I am a big fan of Linux and, more particularly, a big fan of Xubuntu Linux. This is not a review of Xubuntu but an acknowledgement of my biennial struggle about when to replace the previous Long Term Support (LTS) release, Xubuntu 18.04 with the new release 20.04 that is scheduled to drop on April 23. I do not think I have made it more than half a day before I bite the bullet and make the change. This will be a pretty straightforward deal with the computer I use for my PhD work and our home computers, but my day job machine is another story. We have lots of heavy lifting going on and the setup of a development computer of any stripe (Linux, Windows, or apple) for the kind of work I am doing is often a challenge and generally takes at least half a day if I am really lucky. I could just install over the top of 18.04, but that kind of defeats the fun and I like the idea of completely cleaning out cruft every now and then, so I plan to wipe the hard drive. I will continue to run into stuff I forgot for a few more days or even weeks. This is true even though I write down all the stuff I need. New thing just keep popping up.
I am all Linux all the time at both work and home. For the first time ever, I have no reason to ever boot to Windows and we avoid allowing the plague known as apple into the house. The guys at work mostly use Ubuntu, but I really like Xubuntu, mostly because its use changes only minimally. I always look forward to a new release and this one is no exception.
This is the fig tree in Christian’s kitchen. He has been nourishing it faithfully for a long time and now has some figs to show for it. It has been a bit of a struggle because he has to take it to the lab so one of his friends there can take care of it whenever he travels. It is nice to be able to work remotely from Arizona in February. This is the first time I have really taken advantage of the opportunity, but I am really glad to be able to do it.
With the office downstairs painted, I decided to rearrange the furniture so I could work a little more efficiently. The big screen on the right is connected to my main computer which only runs Linux. The screen on the left is connected to a computer I bought for $241 that runs both Linux Mint 19.1 and Windows 10. The Linux part is for the bean project and another project that uses a RealSense 3d imager. The Windows allows me to build programs without having to use a virtual machine to run Windows on my main Linux box. So far I like it really well. I am sure I will have to make some adjustments in the future, but it is a lot better than my previous, single computer setup.
Kelly is at the start of a new chapter in her life that will feature several months of chaos followed by something pretty big. The first step is to move to short-term housing for a few months. I have been sworn to secrecy on the rest. So, über-kid-helper Lorena is up in Seattle right now helping her pack. Tomorrow, I will go load up her sofa, her bed, some other furniture, and a bunch of boxes to haul down to Centralia for storage in our garage until she makes her move to the next (actually, very) big thing. I can hardly wait to be able to talk about it because it is a big deal.
I usually get up very early because I need to coordinate my work with the people in the Boston office, a three hour difference from where we leave. Fortunately (or unfortunately–however one looks at it), Kiwi is an earlier riser, too. The thing is, she only rises long enough to park herself on my lap when I start work. After 10-15 minutes, she gets irritated with me moving around to much for her to sleep, so she moves to the area between the keyboard and the monitor. That is way more manageable because the most I usually have to do is push her head down when I cannot see something on the screen.
A month or so ago, Kelly’s old boss from her college internship to ask her to return to work for him as a data scientist. It is quite a prestigious institution at the bleeding edge of lots of different technologies. Her job will be to work on a range of problems, improving her skills as she goes. The reality is this would not be a bad place for Christian either, if he can get hired there. She can either continue to work as a data scientist and/or get paid for getting a PhD in Statistics at Johns Hopkins University. She is really grateful for the opportunity, especially because she knows the people and the kind of work she would do.
New Year’s Eve was good. Lorena and I spent a couple of hours at our friends’, Stan and Diane, house with a small group of older folks from our church. We, of course, ate too much then came home a little early, talked and went to bed. I spent a good chunk of this holiday season in bed or an easy chair with a cold so I had a lot of time to reflect on life and what we are doing with it. When I say we, I mean Lorena and I. That reflection led to more questions than answers. Do we live in a house that is too big? How soon should I retire? Do stay here or go somewhere else when that happens? Or sooner? I guess my New Year’s Resolution is to seek some guidance from God on those questions. I am surely thankful to be married to Lorena as my she wants precisely the same things–the right, or at least good answers.
After six months, I still love my new job, even with every other week being in Boston. Yesterday morning, my boss came around the office in Boston and gave everyone a really nice bottle of wine but be because I travel. So instead, he got me a gift certificate to take Lorena out to dinner and gave me a really nice card. I am working with really good people on a really hard project. The company listens to me–we have brought in two of my ex-colleagues to speed up the process. If it remains like this, it would be great to stay here until I retire in a few more years.
After one of the nicest Thanksgivings in recent memory (by accident really), we are all back to work. Lorena dropped Christian and off at the airport–Christian is headed back to Arizona and I am writing this post on the plane en route to Boston. Lorena then ran Kelly up to work, did her workout and is back home to take her last Astronomy class test of the semester. Actually, I got a lot done on the GaugeCam/PhD project during vacation last week and in transition back to my day job. It really is nice to have a break, but it is also nice to go back to work, too.
This picture of Kiwi being miffed that Lorena was trying to sit on her chair does not have a whole lot to do with what I want to write about today, but it was pretty fun. Every time Lorena sat down, Kiwi pushed her away and then sat back with a look of irritation. I needed a picture for the post, this was available, and I wanted to have an excuse to put it up.
I ordered a bright red raincoat and had it shipped to the Boston office. Bright red because it gets dark early in the winter and I do not want to get hit by a truck. It is not really a winter coat, but something more than just a windbreaker. The plan is to wear sweaters underneath and get some weatherproof shoes when the snow hits. My decision to take Uber from the airport to the hotel and back seems to still be a fine decision because it forces me to walk the mile and a half to the Whole Foods (not a fan, but it is the only grocery store within shooting distance) and driving in Boston in the winter is, I think, a sport for younger men with faster reactions. The raincoat will join my Boston scale and a large container of skin moisturizer that I keep in the file cabinet at my desk. I am sure that repository will grow.
Yesterday was my 63rd birthday. It is a strange and interesting time in life and the world. The New Year whether counted from one’s birthday, January 1, or some other important annual even like the start of school or a church convention is a time for reflection. For some reason, this year more than many in the past, I feel a need to reassess what we (Lorena and I) do. We have a few short term goals we want to accomplish like Lorena’s degree and some remodel projects, but in the whole scheme of things, they are not so consequential.
Before the big party the other day, I moved my office from one of the top floors of house to the basement. This was my view on the first day I worked there. I think this was a good move. There is a good view of the mountain and I am close to things on the ground. The deer come to the back yard to clean up the fruit on the ground. There are a good number of fawns included in their number. I have been trying to get a picture of the neighbor’s cat who comes and visits at the door on a fairly regular basis. All this is really quite peaceful and I am looking forward to the time when I can be down here working on my bean project at a leisurely pace if I ever get to retire.