Re: Happy 2020 Winter Solstice!

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: Brian <http://www.cs..edu/~b>
 > Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2020 09:10:11 -0800
 >
 > Hi!  Happy solstice to you too.
 > 
 > Is the turntable belt-driven?  (If you don't know the term, it means 
 > there's a large sort of rubber band wrapped most of the way around the 
 > platter (the part that turns) and also around the shaft of the motor 
 > that drives it.)  If so, the problem is very likely to be that that belt 
 > is either loose (they stretch over time) or lumpy (some crud gets stuck 
 > on it).  I'm surprised they didn't replace the belt the first time you 
 > came in, whether they could hear it or not.

It's direct drive.

 > You two are very brave, going out into the world so much.  But I guess 
 > the risk is lower for you physically fit people than for me.

I think I would've stayed home if Noelle didn't convince me to go.  (And,
that's true in general, COVID or not -- I'd probably never take a vacation
if it weren't for Noelle.)

 > I don't think people are ever going back to the office.  Not commuting 
 > (especially around here) saves hours a day, which you can spend on more 
 > sleep, and also avoids all the pollution and stuff.  And people are 
 > starting to get used to Zoom meetings.  I just wish I'd been smart 
 > enough to buy Zoom stock as soon as the first lockdown started.

You mean, like Kelly Loeffler and Dianne Feinstein?  (Both were cleared by
the US Senate Ethics Committee.)

 > Hold off a year or so on the hearing aids.  The Times says that the FDA 
 > is going to approve over-the-counter cheap(er) hearing aids at the drug 
 > store some time in 2021.

That's good to know.  Thanks!

 > You're going to laugh at me, but I get my groceries from Instacart.

No, I won't.  I understand your situation.

 > There's a Silicon Valley ECS?  I should look into that.  I was never a 
 > member, but I went to high school at the Ethical Culture Fieldston 
 > School in NYC.

https://www.meetup.com/Ethical-Culture-Society-of-Silicon-Valley/

Sometimes it's a bit boring.  I almost fell asleep at the last meeting.
But, Noelle likes it.

 > You're supposed to keep your COVID mask on even at home on those 
 > terrible fire pollution days.

Didn't know that.  Will do.

 > Right, you guys grew up in the heyday of Rush.  My heroes are 20 years 
 > older, so I'm very used to reading obituaries.

I figure that the celebrity death rate will accelerate as we get older.

 > I'm surprised you don't use Grub as your boot software.  Back in the 
 > day, when I had five different operating systems on my PC, I could use 
 > grub to arrange partitions and treat the Windows boot software as an 
 > operating system for it to load.

Yeah.  After I set everything up, I found out that I could've done it that
way.

 > But also... Windows?  If you're going 
 > to do that you might as well buy a Mac so you can have a shell when you 
 > need it.  Oh, maybe you need Windows for work?

Noelle needs Windows for work.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered.  (I
also need Windows for my work, but I run it in a VM on a Linux laptop;
most of the time, I don't even bother booting the VM.)

 > The real problem with COVID for me is that I've turned into an American. 
 > I buy everything from Amazon.  (Except for books -- I go to the local 
 > bookstore for those, unless they're out of print.)

Plastic seems to be the biggest problem we're having.  In addition to the
take-out containers, because they won't allow us to use our own bags at
grocery stores, we keep getting more and more plastic bags.  We're
drowning in the stuff.

 > I'm looking forward to when we can see each other again, but I'm not 
 > holding my breath.

A couple of years, probably.