Another Golden Morning

It was a little harder than usual to get out of bed today. I make no pretensions about the fact that I am not a morning person, and it's rare that I feel alert and refreshed immediately upon waking, but even still, I noticed that something was different as my pre-alarm quietly murmured its salutations for the day. I turned my head on my pillow to look outside; another beautiful late August morning. The sky was a rosy blue, the tree branches were swaying gently in the breeze, and the sun was curling its golden tendrils around the houses to the east, warming the sleepy world with its gentle illumination. Very gentle. A little too gentle, perhaps. It dawned on me (PUN!) that it was not as bright outside as it had been just a few mornings ago. In addition to the lamentable shrinking of day-lit hours, I noted a sweet crispness in the air as I walked from my vehicle to the office. Soon, it will be time to start listening to Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise, the perfect album for fall.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I ported my old cell phone number to Google Voice (GV) so that people could reach me on my work phone without using a new number. As I indicated, the process was pleasantly simple and the gripes and limitations of using a GV number as your primary contact were few. For about a year, Google has been working to fold its GV services into its Google Hangout (GH) platform and I've been using GH as my primary texting application ever since I made the move. One of the few truly irritating shortcomings of GH as a texting app was how it handled group messages (MMS). When included in an MMS group message, you would receive each text as an individual SMS without any indication that the message had been sent to other people. So, good luck participating in that conversation. A recent update to GH fixed this behavior, and improved the overall look and feel of the application. At this point, I'd say that using the GV + GH combo is good enough to stick with even when I am no longer using a work phone.

Domestic rugby begins in Europe tomorrow and the Rugby World Cup starts next month! College football starts in a few weeks, and the NFL starts shortly after that. Hockey doesn't return until October. Any chance the Cubs will still be playing then? SPORTS!

-Ryan