Gaming the system
Aug. 25th, 2021 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacealien_vampI had reserved two weeks of annual leave in order to attend this year's Gen Con, but then the convention runners decided to postpone it until September (hoping that more time would allow for more attendees to be vaccinated), which meant it was impossible for me to go. Instead, I used my two weeks to fly to Michigan for visiting friends and family. I loaded my bags with my own stock of board games until I hit the weight limit.
I used the digital boarding pass for the first time, rather than printing it out. It worked well most of the time. The one instance where I had an issue was upon checking my bag for the return flight. My app was set to use my fingerprint to log in for the boarding pass, but it was so hot that my hands were sweating, and the phone couldn't read my print with wet fingers. I had to resort to typing in my password with one hand (since my ID was in the other hand), which was tricky.
Also, TSA pre-check rocks.
Frankly, I'm surprised that the airlines are still feeding snacks to people on domestic flights. I can understand allowing people to bring their own food, but why give people more excuses to take their masks off? With as closely as people are packed in those seats, is it really worth it for a couple of pretzels? I declined all snacks and beverages both ways.
I managed to get lots of games played during the visit. It was great to see people, and there was lovely garden-fresh food too. The one hiccup was that a series of thunderstorms rolled through and knocked out the electricity at my parents' house for several days. Fortunately they had a generator they could use to keep the freezer and refrigerator running, and to charge phones, but it did throw a wrench into some plans. Since their stove is electric, it meant eating things that didn't require cooking. Plus, we couldn't play any games unless the sun was up.
My dogs were rather naughty while I was gone. A friend agreed to drop by a couple times a day to feed them and control the dog door, leaving them mostly unsupervised inside the house. I shut the doors to the bedrooms before I left, but they managed to get both doors open. The beagle found my stash of potato chips and ate those. He dragged my work treat pouch out to the back yard and ate the couple of treats that had been left in there.
My grapes had been just a few days away from being ripe when I left. I came back to find that squirrels had devoured nearly all of them. There were just a few of the Concord-style grapes remaining; I picked what I could salvage and made jam out of them this weekend.
I'm now starting to get tomatoes and figs. I should also be able to harvest the apples soon. Most of my squash plants died off, but I have a monster (20' long) butternut squash plant in the front yard that survived and is producing well. I'm thinking of planting beets and cabbage for the fall.
I'm still chipping away at decluttering. The game room is vastly improved. I can probably cull out a few more books if I try, though the biggest hurdle is the VHS tape collection.
I used the digital boarding pass for the first time, rather than printing it out. It worked well most of the time. The one instance where I had an issue was upon checking my bag for the return flight. My app was set to use my fingerprint to log in for the boarding pass, but it was so hot that my hands were sweating, and the phone couldn't read my print with wet fingers. I had to resort to typing in my password with one hand (since my ID was in the other hand), which was tricky.
Also, TSA pre-check rocks.
Frankly, I'm surprised that the airlines are still feeding snacks to people on domestic flights. I can understand allowing people to bring their own food, but why give people more excuses to take their masks off? With as closely as people are packed in those seats, is it really worth it for a couple of pretzels? I declined all snacks and beverages both ways.
I managed to get lots of games played during the visit. It was great to see people, and there was lovely garden-fresh food too. The one hiccup was that a series of thunderstorms rolled through and knocked out the electricity at my parents' house for several days. Fortunately they had a generator they could use to keep the freezer and refrigerator running, and to charge phones, but it did throw a wrench into some plans. Since their stove is electric, it meant eating things that didn't require cooking. Plus, we couldn't play any games unless the sun was up.
My dogs were rather naughty while I was gone. A friend agreed to drop by a couple times a day to feed them and control the dog door, leaving them mostly unsupervised inside the house. I shut the doors to the bedrooms before I left, but they managed to get both doors open. The beagle found my stash of potato chips and ate those. He dragged my work treat pouch out to the back yard and ate the couple of treats that had been left in there.
My grapes had been just a few days away from being ripe when I left. I came back to find that squirrels had devoured nearly all of them. There were just a few of the Concord-style grapes remaining; I picked what I could salvage and made jam out of them this weekend.
I'm now starting to get tomatoes and figs. I should also be able to harvest the apples soon. Most of my squash plants died off, but I have a monster (20' long) butternut squash plant in the front yard that survived and is producing well. I'm thinking of planting beets and cabbage for the fall.
I'm still chipping away at decluttering. The game room is vastly improved. I can probably cull out a few more books if I try, though the biggest hurdle is the VHS tape collection.
