Within the span of a week, the trees went from having no leaves to the majority having leaves! Things are looking pretty green.

We’ve been spending a lot of time outside this week. Walks in the woods, swinging, climbing, lunches and dinners on the deck, watching the excavator and dump truck working across the street, and generally soaking up as much sun as we can.

Charlie got to sit in a fire truck this week! We were walking downtown by the fire station and stopped to look at the trucks. The nice firefighters asked if he’d like to check one out, then let him sit in the driver’s seat and beep the horn. They also gave him a little fire helmet and a first aid kit.

I got out to row on the Croton River Friday after work while Amanda and Charlie were having a play date with Meg and Miles.

Charlie enjoys sitting in the boat and saying “Row Row!” like the song. I can’t wait to take him out in it this summer. We’ll start with small inland lakes at first and have some friends in other boats close by as well.

Now that Charlie is getting better at walking on his own, we are venturing further into the woods. Some things Charlie enjoys during those walks:

• Carrying rocks
• Watching birds and frogs
• Watching ants
• Sitting by the creek
• Running back and forth across the little wooden bridges over the creek
• Throwing the rocks he carried into the creek
• Touching trees
• Tossing leaves in the air

I put more holds on Charlie’s climbing wall so he has more options. He is getting the hang of it!

Trout lilies are blooming!

We had quite a range of temperatures this week. The weather station measured a high of 96.4 °F and a low of 32.0 °F for the week. It rained a half inch on Saturday night.

Sleep has been a struggle in the Grimmett house this week. Charlie is having trouble falling asleep and is waking up coughing due to mucus dripping down his throat. Poor little guy.

Until next week 👋

On Friday I built Charlie a climbing wall on one side of his swing set. He took to it immediately and surprised us with how well he climbs. I made the holds a little far apart for his feet, so we help him with his foot placement right now, but he does most of the pulling himself up with his arms. I ordered more holds and will install them this week. I also need to sand the cut sides and cut off & cap the bolts on the other side. Once I do, I’ll get a proper post up about it.

Charlie had a great weekend. Lots of time outside. Here it is in photos.

We got to see Chris Johnson and Megan Walter in Poughkeepsie this weekend. I somehow managed to not take any photos, but it was nice to catch up with Chris, meet Meg, introduce Charlie as a toddler (Chris met Charlie a year ago), walk around outside a bit, and have dinner at Millhouse Brewing.

Planning some time here in Peekskill together soon.

Finishing the attic probably isn’t going to happen. We had an architect come over and help us navigate what is and isn’t possible to pass code requirements. So much hassle! Sprinklers on the third floor above grade all the way to the exit, 3ft wide stairs with 3×3 landings and a certain amount of headspace that would require dormers, so much insulation that we’d have to extend the rafters out, much larger windows, etc. Long story short, the space we’d add is not worth the amount of work we’d have to do not just on the attic but on the house in general and the associated cost. Kind of a bummer.

I guess we’ll table that one and instead look at replacing the fence and expanding the deck again soon.

We’ve been looking into solar, but not having a great experience with solar sales people. We want to buy your product. Stop making it so difficult, folks!

The high this week on the weather station was 77.7 °F. The low was 26.9 °F.

Humidity high and low: 98% and 14%

Spring is in full swing. Lots of flowers and trees blooming and budding out, double the amount of birds compared to two weeks ago, and lots of things sprouting in the garden (peas, kale, spinach, radishes).

We’ve had lunch and dinner on the deck multiple times. Lovely.

Amanda has to go into the city twice a week for work now, so we are all adjusting to new morning and evening routines. The baristas at the coffee shop by the train recognize Charlie now and tell all the other customers about how much he likes trains.

Charlie hit a new milestone this week: He started anthropomorphizing some of his stuffed animals. He moves their arms to make them do things like push buttons, he tucks them in to bed like we do with him, and tries to feed them. It is adorable.

Until next week 👋

Out in the garden, radishes and spinach seeds have sprouted. 🌱

Inside, tomatillos and tomatoes are doing great, and red lipstick peppers just sprouted.

Did you know most peppers and tomatoes are perennials? They can’t survive the winter in the north, but they’ll live for many years in the tropics.

We’ve been quizzing Charlie regularly while we read to him. He picks things up quickly and remembers them pretty well!

He is trying more words. We think he is on the cusp of making use of phrases, and this is roughly a developmentally appropriate time for that.

We had a playdate on Saturday with one of his classmates at daycare. It was fun to watch him collaboratively play with someone from daycare. They get along so well!

We went back to swim lessons this week and he did pretty well, though he did get distracted easily. Sometimes he’d rather watch the other kids than do the exercises.

Charlie enjoyed going to a diner and using a booster seat instead of a highchair. They also have cool things like crayons and sugar packets to play with. We found it easier to wrangle him in a booth than at a regular table, so diners might be our new preferred genre of restaurants when going out with Charlie, at least until outdoor seating opens up at other places again.

He loves to request to wear pieces of clothing like his gardening apron, a certain jacket, or one of his hats, which sometimes leads to him wearing a winter hat to the coffee shop when it is 60F/15.5C outside.

I have a working script to translate my weather station data to an APRS data packet. Now all I need to do is figure out how to transmit it. I’ve been looking for a CWOP server that accepts http connections, but coming up blank. I’ll probably end up POSTing the converted data to a PHP script on another server and then forwarding that to a CWOP server that accepts TCP connections.

Helpful links:

• http://wxqa.com/faq.html
• http://wxqa.com/servers2use.html
• https://www.aprs2.net/
• http://www.aprs-is.net/APRSServers.aspx

I led a discussion on AI with Praxis this week. Here is my post-discussion writeup:

I also sent them this afterward, which I came across a few days later (h/t Jeremy Felt)

How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide

People often ask me how to use AI. Here’s an overview with lots of links.

oneusefulthing.substack.com

Reading: Not a lot of time to read right now, but slowly making my way through Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age. I’m about halfway through.

To be honest, it was a pretty difficult week at work and home, so this is about all I’ve got without complaining. See you next week 👋