Business, Family, home, Technology, Uncategorized

It’s Ringing

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This past Solstice, one of YA’s gifts to me was a Ring doorbell – you know, one of those doorbells that has a camera in it.  This gift falls into the category of a gift for herself rather than a gift for me.  YA does a lot of her shopping online, so she worries about packages left on our front porch.  Installing this thing required drilling holes into the stucco, so it was very easy to put off at first.  Then it ended up in a box in Nonny’s room and I was hoping a little bit that it would be forgotten.

But thanks to shelter-in-place, YA is stuck in the house and looking for projects.  I resisted a bit by not being helpful but YA was persistent.  She went to the basement and got the drill, looked up directions on YouTube, got out an extension cord.  Then she realized that we should really move the mailbox over a few inches, so she had to collect up the tools to get this done as well.  But eventually I couldn’t put it off any longer, so I drilled the holes for the Ring and then drilled new holes for the mailbox’s new location.  YA has done the rest, including putting the app on my phone.  I guess I still get to pick my own ring tone.

What technology have YOU succumbed to?

58 thoughts on “It’s Ringing”

  1. Congrats on your new Ring doorbell. I have often thought of obtaining one as well. But lately – I’ve actually used less technology. Succumbing more to peace, quiet. and nature.

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    1. YA has never used a drill before. And I kind of thought “front of the house, holes in the stucco? Maybe I should do that one. However, it did make me realize that I need to teach her how to use the drill. Maybe just not on the front of the house.

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      2. I learned early to use a drill. This next weekend I will assemble three oak frames with poultry netting for the peas to grow up.

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  3. Last year I bought a fitness tracker. It was on the markdown shelf at the drugstore, and at $12.50, I thought it was about as low a price as I could expect to find. I looked up an online review of the brand, and it seemed to be a good option, so I went ahead and got it.

    The next hurdle was making it functional, because the first step in the instruction manual is “Install our app!” Because everything has to have an app now.

    I couldn’t get the app installed on my desktop computer, so I decided to look at an android device of some kind. I settled on an e-reader with an android operating system. It was $50 on the Barnes & Noble web site. (They no longer have this one – the new ones are over twice the price.) I already had an e-reader that served that function well enough, but the android version also runs apps and does all the stuff a smartphone does. You can use it as a phone, as long as you are within range of a wi-fi signal.

    As a consequence of the pandemic, the giant cable company serving the Twin Cities metro has made its wi-fi hotspots free, so there’s lots of coverage available.

    So I have sort of succumbed to having a smartphone…but I still haven’t succumbed to having a cell phone carrier. No monthly bill.

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  4. We had a power outage for a couple of hours on
    Thursday due to a fire at a large substation a few blocks from home. The modem for the computer sizzled and died during this, so Friday the company that provides our internet came and replaced it and the router. They are very impressive looking pieces of equipment and the computer runs faster now. The technician couldn’t come in the house, so he directed Husband how to hook everything up from his truck in the driveway.

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  5. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am not using much “new” technology in the last six months. I was an early adapter of telehealth technology, so the recent shift to on-line sessions was easier than it was for many people who had to suddenly adapt to something they never considered using before. That particular technology has dominated everything else for 6 weeks.

    We are trying to figure out how we will get our garden tilled this year. We usually rent one from the local rental store, which is, of course, closed. Are there root-tillers mounted on drones? Maybe I could invent one? There is an new business concept for you, tim.

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    1. If we were in your area we would till your garden with our tiller.. We will till today after we pull weeds.

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    2. why don’t you buy one at lowe’s and offer to rent it out on craigslist is facebook marketplace for about what you paid for it after 5 or 6 rentals 25/50 a pop with paypal or cash as the payment

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    3. If it were me, I would consider getting a corded electric tiller. Unless working from an extension cord is impractical in your garden, an electric offers power equivalent to gas but at half the price. The inconvenience of a cord is offset by the convenience, unlike gas, of little or no maintenance and, although there are battery powered tillers, I wouldn’t expect them to have much stamina. A corded tiller on amazon with good reviews is less than $150. You’d never have to schlep to the rental again.

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  6. We don’t have a doorbell. Our old one stopped working and the siding company just covered it when we had new siding put on a few years ago. I don’t know if we even want one.

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    1. We don’t have a doorbell right now either. When we had our front door replaced, we also replaced the wood trim around the door where the doorbell had been. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the box and wires that were the “chimes” for the doorbell that are sticking out of my stairwell wall. They are ugly.

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      1. With two dogs, do you need one? If anyone has the audacity to approach our house while Martha, our watch cat, is on patrol, she instantly alerts Bernie, who takes care of causing a ruckus.

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        1. In our house, the cat only cares about squirrels and robins in the lawn. Dogs alert us to noises near the front door. Or people walking by on the sidewalk. Or, some days, a noisy bit of wind.

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  7. new technology r us
    my air bnb biz went south with the pandemic and so emails from china led me to research masks and our amazon biz is up and running when the plane lands with the masks labeled for amazon warehouse unloads
    all biz fine on a smart phone ipad and laptop from the hotspot in my iphone or backyard

    the house is full with 4 other stay at homes needing space
    olivia finishes jr year at loyola today with her final paper due
    then she’s back to chicago with her boyfriend to intern in an interesting time in the theater biz
    sons dentist business is soaring
    wife’s on line teaching sucks and other daughter has class til june then part time work if thevworldciscreadyv

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  8. No doorbells for me. People run in and out of my apartment door as if it weren’t there, and that’s usually a good thing. For people with my kind of arthritis, getting up to answer the door is a bother and a pain. I haven’t adopted a new technology since adding a GPS unit to my Outback. My mission these days is to convince the leaders of this community to use that new form of communication called email. The prevailing technology for communicating announcements has been taping messages to the walls near the elevator doors. That hasn’t been new technology since Jesus used it to assemble his apostles for wine, food and parables.

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  9. I have accomplished getting on FaceTime and Zoom, except that the webcam only works intermittently.
    If we get an iPad (so I can give my friend back hers), I’ll have a steep learning curve there – in the old days we would get it Best Buy, and there would be a little “new users” class to explain everything. I suppose now I can just pick one up from Target… I imagine there are tutorials, but I SO prefer in-person training.

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  10. Working in the technology field, I don’t know that there is a whole lot “new” in what I have been using lately, at least not for me. Zoom is not new – though doing my yoga classes via Zoom is. FaceTime is not new, but using it in place of dinner out with my mom is. Computer headphones are not new, using them as an indicator to my family that I am in a work meeting is… Walks in the neighborhood (only using the phone as a camera) and physical books may be frightfully “old technology,” but I find by the end of the work day it’s what I need most.

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  11. Smartphones reluctantly. I at least take mine with me when I leave the house. I figure its best use is for emergencies. All the rest is “mindless convenience.”

    I’ve done a few Zoom chats but I’m not a fan when compared to a phone call. Group Zooms are okay for about 30 minutes–then I run out of things to say . . . as does, it seems, everyone else.

    I wouldn’t be a novelist if not for Word and probably Grammarly. So I guess I’ve truly embraced those two bits of software.

    I do like the safety features of my 2015 vehicle, which are all computerized technology. But I have to be careful when driving the old school 2002 Toyota WITHOUT the rearview camera and cruise-control safety margin alert (advanced warning braking? Not sure what it’s called.)

    I’m not an early adopter so I’ll never be gungho over any technology. But I’m no Luddite either. If it’s reasonably priced, easy to use, adds safety or true convenience or opportunity to my life, then bring it on.

    Chris in O-town

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    1. As a writer, Chris, you have a special reason to appreciate modern technology. Before cell phones, writers were limited when they wanted to introduce new plot elements using a phone call. They could only introduce new plot developments when people were near landlines. Thanks to cell phones, it is possible to move a plot along with a phone call at virtually any moment and in virtually any location.

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  13. Well, thanks to Bill, we now have an electric tiller. Husband got out the Cub Cadette this morning, which started, but it smoked and smoked and then stalled. It wouldn’t start again. It is too heavy to get in the back of the pickup, and we really wanted to till, so off to Menards we went, and found one for the price Bill mentioned, and now the garden is tilled.

    We got the last one Menards had. It was a display model. The guy who got it down for us said if we wanted to get rid of our old one to let him know and he would buy it.. We told him it was his for free, and to just come over and get it. The new tiller is really light and worked very well.

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      1. If Husband dropped dead tomorrow, I couldn’t start or manoever the Cub Cadette tiller. We decided that what ever we got had to work for both of us.

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  14. OT – Just learned that my 92 year old aunt Mary in Ireland was diagnosed with the coronavirus yesterday. She’s in an assisted living facility, otherwise in good health, but not sure that her chances are very good. Ireland has dismal Covid-19 stats.

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  15. OT YouTube channels you might like. I’m rushed today, but here is a dear favorite: lesleythebirdnerd. Lesley has one of the coolest names on YouTube. She’s a woman in her twenties who grew up in Ontario, went to college to study bassoon, then morphed into a chronicler of birds. She is famous for knowing her favorite local birds, especially the blue jays, individually. She has names for them, and they feed from her hand. Her typical post shows her walking in a wild area, checking on her bird friends and feeding them. She’s a superb photographer of birds.

    Lesley’s post remind people of the “nature” segment that marks the end of each CBS Sunday Morning show. Her commentaries are perceptive. She delivers them with a soothing voice and little distinctively Canadian speech touches.

    The bird nerd posts offer viewers a moment of calm and beauty.

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    1. The name is correct. The slow motion is VERY relaxing!! It reminds me of the videos that they show prior to the bird show at the zoo. I love those.

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    2. I’m amazed at how comfortable the birds are with her presence. Remarkable. Thanks for sharing this. I couldn’t help but smile at your opening comment: ” I’m rushed today.” Couldn’t help but wonder why?

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    4. Thanks for those, Steve. I haven’t seen a Grey Jay for years. Nuthatches are some of my favorites.

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  16. Since we could till with our high tech new tiller yesterday, we planted 8 hills of potatoes and 2 rows of shallots this morning. ND is rather awash in potatoes given the Red River Valley region, so we only plant a few hills for new potatoes. Next weekend we plant peas and spinach, and I will prepare the bean poles by tying the strings on the poles. The worker from Menards came and took away the old tiller this morning. Good luck and prosperity to him in fixing it.

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  17. One remarkable occurrence: yesterday as we were weeding we found three bunches of spinach from last year that survived the winter and rejuvenated themselves. Husband says he will make a spinach and edam omelet for me tomorrow.

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  18. OT – A quote from an article in today’s NYT: “Never have I ever gone through a trauma at the same time as my clients. All I am hearing all day, hour after hour, is what I am experiencing also.”

    Therapists must deal with coronavirus-fueled anxieties, both from their patients and from themselves. I’m wondering to what extent this is true for the baboon therapists among us?

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  19. Evening. Been busy farming the last few days but got the corn all in. About a month ahead of last year, and even about a week earlier than average. Pleased about that.
    Soybeans next. A more days for them.

    Technology. Woo boy. It’s nice when it works.
    End of year money from the college I ordered some LED “Intelligent” lights. Meaning they move. Pan, tilt, zoom, change color of course. I’ve spent a lot of this Covid time taking online classes for the lighting console.
    Technology makes my brain hurt.

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