In Wellington which is so loud and where parking breaks the bank. My annual eye test was fine, though my left eye has more floaters and the small cataract has been joined by a couple of friends.
Today's delight: two tiny ducklings on the lake. I believe these are native Tētē-moroiti | Grey teal 🐦 :
Length: 42 - 44 cm; Weight: 505 g (male); 470 g (female)
A small grey-brown teal with pale-edged body feathers, pale cheeks, chin and throat, crimson eyes, and a dark grey bill.
In 2005 they blew up and sank an old Navy ship off the south coast of Wellington to form an artificial reef.
Throwback to January 2005: cats in our Wellington garden. 🐈
We’re Searching for Our Bird of the Century 🐦:
Aotearoa New Zealand’s favourite election is back, and the stakes are higher than ever before. This year marks a whole century of Forest & Bird speaking up for nature.
Join us in celebrating our 100th birthday… But vote carefully... this year the winner is not just Bird of the Year, but Bird of the Century!
We finished watching Sex Education (TV series) and I was relieved that all the story lines were resolved without any really dark outcomes. 📺
What an excellent show! I particularly enjoyed the character development of Amy. Favourite actor / character: Maeve.
In my dream I was leaving a part of Waikawa Beach that had nightclubs, shops, restaurants, thinking: How weird I've lived here nearly 8 years and never found this area before.
The map above clarifies how tiny Waikawa Beach is. It also has zero shops, cafes or other commerce. 🤣
This 13 minute video: I have APHANTASIA (and you may too...without realising it!), linked by Jason Kottke: Does Your Brain Picture Things? is excellent.
I also can't visualise, although I can (sort of) call up memories of photos. It's always a bit indirect though, like peripheral vision.
Seven hours from start to finish, with 3 workers being diligent, we now have our new EV charger.
I like to take relatively detailed photos of significant work around our place. Fortunately several photos have been helpful for the Evnex charger installers today.
One of the things we've learned as home owners is that the project (whatever it might be) will always encounter glitches and will always cost more than expected.
Our Evnex EV charger in the garage is no exception: a concrete pad, and sand in the conduit led to extra hole digging and workarounds.
This Tōrea pango | Variable Oystercatcher pair have found their spot in the driftwood, ready for nesting. 🐦
A pair was in a similar location last year too.
Manu pango | Eurasian blackbird on flax. 🐦
We plugged the EV in to trickle charge. After 12 hours it had gone from 29% charge to 54%. That's roughly 2% per hour.
Today I drove to Levin and plugged in to a public charger while I shopped. It charged from 50% to 80% in 24 minutes — about 75% per hour.
I believe charging slows after 80%.
If you've never benefited from Take Control books it's time to start. Buy a book now! It'll be $5 very well spent indeed.
Take Control Books – Expert Advice from Leading Tech Authors:
20th Anniversary Sale! To celebrate the 20th anniversary … we’re rolling our prices back to 2003. Every title is just $5, now through October 26 [2023].
Spin-off effects … we bought a new EV so that meant getting a charger installed (this week, I hope). The EV allows us to change our electricity plan — it gives us 50% discount from 2100 to 0700. So now I've learned how to program our dishwasher and washing machine to run overnight.
I couldn't imagine using my Mac without Keyboard Maestro, so this is excellent news. I see that KM tells me my Time Saved: 12 days
!
Stairways Software Pty Ltd is pleased to announce Keyboard Maestro 11.0, the new version of its powerful productivity enhancer for macOS.
Range anxiety with the new EV — having cleaned up* the corner of the garage where the charger will go, will the 5 metre cable reach?
* Cleaned up = moved junk around temporarily.
Ugh, our garage has been a shambles since it was built. I need to clear out at least one corner of it for the people who'll install our Evnex charger later this week. Off to do battle!
Whew, I suppose it's only right that it takes me many hours over several days to write my monthly Waikawa Beach Newsletter. I guess the longer it takes, the easier it is for folks to read in just a few minutes. Maybe …
