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Well hidey-ho! No this is no April Fools joke, you are actually looking at a real newsletter! Yes, I have risen from the trenches of our last few weeks of family drama, and back at work! WHAT DRAMA? Well, that’s for you to find out below in The Girl’s section. Let’s just say, I more than “jinxed” us with the last newsletter saying wild things like “the fog has lifted”, and “Ray and I have regained our sleep sainty”… Urgh… But first, more importantly, what’s happening in the life of Ray and the Blog? Well, if somehow you missed the news. The DCR Podcast has been resurrected, and Ray and Shane (GPLama) have been on a solid streak for the past 4 weeks. So if you missed all or any of those episodes, you have multiple options for listening, and obviously subscribing is the best way to stay in the loop! Check out all or any of these options for listening to these guys geek out on the lastest in the sports world: iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.
Next, we saw that Polar woke up and joined the fun. They have finally started to release products that ANT+ compatibility! The Polar OH1 Plus specifically is what Ray focuses on here in this article, and by and large, it looks like it might even be a hit. So, if you enjoyed that article of in-depth reviewness on the Polar empire joining in on the ANT+ ranks. You might further enjoy this second Polar post that talks a little bit more about the general backstory of the move and possible future product inclusions.
Next up, Ray takes a crack at educating users on How to Export Fitness Data from your Samsung Wearables and Samsung Health App. The mere fact that Ray had to take the time to organize this all down on a post and attempt to understand how and why this company takes the most painful approach to allowing their users access to their own data is… well… frustrating. I don’t understand how companies can continue to miss the mark on this stuff. With everyone loving the “shareability” of their workouts, routes, maps, etc. with other athletes and social media, I would imagine it should be a rat race at this point for companies to make it the most effortless to press send/upload. But that’s just me.
Then, on Friday, it seemed Ray had a bunch of industry “gossip” he needed to share, but couldn’t quite stretch full posts out of each topic. Thus, you got one of his infrequent “Friday Tidbits” posts. Inclusive of info on Stages, Apple, and COROS.
For some lighter reads, don’t forget about the weekly recaps by Ray. Last week we saw both the 5 Random Things Post, and his Week in Review hit the newsstands. The 5 Random things post includes a hilarious photo of the Peanut who looks like she just got busted on surveillance camera after having robbed the candy store! Not sure who okays these photos from week to week!
Finally, the most recent post, and one that seems to have peeked everyone’s interest is Ray’s re-cap of 4 Days of Swim/Bike/Running Amazingness in Mallorca. Maybe someday I’ll be invited on this trip, but historically this has been a getaway for Ray to do what he does best. Honestly the man leaves no hour un-turned on these trips. Packing in minimum of two workouts a day, continuous photo and video shooting for new products, followed by a solid shoulder slouch over his laptop banging away on the keys. He gets a hiatus from all other life responsibilities, and just cranks out the work. It’s a good thing the man loves what he does so much! If nothing there is some solid cycling eye-candy here, so go forth! And that’s it for the tech talk in text. Moving on, if you love fabulous world of Audio-Visual, this section is for you! YouTube Here’s the quick and dirty round up of all the videos posted last week: |
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In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl Alright alright, glad we got through all that tech info. Now, on to the Maker fam, what have we been up to?? So I struggled for about a week, undecided if I would or wanted to share this with you guys. It just seems really personal for me, as well, I wonder “is this newsletter appropriate?” While I’m still not sure, I do know I “sold” the newsletter from the beginning as the real life and times of the Maker house. A bit of an attempt to show that while Ray’s Instagram feed might look dreamy, we too are real people with real “shit’ to deal with. So here goes. By the time I signed off from the last newsletter, we were halfway through a week whereby I took our eldest to the family doctor every. single. day. Only to be turned away with the diagnosis of “it’s just a virus, a particularly bad one, but all the same there’s nothing to do but wait it out”. Let me tell you, I try my darnedest at all times to leave decisions (when called for) up to the professionals. If there is an electrical issue… I call an electrician, if my Garmin is being a PITA, then I
But two Friday’s ago, I was at the end of my rope. My “mom intuition” was screaming. Even Ray, who is super chill, was like “Shit aint right’. So back to the doctor’s office I go, and this time I brought a bit of my mama-bear attitude. I knew something was wrong, and someone WOULD listen this time. I’ll save you most of the details, but from that doctor’s appointment onwards for the next week, would be some of the most stressful and heartbreaking moments I hope to ever have to endure as a parent. The Peanut was hospitalized for the next 6 days. She had the all inclusive package of, an ambulance ride, full time oxygen mask, feeding tubes, highest level quarantine… You name it. Even the poor ol’ hospital clown wasn’t allowed to enter our room. It was intense. Complicating the situation even more, P2, the younger sister also wanted in on the action and caught what was likely the same virus/bacterial infection. Thankfully a little less intense strand. The daycare was, after all, a cesspool of germs these past few weeks with more kids out sick than ever. This made it extremely difficult for Ray to come to the hospital to visit us and give me any relief, as tracking the germs back and forth was dangerous, and of course P2 wasn’t allowed anywhere near the Peanut’s hospital room. Ray was basically now quarantined back at home as P2's nurse and obligatory sounding board for his ever increasingly emotional/sleep deprived wife (via phone). Good thing it wasn’t a massive week for him with product releases. There were some highlights to this life event though. You find out that you are in fact surrounded by a village of other expat moms. Who show up in the mornings with drinkable coffee, snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They bring you extra socks, toiletries, books to read, phone chargers, extra clothes for the Peanut. They bring giant crocodile tears to your eyes when you see their familiar faces and are willing to actually give you a hug without donning a doctors mask and quarantine cape. You find out who your people are, and you hang on tight. That has been life for the last little while in the Maker house. While I lost about 8 years off of my life, both kiddos are now, insanely healthy and happy, and over-active. It’s mind boggling how quickly kids rebound, like nothing ever happened! Can’t say I’d want it any other way, but those tiny hoomans really are a wonder in my eyes. As always, thanks for reading. And I do promise next week to be a little more cheery! ~The Girl |
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