55° this weekend, 85° next weekend. May can be so weird.

Finally took the time to set up PhotoPrism on my network. Now to figure out how to access it remotely. Another day.

Found a beautiful yet simple habit tracker in the App Store called Onrise. It’s free and comes with widgets, pomodoro timer, and a journal. I’d love to use it but apparently there’s no way to know where the data is stored or how to export data. Wish I could get Shortcuts and iCloud to work with it.

This popped up in photos as a 20-year memory today. This hit me like a ton of bricks. Coachella 2004. Me and some friends drove from Michigan to California, four-deep in a Honda Civic. This is my buddy Trevor. We’ve grown apart and have our own lives now, but I have a lot of good memories.

I’ve saved about $75 in gas in less than 2 weeks with my new car. In reality, it’s likely more because my Subaru only got about 20 miles per gallon in city driving and this calculation uses 25 mpg as a baseline for comparison. Also had to supercharge the first few days before getting my charger.

Without a doubt!

I hope we get high-speed rail in the Northwest before I die.

The State Of High-Speed Rail Projects In The U.S.

Looking for accommodations for our trip to Italy. Although grateful for tools like Google Maps and online reviews, in some ways they almost make it more difficult for me to choose a hotel. Beyond analysis paralysis, guest photos really pull back the curtain on the reality vs the hotel’s photos.

Finally got in to see an ophthalmologist last week for a small concretion I had on my eyelid. It took me a year to get in to see one. I went into primary care last April, then a few months wait to see dermatology, then to optometry (who doesn’t deal with anything but vision), back to primary care, and then another 3 month wait to get to last week’s 10 minute appointment with ophthalmology.

Tell me again how we have the best healthcare system in the world.

Who else here is from a small, out-of-the-way place with few opportunities but still managed to get out and make something of yourself despite the odds?

Sometimes I stop and think about it and feel so lucky.

My annual subscription for Ivory is coming up. I don’t think I’m going to renew. I’m mostly on Micro.blog and Bluesky these days, and Ice Cubes seems to have Mastodon covered. That year went by quick, though.

Received word yesterday that I got approval for nearly $70k in grant funds to install 12 EV charging stations at my work.

One very simple but thoughtful thing about the new car is that the center backrest folds down. As a parent of two young kids in car seats, this is very convenient! Can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to take out a car seat just to make a run to the hardware store for some moulding or lumber.

I was cleaning out some old files and came across the software that came with my 2009 MBP. I still have the machine, too.

Well, it happened. After driving the same beat up old Subaru for 11 years, I got my very first new car at 43 years old. I bought a Tesla Model Y Long Range on Earth Day. I think my son might be more excited than I am.

Went for a drive in the countryside during my lunch break today.

As much as Microsoft Teams has done for remote work, its availability doesn’t entitle people to your immediate attention. I’ve noticed coworkers in other departments following up with me in a Teams chat after just 30 minutes of no response to an email. It’s toxic to expect that kind of immediacy.

La nostra scimmietta. 🐵

#earthday

Kids are watching Scooby-Doo and I’m over here playing the first game video game I ever owned, at age 6.

I’ve noticed a trend recently where the older posts link on blog themes points to the right. This feels very unnatural to me. Gonna have to fix that.

Aforementioned REI grand opening. It’s crazy over here.

The largest REI in Oregon just opened yesterday, about 5 minutes from my house. This is the closest thing to Christmas for outdoorsy adults in the #PNW.

If you sign up for a service or website that celebrates anniversaries, yours will forever be 4/20 if you sign up today. 🌴

I know there are strong opinions about pineapple on pizza, but has anyone ever tried fig? Today I had my first pizza with fig on it, along with ham, Gruyère, and chèvre. Subtly sweet yet sparse enough to compliment the savory without overpowering it. I’d definitely go for it again.