We are heading away today for a long weekend on Kangaroo Island. It will be a weekend of outdoor time, seeing wildlife and the spectacular coastline, and excellent food and drinks. I’ll also be enjoying time just relaxing and plan to have a few of my internet free days. We will celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary while we are there.
Catrina commented on an Op Shop puzzle haul so I thought a little peak at our current puzzle collection might be in order. The ones in the middle section need to be sorted through because some will go back to the Op Shop. This does not include the ones H has at her place (mostly large puzzles she has received as Christmas and birthday presents) and our current work in progress …
Wednesday I left my phone at personal training. I wasn’t particularly worried and planned to pick it up in the afternoon when it opened again. We used to survive without mobile phones, right? Then I thought about the work I had planned and was glad that I had logged into XERO for work before I went to PT. It only requires 2FA once a day. Luckily I hadn’t planned any work in Zapier because that requires 2FA every login. I did not want to go to the hassle of using my backup codes or security questions which I always second guess when I’m trying to answer them. Then I started getting texts (luckily coming through on my computer) from E, who was coming over so we could go to the bank to close his savings account that required my signature. This experience reminded me of the story about Herzog finally getting a smart phone because he couldn’t exit a carpark in Dublin. As it is, I’m pretty happy overall with my lack of attachment to my phone, but the problem is that as more and more of life gets tangled up with them, it gets harder to be without them—which I guess is the evil intention!
Related: I’ve been listening to a three-part series The Smartphone Disciple from the Centre for Christian Living Podcast that was pretty good. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Last Saturday I was complaining to H about the number of ads and banners on popular recipe blogs that make it almost impossible to read them. She replied “Why don’t you switch to reader view?” Well duh, I did just that, and I’ve remembered to do it a few more times since then. So, if like me, you need a reminder—remember there’s always Reader view.
After a fairly good run of lower migraine months, March has not been good. I had three around the Labour Day Long Weekend and this week I’ve had another two. Not happy!
Edited to add: I got another one last night just before bed which was the worst for a while and I haven’t been able to shake it off, although it is damped down by my medication I still feel like I’m rocking. I’m not looking forward to traveling today.
Comments
10 responses to “Five on a Friday”
Oh, now I’d love to visit your place and do ALL your puzzles!! I love puzzles!! Your collection is a full-blown operation with storage strategy and rotation system, haha!
Kangaroo Island sounds like the perfect anniversary escape. Wild, beautiful, and properly away from it all. I just hope those migraines ease off quickly. Travelling with that lingering “rocking” feeling is rough.
And your phone story… that’s exactly it. Our lives are so entangled with the device, it’s difficult to break free. I don’t like that slow dependency creep either.
Enjoy the long weekend, Melissa!
I think you would enjoy Kangaroo Island, we had a wonderful time there.
Oh I’m sorry about your migraines!
Colour me interested about the reader view – not once have I thought of it, and I SHOULD because some of the banners, etc., get in the way and pop up and redirect me, and it’s very annoying.
I know we used to survive without phones but we have so much info on them! I feel lost without mine.
Enjoy your weekend!
Thanks Nicole, the banners etc are so annoying. I find they make some websites pretty much unreadable.
Ugh, I’m sorry to hear about your migraines and I hope they are not too bad during your trip! I love all of your puzzles! My Mom is a big puzzler but I actually gave no idea where she does with them when she’s done!
The migraines cleared, luckily. It can be hard to choose whether to keep or return a puzzle to the Op Shop, but we do remake the puzzles that we like. Often we pick a different part of the puzzle to concentrate on because there’s three of us working on them.
The multifactor authentications make it really tricky to do without your phone. So many of the applications and websites at my company require it! I understand why but it can be really really annoying!
Happy Anniversary! I hope your getaway is wonderful – and hopefully migraine free!
I do stuff with Zapier, so I deliberately set it up to need 2FA every time because it can access our accounts’ email, which is a real vulnerability. Our accounting system requires 2FA as a matter of course which yes is completely understandable.
Oh gosh. The migraine issue sounds so unpleasant. Especially right before traveling. Sorry you’re dealing with that and hoping they clear up for your visit Kangaroo Island. Happy anniversary!
I was unaware of reader mode- learn something new every day.
Reader mode is so useful for those terrible websites that become unreadable because of all the ads and banners. Fortunately the migraine cleared by the time we got to Kangaroo Island