Morning Brain Dump

We are headed over to Berlin, NH to do Mary’s family graves, look at the places she used to live both there and in Norway. We’ll come back through Oxford Plains to see if the old bookstore has re-opened and hopefully get home around supper. We’ll probably eat lunch in Gorham and just take our time coming home. I decided to renew my Reflect Notes subscription. While Upnote does most of what I want there is still something that I just don’t feel comfortable with it. I’ve learned to trust my gut and even though Reflect Notes is expensive it does more of what I want from a note-taking app. I just have to consistently use it.

Workout — No specific workout, because of driving to NH and back.

Evening Recap

We drove over to Berlin, NH, did Mary’s family graves and then did the Bridge-to-Bridge River walk. It was a beautiful day to drive over, and we did visit Mary’s old haunts in Berlin. There were lots of changes over there since I started going over there more than 20 years ago. On the way back we went through Norway, ME. and looked at her house there and she was disappointed. Norway didn’t bring back the good memories that Berlin did for her.

A lot of people would question why bother to drive 6 plus hours to simply put flowers onto a grave of people you’ve never met and are just names in a few photos from your wife’s photo albums. To me it’s about honoring those who are a part of my wife’s family history. When we drive over to New Hampshire, it gives her an opportunity to think back to her youth, travel over paths no longer travelled, and talk about bits or pieces of stories about her life. It helps me understand more about the woman I love. Life is not always just about us; it is also about the people around us and giving them the opportunity to think about other times in their lives as well. Yes, I was tired when I got home, but it was a good tired.

While driving over to NH, I really thought about what I need in a note-taking app and how I’ve attempted to use UpNote over the past few weeks. While there was a lot I did like about it, but at the same time how it didn’t feel right for what I wanted to do. Reflect Notes is the note-taking app that I keep coming back to. Probably after all this Debt-ceiling stuff is resolved (I’m rather cynical of the motives of either party at this point and don’t believe that too many in Washington really give a running rabbit’s shit about the rest of us. It’s all about power and who gets to throw it around) of, I will go ahead and do the full year subscription to save quite a bit of money. That way I don’t use the $15 monthly amount as an excuse to keep looking for something cheaper. That the grass is greener thinking I’ve had too much of over the past year when it comes to note-taking apps that might be better for what I want than Reflect Notes. It’s taken a while, but I’m finally learning that the best note-taking app is the one that you will consistently use, not the next great one that the Tech pundits are currently talking about.

As part of all this change, I streamlined the Daily Note into three sections Morning Brain Dump, Workout, and Evening Recap. Really, which are the most important parts of my day. Also, this way I can use my daily note as the basis for the new direction that I want to take my blog. It will provide most of the information for what I write there. Previously, I was attempting to do too much with the daily note and use it as a life management system. That isn’t what I need, I have other apps that do those things, and the direction I’m going with my blog having something I can look back and jog my memory about what happened that day is more important.

Overall, a really good day.

Now if I could just figure out what class to play in an upcoming pirate themed Pathfinder 1e campaign that will be starting in July. Yeah, it’s that far away and I’m already thinking way too much about something that ain’t that big of a deal.