Our utility is running a special on Nest and Ecobee thermostats right now, underwriting them for $50-100 off the list price. When Nest was first released I was keen on buying one, but as soon as they were bought by Google I wrote that idea off. Ecobee gets excellent reviews and their privacy policy is solid—my concern is that our household data might sold to some third party without my knowledge; I’m trying to limit that as much as possible. Smart thermostats need a constant power source, so I’d have to figure a way out to get a wire up to it. It’s compatible with HomeKit, which means I could control it from within our Apple ecosystem. Finally, the Ecobee has a geofencing feature that knows when you come and go based on your phone, but it only supports one phone. There are workarounds, but I’d definitely want the thermostat to know when we’re both home and away. And I definitely don’t want it sharing that data with anyone else.

Meanwhile, I realized after I was sprung from quarantine that Mom’s old TV actually has a built-in client for Netflix and Prime. After running a wire to the network drop on the wall, I plugged our account information in and had it up and running in five minutes. Then I went back into the settings and shut off data sharing. Wish I’d thought of that when I was laid up, but oh well.

In my news feed today, I stumbled on an article that mentioned the 818 Market downtown closed earlier this week.

But as of Tuesday a sign on the door notified customers “818 Market is closed” and urged people to check the business’ Facebook page for updates. As of Thursday, 818 Market’s most recent Facebook post is dated Jan. 30 and invites customers to pick up a bottle of wine for championship games; there is no mention of an upcoming closure.

We’re really not surprised; the idea was a great one, and they definitely went all-out on the execution. But Jen and I have been saying the same thing since before it opened: their scope was too broad. They tried to do everything—bakery, deli, produce, groceries, booze, and a restaurant—all of it admirable. But the baked goods were mediocre, the deli, produce and groceries were twice the price of anywhere nearby, and they were a block from a much better liquor store. And worst of all, their coffee sucked.