Shabbat is what you make of it

The JCC is trying to encourage members to come in and exercise this month – if you workout there eight times during February, you get some merch. We usually work out there twice a week, which would make it easy to qualify – but next week, we’ll be in Hawaii.

So we got up early and worked out this morning before Torah Study; it wasn’t a bad way to start Shabbat.

After Torah Study, we took a walk to the nearby Amazon Locker and picked up the remote case I’d mentioned in Thursday’s blog entry. The case provides much-needed bulk, friction, and visibility for the Samsung remote, which I hope not to have to fish out of the couch again!

One advantage of going to Hawaii in February is that there’s very little overlap between the clothes we’ll be wearing there and what we’re wearing here, so we were able to pack almost everything this afternoon (we have a Lyft scheduled for 5am on Monday, another reason we got up early this morning). It feels very strange to be packed so far in advance!

Swell times

There was a beautiful crescent moon when I went out this morning, so I ran back in to grab my camera (I knew my phone wouldn’t do it justice). I hadn’t used the camera since we got back from Hawaii in early December, so I wasn’t surprised to find it had a dead battery.

I was surprised, though, that it took considerable effort to pry the battery out of the camera body; I popped in a new battery and went back outside before the sky got too light.

I came back in and put the dead battery into the charger; it seemed like a tighter fit than usual. Suddenly, a light dawned. I turned off the charger, pulled the battery out, and put it down on the table.

It should have lain flat on the table, but it wiggled from side to side. I looked more closely and saw that it was only contacting the table at the center of the battery, not the entire surface, as you’d expect.

I compared it to the other batteries I had, and it was clear that it had started to swell, so it’s a good thing I didn’t finish charging it.

Diane and I checked our other camera batteries; all of mine were OK, but she had one which didn’t quite lie flat (and which she said didn’t hold its charge well). We took the two bad batteries to the local Ace Hardware where they’ll dispose of them.

On a brighter note, the installer we picked signed the paperwork for the solar system; the next step is for them to come out and verify the condition of the roof and ensure that they can mount the panels in the right place. Oh, and I guess we’ll have to send them a deposit, too. :-)

Shabbat Shalom!

Remotes out of control

We had a hybrid Silver Tongued Cats meeting this morning; I’d volunteered to handle the tech issues, and I was confident I’d have no problems after watching how the Los Gatos Toastmasters ran a hybrid meeting in the same room.

I got there a little early and hooked up all the cables and turned everything on. System Settings on the Mac showed the TV was connected and recognized, but I couldn’t get anything to show up on the screen. The TV was working fine – as a TV, but when I selected the “PC” input, nothing happened.

I disconnected and reconnected. I turned the TV off and on. I turned mirroring off and on. Nothing helped. After what felt like ten minutes, I decided to tell the TV to try the input labeled “Cable Box” – and that worked.

The rest of the meeting ran smoothly. After the meeting, one of the other Toastmasters mentioned that he’d brought his new Volkswagen ID.4 to the meeting and offered to show it to me; he even let me drive it for a few miles. I didn’t like it quite as much as the Ioniq 5, but I plan to go to the VW dealer and see what Diane thinks of the car; it’s a good bit less expensive and might qualify for the Federal tax credit.

This afternoon, we were watching last night’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, when suddenly the TV started showing “Live Now from FOX”, even though the audio from Colbert was still playing through the A/V receiver. I was confused. Eventually, I realized that something must have pushed a button on the TV remote, moving it to a random channel on “Samsung TV Plus” but not affecting the A/V receiver.

It took a long time to find the TV remote; it had slipped off the arm of the couch, under the cushions, and into the tiny opening between the upholstery and the seat body, pushing the “Samsung TV Plus” button at some point on its journey.

I’ve ordered a case for the remote to make it bigger and less slippery. If it works as well as the one I got for the Apple TV remote, I’ll be happy – that remote hasn’t gone couch-diving since I put it into a similar case.

And really, how could it not work? Look at the description:

Personalized your samsung tv remote,color coded samsung remote protectors make you indentify the remote quickly when your remotes do not follow social distancing rule mixed together with other remotes.Glow in the dark after inject energy for a long time via table lamp,flashlight,flash of cell phone,you can locate it easily even though at night

Perfect, right?

Narrowing the field

We’re planning to get an electric car as part of our solar upgrade. We looked at the Nissan Ariya and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 on Sunday (there weren’t many other customers at the dealership then for some reason), and far preferred the Hyundai.

Today, we visited a Ford dealer to look at the Mustang Mach E. We didn’t get to drive the car (the salesperson said that the dealership wasn’t encouraging test drives), but we did get to sit in it – and that was enough to let us cross the Mach E off our list.

I know I want to look at the Volkswagen ID.4; we probably should look at the Kia EV6, which is built on the same platform as the Ioniq 5 but has a lot of differences in style. We aren’t interested in Teslas.

I’m glad we don’t have to make a quick decision.

The results are in!

The results for yesterday’s Learned League questions were posted overnight, and, unsurprisingly, I lost the match. The question I alluded to yesterday was:

What American food processing company fittingly identified the 2023 Super Bowl, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Philadelphia Eagles, as a uniquely marketable opportunity to teach consumers about Roman numerals?

The answer was “Heinz”, because this was Super Bowl LVII (57). I thought Super Bowl 50 was only a couple of years ago; I guess I should pay more attention. The commercial was amusing, and football knowledge was not a prerequisite to enjoying it.

I don’t feel as bad about missing the question as I might have – only 43% of the league got it right.

We decided on a bid for the solar installation and sent in the electronic paperwork so it can get processed before the NEM 2.0 deadline (April 13).

Happy Valentine’s Day!