Music my kids have played in the HomePod this morning: Shake It Off by Taylor Swift, Karate and Starlight by Babymetal.

If you want a sure fire way to make sure you never get phone calls on your iPhone, enable WiFi calling. Everything goes straight to voicemail. The phone never rings.

Traffic westbound on I-70 outside Kansas City was horrible. Half of a double-wide trailer home blew off the semi carrying it. The entire freeway was shuttered. Luckily, we were headed east.

When I retire, I’m gonna open a museum of internet products. Stuffed toys and coffee mugs and enamel pins made to promote comics and apps, spread memes. It’ll double as a gift shop.

I’m somewhere on the plains in Kansas right now, and nature is providing ample white noise. The wind is incredible (and I say that as someone who’s been outside during a Texas hurricane).

Sometimes white noise machines make the world livable. I dig a good white noise machine.

Heading home from our vacation. Gotta find some way to integrate back into normal life now. Gonna be tough.

Married 17 years as of today. 🎉

While in Colorado, I managed to find beer from two of my favorite tiny breweries in Portland, which is pretty fantastic. Never thought I’d have beer from those places again.

Doing that holiday thing where I’m so not used to having down time that I can’t think of anything to do so I just sit and stare at my phone like a dummy.

After rearranging my backpack three times.

We’ve been on vacation for almost a week, and the only things I’ve missed are our HomePods and our dog.

I think it’s time to purge a lot of stuff when we get home.

Elf on the Shelf is one property I really didn’t expect to see in the Macy’s parade. It’s also a thing I wish would die in a fire.

Last night’s snack: a super-rich chocolate bar with pretzels, cookies, brittle, marshmallows, and cereal mashed into it.

I want another one.

Stuck in our hotel room due to snow, but at least we have hot chocolate mix.

Fighting with hotel wifi and my VPN. Tempted to just roll with LTE and tethering, but my paranoia makes me think even that wouldn’t be secure without a VPN.

Anxiety, man. 🥴

When you find out a company supports political candidates that run on platforms that oppose your own beliefs, do you stop using that company’s services?

Dropped the dog off for boarding this morning before heading out of town. Seriously woebegone look on her face as I walked away.

Ever accidentally hum while listening to music with headphones on and then realize someone nearby can hear you and then you wish you hadn’t done that and maybe probably shouldn’t have left the house that day?

My dog gets super mad if I fake-sneeze. Just quietly saying the word “achoo” makes her scream at me. Is every dog like this? Or am I just lucky?

The war on my daughter’s belief that boys don’t wear purple continues.

Sometimes I feel like I’m not solid. I’m hollow. There’s nothing behind my eyes. I’m a negative of a person. All I want is blackness, blackness and silence.

Dang. Sylvia Plath was dark.

It took me a second or two to come up with yesterday’s prompt-word post. Today’s was far easier.

Is anyone else on iOS 13 having trouble using VPN services? Mine has been periodically hosed since I upgraded and I’m not sure if it’s the service or my phone. I’m highly suspicious of the OS, though.

Hopefully coffee will cause my headache to abate. ☕️🥴

[cracks knuckles, stares at computer] What am I going to build today?

(The answer is a healthy dose of the fear mixed with a nameless dread and just a pinch of uncontrollable anxiety.)