Category: Retirement

my evolving use of the ipad with ulysses for writing

whbeebe

Something interesting is happening at the start of retirement; I’m using my iPads more than my iPhone.

Before I retired my iPhone was my primary iDevice, my iPad of choice if you will for reading the news as well as being a general communication device. It was a compact general purpose device that went with me everywhere I traveled requiring far less space than any iPad. I easily fell into the habit of using it equally at home as well as work. My poor old iPads languished, sitting on my nightstand most of the time, constantly connected to their chargers, only coming out when I needed a larger surface to view specific content or work with my photography. No matter how hard I tried to be more balanced in using all the portable devices, my iPhone became the go-to device everywhere.

Now that I’m home I’m it’s reversed. Now my iPhone sits on the charger a lot more while I work with the iPads, especially the big 12.9” second generation. It has become my primary writing tool, combined with Ulysses and the logi Slim Combo cover and keyboard. You’d think I would use my MacBook Pro, but I’ve discovered that the logi keyboard is far easier to type on for long periods of time because it lies flat on the table. Unlike the edge of the MacBook, there is no vertical rise due to the thickness of the computing machine the keyboard is attached to. It makes for a highly relaxing and highly effective writing experience. The MacBook isn’t abandoned as it were, as it continues to be used for tasks for which it is well suited, such as software development and running my various virtual machines.

I have two iPad Pros, a 9.7” first generation and a 12.9” second generation. They were both purchased on heavy discount (50% or more markdown, around Christmas season) after the follow-on generations were released. Newly released Pros are just too expensive. While they are both quite different size-wise, they share many common features, such as the OS at the same version, the use of the Lightening port for charging, a push button on the front, and the 3.5mm headphone jack on the edge. For me it’s worth hanging back a few generations not just on price alone, but to keep the front pushbutton and headphone jack. Quite frankly, considering the power of Apple’s silicon processors (A9x for the 9.5” and A10x for the 12.9”) I don’t feel either one is too slow for what I need. “Trailing edge” suits me just fine.

In the early days before the 12.9” iPad Pro arrived, I was focused on writing with the 9.7”. It had for some time another smaller logi cover and keyboard combo to cover it. But I dropped the 9.7” iPad one time too many on an edge and eventually knocked loose several keyboard keys on one corner, which effectively ended it’s practical typing usefulness. Rather than replace the keyboard with another expensive cover, I purchased a basic incase cover and I now use the 9.7” more for reading, drawing, photo post processing and viewing, and very light typing. It makes an almost ideal reading device for technical books. I’ve also discovered that with Ulysses installed on the 9.7” and using iCloud to save and sync between the devices, I can sit back and read what I’ve written, which believe it or not helps with light editing and corrections. I catch problems on the 9.7” iPad that I seemingly miss on the larger one.

Some Observations Working with Ulysses

As good as using Ulysses on an iPad is (and it really is quite good), there are still some issues with this tool combination:

  • Ulysses has a tendency to correct misspellings such that the correct word is the wrong word, such as correcting word as work. If I don’t catch them when I first make them, then they slip through and wind up being published on my blog. That forces me to go in via the WordPress web editor and make corrections. Which leads me to my second issue and biggest gripe.
  • I can make corrections in Ulysses and push them up to the blog. Unfortunately every time I’ve tried I wind up creating more than one post, which forces me to immediately go in and delete the older version.

That’s rather annoying. I’m left with the choice of either fixing the mistakes directly in the blog, thus forcing the original Ulysses writing to not be in sync with the blog, or else fix it in Ulysses and clean up the earlier duplicate posts. For the time being I’ll live with fixing my mistakes as I find them within WordPress.

Perhaps one day there’ll be a better way to correct and sync those corrections between Ulysses and WordPress. In the mean time the work-around is easy; slow down and be a lot more careful in writing and correcting before pushing out a post. The benefits of this system of writing I’m using far, far outweigh any perceived deficiencies.

the great new car adventure

whbeebe4 Comments

Why a New Car Now?

Driven in part by my retirement, my wife and I are in the process of shifting our personal car ownership around and picking up a new (to us) car to support us for the retirement phase of our life. Both of our 2012 Priuses are getting a bit long in the tooth, and my Prius has 107,000 miles on it, about 30,000 more than my wife’s. We’re attempting to sell mine via Carvana, an online car store that buys, sells, and trades cars. I put mine up on their site and they offered an initial quote to purchase of $6,400. I’ve pulled together the physical title and sent it in along with other proof-of-ownership documentation. Now I just have to sit and wait on them to get back to me, hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

I had thought I’d “sell” my Prius to my oldest daughter and son-in-law so they’d have a second car for him to commute with, but my car is old enough that it demands a new battery pack just on mileage alone (they’re only guaranteed to 80,000 miles as it turns out). The cost of a replacement battery pack, including labor to swap it, is around $4,000. I don’t have that kind of money and my daughter and her husband don’t have it either. After spending a premium on the original cost of the Prius for the privilege of driving a hybrid, to turn around and have to spend that amount of money to put in a new battery pack is bullshit. I know the pack can and will be recycled, which should bring down the cost of replacement considerably, but apparently not. In any event I’m moving on from any hybrid. The next car we get will be an efficient ICE (internal combustion engine) car, and we’ll keep our carbon footprint low by not driving so much. Since I don’t have to commute anymore, that’s quite doable.

The Car Hunt Begins

My wife hates to haggle with dealerships. So we went with the Costco service that is supposed to provide a no-hassle discounted car purchase. We have been looking at and considering the Honda Passport. Why?

  • It’s more than big enough for us and with the middle seats folded down it has considerable interior cargo space.
  • It can tow up to 5,000 pounds with the tow package installed.
  • It has what my wife calls “safety features”, which consist of lane drift warning and collision avoidance, especially while driving on the highway. Backup warnings and cameras are also part of the package.

The local dealership that Costco chose based on our zip code was Coggin Honda or Orlando on South OBT.

The Honda Experience

My experiences with Honda have been mixed at best. In the beginning it was good. While living in Atlanta, my first two “new” new cars were a 1978 Honda Civic Hatchback CVCC followed by a 1982 Honda Civic CVCC. They were excellent cars and I was a totally confirmed Honda fan. After marrying and moving to Orlando, my wife and I were expecting our first child. It came time to trade up to a bigger vehicle, so we went with a 1986 blue two-tone Nissan Van. We were then blessed with a second child. Along the way our family of four went through a used Volvo period (a 240 off lease and then a 940 off lease) and then several Kias. Once the daughters moved on my wife and I finally bought the 2012 Toyota Priuses (I actually had a 2009 before trading to the 2012).

We’d already been to a number of dealerships looking for a mid-sized SUV that would generally meet our requirements. For us that meant looking at Nissan, Toyota, and Honda, the brands we’d had experience with, and generally trusted. After a bit of research we settled on the Honda Passport. We were experiencing a bit of sticker shock so we decided to try Costco’s so-called no-hassle car program that was also supposed to give us a discount. That meant being sent to a Honda dealership based on our zip code. For us that meant Coggin Honda.

I’d been to Coggin many years ago when I was looking to purchase a Honda Fit. That was a bad experience that pushed me to purchase a 2003 Kia Sorento. When I was in the market for my first hybrid in 2009 I started at Classic Honda on Colonial Dr. I’d heard about the re-release of the Insight and was looking to purchase one because of its promised great gas economy. They had one on the show-room floor, but none to sell. So I put down $500 to hold one. After a month of waiting I went back to check if they’d gotten any in, and was told no. They apologized but by then I’d lost my desire to own one. I drove a block east on Colonial to Toyota Orlando (before it moved over near Millenia Mall) and in less than two hours bought my 2009 red Prius. I drove my brand new red Prius back to Classic Honda and got my $500 deposit back.

I was therefore in no mood to be messed with when I went out to Coggin. And what I feared might happen, did happen. In spite of Costco’s claims about no hassle buying, we were considerably hassled by the Coggin sales person. They eventually showed us the vehicle quote with the Costco discount, but by the time they layered on other “features” and “packages” the price went back up again. When we talked about trade in value for the two Priuses, we were offered an insultingly lower price that what we found everywhere else via our own research. They tried their damndest to sell us the vehicle, with the salesman pulling in his “sales manager” in order to double team us into buying. We said no thank you in no uncertain terms, then left. My wife later sent an email to the salesman saying we were not interested in buying at this time. As to be expected, we heard nothing back.

As you can see I have no love for Honda dealerships in Orlando. We tried a different dealership, Headquarter Honda out in Clearmont (way west of Orlando on Highway 50/Colonial), where we actually sat in a Honda Passport for the first time (this was before the trip out to Coggin). They were actually quite civilized. If we’d been allowed to stay with the Headquarter Honda, we might be driving the Passport now.

What’s Next?

Everybody who’s heard our story keeps advising to buy “off lease”. As I noted earlier we purchased two off-lease wagons from Volvo in the past, and in both instances they turned out great. So we’re now looking at off-lease (as well as used but well cared for) from at least Volvo and Lexus. In addition to checking for the key features we want, we also need to do what my wife calls the “derrière drop” to check how it feels while sitting in it. One big reason for getting rid of the Priuses and not buying a new Prius is how those cars now feel cramped and uncomfortable to us. We’re now in our mid-to-late 60s and we have discovered we need a bit more seat and back cushioning than when we were younger, especially if we’re going to use the car for long personal road trips in the future, such as traveling to visit our girls. That comfort will be combined with the driving safety features to make our traveling as safe and reliable as possible.

But as of this point we’re done with buying new from the usual auto manufacturers (Honda, Nissan, Toyota, et. el.). It’s nice to be retired in that we can take our time and carefully consider our options. In the mean time I just save up more money for that eventual purchase.

Update 26 February

The Coggin salesman did get back with my wife, and in an exchange of emails, he apologized and told my wife that when we were ready to purchase a car, to come back and talk to him. Points for the professional and courteous email response.