2018 Fall October 31 Wednesday

54 degrees this morning, Walk 35:21 minutes, 73 % humidity 

Walk this morning was actually better than I expected.  Based on the forecast I expected it to be nasty, even if it wasn’t raining.  it actually was relatively nice, although it was one of those day where it seemed to get colder as I walked.

Considering that the temperature  yesterday at the time I normally walk was 70 degrees, that was quite a change!

Pace was 24 seconds slower than my goal, I need to improve on that! 

Listening to the “Great Course” on biology.  It is interesting, it currently is on genetics etc.  It is interesting, it has bought up some concepts I was kind of vaguely aware of, but didn’t really understand.  Not that I understand them now, but I understand them much more than I used too.

The good thing about this course is it has a “study guide” to accompany the course which I find valuable in understanding the concepts when I can go back and read about what I heard.

I would like to “re-listen” to many of the books I listen to in the morning when I walk, but I don’t have time to do re-listen to them, mainly because I have too many other books I haven’t listened to them at all.  As they say, “So many books, so little time”!

Aliene and I (and especially Aliene) have been busy the last several days (since Friday) “involved” in the political process, helping a candidate running for State Representative. 

Even though is is obviously a microcosm of politics, it has been fun and interesting to be involved.  

Yesterday we had our HVAC inspected, another sign of the change of seasons.  

We are getting tired of the difficulty of finding anyone to work on our house who takes pride in their work.  We have been fortunate in finding  some that take pride in their work, but it is difficult to really find reliable qualified contractors.  

I realize that is a common problem, but that doesn’t make i any better.

Anyway, we started to look for “maintenance free” housing  we could rent.  Of course we looked at “Senior” housing.  While it is good for many people, we are in the niche that we really don’t need meals, and we don’t want to be warehoused into a small apartment.  

We have also found that many “Senior Housing” facilities are apparently built by people who have little knowledge, or at least applied knowledge of some of the possible problems of Senior Citizens.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, October 31, 2018.

2018 Fall October 30 Tuesday

70 degrees this morning, 70% humidity

No walk this morning, due to schedule and, although I feel fine now, felt slightly sick when I woke up so I may not have walked anyway.

70 degrees , it is hard not to walk when the normal morning temperature has been 49 degrees.  Maybe later today.  

Just saw a “news flash” that the lying coward racist lunatic thinks he can amend the constitution with an “Executive Order” and outlaw “birth citizenship”.  

Nest he will issue an “Executive Order” making himself “President for Life” and suspend all elections and the Bill of Rights.  Time to impeach this incompetent racist lunatic or remove him with the 25th amendment.

It is time his handlers take some crayon and drew some pictures and explain the constitution to the lying coward racist lunatic.  

What is scary is seeing the lying coward lunatics “fans” and their vicious sneering faces, looking so much like the crowds of Hitler, Mussolini, Tito etc.  It is especially troubling when the lying coward lunatic encourages violence and gets this roar from them.  Where do these people come from?

He can’t continue to encourage violence and then blame the news media for reporting what he says.  Again, is is even more scary that his staff extend his lies and justify his calls for violence.  

It appears the news media is finally developing some courage and calling a liar a liar. Hopefully they will hang in there.  

Listening to Bob Woodward’s book “Fear”, it is frightening to hear about the views of the robot  Nazi Miller and other incompetent fanatics who influence the lying coward lunatic.  

After a period of rain, the weather has been wonderful here.  As I mentioned before it is reaching the time where I live “one day at a time” in regard to the weather and am just glad one more day of winter is over without any bad weather.  

Actually I try to live “one day at a time” anyway.  I heard a speech last night and part of the exercise was to “eat a grape and really enjoy it”. 

I was thinking if I took my time and “totally enjoyed” each item as I eat it, I would probably eat a lot less.  Something I need to try!  

Actually, I do try to enjoy each day and what is enjoyable about that day.  I think being “aware” of both the good and negative aspects of life and being aware of the experience is important and not attempting to hide or cover up negative feelings.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, October 30, 2018.

2018 October 29 Monday

2018 October 29 Monday

49 degrees this morning Walk 34:48 minutes, 73% humidity 

Overall nice walk this morning in spite of the colder temperature.  Seemed a bit colder than 49 degrees, but that could be a reaction to the warmer weather over the weekend.  

So many times, in this time of year and Spring, there are beautiful days like this and you think “I need to get out and enjoy the wonderful weather” or, more likely, you are doing something inside and someone says (who is also inside) that “i can’t believe you aren’t out enjoying the wonderful day!”.

Not sure what all of this means, just human nature I guess.  I guess you have to be in the mood even for a beautiful day!  If you are in the mood for beautiful weather and there is beautiful weather that is great!l  However, if you have other priorities, you won’t enjoy a beautiful day even if is is a wonderfully beautiful day.  

Somewhere, this must all mean something, I’ll have to dwell on it!  Of course, it also depends on your definition of a “beautiful day”!

Pace was 4 seconds slower than my goal, which I consider basically the same as meeting my goal.

Basically finished the project for the candidate for state representative. Personally I think something needs to be done about the role of “campaign donations”, I feel it has severely warped the democratic process.

Unfortunately I don’t have the answer, I just know there is a severe problem. 

I am ashamed to say I am “from” Kansas (although at least I am least glad I no longer live there), when I read about a cretin in Dodge City who set up one polling place (for a city of around 27,000), moved the polling place outside of the city limits to an area with no parking and sidewalks and then even gave the wrong address!

When the ACLU complained and suggested a “voter information program”  (I’m not clear about that), she sent the criminal governor candidate who is trying to suppress voting a “LOL” comment.  Shameful. She should be immediately removed from office.

 Hopefully the government candidate who made a big deal about “voter fraud” in the past several years, will lose and be indicted for voter fraud himself.

I’m not sure what happened to Kansas, but I remember growing up I was always impressed by the political fairness of Kansans, now it sounds like they are attempting to suppress voting for people who won’t vote “their” way and, of course, trying to shovel tax $ to the rich, donors and lobbyists at the extreme expense of education, and low and moderate income people.  

I know my parents would never have believed that Kansas would turn into a state where such suppressive, unconstitutional and shameful actions would be considered acceptable.  

Not that it is the only state with such shameful, unconstitutional actions, there are other states trying to suppress voters with actions that I”m sure are unconstitutional.  

Halloween is almost here, then the change in time and then the  elections, and then the “holidays”.  I think the Holidays especially are “markers” and it gives you an opportunity to note the changes.  Children grow, everyone is a year older and time keeps passing by.  

Start of another work week”  and the end of October 2018.

That’s it for now, Monday, October 29, 2018.

2018 Falll October 28 Sunday

2018 Fall October 28 Sunday

65 degrees this morning, walk 34:12 miles 65% Humidity.

Nice weather for my walk this morning.  I couldn’t believe the “warm” temperature (that a month ago I would have thought was very cold  As normal, I dressed too warm, but it still felt good to dress lighter.  

Pace was 12 seconds below my goal, which is the best I have had for awhile.  

We went to an “Apple Watch” session at the Apple Store yesterday and learned a lot about the Apple Watch.  It is amazing  what it can do.  The health features are really advanced and I wasn’t aware of some of them.  

The Apple store is always amazing to me, the energy there.  I looked at the new iPhones (just to get an idea of what they are like, I’m not going to buy one right now, at least until mid to late November and maybe not then.  

Also looked at the tablets, not quite ready to  pull the trigger on that one!  I like the concept of the pen/pencil.  I didn’t get a chance to use it, but will need to  use it some to see how I like it. 

I was thinking about the “iPad Pro”, but the “cheaper” version (in a manner of speaking) may work just as well.  

Starting to think about where we might go this winter to get out of the cold for a few days.  When is dependent on a variety of factors, and we basically need to know “when” before we can decide “what”!  

Thinking again about the apparent war on bottled water.  Places try to “ban” bottled water, but say nothing about  plastic bottles and cans of bottled soft drinks/ etc. in a wide variety of forms and shapes, juices, beer etc. and yet for some reason they attack bottled water.  

Working on the campaign of a person running against an incumbent for state office has emphasized to me the need for some type of leveling factor in regards to money.  

Someone without a lot of money has to contend with a fat “war chest” fo the incumbent and their “contributions” from the businesses they are supposed to regulate.

It is even worse at the national level where extremist groups, donors and lobbyists make it a very unlevel playing field for anyone to complete.  

Although we are on the very fringes of the campaign, we can more appreciate the sacrifices anyone makes when they run against an established incumbent who has been gathering money for lobbyists and donors since they first got into office and is a positing to provide a lot of favors for “contributions”.  

The author of the Newsletter I mentioned earlier, has what I consider a jaundiced view of politicians as the tool of lobbyists, donors and big businesses and I am beginning  to see why he feels that way.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, October 28, 2018

2018 Fall October 27 Saturday

50 degrees this morning, 97% humidity, no walk 

Weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, and it actually started getting better yesterday.  However, it looks like the 50 degrees +- morning temperature will continue until it only gets colder.  

Discouraging to think that it will be another 6 months or so before it warms again!  I realize there will periods of warm (and very cold) temperature, but I will be counting the days until it gets hot again.  

I heard about some island on the Virgin Islands where it is an average of 82 degrees which sounds like my kind of place!   (Except for the hurricanes!)

It is hard to believe that we have a so-called president who is such a narcissistic  out of control lying coward lunatic.  Even tries to say others are responsible for pipe bombs. and tries to use them for political advantage.  

Perhaps what is worse is to see the AK  crowd at his rallies that laugh at his sick, vicious, lying remarks.  

What I really don’t understand is how anyone an support someone who is an out and out liar and who will turn on you in a second when it is to his advantage to do so (at least in his lying, warped, mind).  

I could simply never support a chronic liar, no matter what his political beliefs are.   He lies when it doesn’t matter, which is really scary that he has lost all touch with reality.  

Aliene and I spent yesterday, and will spend most of the weekend, helping a political candidate for state office.  Whether the candidate wins or not, we feel like we are doing a small effort at working for someone who had our basic beliefs and will look for opportunities to continue to do so. 

While I recognize the importance of national races and the “big” state races, I feel I can have the most impact on local political races, and some of the state political races like the state Representatives and Senators.   

Working for cities, I realized how important the city and local governments are to the residents.  The city or county is responsible for streets, parks, planning/zoning, public safety, schools, libraries, etc. that really impact you most in everyday life.  

Perhaps most important of all is planning and zoning.  While everything has it’s place, somehow in some cities, the most important part, (in my opinion), residential,  is the last to be considered.

That is what I like about the city I live in now and the reason we moved from the big “central city” we lived in before.  There they allowed commercial to intrude on residential areas without any consideration for the residents.  

In the city we live in now, residential areas seem to have a lot of protection, and fortunately it is small enough (about 100,000) that residents still have an impact on decisions affecting their living areas.  They may not always be successful, but there are no flashing billboards in back yards etc.

We are becoming active in trying to keep it that way.  After all my years on “the other side” I really realize the contributions residents make when the get involved in their local government and how time consuming on your personal life it can be to keep informed and involved even when the local government is as accommodating as possible in providing information  

That’s it for now, Saturday, October 27, 2018.

2018 Fall October 26 Friday

48 degrees this morning, Walk 35:39 minutes, 97 % humidity 

Foggy this morning, which is not good for my cough when I walk, although it wasn’t that bad.  

Pace was 38 seconds slower than my goal, which isn’t good, but I realized during walk my pace was off.

Listening to a Great Course” on biology.  It is currently going over Mendel’s  research on peas and pea breeding.  He was studying genetics before anyone really know about genetics.

It is interesting to listen to it, but the question that runs though my mind is, how in the world did he even think of how to proceed with pea breeding?  This was before anyone even knew what genetics was!

I did some quick research and cannot find a reason he dd the experiments. Maybe just a natural curiously and ability.  

Friday, thank goodness.  Some weeks fly by, others seem to drag a little, until I look back and realize that week had also flown by. 

Speaking of time, our “newest” car is now 4 years old and has over 65,000 mils on it.  Fortunately I have had few problems with it, it has been a good car.  

The same thing happens with my walking shoes, they are new, and then suddenly they are old.  My current shoes are about 50% towards the replacement mileage but still seem “new” to me!    

Thinking about Mendel, and possibly even Darwin, after watching a “60 Minutes” program on how some species of  animals are “disappearing”.  

I have to wonder, is there a reasons some species are disappearing?  While the natural indication is to support “saving” each species from extinction, sometimes I wonder if it is better for all species to be saved from extinction.  

I have to think, perhaps there is a reason for the species to become extinct.  I don’t have any idea, I just think it should not be an automatic endorsement that the species needs to continue.   I doubt if there can be any “proof” either way.

I read a book review of a book where the Author was talking about how to know when it is best to end something, so you can start something new.  He was referring to personal life, but I wondered how his concepts could be used to determine when a “species” should be allowed to become extinct.  

That’s it for now, Friday, October 26, 2018.                    

#resist

#Presiden      

2018 Fall October 25 Thursday

49 degrees this morning, no walk, 97% humidity 

No walk this morning, rain again. 

There has been a string of continuous temperatures basically the same at the time I walk.  That is somewhat unusual for this time of year.  

I do  remember one year when there was a light snow on Halloween, I hope this isn’t another Winter like that!   

Our country is really starting to resemble Germany in the HIlter reign, with a lying coward lunatic “leader” squealing his messages of hate and blaming everyone but himself for the problems he created and his ‘message” of hate and blame.  

Meanwhile he encourages  a bunch of “followers” chanting hateful chants at anyone that is “different” then them as he tries to cast blame for his incompetence on other groups. .  He has no accomplishments and is incompetent, so he is so insecure all he can do is blame others.  

The lunatic is destroying the economy with his incompetence and his criminal greed for “more and more” tax dollars for his personal companies and his donors and lobbyists and he actually blames others for his incompetent greedy actions!  

The lying coward lunatic is truly a despicable person who is simply a crude incompetent liar who continually squeals his racist, sexist “blame everyone but me” comments. 

Hopefully the U.S Congress will develop some courage and stop this nut.  

It is scary to think that over 40% of the people actually think he is doing a good job!  

What is really scary is to read about some of the comments on the “mail bombs”.  I even saw one “twitter” (I blocked the sender) who (with no proof, probably a lie) tried to justify the mail bombs with some comment about how a “leftist”  throw water on the lying coward lunatic supporters!

What really disappointed and scared me was the person who retweeted it!  He is now retired, but once was a respected leader and still has some sway on opinions   (I won’t go into details, since I have no idea of why the person who retweeted it did so.)

Anyway, I have to assume the extremist, crude, lying behavior has gone too far and there will be a reaction.  I hope it hasn’t changed the entire culture of the country permanently.

It will be interesting and perhaps educational to review this period 10 years from now and see how this permanently changed out culture and dynamics of government and society.

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

2018 Fall Octboer 24 Wednesday

49 degrees this morning, 88% humidity, Walk, 34;42 minutes 

Overall good walk this morning.  Still dress too warm for my walk, even though the temperature has virtually been the same.  I am comfortable with it, makes me feel like I have accomplished something if I sweat a lot. 

Saw a fire truck and ambulance rumble past (no lights or siren) and go into a nearby addition.  Fortunately on my walk, I usually don’t see a single car or vehicle on my walk.  I think the most I have ever seen is 3 vehicles.  

As expected, I see more on a weekend than any other day.  

No moon tonight, or at least I didn’t notice it.  

Pace was 2 seconds slower than my goal, which is nice since I didn’t even think about my pace during the walk.  Hopefully it is a trend!

Regarding the lottery, I am always surprised that so many people don’t buy a lottery ticket unless the price is high.  I would be happy with a mere $15 million!  

I guess it is just human nature.  I assume the odds of winning are the same, (since it depends on the number, not the number of people), although it seems like your chance of having to split the prize is based on the number of people buying tickets.  

It is fun to think about what you would do with the money (even if you don’t buy a ticket). Of course, with the odds so high, your chances of winning are virtually none, but you are guaranteed not to win if you don’t buy a ticket!

The other day someone looked at my phone and was shocked the I had almost 80,000 “unread messages”.  I was somewhat shocked myself!  (Right now, it stands at 76,862 on at least on one phone, I think the other phone is more).

They have reached such an overwhelming number, I’ll probably never do anything about it, except try to delete unwanted e-mails when I have time.   

Of course, “unread” could mean anything.  Unfortunately I get so many junk e-mails I overlook the actual e-mails if I’m not careful. 

Ditto with phone calls, while not near as bad as e-mails we were getting calls that I wonder just how stupid they thought we were!   Of course, they figure all they need is a small percentage of suckers.  

We signed on for a free “scam blocker”, which thus far appears to be working.  It really makes me feel good to see it working and a scammer blocked!

My favorite is the one who calls and tells me my “Microsoft computer” has a virus and they can fix it for me.  If I have the time, I lead them on until I “discover” that I don’t have a “Microsoft” computer! Actually now I just say something like “sure” and hang up.  

Probably the worst is the call where they ask for someone and then say “oh, while I’m talking to you….” and they proceed to ask for some donation. 

I can block numbers on my cell phone easily, I don’t know why they don’t make it just as easy to block spam e-mails.  

Rain is supposed to return, we’ll see.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, October 24, 2018.

2018 Fall October Tuesday

50 degrees this morning, 92% humidity, walk 34:55 minutes

Nice walk this morning, slightly lopsided moon setting fast in the west.  Little wind. 

Strange how quickly I got used to colder weather.  I may not like it, but I am getting used to it!

Pace this morning was 19 seconds slower than my goal.  I probably need to pick up my pace a little. On the other hand, if I don’t, what real difference does it make?  I doubt if the world will long remember of if my body really cares if I walk a pace that is 20 seconds faster! 

The “Great Course” on biology is interesting, but I”m not sure how much I’m actually picking up.  Like anything, I’m sure I am picking up some information I can use as a base to learn other information.  

Somehow my eyes glaze over (not literally) when I hear this type of information.  

Attended the local City Council meeting last night on a planning matter (which actually was continued).  Again, it was interesting to sit on the other side!  

i was surprised to learn that over 92% of the residents in this community recycle!  I think it is the ease of recycling (they have the big carts and you just toss everything in the cart).

Considering the fact that recycling right now is a money-losing proposition for the recyclers (due to the lack of markets for recycled material), I am surprised it is as inexpensive as it is. 

That thought comes after listening to the meeting last night about possibly raising trash  collection rates, primarily due to recycling and the cost of fuel. 

Interestingly, the report given at the meeting noted that, in addition to 92% of the customers recycling, about 20% of the customers had more than 2 trash carts (the big 92 gallon ones) and some  customers had more than 10 carts!  (Probably for yard waste, but they didn’t say.)

World Series starts tonight.  If you like baseball at all, it ought to be an interesting series, assuming both teams show up at their best for each game.

Somehow, somewhere, it seems they ought to find a better system than passwords etc. I have found in my job and personally passwords are one of the biggest frustrations of accessing the internet.  The fingerprint seems to work well, perhaps facial or optic recognition etc.  

While I don’t like the cool weather, I do like the “holiday season”, which basically starts with Halloween (although it isn’t a holiday), then Veterans Day, and then Thanksgiving and basically the entire time form Thanksgiving to after New Year Day!    

Of course, then you have the long wait for Spring, which somehow seems to take forever!  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, October 23, 2018.

2018 Fall October 22, Monday

2018 Fall October 22 Monday

52 degrees this morning, 34;57 minute walk, 73 % humidity

Good walk this morning full moon (slightly lopsided) setting in the west as I walked.  Slightly more wind than past several mornings.  As normal, dressed too warmly. 

Pace was 23 seconds slower than my goal.  I am hoping I can get it down some, but my experience has been that I walk slower when I am wearing “cold weather clothes.  

I noted this morning that, although I don’t think about work during my walk as near as much as I used to (different type of job) I still have sudden insights about work (as well as personal items) when I am walking.  

I’m not sure what it is, probably it gives my mind an opportunity ccjto explore new options since my mind is frequently in neutral and not really focused on any specific item, which allows “brain storming” thoughts to enter my head.

The insight I had this morning just popped into my mind, which is the way I develop a lot of insights!  I’m not even sure if I was thinking about the situation that I had the insight pop up!

I used to make lots of decisions, or maybe a better term is insights while I walked and especially while I bicycled.  As I mentioned, I “wrote” a lot of letters and memos when I was walking or bicycling, just a matter of writing them when I got back.  

Strange that we use the term “writing” still, when we rarely actually “write” with a pen and paper.  Or maybe the definition “writing” includes typing in on the computer.

Perhaps it is just because my consciousness is raised, but I am noting more and more news articles about diseases once thought as eliminated, now coming back, primarily because of people not having their children vaccinated.  

Even a disease like polio is coming back.   I think the “conspiracy” thinking may be getting out of hand.  

I was thinking about the privacy concept and thought about how even the gym has a record of when you come and go!  Although I really don’t care, it my be prudent to start asking businesses how long they retain their records!  

I started thinking about it and how I wonder if cable tv, and the “streaming” services maintain records of everything your watch?  I expect so, I know they do keep a record of everything you purchase. 

Some of the really nasty, misleading and flat lying ads run in this state’s Governor’s race (on both sides) are rather disturbing.  Do they really think voters are that stupid that such gross lies and distortions of the truth will work?

Apparently so, look at who is elected!  

That’s it for now, Monday, October 22, 2018.