Catching Up

2022-01-11

I'm Back

We went on a roughly 2800 mile round trip over the holidays to spend 3 weeks with family. It was the first time in about 6 years that I've spent a significant amount of time in temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Our kids have never seen snow before so we were hopeful that would change during the three weeks we spent up north and our wish came true! The first week and a half was very mild and pleasant. Then on new year's day we were treated to a good few inches of snow which stuck around for the remainder of the trip as the temperature never got back above freezing. We bundled up and had snowball fights, made snow angels, slid down the driveway and made some great memories. The kids (and I) had a blast!

Records

We visited quite a few different record stores on our trip and came back with quite a stack of records. Now that I have them on the shelf with what was already there it seems we have almost doubled the collection. Some highlights that we picked up include a very cool Surfin' in the Midwest compilation and some good stuff snagged from my father's collection. The most notable from my father's collection that I brought home are the Beatles albums St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver as well as a Best of Count Basie album complete with my own crayon scribbles on the sleeve X-).

Pinephone Keyboard

They are up for sale now and I have my order in! I missed getting my order in right away because I didn't really spend much time on the internet during our trip. Some people are starting to receive theirs already so hopefully I won't have to wait too long. I will definitely be doing a post specifically about the keyboard as soon as mine arrives.

Watches

I received the metal case for the Watchy (esp32 based eink watch) as a gift. This makes it look much nicer and also much more sturdy and durable. I have been wearing it daily for the last few weeks and I like it. There have been some new firmwares with new watchfaces that have popped up and I'm having fun with it. I also received a nice new leather watch band for my Seiko automatic watch. I have yet to install it and wear it though because I need to figure out a makeshift spring bar tool or to just buy the proper tool so I can install it. I've also just discovered that there is a relatively new addition to the Seiko automatic lineup that I really like with a slightly larger case and a bit better looking design. That is definitely going on my wishlist for the future.

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