We’re having a mix of rain and wet snow today. The temperature is near freezing and dropping. The low will be 17. Fortunately the precipitation is tapering off. It looks like the roads and sidewalks will remain clear. Still, it’s nasty, sloppy weather which makes it a great day to stay inside.

We went to a BSO concert last Sunday. Neither of us enjoyed the first half very much. The second half was much better. We have another concert tomorrow. The BSO usually has a contemporary piece, which we sometimes like but more often find not very pleasing. But with Beethoven and Shostakovich on the bill, the concert should be a good one.

My phone has become unreliable. It works most of the time, but sometimes it stops working. I use the phone as my bike GPS. It usually starts acting up after an hour or so of riding. The symptoms are varied. The phone is less than 2 years old. I’m disappointed in the phone’s longevity. Trying to get it fixed does not seem to be wise. I replaced it with a Pixel 5a. The phone came in yesterday. I’ve been using my stay home time to master some of the improvements changes Google has made over the last two years, plus the customizations they put in their Pixel phones. Now Danita and I both have Pixel 5a phones.

I use Google Authenticator for two-factor authentication at some web sites. The process of changing phones made me realize my authenticator keys aren’t backed up. That means if my phone suddenly died, I wouldn’t be able to access those sites. I was quite surprised that Google doesn’t support backing up the authentication keys because it opens the possibility of a hacker getting to them. I see their point, but I think loosing access to the sites is the more important issue. I was able to back up the keys by taking a picture of the bar code used to transfer keys between phones. I was able to upload the keys from the photos and confirmed they work.

Danita and I ordered a Pickle Ball set. Our neighborhood has a Pickle Ball court near the swimming pool. We got our first game in yesterday. The weather was sunny and warm (near 60). We are far from proficient, but it was fun to move our bodies around and do something different.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.