Weekly Ephemera #146

• I went to see if it was worth changing to Allo Fiber over the Cox Internet we currently have.  While Allo has no data caps – a big advantage – and is faster, there's no price advantage.  The increased speed isn't a big factor as we currently have enough speed to do everything we want.  I decided that we would not switch until Cox prices went up.
• We restarted Netflix for a month and I binged the latest seasons of "Love, Death, and Robots" and "Black Mirror".  I started the last two seasons of "Squid Game".
• I started walking again.  It's strange that even short walks feel hard after doing a long, multi-day hike.  I only managed 4.4 miles (7.1 km).  Next week, the temperatures are going to be over 90℉ (32℃) with 'feels like' temperatures over 100℉ (38℃).  I want to walk twice this week and will probably start walking earlier than usual to try and beat the worst of the heat.
• We're taking care of the Wife's niece's dog, Cooper.  We've taken care of him many times over the years, starting when he was nearly a puppy.  Now he's an old man.  Since he lives in a house full of little kids, this week will be a quiet one for Cooper.
• Today I turned sixty-two.  Not sure what to think.

Weekly Ephemera #122

A fairly slow week for me this week.

• The leaves dropped from our oak tree so I put up the Christmas ornaments.  The Wife decorated the inside of the house including putting the ornaments on the Christmas tree.
• I walked three times this week.  It's been a bit since I did more than two walks in a week.  I walked for a total of 32.0 miles (51.6 km).
  
  

  

  A giant chair if a giant happens to be walking the Wabash Trace.

  The third hike on Friday was a return to the Wabash Trace.  It was nice to get back out in nature away from the sidewalks and city streets.  Back in 2009-2010 I stage hiked the whole sixty-three miles of the trace.  Maybe I'll have to revisit those hikes to see how things have changed.  The trace has several different styles of benches along the way.  I found one old conventional bench in an odd location.  Instead of facing the main trail it was twenty feet off facing away.  The bench was old, had "The AᐧBᐧC Bench" carved into it, was damaged a bit, and probably had been there for a while.  At one time it faced a green valley lined with trees and would have been a nice view.  Over the years some trees have grown to obscure the view a bit.   I think there probably is a story attached to that bench.

  

  The AᐧBᐧC Bench.

  If you want to see pictures I've taken along the Wabash Trace check out my 2009-2024 Wabash Trace Nature Trail Hike Google Photos album.
• I finished "Arcane" this week.  I really, really, really enjoyed it.  I was hoping for a third season but two seems to be it.  Worth the watch.
• Also really liking Bluesky.  Wish it was truly federated but it is active and fairly civil so far.

Weekly Ephemera #102

This week has been an exhaustive one though, to be honest, I'm not sure why.  Here was the week that was:

• The dominant theme this week was my Mom's spinal surgery and the beginning of her recovery.  The surgery went without a hitch.  Mom was a tad worried about how her age would impact the procedure and, it turns out, it didn't affect anything.
  
  Mom stayed in the hospital three nights to let everything stabilize.  On Thursday she was moved to a live-in rehabilitation center.  The length of her stay will be determined by progress with her physical therapy.  Starting tomorrow she will have physical and occupational therapy daily to help her regain her independence.
  
  It's still early but Mom says the pain in her lower back seems to be almost gone (Huzzah!) but her sciatic pain in her leg remains  (too soon to determine if it has improved or is the same).  She still has issues with moving her legs smoothly while walking.  This is most likely more of a Parkinson's issue than a back issue.  Her physical therapy will work on that.
• Our sprinkler system has been fixed ... for a hefty price naturally.
• Friday I had a minor panic when I discovered all my Google docs/sheets created after 2019 had disappeared.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it easy to contact a Google support person who recovered all my files.  I promptly changed my passwords.  I have to say I am not pleasant to be around when I'm in a panic. 😈
• I haven't walked for ages it seems.  I hope to restart once again this coming week despite the 100℉ plus (38℃ plus) heat indexes early this week.
• I haven't really had a chance to nap this week which is probably why I have been feeling grumpy, overwhelmed, and exhausted most of this week.  I'll have to talk about how much I've been napping this year (excluding this last week).  Suffice it to say I have been napping a lot this year.  Makes me feel old.

Weekly Ephemera #45

• On Monday the roofers came in and swapped out our box/turtle vents with turbine vents.  This was done to increase the ventilation in our attic (to reduce condensation) and to prevent the sucking of snow into the attic.  The snow and condensation was staining our ceiling in several rooms.  The roofers also vented the bathroom fans to the outside as they should have been from the beginning.  The builder had just vented the bathrooms into the attic.
  
  While doing the work the roofers pointed out that the baffles that ensure proper airflow from the soffit vents into the attic were not installed correctly.  They will be back in April (when workers return after taking off the winter season) to evaluate/fix these air flow issues.  This will result in a bill between $2K and $4K depending on what they find when they tear off part of the roof.  *sigh*
• Geek Talk Warning:  For years I've been using GoDaddy as my domain registrar for Homers Travels.  This week I learned that GoDaddy had discovered a multi-year hack of their system.  While this only seems to affect websites hosted by GoDaddy and I only use their Domain Name registration, I decided to play it safe and moved my registration over to Google Domains instead.  I suspect you, the consumer of Homer's Travels, will not notice anything.  Carry on.
• Walking was a bit chaotic this week.  Due to several factors beyond my control I only managed two hikes this week - one short and one long.  I ended up walking 15 miles (24 km).  The longer hike, over 10 miles (16 km) felt very good so I think I can push longer miles.  I don't expect any interruptions to my walking schedule this coming week so it will be interesting how my body handles longer miles.
  
  

  

  A pair of signs that made me smile.

• Saw my first Robin last week.  This, and the more spring-like temperatures in the forecast, seem to be hinting at an early Spring.  Our snow is almost all gone (we didn't get anything more than a trace from the storm that came through Wednesday night).  We only have rain coming this week.  Yay.

Weekly Ephemera #33

• On Tuesday I had a prostate biopsy.  It went a lot quicker than I expected and the aftereffects were not nearly as bad as I'd anticipated.  Having said this I really don't want to do that again.  Results should be out this week.  I have a follow up to discuss them on Thursday.
• We were supposed to have our first snow early Saturday morning.  They were forecasting 2 - 4 inches (5 - 10 cm).  When we got up Saturday morning we were disappointed to see zero inches.  Not even any snow flakes.  I guess we will have to wait a little longer for the first snow this year.
• I walked once this week.  It was very short - only 5.6 miles (8.9 km) - but it was a start.  I was going to walk on Friday but we had on and off rain and it was a cold rain so decided to stay inside.
• I am an avid Twitter doomscroller and I was disappointed when a billionaire with few redeeming values bought the social network this week.  I decided to look at other social network options and chose to experiment with Mastodon.  Mastodon is decentralized, not owned by any company, and gives the users some more control.  It is still a work in progress and there is a learning curve to overcome but I think it shows some promise.  At this stage it helps to be a computer geek.  I'm sure that will change as more people join.
  
  There are several different mastodon servers out there and I chose to join twit.social which is run by the folks at This Week in Tech (TWiT).  I've been watching their podcasts for a while now and I've been a fan of the head TWiT, Leo Laporte, since his TechTV days. They've been running the mastodon instance for a while now so I made an account there.
  
  I'm finding a lot of people I followed on Twitter are moving/have moved to mastodon.  If you have a mastodon account and would like to follow me, you can find me at @HomersTravels (twit.social/@HomersTravels).  [Note:  you do not need a twit.social account, just an account on any mastodon server]
• If you live in the US  don't forget to turn all you non-connected clocks back an hour as daylight saving time has ended.
• Tuesday is election day here.  If you've voted ... Thank You.  If you haven't but intend to ... Thank You.  If you do not intend to vote ... you are dead to me.  Yes, it's that important.