Sort Of Caturday Saturday

TBT:   Not strictly about The Mews, but related to them (because 90% of my photos are of them).  As I mentioned on Cavebear's Lair I am having problems with the Photo app in the newest Mac OS upgrade (Sequoia 15.2).  I have 24,000+ photos (16 years will do that) and I often need to use the Finder search function to find them.  

I can go to Photos, scroll around and find one.  Then read the file name.  Then got to my photograph files and look at the various processed folders to find it.  But that is rather maddening.  

I keep a paper list of unused photos by cat, file name and theme.  Previously, I could just write a post, click on "search" and type in the file name.  And the photo would appear where I had the cursor in the post.

That isn't working anymore.  I suspect the new Mac OS is forcing users onto the Cloud.  And I don't understand the Cloud at all, other than it takes files off my Mac Mini and stores them "somewhere" out of my direct control.  I don't like that.  

And OMG, I have just discovered that my photos are no longer shown by dates!  It seems that Mac has decided to show my Library by "Favorites" (as if they know what they are and how I find them.  A 2012 picture shows up next to a 2024 pic and next to a 2020 pic.  I can't even scroll through the Library by date anymore!  If I can't search and I can't scroll by date, how can I find any particular picture?

So my posts may be less frequent while I figure this all out.  I'm beginning to get too old for this stuff.  Each major upgrade is harder to adjust to.  Basically, I will search for Mac help advice, read up on the new OS, and try to learn how to find stuff as I used to.

Bear with me, I'm sure I will get "back to usual" again, but I'm not sure exactly when.

Holiday Cards

TBT AND THE MEWS:  I will speak for all of us here (as it is about The Holiday Card from to our friends) but the fault is all mine.  We usually snail-mail cards.  I think it is nice to have something to hold in your hands and stack on a table or stick to a door with magnets (our front door is metal).

I wasn't feeling very card-creative this year, so I skipped the card exchange sign-up.  Nevertheless, we started receiving snail-mail cards anyway.  Naturally, by the time we received some, it was getting late to mail (especially overseas).  So I thought I would make a card and send one to all who sent us one (and some other long-time commenters).  

It took longer than usual to create a card.  My graphics apps are old and so am I, so it didn't go smoothly.  Three days, in fact.  I'm working on updating the graphics apps (can't do much about my age, LOL).  By the time I get around to that, I'm have to make New Year's Cards.  

But I did manage to beat Adobe Elements into submission and adapt an old blog header (from 2014, no less) into a Holiday Card.  And as odd as it may seem, I can make a card in Excel rather easily, once I have a couple of graphics to insert as pictures.  The card looks "OK".  

But then came addressing the envelopes.  My block print has gotten so bad that every letter on the envelope is nearly a careful work of art.  That didn't seem like a great ideas given I had 30 cards to send.  And hand-cramps have become an issue these days.

Normally, I have used Avery stick-on labels for the envelopes in the past.  This year, I just couldn't make it work!  I had last year's list in Excel and copied it to Word.  The formatting was impossible (for me).  No matter what I did, adjusting one address messed up another.  I could not get addresses into the label format properly.  Some parts of the addresses kept staying out of the boxes.

It was an educational but unproductive few hours. 😖.  I surrender to the computer-demons this year!  Next year, I will get the more-usable list of card-exchange for more time solving my ignorance.

So I decided that I would use the front of the card to share with all (for easy viewing) and post the entire card for anyone who wanted to print and fold it this year.

Dang, that whole card image just didn't want to show itself.  Well, it had to go from Ecxel, to Word, to Adobe, and into Photo!  Sometimes, you just keep trying things, and eventually, you get lucky...

Just print and fold it. LOL!

The point is that we love you all, Happy Holidays, and thanks for the cards (snail-mail or email).