2019 Spring April 30 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Spring_of_19

62 degrees this morning 99% humidity, very foggy out.  

Light rain yesterday, today is supposed to include rain and storms.  Hopefully the forecast is wrong!  

Hopefully Spring will be here soon.  It seems that usually there is some cool wether until mid-May when the hot weather finally arrives.  

Just looked at the radar weather map, looks like a lot of rain went south of us, although some is coming in.  

Opportunity to see the “Four Seasons” performed live this year.  I jumped at the chance  to get tickets to see it “live”.  

I can’t say it is my “favorite”, but it certainly is up there with my favorites.  I have it on my phone to use as both a phone ring, as with as an alarm and timer!  

I like to switch rings and especially alarm/timer rings on my phone.  Right now, I am using the theme to Star Wars.  As I mentioned the Four Seasons (of course, “Spring” and “Summer” are also favorites.  I have a few other’s I cycle through occasionally.  

Of course, I also have some other rings, like the “duck” ring I use so I can hear the phone in the car!  Actually I rarely if ever answer or use the phone in the car anymore, even “hands free”.  One primary reason is that I am absolutely prohibited from using the phone while driving when I am on work status, which is probably a good idea!

Last night at Toastmasters, I was asked if there is ever justification for war or fighting.  Although I regret to say it, I think occasionally there is, although  like anything it tends to be abused.

One example  of abuse of power right now is #derangeddonald and his gross abuse of the “emergency powers” for tariffs etc.  

I continue to be disgusted with #derangeddonald and his so called “base”. 

I never thought I would see a person who was supposed to be a “president” chanting “CNN sucks” and a group of his “base”  chanting along.  

A shameful time in the history of the United States.  A gross liar who has told over 10,000 documented lies and he is still in office!  

Actually it looks like a lot of history of Nazi Germany when mindless followers chanted Hilter’s slogans.  

#DerangedDonald’s  attacks on free speech, constitutional procedures,  the news media and his abuse of power for personal gain has gotten to the point something needs to be done and the gutless  GOP congress obviously is going to continue their shameful bootlicking of this lying coward perverted lunatic so they can continue ripping off tax $ for themselves, their donors and lobbyists and trying to impose their extreme beliefs on everyone else by preventing people from exercising their right to vote.  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, April 30, 2019.  

#resist #derangeddonald #lockhimup

2019 Spring April 29 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_19

69 degrees this morning, 76% humidity. 

Excellent day overall yesterday, a little windy.  

Exercise Sunday:

Walk 24:46 minutes,

swim 16:41 min

Pace was 47 seconds slower than my goal

Overall a nice weekend, as normal, it went too fast.

I did bicycle outside some, which I was pleased to find I still enjoy!  I coughed some (which is the reason I haven’t been biking outside), but not to the point where it was a major problem.  I am looking at buying some kind of “smog exercise mask”, maybe it will help.

I plan on building up slow, hopefully by the time I retire, I will be in shape to “ride with the summer”, starting in the south United States and riding with the start of summer to Canada.

Probably will never do it, but it is a nice goal to have!  Maybe I will have to use an “electric assist” bike, but I’ll wait and see.  Right now I will continue concentrating on building up my bike riding muscles etc!

Getting closer to replacing my MacBook Air.  It is always difficult to purchase a new computer and see the “upgrade charges” for memory and storage.  I really don’t know if I will need that much memory or  storage but over the period of the next five years or so, you never know what programs will come out etc.  

Apple makes it more difficult by charging high prices ($200 for extra memory and $200 for extra storage) which, if you purchase the 3 years maintenance/accidental damage ($249) just about doubles the price of the computer!  I am thinking of looking at alternatives,(a Google Chrome, Dell etc.) but over the 5 years or so I will use it, it probably isn’t that bad.  Take the long view as their say!

It is offset somewhat that Apple will allow a reasonably good price as a “trade in” for my present MacBook Air, and I will avoid having to purchase a new battery and a new cord, plus there are some programs my current five year old computer is having problems running.

I have heard Apple basically sets a 3 year “life” for their products, although I still have a 13 year old iPod that works fine and the battery is still good.  As I have mentioned, my “original iPad” still works fine, it is just that it doesn’t have the technology to run a lot of new programs and apps.

I was using the original iPad  for listening to “Audible” books a few years ago and ran into some problems.  I called the “help” line and the representative I talked to was shocked at the age of the “app” I was using (the newest the iPad would run). He said he didn’t even know that one was still working!  

In a way it is a mixed blessing.  Since they still work find, I keep them, but their technology is so dated, they worn’t run anything new!.

That’s it for now, Monday, April 29, 2019.

#resist #derangeddonald #lockhimup

2019 Spring April 28 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_18

#Spring_of_19

54 degrees this morning, 61% humidity wind 12 mph

Excellent day yesterday, low 80’s, sunny, wind a little high 

Exercise yesterday was 30 minutes on the stationary bike and 14:25 minutes swimming

Speaking of news overkill, I have a hard time understanding (or caring) about the coverage of the “NFL Draft”.  Fortunately technology will allow me  to ignore it as it means absolutely nothing to me and I could really care less.  

That coverage, along with the coverage on some fantasy show really emphasizes “junk news” that wastes a lot of time.

Just because I’m not interested in it doesn’t mean a lot of people apparently are (or it is one be sales job for the NFL and the show, which is more to the point I expect), “news” created to sell the NFL and the show.

Whatever, what is, is and fortunately, I can just ignore it.  It is kind of like many of the “news anchors” and their time wasting mindless chatter.

Even on CNBC when I go to exercise, I listen and think, “I could care less about your personal opinion and the thoughtless chatter they either think is cute or they just are incompetent (or the owners really  think people like it).  Either way, I frequently change to another station.  

The newspapers have arrived so late I have started reading them “on-line” and will cancel the print editions.  I really don’t like the “on-line” editions any better, I just haven’t get time to read the print editions when they arrive so late.  

My one exception is the Sunday New York Times, I don’t think I could ever read that on-line.

One time I complained about the DJ “chatter” on a Sirus music channel, and they said “people feel lonely if they don’t hear someone talk”.  I do very well not hearing anyone talk!  

At some point I am sure I will switch to my iPhone and just listen to books or music when I am in the car, but I still like to listen to news during the day and don’t want to mess around with the iPhone.  That will probably change when I get the “car echo” or Apple play on a car.  

Actually, I am waiting for my invitation to purchase an Echo for our cars, which will really be a big help, assuming it works right.  It will also help with reminders etc.  

Occasionally I am reminded of how fragile our lives really are. Illness, accidents, sudden repairs needed to a house or car etc. can suddenly disrupt the “days of our lives”. 

The “weekend” is half over, tonight I will go to sleep thinking about starting the workweek again.  Not bad, just “is”.  That is the time I dream about retirement!  

That’s it for now, Sunday, April 28, 2019

#resist #DerangedDonald #lockhimup

2010 Spring April 27 Saturday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Spring_of_19

64 degrees this morning, 49% humidity 

Generally excellent day yesterday, mid 70’s low wind, sunny

Exercise yesterday included:

Walk:  20:35 minutes, Swim 13:35 minutes 

Pace was 51 seconds slower than my goal.

Felt good to get back into swimming again, after a hiatus due to a scrape on my leg.  While I am not really a good swimmer, I do enjoy paddling around in the water and I figure it is good for me as anything.  

I have become a little concerned about the walking on what is basically a concrete floor covered by a carpet, but I haven’t really noticed anything major, occasionally some aches and pains I haven’t had before.

Fortunately, I also get to walk quite a bit on my job on a “field day”, of course offset by sitting a lot on my “office days”.  One action I have to remember is to get up and move around some on my “office days”.  Sometimes I have more aches and pains from my “office days” than I do my “field days”!

Start of another weekend, which is nice.  Monday starts and the week seems to look like it is a long time until Friday, but suddenly Friday and then Saturday are here.  

Proceeding through the “Cliff’s notes” version of “Sister Carrie” during my “speech exercises”.  It is actually an interesting book, even in “Cliff Notes” form, but I know I will never take the time to read the complete version  

It would be interesting to look at the early “Cliff’s Notes versions” and compare them to the current “Cliff’s Notes” and see how the interpretation of what is considered “great works” or “great literature” have changed due to the changing value of society, political culture and demographic changes etc.  

I am sure some of the interpretations have changed significantly while others may be somewhat the same.

Ditto with some of the songs I sign as part of the speech exercises.  Some of the songs I sing were ones I did in high school, and in a way I was surprised that we sung them in high school.  For obvious reasons, I won’t mention any names.  

Of course I don’t know if we sang the same versions or not.  

Interpretation of what you read or watch changes with your age and experience, sometimes to a significant degree.  I assume I should expect that, but it still surprises me when I return to something I read years ago and realize it doesn’t say what I thought it said, at least the “present me”.  

Sometime I will go back into my past journals and read what happed on “today’s date”, say 5 years ago, or 10 years ago, and see how my reaction, actions etc. would have changed based on who I am today!  

That’s it for now, Saturday, April 27, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Spring April 26 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights
#My_Journey_19
#Spring_of_19

50 degrees this morning, 87% humidity  

Nice day yesterday, I believe it got up to about 80 degrees.  

Read a story yesterday about how a research group has actually developed a procedure so that people can “speak” with brain waves that interpret what they are trying to say and can “speak” for them.  

Obviously this  procedure is still in a trial basis and they don’t even know if it will actually help people with speech problems by the muscles that produce speech.  

I realize it is very early in the process, but the potential consequences of this could mean, in addition to the good it does for people who are unable to speak due to illness or accident, that eventually someone could literally “read your mind”.

I have to admit, when I first read “1984” (I don’t have any idea how long ago), it was considered a fantasy.  

Now, no more than 35 years later than the title of the book, a dictator with a group of coward appointees who can’t stop his dictator actions, can literally do everything spelled out in “1984”.

GPS, cameras, computers etc. make it all to possible for a government with a cowardly scared lying lunatic as President can use the force of the federal government to intimidate business into giving him special privileges and punishing his “enemies” with the unlimited resources of the federal government.  

Recent attempts to intimidate Twitter, Facebook, and the news media to give him special privileges etc. and attempts to silence them with threats fo “regulation” are obviously attempts to control the news medial. 

Throw in the ability to “read the thoughts” of everyone and you really have a nightmare when you have a unethical perverted lying coward lunatic as President who is surrounded by incompetent cowards who only think of enriching themselves.

Somehow it seems to tie in with “Fahrenheit 451” where they burn books because (if I remember correctly) they may contain thoughts that may undermine the rulers.

Considering the lying coward lunatics hatred of newspapers and his attempts to attack the news media, I can see “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451” becoming reality in the not too distant future.

Hopefully people will come to their senses in the not so distant future and stop the outrage.  

I continue watching “Breakout” during my lunch breaks and when Aliene and I  take breaks at Starbucks.  It is not reality to say the least, but it is based in reality and for some reason I have really become attached to watching.

One part that isn’t unrealistic is that some of the federal agents get killed.  You get to really liking a character, and suddenly, zap, they are gone, just like real life.  

I don’t have any idea it the series is original Netflix or played somewhere else first, but I really enjoy watching it.

That’s it for now, Friday, April 26, 2019.

2019 Spring April 25 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Spring_of_19

54 degrees this morning, 97% humidity 

Coolish yesterday, continued to have a lot of moisture in the air.  Forecast is for warmer weather shortly!

Yesterday, I did one of those things you wonder “what was I thinking”.  

While on a break, I left my phone in a bathroom, sitting on the toilet paper dispensary.  I didn’t realize it until I was almost to my next visit, when I suddenly realized it.  I rushed back and was able to retrieve the phone, thank goodness.  

When something like that happens, it kind of makes me a little concerned that I was capable of something like leaving my phone in the bathroom!  

It is like having an accident and you wish you could take that last 10 seconds (or whatever) back!  

I guess some of the worst decisions people make are decisions made without thinking, decisions you make while your mind is in neutral!

At least everything turned out all right, I felt such a sense of relief when I saw my phone still there.  I can guarantee I will not set my phone down in a public place again!

AS I have mentioned before, I usually have a “home” for everything I use on a regular basis, I try not to leave an item (such as keys, glasses, wallet etc)  anywhere but the “home place”.

Believe me, it does work

Another dream to record.  This one really doesn’t make any sense, but, it’s a dream!

Dream 4-18

Dream location seemed to be on a farm I grew on .

Situation was I was supposed to go to work with a relative for some reason.  

I left and realized I hadn’t picked him up.  

I kept trying to go to work, but realized I didn’t have my shoes on, I was s wearing  “sliders”.  

It was like a merry go ground, I would get ready to go, start in the car and realize I didn’t have shoes on.  

I would go back to get shoes and then start to work again.

I was asked by two people (I’m not sure who) to talk for a second.  While I was in a hurry and still in my sliders. I said I would.

My heart sank as I realized they wanted an interview.  They got all official and, with a pencil posed over paper, asked “What did I intent to do about “Jukepence”.  I said I had no idea what it was and they were horrified. “you really don’t know what Jukepence”  they said?

Mercifully I woke up.  (I did check on Google, and found there apparently is no such thing  as a “Jukepence”, although there is a person with the name “Juke Pence” in, I believe, France)

That’s it for now, Thursday, April 25, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Spring April 24 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Jourey_19

#Spring_of_19

55 degrees this morning, humidity 94%

Rain most of day yesterday basically a miserable cold rain.  Fortunately I was in an “Office Day”, so I was inside all day, doing paperwork and phone calls.

I recently read about private groups (usually extremist nuts) “patrolling the border” and kidnapping refugees at gunpoint.  Hopefully they will be stopped.  

We had some nut in this city who thought he was going to make a point about guns in a major park. 

I definitely don’t want anyone except trained law enforcement enforcing the law.  They have a lot of training and even than mistakes happen.  

Of course that is what the lying coward lunatic and his band of cowards and criminals and the congressional cowards are bringing about.  They think the pig faced lunatic squealing his lies, violent threats and abusive juvenile insults allows them to act the same.  

It is already a fine point as to when it is “right” to refuse to comply with a law (Civil Disobedience) that is so unfair and discriminatory as to be basically illegal.  

This cowardly incompetent lunatic who actually was soundly beaten by 3,000,000 votes and “won” probably with the aid of our enemies is going to destroy the nation and world.  

Having a lot of really weird dreams, not bad, just strong.  I forget many of them, but I tend to forget them before I write them down.  I have no idea what they mean, I just thought if I keep track maybe it will eventually make sense, or at least some sort of sense.

Dream 4-17-17

Dream started in a town I lived in about 20 years ago.  (Actually 18 to 30 years ago, time goes so fast1)

Dreamed I went on a bicycle ride and ended up in a parade, even though early in the morning.

Later dreamed I checked on the community center and found it hadn’t been used or worked on since I was City Manager.  It was full of junk.  (There actually was no community center in that town, just in my dream.)

I broke off the handle when I went in (it wasn’t locked) and I tried to decide who to contact about it.

In a conversation about it, I asked the question whether it would  be torn down or remodeled.  (No answer to that.)

Later part of dream I’ve already forgotten unfortunately  since that was the part i got up to write about.

That’s it for now, Wednesday, April 24, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Spring April 23 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_GoldenI_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Spring_of_19

59 degrees this morning,  93 % humidity.  

Rain during the night.  Heavy thunderstorms coming in, so decided not to exercise, since they probably will shut the pool down (at least for the storm I see coming in on the radar).  

I have been looking forward to starting/restarting  my regular exercise program but the incoming thunderstorms and some other tasks I need to get done early made me decide to wait.  (i paused about that sentence, I’m not sure if it is really a correct way to say that, but since I”m not getting graded on this…)

I don’t mind too much ifI miss exercise on my three “field days” because I actually get quit a bit of exercise in during my regular day’s activities.  But along with that I need to exercise on my “office days” and weekends.  

As I have noted before, I really don’t know where the time goes, especially early in the morning.  It seems like I get up and then it is suddenly time to start work and I haven’t gotten everything done I intended to get done!  As I said, morning time is hyper time, it seems to go much faster.

Although I should have more time in the evenings and weekends since I basically just have voluntary meetings, time also seems to disappear then also.  

Went to the AAA baseball game last night with some trepidation, since it was raining some here and we thought it might get cold.  (Also the teams performance has been way below par, although a winning team isn’t really the reason we go.)

Anyway, as sometimes happens, the weather was perfect, the game was exciting and highlighted by the pitcher hitting a towering home run which seemed to change the psychology of the team.

While there were homers what I really liked was “our team” actually used some strategy (strung together singles, doubles, etc. to get some runs)!

Recorded a series of dreams, wanted to start recording them.

4-16-19

Long and comprehensive dream.

Dreamed living in the country, by a river big enough to swim and boat in.

Yet also, it was close to a major mall.

Only snippets now, but I dreamed I walked out and saw a relative swimming in the river and thinking  “I would never swim in this river” (and I wouldn’t).  I went back and told Aliene I didn’t realize the relative swam in the river.  (which was a muddy river)

Also dreamed I went to a used book store at a mall and found on old journal  I had written.  The cover was off both sides and it had some kind of do it yourself dark cover, but it was my journal.

When I tried to buy it, I found I had forgotten my wallet and didn’t have any money to buy it.

The “clerk” was two people who stood on top of each other in a very realistic dragon costume, so it was like a 12 foot tall clerk with a realistic dragon or crocodile face.

For some reason I had a debit card (I never carry debit cards) and for some reason I couldn’t use it.

I had bought  something before but I can’t remember what.

The location was the farm I grew up on (the east half) and the mall was in a city near Memphis.

A strange dream.  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

#Resist