Our new Starbucks opened today. Our favorite location closed two weeks ago so they could move into this new location. It is large and bright and nice and quite enjoyable.
July 2022
Wallpaper.
I’m always on a quest for minimalist, colorful, yet not intrusive “wallpaper” for my computing devices. I like all of my devices to match, that is, my iPhone, iPad Pro, Mac mini, and Linux machines all have to have the same wallpaper. The wallpaper can’t be grainy in larger resolutions and has to look crisp. I find anything outside of these parameters distracting and Lord knows I don’t need to be any more distracted than I already am.
YouTube suggested a video from a British chap who likes to talk about “secret” tips for using your Mac, and I spotted the wallpaper on his shiny new MacBook Pro. Since I don’t have one of those, and I’m not running the beta of Apple’s latest version of MacOS (Ventura?, I don’t remember), I grabbed a screenshot of his wallpaper and did a Google reverse image search.
I found it. I like it. Here it is.
I *think* if you click on that image above it’ll be available to be downloaded in full resolution to your computer, if you’re so inclined.
Update: I did some scouting around a bit more and found a better source for the wallpapers in question, you can download them from iDownload blog.
We’re Back!
Our webhosting company has completed the account migration activity and things are working quite well in our new server space. There’s one extension that needs to be reinstalled, and until that’s done some photos might appear sideways. You can tell which photos are uploaded directly from my phone versus more traditional avenues; the iPhone photos may go sideways until things are fixed.
I’m happy to have the blog (and other services) here working again, and they’re working much faster across the board. We’ve been with Machighway since 2009 and despite a few bumps in the road a while back, things are good. This makes me a happy geek.
Flat.
I’m writing this while the blog is down. I’ll post it to this day after things are up and running again.
Tonight I flew with a different flight instructor. Ed was a pleasant guy, fairly new out of flight school but he has all the ratings he needs. He’s now building time so he can make his way to the airlines. We had a pleasant flight.
It’s always important to take photos of the aircraft when doing the preflight, especially slightly flat spots on the tires. Primary students have a habit of having their feet on the brakes when they land and this can cause flat spots and early tire wear. If you blow a tire, it’s your financial responsibility to get it fixed. I thoroughly check the tires during my preflight. Tonight one tire had a slight bit of wear but plenty of tread. I wasn’t concerned about it surviving one of my landings, but I took a picture just in case.
Maintenance Window.
I’ve asked our webhost to move our services to a newer, more robust server in their server farm. Performance on our sites, including this blog, has been poor for the past several weeks. The webhost is going to migrate our data tonight starting at 7:00 PM MST, so my blog may disappear for a few hours. Fingers crossed it will go smoothly.
I Can’t.
I was going to write about today being Independence Day and such, but with the current state of the country, and now another mass shooting during an Independence Day Parade in Highland Park, Illinois, it’s all I can do to not tear up when I think about what this country has become.
We used to do better. We used to be better. It’s heartbreaking to see what this country has become.
Drawing found on Pinterest courtesy of a Google Search.
Boots.
My dad gave me a pair of work boots as a gift in 1990. I don’t remember the brand but they were your typical brown construction-type work boots and they were very comfortable. I loved them. In true 1990s fashion practices, I tended to wear my work boots with shorts in the summertime. I never stopped the practice.
Nearly two decades ago I bought a pair of black tactical boots at the local Army-Navy store. They were incredibly comfortable and I’ve worn them regularly up through yesterday. I’ve tried inserting support pads from to time, since they were starting to feel quite flattened out starting about a decade ago, but I ended up always going with the original boot configuration. Yesterday the zipper on one of the left boot gave up the ghost. I knew this day was coming and on Friday I had ordered a replacement pair. The original boots were made by Magnum, the new boots are made by S.W.A.T.
They are incredibly comfortable. I think I’m going to go back to wearing these tactical boots more often.
Last photo of the old boots, taken at Windy Point on Mount Lemmon.
New boots on their inaugural outing in the driveway.
Caturday.
Truman enjoys watching the happenings of the birds and the like around the property. His two favorite places to watch these activities are the big window in our upstairs master suite and out the back door of the kitchen into the gazebo.
The big window is enjoyed from his strategically placed cat perch. Some doves have set up shop on the roof above the window. He keeps an eye on their landing patterns.
The kitchen view gives him ground level access to what’s running around out back. The dogs and Truman seem to have come to an understanding to not bother him when he’s in observation mode.
Tidier.
It was time for a change. I’ve had the big mustache for several months and quite frankly I was getting tired of having to wipe mustard and barbecue sauce out of it and waking up with mustache (mine) in my mouth. So I went to trim it. And the trim guard popped off the clippers and I took a chunk out of my mustache, right above the right side of my lip. Apparently the fates determined I needed to just go with an airline pilot style mustache again, so here we are.
If I ever get one my airplanes up over 12,500 feet I’ll have a great seal on the oxygen mask.
