Dave and I have nearly completed our move into a new, slightly smaller home. Naturally, we moved on the hottest weekend in recorded history. As we hauled boxes in 100 degree weather, I had some epiphanies about home and family life.
1. One idea that has a lot of appeal right now is that people should live in one house forever. Get married (or not), get a home, and stay there. Forever. Or until death, whichever comes first.
2. People who aren't going to live in one house their entire adult lives should move every 2-4 years. That way, they'll probably avoid accumulating too much stuff.
3. Ten years (which is how long we lived in our previous home) is entirely too long to live in one house unless one is going to live there until the day one dies.
4. Most of the stuff people own is just stuff. When we acquire it, we think it means something. And it does at that moment. But later on, when the time comes to decide what stays and what goes, a lot of the stuff that seemed so important a long time ago is much less attractive than it used to be. That being the case, one has to wonder why we bother getting it at all.
5. Given #4, I'd rather spend my money doing things I enjoy with people I love than buying stuff. And I'd definitely rather spend my time with them than with a house full of stuff.
I can't add anything else to this list right now. It's time to stop musing and start spending some time with someone I love (Hypatia) doing something we enjoy (walking).
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Friday, July 08, 2011
My MacBook Pro
On Monday evening I was working on my 4.5 year old Toshiba PC laptop when Hypatia ran by my feet, got tangled in the power cord and started yelping away. I untangled her and didn't think much more about the incident.
On Tuesday evening, I was working on my 4.5 year old Toshiba PC when I noticed the battery icon was lit up. I checked the power connections at several points, jiggled some wires and told Dave I had a power problem. Dave promptly checked several power connections, jiggled some wires and told me I'd better shut down the computer until I had a chance to back up any urgent files onto our 1TB external drive. I finally got a chance to do that tonight. The old Toshiba went into critical hibernation to conserve its last remaining bit of battery power just as I was finishing up my file transfers.
On Wednesday evening, I picked up a new computer on the way home from work. The vast majority of my personal and professional computing experience has been on PCs, but I used Macs for some courses at the University of Manitoba and the University of Iowa. Joshua switched to a Mac last Christmas, and Dave and I had talked about making the switch the next time we replaced our laptops. Now, I've gone and done it. I have an Apple iPod, an Apple iPhone, and now an Apple MacBook Pro. Joshua has an iPod, an iPhone and a MacBook. Dave has an iPod and an iPad. When the time comes for him to surrender his employer-provided Blackberry for a personal cell phone, he'll probably buy an iPhone. And when the time comes to replace his PC laptop (which isn't too old - he burned through 4 during the time I was using the Toshiba), he'll probably buy a Mac.
It's going to take me awhile to get used to the Apple OS, and I sort of miss my Toshiba - it's like an old, familiar friend - but I don't have any choice about it now. I just hope I'm not too old to learn some new tricks.
On Tuesday evening, I was working on my 4.5 year old Toshiba PC when I noticed the battery icon was lit up. I checked the power connections at several points, jiggled some wires and told Dave I had a power problem. Dave promptly checked several power connections, jiggled some wires and told me I'd better shut down the computer until I had a chance to back up any urgent files onto our 1TB external drive. I finally got a chance to do that tonight. The old Toshiba went into critical hibernation to conserve its last remaining bit of battery power just as I was finishing up my file transfers.
On Wednesday evening, I picked up a new computer on the way home from work. The vast majority of my personal and professional computing experience has been on PCs, but I used Macs for some courses at the University of Manitoba and the University of Iowa. Joshua switched to a Mac last Christmas, and Dave and I had talked about making the switch the next time we replaced our laptops. Now, I've gone and done it. I have an Apple iPod, an Apple iPhone, and now an Apple MacBook Pro. Joshua has an iPod, an iPhone and a MacBook. Dave has an iPod and an iPad. When the time comes for him to surrender his employer-provided Blackberry for a personal cell phone, he'll probably buy an iPhone. And when the time comes to replace his PC laptop (which isn't too old - he burned through 4 during the time I was using the Toshiba), he'll probably buy a Mac.
It's going to take me awhile to get used to the Apple OS, and I sort of miss my Toshiba - it's like an old, familiar friend - but I don't have any choice about it now. I just hope I'm not too old to learn some new tricks.
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Annapolis Vacation #2
Our vacation in Annapolis is winding down; today is our last full day of rest and relaxation. Our trip hasn't just been about lazing by the pool and meeting other campers of the human and canine kinds. Dave, Hypatia and I also took a couple of trips into Annapolis and did some sightseeing.
The highlight of our first trip was a boat cruise. Here are Dave and Hypatia waiting to board the vessel.
The United States Naval Academy is located right on the harbor, so we got some good looks at it from the water.
We also saw a variety of pleasure-crafts and very official-looking naval vessels.
A couple of days after the cruise, we took a trolley tour of the city. Since I was busy keeping tabs on Hypatia, who didn't cooperate quite as well on the trolley as she did on the boat, I wasn't able to get any photos of the city's beautiful brick buildings. If Dave hasn't posted his photos on facebook yet, he probably will do so soon.
In addition to being the home of the US Naval Academy, Annapolis is the state capitol of Maryland, and the county seat of Anne Arundel County. I did get one shot of the city from a scenic overlook across the bay. The trolley driver gave us a chance to disembark (and Hypatia got to relieve herself) and take some photos. In the foreground of this photo, taken with my iPhone, you can see the state of Maryland's World War II Memorial. It looks a bit like a scaled down version of the national WW2 Memorial in Washington DC. I don't know which structure was built first. In the background of the photo you can see the Naval Academy.
Annapolis is a charming little city. Its ambiance is quite different from that of Charlestown, South Carolina, but its history and charm are just as intriguing as Charleston's. Since it's a much smaller city, it's charm is less diluted by big city trappings than Charleston's.
Today's final photo shows how Hypatia spent her time when she wasn't sightseeing or socializing.
That wraps up my accounts of our Annapolis vacation. Annapolis definitely is a city worth putting on your travel agenda if you haven't been there.
The highlight of our first trip was a boat cruise. Here are Dave and Hypatia waiting to board the vessel.
The United States Naval Academy is located right on the harbor, so we got some good looks at it from the water.
We also saw a variety of pleasure-crafts and very official-looking naval vessels.
A couple of days after the cruise, we took a trolley tour of the city. Since I was busy keeping tabs on Hypatia, who didn't cooperate quite as well on the trolley as she did on the boat, I wasn't able to get any photos of the city's beautiful brick buildings. If Dave hasn't posted his photos on facebook yet, he probably will do so soon.
In addition to being the home of the US Naval Academy, Annapolis is the state capitol of Maryland, and the county seat of Anne Arundel County. I did get one shot of the city from a scenic overlook across the bay. The trolley driver gave us a chance to disembark (and Hypatia got to relieve herself) and take some photos. In the foreground of this photo, taken with my iPhone, you can see the state of Maryland's World War II Memorial. It looks a bit like a scaled down version of the national WW2 Memorial in Washington DC. I don't know which structure was built first. In the background of the photo you can see the Naval Academy.
Annapolis is a charming little city. Its ambiance is quite different from that of Charlestown, South Carolina, but its history and charm are just as intriguing as Charleston's. Since it's a much smaller city, it's charm is less diluted by big city trappings than Charleston's.
Today's final photo shows how Hypatia spent her time when she wasn't sightseeing or socializing.
That wraps up my accounts of our Annapolis vacation. Annapolis definitely is a city worth putting on your travel agenda if you haven't been there.
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