summer begins again!

sunday, june 4th, 2023.

OK, so summer hasn't officially started. Still— the temperatures have reached the precipice of 90°F and the lifeguards are at their stations. Around here, Memorial Day is oft considered the unofficial start of summer when the local pools open. Well, if they could actually staff the pools, that is.

We took the little one for a picnic and swim at the lake yesterday. There were so many folks there. I think everyone's a little excited to get this summer started! It was a little too cold for my partner and I to go swimming, but it's a rite of passage for kids to freeze their butts off the first time the water's open for swimming. And so the little one continues the tradition. 😂

We two made sandwiches and read books in the shade of the pine trees. An incredibly relaxing experience, I must say. I'm nearing the end of Ben Rich's Skunk Works and it's been a riveting read! And the little one seemed to enjoy making sandcastles and splashing in the water, blue lips notwithstanding.

bicycling soon, promise!

I've already written about how excited I am to start bicycle commuting again. I called up the fellow running the repair shop, and he's almost done rebuilding my bike. He expects it to be done Tuesday. He was able to clean or repair most of the components, but he did need to replace the cassette.

I'm so friggin' excited to see my bike back in working order! I'm going to put panniers on the rear rack so I can schlep clean clothes, a towel, toiletries, and my lunch to work every day. Toss on a few bright LED lights to make sure that I'm easily seen and pack a few extra tubes for the inevitable flat tires I'll get on the way to work.

messing with CSS.

The monospace, fully justified text was bothering me, so I've replaced it with the default system UI font in CSS: font-family: system-ui, sans-serif;

I've brought the header underlines a little closer to the text, adding a text-shadow gap so that the underline skips the descenders. I've also reduced the max-width to 35rem to bring the line length down a little. Finally, I've changed the color of external links to visually distinguish them from internal links.

All in all, I think I've finally arrived at a pleasing visual aesthetic that reminds me of the technical volumes from the 1980s-1990s that I adore. The text size is quite a bit smaller than most of the oversized text you'll see around the Internet these days, too. Which, in my mind, conveys a sense of information density that I rather enjoy.

I don't know if I'll ever arrive at a "final" design— it's too tempting to tweak little bits of the CSS every now and then!

a comfy reading chair.

We went thrifting this afternoon and found a couple of neat things. One find was a hardcover, third edition copy of the Computer Technician's Handbook for 50¢. Worth the price of admission for the 6502 & 68000 instruction sets and diagrams alone!

And the second find was a very worn, yet still immensely comfortable leather chair perfect for reading for $89. This chair's going in the corner of our bedroom, for sure. I already forgot that I was in a thrift store and read a whole chapter of my book while trying the chair out.

Looking forward to getting lost in many a book and Nintendo Switch game in this chair. It was clearly well-loved before it came to our home. I hope some adorable old man read the paper in it. With all likelihood, many naps have been taken in it with feet propped up and a cozy blanket. I shall continue this imagined tradition!

So, yeah— it's been a really good day, I'd say! Until next time, be well. :)