I had big plans for today. I was going to attend two Toastmasters meetings, get caught up on Quicken, read the Economist, and continue my streak of closing all three rings on my Apple Watch. And maybe finally get around to restringing the blinds in the bathroom, too!

How’d I do on reaching my goals? I got to one Toastmasters meeting and just closed the final ring on my watch a minute ago (at nearly 10pm). I spent a lot of time reading a thread on Twitter where a lawyer dissected the filings in 45’s latest suit in Wisconsin (for some reason, Screen Time isn’t nagging me properly on my phone, so I can get lost in Twitter and Facebook more than I want to allow). I checked the temperature in our ovens against the new thermometer – the ovens run a good bit cooler than they claim, as I suspected.

And that was about it for productivity today. Good thing I’m retired!

We bought our Ring Doorbell about four years ago. It’s never had the promised “six month” battery life, which didn’t surprise me at all, but over the years, it’s gotten shorter and shorter. I had to charge it today, less than a month after the last time. That’s annoying, but it won’t be a real problem until we start to travel again (I don’t want the battery to die while we’re traveling) – so I need to replace it before that happens.

The obvious replacement is another Ring Doorbell; the 2020 model is only $100, but it, too, has a non-replaceable battery. The Ring Doorbell 3 has a removable battery, but it costs $200, which is quite a premium for convenience and possibly longer life.

I could also try to move my existing Ring to the side of the door where my old doorbell is and power it that way – it feels like the video would be of people’s sides rather than their face, but maybe that would be OK. And maybe it would connect faster – as it is, I rarely can connect to the doorbell before the person ringing it gives up!

Are any of you using other video doorbells that you like?