Last night, I found a candle, printed out a picture of Dad Wild and Susie together, and put Susie’s skates next to it. I lighted the candle and let it burn (on a safe plate) all night for the Day of the Dead. It is not my culture, and I did not stay up; I don’t mean to appropriate someone’s culture, but it seemed the right thing to do. After sunrise, I put out the candle. I did not realize it was a unique candle scented with Old Barrel Whiskey–definitely Susie’s style.
I slept in until 7AM as I was working from home today to wait for a package. Nike WHQ had a network outage that played havoc with the testing of our new software and running our systems. I could reach my items on VPN and start my meetings without connection issues, but the meetings were disheveled as we did not have access to the defect and tracking systems. Yes, a defect for the defect software–the irony was lost on nobody.
I had the last banana, and I had some more yogurt for breakfast. I had more NYC Zabar’s grind coffee from the Smiths and could almost hear the five dozen bagels calling me in the freezer. Don’t worry, I will get to them. The meetings were the usual, and I was in the shower at 10AM and dressed after that. I had a few reviews to do and approved quite a few changes. So I was busy in the morning.
I reheated the chicken stew I had left and sliced some homemade bread with the new wickedly sharp bread knife–I think it could cut the bread by just waving it. I had dainty, thinly sliced bread with butter with my stew. I let the stew cool down this time–no need to burn my mouth.
I watch YouTube Battleship New Jersey and ShipHappens new episodes while eating lunch. The Battleship channel discussed how long it takes to make a WW1 and WW2 battleship. The school of thought was four years, but the facts are that US Battleships took about two years and change, and most WW2 battleships took three years or less to build. ShipHappens was installing new beams for their deck, and it was the completion of months of work to get this far. All excellent shows.
After that, I returned to meetings in Zoom for Nike and read and approved items. I got quiet at 3PM.
And it was good that it got quiet as my new Apple, a black-as-night Airbook 15″ M2, was delivered. I then started it up, attached my backup, and restored a copy–Time Capsule–of my 13″ MacBook Pro M1 onto the new systems. I always move the image to the next machine. By 3ish, I was back with my image restored. I had issues with Quicken, which rebuilt to last week’s version (not sure how), and I had to reauthorize iTunes. I reconnected Grammarly by reinstalling the add-on to Chrome. I redid all the Quicken updates–remembering most of them. Back! Everything is good from what I can tell.
I discovered that the keyboard is slightly larger than my previous Apple, making typing challenging. The screen is really bigger–surprising to me. It is a lot easier to read. The sound seems about the same lack of quality but with more bass. The silly bar is gone, and the F keys are back. The command key moved again (F**k), and that is driving me a bit mad. This toy is maxed out with 24G memory, an M2 chip, and 2T of super fast solid state storage with a price tag with full coverage, north of $2,500, but well below the $4,000 folks are paying for MacBook Pro M2 super-something. I am delighted with my slightly cheaper MacBook Air 15″, M2, 2023.
My previous Apple is spoken for and is on a shelf for a week until this one burns in. I will then take it to Apple to have the microphone repaired and the keyboard cleaned or fixed.
Yes, I was locked out of my eTrade account again. Apparently, it was Quicken that was causing the lockout. Because of the amounts, I was treated as a VIP account and needed a VIP token device, but they did not send me one. So I keep getting locked. There is now, and I am so proud, a ticket to fix the issue, as I should not need a VIP device unless I have one–a day of irony.
I am moving some more money to US Bank, and I managed to transfer money inside eTrade and hope to acquire a three-month treasury bill. Fingers crossed.
Dinner was a frozen Chicken Cordon Blu with corn and over microwaved potatoes with butter and sour cream. It was all good and something I used to make for Susie and Corwin all the time. Again, seemed fitting for The Day of the Dead. I started the latest Indiana Jones to test the sound and screen. Oh my, the screen is excellent. It also, because it is larger, fits the movie on the top half of the screen in perfect color. I managed about the first 1/3 of the movie.
I also did the dishes and hauled the trash out. The recycling is overflowing from Matt’s cleanup and will be good to get emptied this Friday morning.
I decided to go drinking again at Wildwood. I wanted to test the laptop in other places and see how it carries. I ordered another book-like case for it–I liked the one for the 13″.
I finally ordered new slippers. My sister, reading my blog back a year ago, got me something to keep me warm during the chemo. I have worn them almost every day since. They are almost gone.
Time to buy something new. They are on their way but late. I hate to send these on their way, but they are falling apart and tripping me now. They served me well.
Thank you for reading on this Day of the Dead 2023.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 