Rob Fahrni

It looks like a deer visited us last night. Yesterday the green stuff in the middle of the picture was a day lilly with a bunch of flowers on it. 😂

We just got back from BBQ and fireworks with our kids and grandkids. Had a lot of fun. 🌭🎇

Now I’m on the porch, having a beer, listening to the critters and watching fire flies. 🍺

Oh, and the temperature is perfect with no noticeable humidity. 🌡

A perfect day. 👌

We’re about to celebrate Independence Day -- but Freedom is under attack by Republican leaders in states like Florida.

Banning books.
Restricting speech.
Making it harder to vote.
Criminalizing women and doctors.

It’s time to stand up. Don’t let them take your freedom. pic.twitter.com/cFI5UzgZzX

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 3, 2022

There are plenty of wonderful people in states like Florida but their leadership is pathetic, same with Texas.

Perhaps Democrats need to migrate into those states to flip the vote instead of luring folks out. 🤔

The United States Supreme Court continues to be a complete mess whose only job appears to be dismantling prior rulings and dialing our nation back a century.

Golden Hill Software: “I am excited to announce that Unread 3.0 is available now from the App Store. Unread 3.0 adds Unread Cloud, a new syncing and article retrieval system for Unread.”

John Brayton, the person behind Golden Hill, is a friend and competitor. Unread is a beautiful, highly functional, and very stable application. With the addition of Unread Cloud, John has taken Unread to the next level.

Checkout the Golden Hill Blog for more details on Unread Cloud. There’s some great content up there.

Of course I’d encourage you to use Stream as well as Unread.😃

The New Yorker: “Regardless of this detail, Hutchinson’s testimony appeared to strengthen the criminal case against Trump. One of her revelations was that, a few days before January 6th, Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, had explicitly warned that if Trump did go to Capitol Hill on January 6th he could potentially be implicated in the crimes of obstructing justice and obstructing the electoral count.”

Trump is a criminal. A poo spouting, lying, criminal, who’s a real threat to our democracy.

Swift.Org Developer Spotlight: “I learned Swift by porting Graphing Calculator’s core computer algebra system. It started as a learning exercise, then became a feasibility study. The pandemic played a role in that decision, as this became my pandemic shelter-in-place project. The refactoring could have been done in C++ and Objective-C++, but it would not have been as effective, nor as much fun.”

This is a really great read. The developer of Graphing Calculator walks us through his effort to port his old code base to a modern Swift/SwiftUI application, complete with AR features!

He also relays his SwiftUI experience.

“When SwiftUI works it is a nigh-magical delight, but when it behaves unexpectedly or when behavior outside the prescribed path is desired, it can be difficult to understand and work around its limitations.”

If you’re a developer take the time to read the post. I think you’ll enjoy it.

A 10-year-old girl is raped. The State forces her to remain pregnant and tells her to consider it an “opportunity.”

This isn’t Iran. This isn’t Gilead. This isn’t hypothetical.

This happened today in Ohio.

— Gavi Begtrup (@GaviBegtrup) July 1, 2022

Some states in our Beautiful Union have become Gilead. It’s pathetic, dangerous, and extremely cruel.

Also, whoever impregnated a 10-year old should be put down like a rabid dog. Rape and incest are one of those things that makes me angry enough to commit murder because it robs the victim of their soul. It’s worse than murder in my opinion. They’re alive and dead at the same time.

The Podcast Index: “The Podcast Index is here to preserve, protect and extend the open, independent podcasting ecosystem.”

This is something I believe the podcast ecosystem needs. An open podcast directory. I’ve even written about such a thing

The big question for me is, will indie podcast apps make use of it? I’m thinking of Castro and Overcast in particular. Both run their own directories, as well as other backend services, but The Podcast Index makes me wonder if they could replace their directories with this?

I’m sure it comes down to a matter of trust and control. I know it would be really difficult to make such a bold decision.

SFist: “California is pushing for green energy and wants to avoid blackouts, but giving PG&E $75 million to handle radioactive waste at Diablo Canyon may sound like a deal with the devil.”

I love California but she has her problems. It’s crazy expensive to live in the Golden State and continued drought coupled with fire creates monstrous problems to cope with.

PG&E doesn’t have the best reputation. Their lack of line maintenance has caused numerous fires in California, including the massive Camp Fire that killed 84 people in 2018.

Google is quietly coming to dominate the automaker OS market while Apple is showing Figma screenshots no one’s biting on https://t.co/mWNPyVIrbk

— nilay patel (@reckless) June 30, 2022

Apple announced and displayed a new version of CarPlay at WWDC 2022. Can they compete?

I also wonder if car manufacturers will have to pay Apple 30% of each car sale? 🥴

Pictures from around the house.

Flynn, just hanging out.

I love Daylillies, always have. At one point I had an entire flowerbed dedicated to numerous variations. As we’ve moved around, and we’ve move more than I’d like to admit, I’ve always had at least one.

I’ve been waiting on this beauty to pop for a year. 😍

It’s about darned time. Today would’ve been Day 15 with COVID if this test hadn’t come back negative.

I tested on Tuesday, June 21, and was positive. So sometime between then and now I finally got over the hump.

I still have a cough and my head is a bit fuzzy/congested and I’m tired as heck because I haven’t been able to sleep the last two nights for some strange reason.

All I know is I’m testing negative and I intend to keep it that way.

More of Kim’s flowers. They’re very happy.

Our magnolia has been blooming for the better part of the month.

I love it because it reminds me of my Mom.

The Texas Tribune: “HOUSTON — Meeting at their first in-person convention since 2018, Texas Republicans on Saturday acted on a raft of resolutions and proposed platform changes to move their party even further to the right. They approved measures declaring that President Joe Biden ‘was not legitimately elected’ and rebuking Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality ‘an abnormal lifestyle choice’ and calls for Texas schoolchildren ‘to learn about the humanity of the preborn child.’”

Texas is getting more and more radical by the day. They may become the new Capitol of the next Civil War, at this rate. It wouldn’t surprise me if they started talking about secession again.

It’s gonna get really ugly in Texas I’m afraid.

This is going to be my final post on the matter unless I take a turn for the worse.

I seem to be in a fairly steady state at the moment; exhausted, foggy head, runny nose, and cough.

It seems it’s been like this for a few days. I’ve never had a fever, at least none I was aware of.

You can smell? Win!

— Chris Hawkins (@chris_hawk) June 18, 2022

And, yes, I can still smell and taste things. I consider that a major victory.

Unfortunately I didn’t catch these at the height of bloom. They’re still beautiful and smell wonderful.

I slept until noon today. My wife had to send our daughter up to make sure I was still alive. Thankfully, I am. I probably would’ve slept longer if not for my wife’s concern.

I’m wiped out. Yes, I’m still wiped out.

My foggy brain is a bit less foggy. I think I can safely say that’s due to the extra sleep I’m getting which is helping me defeat this nasty bug.

I have no commercial interest in DayQuil or NyQuil but I am grateful for them. Suppressing some of the symptoms has allowed me to rest.

Oh, I sat outside for a while today. That made for a really nice change of pace.

After dinner I’ll probably drift off to sleep again. Another day in the books.

I’ve gone backwards.

I’m absolutely exhausted and my brain is really foggy. I thought by today I’d be feeling close to normal. It’s a very disappointing setback.

My younger brother got COVID and he said he was exhausted for well over 14-days from the time he had a positive test. I’m not thrilled with the thought of that.

The cough is better, body aches are gone. I hadn’t mentioned waking up in a sweat in the middle of the night. That’s happened every night since I tested positive.

I’ve taken Friday off in hopes a long weeked will help get me over the hump.

Here’s hoping.

Doing much better today than yesterday! 🥳

Am I at 100%, no way, not there yet, but getting closer each day.

My head is still stuffy and foggy and I’m tired. I still have cough but it doesn’t happen as often as it was happening, not even close.

My back and lungs no longer ache, that’s pretty nice.

I figure a few more days of taking it easy and I’ll be right as rain.

Today’s test was positive. Which surprised me. Total bummer.

Better today than yesterday. I like the upward trend. I’d say I’m at about 80% now. A small bump from yesterday but a bump nonetheless.

My head is just as foggy as yesterday, no improvement there and I’m still really tired.

I’m not coughing as much. That’s definitely welcome, now maybe my lungs won’t ache as much.

My lower back pain has improved tremendously! It’s down to a minor ache.

Tired. That and a foggy head are now my biggest complaints. I just want to sleep all day.

I worked for a while this afternoon and now I just want to crawl back in bed.

Funny thing is, I’m craving a really nice Double IPA and some Popeye’s Chicken Strips. Is that weird? 😳

How cool is this? Our oldest daughters neighborhood has an albino squirrel.

It’s really beautiful.

I think I’m getting better. My eyes feel better today. I know that may sound like no big deal but it was really bothering me how much they hurt.

My head is less foggy this morning, that feels rather nice.

I’m still really tired, even after a good nights rest and my cough persists.

My lower back seems to hurt more today than yesterday. I wonder if that’s because I’m feeling slightly better in other ways and I’m noticing my back pain more? Could be.

I still fee pretty wiped out. When I stand I’m a bit dizzy and still have that out of body experience feeling, but it’s not as bad.

Still no fever. That makes me wonder if I had a fever in the days prior to feeling miserable? Who knows?

I think I’ll get outside today and sit in the fresh air.

Number Five

PB Over the Top

This is a fairly new flavor to the Ben & Jerry’s lineup. My youngest daughter turned me on to it, said she liked it, so I gave it a go. She’s right, it’s a keeper. The ganache over the top of the ice cream is super tasty and I like peanut butter cups as well as peanut butter in general.

Number Four

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I think it goes without saying the chocolate chip cookie is the best cookie in the world. If you don’t agree, you’re wrong.

Number Three

The Tonight Dough

The only way you could possibly make ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough better would be to add some peanut butter dough to the mix. Nuff said.

Number Two

Cherry Garcia

No, you don’t have to like the Grateful Dead to like this ice cream and I know what you’re thinking “this can’t be number two?” Oh, but it can. Try the number one flavor first, then decide. The cherry flavor is perfect and I love the chocolate and cherry chunks. Super delicious.

Number One

Chubby Hubby

My wife bought Chubby Hubby for me as a joke. She thought it had a cute name and fit well with the state of her husbands physique. Little did she know it would become my favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor. It’s really hard to find. We know of one Super Market in Charlottesville that stocks it.

And there you have it! 🍦

This cat.

He would stay here all day if I didn’t have to get up once in a while. 😄

Flynn doing what Flynn does best.

Slept until 9:45 this morning. I really needed it. I’ve been taking NyQuil at night and it seems to help with the runny nose a bit and I don’t have fits of coughing through the nigh, just once in a great while.

I don’t feel any better this morning but, thankfully, I don’t feel any worse.

Exhausted, my eyes hurt, raspy dry cough, and a runny nose are still at work.

My lungs ache from coughing. I’m not sure if it’s the bed I’m sleeping in or what but my lower back hurts.

Since testing positive I’ve isolated myself in our guest room, worn a mask when I use the toilet, or get something from the kitchen. I’m constantly washing my hands and generally stay in the room. I have my kitty cat, Flynn, to keep me company.

Please, mask.

😷

Conducting a little experiment here to see if coffee helps cure COVID.

Even if it doesn’t, it still tastes great. ☕️

Kolby enjoying his time outside on the porch.

Such a proper young man.