B r i a n   V e r k l e y

I wrote some blog software a long long time ago.  All in perl, which is the language I used for everything at the time.  I did it mostly because I could, and blogging was "cool" then.  Through some iteration of the code I added Leanne as an author, and September 12th, 2006, that version of the blog went live.

I ran that for years, but sometime around when we moved from Ajax to Pickering, I stopped hosting it on the internet.   I barely blogged and during some computer upgrade, it just didn't seem important enough to update.  Always at the bottom of my todo list.  

The problem was, everything was out dated.  The blog was in perl, which almost no one uses anymore, on apache as the web server, which is mostly unnecessary for this kind of web app, and backed by mysql for the database, which is way overkill for a few bits of text.  It really needed to be modernized, because patching and dragging it along was way too much work.  But re-writing it all was also too much work.  

Fast forward a few years, and along comes Cursor (https://cursor.com/).  Cursor is an application that helps you write code.  You describe the application you want, and then it uses backend API calls to AI models like Claude Opus, OpenAI Codex, or their own coding model, to generate your code.  As a kind of test I said, here is my old website, I want you to rewrite this whole thing in a modern language.  I even want you to copy over the old posts and comments.  But I need updated everything, including proper Google authentication, rather than my fairly insecure home grown version.  

And it did. Here it is.  Written in Go, a language I don’t understand, which has its own built in web serving ability, and backed by sqlite, a database I can never remember the commands for, but is much better suited to this task.   I asked for the app.  The AI wrote the app.  

So I’m back online.  And the whole archive of blogs is back online.   You can read about a random Saturday from 2005 (https://ajax.verkley.com/story/4) or what I thought about the iPhone when it came out (https://ajax.verkley.com/story/143) or even way back when I thought mobile computing would be a thing. (https://ajax.verkley.com/story/22).  ChatGPT tells me that if you bought $1000 worth of Apple shares back when I wrote that, they’d be worth about $175,000 now.   So, I bet you don’t want to miss a post now, do you!   (sadly, I also did not buy Apple shares then.)

So I was putting Easton to sleep and I started to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when he said, "Stop." and put his hand over my mouth.
"B's" he says.  
I look at him puzzled.
"Daddy!" he shouts. "B's!"
Then he starts to sing on his own, "a blah blah blah" to the tune of ABC's.
Ah, I get it, so I start to sing ABC's and he says "Ya!" and puts his head down and goes to sleep.

That's right, Easton (1 year old still) just requested his own night time song by name.

We bought a tractor.  OK a lawn tractor technically but it has a three point hitch, hydraulics, and a 62" cutting deck.  It looks like a tractor.  It feels like a tractor.

Paul delivered it while I was out of town, so tonight was my first chance to use it.  Ohhh ya.  It has crazy power.  I cut over small trees on half throttle and it didn't even blink a headlight.  I drove it up hill while cutting and pulling a wagon and it asked for more work.  It is a tractor.

We were looking for a while and we couldn't find a used John Deere X500 series tractor anywhere in Ontario for a reasonable price.  The X500 is the smallest "ground engaging" tractor, meaning you can run a tiller, or a cultivator, or a box blade, or whatever.  It also has the frame to pull a load and the power to drive a larger than 48" deck.  Then we came across a used X700 in Listowel for a little more than we were thinking of paying for the X500.  The X700 is the big brother.  Not only can you do ground engaging but you can add an optional front loader, or hydraulic front mounted snow blower, or run a 10KW generator off the rear PTO.  Yes, it has a PTO.  We took it.  More than we need but who is complaining about extra power.

The plan for now is to cut the weeds down, pick some rocks, and hopefully plant some seedlings.  We'll need the tractor and wagon for all of that.

Seems like this machine will work and it was sure fun to drive.

Roughly here: http://g.co/maps/ksf7q (google maps link including directions from 401)

It is 10 acres of ex-farmland at the end of a dead-end gravel road less than 5 min from the edge of town.  Definitely in the country, and because of the greenbelt, will remain in the country.  This is exactly what we were looking for.  I wanted something with some land so the kids could play on lawn instead of the street.  Leanne who also appreciates the space, grew up in town and wanted to be within 15 min of a grocery store.  At the edge of town (Westney and Taunton) they just built a grocery story, a bank, a McDonald's, and a Beer Store.  Perfect.  

The property doesn't have a lot of trees, just one row of trees right down the middle and some along the long disused road, but we can fix that.  The plan is to plant trees/orchard in the back 5 acres, and house/lawn (and pond?) in the front 5.  I can't wait.

The process to this point was a long one, taking many months (years?) but we couldn't be happier with our place.  We'll be working on zoning and house plans through the winter, and if all goes well, we'll start construction next spring.  I'm looking forward to having a larger living room open to the kitchen for hosting parties, and a spare bedroom for when you come to stay over.  Not to mention a place to play baseball and soccer and ride my bike.

It is much too cold to go camping tonight with our kids, so we just walked around, took a few photos, drew an initial in the dirt, and then ran back to the warmer van.  We were explaining to Hadley that this land is now ours and we asked her where we should put our house.  She said she didn't want it on the rocks, so I told here we could dig hole and get rid of the rocks.  She thought for a second and then mentioned, "I don't want our house in a hole, Dad!"  Okay Hadley, we'll move the rocks, find some dirt, and build the house on that.  Good.  There might be more to house planning that I thought!  haha.

To live in the country again... I can't wait.