I would have felt that I was able to pull one over on the hotel for getting an extra hour to sleep there…if they didn’t also let me check in three hours early the day before without an upcharge or anything to that effect. DST remains a point of contention on the internet, but I feel like it most commonly gets complained about in the fall, when we get extra sleep. Is it because we have slept more deeply and realize that DST doesn’t really make sense? Or is it because we all know it’s going to get dark at 4:30 and we’re all sitting here saying “that’s annoying”? I don’t know, but I do know that I enjoyed the feeling of getting up eariy without actually getting up early.
I got some coffee and breakfast, and then I got some more work done. While Covid made internet church a necessity for many churches in 2020, my church has been live streaming for well over a decade. It was nice to attend church in a different state; I very much appreciate that flexibility.
After church, a client at work needed some work done. It was interesting work; one of the tricky parts was being able to install a bare metal operating system on a server a thousand miles away. The biggest issue was the server is a bit older, so its facilities to do this required a bit of extra work to get going. Once I did, the next steps were a bit more tedious; I had to repeat a similar set of steps several times to finalize the work, but I got an assembly line going and all went pretty well.
After that, I was bored, so I tried my hand at another project I’d been putting off. Google Authenticator and similar apps are great for a single person needing to get time-based 2-factor authentication codes, but that quickly gets unwieldy. When phones get switched around or teams get involved, it quickly becomes difficult to keep those codes straight. So, an enterprising individual made an application called “2fauth” that allows those codes to be shown on a website…and I’ve been trying to get it to work on and off, but I never quite had the time for it…until now, when I had the time, and I got it to work! It made me so happy…but not as happy as what happened next.
For most of the 2010s, there was a church where I did some tech work. I met some wonderful people there and had some wonderful times I thoroughly enjoyed. One of the members, Danielle, moved down here a few years ago. While I’d still see her from time to time when she flew back to New York, I reached out to her to see if she’d be up for a visit. Sunday was that day. She and her friend Annabelle came and we hung out on my couch for a while. She wanted to start a podcast, so one of the things I was grateful to do was to pass along some of the equipment which was owned by another friend who had a similar desire, but felt it would go to better use in Danielle’s hands. Danielle is one to wear her heart on her sleeve, and this was no exception. Smiles and tears were in abundance as she accepted the gift, and we made plans to do some remote sessions to get her in a place to learn the technical skills I knew she’d need.
We spent a good amount of time recounting some details of a situation that took place in her absence, while giving all of the context and backstory to Annabelle, who only knew a few isolated details. The conversation meandered on a number of other topics, but we were easily there for two hours just reminiscing and enjoying. Annabelle was a bit more quiet, but an observer who seemed interested in hearing about everything, though when she did interject, what she had to say was invariably on point.
The Bonefish Grill provided dinner; we enjoyed the night and had a fantastic meal while continuing to discuss Florida and life and topics of faith…it was just a lovely time to catch up and really share with Danielle and Annabelle. I was glad we picked it; the food was good and the staff was helpful. I took a few moments to step outside and make my arrangements for the next day before it got too late – I wanted to make sure everything was coordinated with both NY people and FL people; both would be impacted by the next day’s plans if I didn’t.
It was nearly 10 before the two of them left for their multi-hour drive home. I began spinning up a second 2FAuth instance for work with what energy I had left, enjoying this past week’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow in the interim. Before I went to bed, I went to the front desk and extended my stay for another day, which amusingly meant I got another set of room keys.
