Out of The PIT

So my home assistant and I have come to an amicable solution to the G-word situation. No longer is Goober accepted but "Hey Goob" seems to trigger and process properly. I've been using Goob for the past month without much hassle, so we're both used to it now. Although this may change when we have people over and their commands could alter the AI recognition. We shall see.

So I had trained my Google home speaker to respond when I said "Hey Goober" or "Okay Goober". This was great since I hated to use Google as the key word and Goober seemed like a logical choice for me. This was working fine for several months, but a couple of months ago, I noticed that my speaker would stop responding to me on occasion. Eventually it got to a point where it stopped responding at all. Sure, it would indicate that it was listening, but after I gave it a command, like "what is the weather today", the speaker would do nothing. Curious, I tried changing the way I said things, said things slowly, used different speakers, etc. But I could not figure out why the response rate was so poor. Eventually, I discovered what the problem might be. I usually carry my phone with me around the house and sometimes it will pick up my commands. The difference with my phone is that it will also display what it heard me say on the screen. So when I said ...

I just discovered something: There is no overnight parking on our street. Not just that, there is no way to get a permit to park on the street overnight. It is just not possible . If you park on the street at night, you get a ticket. This was the first that I heard about it, but apparently it became law since 2009, ten years ago! It is good that I looked this up before having anyone stay overnight with their car on the street. We found out from our neighbors that their daughter got ticketed and that was how they found out. We could use their parking if necessary - which was really nice of them. "That's what neighbors are for." they said. Yes, and to build a good neighborhood, you need to have good neighbors.

So I am currently working from home and have been for the past couple of weeks. The first week was tough as we had just started living at the house and our place was a mess. I was working on the kitchen island for a couple of days before moving into the basement bedroom for a few more days. After a weekend of cleaning and organizing (and putting together the new desk), I was able to get my office set up enough to allow me to use my old computer (which still runs!) and my laptop functioning on my two monitors. The setup is not bad, although the monitor stands are a little ghetto (Nest Cam IQ boxes). Still, I'm glad I was able to get this thing up and running. Now I'm at least 50% productive as before.

It has been four years but the kid is still the same as ever. A little bit of ice breaking was required, the pool being that ice breaker (every time it seems). I do enjoy a little dip every now and then, and I do not mind sharing the pool with a few rowdy teens. Although I think she was "accidentally" throwing to me on purpose just to get my attention. I ended up getting sucked in, along with a couple of other adults, but I think I took the brunt of the abuse. Thanks to the three girls, I certainly ended up with very sore pecs by the end. I had no idea how I would play hockey afterward. I do not know if the other two girls remembered me, but she sure did. Over the past decade the MO has always been the same. She spent a lot of time talking about herself, asking questions, and wanting to show off stuff in her room and around the house. "I think she has a crush on you." LH said. I brushed it off. I'm sure if anyone paid any attention to her she would have done...

Over the past three weeks I have been biding my time, waiting for this splinter in my thumb to work it's way out. I knew it wasn't deep enough to be stuck forever, but it was not shallow enough for me to pick out. It was painful if I pressed on it, so I eventually got used to avoiding using my thumb for various tasks that required pressing down. Late last week I could feel a bump where the splinter was. It was clearly poking out a bit, but was still under the skin. A couple of days ago, the skin over the splinter sloughed off, and I was able to borrow a pair of tweezers and was able to yank out the offending thorn. It was still a respectable size all things considered. I'll be sure to wear thicker gloves when I continue gardening..

So this seems to be my life now: Less riding, more gardening. We have been spending the past couple of weeks managing our gardens, which are basically both our front and back yards. There is a lot of fauna on our property and it attracts a lot of flora. This past week we saw plenty of birds, a beaver, a snake, a gopher, a rabbit, in addition to the usual squirrels, ducks, raccoons, etc. A week! I'm sure we will be seeing a lot more different animals popping up in and around our lawn over the coming years.. In any case, today was a great day to go out for a ride. Except that I did not. I did not even try to get the bike ready for the season. I had a lot to do in our yards. We still have a lot to do in our yards, but I think once we get the hang of it, things will get a little easier. Along with digging up trees we don't plan on keeping and hiring students to do the grunt work (like raking leaves). We'll get our feet wet this year and figure out what we can and cannot m...