Entry 643: Christmas 2022

It's been a fine Christmas, this one, 2022. We did normal Christmas things -- opened presents, listened to Christmas music, ate too much. We got these Merci chocolates, and I've been hitting those things up hard. They're so good. This definitely isn't going to help my quest to shrink my waste line, but, on the plus side, I gained access to a gym. S's sister Sw has one in her apartment building, and she said I can use it whenever I want (and we have an extra fob, so I can just come and go as I please). It's good timing as it was 10 degrees here yesterday. They gym isn't very big, but it's got a few treadmills, which is all I need. I ran on one the other day -- got going pretty good, 7.5-minute-mile -- and guess what happened. Yep, I broke it. It just shut down on me and wouldn't restart. So, I've come to two conclusions: 1) A lot of treadmills just suck (there are four at this little gym and now only two of them work); 2) Because of number 1, if I'm using one of the other two treadmills, I don't go above 6 mph. I care a lot less about breaking a treadmill that doesn't belong to me, but it would be pretty lame if I wiped out multiple machines in my sister-in-law's building.

Anyway, we're at a bad age now for Lil' S1 when it comes to gift giving. He wants expensive hi-tech gifts, but he's not old enough yet to really figure out how to set them up and maintain them properly. So, it's like, if we get him what he wants, we are actually buying ourselves a package of stress and headache. Today, for example, he got a Fitbit, which is fine, encourage physical activity and whatnot. But you have to link it with an app, and he can't download apps on his phone without permission, so S has to set it all up for him. Then, the charger is just missing -- nowhere to be found. He claims it didn't come in the box. I suppose that's possible, but it's more likely he just didn't pay attention to it when he opened the box (I wasn't around), and it got misplaced or thrown away. Either way, now we either have to buy him a charger or he just never uses his brand new gift. I already put in an order on Amazon for a charger. Thankfully, they're not that expensive, assuming I got the right thing. (Is the Inspire compatible with Inspire 2, and is that the same thing as the Inspire HR?) Also, it's not coming until after the New Year, so maybe his original one will show up by then.

The best way to avoid all this would be to simply not get him any expensive hi-tech presents until he can actually figure them all out himself. But, the truth is, we're just not strict parents in that way. We are only willing to fight it for so long. I'm especially bad. If you ask me for something for long enough, chances are I'm going to cave eventually. S knows this and uses it to her advantage all the time. But the kids are learning it too. And even if we say no, they'll just ask S's parents, who will gladly say yes, so if we really don't want them to have something, we have to say no the grandparents too and completely be the bad guys. Unless it's something that would require a major lifestyle change (like a pet), I usually don't have it in me to do this.

And that's why we now have a PlayStation 5. Lil' S1 has been asking for one (or an Xbox) for like a year, so when S's parents said they wanted to get the kids something big, that's what we suggested. It seemed like a good idea, and it still might be, but the first day didn't go super smoothly. I don't play video games, so I don't now how consoles work these days, and I wasn't prepared for the amount of set-up and sign-in-age required to get things rolling. Each player needs their own profile which requires their own email address, and of course you have get the app, because everything has an app, and then it doesn't actually come with any games, except this kinda lame one-player game, so I bought them Minecraft which required me to register a payment method, which took like five tries to do for some reason, and then to play Minecraft, you have to sign-in to a Microsoft account for some other reason, and then they're trying to find their cousin on the game, and they're asking me how to do it, and I have no idea (and no desire to figure out).

Then, with all this going on, Lil' S1's chair collapses, and he breaks his headset on the first day he has it. It's one of those things where it's not exactly his fault, but kinda his fault because he's not sitting properly on an obviously rickety folding chair. (I felt bad though. He was crying and legit upset about it.) Then S finds out about it, and she gets mad at me for consenting to get this device and "not doing enough research," but really she's just annoyed that something we just got is already broken, and she's taking it out on me. Like, I said things didn't go super smoothly. But it's only the first day. My hope is that we will have this system for many years, and the kids (especially Lil' S1) will figure everything out with it as they get older, so that we don't have to worry about it at all.  We shall see.

Alright, time to watch my new show. I liked The White Lotus so much, I decided to stick with the Mike White theme and try Enlightened. I'm three episodes in and really enjoying so far.

Until next time...