Summer 2014 September 22 Monday
64 degrees this morning. 54:13 minutes walking.
Start of a new week. Enjoyable weekend, did a little of everything. Upgrade all devices to IOS 8 except for Aliene’s. I found it works a lot better if I do it through iTunes. Also, I decided in the future I am going to get the maximum memory. The iPads had a problem with insufficient memory.
We made another small dent in “stuff” we have to donate, throw or sell to reduce the amount of stuff we have to store and haul around! This involved some of the items we relate to “events” or people, so it was a good hurtle to get across. Still need to do a bunch of books and other “stuff”.
For years I have saved some items (Persimmon Hill magazine etc., some books etc.) on the basis that some day they might be “worth something”. They probably will be “worth something” to the library to sell at their book sale.
It does make me feel good to know the items are “released” to find new owners who may use them more than we did!
This is the last day I will list “Summer 2014”. (Unless If forget!) After that, it will be “Fall 2014” and the cycle will start again.
Reading (or rather listening) to history always surprises me at something I didn’t know, forgot, or maybe just didn’t see it in the same context.
I’m listening to an audiobook on the Civil War, which currently is at the point where Lincoln is going to Washington D.C. for the inauguration.
He mentions the “Wide Awakes”, a group of really strange people, to say he least in the time around 1859 or so. I’m going to look up some more on this. It might be part of the “psychology of mobs” (and groups and perhaps cities) who end up causing people to do really strange things.
I remember an experiment in college and it was surprising (and somewhat unsettling) at how short of time it takes for mob psychology to take effect.
Another really interesting observation was about James Garfield. He was, what today, we would call a “hoarder”. He saved everything and his house was a warehouse of receipts for the smallest purchases etc. It was said he was so smart he could write in Greek with his left hand, Latin in his right hand, while lecturing on a totally different subject!
Of course, this was long before Garfield became President. At the time of the election of President Lincoln, he was a newly elected state senator and college instructor.
When I read about Lincoln, I think about our visit to the “Lincoln House”. It was a small house where Lincoln would go to get away from the White House. I had read about it and asked our guide to take me there.
I actually spent some time there just thinking of how Lincoln felt at peace at that site, getting away from the White House and the pressures of the Civil War etc. It isn’t that well known, but I saw it as a major place to visit.
The other unexpected site that somehow seemed really meaningful was the Air Force Memorial. Not just because I was in the Air Force, but because of the care and dignity in how it was done.
Another memorial that always catches me by surprise if the Korean War Memorial. It is like they are living persons actually coming out of the dark.
That’s it for now the last day of Summer, 2014, Monday, September 22, 2014.
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