(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 31)

I’m not usually the first to hop on board a technology trend.

It took me forever to get a smart phone.

In general, I’d say, I’m in the soft second wave of a new piece of technology.

I don’t rush out to buy it immediately, I don’t pine for it while I wait to join the masses who have it…but once I get it I’m pretty into it.

That was the case with the iPhone, apps like Spotify, maybe it could even apply to the PlayStation 4…and it most recently happened with Ring.

I’m not going to lie to you: recently there's been been talk of a series of house break-ins in Framingham, not too far from us.

I’m pretty sure we aren’t in imminent danger - Tate’s a pretty good alarm system all by herself.

But if we go to New York for a weekend, say, or are otherwise out for the day, we’d like to know what’s going on at our door.

So after talking about getting a Ring for a long while, Kathy and I finally bought one. (Thanks, Prime Day!)

So far we’ve only installed the doorbell - I need to figure out how to hang other cameras and exactly where to put them.

But the doorbell is plenty to get excited about for now.

(Fun fact: A few years ago we got our house re-sided and the re-siders messed up our doorbell. So we hadn’t had a doorbell in almost five years…and now we have one again. With a bonus camera and microphone so I can answer a doorbell from anywhere in the world!)

So far we’ve been working to find the right sensitivity of the camera. We got a lot of alerts when cars drove by, but if someone got out of the car and walked to the door we weren’t getting anything. So that wasn’t ideal.

We think we’ve fixed that - now we see the actual delivery and not just the van pulling up to make a delivery - and have a pretty good security system in place.

I’ve made a pretty quick adjustment too.

At first it was so exciting that I was checking my phone every time there was an alert.

Car. Car. Car. UPS truck. Car.

It was much more exciting than looking out the window.

But now, I’m able to ignore at least half of the cars that activate the camera.

Eventually maybe I’ll get back to being able to concentrate on my work.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“Back In The High Life” - Steve Winwood
“Chicago X” - Chicago
“Heard It In A Past Life” - Maggie Rogers
“Something About Airplanes” - Death Cab for Cutie
“When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” - Billie Eilish
Goldfinger
Always Be My Maybe
So I Married An Axe Murderer
Akeelah and the Bee

This week featured the 100th album of the year - on Tuesday (the 207th day of the year) - where Maggie Rogers was featured in the New York Times and I thought hers was an interesting story so I gave the album a listen.

In total, through 211 days of the year, with 154 days left (can you tell I picked up a new calendar that gives the numbers of days left in the year?) my total is at 182 (102 albums, 80 movies), which is pretty good.

Remember (I need to remind myself this more than I need to remind you) this is about scratching that creative itch in me rather than reaching 365 in 365 days or a big number like that. I just think the number of days gives a good demarcation of how I’m doing.

Notes

*A couple more Ring notes:

1) I am sure it’s not original in any way shape or form, but the idea that ‘we like our house so much we put a Ring on it’ just tickles me so much. I’m sure everyone who put up a Ring has had a similar thought.

2) When I got my car with the back-up camera I very badly wanted to take a picture of myself in the camera…but that would have required me to be standing behind the car, with the fender at face level, while someone in the passenger seat took a picture. Seemed…dangerous. That Ring picture at the top of this post was a lot safer and pretty much captures the same exact picture.

*It’s still fun watching the Mets. They haven’t let me down yet. Big milestone coming this week with the trade deadline.

*I have my next round of running goals planned out - need to figure out a training schedule. I look forward to sharing that with you soon.

*The social media links are below. Thanks for following/liking/reading, and everything: