Ron Guest

Realized today that since the kids will be home and doing school all day, at least to start, we needed to be mindful of distractions. So I ordered some wireless over-ear headphones for my wife. She can’t stand earbuds.

Big sky

Also, tiny bunny bottom right

When we decided to get a gaming PC at our daughter’s request we felt it was quite a splurge even though the iMac is 7 years old.

A couple of days ago it dawned on me that with both kids forced to virtual school all day they’d each need their own PC. The iMac lives on!

First time I went to get coffee for take out at noon today. Greeted by the usual “face mask required” signs. Inside there were probably ~10 people seated talking and working. No one wore a mask (eating/drinking clause). Kinda creeped me out. Then one of them sneezed. Run away!!!

My teenage daughter and I built a gaming/streaming PC - a first for both of us. We had some nice bonding doing it as a father/daughter project.

It further reminds me how much Apple loses out only having “Pro” as a higher end notion. Gamers is a demographic they should go for.

Our daughter starts the classroom portion of driver’s education today 🚙

The stressful part, actual driving, has to wait until the fall when the license office condescended to grant us an appointment.

Our 11 year old son has been playing Paper Mario ever since he got up. He is thrilled with the game.

This guy knows about dealing with recession. Congress should listen.

Ben Bernanke: Give States Billions, and You Help the Entire Country - The New York Times > was the chairman of the Federal Reserve during the global financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession

Looks like a gaming PC is in our future. I’m starting to delve into all the options and thinking whether to build one or buy a pre-built model. It’s hard to know what will be “good enough” for the CPU and GPU.

I’ve started taking courses from FEMA (US agency for emergency and disaster management) as part of being an ARES volunteer. I completed the first course and passed. Three more to go. Then the ARRL training begins. I’m hoping to finish in ~2 months.

Early morning wisps

Decadent dinner tonight: French toast + bacon 🥓 😃

By unanimous consent we’re watching the first half of Hamilton again tonight. Turn. It. Up!

Family viewing of Hamilton on Disney+. No one is looking at their ‘second screen’. 🍿 🎥

Dawn sky

The fall semester for our kids is getting real. Later this month we will have a one week window to commit to either at-school or at-home learning. Never imagined I’d have a decision like this to make. 🏫 I don’t envy the school staff either. I think this year will be chaos.

I made an appointment for our daughter to get her driver’s license learner permit. The earliest in our area was 3 months away (some locations were 5 months). I think we’ll try to get her classroom instruction done before school starts since the academic year could be crazy🚙😱

Stopped to pick up some BBQ ribs to go. About 15 minutes later we were driving through very heavy rain. 📷 Oh, the ribs were great! 👍🏼

We finally got our tax refund from the IRS today. About 3 months later than normal. They did add a bit extra as interest since it was late. Wonder if we will have to report that interest on this year’s return? 🤷🏻‍♂️ 😜 💵

So far we’ve relied on face masks my wife made. As we contemplate the potential for some degree of school attendance for the upcoming academic year I’m wondering if we need to get some commercially made models. I don’t think they have any real advantage though.

In our household the ability to run Windows natively, for gaming, has been a real boon. The best of both worlds. The eventual loss of this ability may be the main downside of the transition for us. Here’s what’s happening to Boot Camp amid the Apple silicon transition

The school district let us know yesterday morning that parents will be able to opt for traditional at-school learning or a home learning program this fall. I think for planning purposes they're trying to get a feel for how many people already know they will opt for the home option.

We strongly believe attendance at school is best for both of our kids. The district assured us that unlike this past spring, at-home learning will have full rigor, content and better access to interactive sessions. That's good to hear but I still don't think it will be as beneficial for the kids.

Of course the decision has a context which is Covid. Although local hospitalization rates and fatalities have not spiked, cases are edging up. I'm sure some parents already know they will opt for the safer option of at-home learning. But it will be a devil of a choice for parents of special needs kids and those whose home situation makes learning very difficult.

Even for us I don't know which way we will go just yet. What data should we base our decision on and which thresholds are 'safe enough'?

If Covid gets worse then there won't be a decision at all, we'll have to go with home learning either to start the year or as we enter winter.

The kids’ iMac is 7 years old (the late 2013 model). Big Sur won’t run on it which is OK. I am trying to wait until our daughter goes to college in 2 years before deciding what to replace it with. It is surprisingly functional - the kids don’t even complain about it being slow.

The aspect of the transition to Apple Silicon I’m most anxious about is graphics performance. There’s currently nothing to compete with budget and moderately priced Windows gaming machines. I guess we’ll get an idea late this year if this will change.

I love college football but it is hard to be optimistic about the games being played this fall due to the number of players and coaches testing positive. Some of the reports I’ve seen show higher infection rates on teams than in the general population. 🏈