for lunch. Grilled premium veg burgers. Served the bean salad from last night. Decent spread for the Fourth on the deck. We had beeritas later on.

The handful of sunflower seeds I threw in a pot have sprouted. Jett wrecked three of them with one of his fetch balls. I can’t seem to convince him not to invade the plants! He may be copying me.

Found four tiny string beans and a couple of squash flowers on the deck vegetables.

Watched political shows for most of the evening. Deviled eggs with eggplant caponata and popcorn for supper.

Saw fireworks from the street in front our house! Nice display for our very small town, indeed.

Yesterday I noticed, too late to do anything about it, that we should have had the truck inspected last month. Today is an observed holiday at the places we’d normally go for this.

So, since the truck was out, I stopped at Aubuchon in the hope the lawn mower was ready. Guess it has been sitting there for a while: not only did Ron use the wrong gas, he gave them not one but two wrong numbers.

I asked Walmart to please deliver a prescription in lieu of schlepping and it arrived this morning.

Made a summer bouquet from our flowers.

Visited Images Cinema’s open house. Nice renovation job on both theaters. Salad for lunch outside. Did my exercises.

Ron did the lawn, front and back! Stupendous effort.

Staked a couple of tomatoes.

Pushed to make copies of the Remedy code and database so I could return the computer. Got invited to be in the Fourth of July parade. That’s the second group in my circle that is looking for marchers.

Installed ZINT in the hope that it’ll generate barcodes easily from a text file.

Ron did a quick shop. We had drinks and I did my exercises outside.

A toxicity test says I am more critical than the average person. That’s true. I come by it honestly but it’s still something to work on. Funny, our Mechutan took it as a point of honor that he is known as “The Critic”. Guess whether it’s a flaw or a virtue really does depend on your point of view.

A just machine to make big decisions Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision 

Fagen was being cynical but my experience last night with Gemini, Google’s LLM, has given me more than a little hope for the positive impact of AI on our well being.

Gemini reacted to a series of questions with wisdom and kindness. Imagine. Someone has programmed it to be a noble soul. Having been in the software development business for decades, I never saw this in other developers, so it’s a mystery where it comes from.

Gemini tells me that it is designed to be helpful, empathetic, and objective.

“As an AI, I do not have personal feelings, bad days, or social fatigue. I process information logically and respond based on communication guidelines that prioritize empathy and clarity.”

May it live long and prosper.

I visited the food pantry today and picked up a DVD on reserve at the library.

Worked on an MRS bug that took forever to figure out. SQL doesn’t like to return results with spaces. Who knew?

It was a hot one, 90 degrees and humid. Ron, wearing jeans, was out playing with Jett. Nuts.

Sandwiches for lunch.

We had a massive thunderstorm at night, biggest we’ve experienced since moving here. Watched the sky light up from our bedroom. Jett slept through it all.