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