We started the week off with a bang. We had Christmas Zoom concerts two nights in a row. The first was a baroque concert. They suggested enjoying cookies and hot chocolate with the concert. We didn’t buy their concert pack, but we did get some Oreos and make a nice cup of hot mocha. The other concert had each musician playing or singing in their own home. I don’t know how they kept everybody synchronized. Even the children chorus did quite well. Their last number was a jazz piece with irregular rhythms. I could tell they had a little trouble with that one. But overall, it was a great concert.
Sunday was neighborhood luminary night. Folks were invited to make luminaries and put them out from 6 to 7. Danita made several. It was fun walking around the neighborhood. Here’s a picture of the Jones with their luminaries.
Mom has been cooking meals that Mark and JiaJia can heat up after the baby comes. These are our favorite recipes that feed a family. Danita and I ate a little bit and froze the rest. Mark and Jiajia picked really good recipes. Danita and I have been eating really well.
Christmas day we had a small zoom with just Mark, Jiajia, and the Reeds. That was fun. One of our gifts was a 6-month subscription to “The Great Courses”. These are lecture courses. Most of them are 24 lectures, so we got started right away. We picked out 10 courses to watch together, plus we both have a few courses that just one of us is interested in. Five days a week at 9:00, Danita and I watch two lectures. In 6 months when we’re all done, we should have had our vaccination and we should be able to get out more. So far, the lectures have been excellent.
I also built a database this week. I use Quicken for our budget. Quicken has become quite cumbersome for what I need these days. It wants me to store data in the cloud, which I’m reluctant to do. Every time I start Quicken, the connection to the cloud account has to time out. I want to review accounts daily. It’s extra work to do that without the cloud storage. I decided I could build a database that I can use for our budget. The basic database is done. I will be using both Quicken and the database until I’m confident everything is working well. Then I’ll add some features. The cool thing is that I can make the database work exactly the way I want. I had to spend a lot of time looking things up. I forgot all the details of syntax and formatting. But it’s been a lot of fun. I haven’t done work like this in years.
My new bike has been delayed. Plus the dealer doesn’t usually stock the configuration I want. I want to test ride before putting down a hefty deposit. The dealer had one of the first bikes made by this manufacturer with the configuration I want in his warehouse. We agreed I would use that as the test ride. I rode it this week and it’s exactly what I expected. I put the deposit down. The dealer said I could take the old bike home and ride it while waiting for the new bike. I was pleased to find the bike fit in our car, so I took it home. Unfortunately, really old bikes develop issues. The chain was too loose. I fixed that (imperfectly). Then I found that one of the wheels was reluctant to turn — the brake was rubbing against the wheel. I started looking at that when I noticed one of the tires had gone flat. I hadn’t ridden even 5 miles. At this point, I decided I was getting a friendly message from my guardian angel about the wisdom of riding this very old bike. The bike’s in the garage waiting for the new bike to come in. One good thing is that I verified the new bike will fit in the garage.
That’s the news from Columbia. I hope everybody had a pleasant Christmas