robotech_master

Weekend notes

2020-08-30T20:04:12Z

So, this weekend I've been out exploring various discount stores on my bike. Checked out several places I recently found out about but hadn't ever been, and also took a swing through my old neighborhood on the way back home. It was a pretty fun expedition.

There are actually a number of interesting discount stores not far from the Indianapolis downtown area. Most of them don't have anything too great, but they can be fun to rummage through and see what-all they have. Even if it's not anything you want.

Sadly, none of them have any kind of good DVD/Blu-ray selection. Even the original Bulldog Liquidators, which had a huge selection of movies back in the day, didn't carry them anymore. Probably just as well, given that I can't really afford to be spending huge amounts of money right now anyway.

Today I headed down to visit my brother and sister-in-law Aaron and Karen, about 8 miles east of where I live. Was able to take the Pennsy bike trail for most of it, since they've been working on extending it and have part of the extension very nearly done. The last stretch of it is going to take another year for them to be able to finish, though. Anyway, had a nice game of Settlers of Catan with them (which I won). Will be heading back home soon.

I'm typing this at my brother's house on that keyboard I mentioned the other day. It works really well, just as I had expected, and it's so much fun to type on.

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When the Kickstarters come

2020-08-27T00:42:58Z

I had two items I crowdfunded arrive at the same time today. One of these is my brand new EPOMaker GK68XS Gateron Blue switched mechanical bluetooth keyboard. It's a nifty little portable keyboard, not much bigger than a letter envelope, but it's got full-sized, full-travel keys that are satisfyingly loud and clicky. I'm typing this entry on it now, in fact, via my Kindle 10 tablet. I may pack it in and move back to my desktop before too long, though; the browser keeps crashing on me and losing what I type.

It's not at all a bad little keyboard, really, even though it did cost me $95. Not only is it nice and tactile, it's also got colored backlighting that I can set to any of a number of different patterns. It's not at all a bad typing experience, and it's lightweight and feels pretty sturdy even though I didn't spring for the metal case style. It's interesting to note that this is the first accessory I've run across that uses the new mini USB3 connection standard, like you find on newer smartphones, not the old trapezoidal Micro USB. It came with various swappable keycaps, and even three spare Gateron Blue switches—because with this keyboard, if a key switch starts to go bad, it's easy to swap it out and not have to dump the whole keyboard.

The other purchase was The Elevated Craft Cocktail Shaker, on which I took the $49 Early Bird deal. (It's $53 now.) It's super-fancy with a number of amazing features, and I can't wait to try making a Pina Colada with it. Since the integrated measuring tumbler is in the lid, that should mean I won't have to worry about residue of the cream of coconut remaining in the measuring cup; it'll shake right into the drink when I shake it up, and the strainer in the cap means the ice will stay behind. I foresee a lot of tasty beverages out of this.

Looking forward to trying the shaker out, and the keyboard already is proving to be a pretty good buy.

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A lawsuit that may not suit me

2020-08-24T03:40:55Z

So, a few days ago, I received an email inviting me to participate in a class-action lawsuit against my employer Anthem, on behalf of employees who had been required to be at work before clocking in or after clocking out, to be able to start taking calls on time or finish leftover work. Basically, they're accusing Anthem of wage theft, and not without cause.

I'm well acquainted with this cause, because for the first couple of years I worked there, up until about a year ago, I had to do that myself. We had to be at work 5 to 10 minutes ahead of time so that we had ample time to log into our computers and launch all the apps we needed, so that we could take calls at the stroke of the top of the hour. It was annoying to me, but given that Amazon's warehouse workers lost their lawsuit over having to get to work 25 minutes early so they could go through security to get in, it didn't seem like there was much hope it would change. Then, surprise! About a year ago, it did change after all. We got 10 minutes at the start of our shift after clocking in to log in, boot up all our apps, and start taking calls, and we have ever since. And I'm pleased with that, even though I work from home now. It might not be worth all that much, but it's the principle of the thing.

As aggravated as I was with the injustice of the thing before they finally switched practices, you'd think I'd want to hop right on that lawsuit. But I'm still on the fence, as there are a couple of things holding me back. For one thing, I'm not sure just how likely it is the suit can actually win. After all, if Amazon's workers could be denied 25 minutes of payment per day, what are our chances of getting 5 or 10? (Though apparently the Amazon lawsuit isn't entirely done yet, and the workers are having another go at it, so maybe they could still turn it around.) And the lawsuit page warns that people who join in the suit "may be required to pay a portion of Anthem’s costs" if Anthem wins. Even if Anthem loses (or settles), class action lawsuits don't generally have a good track record of garnering large payouts to class members. So I'm not sure it's worth potentially putting myself on the hook for legal fees in return for maybe ten or twenty bucks if I'm lucky. Class-action suits are more meant to punish the perpetrator for wrongdoing than enrich the members of the class, and they can undoubtedly punish Anthem just fine without my participation.

Also, even though the law forbids Anthem from retaliating against people for taking part in such a lawsuit, I'm not so sure that I want my name on the list of people who did that, given that it might well influence future decisions they make about me even if they don't directly retaliate against me. I do kind of like my job, and don't think I'd want to do anything to endanger it even indirectly. And since they already fixed the early login issue a year back, and I'm no longer being required to work several unpaid minutes a day, it's not like I even really need to participate. I've already got the better outcome I was hoping for.

So, really, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. But I have until October 3 to make up my mind.

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A brief trip downtown

2020-07-07T05:49:43Z

So, I headed downtown for the first time in, well, several months. Since starting to work from home in October, I don't think I've done much visiting downtown at all save for visiting the nurse practitioner at the Anthem building a couple of times, or catching a bus to elsewhere a couple of times. So, with a new mode of transportation available, and the cruel sun no longer shining down from the heavens, I figured it might be fun to check in and see how things are.

I took the Pleasant Run Trail down to Virginia Avenue, near the Anthem building, and stopped in at Tappers Arcade Bar, a video arcade bar where all the video games are free to play as long as you buy something at the bar. They had "Sweet Baby Jesus" chocolate peanut butter porter, which I enjoy, so I had one of those, and played a couple games on the vintage Tron arcade game. Then I moved on to the downtown area, swung around Monument Circle, ran by the convention center where the Gen Con convention isn't being held this year, and cruised around a few more blocks before heading back home along New York Avenue.

It was really something else seeing all the boarded up buildings—either covering broken glass or protecting unbroken glass, not sure which. Some of them had graffiti on them—"BLM" or "#georgearmstrong". One of them, on Jack's Donuts, bore the message, "I'm sorry Chris, but we have to be heard." An apologetic vandal, now I've seen it all. But then, a couple of the boarded windows actually had murals painted, saying "we're all in this together" and memorializing the victims who touched off the movement. I found that kind of heartwarming.

The expression, "May you live in interesting times," isn't actually an ancient Chinese curse, but still, with all this year has done so far, I'm starting to understand the meaning behind it in a fully practical way. I hope things calm down soon and next year is substantially less interesting.

One other thing I saw downtown was that a lot of Lime and Bird electric scooters are still in use there. Apparently Bird has stopped turning them off at 9 p.m., because it was after 11 and people were still cheerfully whizzing around on them. I made good money on those a couple of years back, but apparently Lime and Bird have given up on the outskirts of town and chosen to concentrate their scooters strictly in the downtown areas—nowhere near me.

When I checked Juicer Mode on the Lime app, I noticed that the standard fee for juicing scooters now is only $2.75. There were several around that I could have gotten if I'd had a way of getting them home, and the urge to go back into town and drop them off before 7 a.m. If I end up getting a trailer for my e-bike, maybe I could do some of that. But it doesn't seem like $2.75 per scooter is even worth amount of time and effort I'd have to put in for it.

Anyway, I guess I should go get in bed. Have to get up early tomorrow and get back to the grind. Back to normal, so far as "normal" goes…

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And so ends my ten-day weekend

2020-07-07T01:38:37Z

It's been a busy rest of the vacation from the time I last posted. On Saturday, I felt like going down to my brother Alex's place to visit, so I asked him if that would be okay. He said they were just about to head over to his wife's brother's place nearby, but that I was welcome to come along, and even stay overnight. So I quickly showered, packed my CPAP and tablet, and trundled on down there. Took about 45 minutes to ride the 16 miles. Alex made me a cup of coffee and showed me his new laser CNC gizmo, which could burn or cut things with a laser. Was pretty neat.

After that, we drove over to Target and Alex kindly bought me a six-pack of beer to take along. After checking the selection, I opted for the whimsically titled "Fear. Movie. Lions" double IPA, which was suitably tasty. And in reading the text on the side, I was introduced to a system of navigation called What3Words, which assigns a specific set of three words to every three-by-three-meter (or ten by ten foot) square the whole world over, so that you can tell someone exactly where you are just by making sure they're clear on what three words you just told them. You look it up in their app, and their app can then call whatever GPS navigation software you use on your phone to plot you a course to it. Or, you can look up the words via their website to see where they are.

I think it's a pretty nifty idea. Just make sure the person you're giving directions to also has the app installed, or else can look it up in the web browser, and then you can tell them exactly where to find you with just three words. Could be especially useful in situations where there's no precise street address available, such as rural areas, parks, and so on.

We didn't opt to stay into the evening for fireworks, but instead headed back to Alex's place. As it got dark, I sat out on the back porch and watched the rest of Alex's neighborhood shoot off fireworks for a while. He lives in a fairly well-to-do suburb, and several houses seemed to be firing off full-fledged semi-professional starbursts. They were seriously impressive, though I had to wonder what was going to happen if burning cinders fell on top of someone's house and lit it on fire.

Later that night, after the kids had been put to bed, I walked Alex through the first couple of ships on Hardspace: Shipbreaker, a fun Steam early-access deconstruction game centering on taking spaceships apart piece by piece. He seemed to get the hang of it pretty well. I wonder if he'll continue playing it.

After that, I went to bed. I was a little nonplussed to realize I'd forgotten to pack my toothbrush, my pills, and my weighted blanket, but I could get along without those. I had packed my CPAP and some distilled water for it, which were the important thing. As it turned out, even without the weighted blanket I slept like a rock, and awoke refreshed and well-rested. I had my brother spray sunscreen on my back and covered the rest of me in it myself, and hit the road for home.

On the way back to my place, I decided to play some Ingress—or as it's called now, Ingress Prime. I hadn't really been into this geolocation game for a couple of years, since I had lost the ability to get easily from place to place, but with the new bike, and the seventeen mile route back home, I felt like giving it another shot. There was only one in-game badge keeping me from hitting level 14, and the easiest one to get would involve creating a few big fields. And as it happened, there were a couple of portals en route that would make great anchors for a multi-layered series of fields I could set up through various portals in my home neighborhood.

So I stopped at one of the portals and hacked out a dozen keys, then headed on back north to the Ash & Elm cider brewpub, where I enjoyed a couple of glasses of apple cider while hacking out a dozen keys there. After that, I headed home to my neighborhood and started making my fields. If the preceding doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you, don't worry. It's game talk. Other Ingress players would understand it, though. Suffice it to say that before I was over, I had made level 14, so yay there. It'll probably take forever to get the quals for level 15, but there's only 16 levels in the game, so having made 14 is quite an accomplishment.

After that, I headed back home. After spending some time relaxing, I took my Trek bike over to the local bike shop to put it in for a tune-up. They're about three weeks backlogged, but having the new bike means I don't really need the Trek for a few weeks anyway. And it gets it out of the way in my house for a while.

When it came time for bed, I found that the application of sunscreen to my back had been a little spotty. A stripe had been missed right along my back, just above my shorts. It stings, even with the aloe/lidocaine aftersun gel I had bought during a previous encounter with sunburn. But oh well.

This morning, got a call from the bike shop saying that my bike's drive train is completely worn out and needs replacement, to the tune of $230. Which I certainly agree probably needs doing, but it's not exactly in my budget right now. When I went out to mail a package this morning, I stopped in there to discuss it with them. I'll probably just end up having them do the regular tuneup for now, and bring the Trek back in for the replacement when and if I get another stimulus check.

And that's pretty much all the news I have to report from the tail end of my vacation. Tomorrow, I go back to work from home on the phone for Anthem, spending all day taking calls from my attic. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, though given I've had over a week off to rest and recuperate I think it will actually be a nice change of pace. And at least I'll have greater mobility during the times I'm not working. And I'll finally be getting some proper exercise.

Granted that my bike's electric motor is doing the vast majority of the work getting me from place to place, I'm still able to put in some effort pedaling along. It's just that I don't have to. So I'm thinking of the bike as being effectively like a stationary exercise bike that also happens to move. I can pedal along as much or as little as I want, but the more I do pedal, the more I'll eventually be able to pedal, and it will help build up my endurance and perhaps also start working off some of the quarantine/work-from-home weight. Back when I was bicycling to and from work on my Trek over the last couple of summers, I actually lost a few pounds without even trying to. Hopefully the same thing will apply now. I just have to keep pedaling until I get tired, and eventually I won't get tired as quickly.

Now that it's the evening and the sun is down so it won't further aggravate my sunburn, I'm thinking I'll get on the bike again and go a few more miles. Maybe I'll head downtown and back, eking out some nostalgia from following the old routes I used to use to commute in and home on the Trek. Since the bike has lights, it'll be a pretty safe run.

Anyway, I hope you all had a happy fourth, and that the coronavirus doesn't get ya. Later!

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Another adventuresome day

2020-07-03T21:40:58Z

So, I rode 39.7 more miles today.

This morning I got up at 9, and at about 10 biked down to Hardees to get breakfast. Had a little difficulty making myself heard at the drive-through, finally had to wait 'til the truck behind me pulled up to trigger the detector so I could place my order too. When I got up to the window, I found the person in the car in front of me had paid for my order. That was nice of her.

At 11:30, after calling to make sure places were open, I sprayed myself all over with SPF 50 sunscreen and hit the road again. Headed down to a nearby Speedway to fill a jug with ice water, then headed north to Michigan and west to the Monon Trail. Technically, you're not supposed to have e-bikes under motor power on that trail south of 96th, but I've never gotten in trouble for it yet, and I think as long as I ride politely and don't hazard anybody else along the way that I probably won't.

Partway up the trail, at 12:30 I stopped at the Half Liter brewpub, formerly known as Bent Rail. Didn't really care much for their selection of beers, as they're mostly Germanic lagers, and no IPA on the menu. Had a smoked lager, it was okay, and was on the way again at 1. I took the Monon farther north than I ever had before, to 116th street, then headed east to stop in at Cost Plus World Market. Got there at about 1:30, picked up a few snacks and stuff, a Terry's dark chocolate orange (which the cashier warned me would melt in a hurry if I wasn't careful), and a six-pack of assorted novelty sodas—two each of Cheerwine, Moxie, and Earp's Original Sarsaparilla. Put the sodas in my front basket, and left a little after 2. As I was leaving, I noticed a Jeep with Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. decals pull into the parking lot. Doing errands for Agent Coulson, were they?

Got to Trader Joe's a little after 2:30. Waited in line outside for 10 or 15 minutes, then got in and did some shopping. Again, I didn't get much stuff, just some snacks and frozen stuff to put in an insulated bag I'd brought with me. (And I chucked in that chocolate orange, too.) Hit the road for home about 3:15.

Just about three miles from home, there was a loud POP. One of the soda bottles in the front basket had gotten jounced around enough that it finally exploded, just like someone had shot the top off it with a six-gun. Really, it's just a little too on-the-nose that it turned out to be one of those Earp's Original Sarsaparillas.

Got home around 4, put the frozen stuff in the freezer, carried the five remaining soda bottles up to my attic to go into the mini-fridge, took the bike out to the garage to charge. And now I'm sitting at my computer relaxing. It was a fun trip, but kind of exhausting, especially since I tried not to let myself just coast on the motor all the time—I made sure to pedal a bunch too, so I would get at least some exercise out of it.

This is just so much fun…I wonder where I'll go next?

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A busy day, a Juiced bike

2020-07-03T05:26:42Z

So, I had my adventure today. After two months of waiting, my Juiced Rider ODK II was finally ready. It was time to go pick it up and ride it home.

At 2:30, I caught the bus downtown, and took a transfer to a bus that went to Traders Point Mall, the farthest point northwest in the Indianapolis city bus system. Then I called for an Uber to take me on out to the eBoom Electric Bikes shop in Whitestown. When I got there, at about 4:45, I paid the costs of the tuneup and repairs (about $170 in all), and they finished bolting the battery in place. Turned out that they had to get new screws for it; the new battery was from the next year's model of bike, and had switched to a different screw size. Also, the relay from one of the handbrakes to cancel the cruise control was still broken off and dangling, but they were able to electrical tape it into place. Happily, the battery had finished completely charging during the day; apparently it had been shipped partly charged after all. So I strapped the old battery onto the cargo rack, told Google Play Music to cue up "Born to be Wild," and off I went at about 5:30 or so. My plan was to head east to Cost Plus World Market, a nifty foreign and specialty foods, drinks, and furniture shop, and get a little shopping in.

The bike's low center of gravity and huge handlebars took a little getting used to after two years of riding my Trek. (And my Trek also takes getting used to after I've done much riding of the Juiced.) But happily I soon got the knack again.

The ride was a fun trip through Indianapolis's rural outskirts and suburbs. I passed huge fields of corn and other crops, met the occasional cyclist, while nifty music blasted in my ears. I rode down a bike and jogging trail while listening to Deep Purple's "Highway Star," that was fun. I got to see parts of town I'd never seen before, and may very well never see again as I probably won't have any reason to bike that particular route again. At one point, in a suburb, I drove past what looked like an ancient cemetery with a sign up saying do not disturb, it's being restored. Now I kind of wish I'd stopped and taken a closer look at it. I doubt I'd be able to find it on Google Maps.

I got to World Market a little before seven, parched from my ride—but their chilled-drinks cooler was out of order, so they didn't have any cold drinks. So I headed over to a nearby McDonalds, paid $1 for a big Barq's root beer, inhaled it, used the restroom, and headed back to World Market…to discover that the place had closed at seven. Whoops. But no big deal; I can go there again earlier in the day sometime now that I've got my e-wheels.

So I headed on to my next stop, Triton Brewing Company, a nifty place that I'd been to a few times before when my bike had been working with its original battery. It has a convenient power outlet right by the bike rack, so I was able to give the bike a half hour of charging while I had a couple of beers. (I make the joke that the company that makes my bike renamed itself from Juiced Rider to Juiced Bikes…but since I was able to charge up my bike while I drank, I had a juiced bike and a juiced rider!)

After that, I headed down to visit my brother and sister-in-law, who live out by German Church Road. (I blanked out their address in the photo below.) Had a nice chat, then headed on home as it is getting dark. At Post Road, I headed down onto the newly completed segments of the Pennsy Trail to ride it the rest of the way home. It's not officially open to the public yet, but all the segments west of Post are paved, it's easy to navigate around the sawhorses blocking the ends, and it's a safer and nicer path for a bike than going along the busy road. Over the next few months, it should extend all the way out to German Church Road to link up with the segment of Pennsy Trail that starts there and continues east. I'm quite looking forward to being able to visit bro & sis-in-law as easily as just getting on the Pennsy a block east of my house, and getting off it a couple blocks north of theirs.

I got home around 10ish, having ridden 45.1 miles over the course of the day according to Google Maps. And although I had added a half hour of charge time at Triton, nonetheless the battery indicator hadn't even had a single light go out yet. This battery is everything I need it to be in terms of charge time.

Before I put my bike away, I went ahead and mounted the Schwinn detachable front basket I'd ordered in from Amazon. Had to move my headlight, but all in all it worked. It's going to be handy to have that extra space to carry groceries and stuff. Down the road, I'll look into getting a trailer, but I've pretty much blown my budget for the next little while.

Now the bike is out in the garage, recharging, and I'm up at my computer…also recharging, but in a different way. As I had planned to do, in celebration I opened one of my $10 Dogfish Head 120 Minute beers that I save for very special occasions. It was good.

I guess that's all I have to report about my adventure today. The whole thing was great fun, and I can't wait to take my bike out on some more longer trips over the next few days before I have to get back to work again.

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My e-bike MAY be ready today...

2020-07-02T17:48:38Z

Well, I'm about to embark upon a Grand Adventure. After two months of waiting, my battery finally arrived at the e-bike shop yesterday. The proprietor was really busy and asked me to hold off until today to pick it up…and that's what I'm about to do. My brother who ran me up there with it last time isn't conveniently available right now, so I'm going to take two buses to get as close to the shop as I can, then uber or taxi the rest of the way. I'm going to have to leave in less than an hour to be able to make it before they close.

Assuming that the bike works. The bike shop owner's been charging the battery, and she's going to put it in the bike and test it at 2. If it doesn't work, then I guess I'll hold off going up there until it does. But I hope it does. I'm really looking forward to riding it home.

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More bike delays

2020-06-25T02:02:41Z

So, I got all excited on Monday when I got the news that my Juiced Bike battery was finally ready to ship, after a month and a half of waiting. But the excitement may have been premature.

When I checked up on the FedEx tracking number they gave me, the status never changed. It just said "Shipment information sent to FedEx" and was never updated. Finally, today at lunch I called Juiced again, and they checked and found that the battery was being sent back to them by FedEx, due to a lack of documentation. I checked in with them again shortly before closing time there, and the rep said she'd passed it on to her manager to see that it got corrected and shipped back out again. There hadn't been any further updates by the time they closed at 8 eastern, but hopefully I will hear something tomorrow.

At this point, it seems highly dubious that the battery will arrive on Friday as originally projected. It's got to come all the way from Chula Vista, California to Indianapolis, Indiana, and it will have to come by ground because that kind of battery cannot be air-shipped. But on the other hand, I went ahead and took all of next week, plus the following Monday, off work, to have plenty of time to ride it, so hopefully I'll still get a good few days in before I go back to work.

Assuming something else doesn't go wrong. Like, my bike's motor refusing to work once the new battery's connected to it (it has sat idle for a couple of years, after all), or my charger not being compatible, or something else like that. With as many things as have gone wrong already, I can't help but think that maybe something more is right around the corner. Argh!

Meanwhile, I've been looking ahead to accessorizing. The cargo rack is nice, but not exactly convenient to strap stuff to sometimes. But there are bike trailers. This one on Amazon looks potentially useful, but the hitch looks like it's made for normal bikes, not ones like my ODK II that have a huge cargo deck behind the seat. Maybe something with side-hitches, like this one, would be a better bet. Well, I'll keep looking. It's not like I'll be investing in it any time soon. My new phone, smartwatch, and whatever the other repairs to my bike cost will have depleted my savings considerably for the next little while.

Hopefully I'll get some good news about shipping time tomorrow. Will just have to wait and see…and give Juiced another call at lunchtime.

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Good news on the bike battery front

2020-06-22T19:42:44Z

Got some unexpectedly good news on my bike battery today. Gave Juiced my delayed weekly call, and learned that the approval from FedEx to start shipping bike batteries through them finally came through last week. The CS rep said they'd re-escalate my request to their manager, who would contact me by phone or email with an update. So, fingers crossed that the logjam will clear and the thing actually will ship soon. Really looking forward to bringing that e-bike home.

Definitely enjoying my new phone and my new smartwatch. It's nice to have a wrist gadget that actually works right again.

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Sunday morning update

2020-06-21T07:03:23Z

Life proceeds apace. Haven't done anything hugely exciting since my last entry over a week ago. My new phone arrived and I've been enjoying it. In a lot of ways, it's a big improvement over the old one; in a few, it isn't, but most of those are pretty minor. I will probably write a longer post about it for TeleRead in a few days.

My old Pebble Smartwatch has been getting less and less reliable, and finally I got fed up enough with it to see what was around in a replacement. For $80 I found a fairly minimalist watch that looks pretty decent. Battery life should last more than a full day if I take appropriate precautions, and that's all I can really ask. It arrived Saturday morning, and I'm fairly pleased with it so far.

That electric fan I mentioned in the last entry did arrive, and it's definitely very useful in my attic. And it lets me keep my smaller fan down there and not have to keep moving it back and forth. I count that as a win.

Still no sign of the bike battery. I went to phone the company again for my weekly pester Friday, and found they were closed in observance of Juneteenth. I can't exactly fault them for that, and it probably wouldn't have made a whit of difference if I had been able to get through to them, but still, a little annoying.

Took the bus down to the store and spent $300 on groceries, which I got my brother Aaron's help to haul back to my apartment. There were some needful things there I definitely needed, plus a few things I just wanted.

Suppose I should go to bed now…

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Wednesday report

2020-06-11T00:49:53Z

Yesterday, my health insurance company employer magnanimously announced that for the two paychecks I'd get in the month of June, it wouldn't deduct health/dental/vision insurance premiums from the checks. This seems like a rather fortuitous bit of timing, given that I'd just decided to order a new smartphone. Today I had a look at the check I'll be getting Friday, and turns out I'll be getting about $150 extra altogether, or 1/8 of a stimulus check. Well, I'm certainly not gonna look that gift horse in the mouth; it'll pay for most of the costs of my new phone.

And I should have the new phone on Monday. Got one of the cases I ordered for it today. It's a nice case, though doesn't necessarily have all the features I want. Went ahead and ordered another one. But I don't think I'll send this one back; it didn't cost enough to be worth the hassle of returning it. Maybe I'll just use both of them at different times. Remains to be seen.

Other recent purchases I'm waiting on include an electric fan that's like two days overdue now. Wonder where it is. Amazon's usually better at getting stuff out quickly, but I guess that the pandemic and riots have put a kink in things.

Was pleasantly cool after getting off work this evening, so I took a bike ride three blocks east to the Taco Bell. When I was making a quick Aldi run the other day, I noticed the place had re-opened. It has social distancing and sanitation measures in place (like, you can't use the same cup for soda refills, and you have to ask them for sauce packets and stuff), and it's even got a couple of touchscreen self service kiosks for credit card orders. They're pretty nice, and will even let you customize your order, like adding guacamole or other extras to your tacos or burritos. It's nice not to have to get up in someone's face to place my order, and to be able to key in exactly what I want without worrying that the order-taker might misunderstand me.

I wouldn't have thought Taco Bell could be a comfort food, but you know, it really is. Nothing says "normal" like stuffing your face with trashy fake Mexican food.

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Been a busy month

2020-06-09T05:09:54Z

Well, here I am again. Over a month since my last entry. I guess my determination to keep journaling frequently kind of went by the wayside.

So, what can I write about. Wracking my brains to come up with anything that's happened that's worth talking about. I guess I'll just start writing and see where the post goes.

Still haven't gotten that bike battery yet. Apparently my order happened right about when the bike company ran into some logistics issues and had to change its shipper over to FedEx. And there was a matter of paperwork to ship large batteries, which could be deemed a fire hazard. They got the paperwork in, but it remains to be seen when Fed Ex will approve it. So now I'm checking the order status page every day, and giving them a call once a week or so. Still no news. It's very frustrating, but I'm schooling myself to patience. It'll come when it comes.

Work has been getting really really busy, the last few weeks. It's just about back to as busy as it was during the end/beginning of year peak season, probably in part because when traffic dropped way off at the height of the coronavirus scare they laid off all the temp workers. I really hope they're working on training up a new batch. I hope things normalize, and/or they get a new batch of temps in sometime soon. It's getting kind of exhausting.

My Lemonbrat snow leopard cloth face mask arrived in early May. It's pretty comfy, though it is also a bit warm to wear (especially with a filter pad in it). But it's very handy for going out, and I think it looks pretty awesome. I've been wearing it while out in public, like shopping at Aldi. It's good to know that I'm not contributing to the problem, plus it's an awesome fashion statement.

Continuing to enjoy the Homecoming City of Heroes game. Have written several more guides over the last month. I'm really starting to build up a rather respectable library of them, and I'm amused that now other people on the Homecoming Discord are starting to share the link for that post to newcomers even before I can. Incidentally, if any of you want to join the game, and play on Torchbearer, I'll be happy to team up!

My regular bike got a flat tire. When I ventured out to get it fixed, I noticed a couple of interesting changes in the neighborhood. For one, a nearby wine store/bar has rebranded itself as a coffeehouse (while still also being a wine store/bar, apparently). Haven't had the chance to look into it yet; it's closed Mondays. Maybe I'll stop in tomorrow.

Also noticed that a call-ahead-to-drop-your-pet-off-at-the-door veterinary clinic has opened in one of the shops that I literally live just behind. Seems like this might be just the excuse I need to get around to taking my cats in for a check-up and some shots. Up to this point, getting them to any vet anywhere would have been a major exercise in logistics, so I really haven't had them out to one since I first got them some years back. (Goodness…have I really had them for nearly 12 years now?) Given that they're entirely indoor cats, I haven't felt the need to get them shots, because they never go outside or mix with other cats to be exposed to potential sources of infection. (How about that? Even my cats socially isolate.) I suppose I'm fortunate in that they've by and large been pretty healthy, all things considered. Going to see the vet might be expensive, but I suppose that's what savings accounts are for. I guess I should look up their webpage and see what their rates tend to be, then maybe make some plans to make an appointment.

And speaking of what savings accounts are for… To my annoyance, my Moto X4 smartphone is starting to give up the ghost. I suppose it's to be expected. As I discovered when I looked up my original review of it, I've had it for two and a half years now. Funny how time flies. Anyway, it got to the point where I had to factory reset it a couple of times, and it's still not quite right—a couple of times, it's refused to wake up from sleep, and I had to hold down the power button to cycle it.

I could have filed a device protection claim with Project Fi, since I pay the monthly fee, but they'd charge me $100 or so and just send me the same phone—or if not the same phone, some other model that I wouldn't have any choice over. On the other hand, since my phone does still power on and the screen isn't broken, I could trade it in for $38 in value toward a new one. (Or yes, maybe I could sell it for a little more than that in cash on eBay or wherever, but I'm not sure that I could in good conscience sell a phone that I know is starting to go out. At least this way I get something back out of it.)

Sadly, Project Fi doesn't exactly offer a wide selection of phones. I was going to go with a Pixel 3a XL for $350, and had even started to place the order—then I looked up a review and learned that the 3a only has 64 GB of storage and doesn't have any kind of SD card slot at all. That's not good, given that the Moto X I have now with that amount is starting to run out of space with all the apps I have on it. But the only choices were that, a much-more-expensive Pixel 4, or else the Motorola Moto G Power or Moto G Stylus.

After some deliberation, I decided to go with the $250 Moto G Stylus. It's got 128 GB storage, plus an SD card slot, a bigger screen, and a fairly amazing collection of cameras for the price point. Sadly, it's missing a couple of features I like on the Moto X—it's not waterproof, and it doesn't have NFC so I won't be able to use Google Pay to make credit card payments with it. But neither one of those things is really a dealbreaker, and given how much cheaper it is, it won't take as long to rebuild the chunk I'm taking out of savings for it. And it will be nice having a 6.4" screen again. And maybe in another couple of years something better will be available at a cheaper price point.

When I was glancing back at my Facebook, trying to see if I wrote about anything I was doing or experiencing that I could recount for this blog, I just found a whole lot of news story shares about the other big story that blew up in late May—the asphyxiation death of George Floyd and the protests it prompted. Really, it's been a pretty crazy last few weeks, especially coming on top of the earlier COVID-19 panic. And it seems like all of my conservative Facebook friends have gotten even more polarized and hard to relate to. I don't know if it's time to unfriend them, given that some of them are long-time fellow Robotech fans or other people I still feel some non-political kinship to. But maybe I should start putting a few of them on 30-day sleeps just to save my sanity a little. In times like these, sanity is a valuable commodity.

And I really should try to write more about what I'm doing at any given time. Maybe return to Tweeting about it, since my tweets are at least aggregated and posted to my LJ. So it would at least be one way of chronicling my life when I don't feel like writing lengthy posts here. Because when I try to rack my brains for anything interesting I did over the last few weeks, it's hard to come up with anything. It feels like I've kind of just been existing. Staying at home, working all day, gaming in the evening. Going out to shop at Aldi every now and again.

That's part of why I hope that bike battery hurries up and comes; having that electric bike back with that super-long-range battery will give me an excuse for getting out and about, ranging farther afield from my cramped little home. I'm really looking forward to it.

So, I guess I found a few things to write about after all.

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Stimulus spent, bike dropped off, battery ordered

2020-05-02T20:19:11Z

Well, just pulled the trigger on a $1300 bike battery order from Juiced. Having it shipped directly to the bike shop that is servicing my bike—that being eBoom Electric Bikes in Whitestown, about 22 miles northwest of me. Had contacted them via text earlier this week to confirm they could work on the bike for me, and Aaron came out and loaded it into his SUV and off we went.

Happily, we arrived to find them open. I hadn't thought to text and confirm ahead of time, apart from them having told me a few days ago they would be. When I wheeled the bike in, it turned out that the lady who ran the place had only just worked on the same model of bike for someone else a few days before. I was happy to know this, as it meant they'd already be familiar with the model. She looked at the bike and identified some things that needed fixing, like broken spokes. I advised as how I wanted a complete tune-up and battery replacement if possible.

She noted that I'd have to order the battery myself, because the woman with the other bike had needed a new battery as well but the company didn't have them in stock and wasn't making any more. However, it turned out she was using the medium size of battery. Juiced still has both the small and large sizes in stock, so when I got home I went ahead and placed the order.

It's a princely sum, to be sure, but I console myself in the knowledge that the money I spent on it really wasn't my money. It was a bonus I got from Uncle Sam to stimulate the economy, and so I'm spending it to do just that. Anyway, it seems only right I use the stimulus on something that can fill a need I have in light of Coronavirus now making it impossible to use BlueIndy and unsafe to use public transit. (And the bus people won't let me load my bike on the front anymore anyway, so I have to have the juice to support long round trips. And that size of battery should darned well have that juice!) Hopefully there won't be any problems with filling the order. I'm really excited about having that bike back, and I'll definitely take better care of this battery pack.

After I get the bike back, I'll probably also contact the battery reconditioning company that Juiced recommended and see about having them recondition the old battery pack. It can't hurt to have a spare available, especially if they run out of stock on these batteries to by the next time I need to replace them.

On the way back, we stopped at Trader Joe's for me to pick up some groceries, and then Five Guys for a burger and fries. Had a nice long conversation with Aaron. As we were talking, he mused on how we all grew up in a rural farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, so we had to be used to spending all the time hanging around the house because there just wasn't anywhere to go. He wondered if that was a factor in us generally finding it easier to cope than some people have been. "Stuck at home, can't go anywhere? That's not quarantine, that's just winter." Seems to me he might just have a point there.

Got home, put away groceries, chilling. Relishing being home again after being out and about. Hopefully before too long I'll be out and about on my e-bike.

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The juice is loose!

2020-04-28T21:15:47Z

Well, with the stimulus coming in, and BlueIndy going away, and word having it that a biking trail that would connect me almost directly to where my brother and sister-in-law Aaron and Karen live will soon be completed to stretch all the way across instead of petering out halfway, my thoughts have once again turned to the ol' ebike. I got a Juiced Rider ODK2 some years back, and rode it all over town, until the battery gave out two years ago. At the time, replacing the battery was beyond the scope of my finances, so I shoved it in the garage and made do without. The cheapest battery I could possibly get would run $650, and the best replacement battery would be $1200—and I only paid $1600 for the bike.

But suddenly I got that $1200 stimulus check, combined with my tax return and some entirely decent quarterly/yearly bonus payouts from work. And I'm suddenly thinking about how nice it would be to have that longer-range cargo bike back at my disposal, especially if I could upgrade the battery so I can take longer trips. One nice thing about the e-scooter craze of the last couple of years is that it's taught me some things about how small electric motors should be treated so I'm sure I can do a better job of not abusing the battery this time around.

The problem is, just who to get to work on it? The fellow I bought it from, who ran an ebike dealership out of his garage, passed away. I contacted the manufacturer, and they pointed me at a moonlighting mechanical engineer in Indianapolis who even did house calls…but he cancelled my order through the Velotool website without a word of explanation offered. Maybe he's just social-distancing for the moment. Fortunately, there's an ebike shop in the area, eBoom, who I contacted and they said they will work on it for me. So I've asked Aaron to drive me and the bike up to it on Saturday, and we'll see how it goes from there.

Getting out on the ebike will also help me get some exercise during the quarantine, if I keep the motor on low and pedal for part of the speed. Work on shedding these quarantine pounds I'm sure I'm picking up. And with the weather getting nicer, it'll be a good way to go. I'll be able to do Trader Joe's runs again, and get out to other businesses when they're open.

I had some great adventures on that bike while it was running the first time. Am really looking forward to seeing how it runs again.

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Stimulated

2020-04-15T15:37:04Z

At about 1:30 a.m. last night, the $1200 stimulus payment hit my bank account. Thank goodness for direct deposit, so I don't have to wait for a certain someone to have his name printed on the check, huh? Some people seem to think that this will be taken right back out of this year's taxes, but various resources online say it won't. Either way, I'm not in immediate need of it, since I'm still working my regular job. So I threw it into my savings account, with an extra $100 just because I have the balance on hand. This significantly more than doubled what I had in there already. I'm not exactly the best at saving money, especially since last year's Gen Con depleted a few hundred bucks out of it. :P

Now, of course, there are all kinds of things I could spend that money on. I could buy another 49cc motor scooter with it for help getting around now that BlueIndy's kaput. Or, for a safer alternative, I could get that e-bike sitting in my garage the last couple of years reconditioned and have new batteries put on it. That may be the way I'll go, especially since a neighbor has been talking about getting an old car of his fixed up so I can use it for things that require motor transportation. But there's no hurry, and I've got time to look into possibilities. Really, I feel better just knowing I've got a slightly bigger nest egg now for in case unexpected expenses come up.

One thing I just spent a bit of my tax return money on is a new keyboard for my personal computer. My old one finally bit the dust for good, so I looked at Amazon for an inexpensive mechanical model. The one I settled on was this Redragon K556 light-up gaming keyboard for $63, using some of the Amazon gift card balance I put part of my tax refund in. It arrived yesterday, a day earlier than expected, and I'm typing on it now. It's not quite as "clicky" as I would have wanted, but it's more than clicky enough to suit for the amount I paid for it. And it's got some rather nifty light patterns—18 of them, in fact. Some of them are relatively static, others light up keys or the keys around them as you type, others send light patterns across the keyboard. Maybe the hardest thing to get used to is that there's no frame around the keys, like on most other keyboards I've used. The keyboard backing stops where the keys end.

Had another weird dream last night. My parents were paying for an online literary criticism class for me, using a Japanese book of short stories. Since paper books were harder to come by in the current situation, it would be downloadable to e-readers. I don't remember what the title of the book supposedly was. I don't think it was meant to be the book of Japanese fairy tales I donated to Project Gutenberg, but something more to do with samurai drama.

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Happy Easter...

2020-04-12T23:00:02Z

Yesterday afternoon, in the name of getting out of the house and picking up a few minor things I forgot to order from Meijer, I bicycled down to Aldi. It was my first time in a grocery store since the advent of coronavirus, and it was interesting.

The store had implemented a cap on the number of people permitted in the store, and had an attendant out front only letting people in as other people came out. He was also spraying and wiping down the handles of shopping carts as he passed them out. (The quarter checkout seemed to be in abeyance at the moment.) I had to wait about 5 minutes before I was cleared to go in.

Shopping was pretty much as usual, most people seemed to respect social distancing. A number of things had quantity limits—not just toilet paper and paper towels, but also things like canned sardines. Store employees were wearing masks and gloves. People were standing six-ish feet apart in line at the checkouts (amusingly, someone just browsing the aisle behind the checkout line looked like they were also in line, and told me to go ahead when they realized that). There are now huge plexiglass sneeze shields in front of each register, with a little hole to reach through to work the card-and-PIN pad.

Grilled myself another steak last night. Couldn't quite eat the whole thing, so put part of it aside, and this morning chopped it up and made myself a cheesesteak omelet with that and a little pizza cheese sprinkled on. It was very tasty. May make sloppy joes tonight; haven't had those in a while, and they do have a lot of leftovers so make for several more meals that I don't have to go eat out for. I should do more of that.

Now have several steaks in the freezer, meaning I can have a steak dinner on the weekend without worrying about where it will come from. Ah, luxury.

Not doing anything out of the ordinary for Easter. Just sitting at home again, enjoying myself. Should maybe go ahead and do some laundry or something, though; about out of clean socks.

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A good Friday, and a better Saturday…

2020-04-11T17:57:34Z

Well, I had a pretty good Friday. Everything was even quieter than usual at work.

Got a craving for Chinese food, and stopped myself from spending $25 to order some via Grubhub. Really, I gotta cut down on that. Save my money. But I did notice there's a Chinese restaurant within 2 miles of me, and it was 50 degrees, so I called in a carry-out order and bicycled up there after work to grab it more affordably. It was a little tiring—I should probably get out and bicycle more often, as the weather warms up, as long as I can do it without approaching within six feet of someone else. Assuming that they don't tighten up the lockdown to where that sort of thing isn't allowed.

When I got home, Benji made a break for it out the front door, and I wasn't quite able to catch him. So I took my dinner outside and ate it on the front porch until he wandered close enough for me to grab. Finished about half of it, put the rest in the fridge; will warm it up later for lunch. So, good there.

I put in a grocery order at Meijer yesterday, but there were no delivery slots available. Happened to mention this to sister-in-law Karen, and she offered to pick the stuff up for me. So I changed it from a delivery order to a pickup order. (And I was able to ask Karen to pick up some port and beer for me, too, since I can't order those through the Meijer web site.) However, the order didn't properly process. Not sure if that's because I put Karen's name for the pickup but paid with my own credit card—did that cause some kind of issue? Dunno. The $5 authorization went through just fine last night, not sure why they'd have had trouble with it today.

Happily, the Shipt shopper who had collected the groceries was able to hand them off to Karen in the store, and she bought them for me and I paid her back through Facebook Messenger. Then she left them on my doorstep, and I wiped them down with bleach wipes and put them away. So, I've got food and kitty litter and booze…win! And a job that gives me a steady source of income and doesn't require me to go outside…double win.

Really glad that worked out, because I had been completely out of cat litter and was getting pretty worried about my ability to change out the cat litter this weekend. Was pondering bicycling out to Aldi to bring back a tub of litter to tide me over to whenever I could reschedule the grocery delivery, or possibly risking infection on the bus to go pick up some booze personally. But now I can continue to stay safe and sequestered while still living in the lifestyle to which I am accustomed.

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Girl Scout cookies and allergy meds

2020-04-07T23:24:52Z

Well, turns out I was mistaken about what package was arriving yesterday. Wasn't the masks after all, but the eight boxes of Girl Scout cookies I had mail-ordered since it's not safe for girls to set up tables or go door to door right now. The masks won't be in 'til sometime next week, it looks like. On the downside, I still have to wait for the masks…but on the bright side, I've got Girl Scout cookies! One of the less-often-discussed perks of adulthood is that you can eat as many Girl Scout cookies as you want in one sitting, because there's nobody around to tell you that you can't.

And it seems good things come in threes. I made another fortunate discovery as I was about to go to bed last night—a forgotten bottle of loratadine (generic Claritin) allergy medication in my closet. This is good, because that's one that Anthem won't fill via mail-order any longer, so I'd have to go to a doctor's office to get it—and with the clinic I usually visit in the downtown office building closed, I'd need to contact the health provider and find out where else I could visit in person to pick some up, then expose myself to the world to go and do it.

Not terribly eager to ride a bus at the present time, but I don't have any alternative way of getting down town. Except for bicycling, I suppose. But then I'd either have to bicycle back or ride the bus back. Fortunately, thanks to this fortunate closet discovery, I can hold off on that a little longer. At least until my new masks have arrived.

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A glovely day and no mis-steak

2020-04-06T18:45:52Z

Eureka! As I was looking up nitrile gloves, I remembered that those looked an awful lot like gloves I'd bought some time back for wearing while washing dishes. I checked my hall closet for medical supplies, didn't find them, but did find a long-forgotten box of dust masks that I'd bought, apparently when I had a really bad cold and didn't want to infect people. While they're not ideal for stopping viruses, they would at least block large virus-carrying saliva droplets. And I'm expecting a shipment of KN95 filter masks to arrive today, which I can wear when I'm venturing into more crowded places like grocery stores.

(Amazon has filter masks in stock that at least claim to be KN95. These masks are similar in effectiveness to the N95s that medical providers use. Don't pay more than $3 or so per mask, though. And read the description carefully to make sure that it at least says they're KN95, though there's no way you can really be certain even if it claims to be. But it'll be better than nothing, for sure.)

Then I went downstairs to the kitchen and peeked under the sink, and voila! There were those gloves. They were aged and a bit discolored in places, but I think they'll be effective for wearing when I go out to get groceries. Which means I'll be perfectly set for if I should need to make an expedition into the great wide infectious world for in-person grocery shopping and such. I feel like I just unearthed buried treasure!

In other news of me, I've gotten pretty good at pan-searing steaks lately. You'll laugh at me, but until just a couple months ago I didn't even know this was a thing you could do. I love steaks, but I thought you needed a grill for them, so you had to go out to fancy restaurants and overpay. But one day when I asked the local neighborhood Facebook community for recommendations for cheap steak places, and one of the members told me "Aldi and your stovetop."

And son of a gun if they weren't right. All I need is the meat, sea salt, some butter, steak seasoning, and garlic, and I can make the best darn steaks I've ever had. Plus, with a little experimentation, I can time cooking them exactly right, so I can make them perfectly blue rare and not have to hope that the restaurant doesn't overcook it. (I tell them, "I want it to say 'moo' when I poke it with my fork," but do they ever listen?) Usually I do strip steaks, but with the grocery shortages I had to get sirloins in my last grocery order. But I just adjusted the sear time downward by a minute or so, and it still works just as well. A perfectly seared steak, some instant mashed potatoes, and I have a dinner fit for a king. And it's sooooo much cheaper than going out for it!

(I suppose that cooking my steaks rare isn't necessarily the safest thing to do, but these days just going out into public spaces and breathing isn't the safest thing to do. If I'm going to get sick, I'd rather do it for a tasty steak than just for breathing!)

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Saturday thoughts

2020-04-05T01:09:30Z

So, here I am again. Been a while since I last had anything to say here. I've been surviving. They actually went ahead and closed the office building downtown where I used to work because they got a confirmed COVID-19 case in it. So, it's shuttered until further notice, and everyone is now working from home, just like me.

A couple of days this week, I had trouble sleeping, because a miniature dwarf decided to take up residence inside my radiator and bang on it with his hammer in all hours of the night. But the problem turned out to be in the home of my next door neighbor, and after he had repairmen out to fix the steam trap, the dwarf was sent to the unemployment line, and now I can sleep in peace.

Been playing a lot of the Windows computer game BattleTech lately, playing through the campaign again now that I understand the system better. It's a lot of fun, and rather addictive. If you make friends with the pirates, you get some great deals in the Black Market. It's funny just how often Star League era mechs show up at insanely cheap prices.

But lately, I went ahead and purchased the Halo Remastered Master Chief Collection for Windows, which is 20% off on Steam right now. Have been playing through the original Halo, and it's really rather remarkable. They made it so you can switch between the original and new graphics with a single keystroke, and the new graphics for the remastering really are a big improvement. But the game still plays exactly the same way, and has the same great story and music. It's fun returning to it. And though the sequels aren't out yet, at long last they will be released to Windows as the ports are finished, and I'll finally get to know how the story comes out (since I don't have a console so couldn't get the console-only sequels). I'd forgotten how much fun it was. It really was a hugely game-changing game when it originally came out.

Other life developments…you know, you don't realize just how much you take being able to go out for breakfast for granted, until one day you can't do it anymore. I was able to make a leftover-pizza omelet today, which was definitely good, but I wouldn't want to go to that amount of effort every day.

I've come to realize that one true measure of maturity is being able to bite my tongue and resist replying when someone close to me says something political I disagree with. It's hard—I keep coming up with all sorts of witty retorts with which I could clap back, but I'd never change their mind (or they, mine) and it would just make it harder for us to relate to one another, so what's the point? If someone is trying to goad me into an argument, why should I let them? I guess this is also why I so seldom unfollow Facebook friends who don't agree with me, even when they leave obnoxious comments on the political posts I share. "Live and let live" might be trite, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy to do.

Well, let's see what life has in store for me now…

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Thursday thoughts

2020-03-27T04:51:14Z

Weather staying warmer again. Went out to pick up lunch at Chicago Beef & Dogs, and supper at Dairy Queen. Was good to get out for a bit. And the exercise did me good, too, I'm sure.

Work wasn't really busy today, it being toward the end of the week and all. I imagine tomorrow will be pretty light, too.

Watched the last two episodes of the first season of Picard tonight. And the related episodes of Wil Wheaton's aftershow, The Ready Room. Was delightful to see Patrick Stewart himself on the aftershow at last, to talk about the experiences of making it with old friend and castmate Wil Wheaton. All in all, I was delighted with the way Picard wrapped up. The show was pretty awesome, even if the pacing was slower than people have come to expect from previous Trek series. It was definitely worth the watch. And since it's free right now, you can go binge it yourself. Hope that corona doesn't delay the filming of season 2 too much.

Not a lot else to say tonight, I guess. But it was still important to write something before going to bed again.

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Warmer weather

2020-03-26T04:45:57Z

Well, the weather outside is getting warmer. Not cold and rainy as it's been the last few days. So tonight after work I took a ride down to a nearby restaurant, Golden's Fish and Chicken, to get a Polish sausage sandwich and some cheddar jalapeno poppers. Enjoyed the bike ride. Maybe I should try to get spend more time outside, as the weather warms up, as long as I stay a safe distance away from people. If nothing else, I could move the Ikea laptop table out to my front porch and take a tablet there for some reading and writing.

Wasn't thrilled by how crowded it was inside Golden's. People waiting for their takeout didn't seem to be paying the most attention to social distancing, standing too close together. Ugh. Maybe I should just stick to ordering through GrubHub.

So, 'round about May, I should get a stimulus check for $1,200. Yay, our government. I'm sure that'll be quite helpful for all the people who've been thrown out of work, but for me it'll be like extra money (assuming I, y'know, still have work by then—which seems probable given that the health insurance industry isn't exactly likely to be rendered obsolete by an epidemic!). I'll probably throw it into savings, I guess. Should supplement the emergency funds I already have fairly nicely. It's tempting to think of something nice I could spend it on, like maybe getting another motor scooter for the added mobility, or a laptop or something…but really, I should probably just go ahead and save it, because you never know. Anyway, what point is there in having mobility when there may not actually be anywhere I can go, if the infection rate keeps on ramping up.

The political insanity around the virus proceeds apace. It's weird how in bygone days, this kind of a crisis would have pulled everyone together—but in the here-and-now, it only serves to split everyone further apart by making political discourse even more polarized. Is the lackluster Republican treatment of this epidemic going to lead to them getting tossed out by common people upset with their lackluster handling of the crisis? I'd like to think it will—but then, I also thought there was no way in hell Trump could win the election in 2016, and was unpleasantly surprised.

Rediscovered my glasses, which I lost several weeks ago, thanks to my cat peeing on a pile of trash in my attic. So, uh, yay, I guess.

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robotech_master @ 2020-03-24T21:55:00

2020-03-25T02:16:57Z

And here I am again. I must confess, this "novel coronavirus" is quickly losing its novelty.

Still, work went pretty well. The downtown office complex is fully open again, so more people were on the phones—and four more people from my team were being dispatched to work-from-home effective immediately, so good to know that there will be more workforce on hand should the building need to be closed down again. I only hope none of them are already infected.

I'm probably using Grubhub more than I should, but I'm on a free trial of their $10/month program that provides free delivery as long as I order at least $12 in food. And it's nice not to have to go out, and some pretty decent restaurants are on it. If you want to help me defray my costs, and haven't tried GrubHub yourself yet, this referral link will get both you and me $5 off our next orders.

And incidentally, if you're looking for something fun to watch, CBS All Access just announced a 1-month-free promo. (It's pitched as a way to watch Picard for free, but you can watch Discovery and any other All Access show during the month.) Given that CBS had to know that a lot of people were just waiting for the show to be finished before signing up for one month to binge, they're undoubtedly foregoing a good chunk of revenue, which is nice when so many of us are stuck at home anyway due to the national virus crisis. But you do have to provide payment information to sign up, and remember to cancel before the month is up, as with any other free trial, so I guess there's that.

Our #StarTrekPicard season finale is Thursday, and starting today until 4/23, you can watch for free on @CBSAllAccess in the US with the code: GIFT. https://t.co/i2IfFQN3I8

It's felt good to bring Picard back. I can't wait to reunite with our cast and crew for Season 2. pic.twitter.com/lSmtMxgrN8
— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) March 24, 2020

Posted a couple more pieces to TeleRead: a story about how this is hitting comic shops last night, and a piece about distributor Ingram staying open despite the virus just now. So I guess this virus thing is moving me to write more in general after all.

I'm still amazed at how fortunate I am, this one time in my life, to be working, from home, in a field that probably won't be harmed by the virus. At a time when so many of my friends are unemployed, or, worse, employed in "essential jobs" that involve public exposure, I'm safely sequestered at home with my cats, still earning a living. I really hope nothing happens to screw this up.

I am worried about the overall effects of the crisis, how it's going to affect people I know and care about. I wonder which one of my friends or family will be the first to come down with the virus, and whether any of them will die. My friends and I all mostly young enough that we'll probably pull through, but it's not a chance I want to take. And then there are the older generation.

This is going to get much worse before it gets better. I desperately hope that at least some of the people responsible for the delays in imposing the universal restrictions we need get to enjoy the symptoms, at length.

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There's no place like stay-at-home

2020-03-23T19:40:16Z

Indiana is under a stay-at-home order starting Wednesday, and going through at least April 6. It's good that they finally got around to making it mandatory rather than merely a suggestion. Of course, you'll still be permitted to go to necessary places like grocery stores and the like, and to work if you work at an "essential" business, but "non-essential" businesses are closing for the duration. The article lists doctor's offices and medical facilities as among essentials. Health insurance isn't listed, but I'm pretty sure it's essential, too. Which means I get to continue working, for all that I work from home anyway. That makes me one of the luckiest ones. And who knows; if I'd gotten a tech writing job like I wanted, I probably wouldn't be considered "essential" and would be stuck at home unsalaried for the duration.

I have to say, I'm especially proud of the work I'm doing now. Granted that the American health care system is messed up, and health insurance companies are likely a big part of the problem, I'm still helping my company process health care requests as quickly and efficiently as I can, and that kind of thing is vital now when that system is just about to be taxed to the limit.

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