A Geek Goes Flying

I temporarily have a foster dog, now named Mason. Mason napping on the balcony while I iPad. He’s awesome, but my senior street stray mutt isn’t having any part of it, and my Labrador loves him so much, my home won’t long survive their hours of excited play. (Imagine zoomies on meth, with a dose of Sunday Night Football.) So I’ve been working on the balcony at night (it’s pleasantly cool, for now...) while Mason chills with me, my Lab looks out at us longingly, and my senior mutt curls up in the bedroom, ignoring all the commotion.  I’ve had this Best Choice Products Folding Zero Gravity Outdoor Recliner ($70) for a couple of years and it’s comfortable, but not perfect. The elastics on the “pillow” are toast, so it wants to sit around where my waist hits. And the side tray is junk, it doesn’t attach securely and I’m super leery of putting anything of value, or containing liquids, on it. In fact, I don’t even have it attached. Instead, I picked up this Mr.Power Mic Stand Cup Holder...

Today was too hot to sit inside, and I was too fried to bike to the office, so I setup on the balcony. Balcony workstation: MacBook Pro, MOFT Z stand, Q60 keyboard, etc. The setup: MacBook Pro 14" M1 Pro resting atop a MOFT Z Invisible Thin Sit-Stand Desk to bring it up to eye level. Keychron Q60 Max keyboard (the only wireless HHKB layout board I have); Gateron Jupiter Banana switches ( 59±10 gf tactile switches with 2.0±0.6 mm pretravel, 3.4 mm max total travel, with a “crisp bump, tactile bump at top” feel; they’re not my endgame switch, but I quite like them, especially in this keyboard). Logitech M585 Wireless Mouse, Graphite . Desk pad . Sukadar Portable Clip on Fan, 10000mAh Rechargeable Battery Operated (really like this fan!). Zendure SuperTank Pro (which appears to be discontinued; not a fan of how Zendure handled a warranty claim , so, whatever...) Sport-Brella Versa-Brella SPF 50+ Adjustable Umbrella with Universal Clamp . The combination makes for a very cozy, co...

It’s that time of year again: The weather is so nice, you just kinda have to work out on the balcony. Except, the sun can be an issue. Sometimes the heat. Solutions (or at least mitigations) have been found. The balcony “workstation” and my ever vigilant rescue mutt The computer is the “ not-an-iMac ,” with the matte screen. I added an inexpensive headset hanger to the back to hold the “used - like new” SHP-9600MB , and picked up a carrying case (meant for an actual 27" iMac, but works perfectly) to make it easy to move the whole setup (including keyboard and mouse) inside. The umbrella works quite well at holding back the worst of the direct sunlight, and was cheap. (I had to make a small wood wedge for under the table, for the clamp to hold well - there’s a bit of a “lip” around the bottom edge.) The little rechargeable ‡ Holmes fan ( Target ) works better than I expected. (Same is true of the USB-powered fan I have indoors – though I doubt it’s actually made of beskar .) ...