2018 Winter February 28 Wednesday

60 degrees this morning, no walk.  Foggy.

60 degrees!  Still doesn’t seem “warm”  (it is foggy and “dense”) but at least it will be nice today.

February of 2018 is over!   That, I believe, means approximately 17% of 2018 is already over, which is hard to believe  I think the reason time seems to go faster as you get older is that you have some perception of how much time is left!  Even if you don’t really know when etc,

For example, I now can conceptualize how  long  20 years is, in my case, I can certainly  conceptualize 13 years.  It is still a long time while you are actually living it, it just seems to stream by when you look back and realize  the time is gone.

As I have mentioned before, sometimes you look back and even 13 years is like a dream, as reality changes.

Woke up this morning and realized I wasn’t coughing, thank goodness.  I never know how good it feels to feel good until I am feeling good!  It is such a relief not to be coughing (continuously) again.  

I know I’m not completely over it yet (I have the same underlying feeling, although it is better), but at least it feels good to be on the “getting better” trend rather than the “getting sick” phase.  

Probably one of the worst feelings to have is to realize you are getting a cold and you are “it” for at least 7 days, 7 days of misery and not feeling right.  With the coughing, it seems to be more like 18 days, which is a lot of time 

The Doctor gave me a shot in the morning, I haven’t started the other medicine yet.  I didn’t feel the effects of the shot much until this morning, although looking back I can see where it started to help me feel better. 

I am still thinking about our experience of the past week and one-half.  Obviously would have been a lot better if we hadn’t been feeling bad, but we were probably feeling a lot better than we would have been if we had not been on vacation. 

We always want vacations etc. to be “perfect”, but they never will be perfect.  They may exceed our expectation, or be less than our expectations, they will never be “perfect”!  I expect that is good.  

Speaking of “perfect”, one of my continuing dialogues with myself is how long this post should be.  

While I normally don’t have any real plans as to how long it is, there seems to be a natural stopping point (about here).  Some days, it just seems natural to be longer, sometimes natural to be shorter.  I also question the time I put into it, some days it goes fast, sometimes it seems like I am spending too much time on it.  

Maybe it just needs to work itself out, so it is natural.  Some days it may be long, some days short.

Another day without meat.  I don’t know when or if I will resume eating meat, I really don’t have a feel for it.  I just want it to be a conscious decision, not an accident or an impulsive decision.  I know there are some types of meat I will never eat again, regardless of my decision. 

That’s it for now, Wednesday, February 28, 2018.

2018 Winter February 27 Tuesday

50 degrees this morning, no walk

Definite “warming” trend, supposed to vary a lot in next week.  Unable to resume walk yet due to cough, hopefully will get back to it soon.

Seeing a Doctor this morning about the cough, hopefully will soon get rid of it.  Several months ago I took some medicine that seemed to help and then it suddenly seemed like it stopped working or whatever.  

First day of work today, it will be good to get back into it, although it has been a lot of fun having 100 % of my time to have any “alternative” I wanted!  

Today is an “office day” and I will be busy catching up, as always when you are on vacation or otherwise out of the office.  

In a way it is a shock to realize tomorrow is the last day of February.  Since February is a “short” month anyway, along with the vacation time, it really seemed to fly!

I was really appalled at the Nazi type tactics of the two representatives from the NRA.  Nothing against (or for) the NRA, I really blame the leadership for going completely off track.  They had become  tyrants who became enthralled and completely out of control with all of the money they have and the politicians they purchased and  were terrorizing the politicians they purchased years ago.  

Hopefully they will get back to their original purposes of gun safety etc., but once you have two “leaders” like the Nazi’s who were screaming about how powerful they are etc., they obviously need to get rid of the “leadership”, which has become a sign of the problems of the “dark money” in politics.  

Of course then you have the really nut politicians who wanted to punish Delta by not giving them a scheduled tax break!.  Why Delta is getting a tax break anyway is probably a good question, but talk about a monster ethical and legal problem the politicians have, trying to use public funds to restrict the “free speech” of a company!  

I read an interesting (and to me heart warming) story about the local animal control shelter here.  They normally don’t euthanize any animals, except for medical reasons. 

Apparently they have built a culture of respect for animals with the goal of excellent treatment of all animals. 

Some of the “infrastructure” they have built include an on-going group of volunteers who come out and play with and take care of the animals social needs as well as other needs.  

They also have a non-profit organization that pays for the animals medical bills, and pay to upgrade their facilities.  

As I have mentioned before, there are some communities that seem to have built into their system “constant improvement” and this community appears to be one of them.  I was aware of the quality and support for the animal control facility, but it really made me feel good to read about it.

No relationship, but yesterday marks the last day a week ago I had any kind of meat.  Probably won’t last, but I am starting my second week as a vegetarian  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, February 27, 2018.

2018 Winter February 26 Monday

2018 Winter February 26 Monday

35 degrees this morning. 

The difference in temperature is definitely very distinctive!

Flight was delayed yesterday, leading to us getting back about 4 hours laster than expected.  A delay isn’t always that bad, but yesterday neither one of us was feeling great, still have the nagging cough.

As usual, the feeling of sorrow the trip is over, while a feeling of glad to return, especially when we are feeling at our best.

Just saw the headline on the newspaper concerning “highway debris” and the hazards they pose.  Debris ranges from the huge truck tire retreads you see (Troopers call them 

“gators”, they can be up to ten feet long and full of steel belt material etc) to even washers and dryers and the ever present old sofa that someone didn’t get carted off right or it fell off the truck.  

I was surprised how much damage such debris causes .  In this state over 116 injuries and 4 deaths just in the past year. 

It is scary because it is so sneaky, a truck tire tread, box or whatever is suddenly there and you have to try to avoid it.  Hopefully the publicity will hep people think before they throw stuff on the highway or tie down their load a little better.  

A few years ago, I hit some old railroad ties.  I was probably lucky, it damaged two tires and two rims, but I’ll always  remember my feeling when I realize I couldn’t ’ miss the debris.

No meat yesterday, as I extend a “vegetarian” eating pattern another day.  I’ll see what happens.  

Today and probably the next few days will including “catching up” from being gone etc.  

That’s it for today, Monday, February 26 2016.

2018 Winter February 25 Sunday

74 degrees this morning, 31 degrees at home.  Significant rain forecast.

It has been a wonderful experience to get out of the cold weather for awhile, especially knowing that warm weather and Spring are soon to arrive.  Hopefully the ice and freezing rain will stop.

I felt a real freedom this morning when I turned on my iPhones etc. and realized I have full access to the internet again!  Not that i even turn them off except to reset them, but you know what I mean.

The loss of immediate access, immediate contact, when continuous contact is built into your everyday life leaves a sense of everything  not quite being right.

I had relatively good wifi, just cellular was a problem.  Probably not nearly as bad as some feel it.

Being without access to a DVR etc. makes you appreciate them. What I really appreciate about them is the ability to speed past the gaps between the “news”, half-time shows etc.

Actually, the commercials, public service announcements etc. it is nice to be able to speed past them.  

However, what really amazes me is how banal, unprofessional and just flat low class, crude and incompetent sounding many broadcasters are, from sports to news.  

I hadn’t really realized how bad it had gotten until I lost the ability to “fast forward” though commercials, “happy newscasters” talk, sports halftimes etc,..  There is an amazing amount of incompetence and unprofessional behavior.  

I am a little surprised people put up with it.  Or, maybe like us, they normally don’t pay any attention anyway.

Fortunately there are a still of lot of good ones, and hopefully they will be in inspiration to the future broadcasters rather than the unprofessional ones.

The last day of our journey, by tonight (assuming all goes well) we will be back.  Hopefully I can see a Doctor about my cough on Monday.  (There is a lot of storms between here and where we are going, hopefully they won’t affect us.)

The wild and vivid dreams continued, even this morning.  I don’t remember a lot of them, actually only snippets of any of them, not enough to write down.  They are like a whole nether world of some sort where the cough and congestion are in control.  Strange i know, but sometimes I wonder about how I can fall asleep when I know there is a while different world out there.  Of course it is always different.  

Although I don’t know how long i will continue, this is Day 5 of “vegetarian” eating.  As I mentioned,  i don’t know how committed I will remain.  i still can’ stand the thought of eating meat or fish for some strange  treasons.  Psychological reasons  of some weird sort I am sure. 

That’s it for now, Sunday February 25, 2018.

2018 Winter February 24 Saturday

79 degrees this morning, 39 degrees at home

A rather strange experience started right at the start of our current journey.  I ate a steak (it was excellent) but haven’t been able to eat any meat since.  

I tried chicken and fish, but again I just am not interested in eating chicken of fish.

I was never a big steak eater, (although I love hamburgers).  I think I ate steak so rarely I just didn’t digest it well and it is difficult to really prepare steak well.  

I woke up in the night thinking that perhaps my body was telling me that, for me, it may be time to quit eating meat.  I may try it for awhile, I may give up at the first good looking hamburger or hotdog  I see.  (It would be hard to turn down a corndog at the ballgame.)

Such are the “midnight” thoughts of a person who normally operates on more or less minimum sleep who has had plenty of sleep the past few days!

I have had a bad nagging cough all week (along with the undesirable effects of “congestion” and it suddenly got better last night.  No medicine, no reason, it just suddenly got better.  It had gotten to the point it was affecting my sleep etc  so it was not a small matter. Right now I have limited medical options, so it was important that it appears to have resolved at least some of the symptoms,

Of course, while i type this, I started coughing again, but that seems to be one of the natures of the cough.  If you “talk” about the coughing you start coughing.  

Hopefully, it is the last vestiges of the coughing spell.

“The Midnight Hour” thoughts are always interesting.  I think that is one reason I like my early morning walk so much is that I have a chance to think.  Of course “The Midnight Hour” is a concept, not a literal term.  i have a chance to “think” during my walk, as well as my naps, which can be short periods of “half-sleep” where I think free-form.  

For some reason during my coughing phases, I had vivid dreams, which I don’t remember, but they seem to be recurrent dreams.  Many of them involve paperwork I have finished, or am supposed to finish and procedures I have to figure out.  

A discussion I had once was “which life is reality”, your waking life or your sleep life?  Obviously I feel my “wake life” is my actual life where I make decisions and sleep is that time when we rest and sometimes subconsciously review our lives and dream about some kind  of resolution to problems.  

I could possibly argue that sleeping is an alternate life we have to our “wake life”, but I think that tends to get a little complex even for the midnight hour.  

I do feel dreams can point out unresolved problems or resolutions to problems, although I can’t point out any specifics cases.  So many of my dreams (that I remember) seem to follow certain patterns, which would appear to mean I am trying to subconsciously resolve the problem, issue or situation.  

That’s it for now, Saturday, February 24, 2018

2018 Winter February 23 Friday

81 degrees this morning (approximately) 33 degrees at home.

The warm weather is truly wonderful.   There is no touch of winter air in it and it is truly a break from the cold weather, which I had hoped for.

Of course, like everything, what starts has to end sometime, we are now in the downward phase, even though it seems like we just  started (somewhat).  The timeless aspect of it is also something I like, not having a real schedule as such except perhaps eating and sleeping and even that is not on any real schedule!

I admire the students willing to state their case and take action on school shootings.  They are articulate and show commitment for what obviously is a major problem. 

I was shocked at the vile and evil representatives of the NRA.  I hadn’t really thought much about the NRA before, but the Executive Director and the women who appeared  were disgraces as human beings.  

The thought of these evil persons owning most of the Senators and Representatives by plying them with literally millions of dollars is truly scary.  Of course, the lying coward lunatic is their puppet also, I understand they gave him hundreds of millions of dollars. 

What really bothered me is they sounded just like the lying coward lunatic with vicious personal attacks, lies and smears , so I assume he is jerking and waving according to their direction.

It appears they want to take over the world, using smear tactics and a lot of just flat out lies.  What has our world come to when people feel they have to use these tactics?  This is insane.

What is really scary is the way “Dark money” has taken over the actions of government  Donors don’t even try to hide now that they expect (for example) huge tax cuts that benefit only them, and “quid quo pro” actions that in the past would have landed a lot of people in jail.  

It isn’t even “Dark Money” any more. They are open about buying actions that will benefit them,

I am trying to be aware of how I feel in an environment where basically time has been suspended for a brief period of time, Perhaps “time” isn’t suspended, perhaps the normal living patters are suspended.

This time next week, I expect this week will seem like a hazy dream of the past.  One reason I like to “live each moment” is that it really is easy to forget special moments in life, and it is good to appreciate them and mark them, even if the memory is basically a dream.  

I have seen a lot of quotations about the “past, present and future”  (I can’t remember any appropriate ones right  now, which is ok!).  It is important not live in the past of future, but i need to learn from and honor the past, live in the present and prepare for the future.

That’s it for now, Friday February 23, 2018.

22018 Winter February 22 Thursday

78 degrees this morning.  28 degrees, ice at home. (Schools etc. closed today)

Predicting a high of around 84 today.  The warm weather has a wonderful effect!

Spring is only about 30 days away! While I don’t like the continued coolness that continues frequently into mid May, there are still many warm days and the blooming of the flowers, trees and grass returning to life etc. makes a huge difference. 

Being in a new environment for awhile makes you appreciate some of the everyday things, for example always have fresh cold water available.  We like drinking bottled water and are used to having plenty of cold bottled water available. Not that water isn’t available or bottled water isn’t available, but having it available without scrounging for it is nice.

I have read about  people protesting bottled water, frankly, I don’t see any difference in bottled soft drinks (which I don’t drink) and bottled water. 

As I have previously mentioned, the internet connections and certainly cell phones are greatly missed.  

Missed, but I wouldn’t trade them for the weather! Of course, I know about that when we planned everything.

Television is also limited.  We get CNN and the fake news channel, so we only really have one news channel, which is actually ok.

Unfortunately CNN seems to feel that the lying coward lunatics tweets etc. are “news” and they spend an inordinate about of time on it, so it isn’t that interesting anyway.  I no longer read the lying coward lunatics ravings and I am amazed the news media (including print etc.) spend so much time on it. 

Strange to think when I was growing up, there was no such thing as a 24 hour tv station (much less a 24 hour all-news channel) or even very many 24 hour radio stations.  We had very few stations with “our music” on and most of the time even that was limited.

We were wait until dark and listen to KOMA.  Reception was spotty but it was better than nothing!  KOMA has changed it’s format numerous times since then (I’m not even sure what the current format is.), but they retained the format when we needed it.  

That’s it for now, Thursday, February 22, 2018.

2018 Winter February 21 Wednesday

80+ degrees this morning.  Home is 23 degrees with freezing rain and ice.  It is very windy here.  Hopefully we will miss the ice and snow of this winter!

i understand they are closing the schools and some offices etc. due to the bad conditions.  

It is a wonderful feeling, in spite of the wind, to feel the warm temperatures.  

Somehow I developed a cough (not a cold but a hacking cough), not sure from what, but it seems to get worse when I eat to the point of being full. Strange.  I’m hoping it will subside until I can see my regular Doctor, since he is more aware of my history with it.  Right now I just need something to treat the symptom, not the cause.

When I am used to having internet at almost all times and places without a second thought, now I really appreciate that internet access!  I have some internet access and wifi, and of course knew i would have some problems. 

Probably the biggest change is the cell phones, not just being able to pick one up and make a call, use an app etc.  I actually can make a call but it is extremely expensive and you can’t leave your phone out of ‘airplane mode” except for short periods of time.  Turning  off the data is really important since it is so expensive.  

Actually it is a little sneaky to have charges like that without emphasizing how expensive it is.

I try to think what I thought this would be like before I actually experienced it.  I knew i would enjoy the warm weather and I didn’t foresee developing a cough!  In a way it is somewhat like I expected, but I can never picture what I thought something would be like after I actually see it or experience it.

I remember when I was a kid, I always tried to remember what i thought something would look like after I saw it.  I was never able to remember what I thought a city, an experience etc. would be like after I had seen the city or experienced something.  Since I was never lacking in imagination, that surprised me.  

Perhaps if I  was  a better artist I could paint what I thought a city or place would look like before I saw it, but I think the reality is always so much more powerful than the expectation.  

When I think about it, it would be impossible to paint detail of a city of place, since it would include the good, the bad, the ugly, the people and the overall experiences you get from any city or place.

I always liked the song “Paint me a Birmingham”, although the song is about desires instead of reality.  On the other hand sometimes, desires are reality.

That’s it for today, Wednesday, February 21, 2018.

2018 Winter February 20 Tuesday

78 degrees this morning. No walk as such although I am getting walking time through the day.

The experience of being in kind of a suspended time space continues.  Actually, for a temporary period of time it is relaxing.  There is actually plenty to do if we should get bored, but nothing we have to do.

i checked out a book at the Library on Time.  I read a review of it and it seemed very interesting and discusses aspects of Time that interest me.

I should have bought it along.  It would have been fun to read about Time when I was experiencing Time in a different way.  

I didn’t bring it because I didn’t want to lose it, and probably more important, I didn’t want to have anything hanging over my head I “had” to do.

I have never had to work a non-regular work shift except perhaps while I was in college.  I have to wonder how it is to work 7 days on and 7 off etc.  

“March Madness” is almost upon us as college basketball reaches the end of the season.  While I like the actual tournament, I don’t get too excited about the “brackets” or anything except the actual games.  

The concept is interesting, 65 treats start and one survives.  Doesn’t leave a lot of room for mistakes!

i am glad we aren’t rated on such a concept!  One mistake and you’re out!

I’m not sure if I would care for a situation where if I make a mistake 20,000 persons cheered that I made the mistake.  I guess the players have to get used to it!  I’m not sure if I ever could, but then I don’t have too.

I assume the cheers when you play well somehow make up for the cheers when you make a mistake.

Anyway, we always look froward to the actual games of “March Madness”, the upsets etc. that happen etc. as psychology takes it’s toll or gives a boost to performance. When you think that all of the players are basically 18 to 22 years old, it is even more amazing that they respond as they do.

We are also reminded that “moderation” is key, in this case with food.  While there is a wide variety of food available, we are proceeding on the premise that a little bit is just as satisfying as a lot!

We had a friend who didn’t usually eat all of his meal, and his comment was basically if he ate it when he didn’t want it that was as wasteful as throwing it away.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, February 20, 2018.

2018 Winter February 19 Monday

Actually don’t know the temperature this morning, would guess about 67 degrees. I’ll wait and see what it actually is and make a note tomorrow.  

Events certainly don’t go as expected, although that isn’t necessarily bad.  Yesterday, we had about a 5 hour delay due to fog, etc.  

Somehow, we just went with the flow of things, including some very fortunate “accidental” meetings where we got information about the delay.

I like to comment  on positive things businesses do, and the Marriott Townhouse had some wonderful, guest committed people.  Actually most businesses, governments, etc.  do have committed  personnel who are committed to serving their customers. The Marriott employees went above and beyond in their service to customers .

Sometimes I tend to accentuate the negative and I need to concentrate on the positive.  On the other hand, you need to be aware of the negative as well as the positive.  

Of course you have the current federal administration where there seems to be only negative, it would actually be hard to find any positive in their selfish and criminal actions. 

It is always s strange feeling to suddenly find yourself in an unstructured situation where you do not really have anything you “have” to do, especially when you go from being busy to unstructured time.

It’s not like being retired, because retirement has it’s own structure you develop, at least from what I have observed.   

This is kind of  a free-floating existence where it plenty to do buy you don’t have to do anything!  So it isn’t at all like boredom.  

Actually, i haven’t been “bored” as such for a long time.  There is the factor of being “bored” while waiting in line etc., but even then there are ways to occupy yourself.  That is a lot different than sitting around the house saying your are bored.

Actually, I don’t think I ever got that bored even as a child.  Considering that there was no tv, computers etc. I read a lot etc. and used my imagination a lot!

Perhaps boredom is a state of mind.  

Of course I was always curious (not necessarily always about things I should be curious about), but I loved getting the daily paper, getting the mail, knowing what was going on etc.  

Even with the reduced mail we get now, I still love to get the mail every day.  

We’ll see how everything goes today.  An unstructured day is rather exciting!

That’s it for today, Monday, February 19, 2018

2018 Winter February 18 Sunday

64 degrees this morning (41 degrees at home).  

Start of our “vacation from the cold”.  Windy, with a chill in the air but nice yesterday.  Tried to get out of our comfort zone on where we ate.  Not a disaster but will not try it again!  More a matter of expectations rather than the actual experience.

Managing “Expectations” is a difficult task.  No matter what, you always have some vision of what an experience will be like.  

Frequently it is fantasized  to the point that your expectations could not even come close to reality!  

I used to know someone who said they had low expectations because if they were good, then they were pleased, but if the experience or whatever was not that good, they didn’t really expect it to go well anyway!

Obviously I couldn’t live like that.  I think it is good to have some positive expectations as long as they are not so unrealistic you get depressed when your expectations are not close to reality. 

Probably a lot of times, I don’t really have any expectations on some aspects of an experience, so I am pleased when something goes right.

I am always amazed at how helpful and friendly some people are, for example.  I didn’t really expect people in (for example) Chicago, Pittsburg (Penn) or Detroit to be so friendly and helpful to a couple of small town (in comparison) visitors.  However, they were almost uniformly helpful and very positive to deal with.  

I have sometimes thought maybe I enjoy planning a trip more than the actual trip, although in most cases, I enjoy the trip. However, i always enjoy planning the trip!  

Maybe part of “Expectations” is how much I can control what happens.  If something happens I con’t control, that is when I need to manage my Expectations and deal with the new reality.

Of course then you have the question of what you can’t change and just accept and what you can change.  

An example, technology (smart phones, etc.) promise a lot but frequently don’t really deliver or have such arcane procedures you can’t figure them out with resulting frustration (and sometimes a few well chosen words what they can do with the device).  

I really think it is somewhat deliberate at times, which is why Apple become so accepted under Steve Jobs.  Apple is showing signs of not having the intuitive usage procedures they always had under Steve Jobs-for example, I tried to shut off my Apple Watch and couldn’t get it shut down due to the dense, complicated instructions!  Why make shutting off a watch such a complicated procedure?

I remember the first time I picked up an iPhone, I knew exactly how to use it.  Not so with many of the newer  Apple products.  

We are embarking on an experience neither Aliene or I have had before.  It promises to be an adventure!  I was going to say “interesting” but I decided that “interesting” has a lot of conations,  I think “adventure” is a better description!

That’s it for now, Sunday, February 18, 2018