A Few Things

A few things of note have transpired lately. None fully worthy of posts, but you put them together and you’ve got something.

The first is the ongoing saga of my work MacBook. I took it in last Sunday for repairs. It was showing signs that the battery was swelling, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back. (When batteries swell, they are failing and are a fire hazard.) The MacBook had already started giving me problems with the keyboard and the upper left USB port hadn’t worked in over a year. Since I was taking the Azure training last week, I felt I could do without my laptop. I set myself up at the Mac Mini in the dining room and took the course there. The repair was supposed to take 5-7 days and the Apple Store tried to call and sent an email yesterday asking me to call the store. Unfortunately, I was in class and Tammy was teaching so neither of us answered the phone. And I didn’t check my email until just after the Apple Store closed at 7 that evening. I called them this morning and as it turns out, after they fixed the top case and the USB port, they ran diagnostics and the TouchID sensor didn’t pass. They replaced it but it still didn’t pass. So they have ordered a new logic board and that might arrive sometime next week. I have one day of work next week on Tuesday, for which I will set myself up in the Mini again. It’s really not bad. The computer, while old, isn’t too underpowered compared to my laptop because we bought the “good one” and it has lasted. (Geekbench for the Mini: 678 single core, 2814 multi-core, vs. 917 single / 3680 multi for the MacBook) I have replaced the hard drive with an SSD, so that’s fast too. And my Thunderbolt Display (27″) is hooked up to it. I can’t complain!

The second thing is my ongoing “chest ache” when exercising hard. I have been following doctors’ orders like a good boy, but this morning I decided to try riding on the rollers. The rollers are a good way to get a cardio workout and you can dial in the effort. And I’m unhappy to report that the ache was there during the workout. I can’t say that it’s any better than it was, despite weeks of layoff. Still no notion of what it is caused by. I will make an appointment to consult with the doctor again.

Another thing was our rude awakening this morning. At 5:50, the doorbell rang. It’s not loud from the bedroom, but it was enough to wake me up and Miranda, too. We met in the hall, blearily looking at the Vivint app on our phones, trying to figure out who would be ringing so early. But it became clear that there was no one there. And it rang again a minute later, and again a minute after that. By that time I was in the control panel and decided to reboot the doorbell camera. After I did that, it didn’t come back online and I rebooted the control panel too, for good measure. When it became apparent (after about an hour) that it wasn’t going to fix itself, I got online with Vivint support. It got fixed pretty quickly by deleting and re-adding the doorbell to the system. The ghost doorbell didn’t recur, so I guess it’s fixed. Not how I wanted to start the day, considering I’d been getting up at 5:30 every morning this week in order to be ready for my class at 7:00.

And Tammy made red bean and sweet cheese strudel and cleaned out he pantry. She’d bug me if I didn’t mention that. 😉