My eyes are on the road

[austin_dern]

Tuesday would be a busy day in my family's schedules. My mother's been planning for a while to have some surgery for her arthritis, and finally set that day for it. She had planned for it to be in the morning, but the doctors rescheduled her for later in the day for whatever reason, which had the side effect that one of my aunts --- who hadn't heard the news --- phoned my father just as they were about to put my mother under anesthetic to ask how she was. He put my aunt on the phone and the last minutes before the procedure were thus spent assuring the Rhode Island contingent that all was well.

Also, my sister was flying in from Saint Louis, something my father thought a lovely chance to see her but an event he didn't attach any significance to. He also didn't attach any significance to my other brother, his non-wife, and their child planning to drive down from New England the next day. We could barely have hoped for better.

bunny_hugger and I wouldn't be around for any of this, past some wishing of my mother well in the morning. We planned to drive down to Wildwood and spend the night. We'd had to pick some night, and this seemed the best (and we'd be justified in that choice), but I did feel guilty not being around for a surgery that my mother wasn't taking nearly as seriously. She just wanted it to be done as soon as possible but after she had the house ready to put on the market. It's not quite, but it's ready enough that she doesn't have to lift things.

I also did something that, for me, was a real liberating leap. I left my laptop at my parents' home. I reasoned that we weren't probably going to want to do much on the Internet overnight, that there wasn't anything I might be doing that couldn't wait a day, that it'd just be something I'd worry about getting stolen from the hotel room or the car if I did bring it, and that it just would weigh me down. So I chose to spend the day away from my computer. I brought my iPad, though, because, of course.

We started off with a Jersey Mike's lunch, the veggie hoagie we get every time we're there, and finally joined the ``Shore Points'' loyalty program which may seem ridiculous but, hey, there's a Jersey Mike's as near as Ann Arbor (well, the little township between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti where it turns out everybody once lived) and we could plausibly stop there on Cedar Point trips.

And we stopped in at the dollar store elsewhere in that strip mall, because we needed sunglasses. bunny_hugger found, as ever, a really stylish looking pair. I found a little cable to plug into the car's charger/cigarette lighter to convert that to USB power, which would power our satellite navigator and has since moved to my car so as to be power for the iPod on longer trips.

Trivia: While all 25 countries invited to the Prime Meridian Conference in 1884 accepted, only 19 made the initial session (a cholera epidemic placed quarantines on some Mediterranean countries), and Denmark (alone) failed to ever send a delegate. Source: Time Lord: Sir Sanford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time, Clark Blaise.

Currently Reading: Anywhen, James Blish.

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Still brought your iPad.... ;D .... did you look at it? that's the question..... heh!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I did, yes; it's the easiest way to check on e-mail, particularly, and to keep up with other little chores like making sure the scheduled Livejournal and humor blog entries go out.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

So I chose to spend the day away from my computer. I brought my iPad, though, because, of course.

I have decided after about three months of owning my Nexus 7, that for most of my vacations it's going to do. I enjoy having the laptop (a now-old Macbook Pro, given to me so very kindly by warphammer) along, but at Anthrocon it was used for all of 20 minutes that really could've been handled by the Nexus 7. For Furfright it will surely be the same, and likely BNConf, and that's my vacations for the rest of the year. If I were going to, say. spend a week visiting my father in Georgia I'd certainly haul it along. But tablets fill that niche of being Good Enough and Really Portable and I Can Go On FurryMUCK With This.

In another five years, the screens on our phones may be big enough we'll start to go "I'm.. not sure I even need the tablet today." Maybe.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I might for short-duration trips make do with just the iPad, if I brought along my Bluetooth keyboard as it's much easier to type with that tactile feedback, and if there were a muck client for iOS that was at least as good as tinyfugue. I do have a ssh client which by rights ought to work, but multi-mucking with just a single window is a mavver's paradise.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Some people seem to like https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mudmaster/id341160033?mt=8 . Myself I'm getting along well with BlowTorch (on Android), which I haven't tried multi-mucking on, because that's.. just not an away-from-home critical thing for me, usually. If I anticipate the amount of downtime I'd need to consider multi-mucking, I'm certainly packing the laptop.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's looking interesting. Might give it a try. Thanks.