Glendo State Park

Update on my dying technologies saga (skip to the pictures if you'd like to get to the "real post"): my phone is fine (yay!). But my laptop...100% kaput. I even tried opening it up and watching youtube videos about what parts of the motherboard to prod to try to turn it on one last time to retrieve one or two documents that hadn't been backed up. Nope. It's ok though. I did back everything up a month or two ago.

Basically I have three options on where to go from here, since I really do need a computer of some sort: (1) Have my brother Peter ship me his basically new Pixelbook, (2) use Jared's second laptop [yes he has two, and yes they are both awful], or (3) spend my savings and maybe get some birthday help to buy another Macbook.

Option 3 is the one that appeals most. Obviously. Who wouldn't love a new Macbook? I've really come to love and prefer Macs for photo and video editing, which is something I'll continue to do throughout my life (especially photo editing). If I wasn't into photography I'd just buy a PC since they're a lot cheaper, but man, I've been using Jared's PC for photos since my Macbook died and it's a paaain in the bum. Unfortunately, buying a new computer would deplete my savings, and I'd rather not do that if I have another option. Buying Peter's Pixelbook would have been my next preference, but it looks like you can't run Lightroom (my photo-editing software) on Pixelbooks since they function more like a tablet. So that leaves me with Jared's second laptop. 

Jared is a sweet bb angel and was kind enough to compile all of his files onto his work laptop, then run a factory reset on the laptop he used all through medical school so I could set it up and personalize it as my very own. I didn't even ask him to but he was pumped to do it. He hoped that running a factory reset would speed the computer up a bit for me. Well, this is my first trial run on it writing this blog post, and woof. Like, woooooof. How Jared became a medical doctor doing all his studies on this laptop is beyond me. His perseverance is astounding. It is soooooo slow, and sooooo glitchy, and awful for importing/converting photos. Also the battery will completely give out at random times, even if it's over halfway charged. Probably to be expected from a laptop that was purchased 7 years ago with its sole draw being that it was the cheapest laptop at Costco. I'm going to try and make it work until Jared's done with residency though. The real test will be if I can get Lightroom set up on here later this week. For now, enjoy a bunch of unedited photos from our weekend, and appreciate the magic that is photo editing!! These are taken with the same camera as my other posts but the difference is huge. These look so dark and dull to me. 

On Saturday we decided to get out in nature. We're so lucky to live in Wyoming, where the effects of COVID have been minimal. We're still quarantining and people are encouraged to stay home/wear masks when they have to go out in public, but there are relatively few COVID cases here and all the state parks are still open for day use. Jared starts 6 weeks of hospital shifts today. It's going to be rough. I'm glad we decided on one last adventure for a while. 

We decided on a morning adventure in Glendo State Park, since it's only about an hour away and we haven't been there before. It consists of a huge lake with miles of usable beach, tons of campgrounds and trees, some nice little hikes, this cool little grassland/river area we found that was a wildlife viewing area, and probably much more. We saw a few boaters, fishers, and mountain bikers from a distance, but no one close enough that we had to worry about social distancing.

 We found a cute little boardwalk for looking out over the grassy river. It felt like the perfect mashup between Wyoming and the marshy savannas of southern Georgia. There was a cute lazy river and some enormous birds overhead. I can't wait to come back in the summer and see it all lush.

Jared's talked about wanting to own land as long as I've known him. Since moving to Wyoming (where land is plentiful and pretty cheap) I've come around to the idea of a little piece of land somewhere where you can see a million stars. I wouldn't say no to something like this with a lazy creek and some pretty trees, and I'd demand Jared build a little boardwalk on it for nightly sunset walks.

I can say with a good degree of certainty that this was probably the best day Savvy's had since before Jack was born. She spent all morning fetching, swimming, digging, running, and chewing on big sticks. I'm so excited to give her more days like this in the summer, now that Jack's old enough to be out longer during the day.

Jack could have stayed by this shallow river forever, playing with his tractors and making them "swim" through the water. He wanted to get in and swim himself, but settled for wading since it's not exactly summer weather yet.

Well, now that I'm out of pictures I'm realizing that our pictures from the first part of our day never made it off my memory card. I'll have to include them in next week's post. Jack's already up from his nap and adamantly wants me to play trains with him. Until next time!