As summer wends its way to fall

It’s in the 90’s, so it’s hard to believe that summer’s winding down and wending its way into fall. But it is so.

The last month has been a blur. First, there was the frenzy of picking out and purchasing everything I needed for a major reno. I’m sure that there’ll be more, but so far there’s only been one hiccup: the place where I ordered my tiles couldn’t guarantee delivery of the Carrara marble jamb and threshold before the end of October. Too late! Fortunately, the tile place next door had them in stock, so the bathrooms will be able to be completed. Phew.

Once the buy-buy-buy frenzy ebbed, I went into the sort-toss-shred frenzy. Prepping the house for the reno is the equivalent of moving, and it feels good to unload a lot of junk. But, man, was it ever time consuming. And every sub-project (room, closet, drawer) is pretty much guaranteed to take at least twice as long as you anticipate. I did try (not 100% successfully) not to give in to the temptation to throw everything into a box and plan on figuring out the keepers when I unpack. Mostly I resisted. Come November, I don’t want to be unloading yet another box chocked full of stuff I should have jettisoned. There’ll be some of that, but not all that much.

Anyway, somewhere along the line, the project carpenter asked me if I were going to get “smart” appliances, i.e., appliances connected to the Internet, and part of the wonderful world-wide Internet of Things (IoT).

No way, I told him, am I going to willy-nilly introduce IoT into my home. Sure, I’ve got a smart enough thermostat, but that’s about it.

Besides, the writing projects I do for clients is increasingly about the IoT. Enough is enough. When it comes to the IoT, I gave at the office. But there’s really no escaping the IoT/smart tech and, in a few years, we probably won’t even be talking about it. IoT will just be computing technology. (Next stop: telepathy.)

Last week, one of my clients sent me a link to We Put a Chip in It. Motto: It was a dumb thing. We put a chip in it. Now it’s a smart thing.

We Put a Chip in It is an aggregation of smart applications that are mostly flat-out ridiculous. The smart water bottle. The smart gym glove. There’s an app that reminds you to take a deep breath. Ommmmm. OMG.

The videos I looked at are hilarious. They seem like parodies, but there appear to be “real” companies behind them.

So, as we leave summer, I offer you this end-of-summer treat.

If you need your laugh of the day, I believe you may have found it.

Meanwhile, I’m taking tomorrow off, but will be back next week.