It’s been two years since the initial “Shelter-in-Place” order was issued for the Bay Area. While I can’t say we’re back to normal, we are doing a lot of normal things, including taking volksmarches with friends, as we did today in downtown Campbell.

The route included the Ainsley House, across the parking lot from the Campbell Library. I’ve been to the library many times, but I’d never bothered to look at the Ainsley House – it’s an interesting place, with a bit of a history. It was built by one of Campbell’s first industrialists (he owned the first local fruit cannery) and was saved from demolition and moved to the Civic Center/Library complex in 1990.

After the walk, we came home and I did a little more work on the Home Assistant migration, and then we made dinner and watched the Shir Hadash Purim Service and Shpiel.

Hag Sameach and Happy Purim!

I got Home Assistant (HA) talking to the Insteon (which is what controls the lights and switches in the house) this afternoon. It was able to bring all of the devices into its database, and now I will put a human-friendly name on each one (recognizing “4C.13.AE” isn’t quite as easy as recognizing “Porch Light”). There should be some way to import all of the names I’ve already defined in Indigo, but with only 20 devices, it’s probably easiest to just do it through the menus in Home Assistant. Tedious, but easy.

I was even able to set up an automation to make pressing a button on a switch in the kitchen turn the Sonos in the living room on and off – just like I have in Indigo.

Despite spending too long on the computer, we did manage to take our usual walks; there are more flowers every day, like this sunflower.