Yeah, it kind of sucks but there's a bunch of other fruit that's probably coming into season. I might look at that. I know that I've been seeing more honey mangoes in the grocery stores. Apples tend to be best around October, unfortunately.

Chase in-season foods; your palate will thank you ☺️

We're out of apple season in Washington (typically it's over by December) so dunno where you're getting your, but probably it's a new source.

Definitely feels like Senior Software Engineer. Depending on how much you're involved in the design of these systems I might even push for Software Architect or Staff Software Engineer–especially if you are the sole owner of these systems (though there are implications WRT expectations in these roles that differ between companies).

If you're expected to lead other engineers once they are hired and oversee any amount of technical decisions, then you're automatically functioning as a Tech Lead in my opinion. Usually Tech Lead is dependent on the team dynamics and isn't a thing if you're on a team of 1.