2017 Winter March 9 Thursday

56 degrees this morning, walk 35;30 minutes.

Walk this morning went ok, pace was sightly (11 seconds) slower than expectations.

Finished the Alan Turning biography, somewhat with a sign of relief and some regret I hadn’t gotten more out of it. Not the fault of the book, it just wasn’t written in a  a way that was easy for me to listen too.

I always approach a new book with some excitement and interest, and perhaps even some hesitation as I know I will need to live with the book for at least 3 weeks of walking, and probably more like several months.

So it is important what I pick!  

The only exception will be if we take a trip to a Spanish speaking county or China.  Both (or rather one or the other) are possibilities, although it is looking more and more like it will be neither. 

In the case of the Spanish Speaking country, the airlines are just too extreme in what they charge and their schedules.  

In the case of China, I’m just not sure if I can get it worked out, since I don’t want to go for the two week tour, I just want to attend the conferences.

We have learned group tours can be good, we much prefer individual tours where we set out own time schedules and what we want to see.  More expensive, but worth it.

Anyway, if we decide to go to either country, I will switch to Spanish or Chinese language learning lessons to listen to on my walk and during the day when I am in the field.

Got some new furniture  yesterday (not much just a new coffee table and end tables  They are nice and I think we are going to be glad we did it.

They will replace  two end tables and a coffee table that were purchased about 25 years ago.  How time passes.

However this also illustrates how difficult it is to get rid of tangible items, especially if they look nice etc.

As long as we have to live with cars, furniture etc., I am alway somewhat aghast that sales persons feel you can make a snap decision in a few minutes.  Of course, it doesn’t mean I am going to, but I am always surprised that such an important decision is even expected on just a short drive or a short visit.

It seems a good sales person would want you to think about such an important purchase.

It seems you should be able to think “it’s only money” and give away or sell furniture you don’t need or want anymore. Somehow, the intangible object develops a cocoon of feelings associated with it that makes it difficult to dispose of.

That’s it for now, Thursday, March 9, 2017.