2021 week 14 wrap up

We spent the Easter break enjoying that things have opened up a bit. We had drinks on a friend’s driveway. We went to two new National Trust sites. We found a forest park with a neat adventure playground for Ada. We’re still keeping things low-risk, even as shops open up, but it’s really nice to be able to do a bit more. And while I’m still anxious about it, I don’t have the conviction that it’s too early like I did last summer.

Work has continued busy over the past few weeks. It’s been challenging with having my daughter home over the break. Luckily my wife had last week off, and was happy to take point on getting signed into things, and pouring snacks into the bottomless pit that is a growing child. My income is designated as “fun money,” and supplements our travel savings. Since we haven’t been able to travel we have a reasonable chunk saved up. So my wife recommended that I take some of whatever I make this month, and put it to a road bike. I used to go out riding with some of the dads from my daughter’s school, but I have a big up-right commuter bike, and they all had road bikes. Even making allowances for my lower level of fitness, that bike was a real drag on the speed of the rides. I’m looking at the Triban RC 120. I’m just dipping a toe, and it looks like they have pretty good resale value judging by completed EBay auctions.

I signed up for Apple One this week. We had the largest iCloud storage plan, and were also paying for Prime Music as a secondary music source. I need Office 365 for work, and Michelle doesn’t actually store much online these days, so I downgraded our storage, cancelled Prime Music, and we came out even. Plus we now get Apple Arcade, TV, and News. I’m really keen to try a few well-reviewed iOS games: Sayonara Wild Hearts, Grindstone, Bleak Sword, and the recently-released Cozy Grove.