Things that fall in the river get wet

Figure 1: Bryan paddling on the Shenandoah

Figure 1: Bryan paddling on the Shenandoah

1 Intro

This weekend my son Bryan, friends (former scouts from Philmont days) Sam and Preston and friend Jack went on an canoe trip down the Shenandoah river. We were only dumped in the river by two of the two rapids we encountered. More on that below.

Figure 2: Things that fall in the river get wet

Figure 2: Things that fall in the river get wet

More Thoughts on More Stuff

Figure 1: Things on our mantle

Figure 1: Things on our mantle

1 What is this and who is it for?

This is written primarily as a personal reflection to my cousin about us both winding up with tons of family “stuff”. Secondarily it is intended for a family newsletter. Tertiarily, for my sons to document snippets of family history, and lastly (quarternarily ?) it is written as an “open letter”.

Tuscarora Trek

May 15-17, 2020 Son Bryan (“Music Man”), Jason Boyle (“Alaska”) and I (“Curious George”) hiked 30 miles on the Tuscarora trail.

The picture below shows Bryan standing on Eagles Rock with the first 11 miles of the hike on the ridge behind him.

Figure 1: Bryan at Eagles Rock

Figure 1: Bryan at Eagles Rock

"My Computer ?"

The windows desktop has (had? I don’t pay attention) icons labeled “My Computer”. I always thought that was odd, or at least very often out of context as many (most?) instances of Windows ran on machines at people’s jobs. They didn’t own the computer. It was not “My Computer”.

Similarly, Apple has a long history of asserting they know what’s best for other people and their computers. The last time I had to go to “The Apple Store” all I wanted was a power cable. I wanted the part, I wanted to pay, I wanted to get out. But, characteristically, the “experts” there (what does that say about their view of their customers) wanted to engage me, to “have a conversation”, talk to me about warranties and if I qualified, they wanted to wast my time (more valuable than my money) on their agenda. Apple software is the same way. Not “My Computer”.

9 days of #100DaysToOffload

1 Experiences after 9 days of blogging

About 3 weeks ago I decided to start blogging. For various still ill-defined reasons, some of which I explored in a blog post contemplating the fate of writing and writers great and small. But it’s still somewhat mushy.

I spent some time coming up the curve on the Hugo framework for building static web sites and the emacs org mode counterpart ox-hugo which let me put up my Curious Musings blog.

The a few days after that on Fosstodon (open source distributed social media) I came across the https://100daystooffload.com/ challenge which, basically encourages you to “just write”. Good timing. Here it is.

Life imitates…

And to get away from it all tonight we played (well, continued) a game of Civilization: Famine, Strife, Civil War, Flood, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, but strangely no epidemic (yet).

Figure 1: Civilization

Figure 1: Civilization

Awesome online singing from Denmark to Australia, and social distancing too!

There are some amazing online singing events happening now around the world: Denmark, Australia, Nashville, etc. I want to highlight a couple examples of that to add brightness to these dark times.

Human beings have an unquenchable desire to live in community. Singing has always been an expression of that. Modern technology has enabled it.

Figure 1: The Sacred Harp Quarantine Chorus

Figure 1: The Sacred Harp Quarantine Chorus

Day 07 of #100DaysToOffload.

Getting started in life is harder right now

Getting started in life is harder right now. I have two college age sons who both just finished up their year with online classes, and both are home now. In “normal” times they would be working summer jobs or participating in other activities that would help them advance toward their chosen careers. Jobs may or may not happen. Even getting out of the house may not happen much. These are weird times.