Be still my geek heart. As an “Ancient Geek” by today’s standards, I still love me some command line fun. Here’s the current weather forecast displayed in all its Command Line glory. Shout out to wttr.in.
Placement.
Our new home has nite lights wired throughout the hallways and stairwells. These little lights have LED bulbs, are fit into a standard-sized outlet box, and have downward pointing shades so the walkways are illuminated. When we moved in they were all wired to standard three or four-way switches.
There’s three circuits of these lights. The third circuit illuminates the stairwell that goes to our guest room. I was going to replace the switch this evening; when the project was completed then all three sets of lights would be controlled by home automation.
Except the stairwell bannister passes directly in front of the switch in question. There is a one-inch gap between the wall and the bannister. I decided tonight was not the night to tackle this. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to take the bannister off the wall to swap out this switch.
There are several interesting design choices in this house and this is one of the examples. At times we’ve found the wiring to be equally creative, but we’re getting that part figured out.
I just don’t understand why someone would install a switch and then place a bannister directly in front of it.
The Safe Way.
My husband and I will be officially fully vaccinated at the beginning of next week. The entire family in our Desert Compound will be fully vaccinated effective the 19th of this month. I am happy that we’re all getting our shots. It was not an easy feat to accomplish in Chicago; it was easy to accomplish here in Tucson. Apparently we got here at just the right time. There are people here in the city that we look forward to meeting in person.
We stopped at the supermarket after dinner this evening to pick up a few things for meals scheduled for the rest of this week. The Safeway wasn’t particularly busy, but most everyone was wearing a mask, whether they were a shopper or an employee. There was one man flinging packages of hot dogs around the display case that wasn’t wearing a mask. To be honest, he didn’t look too happy to be rearranging packages of hot dogs. I can only assume he leads a miserable life (judging by his expression) and isn’t really concerned about his longevity, therefore no mask. I wouldn’t expect him to have any regard for his neighbors or other people in the stores.
It’s not that hard to wear a mask. I mean, it’s a piece of cloth across your mouth and nose anchored to your face by straps around your ears or head. At no time do I feel deprived of my life, liberty, or my pursuit of happiness. I can still recite the Pledge of Allegiance through the cloth that is providing some protection for those around me. I can still sing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” if I so desire.
With so many people opting to not get vaccinated or wear a mask in public the burden of common sense falls onto the folks that care about the society, themselves, and the longevity of the species. Like the folks that completed the group project on time while everyone else in the group goofed off and made fun of the smart people, we’re left with the chore of dragging the idiots through their miserable lives.
I sound cranky about this. I’m frustrated but not cranky. I just figure I’ll out live them and will ultimately have the last laugh.
Viewing.
How awesome is it that we can watch the return of a crew from the International Space Station aboard a commercially built, autonomous spacecraft live from an application on our personal computer?
I sometimes forget we live in amazing times. We need to focus on the amazing.
Ride.
My husband and I decided to go for a ride today. We enjoy spending time together in the car and getting to know our new stomping grounds; our first date, over 25 years ago, involved going for a long car ride together and it seems we’ve continued the practice for over a quarter of a century.
This keeps us young.
We drove down Interstate 19 to Nogales, opting to not cross over to Mexico but drive around Nogales, Arizona a bit before heading back using “back roads”. We came back home via State Routes 82 and 83. We stopped at Patagonia Lake State Park for a bit. It was our first visit to an Arizona State Park.
After we stopped in our home neighborhood for dinner, we decided to continue our adventure and drive to the top of Mt. Lemmon just after dusk. There are many places to get an awesome view of Tucson and the surrounding area.
The drive up and back took about two hours and some change. The twisty road is signed at 35 MPH and that’s a safe speed. Some folks like to go faster. I let them pass. I have a bit of a lead foot, but not while driving up and down a mountain on a very twisty road.
It was a wonderful day!
Same.
I was recently reading a sci-fi story about the U.S.’s first adventure to an extraterrestrial planet. The expedition took a group of Americans to a nearby star, where they interacted with the native population in an effort to learn about them. The natives to the planet had an average estimated IQ of around 165. Life was much different than anything here on Earth. There was a uniformity amongst the population. Daily life was highly organized for everyone. All homes had the same design and floor plan. The civilization was successful because of the people’s dedication to productivity; everyone contributed to the well being of everyone else.
At the end of the story the Americans were shocked at what they perceived as a “lack of liberty” and were subsequently determined to teach this civilization how much better things are for Americans on Earth.
I couldn’t help but think of the Americans’ shortsightedness.
There’s a belief among many that the American way is the right way and any other way, regardless of how successful it is, is the wrong way. Happiness is measured in American societal ideals. We have other cultures right here on this planet that seem so very foreign, yet you can’t help but see happiness and fulfillment in their National Geographic captured images.
I’m reminded of an article I read years ago in a local paper of how a group of well intended folks wanted to liberate children from their Amish schools because they couldn’t possibly be happy without football and band practice and the PTA sanctioned practice of going door to door selling candy bars to pay for all this frivolity. Their happiness and contentment didn’t meet the measure of our standards of happiness and contentment, and therefore it must bad and/or wrong. It must be abuse.
But it’s not. It’s just a different way of doing things.
There is no doubt that our neighbors find happiness in ways that are unfamiliar to us. I have no right to tell them that whatever they’re happily doing in their home is wrong because I would find the same activity agonizingly tedious. So if we take that to the next step, why would I travel to another country or planet and judge the natives on their attainment of happiness?
I don’t know where I’m going with this rambling. Respect one another? Of course. Live and let live? Of course. Someday we’re going to be in the position of meeting beings from another world. It will be a glorious moment for mankind.
Let’s hope no one tries to tell them they need to soup up their spaceships with political stickers or something.
16 Years.
I can’t believe it’s been 16 years since I snapped this photo at a roadside hotel in Breezewood, Pennsylvania. I was on a solo trip, exploring the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I loved my old Mac PowerBook.
Looking back, things didn’t seem as complicated as they are today. Please were writing in blogs or LiveJournals. I think MySpace was on the scene but it was before the days of Facebook and Twitter. Folks had opinions, we as a society always have, but those opinions didn’t seem as loud.
Time marches on. Pendulums swing. We live.
Done.
My husband and I had our second shots of vaccination frivolity on Monday afternoon. Monday evening I went to bed at 7:00 PM and slept until 5:30 AM. Other than feeling tired and a slight sniffle for a couple of hours, I’ve been fine. He’s shown no symptoms.
The entire family will be fully vaccinated on May 19th. We will be going out for dinner in a restaurant with outdoor seating on that night. I am looking forward to the experience.
While I’m confident the microchips installed through the needle are running Linux, I have not experienced being able to see 5G signals, I haven’t lost my mind (any further), and my skin has not turned chartreuse. I’d probably continue to test high on any sort of spectrum tests, so I’m not concerned about that.
Just get vaccinated and do the right thing. Thank you.
