There are no pics this week.

We did something different today. We went to the Walter’s Art Gallery in Baltimore, where we watched a lunar New Year celebration. The streets were a mess of construction. We had trouble finding a parking space and almost gave up. But at the last minute, we found a street parking spot. Amazingly, it was free on Sundays, so we got FREE PARKING!

We saw dancing women, and drum players, and dancing dragons. I didn’t bring my camera, so there’s no pics. We also stopped by the Tibetan Deity exhibit before heading home.

Before we went to Arizona, we got rid of our old car. The mileage and age meant it was close to time to give the car up. Letting it sit in the garage unused for 3 months wasn’t going to make it run better or increase its value, so we sold it. We decided to wait and see what our driving patterns will be — maybe we would need only 1 car.

We’re back, and it’s obvious that living with 1 car could work, but life will be a lot easier with 2 cars. Danita plans to drive up to UMBC to take exercise classes. Our neighborhood has classes, but one has to sign up for 2 months at a time. Some of the classes are full and unavailable to new attendees. Classes at UMBC are “drop in”. Thanks to Danita’s emeritus status, she can take them for free. She’s also driving to visit her Dad and to visit the Bertches. (Mike is no longer mobile. Somebody has to be in the house with him 24 x 7.) She’s also looking at volunteering at a women’s domestic violence facility nearby, or perhaps at the Howard County food bank, or perhaps both. While I use my bike for most of my commuting needs, there’s always the possibility of lousy weather when I have a doctor’s appointment, or some other minor emergency. All in all, it’s better for us to have 2 cars.

We are thinking of getting an EV (electric vehicle – powered by batteries). It would be ideal for tooling around the Columbia area. We live near DC, which is one of the areas  EV manufacturers target for early sales. Not counting the very expensive cars (Tesla, BMW, etc.) we have 5 EVs to choose between. We’ll start by looking at the Nissan Leaf Tuesday. We might buy a car sometime in March.

Other than that, we’re living a normal, boring life. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week.

Today it’s precipitating lightly with temperatures hovering right at 32. That makes it a nice day for staying inside and doing computer stuff. I had plenty of it to do. Our neighborhood has 5 condos with 5 boards, all independent of each other. Each board sends a representative to the SOCA board, which takes care of issues that affect all condos. Our website is for SOCA. But a lot of the things we do are organized by one of the condo boards or by extra-active residents. Many people can post to the website, but each is assigned to their specific area. We fence the website off to make sure all these people posting on the website obey the rules.

I have used two plugins (programs) to build fences and enforce rules. One is called AAM, the other UAM. I can use either of these, but not both. I started out with UAM. Then I found AAM, which works better. Then AAM developed some bugs and I switched back to UAM. Then UAM developed some bugs. So I spent quite a bit of time this week changing back to AAM. It doesn’t take all that long to do the work, but the settings are quite detailed. It takes me a long time to figure out what settings work best. I’ll bet I’ve spent 30 hours on this within the last week. I finished it this morning, and this time I wrote a document to help me remember what I did, and why. Here’s hoping this issue is settled for a while.

Monday was another lousy weather day. Danita and I went to see Hidden Figures. I recommend it highly. The movie used some dramatic techniques to create a good story. But they worked very hard to get the facts right, down to the smallest possible detail. In many cases, they used the exact dialog used by the people working on the space program. They even asked for historical pictures of the parking lot at Langley. Here’s an example of details they got right. There is a scene where somebody is driving a 1956 (more or less) Chevy. American cars back then had very loose steering. The steering wheel was big, and the driver had to constantly turn it back and forth, making small corrections to keep the car in the lane. This was the first movie I saw where I actually believed the actor was driving the car. Of course, not everybody is a fact freak. It’s good history you probably don’t know but definitely should. It’s a great story, and it’s well told. (And the facts are right.)

Our only other major activity was a neighborhood party last night.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

No pics this week.

We’re still kicking… The weather has not been conducive to bike riding. It’s hard to complain about it this time of year, but in prior years I’ve been able to ride 2 days a week. The forecast is incredibly changeable. Maybe I’ll squeeze in a ride soon.

We helped at a Church dinner Friday. We worked hard, got tired, and had a good time. The dinner was grilled sirloin steak tips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, a salad, and a roll. Many families bring deserts that are put out for all to share. The food was excellent. This is a dinner where several hundred people show up. Usually, families come, often taking the opportunity to talk with other families they are friends with. Danita and I were on the team to taking orders. We put the orders in the queue. When the food was ready, teenagers brought the orders back to the tables. My strangest experience was a man who asked for his tips to be done medium rare. I thought the guy was joking, but he was serious. He finally decided he would go to the kitchen and pick out his own plate. The man just doesn’t understand church dinners. I wasn’t surprised to note that he came by himself, and didn’t talk with anybody.

Today I helped with our neighborhood’s Men’s Club brunch. The food service starts at 11:30. Danita and I don’t attend the brunch because we like to eat an early (and large) breakfast on Sundays. But I went over to help cook and clean up. I was there 3 1/2 hours. The work was easy and there was lots of camaraderie.

I just finished the book “Tent Life in Siberia”. George Kennan wrote of his experiences in 1865 – 8 when he went to Russia as part of a team to build a telegraph from the US to Europe via Alaska, the Bearing Straight, and Siberia. Kennan has a good sense of humor and an easy writing style. I couldn’t believe the things he and his team did. Highly recommended. If you have any kind of e-reader, you can get the book free from Gutenberg, as well as many other E-book services.

We plan to see the movie “Hidden Figures” tomorrow. It has great reviews. We have high hopes.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.