Living in the desert and in an area with light pollution ordinances provides an opportunity for night photography. I decided to climb up on the roof and play around with my Canon EOS Rebel XS with absolutely no idea as to what I was doing.
I need to put a time delay on the shutter, but I feel like I’m headed in the right direction.
I’ve been watching the clouds roll in late this morning and this afternoon. Since moving here nearly a month ago I haven’t seen much in the way of clouds. We had just a couple puffs of clouds over the mountains this morning and they’ve been building since. There’s little chance of rain in the forecast and as a weather buff, I’m interested to see if these clouds just go on their way later today. I might need to take a few shots of the sky from the roof tonight. I’m in the mood to try my hand at this.
One of the things I quickly discovered about Chicago when we moved there in 2017 was that the weather wasn’t too awfully different from what we experienced in Upstate New York. Now that we’ve moved to a completely different part of the country I’m looking forward to experience all facets of the weather here in the desert.
I find the change of scenery quite rejuvenating.
Jamie took a photo during family game night. We played “Catan”. Truman kept an eye on things. Chris won. We all had a good time.
This Sears in Tucson is closed. I like the little southwestern art over the entrance. Apparently this store opened in 1982. It has a slightly interesting vibe to the design, but it’s a shame the store has been closed and is empty.
Truman knows the status of every creature in the back yard at all times. He watches every bird’s arrival and departure, keeps track of the lizards running around, and probably sees things we humans haven’t seen yet.
I took the opportunity to use a portion of the proceeds from the sale of our condo to purchase a Mac mini. The computer arrived today.
I’ve had a few of these machines over the years and I’ve always been pleased with them. I’ve nothing but glowing reviews of the latest incarnation, which is based on Apple’s new M1 chip. The new chip was designed by Apple specifically for Apple products, as opposed to the outsourced Intel chips that have been in Macs for the past decade or so.
My initial impressions are quite favorable. This little guy is quite snappy, even while it’s downloading my iCloud data and installing apps and the like. While my mid-2015 MacBook Pro would constantly scream with the hum of fans while driving my external monitor, this little Mac mini doesn’t even get warm.
I’ll be putting the new computer through its paces next week, as it’s intended to be my primary work computer. I’ll probably be following up with blog entries once I have a bit more experience with it.
I was feeling particularly introspective during my morning walk today. I don’t know if it’s the arrival of spring (however that’s defined in our new home) or the magical sound of the wind sweeping across the desert or the presence of nature all around us again, but something had me pondering life and I’m better for it.
I am happy. I’m actually very happy and am thankful for this blessing of life. I try to never take things for granted and I realized it could all be taken away in nearly an instant, so I strive to treasure each moment, each thought.
For some reason I was thinking of my high school friend that passed on from cancer a couple of years ago. We were close friends in high school, lost touch with one another, found each other on the streets of Boston, connected again, and then he became ill and passed on to whatever lies beyond. I enjoy that he was always a calm one with a dry sense of humor. Now that I think about it, many of my high school friends were rather calm. Maybe I was the high strung one of the group.
This led to me to thoughts about death, and my eventual passing (it happens to everyone, you know), and how I’m very likely well beyond the half way point of this life. I’m not afraid of death. I fully believe without hesitation that something lies ahead on our path and it’s beyond our comprehension as to how wonderful it is. What we call life is just a part of a much larger journey. A sixth sense, a flirtation with death as a youngster, it all just makes sense and is part of a universal truth. I just know these things to be true. I need no proof. I need no reassurance. I just know it to be.
Where am I going with these thoughts? Forward. That’s it. They’re probably mere ramblings written down buy some middle aged guy in a blog of little consequence or impact.
I’m thankful to be able to share them.
I’m settling nicely into my new office. I’m even settling into my new work hours. Having a daily “stand up” call at 6:00 AM MST doesn’t kill my productivity one bit. I get up at 5:30 AM, throw on clothes from yesterday, do the stand up call, and then go upstairs and take a shower, change my clothes, etc., eat breakfast, and get back to work. My workday ends anywhere between 3:30 and 5:00 PM. This gives me time to spend with the family, relax, and such before heading to bed and getting up to do it all over again the next day.
As I get my office set up to my standards, I realized the bigger space has a bit more echo than my old home office back in Chicago. This made my mechanical keyboard sound even louder than usual during Zoom/Teams calls with team workers. Since I try to be as paper free as possible, I often take notes by typing them out while the meeting is in progress and the louder keyboard was not helpful in this situation.
Enter a quieter keyboard from Matias Products. Matias makes a beautiful, ten keyless keyboard that looks like it was made by Apple. The touch is great, the sizing is perfect, and the keyboard is quite sturdy. The case is aluminum and uses the same font that was used by Apple up until the latter half of the 2010s.
I’m quite pleased with it.
For my every day keyboards I opt to not have a 10-key keypad on my keyboards. I like having the mouse closer to center so I don’t have to reach far out to maneuver around. The new keyboard matches my Magic Mouse in black quite well.
I’m quite pleased with this new keyboard and it’s surprisingly affordable. I believe I paid $48 plus shipping, though it’s no longer on sale as of right now at $55. Still, it’s much cheaper than Apple’s wireless counterparts.
Highly recommended.
Whatever you do, don’t buy a Sonos speaker unless you’re absolutely sure it’ll remain in the exact same location, on the same exact wifi hotspot, in the same house forever.
I had a Sonos One speaker in our master bathroom back in Chicago for years. I enjoyed listening to news, podcasts, music, etc. while doing the things one does in the bathroom. It rarely faltered. I had a choice between Amazon and Google as my home assistant; Alexa worked fairly well.
And then we moved to Tucson.
I installed the Sonos One speaker in the master bathroom once again and tried to go through the necessary steps to join the new wifi hot spot in the new house.
Oh my god.
After the eight hard/factory reset of the device I decided to just give up. I gave the Sonos One to Chris (who was a couple that he’s been dealing with in a similar manner) and went ahead and ordered a HomePod Mini.
The HomePod Mini is installed and was setup and running in less than five minutes. I still don’t get the hate directed at Siri or Apple’s HomeKit, our experiences in both Chicago and now Tucson have been flawless. The HomePod Mini has surprisingly robust sound and I’m quite pleased with its performance.
I like it when It Just Works.
Among many other perks, I enjoy being able to step out onto the roof and enjoy the view after a day back at work. Being able to hear the sound of the wind as it blows across the desert is a wonderful thing. I find it very relaxing.
The photo above shows the view from this relaxing spot as I look to the south. Without the urban sounds of living in a major city, I can almost hear Mother Nature sing.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!