Roundup of January-February 2024 Posts

I need to take a deep breath. The last two months have kept me running and out of the house almost every single day. My color-coded phone calendar lights up in every color of the rainbow. Fortunately, most of those demands on my time seem to have ended this month, although a dental filling replacement still looms for next week.

I the meantime, I turned out enough blog posts to fill up this two-month roundup.

After New England’s, non-winter (not much cold and very little snow), the warmer air and increased sunlight both feel good. My warm sweaters never came out of the closet and my snow boots didn’t get wet. Oh, well. Most of the country had more severe weather of one kind or another, so I’m not complaining.

Unscheduled Hiatus

The Next Phase Blog took an unscheduled three-day hiatus in February when my IT guy attempted to fix a security issue. It did not go well. The most frustrating part is that I do my own back-end support. So I’m the IT “guy.” But the blog is now back up and running. Phew! I feel so out of touch when I can’t write on my blog. Bonus: all of my spam comments have gone away.

Last month I learned how to generate AI images. This makes illustrating posts a lot easier and less time-consuming. I’m still getting the hang of it, though. It requires specificity in the command line and it’s amazing how much you think is obvious but actually isn’t. I created this image of my imaginary IT “guy” in a few minutes.

Roundup of January-February 2024 Posts

Here are the posts I managed to produce in the last two months, in between appointments, exercise, reading and critiquing manuscripts for my writing group, reading books for book club, researching, and taking three days of tour guide training.

It feels good to be back in the office with fewer activities and demands to interrupt my productivity.

Thus, I could produce this roundup of January-February 2024 posts, although I didn’t finish as many as I would have liked. Check it out for any you might have missed; it won’t take long. Except for the Boston quiz, that it. Those usually take a little more time. If you didn’t take this most recent quiz, now’s the time to test your knowledge of Boston.

Boston and History

Business and Technology

Environment

Lifestyle and Culture

On Into Spring

daffodils. springtime, businessAlthough the sparse snow has melted nothing is really blooming yet. We have reached that time of year when the ground looks tired and soggy, Yards have turned to mud and the grass feels like Shredded Wheat when you walk on it. Sand covers the roads. Trees are optimistic but cautious about producing buds.

On the positive side, walking tours start this month although my cruise-ship tours don’t start until June. Boston will host more cruise ships this year than last; and last year had more than in 2022. This boosts the local economy because the more people come, the more money they leave. Some of it they leave with me.

It’s all good.