a little of everything

[mellowtigger]

I spend about 2 hours in the morning doing yard work, take a break when the sun is high in the sky (mostly for skin safety reasons, not temperature reasons), and 2 more hours of yard work in the evening.  Even so, it will be a long time before I get my yard tamed from the wild growth and more of the desired planting done.

In between, I mostly just play computer games.  I'm still beta testing the Pathfinder sequel from Owlcat Games.  I file a lot of bug reports.  A LOT of bug reports.  But that's a good thing, assuming they properly catalog them and fix them before release.  Their first Pathfinder game was such a buggy mess that I boycotted it for an entire year before coming back to it.  This beta recently got a big patch with more game content.  Sounds good, but there were also brand new bugs in the early part of the game, which is the only part I've played.  Oh, well.  I play more of it, and I file more bug reports.  Life is good.  :)

My parents have had a difficult time contacting me recently.  My "official" email address at Outlook.com is refusing to accept their emails to me.  They get bouncebacks and 48-hour notices, and none of it makes sense.  I have their address whitelisted, so nothing should prevent their emails from reaching me.  But people have filed notices of problems at DownDetector.com for 3 days in a row (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday).  There's even an official problem post (updated yesterday) from Microsoft, and it is l-o-n-g.  Outlook.com is NOT happy.  You get what you pay for, I guess.

I saw today's news that the CDC says fully vaccinated (after waiting 2 more weeks) people can safely NOT wear masks indoors.  I hope my employer changes their rules about working in the office now.  Masks do not play well with eyeglasses.  Glasses fog up.  I complained about that earlier, and this is what I look like at work, all geared up.  It's not pleasant.  I hope they change their rules soon.

I plan to continue wearing my mask in public and around strangers.  This epidemic is still a global phenomenon, and new variants are still evolving.  I made it through the last epidemic without getting infected, and I want to do the same this time.  I know, it's about equal parts effort and luck, but I don't want to skimp on the "effort" part of the equation.  Stay safe out there.  Wear appropriate protection.  ;)

Comments

[zipperbear]

I've only had a few minor slowdowns with Outlook.com, but I noticed a complete lack of spam this week. Formerly my Junk Email folder got a slow trickle, about 1 message per hour, and I could tell how recently I'd checked mail and emptied Junk, with the same few dozen topics showing up. This week, only one semi-junk message (an unsolicited ad, with what looks like a valid and relevant return address, rather than the typical random address at an unrelated hacked site).

[mellowtigger]

I'm not ruling out a spat between Microsoft and Google. My parents use gmail for their free account, and maybe outlook is just being overly aggressive (for economic/politibusiness reasons) with anything from the gmail domain right now. I have no evidence for that assertion, just a long-justified disdain for megacorps.

[bitterlawngnome]

Have I recommended the cardboard & woodchips as a weed control method? Sorry if I have already. But it's so good.

[mellowtigger]

I think so? I have long stretches of thick black plastic already in use for areas where I want to kill everything. I opened one of those patches already this spring to throw some shade-tolerant wildflower seed there, in the shadow of the now-empty crack house.

Part of the problem is that I intend to go full prairie/native plants for much of the yard, and I enjoy seeing what grows up when I don't lay down a harsh control layer. Which means that I have to weed things manually if the newcomers aren't bold enough to crowd out the grass. I still haven't eliminated the burdock, because it keeps showing up in areas where I already have things growing that I intend to keep. One of these years, I'll have those deep roots finally tapped out of nutrients as I keep lopping off the leaves.

[bitterlawngnome]

That works too. One doesn't always have access to wood chips.

At least if it's growing verdant burdock you know it's rich soil. They don't thrive in poor soils.