Apple Time Capsule is junk

For three weeks the Time Capsule has been doing ok, backing up our iMac and networking our printer.  Then today it suddenly loses communication.   Airport utility says "device not found".  Great.   There's a nice shiny green happy LED light on the Time Capsule...obviously it thinks everything is ok.  I click "help" on Apple's airport utility, and enter "device not found".  Apparently nobody at Apple ever thought "device not found" would be a possible topic requiring help,  as the search comes up with unrelated, useless results.

Looking online, I learn more from random forum posters on Apple Support community.  From there I learn how to do a "soft" reset and a "hard reset".  I try both, and.....nothing happens.  Shiny green happy light continues to shine, no reset indicated.

This is ridiculous.

So now I'm forced to do a "factory default reset", since the drive is not responding to the other reset actions.   I had to do a similar reset several times on initial set up as well.  This cannot be how this thing was designed to operate.

We officially started our kitchen renovation yesterday as I began to demolish the old redwood deck in our backyard.  Manual labor like this makes me appreciate higher education...

We're adding 192 ft2 of  space to the kitchen, including a little walk in pantry/office area.  The flow to the backyard should be improved as well, with the back door eliminated from our breakfast nook and a new door added to the expanded kitchen.

We started the process last fall with a refinance, then moved on to an architect for the plans, then engineering work, and finally city permits that just came through.  Spent over $6k so far and haven't built a thing.  Unfortunately that kind of expense is a fact of life in this area of California.  Every cost is double or triple the national average.

A Cool photo

Since the blog description says "a place for cool photos", I suppose I should post one.  Here's a favorite from 2006, looking back over my shoulder while steering around thunderstorms near Grand Junction.  Everything was black and scary ahead, but behind was this glorious display of color and shadow.  It felt like flying into a tunnel.   I never tire looking at clouds, no matter how much flight time is in my logbook.

Dodging thunderstorms in an F/A-18 Hornet at sunset

Random thoughts on middle age...

I'm in my middle 40's and thinking about aging more than ever...
At this age mortality is no longer an abstract concept.  I miss the feeling of endless possibility that came with youth, even as I recall the uncertainty and anxiety of those years.

Am I "over the hill"?  I'd rather think of life as a plateau than a hill.  The initial upslope is youth (growing up/establishing a career/starting a family).  The big middle chunk is mostly flat, with gentle ups and downs (raising a family, working, retiring, grandchildren).  The end will hopefully be a steep drop in my sleep, with little warning or time spent dealing with sickness.   That's a better mental picture than being on the "over the hill" downslope from age 40 onward...

Life has been good.  Although I've seen my share of tragedy, things have gone mostly according to plan.  Freedom from regret is a big deal at this point in life, and I'm thankful for that.  Even small doses of regret can be crushing.  It's hard enough to accept life sweeping you along at an ever increasing and unstoppable pace when you're on the right track...it must be horrible to feel that acceleration along the wrong track.

I feel for people dealing with major regrets during middle age.