Connecting my satellite radio to my car that doesn't have an aux port

I have been working on an interesting challenge with my new car. It doesn't have an auxiliary (aux) port.

I have owned a SiriusXM satellite radio since my past car didn't have the app built in to the system. It requires an aux port to get the music going.

On Saturday, I managed to get it to work. My car has two USB ports. The one at the front makes Android Auto work. The other one is in the storage compartment next to me.

I managed to get an adapter that has one port for USB C charging and an aux port. This setup only works if I use the USB port on the dashboard and not the adapter.

Instead, I got a transmitter where you insert the audio plug into the aux port of my radio. It then becomes a Bluetooth device. I connect my car to it and I can play music. It works nicely.

The problem is that if I want to use Android Auto, I can't stream from my satellite radio. Android Auto does have the SiriusXM app, but I don't want to stream music as I drive.

So, the key is to use my GPS on my phone and connect my satellite radio as a bluetooth device from my car's console to play music. It's a nice workaround. It's simply a bummer that I can't have my GPS map displayed on my console and listen to music on my satellite radio simultaneously.

It's a minor inconvenience. I'm simply glad that I got my old satellite radio to work.

SIM card activations online and notifications are annoying

Yesterday, I bought a new SIM to activate on my old phone for my dad. Trying to activate this physical SIM online with a specific cell phone provider isn't working.

Why does a straightforward procedure tend to be so aggravating. I don't get it.

Chat support is unavailable right now. We'll see if it's available later on today.

Last night, I didn't sleep well. For some reason, my hybrid smartwatch vibrates whenever it disconnects from my phone. It never did that before. I changed the notification setting off. My alarms thankfully still work.

Technology is great and frustrating simultaneously.

Bluetooth speaker bottle - weird and broken

Yesterday, I received a gift from my company. It was a bluetooth speaker bottle. The idea is that the cap acts as the bluetooth speaker. You unscrew the cap and you have a beverage bottle.

It's such an odd combination. I hope that folks don't put water in the bottle and cap it.

My problem was unscrewing the cap. It was so tight that I actually broke the speaker. So, I only have a bottle without a cap.

It was a nice gesture, though. I do have many bluetooth speakers, so I'm not heartbroken about losing this one. I just wish that caps weren't secured so tight on bottles. It shouldn't take me half an hour to try and loosen it. Instead, I broke it!

Oh, well. At least I have a nice beverage bottle. It's stainless steel and pretty.

New record player and old cell phone

I bought a record player the other day. It was on sale. It's a gift to myself.

I bought one last year in purple, my favourite colour. It was on sale, too. The problem with it is that it doesn't spin a record fast enough and maintain its speed. It's such a shame.

This new record player can do more than just play records. It has a cassette deck, AM/FM radio, bluetooth, and an aux line to connect an iPod or other music player to it.  It plays CDs, too. I can record anything to MP3. It's quite the powerhouse.

I had to make room for it. It's not a tiny thing. It's not monstrous, either.

I liked that it forced me to clean the top of my stereo system. I found a box with an old cell phone from my days in Minnesota. I didn't think that I still had the phone. It's so tiny in comparison to the phones these days.

I felt like I had opened a time capsule of sorts. It was cool to see a snapshot of my life a while back.

Is it turned on? Or, is he?

I will need to write about my spanking in another post. I was going to do that tonight, but I had to fix an issue with my e-mail. I didn't get anything sent to my inbox for three days. It looks like a filter was automatically placed to send all my e-mails to my Spam folder. Ugh!

Anyway, on our last day in Seattle, my guy and I had breakfast. I like taking photos of what I have eaten, so that I can remember what I have had. The loose leaf tea was different at this restaurant. I didn't have my phone with me, so I asked my guy to take a photo.

Well, it has been a month since we were on this trip. In the treehouse, we were trying to send the photo from his phone to mine using Bluetooth.

We attempted to pair our phones.

"I don't think it worked," I said to my guy.
"It says that we're paired," he said, showing his phone's display.
"It doesn't on mine. I get an error saying, 'Connection unsuccessful. Make sure "My guy" is turned on and in range'," I said, smiling at him.
"What?" he asked me.
"I'm not making it up. You are always turned on," I teased.
"I wonder what "in range" means," he said, smiling.

It's fun how we name our phones after ourselves. We decided that texting the photo would be much faster, even though my guy was turned on and in range.