§ Every spring I’ll notice one or two wasps investigating particular area of cracked cement directly outside of my front door. Until this year I would always spray a little Raid in that spot as a sort of preventative measure. Well, earlier this year I went to grab my bottle of Raid and noticed it was empty so I just let it be. How much harm can a handful of wasps do anyway?
Now I have what feels like at least a couple hundred wasps living in a constant state of buzzing agitation inches from my front door.
Up until recently I’ve chosen to think of these wasps as a kind of Arakawa and Gins-style architectural intervention but I’m starting to fear our mail carrier doesn’t share this perspective.
On Saturday I finally called an exterminator. He poured some diatomaceous earth around the area and coaxed them out with a shop vac for a while and now it looks like we have fewer wasps at least? It’s too soon to tell.
§ All around me people are catching colds, covid, pneumonia. A coworker finally returned to work: “I feel fine except sometimes I can’t breathe.” I’m taking zinc religiously, determined to make it unscathed to my trip to Chicago next week.
§ I did some CAD work in Fusion for the first time in a while. Little by little I’m getting better about actually designing parametrically. It is incredibly satisfying to go back in the timeline, tweak a variable, and then watch all subsequent parts instantly update accordingly.
§ This week’s Roderick on the Line finally prompted me to listen to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, at least their most recent album, Flight b741. It is a rare example of a combination of virtuosity and spontaneity that I always find electric. Frank Zappa and Geese both come to mind. You can tell each musician is totally adept at their instrument but nothing feels overworked or academic. Each song, moment by moment, is fun, unpredictable, and occasionally silly.
§ I got the 16 Pro. I didn’t pre-order it but instead went to my local Apple Store Friday morning and waited in line before they opened all the while trying my hardest, unsuccessfully, to project an air of cool detachment and not betray the embarrassing amount of excitement I had about buying a new telephone.
I immediately noticed that the phone feels way better than my 14 Pro. The weight difference is part of it but I think the updated case design with rounded off the edges makes a bigger difference.
I also immediately updated to the iOS 18.1 public beta because what is the point of getting new technology if I can’t play around with any of the flagship features?
Apple Intelligence, at this point, is honestly pretty disappointing. The new Siri UI looks good, summarization in Safari is unintuitive and doesn’t work particularly well, the Clean Up feature is better than I expected but not something I intended to use frequently. Siri now talks slower which is an odd choice.
With all that said, I’m excited to see what subsequent software updates throughout the year bring.
§ Decades ago, truckloads of soil were dumped into a local creek to build a soccer field. A few years ago our local park system bought the land with the aim to restore it back to its original state.
As of just a week or two ago they finally took down the fences surrounding the property and opened the land up to the public so I went by to take a look. The restoration work isn’t finished. In fact, it is still in a particularly fascinating early stage that I’ve never really had the opportunity to see before.
Mottled clay fields are busting with panicled asters, wild sunflowers, goldenrod, crunchy dried plume thistle, and thriving thoroughwort stretching shoulderheight. I passed a set of coyote prints circumnavigating a shallow makeshift pond.
Walking through the fields, I’m reminded of a particular large sunny plot of land walking distance from my house. It has to be the size of at least two standard city blocks and it has sat empty since well before I moved here, owned by the city holding out for the doomed opportunity to sell it to private developers. Meanwhile, nature has taken over with reeds, shrubs, and grasses filling every available nook. If you drive by at sunset you’ll often see a family of deer lazily grazing their way through. I’m still holding out hope that one day the city will turn this property over to our park system to open it up for public access and allow for a more intentional restoration.
