January 9: New Year’s Day, going to hell
January 20: Waiting for solar battery and website audit
February 3: Solar battery installed, website audit done
February 6: 2023 Dining Summary
February 7: Wondrium finds
March 27: Birthday update
January 9
It’s been a relatively quiet first week of 2024. Barb and I spent New Year’s at home watching TV celebrations…well, she watched a Hallmark movie. I made a good stroganoff out of the roast beef still left from Christmas then hopped between various New Years shows trying to find something watchable. We made it to midnight and not much later. I also made a last-minute pot of Hoppin’ John out of things I had in the pantry and fridge. It turned out very tasty so I noted the recipe, more or less.
Since New Year’s Day, Barb’s been busy with a nonstop string of lunches with various folks, pickleball for both of us (but not together), rowing practice for Barb, minor tidying up around the house, and so on. We had a nice neighborhood get-together at Marv and Deb’s. I’ve made headway with our solar battery backup and my website audit though nothing to show for either yet. We’re getting more and more excited (and anxious) about our cruise to NZ and Australia.
One of the presidential candidates, I think Nikki Haley, made a recent comment to the effect of “Remember how good things were when we were kids,” a common Republican refrain harkening back to the good old days. Some columnist offered a reminder of all the negative headlines from 1974 because it was 50 years ago, though he could have picked 1984, 1994 or any year you like. It provoked the thought in me that news media are perpetually filled with seemingly existential worries (and surely some of them are actually existential – even a stopped clock is right twice a day – but who’s to say which). In fact, the tagline of all media should be “Things you should be outraged and/or worried about.” It made me realize that we’ve been going to hell everyday for my whole lifetime…indeed for everyone’s lifetime, forever. To which I say: we may be going to hell but at least we’re not there yet. I find that grounds for optimism.
January 20
Today was supposed to be the day to install our new solar battery backup but the combination of two 4-5” snowfalls this week, including yesterday, forced us to postpone. It remains to be seen how our contractor will be able to wheel a 500-lb. battery into our basement over the snow or the soggy ground that will come in a few days when it rains. Our hope is to get it installed before we leave for our cruise. Time will tell.
I received the initial results of my website audit, a 7-page document filled with suggestions and technical approaches, only a few of which I understand. I need to digest it a bit then have a phone call with the folks at Mosaic Data to figure out what tasks I can tackle in what order, what I should farm out to them, and what I can postpone/defer indefinitely. At the moment, I don’t feel I’m much closer to a good long term solution. If anything, they’ve identified a ton of tasks that could cost a lot more money than I’m prepared to spend…which I guess is not really a surprise when you contract a consultant.
February 3
On January 23 we finally got our new battery installed. Our contractor, Fred Banner, along with an electrician and his helper managed to shovel a little path from our neighbor’s driveway to our basement door and got the unit inside. It took several more hours to get the unit fully installed and programmed but we now have a big-ass uninterruptible lithium ion power supply in the basement. I believe it stores 16 kWh of power which is far larger than what we had before. It includes a remote control unit so I (and Fred) can see our power usage and status from an app or online. I’m very happy it’s done, though it still has some ongoing programming issues that Fred needs to clear up.
Eventually, we need to get the electrician back out to shuffle some circuits on our control panels to put more of the house on the battery backup, including my study upstairs so we can hopefully maintain internet and cable connectivity. We evidently also need to take the external generator outlet off the battery panel because if someone actually used it, the whole system might blow, according to the electrician. Beyond that, I’ve (repeatedly) asked Fred for a quote to expand out solar array – it seems we could roughly triple our current array while still using the existing circuitry. I hope to get that done this spring or summer.
On January 30 I had my call with Mosaic Data Services reviewing my Billzpage audit. It was a very useful call; we’ve already cleaned up a few of the low-hanging issues (I’m especially happy to have implemented a more functional Google Map for “Where I’ve Been” and got rid of the old plugin that wasn’t working right). I’m waiting now for a final wrap up set of recommendations. Ultimately, they suggest I get off BlueHost and onto a Virtual Private Server even if it’s not Mosaic’s and even though it’s more expensive. I will likely do that eventually, but my current thinking is that I’ll stay with BlueHost for the remainder of my existing 3-year contract. There are some other optimization steps I may have Mosaic undertake this year to help the site run more efficiently. The Mosaic lady, Tanya, said some nice things about my site and said that others at Mosaic were impressed by it which was gratifying (and a good customer relations ploy).
This process has made me think a lot about my rationale for doing the site, what I want to accomplish and how much I’m willing to invest going forward. I remain committed to working on it: I find it very useful for myself as a memory management tool, an ongoing day-to-day activity, and hopefully a valued family heirloom.
I was recently able to use the site to offer travel advice on Portugal for Betsy and our neighbor Mark. For Betsy, I just pointed her to my pages on my two Portugal trips. For Mark, I excerpted our Sintra day and shared it via Google docs. It was actually a pretty easy process – easier than putting it into my public site, Billzdaze. Google docs may offer a path forward for sharing material without having to maintain a separate public site. Something else to think about.
Also on Billzpage, I finished posts on our 2009 China trip with the Speizmans which in turn let me wrap up the first half of 2009. We’re about to head off on our New Zealand-Australia vacation so I’m sure that will occupy me for several months. When I get back to finish 2009 I will need to start tackling my robotics years which will be the next big hurdle for the site. I think that, along with the Paris Olympics this summer, will keep me pretty well occupied until we get ready for our Ireland trip in September. All of which is to say I don’t think I’ll press for a trip to Spain this year. This NZ-Australia journey will dictate whether we want to do any other cruises in the next couple of years. To be determined.
And that leaves New Zealand and Australia. We depart in 6 days. Barb and I are both quite excited. We’ve watched lots of YouTube videos so we’re now well-informed about our Viking Orion ship and the business class flights to and fro. Barb has cut way back on her social engagements over the couple of weeks preceding the trip, hoping to avoid getting sick before we go. So far, so good. I feel like I’ve pretty much planned and prepared as best as I can. I still have a couple of guidebooks I’m boning up on and adding last minute notes but I’m at the point of diminishing returns and overkill. My planning document is up to 52 pages which is more or less insane. We’re more than ready and looking forward to a good time. Knock on wood.
February 6
From the department of You Can’t Manage It If You Don’t Measure It, here’s an analysis of our dining for last year.
We ate out 159 times in Howard County and 30 times in the DMV region for a total of 189 times. The most expensive meal (not counting the Inn at Little Washington) – and one of the most disappointing – was at Ruth’s Chris, topping $500 for 4 people. Only three other meals topped $200 and two of those were for groups of 4 or 8. Total dining expenses, including vacations, came to approximately $11,500 on my credit card ($12,265 per my budget…why would that be different?). Slightly more than half of our most expensive meals have been on travels (6 of top 10, 11 of top 20). None of this includes Cattail Creek where we spent another $1200 at least…more like $1500 including drinks, tips and tax.
Our top 5 restaurants by frequency were: Cattail (12), EC Diner (11), Facci (5), Peter Chang’s (5) and Tea Horse Bistro (5). We visited 6 others four times: Walkers, Mikey & Mel’s, Grille 620, Dim Sum Palace, Shannon’s and Mimi’s.
I’m not sure how useful or relevant any of this information really is, but I’ll keep on keeping track for a while and see how things stack up in the future.
February 7
We are, I think, about as prepared as can be for our NZ-Australia trip which starts in two days. I started packing my suitcase and we’ve got our meals and activities set for the next couple of days to minimize leftovers and anxiety, we hope.
All of which left me with some time on my hands today. Rather than pick up a book, I happened to think of my Wondrium subscription and wondered if it was still active and whether there was anything I wanted to start. It being Black History Month, they were featuring a new series on African American History: From the African Coast to the Civil War. I played the first episode about African origins and though I fell asleep a couple of times and had to rewind I did learn some things, not least about Mansa Musa and the African empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
From there, I wandered through the Wondrium catalog and added a few different series to my watchlist, realizing that the long airplane rides and travel days should make an excellent time to watch episodes…assuming I can get decent wifi. One of the series I found was The Big History of Civilizations. I enjoyed the first episode and searched to learn more about the concept of Big History. There are also Big History Project and Big History Association websites that I started to look through. The concept and high-level multidisciplinary approach seems appealing to me, if a little bit loose in its definitions and the way it tries to lump things together. I subsequently stumbled upon the ChronoZoom project which is a souped-up zoomable timeline for all of existence. It’s catnip for me and my love of timelines but sadly the project appears to be discontinued by Microsoft.
Anyway, having these few hours to wander proved productive, an example of how free time and jumping among lilypads can open new doors for discovery. A good start to our vacation, I hope.
March 27
Happy birthday eve to me! And happy birthday to Emmy!
I’ve been assiduously working on posts about our NZ-Australia trip, so even though I haven’t done much journaling this quarter I have definitely been working on the website. I have a few more days to go to be done with the trip, then I can get back to regular updates of the site, I hope. Barb and I are finally more or less settled back into our routines after the trip. It took a few weeks.
Sue requested a printed version of the Memory Book for Len. I was able to put together a google doc download and a pdf that I could print. I sent it to Len and she was very appreciative. She wrote a thank you email celebrating her recovered vision after a set of successful cataract surgeries. It’s great that she could get the care and improve her situation. Barb took a look at the printed pdf before I sent it and approved – it’s the first she’s actually looked at anything from Billzpage but she still doesn’t want to log on. Maybe someday.
Baltimore suffered the terrible collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge yesterday. I admit I’ve only used the bridge a dozen or so times in the 35 years (!) we’ve lived in Maryland but it was a vital part of the region’s roadways, particularly for those east of Baltimore and for truckers up and down the eastern seaboard. Even more importantly, the bridge collapse closed the Port of Baltimore entirely to ocean traffic which threatens to widely disrupt shipping and jobs throughout the region. It may be weeks or months before the port is reopened. It will be years before a new bridge is built. I didn’t use the bridge often but it was an eye-catching industrial sight to see at the eastern gateway to the harbor. Hopefully any new bridge will be a more elegant structure. I presume it will be a bridge rather than an additional tunnel but who knows.
Barb went with Janice yesterday to protest at the Supreme Court over the mifepristone (abortion pill) case. It was Barb’s first political act since her retirement and no doubt not the last. More power to her.
I was not specifically invited but I couldn’t go anyway because I had an orthopedist appointment to check on my knee. It has been bothering me since December/January and was not getting better. I had an MRI last week that confirmed I have a torn meniscus but the orthopedist determined I was suffering more from arthritis. He gave me a cortisone injection and told me to lay off it for 3-5 days. It’s already feeling somewhat better. I certainly hope the cortisone works. I’d like to keep playing tennis, pickleball and walking. I’ve pretty much stopped walking since the trip. I was able to play pickleball last week pretty well, but tennis this past Monday was a bust. I was reminded that a tennis court is much larger than a pickleball court.
In other Bill’s health news, this week I started on Wegovy once again. I did a six month trial back in 2022 and lost nearly 40 pounds but the trial period ended and the price of the drug jumped to something like $1000/month so I stopped. Since then I’ve gained back 25-30 pounds of what I’d lost. But now that I’m on Medicaid as well as Blue Cross Blue Shield, the quarterly cost to me is only $100. So here I go. I expect I will be on this drug indefinitely…at least several years but probably longer. My hope is to lose about 40 pounds by the end of the year and maybe another 20 pounds next year. That will put me at a “healthy” BMI level. I believe it’s the best thing I can do for my overall health.
As long as we’re on the topic of health, may I add that I’ve managed to cut my alcohol intake since the Australia vacation. Before the trip I had wandered up to 3 or sometimes 4 drinks per night which I knew was too much but I had a hard time refraining. Since the trip I’ve dropped back to 1-2 drinks per evening. For some nights I had no alcohol but that got a little boring so I’m back to 1 or 2. I’ve also cut the amount of gin in my gin and tonics. If nothing else, I’m saving on my liquor store budget line. We’ll see how long this lasts. I notice I’m less prone to fall asleep on the couch in the evening which seems like a positive step.
Meanwhile, Allie went on a ski trip to Vermont with Jimmy over the past weekend. A fine time seems to have been had. She only reported falling once. We are certainly looking forward to seeing Allie and her friend Catherine in Punta Cana in a few weeks.
Beyond Punta Cana, our travel calendar is blank except for Ireland in September. I’ve started to conjure up a baseball road trip for myself in early June to Cleveland, Toronto and Pittsburgh. I have to run that through Barb, maybe as a birthday concession. Otherwise, we’ll discuss with Allie the possibility of coming to Boston sometime in July/August. We’ll also see her in October after our Ireland trip. Barb is having lunch today with Mary Salhus and a topic of discussion is whether John and Mary want to join us on a European river cruise in 2025 or 2026. They can pick the river/tour as far as I’m concerned. It would be nice to know if it’s a real possibility or just a pipe dream to travel with them. If they don’t, it’s back to the drawing board for Barb and me in terms of longer term vacation plans.
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