So I Tied An Onion To My Belt – 2022 Edition

As of the end of 2022, we’ve lived in our house for 7.5 years. Never in our adult lives have we lived anywhere this long — nor did we imagine we would, or that if we did, it would be here. The winters are bitter cold, the summers too short, and the scenery relatively bland. But as we reflect on where God has placed us for this season, we realize how lucky we are.

Whether you believe the current economic client is a result of government over-spending, a whiplash effect from the world re-opening, or (more likely) some combination of factors, seems to be based on your political leanings. Whatever the cause, this is objectively a tough time to be raising three kids — first a pandemic, then sky-rocketing inflation. That we are in a comfortable home, whose value has increased; that I have a stable job that provides a steady salary; that we have been able to travel and show the kids at least a little of the world; that their needs are met, and our household repairs aren’t the catastrophic kind (so far); that we are surrounded by a community of generally good and kind people, all of whom managed to navigate the insanity of the past couple years with most of their goodwill intact; and that our community includes people of faith that prioritize loving Jesus and loving others… for all of these reasons, and more, we ended 2022 grateful for where we find ourselves: in a home base that affords us the freedom to explore from here.

At the beginning of the year, the apparent receding of Covid-19 was far from a sure thing. While we all hoped it would continue to become just another background threat we learn to live with, no one knew for sure what new mutations were coming next. So we determined to seize the opportunity to get back out there.

In March, Abi got a birthday trip to visit an old friend (also her first babysitter) in Boston. In April, I made it out to Calgary to visit my siblings, and help my brother move into their new home. And in May, I finally got to Barcelona. Being back in an airplane was weird, and maybe a little nerve-wracking at first; clearly the air travel industry is worse for its pandemic experience. But it felt great to be back out there — and the smaller trips gave way to experiences we’d been dreaming about since before the pandemic.

Of course, our trip to Europe was the highlight of the year. The kids did so amazing, adjusting to jet lag, trying new foods, and experiencing new things. I had the privilege of international travel as a youngster, and I don’t remember being half as resilient or adventurous as our kids are. And seeing things through their eyes was like being a kid again. Of course it helped to have grandparents as tour guides that spoiled them with ice cream and theater tickets for half the journey!

But travels closer to home were special too. Family Camp with our friends — whose little ones aren’t as little as when we first started — remains a wonderful tradition. And a summer trip to Canada was much easier as restrictions lifted. With each visit home I’m increasingly grateful for the safe and stable place we grew up in — one which allowed me to survive my childhood and adolescence, and gave Nicole and I our first home base to launch from. The little piece of country paradise that is Nana and Papa’s house represents pure happiness and love for our kids.

We also got the privilege of entertaining in our neck of the woods, with Canadian family finally able to travel across the border easily. And in the fall, we got to skip school and re-connect with dear friends from Seattle as they were in the process of moving cross-country.

The close of this year also moves us inexorably closer to the time when our kids launch themselves out into the world. Their independence grows daily.

Ben started driving this year, and took to it like a fish in the water (driving Papa’s go-karts may have helped — or may have made it worse!) He has a few steps to go before the State lets him drive on his own, but he’s got his sights set on a job, and is already making plans for the computer he wants to build once he starts bringing in a pay check.

It’ll be a bit longer before Abi is taking off in the car, but as long as she can find a ride, she’s up for almost anything. Her social circle was very active in planning get-togethers over the holidays, and her academic diligence gives her freedom to explore multiple extra-curricular activities — mostly of the athletic variety.

And Eli was delighted to welcome a new friend into the neighborhood, and the girls on the street are often off on adventures in almost any weather, appearing randomly in our house for snacks, before flitting off again. Eli’s also in multiple extra-curriculars, although her interests lean more towards the arts. Holiday concert season had us in the school gym more times than I could count.

So the kids are earning new freedoms — and giving their parent’s new ones! In fact, I think if there was a theme for 2022, it was freedom. Freedom to explore the world and be in it again, but also the relative freedom of contentment. Knowing that we are safely held in our Father’s arms, placed where He intended us to be right now, so we can share generously with those He loves, and those He has given us to love.

Everything is Automatic

“When we design a computer that treats its user or owner as its adversary, we lay the groundwork for unimaginable acts of oppression and terror.” –Cory Doctorow

It wasn’t the pandemic that made me feel uncomfortable with how technology was evolving — that started before Covid-19 did — but it certainly did accelerate my thinking on the subject. I grew up with optimism around this inter-network of computer and human minds, and while I wasn’t ignorant of the dangers and the risks, I’d held out hope that the potential for good outweighed the potential for evil. I should have paid better attention in seminary: the human condition is broken, and anything humans build carry that curse. All it took was a global pandemic, a really crappy President, and a few hate crimes, to reveal just how broken, destructive, and foul the Internet had become.

While I’ll indulge in some nostalgia for the early Internet days, I do acknowledge that the dark side was present from the beginning. What I failed to predict was how mainstream that dark-side would end up being. But I’m genuinely afraid that the average technology user doesn’t see this perversion — not just because of a few years of turmoil, but because while we were all dealing with that, the systems we depended on seized the opportunity to become even worse — even more poisonous.

When we suddenly couldn’t see each other in person, Zoom became a tool to help us connect. We all knew it was a faint shadow of actual connection, but it was something, and it was better than nothing. Zoom is this start-up that just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and while they made some mistakes, they were a helper in a tough time — so they were targeted. Microsoft, whose vastly inferior product, Teams, was refocused specifically to take down Zoom (at least in corporate communication.) Teams is an ecosystem play, designed to trap users in something called “Microsoft 365” — a misguided attempt to bundle Microsoft offerings, both good and bad, into a single subscription that owns your Internet presence and dictates how you use it. Signing into Teams also signs you into Office, OneDrive, SharePoint, Azure Active Directory, and a dozen other services you probably don’t care about, but that are now succeeding because they’re a part of an ecosystem you’re forced to accept so you can connect with your co-workers.

But I’m not picking on Microsoft, because they’re late to this particular predatory activity. Facebook has been tracking you across the Internet for years, thanks to something called the Meta Pixel — a tiny bit of code dropped into thousands of websites that allows them to associate your browsing activity with your Facebook account, so they can optimize the content and advertising algorithm to monetize you on their social apps.

And Apple pretends to care about consumer privacy, but all that really means is that they don’t want to share the precious data they collect about you with anyone else. Fill your iCloud with photos from your iPhone, so you can sign up for their iServices, that won’t work on your old iPhone (because, security!) so you have to buy new iDevices every couple years, using your iCreditCard!

And don’t even get me started on how every web page uses Google Analytics, and therefore Google knows (and influences) everything you ever look at. And while its true that there’s not likely a person at Google watching you individually, the reality that algorithms are making decisions about what you should be able to see and do online is probably worse. The dangers of AI are not like Skynet in the Terminator movie series — the danger is that AI is really, really stupid and we’re increasingly allowing machines to make human decisions on our behalf.

There’s lots bad about the time in history we all just got through, but if there was an up-side, it was how it forced us to change our pace, and re-prioritize our lives. I’m not eager to go fully back to the “normal” we accepted before Covid-19; remote work, new ways to connect, new hobbies and level of self-sufficiency that we had to adapt to were worthwhile side-effects of a “great pause.” But a dependence on technology, and in particular, an unquestioning trust in Big Tech to save us, highlighted for me just how genuinely broken the industry I work in is now.

If you don’t know how it works, or you don’t directly pay someone to make it work for you, then you are the product: you are being harvested for some value you might not even understand — it is the default behavior of tech companies to consume you.

My rule for 2023: if you can’t get out a screw driver and fix it, or look at the source code and adjust it, then the only (relatively) safe alternative is to pay someone who can — there’s no such thing as a free Cloud service.

From the Passenger Seat

Few things in life are stranger than being driven around by the child you taught how to walk. Sitting in the passenger seat while Ben pilots one of our vehicles is more than a little terrifying, entirely surreal, and very exciting! It feels like yesterday he was our chubby little guy waddling around the apartment, and now he’s driving us places and starting to figure out how to navigate the dozen or more miles from our house to… anywhere else he’d want to go.

Ben’s first drive: from the licensing office into town

Of course, times have changed since we learned to drive. I debated forcing our kids to learn to get around without modern technology, but the first time Ben backed into a parking spot, I decided a camera was probably worthwhile. I ordered the rather expensive upgrade kit for the BMW from Germany, and Ben and I installed it ourselves. For the slightly more quirky Saab, we ran the camera and prepped the dashboard, but will have a pro install the required head unit and custom wiring. That will give both cars GPS capabilities, which is probably also worthwhile, given our rural location.

Removing old hacks, adding new ones, in my Ben’s 2009 Saab 93 Aero

We’ve been planning for this for awhile. Last year we expanded the driveway, and bought back my old Saab 93 from friends who’d bought it 4 years earlier for their own son as he was beginning his life of vehicle-based independence. Its 13 years old, but has been a reliable and safe ride for multiple drivers — and its in remarkably good shape. My hope when I bought it was to some day hand it down to Ben (a statement which he accepted with incredulity as a 7-year old) and I’m delighted it worked out. Along with our little electric car, we have three vehicles (only two of which will be driven by kids!)

Despite all the cost (emotional AND financial) associated with transitioning to this new chapter of parenthood, we ARE looking forward to it. Abi has regular after school practices and games she is committed to, Ben has started picking up odd jobs to make a little cash — and going out with friends to spend some of it. And while Eli has buddies within biking range right now, she’s got drama practice and girl scouts keeping her busy. Having another driver around will certainly be helpful. So far, Ben is a very conscientious and careful driver — and has already had plenty of opportunity to learn to navigate some of the dangers on the road: he successfully avoided hitting a deer on one occasion, and getting hit by a cell-phone-using driver drifting into the wrong lane on another. He’ll do 24 hours of online drivers ed, 50 hours in the car with us, and another 10 with an instructor, before he graduates to the next level of independence.

Driving an all-electric vehicle is different (as is driving with your mom!) Ben takes it very seriously.

As weird as it is being driven around by our son, its even weirder watching him get in a car with a slightly older friend and driving off to activities we didn’t arrange for him. Its the beginning of his independence in a big world without us — and the beginning of the end of our daily influence in his life. We’re awful proud of the young adults our kids are becoming, and pray fervently that we’ve done a good job of equipping them to find the path the Lord would have them walk.

Serving HTTP to old devices and HTTPS to new ones

Devices that pre-date modern encryption are still on the Internet. They shouldn’t be used for anything that needs security, but there’s still valid use-cases for serving content to them.

Newer devices, on the other hand, are increasingly hostile to unencrypted content. The popular notion is that HTTPS helps reduce attacks — and while true, and important for many scenarios, the encryption (and related certificate) really only validate that last link in a very long chain of trust that web clients have to accept.

Assuming you have good reason to support both scenarios, Joshua Stein’s excellent post explores how serve both HTTP and HTTPS in nginx. A snip here for my own records, but credit goes to him:

server {
    ...
    set $need_http_upgrade "$https$http_upgrade_insecure_requests";
    location / {
        if ($need_http_upgrade = "1") {
            add_header Vary Upgrade-Insecure-Requests;
            return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
        }
        ...
    }
}

To add to the conversation, I thought it was important to cover the other most common Linux web server, Apache2. So here’s how to conditionally serve HTTPS for clients that insist on it, while still serving HTTP to older clients in an Apache2 config using mod_rewrite:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ...
    <Location>
        <If "%{req:Upgrade-Insecure-Requests} == '1'">
            RewriteEngine On 
            RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on 
            RewriteRule ^/?(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]
        </If>
    </Location>
</VirtualHost>

Europe 2022

Well, we finally got the kids to Europe! This is something we’ve had a general desire to do since before we had kids, and a specific intention to do since before Covid hit. It took a little longer than we’d hoped, but this summer we pulled it off.

It helped — more than a little — that my parents decided to move to England last year. That gave us a landing pad to start our adventures from. I have memories of walking tours of European cities from my own childhood, and dad didn’t disappoint, with two very full days exploring London, and another touring a castle outside of the city. The kids got to see everything, and then some! The grandparent’s even sprung for theater tickets, and we got to see both parts of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the historic Palace Theater in London. It was a fantastic experience for the kids, and we still managed some time for my own goals for our stay: having a beer in a pub! The “local” was right across the street from my parent’s place, and had a lovely garden, and a decent menu of typical British fare (which is exactly as mediocre as they say!)

Most of our travel was by train, which was a great experience (but only because we missed the strikes by a week). But on castle-exploration day, dad rented a SUV and we got to wind round the country-side, stroll through a little town, and eat pastries. I’m convinced the kids will remember the desserts more than the legendary sights they saw!

At the end of our first week, we caught the Chunnel train to France, again thanks to my parents, and arrived in Paris, where after a series of issues, ended up with a very expensive rental car and a less-than-stellar hotel outside of town. Perhaps we’ll be able to extract some of that money back from the car rental company (seriously, we could almost have bought a car by the time it was all done), but whatever. We got to see Paris. We did try to take the walking a little easier — especially since the first day was a literal 100 degrees — but in the end, the step count ended up close to London. To beat the heat that day, we spent most of it exploring the Louvre, seeing all the famous art (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo) and lots of other art that I’m sure we were far too ignorant to properly appreciate. But we also visited the sadly diminished Notre Dame, stopped plenty of times for light French dining (and expensive bottles of water), and saw the Eiffel Tour from afar. Somewhat worse for wear the second day, we took a more tactical run at the city climbing to the second floor of the Eiffel Tour for pictures, before getting out of town.

We spent two half days driving to the next stop — a little town I used to live in, nestled in the Black Forest of Germany. Hot from the drive we stopped for Spaghetti Eis then hit Schwimmbad for a frigid dip (and were reminded that in Germany, men are required to wear skimpy bathing suits!) Our home for this part of our stay was a B&B at the top of a small mountain. The switchbacks up and down were challenging for all involved, but we mostly only slept there. We spent the next day exploring Kandern, including two castles (and an unexpectedly rough hike to find one!), eating German food, and ended back at the pool.

Not content to visit only three countries, and with a rainy morning in the forecast, the next day we set out for Switzerland with hopes of finding a gondola to ride. We stopped in Lake Lucern for a bite, but the expensive gondola there went to nowhere that was open, and we weren’t up for another 8 mile hike as a destination. We pushed on for the Alps, with the GPS set to another resort town — only to find that it was closed for the season. With the mountains in front of us, it seemed we had no choice but to drive up! Fortunately, our expensive SUV was sure-footed, and after 45 minutes of twists over sheer drops, we reach the resort and a lovely restaurant overlooking the neighboring mountains.

On the way back to Germany, we took a slight detour to Zurich, where we hopped out for a stretch and some touristy photos in a pretty part of town.

Our last day in Germany we took as a restful one, finishing off our Breisgauer beverages, Schogetten chocolate, and the remains of our brotchen and beer. The return trip home was a 3 long days, capped by a 6 hour drive from the Toronto airport. In the end, we’d walked more than 192,000 steps over 82+ miles. But we returned full of experiences (with our bank accounts a lot thinner!) and we saw almost everything we could have hoped to see, and experienced no significant challenges along the way. No one got sick, no connections were missed, and no flights were canceled. On the whole, it was exactly the experience we hoped to give our kids, and I know (from experience!) they’ll be richer for it.

This one’s for you, Agnes

I worked for Microsoft for 2 years before I finally got the nod to attend Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Aside from CES, MWC is the largest international event for consumer technology — especially in 2011, as smart phones and tablets were taking off. Nicole was 9 months pregnant with Eli, my mom was coming home to visit and be there for the birth. We finally lived in our first home, and the previous summer I’d realized my dream to buy a motorbike. Life was good, and I was going to Barcelona! The sun was shining on a beautiful spring day in May, so after making the necessary travel arrangements, I decided to take the bike out for a celebratory spin.

Somewhere across our tiny town, Agnes decided she needed to pop out for groceries. She also decided she didn’t need her glasses that day. Agnes was 88, and definitely needed her glasses.

As I returned from my jaunt, I leaned into a curve a few blocks from our home — only to encounter an old lady coming the other way in her SUV, taking the curve way too wide and filling up my lane. I nearly put the bike down dodging her. As I righted my Honda Shadow and resumed my trip, Agnes approached. With her weak vision, she mistook a small depression in the grass at the side of the road for the left turn she wanted to take, and accelerated into it — just as I was recovering from my previous near miss. Again, I leaned hard to try and avoid another homicidal granny, but this time, I didn’t make it. Agnes slammed on the brakes as she crunched into me, shattering both my tibia and fibula between her bumper and the frame of my bike. I completed setting the bike down with my good leg as my remaining inertia drew me up beside her window.

Blinking her sweet little old lady eyes, she rolled down her window and asked: “Why did I do that?”

I don’t remember exactly how I answered, but I’m sure it wasn’t kind. A passing pedestrian helped me off the road, then called 911 while I called my very pregnant bride. When the ambulance arrived and they had stabilized my leg, I asked for two favors: drive not to the nearest hospital, but to the one Nicole planned to deliver Eli at, and: dial the airline for me so I could cancel my flight to Barcelona before the credit card charge went through…

Eli is now a glorious 11 year old young lady, the settlement with Agnes’s insurance company helped us buy a nicer home in Seattle, a year spent on a cane gave me reason to learn to take care of my body, and my career did just fine without a trip to Barcelona. I’ll probably never own a motorcycle again, and the remaining metal in my leg occasionally feels uncomfortable, but on the whole, we all survived. And boy were we grateful that mom had planned to visit!

Still, Barcelona remained on my list of places I wanted to get to. What a privilege then, when 11 years later, I got asked to cover IOT Solutions World Congress — a smaller event, but still in Barcelona!

It was a whirlwind trip. I had only two very full days in town, where I spoke on two panels, and helped work the show floor. In between, I had to return to the airport for the required Covid test for my flight home. Only once all my responsibilities were covered was I able to hop on the subway with tourist intentions. My first stop brought me to the surface in front of the famous Sagrada Familia. I’m sure I’ll mangle the history, so go read the Wikipedia article. I’ve heard it called “strange and beautiful” and that seems about right to me.

I hoofed it a couple blocks outside the tourist trap surrounding the church and found a somewhat authentic meal and cerveza, then took another train to the Gothic Quarter, where I happily got lost wandering the eccentric winding allies, before emerging at another church for some photos.

The Covid test came back negative, so I got a few hours of sleep at the hotel, before heading back to the airport for the flight home. I got to enjoy a couple lounges, due strictly to residual Gold status still held over from before the pandemic. Whether I got Covid in one of those, or on the plane, or after returning to the US, I’m not sure, but a week later I definitely have it. Fortunately, the shots did their job, Omicron is more merciful, and symptoms have been mild.

Abi got it next, we assume others will follow. At this point, we’re just glad to have it over with, so real summer travel can start. Just a few days left of school for the kids, and one more work event, and then we’re off to explore Europe…

Plugging In the Car

In our family, we’re preparing for our first teenage driver later this summer. Honestly, I’m excited about it — a significant portion of our afternoons and weekends is driving kids to and from their various activities, so having another driver in the house will be a relief.

But going through the process of making sure we have the right number of vehicles, that Ben learns the basics in preparation for driver’s ed, and thinking through with the kids what this new level of autonomy will mean, gives you a fresh perspective on our vehicle-based society. Especially where we live, things are very spread out, so no car means being cut off — and for a teenager, having a car changes everything.

As we prepared for this, we made the decision to look for a low-cost electric vehicle — no easy feat in this day and age. What we found turned out to be a perfect fit — especially as gas prices started to climb. Our little i3 can do 3-4 round trips into town for kid’s activities, or one round trip airport run, on a single charge. The American mid-west has very little charging infrastructure, but installing the necessary equipment at home was way cheaper and easier than you’d think. This arrangement changes how you think about travel. While on one-hand, you can’t easily extend a trip by “filling up” at a station, on the other, there’s remarkable freedom in not having to use gas stations at all. The other day I realized my combustion-engine-equipped Saab was almost out of gas, and was disappointed to remember that I’d have to drive it somewhere to fix that problem; guzzling gas makes you dependent on someone else. The fact that it costs $70 to fill that tank right now is shocking — especially for teenagers dreaming about freedom.

The BMW i3

Of course, there are various nuances to this…

– We’re dependent on someone else for our electricity as well — but the remedy is a fun future project to install some solar panels. I have a couple friends embarking on multi-month efforts to power their entire home with renewables; I’ll start with learning how to charge the car. Since its equipped with DC-direct ports, I won’t need an inverter, which should save some capital. But that project is strictly for the fun and challenge of it — the impact to our electricity bill from charging our car has been negligible; it barely even registers.

Electric car batteries aren’t great for the environment. Building them requires mining for rare earth minerals, and taking them apart at the end of their life is difficult. But progress is being made at building new types of batteries that are more environmentally friendly, and improvements are being made to recycling. One great use I’ve seen for old EV batteries recently is as a back-up for home solar systems.

– Our electric car isn’t fully electric. It has a built-in backup generator called a range extender (Rex). The Rex isn’t connected to the drive train, so its not technically considered a hybrid vehicle. In the US, it was intended to kick-in when the battery charge is low (around 7%), and charge the battery directly. In Europe, the Rex could hold the state of charge at any level below 75%, so of course I reprogrammed the car’s computer to think its European! Since the car is from 2015, some of the electronics need work, and we often need a phone handy to clear error codes to get the Rex to kick-in, but having it available creates confidence that we’re not going to face a dead battery in the middle of a country road somewhere. Filling the generator’s tank costs about $6 once every month or two.

For now, we’ll have three cars. Two with combustion engines, and the electric. The electric car gets the most use, the SUV is for big hauls or long trips, and I’m trading down my Saab for one that’s more appropriate for the kids to learn on. Some day, I’d love to go all electric. It’ll take time to phase out gasoline vehicles: prices need to go down, ranges need to be longer, and infrastructure needs to be built out. But both our governments (US and Canada) have set ambitious goals for the transition, and after a few months with an electric car I’m convinced, the future of transportation should be electric because of one main reason: energy diversification.

A traditional combustion engine has one energy source, and individuals and communities can’t make it ourselves. Bio-fuel was a false lead; its worse for the environment than oil. Electricity can be made from dirty sources, like oil and coal — and we’ll probably need those sources for longer than we’d like — but it can also be made from wind, or water or sun or the heat of the earth, and some of those things can be harnessed at home, or in smaller regional projects. Diversifying our energy sources gives us options, and allows us to respond faster when we learn new things, or face new challenges. There’s no better illustration of this than sailing past a gas station, smiling as those suckers pump their hard earned cash into their tanks…

On the Road Again!

After two years with almost zero business travel (and not much of any other kind, either!) I was excited to hit the road again starting this spring. Business trips haven’t been blog-worthy since 2009, but in this almost-post-pandemic-era, everything seems new again! And besides, its been more than just business…

At the end of March, I got to bring Abi with me to Boston. We’d actually discussed sending her on a trip solo, to visit good friends (and Abi and Ben’s first babysitter!) there, but we found out that the costs associated with an “unaccompanied minor” on a plane were higher than the price of the flights, so we’d ruled it out. Then I got asked to attend a meeting — the same week as her birthday. It seemed too perfect to pass up, so we bought two coach tickets and headed east!

Next up was Orange County, California — a spot that has been a recurring theme throughout my career. In four separate jobs, I’ve had occasion to visit Laguna Beach and the surrounding area, and it remains one of my favorite places to visit. This time, the weather was hot, the rental car a convertible, and the meetings were productive. Although there were only a few fleeting moments of free time, I did manage to cruise with the top down and enjoy a beach-side dinner with some new and old colleagues.

I was barely recovered from jet leg before the next trip — this one within driving distance. My faithful Saab 95, soon to be passed on to a new owner, ate up the highway on a quick 30 hour round-trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we visited some more long-time colleagues at their newest venture. The road trip gave us lots of time to talk, and the event was worthwhile and encouraging.

The highlight of the month+ of travel, though, was this weekend’s personal trip to Calgary, to help my brother prepare his newly purchased house for their imminent move. Personal travel doesn’t get quite the same budget as company-funded trips, so I had to figure out how to do this one on a shoe-string. Fortunately, friends and family lent their hands. I drove to Toronto, and boarded the wallet-friendly “Flair Air” for Calgary, where I was given the worst seat on the plane. I saved on airport parking, thanks to a fellow nerd who lives near the airport and graciously offered to let me park at his place — complete with shuttle service to-and-from! I bunked on a comfortable bed in my sister’s basement, and borrowed a car from my brother’s girlfriend. With thanks to my parents for pitching in for the flight, I’d be surprised if the entire trip, including gas and meals, cost more than $300!

Friday was a furious day of painting — my brother and I got 5 bedrooms painted, with two coats each, before we collapsed on the floor to stretch out our middle-aged backs. We were racing to have the rooms ready for carpet installation on Saturday, so with that accomplished, the next day was an easier pace. We got the living room painted and the basement suite’s main area taped off, shopped Home Depot for supplies and selected from an amazing array of diverse lunch options at a nearby market. The kitchen sink may need more professional help than we could provide, but we hung some curtains and munched pizza, and the lady of the house got to entertain family visiting her new place.

It was a full weekend, but it did afford some fun moments with siblings I don’t see often, a little time with my niece and nephew for video games and deep questions, my fill of Tim Horton’s coffees and a sampling of craft beers and other local products from a very cool Canadian city. Significant flight delays on the way home meant my Sunday morning was more laid back than expected — although the night time road trip home was a rough trade.

I’m home for a couple weeks now, but May’s travel plans include a trip to Spain to speak at a conference. My last opportunity to go to Spain got cancelled from the back of an ambulance, so I’m very much looking forward to that trip — and the other journeys we have planned for the summer…