As we’ve been traveling so much this year, I’ve been looking for new ways to lighten our load or pack strategically. I’m not sure what it says that “strategic packing” is a thing in my life. It certainly doesn’t say I’m organized. Or, if it does, it lies. Lightening the load, though, that just makes sense.

In Albuquerque, visiting friends and family, my arms and chest were still in a bad way from my mole removals. I couldn’t bend my arm most of the trip, which meant reading on the plane was a real challenge. Bill loaned me his iPad, so I could read that way. It worked really well and I ended up realizing this might be a good tool for me. I have one of my own now, and it’s great. I can do a lot on it, and I’ve been thinking it might be able to supplant my laptop altogether.

That’ll lighten the travel load considerably. Among other benefits. But, man, the learning curve.

I brought only the tablet to San Francisco. I was sure I could get by without my laptop. And, in the future, maybe I’ll be able to. But you’ll notice this post is about tech frustration, not my beers, food or family in LA. That’s what I was planning to write today. But this morning, in the shower, I realized I don’t have a way to get the great photos I took on “the big camera” to the iPad. I don’t have a great way to get photos from the phone’s camera to the iPad, but I do think I’ve figured out a solution that I can implement tomorrow. I don’t have a lot of my passwords memorized. I use a password storage thing that’s on my laptop. I nearly couldn’t log into the blog today because of that, but Angelique was able to rescue me.

But, right now, I’m kind of regretting leaving my laptop behind. On the other hand, maybe I wouldn’t have realized what I need to do to this tablet to make it travel functional if I hadn’t.

Anyway, I have a bunch of fun ideas coming up. I hope to get you guys a cool post, with photos, tomorrow. I’m not sure what it’ll be about; I’ll have to dig through the phone. We’ll see. But I haven’t forgotten the blog while running all over the country. I just haven’t figured out my rhythm or technology for writing while traveling.

So, readers, anything I shouldn’t miss in San Fran? Should I go to the cable car museum? It’s literally across the street from where I’m sitting as I type this.