2017 Winter January 31 Tuesday

43 degrees this morning, walk 35:22 minutes 

Rather strange this morning, my iPhone app said 43 degrees, my iWatch said 50 degrees, quite a difference!  (Normally they are within a degree or two at the most).  

Getting used to the iWatch, it is becoming like the iPhone, I really wonder how I ever got along without it.  I feel a little guilty about not wearing my other watches more, but…. 

Now that I am used to the basic iWatch functions, I plan on expanding a little and seeing what else it can do. It is probably like the iPhone, it does a lot of things that you don’t even think about until you learn about them and start using them. 

Discussion on “Urban Chickens” makes me wonder if people really realize what they are getting into with chickens.  Proponents keep pushing how chickens are similar to dogs and cats, and my experience says it just isn’t so!

Listening to the book on Alan Turing.  It is starting to get more interesting as it gets into his work on computers.  It is interesting to note that when he was working on what we now call “computers”, he termed a “machine that would do computing” and didn’t actually call it a computer.  

It is interesting to read/listen about the genius’s of each generation and wonder how they would have been in another generation.  For example Turing, Tesla and Jobs in the same generation!  

Of course, looking at them, each of them also had the right environment, who knows what would have happened if they had been in a different environment.  Also, who knows what they could have achieved without some of the limitations they either had or placed on themselves.  

January is over today.  That means one more month of “winter’, and then another 2 1/2 months before Summer as such gets here.  

At least February is a “short” month, although I doubt that the weather pays too much attention to the calendar.  

Of course, March can still have some nasty winter winter and April and May can bring weather of a different sort, such as tornadoes  

The hardest part of any Spring is enduring the chilly weather of March, April and even the first part of  May.  It isn’t cold, and there is even a lot of wonderful warm weather, but that nasty little chill just kind of hangs around, using until mid-May.  Waiting can be so difficult then!  

Another month also means we start towards the 3 year mark since we have moved here and I have started my current job.  It seems like such a short time, yet it feels like such a long time.  

Just thinking this morning, one of the advantages of not being “in charge” of anything (other than your daily life and your work load, but not in charge of other people or major projects) is that you can complain all you want!  It may not do any good since you aren’t in a position to change anything, but you don’t have to defend anything!

i always like being where I could get things done, and I still do, but I also find there is a certain enjoyment in being able to freely complain without having to worry about the details of how to take action to reach and maintain goals.  

Not that I wouldn’t be glad to give advice if asked!

That’s it for not Tuesday, January 31, 2017.

2017 Winter January 30 Monday

35 degrees this morning, walk 36:01

Not real bad this morning, walked slower than normal for some reason.  

Reading “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch.  It caught my attention, even though from reading the plot I wasn’t sure if I would like it.  

Anyway, it did watch my attention and I am reading it whenever I have time.  I really haven’t gotten all that far into it yet, but it seems to concern “alternative universes”.  

It seems to be a concept that each of us have several different lives that we live based on “could be” type of situations.

For example, right now the main role in the novel realizes he is living in one universe as a professor in a small college, his wife was an artist and didn’t pursue it due to family and they have one son.  

In the other universe, he is a highly acclaimed scientist and his wife continued her artist work and is a well-known artist.  

In this universe, they broke up 15 years ago, rather than getting married.  

Of course the plot is he becomes aware of the other universe and people are after him for whatever reason.  

So far, it is a fascinating book.

I am not really a big fan of “alternative history” books in that I don’t bother to read them.  By “alternative history” , I mean novels that assume Lincoln wasn’t killed (or Kennedy etc.), or that the Nazi’s won WWII etc.  

Of course, considering our current situation, it is too bad we can’t live in an “alternative world” of someone qualified winning the presidential election. 

On the other hand maybe those stories of a “sleeper spy” that science fiction always wrote about was true, where someone was bought to America as a child and was “activated” at the right time to try to destroy the United States.  

Another dream to report on :

1-29-17 Sunday

Disturbing dream that I was stopped by  two very nice people who advised me I had been driving like I was asleep.

They asked me about it, I said I was “tired’, and they went into the house.  (I assumed was my house which why I’m not sure about this.

I took stuff out of the car and wondered where my car was and where the couples car was.   (Only could see one car.)

I thought about steps to curb sleepiness.

Seemed to have something to do with work. 

The couple came out and I woke up, very glad it was a dream.  

Not sure about the car, never did figure that out.

The house was not a house I remember, kind of a generic house I see in a lot of neighborhoods.  

This dream does have some basis in fact in that I do tend to get “the sleepies”, although once I take a short nap (even just close my eyes) I am find.  I have learned take “preventive naps” that help a lot as well as some other actors.

That’s it for now, Monday, January 30 2017.

2017 Winter January 29 Sunday

42 degrees this morning, Walk 35:03 minutes

A “cold” 42 degrees this morning, pace was above average (slower than my stated “average” by 17 seconds per mile).

The book on Alan Turing has finally started on his achievements.  This mentioned his analysis of the typewriter as kind of a basis for  his thinking.  My mind kind of wandered on some of the book it is not written in a reader (or at least listener) friendly manner.   I am going to have to go into the mode of consciously listening or I probably will miss some of the main points of the book!

The lying bully and his incompetent, lying cronies are ever worse then I expected.  I fully expect the national government to dissolve into  a mass of chaos, until the lying bully is either impeached or removed for his obvious serious mental illness.  

What is really disturbing is all of the incompetents and even criminals  (such as the person he wants to run the EPA who has plundered the state where he was Attorney General and even accepted basically bribes from the groups he was supposed to “regulate”) he appointed to key positions and the way the congress doesn’t have the courage to confront him and refuse to consider the incompetent appointees.  A bunch of you know whats (I won’t use the term here).

Probably what is even more distrusting is the failure of the “news media” to call a “lie” a “lie”.  The failure of the news media is especially disturbing since they are basically our defense against corruption and lying.  

If the career criminal is appointed to the EPA, I expect our house will be destroyed by an earthquake in the future as he lets his pet energy companies run wild and do what they want.  

I find it very disturbing that the people around the lying bully obviously have no control over what is basically a very mentally ill lying bully who has the mental age of a 2 year old, and that  comparison isn’t fair to the two year old.  Add in the fact he is an obvious bigot, a racist, ignorant and only surrounds himself with “yes people” who only praise him, makes it very scary.  

Than, of course, add in a gutless congress who an only think of how they use him and don’t have the courage to confront his obvious lies and illegal actions and it gets really scary.

I think many of the protestors do have the right idea to run for office etc., but even that gives two years of actions by a mentally ill lying bully with a congress kowtowing to him in the worst possible sense.  (That is the politest word I could think of for the gutless politicians.)

Another dream.  I  read recently that the way to remember your dreams was to drink three glasses of water before you go to bed, keep a pad and pencil near you and say “i will remember my dreams” three times!  They had some other observations also, about how fleeting dreams are.

I have to use my computer because pen and pencil are too slow, and I think I’ll pass on drinking three glasses of water before I go to bed.

Of closure, most of the dreams I remember are from my naps.

1-27-17 Dream

Doing some research in a hotel, kind of like on an arch bridge.

I had ridden my bicycle down the street and thought I was going onto a “through street” unit I realized it was an hotel entrance with only one exit.

A “doorman” turned into a statute as I approached, and then asked if I was checking in.  He didn’t seem to see anything unusual that I had ridden in on a bicycle.

I went down a long hill to the arch bridge where I stopped.  Someone else stopped and started doing research also.

It was a medieval type of hotel and bridge.

Prior to that, I was riding my bicycle, don’t recall anything else.

Not sure what city or site the dream was in, maybe an area by the river in Knoxville, or maybe just a “dream” site!  

That’s it for now, Sunday, January 29, 2017

2017 Winter January 28 Thursday

35 degrees this morning.  Walk 35:27 minutes

A little slow this morning,  pace was slightly above average (about 17 seconds per mile) moe , but I am just glad to be able to walk!

Weekend is here!  It is always a surprise that the “work week” goes so fast.  

Probably will purchase some new “walking shoes” in the near future.  It is always  a tough decision even when technically I have 30 days to return them “in any condition and for any reason”.  

I use the “new” walking shoes only for my morning walk, so I know I will be spending approximately the next 6 months wearing them for my morning walk.  I “retire” the walking shoes for causal use. 

I bought my  very first pair of “real” walking shoes (read expensive!) after the foot doctor basically told me my alternative  was to buy better shoes or prepare fo an operation that  would be painful and off my feet for six weeks or so. 

The decision wasn’t hard to make! They are now “permanently retired” an I no longer use them and will toss them.  

My second pair are still good for causal wear and are holding up good.  They are the “Brooks 13” and then my current ones are the “Brooks 14’”.  I was kind hoping I could  keep using these until the “15” came out, but I can’t do it this time.

The third pair will be “retired” to casual use after I purchase the new walking shoes. ad 

I have been using a local exercise shoe store.  As long as I get the owner to help me (or if he is there, since he takes an interest) I am relatively sure I am getting good advice.  the problem is when he isn’t there and he has some well-meaning perhaps help who seems to assume I know a lot more than what I know.  I figure I”ll just leave in that case.  

Probably the biggest hinderance to making a decision and buy someone like that (shoes, shirts, suits, cars etc.) is the realization you’re going to have to live with it for awhile so I always try to think carefully before I buy anything like that.  

My first recorded dream of 2017.  

1-27-17 Dream

Doing some research in a hotel, kind of like on an arch bridge.

I had ridden my bicycle down the street and thought I was going onto a “through street” unit I realized it was an hotel entrance with only one exit.

A “doorman” turned into a statute as I approached, and then asked if I was checking in..  

I went down a long hill to the arch bridge where I stopped.  Someone else stopped and started doing research also.

It was a medieval type of hotel and bridge.

Prior to that, I was riding my bicycle, don’t recall anything else.

That’s’ it for today, Saturday, January 28, 2017.

2017 Winter January 27 Friday

27 degrees this morning, walk 34;52 minutes

Walk was relatively warm in spite of the temperature.  “Warm” of course, not to mean “warm” in the regular sense, but it was a “warm 27 degrees”, if you know what I mean. 

Pace was about the “new average”.  In cold weather, I just try to complete the walk, I don’t worry about the time too much.  I don’t worry about the time anyway, but some walks I do try to make better time, but not in weather like this.

Maybe this spring, when I can just wear shorts and a t-shirt (it makes a huge difference in the amount of  “prep” time you take), I can try to lower my average.

I would like to lower my average by one minute a mile, which would be kind of a threshold, or a “magic number” that I could try to achieve every time.  However I don’t want to try too hard in cold weather, since my “exercise induced asthma” kicks i in cold weather a lot faster than in warm weather).  

Sometimes I think the light, lingering cold of Spring is even worse than the hard cold of Winter.

Stopped by Starbucks last night, and, amazingly enough, in a very unbusy time, they lost my order.  At first I thought they were just trying to get the “drive thru” taken care of, but then I realized people were coming in after me and getting their order.

We have very uncomplicated orders, so I asked and was advised somehow the computer had lost my order!  In all fairness they offered me something to eat to make up for it (I didn’t take it, let them feel guilty!)  

It is the closest Starbucks to us, so I know that isn’t normal service there.

What is so interesting is that when we passed the Starbucks on the way out, for the first time ever (it was built about 4 months ago), there was no one in the drive thru and almost no-one in the store.  

That is highly unusual, since this Starbucks is normally packed, with about 10 cars (literally) in the drive thru and the parking lot full, with maybe one or two spaces available.

On the way back it was busier, but not that busy.

Our theory is that the sudden lack of customers put the personnel in a “non-work” mode and it was difficult to get into the swing of a lot of customers again.  (I didn’t think that happened to computers, which is what lost my order, but….)

I can think of times when I had the same basic thing happen to me and I just wasn’t in a “working” mode.

I would have been a lot more upset if the delay was because they were giving priority to the drive thru.  I don’t like drive thru’s, and don’t (or rarely) use them.    On the other hand, I am glad they are there so I won’t have to fight the traffic inside!

When we first moved to Memphis, Aliene and I took an Accounting course at the local community college, and on the way to class we would stop and get coffee, which probably was the only way I stayed awake!  We did use the drive thru and I could see the reason for it.  However, otherwise, I have no use for drive thru’s!

I think part of it is I have a slight case of Claustrophobia and I hate to be in a line with no escape.  I was at a dinner one time with about 20 people and I was in a booth with no escape and I had to breathe deep to get through the dinner.

I just realized, I probably have Cleithrophobia (fear of being trapped), not Claustrophobia (fear of tight spaces)!  The wonders of google!  (I looked up the spelling of Claustrophobia and found that Cleithrophobia is frequently the case rather than Claustrophobia.)  

It must b true because Cleithrophobia isn’t in the computer dictionary!

That’s it for now, Friday, January 27, 2017.

2014 Winter January 26 Thursday

27 degrees this morning (feels like 19), no walk

Didn’t walk this morning due  to some work activities, good day to skip the walk anyway, due to the cold, although for this time of year it shouldn’t be surprising.

I always view February as the last “true” month of Winter, followed by the forecast of Spring in March.  Of course, then there is that last long wait from March to mid-May for “true” Summer to arrive, when it seems like the cold, or at least the coolness, will last forever.  

I really have to admire the people who go into business for themselves.  Many of them literally work 7 days a week and don’t really have any time off, except when they get someone for emergencies.  

Even then, all it takes is a “bad month” or so, or some negative event, and their business is on the cusp of disappearing.  

Of course, with all of their, they have to maintain a high level of customer service, and compete with the internet customers etc.  

Somehow it just takes a special type of person to go into business for themselves and even then I see a lot of them lose a fortune in trying when they fail. 

I assume what  keeps them going are the small businesses that are huge successes, or maybe it is truly they want to work for themselves and can’t stand the thought of working for someone else.

Personally, I am pleased now with my job that i have evenings and weekends “off” with not having to worry about any work related items.  I enjoyed my past career (which was a 24/7 type of career) and miss it, but at this stage of my life this is ok also.  

Still learning to deal with the new cable tv system.  Technology can be wonderful, but sometimes the people that implement it don’t seem to have a lot of sense.  Many things you can’t help but think “what were they thinking”!  

That reminds me of architectural and engineering services who don’t pay any attention to the “users” who have to live with the system.  I have found the best engineering, architectural, technology etc. is ones that involve the user in the design to determine how they actually will use it. 

Of course, the same is true of parks, highways, computers, cell phones etc.  I think the “user friendliness” is the really key that gives the edge to a project or product.

I actually find it hard to believe that more manufacturers done including that in their planning.  

There is nothing worse than buying a car, or any type of product and realizing the company was more concerned with dazzling technology etc. that they either didn’t really perfect, doesn’t really consider the user, or both in many cases!

Still trying to decide whether to continue the “physical newspapers” or not.  The problem is I read the physical newspapers, and the internet newspapers are too easy to put off reading to the point you don’t read them. 

A physical newspaper is setting there looking at you until you read it or throw it away, internet news doesn’t call to be read.  

That’s it for now, Thursday, January 26, 2017.

2017 Winter January 25 Wednesday

37 degrees this morning (feels like 28), Walk 35:27 minutes 

Colder weather is here. I really had one of those mornings where I wasn’t looking forward to walking, especially when I saw the temperature and wind, but I ended up enjoying it, although my pace was off.  

Listening to the book on Alan Turing, it is still mired in details about his early life, which I assume is important to understanding him, but the detail can get rather slow going and difficult to pay attention to while listening.  Maybe reading would be easier.   Or not.

Anyway, I am going to keep plugging along.  He was an important enough contributor that I’d like to know more about him, perhaps not in that detail.

I really enjoyed the book by Tim Washburn “Powerless”.  I was looking forward to reading his second book “Cataclysm”, but after several chapters gave up.  It was just too jumpy, and didn’t really seem to come together, plus I was having a problem with understanding the characters. 

For several reasons, I really wanted (and expected) to enjoy the book.  First, I really enjoyed his first book and second, he lives in the same City I live in.   I may give it one more shot, but I was in total confusion about what was happening, so I doubt it.  

Sometimes your frame of mind make a difference in whether you like a book, so maybe I will give it one more try.

I checked out “Everybody’s Fool”.  I am trying to not be tempted to start reading it (I actually read the first few pages last night and was, again, drawn into the story).  However, I’m just not sure  I really have the time and patience to read it, as good as it is.

In regard to the book “Cataclysm”, unfortunately it is not unusual for an writer to have a great first book and then the second book be a disappointment.  I think of the book as being “disjointed”.  

Just thinking, the other night when I appeared before the City Council was the first time I have ever actually appeared before a City Council about an issue which was a personal appearance.  In my career, I probably attended over (a very rough estimate) at least 1500 City Council/City Commission meetings (and probably twice that for other meetings) and this is my first time to  appear as a citizen!

“Upgraded” our cable tv system yesterday (no extra charge except for the installation fee).  We are in the “learning curve” and will probably be for awhile!  It has a lot of neat features, I’m sure we will enjoy it.  The “boxes” don’t have a clock, which is a real disappointment.  

The lying bully is really starting to worry me.  Wasting money on a “wall across Mexico” is an exercise in futility  and wasted money and strictly an egotistical project on his part.  Hopefully congress will develop some courage and stop it.  

They sure haven’t showed any sign of courage yet, in spite of his lies and psycho paranoid actions. 

We are very concerned about earthquakes with what essentially is a career criminal in charge of the EPA.  He ripped off Oklahoma for years, taking money from the very people he was supposed to regulate, leasing luxury office space and wasting huge sums on “outside attorneys”.  

I guess he belongs in washington D.C with the lying bully and his lying cronies whose only concern is lying about the size of the crowds or berating the news media for telling the truth and wasting money on “show”.

We expect the earthquakes to substantially increase as the oil companies are allowed to do what they want.  Hopefully enough people will protest, but I don’t have a lot of hopes for it.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, January 25, 2017.

2017 Winter January 24 Tuesday

47 degrees this morning,Walk 35:04 minutes

Seemed like a “cool” 47 degrees this morning. “Pace” was about at the “new average”.  

Went to the City Council meeting last night to express my feelings on “chickens” in residential areas.  I actually enjoyed it.

I had a hard time with the “chicken supporters” who tried to equate chickens with dogs.  There is simply a major difference.  A dog is not a chicken, a chicken is a barnyard animal.  

I don’t have any problem with chickens on large lots (if properly maintained), but small lots…. 

Also, the real estate agents who complained people wouldn’t buy houses here because they “couldn’t have chickens”, neglected to mention the people who wouldn’t buy because there was chickens next door.  

I am sure that 90% of the people with chickens take care of them etc., but somehow the 10% always live next door to you!  

Anyway, I didn’t realize how much I missed the City experience until I went to the meeting and observed the process.  As long as you don’t have some extremist nut as Mayor etc., the process normally works well.

Speaking of batteries, I have a number of Apply products, some going back almost 10 years, and the batteries are still good.  It seems that the technology is there to build long-term batteries, maybe not batteries large enough to run houses.  

Of course, my current personal cell phone just went over 2 years and I think the battery is going out.  It is the one Apple product I haven’t purchased from Apple (I purchased it from the carrier).  I have to wonder about that.  I can’t believe they used different batteries.

I just noted where China shut down 111 golf courses as the “millionaires sport”.  It just popped up on my phone, so I don’t really have their rationale for it.

It caught my attention because the gold course near us (not in our addition) suddenly shut down and now the persons who bought houses on the golf course are justly concerned about what is going to go there in the place of a golf course!

From some information I worked on several years ago, I know that golf is a dying sport anyway (so to speak), so Chine may be using the excuse of “millionaires” sport to justify correcting some massive mistake someone made in overbuilding golf courses.  

I have never really had the patience to play golf and I think that is one reason it is decreasing so much, just too many other things for people to do and it takes way too long to play.  

I don’t have anything against golf, I expect it is good exercise and helps maintain coordination etc. I just think it is going to have to change if it is going to survive.  It will be interesting to see the reason for China’s decision other than the excuse it is a “millionaires sport”.  I expect 111 golf courses is a drop in the bucket of the total number of golf courses in China.

However, the trend for years has been for golf decreasing and I don’t expect that to change until they speed up the game.

Rather a shock to write “January 24” and realize February 2017 is almost here.  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, January 24, 2017.