Glad It’s Not My Job

At the behest of our ISP, we called yesterday to upgrade our cable internet connection to fiber. We were surprised when they scheduled the install for today, a Sunday.

Of course, the snow started just before the technician showed up, and slowed down about the time he was done climbing poles.

It worked out for the best that we got this taken care of on a weekend, since the whole process took more than two hours. Not only would it have disrupted my work (albeit not very much), but the timetable would have stressed us out — either Aaron would be trying to sleep through a morning appointment or wondering if he’d be able to leave for work on time in the afternoon.

In the end, we actually weren’t inconvenienced much at all, outside of taking a raincheck on our usual Sunday lunch out and helping the tech get access to our crawlspace. He did a very professional job with running the wire from the pole to our home office, he was super friendly and polite, and I hope he got paid well for his Sunday.

I’m looking forward to enjoying our new internet connection. My home laptop is nearly getting the gigabit speeds we were promised: 809 Mbps download and 803 Mbps upload with a wired connection. The download speed over my work VPN has improved by some 54%, and the upload speed is TWENTY-FIVE TIMES FASTER.

Maybe my work day is about to get less annoying… as far as waiting for data to load, anyway.

Friendly Firefly

I found this little guy doing the backstroke in the birdbath when I went to fill it up this morning. When I gently splashed him out of the water, to my surprise, he started climbing up the side of the bowl.

I didn’t see him land here on my maple bonsai-in-progress, but I assume it’s the same firefly. He’s been hanging out on this leaf for some 15 minutes or so, presumably drying himself off.

We’re just chilling here together before the temps turn unseasonably warm later today.

Also? As I was writing this, tapping on my phone and sitting in the Adirondack chair with my big friend, a critter sauntered under my chair and into the plants behind me. Guess I’ve been chill enough that he didn’t even care that I’m here.

Peonies and Asparagus Greens

The peonies are starting to bloom!

I always bring in the ones that are either drooping close to the ground or are at the back of a planting where they won’t really be seen. That way, taking cut flowers from my garden doesn’t make much of an impact overall.

Our previous neighbors started growing asparagus a few years back, and the family who bought their house have let the entire vegetable garden go — including the asparagus. As I trimmed back some of the asparagus ferns that threatened to whap me in the face as I collected my peonies, I realized that they would make a nice filler for my arrangement. Bonus!