My wife took this picture while I was working today. I missed a beautiful day at the lake. Fortunately I had a good day, too.
The Work-ation
It’s a uniquely American thing, I have read, to work while on vacation. I have had to, as recently as last year. Some of my coworkers were reading, reviewing, and revising work papers and memos while on vacation last week. My vacation this year hasn’t technically started yet, but I am now in my family’s summer-vacation spot, my in-law’s lake house, primed to report in for remote work in the morning.
Next week, for me, is planned full-time, remote work, while on vacation with my family. I hope to have no unplanned work time after next week, when my vacation-proper finally begins. That kind of thing has happened in the past, and it could happen again this year.
I feel guilty each year for taking off two weeks with my family and finagling a weeks’ worth of remote work to tack onto it. It seems near impossible and nigh immoral to take off such an extravagant length of time from work. The idea is coming entirely from my own head at this point; no one explicitly tells me I’m doing something wrong, but it certainly feels like I am. I also wonder if my vacations are taking away from my opportunities for promotions, raises, or bonuses. In the end, it is more important to me to spend vacation time with my family, even though it feels like I am stealing that time from work.
Tonight I learned my son has a LinkedIn profile. What’s more, he works for Microsoft.
My son is four years old.
🤯😁😅
My family is at the county fair this evening. It is a little hot but we are having a fun time. The kids love the rides.
I’m going to be driving most of the day tomorrow, so, via Ulysses, I’m scheduling tomorrow’s blog post to be published tomorrow. I am not sure if the post hits the Micro.blog timeline, though. If it did, I would probably use that feature more often.
My new grill was delivered today, but it arrived damaged and I had to refuse it. No grilled hamburgers for me today, I guess. At least I noticed the dent and scuffs before the installers got far along with its setup. Hopefully a replacement will come before the end of the week.
Today we are going to a family birthday party, then restocking the fridge for a week’s worth of camp- and work lunches.
The cake I made for my wife today came out tasty but a little messy. I am wildly inconsistent when it comes to frosting layer cakes. This one ended up with crumbs mixed in, and I didn’t have any frosting left over to put flowers on the top. The ganache and raspberry filling was great, though.
After ten years of service, my gas grill rusted out to such an extent that it is unusable. I thought I could get another couple months out of it, but, alas, part of it fell apart today. I ordered a new grill online right away. Fortunately, I won’t have to assemble or lift it.
I have a bunch of half-finished blog posts lying around, but not enough time to spruce any of them up into something presentable.
Some of my neighbors appear to have town-sized budgets for their Independence Day fireworks displays.
De-camped
One of the difficulties my family has had due to the pandemic is finding a suitable summer camp experience for my nine-year-old daughter. She loves camp, and there was no camp last year. This summer, we opted for what we thought was the safest camp option: a drama camp that promised to be outside only (under tents and such) or virtual if the weather was bad (presumably, if it rained).
Yesterday, a day before camp starts (which is today), the camp changed its terms. It would count heat and humidity as bad weather and would move camp indoors pretty much full time, based on the weather forecasts we have around here. The camp surveyed parents over the weekend and the majority of the parents presumably agreed to this. We, however, did not.
My wife is trying to find an alternative camp now, which is not easy last minute (at least around here). Camps start enrolling in October (which seems absolutely crazy to me). I hope she can work something out.
What I find frustrating about summer now (and this is in New Jersey, not exactly in the South) is that the heat, humidity, air quality, and afternoon thunderstorms make outdoor activities incredibly difficult. It seems like summer is not a good time for summer camp anymore, which doesn’t make sense.
I cleaned out my closet today, which is both exhilarating and depressing. So many clothes to get rid of! So many things held onto for too long. Now I have empty shelves and drawers and nothing to refill them with. May it stay that way, at least until I get an office job again.
All speech is persuasive speech
My wife teaches speech, debate, and dramatic arts to high school students. I love it when she asks me to help her with her lesson plans, because it gives me the chance to take a subject that she has to teach, however uninteresting it may seem (especially if you’ve taught it for 10+ years in a row), and blow it up into something that is the foundation of everything.
Here’s an exchange we had this spring:
Me: What’s the curriculum?
Her: Persuasive speech.
Me: All speech is persuasive speech.
Her: That’s not helpful.
Me: But it’s true!
I always encourage her to start new topics with audacious statements that demand defending. I’m not sure if she ever does, but I think it is important to tie everything you learn about writing and speaking with the fundamental forces that drive communication.
In another life, I would have ended up teaching English at some level, too. I think I would make an excellent high school teach for one or two very smart kids, and a potentially disastrous one for everyone else.
I finally got a Prime Day Deal, but it was from Best Buy
I picked up a Product (RED) Apple Watch 6 at Best Buy for my wife for a great price. Her Apple Watch 3 broke a couple weeks ago, and I ordered her an Apple Watch SE with a red band from Apple. It wasn’t supposed to be delivered until late July, which meant I was able to cancel it and pick up the Apple Watch 6 for her, tonight, for the same price as the Apple Watch SE, thanks to the insane Prime Days sale that other companies glom onto, too.
The red case on her new watch looks really good and matches her phone. The only weird thing is that its battery was completely dead when we opened the box. I bet the red ones did not sell well, which is why there was a fire sale today.
I think this is the best Father’s Day I have ever had. I think the work I put into being a better dad has been paying off. I’m a little misty-eyed right now. 😀
As of right now, I am very glad that, twelve months ago, I bought the extra temples for my daughter’s eyeglasses. 😮💨
Father’s Day Blanket
I already know that one of my Father’s Day presents is a nice warm L.L. Bean blanket. It’s not because I’m old and need a nap. It’s for watching TV at night in the summer. To keep our upstairs anywhere near comfortable for sleeping, our central air has to work very hard. This makes our TV room, which is one of the lowest rooms in the house, absolutely freezing.
My house has central air but we also have room air conditioners in two of the upstairs bedrooms because the central air is not enough to cool them. I think that the root of the problem is that our house does not have enough ductwork upstairs. My house was built in 1980. I wonder if the central air system was designed for 1980 levels of heat, which were lower on average, because it certainly can’t keep up with 2020 levels for the top half of the house.
I could be wrong about that, because I see climate change all over the place around me, and it might just be fatalism on my part. But I think I am at least partially right.
It looks like someone stole my credit card info again. Fortunately, I was able to lock the account online to prevent more transactions. Unfortunately, the credit card company’s fraud center closed before the time stated on their website, and I couldn’t talk to anyone last night about what transactions I need to dispute. What kind of huge credit card company doesn’t have a call center running 24/7?
I hit a technical snag at work that is absolutely killing me right now. The first step in fixing it, I think, is to uninstall Microsoft Office 365. If only that were the last step, too!
I wish I could be more methodical at work, but my stupid, whimsical mood is hard to overcome. I get things done, but not always in the orderly way I had hoped.
We are going (in person) to a (real) birthday party today, for the first time in…oh, never mind. Anyway, my daughter is jumping up and down in excitement, and that’s what is important. 😀🎂
This is turning out to be a terrible year for Apple device spending for my family. I had to buy my wife a replacement Apple Watch yesterday because the screen stopped working on her Series 3 and it is out of warranty. It is the fifth Apple device I have purchased this year. 💸