Can't keep from cryin'

Practically the entire lower 48 is expected to be under what meteorologists call a “heat dome” all next week. Basically, as I understand it, that means we’re all going to cook, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal.

But climate change is a hoax, right? Right along with the pandemic in which we’re spending our second summer. Yay, science deniers!

Anyhow, I sort of feel that Linda Ronstadt’s take on “Heat Wave” is appropriate. She's talking about a different kind of heat, but still.

I hope you can enjoy it in a climate-controlled environment. Also: hydrate.

 

Solomon in all his glory

Well, I spent an hour of my day yesterday listening to a customer moan about how our product is terrible, and whenever someone suggested an approach that would answer one of his issues, he batted it away with, “But it doesn’t solve ALL THE THINGS!!”

So here are lilies from my neighbor’s garden.

 

Taking a bike

The “sharing” economy is truly permeating the People’s Republic. As witnessed by this bike-share installation I found on last Friday’s walk:

It’s across the street from a small park (tennis courts, picnic tables and baseball diamond; also a drinking fountain that I really need by the time I hit that point in my circuit), on a street otherwise relentlessly residential. No shops, no businesses, just single family houses, townhomes and one multi-occupancy building of half-million-dollar condos.

Also—it was decidedly not there on the Thursday, so it was installed in a single day. That must have been a thing.

I saw on Monday that word has got out, as the configuration of available bikes had changed:

 

Swell

It turns out there’s something called “swelling battery/keyboard” on laptops. I found this out because someone posted it on the business unit Teams chat and told us to be on the lookout for it. The latest victim was on a Mac, but evidently this is not unknown to the HPs that the company uses for Windows-based machines.

Someone said that when it happened to his HP, the first signs were the touchpad and shift key rising, preventing him from being able to shut the laptop. Well, I use an external keyboard, so I have no idea if keys are sticking, but that machine has run hot since the day it was issued to me in September 2019. I mean what-the-hell hot.

Well, when I looked at my laptop, here’s what I saw:

That didn't seem good. Then I looked again:

Well, crap. I sent pix to IT and they’re shipping me a new laptop. Evidently Li-on batteries are not something to mess around with.

I have to say that this is a first: I mean, I’ve had colleagues who wanted to kill me, but this is the first time a laptop tried it.

 

 

 

Gratitude Monday: unexpected beauty

I get up between 0500 and 0530 on weekdays in an attempt to get my morning walk in before the heat and humidity make that suicidal. On Sundays, I haul myself out of bed around 0630, but on Saturday, well, I need a break. I’ve discovered that the day after a typical yoga lesson my muscles tend to want to know what the hell I’m thinking. So I get up later and don't push for 10K steps. Thus, my walking circuit is shortened.

This past Saturday I strolled through the corporate HQ, which I haven’t visited for at least a month. And I found the Sacred Lotus in bloom.

Here’s what I also found: bees love the Sacred Lotus.

Today’s gratitude is that a change in my morning walk brought me close to this unexpected beauty, and that I’ll be carrying it with me through the coming days.