UPS delivered the Mac mini this afternoon!

Setting it up was a little more trouble than I expected – I had to dig out a wired keyboard and touchpad (an old Cirque Smart Cat) to be able to pair it with the Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad I really want to use.

Then I realized that a Mac mini doesn’t include a microphone or a decent speaker – the webcam I’m using has a microphone, so that’s OK, but I’m going to have to figure out what to do about a speaker. I have an old Cambridge Soundworks system that I can use, but it includes a very large woofer that I’ll have to put somewhere, and the tweeters will take up some precious desk space, too. Or I could use headphones.

It’s going to take a while to figure out how to set things up properly – right now, there are wires all over the desk, some of which are probably unnecessary. I haven’t quite gotten comfortable with the placement of the monitor, keyboard, and touchpad yet – I’m sitting closer to the monitor than I did before, and it’s a big monitor.

It’ll all work out, right?

It was nice not to be waiting for any deliveries today; I did a bit more consolidation, pruning, and labeling of photos from 2002, which will make the eventual migration to the new machine a few seconds faster.

This morning was a special occasion – my first cousin, Sharon, turned 75 yesterday and her children arranged a surprise Zoom birthday party for her. It had been a long time since we’d talked, and it was good to see other family members, too.

This evening, we attended a Sheloshim service for Rabbi Aron’s mother who died a bit over a week ago; that was a reminder of the other end of the cycle.

The waiting resumes tomorrow.

UPS sent me a message this morning saying that my new Mac mini was “out for delivery” today, much to my surprise. After Shir Shabbat services, we went outside and found a box from Apple on the porch – it was the box I need to use when I send my old computer to them for trade-in. And it came by FedEx, not UPS. Maybe Monday….

Our neighbors Bones and Skully have reappeared after their vacation – good thing they have heavy sweaters because it’s quite chilly outside tonight!

I had hopes of getting my new Mac mini today; UPS sent me an email telling me to expect it between 4:15 and 8:15pm; Apple sent me a text telling me “Today’s the day.”

It’s 9:17pm, and I’m beginning to suspect that today isn’t the day.

If the computer had arrived, I wouldn’t have been able to set it up in place of the system it’s replacing because I’m leading services over Zoom tomorrow, and rearranging everything would not have been a good idea – but it would have been nice to have had the option.

Shabbat Shalom!

I had hopes of getting my new Mac mini today, but it must have missed the flight from Louisville to Oakland overnight – UPS now tells me it’ll be here tomorrow.

FedEx finally delivered our bagels from New Yorker Bagels a day late; we had to replan our menu for the week because of the delay! They also delivered the box to send Diane’s old laptop back to Apple – we’ve got two weeks to send it, which should give her a chance to really try out the new one first. And we’re still waiting for them to deliver a wine shipment that was supposed to have arrived on Tuesday (good thing we have other sources for wine!).

Our plumber came in the late afternoon and cleared out the drain pipes – he said it looked like an accumulation of grease over the years and suggested a way to avoid having it recur: clean the sink with Comet once a week, fill the basin with water, and then let it all gush out at once to dislodge the grease before it can pile up. Sounds easy enough….