With temperatures in the 50s, our dog Jasmine wanted to hit the bike path.

She's had enough of winter, the pandemic, and possibly humans.

Skunk Creek in the background is still pretty much frozen over due to the cold temperatures we have had the past several weeks.

WordPress 5.9 was recently released. As was hinted in the BuddyPress 10.0 article, the most anticipated new feature in this new version of WordPress is full site editing. The Site Editor is a new feature to WordPress that allows block editor users to build their entire site with blocks. Unfortunately, full site editing is only available to content creators that are using a Block theme specifically designed to take advantage of the new feature.

Full Site Editing doesn't stand alone in WordPress as additional features and tools have been added for the site editor to come to life "out of the box" once version 5.9 is installed.

BuddyPress 10.0.0 "La Pino'z" is the first major release of 2022 for the WordPress plugin. BuddyPress is a plugin to build online communities and includes features such as user profiles, groups, activity streams, notifications and can be integrated with the WordPress plugin bbPress to enhance community forums.

Highlights of new features and significant changes in BuddyPress include:

Like most office workers, two years ago at the start of the pandemic my employer moved our non-operational staff from the office to the home. Although my wife and son initially had to work remotely too, they didn't stay long and have since then returned to work and school. Yet, here I still sit the only human being at home for eight hours a day.

Despite being busy because I'm working the family has come to expect during my breaks from my workday to be that person to do an extra load of laundry, vacuum the floor, start the dishwasher, or let the dog out.  The argument goes now that now I'm essentially a stay at home Dad that doesn't have the commute time to and from work...I can use that extra hour in the day doing family chores. Mind you, I'm still putting in eight hours of work for the office and my break times away from work computer need to be limited to 5 to 10 minutes. That's not much time to get the expected or unexpected tasks done at home. I'm grateful that I don't do all the housework manually thanks to robotic vacuum cleaners.

It make take awhile but when I make a mistake I will eventually admit and correct the error of my ways. Half a decade ago, I turned my back on supporting niche websites and focused all my effort in creating a new multi-topic website which you now know as socPub. As counter-intuitive that it sounds, the more diverse and interesting topics we published under this website, our number of loyal visitors to the website decreased in numbers. I found this analysis to be alarming and discouraging.

Thirty years ago, I moved from Garden City, KS to Sioux Falls, SD for the National Weather Service. At the time of the move, I had only planned to be in Sioux Falls for a few years as in those days it was difficult (and maybe still is) to get promoted on site. Plus, if I'm being honest, I really didn't want to live in South Dakota longer than I had to as I always thought there would be day I would return to the Kansas City area. Three decades later, I've served four different positions at the same office (Meteorologist Intern, Forecaster, Lead Forecaster, and Information Technology Officer), found the love of my life, and raised a family. 

From a pleasant Wednesday here in Sioux Falls with a high temperature of 51 to a day of Winter Weather Advisories with temperatures in the 20s, it can be a frustrating time for any motorcycle rider. Today, both of our Can-Am Spyders sit in the cold garage as I prepare the EGO snow blower to do battle with the snow. The batteries are fully charged and I'll be out in the elements once the snow stops falling. The fact that I won't be riding the Spyders for awhile just makes the snow sitting on my driveway look deeper than it should be. 

By Saturday morning, I'm trading in my motorcycle helmet for a stocking cap any my motorcycle for a snow blower that goes goes from 0 to 3 MPH in 10 seconds.

Since 2008, I've been collecting weather observations in my backyard with a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Wireless Weather Station. Beyond routine maintenance and an occasional replacement or addition of parts, the weather station has been rock solid.