It’s early, I know. It’s only August. But my in-laws live out-of-state, and my sister wants to celebrate a milestone birthday over Thanksgiving with our extended family. In combination, these two facts mean I will be spending both holidays away from home. And so, it’s time to start looking at flights, and preparing for tech help questions.
Flight purchasing is generally an arbitrary experience for me, and so this section will be short. I rely on a few tiny tricks, but I don’t live by them. I use ITA Software Matrix to filter and review my flight options by date, airline and stops (non-stop only please). This gives me a lay of the land, and a reference point for cost. I also use the Hopper app, which claims to provide predictability about when to book; when flights will be cheapest.
So now that we’ve made it to our destination, bring it on! Tech help questions are impossible to predict, but my family knows I “work with computers,” and they assume I will have an answer for their consumer product problem. Aunt So-and-So or Whatever In-Law will no doubt ask if Alexa is listening, why Netflix pauses, or how to sync photos to an iPhone. To be real honest, as annoying as these questions sound, I love them. It’s a nice break to get some remedial work, and a nice boost to have an easy answer.
So, I’m on my way. No flights booked yet, but I’m watching. No big questions yet, but I’m brushing up on my, “Did you try rebooting it?” tone. Good luck to all of us.