I’ve been catching up on the Whims That Work podcast amongst my other higher-priority podcast listening, sort of cherry-picking episodes and listening to Drew and Joe discuss things on 2x speed.1 On my ride home from work today, I picked up a few ideas from the episode titled Do the Work at the Beginning.
This evening, my wife and I found ourselves listening to a favorite soundtrack from a delightful anime film from Studio Ghibli called When Marnie Was There. The movie tells a captivating story1, and the soundtrack by Takatsugu Muramatsu is an excellent fit. My favorite track from the album is Marnie, which captures all of the beauty and mystery of the film in a one single piece.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve had more rain in our area of Colorado, which has caused the grass to grow quickly. So tonight was mowing night. My youngest loves to help me mow the lawn with his toy lawnmower and has been looking forward to cutting the grass for the last few days. As we walked around the backyard behind our lawnmowers, I thought about how there wasn’t much communication. It’s just a bunch of walking around the yard together, me with a loud piece of machinery, my son somewhere in front or behind me. Generally, we’re not talking too much. We stop every so often to move something or empty the grass from the bag.
I have very fond childhood memories of my parents reading chapter books aloud to me and my siblings. One of the earliest read-aloud books I vaguely remember was The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong. After finishing our last read-aloud book, we decided to take a break from the Little House series and read something different. My mom loaned us her copy of The Wheel on the School a few months back and I just started reading it to the family. The kids are enthralled. My wife is riveted. I don’t remember much about this book other than the pictures, so I’m enjoying it immensely as well.
Last night we found a stray honeybee on out back porch, so my kids and I had a closer look. The bee seemed to be in trouble and was moving its hind legs up to brush its wings a bunch. I mentioned this to the kids and asked what they thought might be the problem.
A few days ago, I ran into a weird problem with my iPhone and a the iTunes subscription model. One app that I subscribe to is Ulysses - it’s great for writing, taking notes, making lists, and I even use it to publish drafts for this blog. I have the app installed on my iPhone, my work laptop, and the iMac that my wife and I use at home.
