2018 Spring April 30 Monday

65 degrees this morning, walk 34:26 minutes

A cold 65 degrees this morning with a relatively high wind.  Still a nice walk, although I could have done without the wind.

Pace was 2 sends slower than my goal, which is well within the variant allowed to meet my goal.  

Saw a term I liked on an e-mail subject “A Different View”.  In this case it came with a Newsletter that actually is “a Different View”.   I enjoy reading it because it does present “different views” without any real attachment to any person or part, but he does have some strongly held opinions.  

Actually, I think that the term “A Different View” would make a great Blog title, but I would feel like I was stealing someone else’s idea if I used it, even though “Plagiarism is the sincerest from of flattery”  (or something like that).  

I could even say a lot by punctuation , such as A Different View!, or A Different View? etc.!

Thinking of how recycling is handled, it wasn’t but a few years ago, we were warned of dire consequences if we “mixed” paper and plastic etc.  Suddenly that is the only way to do it!  

Obviously I am happy that we uses “single stream” recyling, where we just toss everything in a “big green” bid.  As I have noted before, now the problem is that we don’t have enough room for our recycling since it is only picked up every other week.

Dream April 30, 2018

Dream at a family reunion.  I was walking around looking for everyone but couldn’t find anyone.  I was walking with a large group of people and dropped something.  

I thought I dropped my car keys but couldn’t find them and the rush of the large crowd made it hard to stop and look..  I saw a lot of car keys on the floor, but not mine. 

I went to a house someplace (not sure where, but it didn’t seem to be connected with the reunion) and saw my Granddaughter, she had her hair “up” and had a “boyfriend” and she gave me a look like she wanted to get out.

Back at the reunion “hotel”, I was beginning to wonder if I had the right hotel.  I thought about calling my sister when I walked out on a wide porch with a roof, like all houses used to have.  

I met my Brother in Law and I mentioned I wasn’t sure if I had the right hotel.  He grinned at me and went inside with his luggage.

I look at the floor of the porch and comment on how bad and creaky it was, parts of it even had holes in it.

I woke up’

another dream:  driving down the dirt roads near the farm I grew up on  All I can remember is driving down the road, not fast, but rapidly. I as concerned about something, but I rail what it was about.  

That’s it for now, Monday, April 30, 2018.    

2018 Spring April 29 Sunday

 Spring April 29 Sunday

59 degrees this morning, walk 34:22 minutes

Actually a relatively cool 59 degrees.  As I have noted, 59 degrees in the dark is much cooler than 59 degrees in the sun.

Yesterday it got to about 83 degrees and was a wonderful day.  Hopefully it will continue for several more days!

Pace was 1 second faster than goal  

I am making up a “Strategic Plan” for myself to help me plan my time best in completing my projects, plus just to remind me what my projects are.  Right now it is basic, just a listing of projects and my estimated time frame, it will develop as time goes by.

I decided to keep it simply at first and see that is important and practical to reaching my goals.

It isn’t a “list” is it a plan for accomplishing my projects.  It ranges anywhere from house projects to brand goals for myself (including learning more about using Evernote of dropping it) and finalizing the pictures of my Hot Wheels etc.

Right now I am just kind of free forming it and am making a point of working on it daily.  It may be I can use Evernote to develop it, but right now I am just using “Notes” and “Pages”.  I started off using “Pages” but I think “notes” is probably easier and eventually I hope to develop a simple Strategic Plan sheet.

Of course, I need to avoid the trap of spending so much time on “planning” that I never get anything done!

I hope it will remind me daily of what I need to be working on so I can better utilize my time.

Attended the “campaign” meeting yesterday, the political campaign of a very lone-shot candidate for State Representative  While I’m not sure if I am ever gong to  “knock on doors”, I can help in a lot of ways.  i felt a slight tinge of anticipation at assisting in the campaign.  

A person filing for office and “knocking on doors” is one of he basic foundations of our society.  

In Starbucks the other day.  I generally stop by this Starbucks several days per week when I am “in the field” .

This Starbucks usually has several “homeless” people in the store, they rarely buy anything, but they aren’t a problem either.  For some reason, the Starbucks was giving away a lot of free drinks and the homeless person happily picked up two!  They were giving away drinks that I had no idea what was in them.  

This Starbucks has been a resting place for homeless people literally for years (I wrote about it at least 5 years ago), so I’m surprised about the current controversy about Starbucks.  Of course this may be  a different type of location.  I know one McDonalds that has a rule you have to buy something to use the restrooms, which is unusual for McDonalds but probably understandable based on the location. 

That’s it for now, Sunday, April 29, 2018.

2018 Spring April 28 Saturday

53 degrees this morning, no walk

Decided not to walk due to meeting.  

I finally decided to take action on my beliefs and campaign for a local candidate for State Legislature.  While I have every right to continue complaining/praising without actually getting involved in a campaign, I want to do more if possible.

I generally support the candidate and there is a meeting this morning for volunteering.  While the focus is on “knocking on doors”  (which I don’t see myself doing), there are other  ways of volunteering also.

Of course, like most organizations I expect they will continually be asking for time and money, two things that are generally in short supply!  Which  is probably why they continually ask for it.

Anyway, I wanted to be alert and generally on  Saturday morning I tend to take naps and relax.

Also I wanted to get rid of this “common cold” for good, so I decided to skip the walk.  

I’ll go to the meeting and see what it is all about. In a way, it is good the training is on training on “knocking on doors”.  

I think I feel I know I really can’t make any difference in a national campaign, there is some slight change I can help in a state campaign, especially a local Representative.  

One thing I like about Toastmasters (this is a major change in subject, Toastmasters has nothing to do with politics, in fact we don’t discuss politics!) is that they never ask for additional money (other than nominal dues) and you can spend as much time as you want on the organization.  The more time you contribute, the more goals you will achieve, but it is up to you, at least in the one I belong.

Ever since I was in high school I have thought about getting involved in political campaigns, so I’ll finally see what it is like, or at least I’ll see what the training is.

My major concern is I really don’t have the time, it is just something I feel I should be doing to contribute to change.  

Supposed to be a good weekend.  “Baseball” weather is finally here (I hope), and we have several baseball games scheduled this weekend.  We skipped the game Wednesday (cold) and am going tonight instead.  

We got our HVAC serviced yesterday.  We think we finally found what we wanted, a person who is knowledgable, fair, reasonable in cost, and, best of all, dedicated  to doing a good job, not in just how much he can charge.  

He found a small item (a bad capacitor, whatever that is)  that should have been as clear as the nose on my face  to an HVAC person but at least two other HVAC companies missed it.  One I am especially angry about, they charged a huge sum for a “computer program” that was basically an attempt to sell us another HVAC system.  This was from a supposedly “good” HVAC company.  

Went to the baseball game last night, hot dogs looked good, but I wasn’t tempted!  Today will also be another day without meat, don’t know about next week, but I’ll report on it next week!

That’s it for now, Saturday, April 28, 2018.

2018 Spring April 27 Friday

53 degrees this morning, walk 34:21 minutes

For 53 degrees, it sure seemed cool when I started, although my internal heater started up soon after I started walking.

I think part of it is that I am thinking of 53 degrees in the sun, not 53 degrees in the early morning dark!  

Pace was 18 seconds above my goal.  I actually thought I was walking at a fast pace but apparently not.  

Noted on “Mad Money” where Cramer was touting Dominos Pizza, as usual.  (This came up as a part of a change of leadership).  My experience with Dominos Pizza has always been very negative, but whatever.  I don’t, and won’t ever buy anything from Dominos Pizza from my experience with them from many perspectives.   

I am amazed their stock has gone up so much considering their horrible customer service and public relations.  

It is hard to grasp the attraction to certain “brand names”.  I remember when I was a kid, most of us liked Chevy, but one was strongly Pontiac etc. Of course now I realize they are the same car anyway!  

I have no idea why, as children, we had such strong opinions on a brand of car!  Influence of advertising probably.  

I would probably never buy anything at Home Depot for a number of reasons (stores are hard to access, alway appear to be cluttered etc., as well as the Home Depot leadership), but other people swear by them and wouldn’t buy elsewhere.  Again, whatever their (or my) preference is fine, I will have my opinions and others will have their favorites! 

Although I have commented on it before, it really hit me this week that next week is actually May of 2018!  The year will soon be half over!  

Glad Friday is here, although I know the weekend will also fly by!

Another dream.

Thursday, April 26

Dreamed  I was at some kind of community meeting, like we used to have when we were kids.

A very varied dream, but things I remember include.

My sister made a “Shadow box”, with items, although it basically was a book case with items on it.  One item was a pig with an umbrella.  

We actually have a pig with an umbrella, but it was a pig plastic pig, not one like we have. 

The last part was a Police Officer who had several guns. He gave me pair of weight lifting gloves, he apparently had gotten as a promotional item.  They were made of cloth and I was trying to figure out why they were made of cloth.  

They had a lot of strings on them I was trying to cut off.

I remember a black/dark pickup I was sitting in that apparently was mine (in the dream). I noticed a big dent in the roof and I was wondering when that had happed.  

All I remember from the dream.

That’s it for now, Friday, April 27, 2018.

2018 Spring April 26 Thursday

42 degrees this morning, no walk.

Didn’t walk primarily due to schedule today but also since I still have a “common cold” that I don’t want to make any worse.

Getting very tired of the cold weather, yesterday was a high or around 55 degrees, plus the wind and moisture made it seem colder, so it was especially miserable.  Rained most of the morning.  

I have been monitoring my Apply Watch Battery.  Since the watch only uses about 27 to 35% of the battery each day, I decided to start charging the battery every other day.  This was after reading that the life of a battery is primarily defined by the number of charges.  

However, my experience is that it really doesn’t make any difference.  For example, I know my current Apple MacBook Air has had over a 1,000 charges and it is fine, and similar experience with other Apple products.  In fact, I have never replaced a battery on an Apple product.  

Of course, I have had similar experiences with other products.  Both my keyboard and my mouse batteries (just regular old disposable AA batteries) have lasted over 3 1/2 years. (and probably will go out today after I mentioned it!)

I really think battery technology is as important as any technology and really think we will be running our houses and businesses off of battery power instead of the current system. 

 I don’t know if they will be charged with solar, wind or even an occasionally truck that “recharges” the battery, but I really feel like that time is coming when the present system will are obsolete.  

That would really change our current system.  

Dwelling on my comments about how it seemed like I had more time when I worked a lot more than I do now.  

I think a lot of it is how I prioritize time and efficiency in setting priorities for projects.  

I lover Holidays, especially when I worked a lot of hours because it was truly a “Holiday”.  Usually you don’t get calls on a Holiday unless it is a true emergency, unlike a vacation ay etc.   However, I had a hard time on Holidays since I wanted to do so much I frequently couldn’t decide what to do!  

I think what I will do is set some priorities on projects on what I want to do and then get those projects done, rather than have a bunch of projects I am continually working on.  

I think approaching some projects in a “bite at a time” approach is good for big projects, but there are a lot of smaller projects that may be better approached from the “get it done now” approach.  

Now if I just can tell which approach is best fro each project!  I also have the “problem” of new projects coming up that demand time, so it is difficult to schedule time.  

That’s it for now, Thursday, April 25, 2018.  

2018 Spring April 25 Wednesday

52 degrees this morning, no walk

Rain this morning, expected to last all morning.  The cold has a special sharpness to it due to the high moisture in the air.  Actually it was sprinkling but stopped and the heavy rain showing on the app went north and the rain that is forecast to last all morning is still coming in.

While I don’t like Winter, sometimes I think the “endless” winter in Spring is almost worse.  There are teasing beautiful days followed by cold temperatures that frankly are miserable. 

Rain makes the “field days” difficult, although I can only remember one “field day” when it rained all day and was miserable due to having the deal with the rain every stop.

Looking at the “iBooks” on the “Pages” Apple App.  It is interesting how easy it now is to publish your own book!  The problem is the time required to do it versus the value of the publish product.  

This may be like my project several years ago, where I produced some programs with original music, pictures etc. in some slide shows.  However after I finished I was glad I had produced the programs, but I didn’t really know what value they were.

Actually, I really enjoyed producing the original music (in the computer with a music board).  I would do more, but limited time is a factor.    

I’m not quite sure what happened to my time, I used to work many more hours per week, weekends, nights etc.  Now I don’t work more than 40 hours per week, but I don’t really make good use of the “extra” time.  

Of course, maybe I am making good use of the “extra” time, it is just a different use of time, not necessarily negative.  

Back to the iBook, it can be a book of works, pictures, music, video etc. which could be interesting.   

My original plans were to incorporate my journals into an “iBook”, with accompanying music and pictures, but I think I will start with just putting my daily notes, along with some current pictures etc. and do a smaller product, maybe one month in my life to start.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, April 25, 2018

2018 Spring April 24 Tuesday

53 degrees this morning, walk 34:25 minutes

Not sure about walking this morning, I apparently have a “common cold”, which hopefully means it will be over in 7 days.

Fortunately my walk didn’t affect it at all and may have even made it better.  Still seemed cool for 53 degrees, although the wind wasn’t all that heavy.

A big “harvest moon” this morning, I don’t see that very often on my walk.  Normally it seems such a moon is at moon rise, not moon set.  It could be the smoke from the grass fires is affecting he atmosphere.  

Medical test yesterday was interesting.  I won’t go into detail (it wasn’t anything serious), but it is amazing some the machines they have.  I can’t even imagine what they cost.  

The medical test concerns my GERD, which probably is made worse by eating too much, something I need to really control. 

I actually can remember having a reaction to tomatoes, orange juice etc. when I was in high school that I realize now was GERD or also known as acid reflux or “heartburn”.

I mentioned it to a Doctor after I was well into my 40’s and for the first time I realized there was a solution to it (medicine).  She knew immediately what it was and prescribed an appropriate medicine that helped a lot.  

The medicine had an unfortunate  side effect of lowering my immune system, so I tried to go “cold turkey” and not take the medicine.  I found that carbonated drinks were also a no-no and I haven’t had carbonated drink for over 12 years.  Fat & coffee is also a problem, but coffee is one thing I am not going to stop, at least for this!  

The Doctor switched me to Tagamet, which I still consider a wonder drug.  The Doctor took me off of it about 3 1/2 years ago and I still think it would be good to go back to it.  

Didn’t weight myself this morning.  I have been “watching” my weight by weighing myself every morning.  It was fun watching my weight go down, but when the reverse started, it has been difficult to watch!

I realize I weigh what I weigh, and knowing is much better than not knowing, but….  

I can’t even blame avoiding eating meat, because there are actually plenty of alternatives, although I realize it is difficult to avoid carbs when I don’t eat meat.  Of course, meat brings it’s own carb temptations!  

In a week, it will be May 1 2018.  I still have a hard time realizing it is 2018, but less that the year is 33% over!  Or will be by next Tuesday.  

Of course, the quick passage of time emphasizes that I am not making substantial advances on many of my projects, both my “round tu its” and my permanent projects.

Sometimes an event happens that make me realize the truth in “The World without End is Ending” when they world you know changes suddenly and an entire new world emerges and it is impossible to go back to the old world.

If I wanted to quibble, I could argue that happens ever day, or maybe every moment, but I won’t quibble, I am just considering the true turning  points.  

Nothing like that is expected at this time, but then it never is.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

2018 Spring April 23 Monday

45 degrees this morning. No walk

Didn’t walk this morning, scheduled for a medical test. I’m not supposed to eat or drink six hours before the test, which makes it difficult to exercise.

Just saw a quote that said, “when you can’t achieve the goals, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps”.  Attributed to Confucius.  

I’m not real sure if I agree with this quote.  I feel it depends on a review of your goals to determine if the goals are truly your goals.  

If the goals are unrealistic and maybe not achievable, it would be better to adjust the goals, and maybe even the procedure used fo setting your goals.   

Also, you would need to review the goals to make sure they are actually your goals, and not someone else’s goals, etc.  

One of the places I regret missing on our trip to China was a house/place dedicated to Confucius.  When we go back, I will make it a point to go there.

Thinking of goals and how they change over the years.  Certainly my career goals have changed, as well as my budgeting and saving goals.  

I’m not quite sure when my career goals changed, I think when I quit looking for another “better” job when I had a job for several years and ended up accepting that the job I had was one I enjoyed.  I think I realized a good career job was having one you enjoyed.  

Of course, when we moved about 4 years ago, my career goals changed also.  You could say they became more limited, but you could also could say they became more expanded, just limited as far as geography.  

A rather weird dream, from Saturday.

Saturday, April 21, 2o018

Dreamed I was in some kind of craft show, primarily for or at least there were a lot of City Managers there.  

The ‘crafts” are hard to explain.  There were things you could eat in unusual shapes or things you couldn’t eat.  (For example there was a square like a box that was eatable, a cake you couldn’t eat made out of wood etc.)

It was hard to tell what was a ‘“freebee” and what was nat and was an item their as a demonstration and not free.   

Since I am not a craft person, I’m not sure what I was there for.  

Something big was happening at 2:00 p.m. (probably the start of a conference) and I was sitting at a table talking with another City Manager, who may or may not be someone I used to work with.  (The name was the same.)

There was an elaborate doll house that everyone was trying to decide if it was for sale or what.  (I wasn’t interested).  

It was a little after 2:00 p.m. and I said I had to go.. 

Woke up before I found out any more. 

As promised, I will update on my “vegetarian” life style on a weekly rather than a daily basis.  Maybe on Sundays.  Unless I revert back to eating meat, but that won’t be today.  

That’s it for now, Monday April 23, 2018.

2018 Spring April 22 Sunday

45 degrees this morning, no walk (rain and wind)

Rained all day yesterday,  wet this morning, some sprinkles, windy.   

Have gone to the gym the last two days and “stationary bicycled”, which gives me some exercise plus I am preparing for returning to regular bicycling.  

We have had some bad experiences with AAA and I really intended to not renew our membership, but decided to when I couldn’t find another emergency response for bicycles.

Of course, they may try to weasel out of it like AAA did last fall in a rental car I had that said to “check the radiator”.  The AAA representative was very rude and unhealed and haughtily advised “AAA doesn’t do liquids”, which is a limitation I didn’t see in their “benefits” page.  

Today is “Earth Day’.  While I support the goals of “Earth Day”, somehow the idea of an “Earth Day” has never really resonated in me.  Of course, now, more than ever, with the attack on the environment by the EPA, we need to support the goals of Earth Day.  

While I like the new system of recycling (single source, where everything goes in a 95 gallon bin), we always never have room for all our recycling since pickup is only very other week.  

It is a lot better than the old system of the small “blue bin” that always blew trash in the area, so I’m not complaining, but we do have a lot of recycling waiting with the every other week pickup (cardboard, news papers, shredded junk mail and office papers I need to shred etc.)  

Yesterday I found the extended warranty for my “original iPod”.  I expired in 12-6-2007, which means I bought in in 12-6-2006, so it is 11 1/2  years old and still has a strong battery!  Of course it is obsolete for many things, but I still use it for music occasionally and it still works great.  

During my same “weeding” exercise, I found a letter my Mom wrote to my Uncle John in February of 1946, when he apparently was still overseas waiting to be discharged.  My Mom mentioned that the brother and sister were “standing on the chair eating the breakfast they had refused earlier” and she had “taken the peanut butter away from them”. 

The problem with “weeding” is you find so many interesting things!  Some things, regardless of the “value”, I simply can’t throw away.  However each time I go through something I always find something to give away or throw away or sell.  

Of course, when you do save something as a “we might need it someday”, when it comes time to “need it” we can’t find it!  

We have carried some “bungee cords” around for years and, when we need them, of course we can’t find them (until we buy some more!).  I still feel we may have loaned them to someone, but we are going to buy some more today, so I expect we will either find them or have them returned!  

Starting on my third month without eating meat.  Soon I will make this a weekly update (although I will announce when I start eating meat again), but today won’t be the day as I will not eat meat today.

That’s it for now, Sunday, April 22, 2018.