It was a pretty full week. Work is happening, five days out of seven, at least, and a few of the “things to do before the end of the year” items are starting to feel a little bit tightly compressed into the time we have left in 2024. Signs of autumn are intensifying, too! It’s cooler, rainy and gray; I’m taking my vitamin D.

• 💿 I went to the dentist this week. I had to have an old filling drilled out and replaced. I have much anxiety about dental work, and for the first time brought along my own big headphones. I listened to Nick Cave’s new album, The Wild God. It’s a beautiful, remarkable piece of music, and I utterly zoned into it through the dental work.
• Driving around this week, it felt like my neighborhood, like landmarks are becoming familiar and comfortable. It’s a really nice feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve barely touched the surface in terms of actually checking out shops and destinations, but as I make a mental map of this new town it’s soothing for it to begin to feel familiar in its big and smaller shapes.
• This article about the fish shell by Julia Evans captures so much of what’s great about it. Fish is so smart with completion suggestions and history! Unlike Julia, I’ve tinkered with a bunch of plugins and other configuration, but she makes me wonder if I could strip a bunch of that out and run it more simply.
• I got into a bit more solid routine on the bike this week, combined with hitting all my scheduled strength workouts on time. That feels good! I’m working intentionally against the inertia I often feel when the work day is done, or in the morning before getting to my desk. It has been really tough, the past … several months? … to feel motivated to focus on it. So I’ll take this small couple-week stretch.

media this week

• We’re watching The Big Door Prize (Apple TV+) season 2. This show deserves so much more love and attention. It’s thoughtful, sweet, and funny. I just learned that it didn’t get renewed for a third season, which is a shame.
• I enjoyed Rebel Ridge (Netflix). Pretty good action thriller about civil forfeiture and race, with some truly menacing corrupt cop performances.

🍅 garden haul this week

• A whole bunch of cherry tomatoes!
• Once again, the starlings wrecked the ripening figs before we could get to them.
• We made a cake out of a bunch of the pears we’ve harvested
• Another couple pounds of grapes in the freezer
• Radishes and greens are ready: Lots of kale and spinach in our future

(Don’t call it a weeknote? Maybe it’s a weeknote?)

It’s beginning to feel like autumn and I’m reflecting on passing through a full season here in our new home. I’m excited to see colors change and to feel the mood of the city change to fall and wintertime. This sense of transition is strengthened by school starting for our kiddo – new school, new town – a very big milestone, that one. (Parents, please note the New School Year Drop-Off and Pick-Up Rules.)

Here are a few items:

• RIP, Steve Silberman
• I’m trying out Reeder. I like the change-up in interface. I’m not sure about the “no unread” tracking, though I appreciate the intent and the way it allows for technical simplification.
• I’m kind of restless with my various blogs and web sites. Longing for a little more camaraderie in it all, maybe?
• We watched The Bear season 3 this week; I can’t believe they ended the season that way! I think it made a very successful season feel a lot less satisfying than I would have liked.
• First visits with new dermatologist and new dentist this week, and I got to keep all my weird moles and all my teeth. Parking in this city is something else, though.

I’ve set my sights on making a cappuccino at home that approaches the quality of Anchorhead’s, which has a deep, sweet, flavor. Fortunately I like the practice, because it’s going to take some time.

Got on the bike for impromptu ride #200 this morning! This was my first live ride in quite a while, and was a lot of fun – and a good amount of work, too.

I’m getting a feel for the new Fuji, appreciating the range of jpeg settings and having fun finding looks that I like. The neighborhood pea patch provides a lot of opportunities to try things out.

It’s been hot the past few days, but maybe that streak is breaking today. I’ve had a great, tough workout to start my Saturday. Let’s go, weekend.

This was a good early afternoon cappuccino.

We had a nice walk in the evening. There’s always something to see at the neighborhood pea-patch.

Gosh do I feel it when Jedda says

The thing is, if I get overwhelmed sorting through photos and don’t post them in a “timely” manner, I end up never posting them. 07/17/2024

Whether it’s photos, quick posts or more lengthy things I think of writing and sharing, the overwhelm -> just-not-doing-it loop is so powerful. In my case it’s not just the sorting/editing of photos; it’s also the constant self-questioning of “is this the right thing to post?” or “is this the right place?” or “should fix the design first?” that get in my way, every time.

I’ve been making some small visualization and operation improvements to RideShare, my little Shiny app for making shareable cards from my Peloton rides. I discovered the API for more detailed heart rate data and incorporated that into the display, and made a couple of changes to speed up the history display. These were fun small updates to work on!

Our new home has a long fence that has been increasingly hidden by unruly grape vines this summer. This week, the grapes are ripe enough to eat! What a treat.