54 thoughts on “July 5, 2022: Technical Difficulties”

    1. It was surreal seeing a manager so casually thrown out of a game, and in extra innings when arguing calls that (for the most part) were favoring his own team.

    1. I saw it on the highlights and couldn't believe they were all running like there were two outs already.

      1. Engel was almost back to the bag as if tagging up. It's almost like he saw the other guy coming and decided it must have been two outs?

        1. The MLB story has quotes they saw Buxton glance at the wall so assumed he wasn't going to catch it. It was a high probability hit but it's Buxton.

          1. Scoring question: Media reports this as an 8-5 triple play, the first of its kind. Buxton recorded an out with the catch, Urshela recorded an out tagging the runner retreating to second base, and then threw to first to put out the runner there. Wouldn't that be an 8-5-3 triple play?

            1. The second out was Urshela tagging the runner from first. Then he touched second to get the guy who started on second.

              1. It took a couple watches and reading the story until it stuck that Urshela tagged Moncada, who started on first. Not being able to see Engel at all was disorienting in counting the outs.

            2. My understanding is that Urshela stepped on second for the third out, but then got confused and threw to first anyway.

              1. Dido to Beau and Jeff. Also Bremer had it wrong on the call as he said something along the lines of "now Urshela just has to throw it to first to complete the triple play."

  3. Our house was shingled while we were away on vacation. Shingling was done last Wednesday or Thursday. We returned Sunday night. It looks very nice, and cleanup seemed good. Didn't see shingle shards all around or anything. Nothing broken as far as I can tell.

    Yesterday at about 6 we're sitting on our patio when we hear screaming from the side of the house. My 18-year-old comes around the corner carrying my 11-year-old. She stepped on a nail barefoot, not even running. Shoot. My wife pulls the nail out and the kid has a hole in her foot. She's a tough kid, but she screamed and hyperventilated for about 5 minutes. Unfortunately she was due for her next tetanus shot, thus she had to go in for a very expensive emergency room tetanus shot. Accidents happen, but dang.

    After my wife and daughter left for the emergency room, several of my neighbors and I gather with a magnet and metal detector and find JUST SHORT OF 200 nails in our lawn and landscaping. They basically had not done the nail cleanup after they finished tearing off the shingles. 200 NAILS?!

    Accidents happen, but that many nails is not an accident, it's a failure to complete the job. A strongly (or at least strongish) worded email has been sent. We shall see what happens. I'd like them to at least pay for our emergency room visit, though truly they should go beyond that for the pain, time wasted, and additional hour 4 of us spent hunting nails (so far).

    I failed as I should have told everyone to be careful walking around the house and I should have had a plan to go around with a magnet just in case some nails were missed. I feel really bad about that.

    1. I didn't even get to that part of your story before I was thinking "nails". No job can get them all (heck, they'll fall from who knows where years later) but that just sounds like someone skipped a step. I think asking for the medical $$ is certainly in order.

      1. They did reply already with "I'll take something off the bill," but that doesn't do us much good since it's an insurance replacement.

  4. Last night was my last night in San Diego, so naturally I ate eight tacos. Itā€™s interesting to me that some places differentiate their fish tacos ā€” some call a taco with fried fish ā€œpescado,ā€ while thatā€™s a grilled fish taco elsewhere and you need to order a ā€œBajaā€ for the fried fish.

    I didnā€™t hit every taco joint I wanted to this trip, so I guess Iā€™ll have to come back again next year.

      1. So good. Iā€™m going to experiment a bit at home after this trip.

        Also enjoyed several Mexicali tacos; people who would balk at mashed potatoes in a taco are missing out big time.

        1. We have an excellent taqueria two blocks from our house. That is dangerous.

          Excellent al pastor, lengua, and cabeza. But I have to drive 5 minutes to get to the truck with awesome birria tacos.

    1. It isn't that bad down here, but I went out for a bike rider this morning around 10 and the humidity became really noticeable around mile 16. I have no idea how I gutted out another 17 after that.

      1. Our A/C apparently has acted up while I was away. I got a text asking what to try if the air was on but not cooling lower than 78Ā°. Naturally, it was on the third, a couple years to the weekend that the old unit destroyed itself. I suspect it needs a recharge ā€” or that better be all it needs.

        1. At least today is the only real day this week. It'd be pretty surprising for an A/C unit to fail after two years, so its probably nothing major.

      1. It was 108Ā° out at Bombay Beach yesterday. The day before it felt warmer, but I didnā€™t get a midday reading because I was out in the wastes. However, I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever drank five beers as fast as I did that evening.

    4. Aaaand our upstairs AC wasn't cooling. The smart thermostat app emailed to say it hadn't cooled in the last 8 hrs. Ended up with a capacitor and two fuses replaced, which was fun coordinating long distance.

      1. We had about a lb of refrigerant added. Guy said he thought the system had never been charged properly.

        I'm so glad we suffered through LAST summer without doing something. Oops.

  7. I'm thinking about going from the Google Pixel to an iPhone? I'm not usually an Apple guy but it feels a little like everything else is Beta max.

    1. I understand some folks outright hatred of all things Apple, but Iā€™ve always found them intuitive and long(ish) lasting. The cost per year seems to breakdown roughly equivalent to other major suppliers like google and Samsung. The question of open source and what preference you have in app stores seems to be the list of pros / cons. I also run an I Mac and MacBook for art/ home computing so ease of integration is a consideration for me. I also try to max out the number of years I get out of a phone because cost and bad for the environment and I hate giving cellphone companies money.

      1. I understand some folks outright hatred of all things Apple...

        Oh, hai, pleased to be of service.

        1. They're smooth and intuitive. I'm certainly not a fan boy, but I've never really had any issues or major complaints. I started off with an early Android that kind of sucked, switched, and have been content ever since. That, and you won't make the text go green.

          1. I mean, sure. Hippies and yuppies etc.

            Iā€™ll still bag on Microsoftā€™s poor imitation of everything (think teams instead of slack) as more awful than mainstreaming home computing and going ā€œcorporateā€.

          2. Iā€™ve gone 4+ years between iPhones in the past. The PoissonniĆØre uses my old 6S Plus, released over 6 years ago, without a SIM card as an mp3 player, camera, and video streamer. Despite being that old, it runs the most recent release of iOS and the battery, replaced three years ago for $29, has over 90% of its original capacity. I traded in my iPad Air, which was nearly 9 years old, this spring for a new iPad mini. Apple gave me $65 in credit toward the new iPad and recycled my old one for free, including the shipping cost.

            My desktop at home is a mid-2015 iMac, also capable of running the most current release of macOS. My work laptop is a 2018 MacBook Pro, which has a crappy keyboard design that Apple was willing to abandon and create a maintenance program for after it proved to be a liability.

            Iā€™m not sure what the implied deviation from Appleā€™s core ethos is here, but thatā€™s not representative of my experience.

            1. I had an iPhone for work and a Galaxy for personal phone. I much prefer the Galaxy.

            2. I'm pretty sure the ipad we had once upon a time suffered from that artificial slowing they did, because it absolutely stopped functioning at any reasonable speed despite my diligent maintenance/minimal downloads, etc. I'm still iritated about that, but otherwise have no particular animosity towards Apple - they're the same as all the other tech companies. Which means they aren't different, which, really was, the point of the commercial, right?

            3. Let me preface this by agreeing Apple's mobile devices and OS support are dramatically better than any other company and have been for many years. They're great and they make great phones and tablets. We have an iPad Air that only recently dropped out of support, six(?) years later.

              That said, Microsoft has traditionally been much better about long-term desktop support than Apple. They drastically reduced that range for Windows 11, but Windows 10 is still supported. Furthermore, for some Android phones and tablets, you can unlock them and install custom Android ROMs. I've done that for my old Nexus 4. That's a phone released in 2012 that I was able to install an Android with up-to-date security (not feature because the phone is too old) over eight years later. I've also done that for my Nexus 5X from 2015. Similarly, There's postmarketOS that allows installing modern Linux on ancient devices. I have modern Linux running on our Nexus 7 tablet from 2012. This isn't the slightest* bit possible on Apple devices because of how restricted they are.

              The natural response is most people aren't going to do this and it only works on some devices (mostly Google's and they have a mixed track record). But there is the possibility at least of extending the life of the devices beyond merely recycling them.

              * Someone figured out how to do this on an iPhone 7. This isn't easy and isn't generally possible on their devices.

  8. We are back in the Land of Sky Blue Waters, visiting my parents for a week.

    I picked up an assortment at the bottle store in Grand Rapids: Surly Furious, Lift Bridge Farm Girl, Bent Paddle Black Ale, Invictus Beautiful Buzz, Summit Twins Pils and Cabin Crusher, and Castle Danger George Hunter Stout.

    2. Oof, Farm Girl is their worst. Don't judge Lift Bridge by it. I've been really enjoying their Getaway Pilsner lately. (I have some affinity for Lift Bridge. It's possible that my neighbors are the parents of one of the owners...)

      1. Really? I have always enjoyed it in the past. Do you like saison as a style? Have they changed it?

        2. I can't say I know saison well enough to have an opinion on it as a style. I just know Farm Girl specifically does not work at all for me.

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