2019 Summer August 31 Saturday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

68 degrees this morning, 96 % humidity 

Yesterday morning there was a surprise very heavy rain storm that last about two hours.

I had just started off on my field day when the rain started and it quickly got so bad that I had to pull over on some high ground!  Even after it stopped really heavy rain it continued raining for about another hour.  A field day is never any fun when it is raining.  

By coincidence, I had scheduled more appointments than I normally do and had to rescheduled several of them when I couldn’t get to the appointment in time due to stopped traffic etc.  

Hopefully there won’t be many more days like this!  Actually the day itself was relatively nice except for the rain.  

The earlier storms this week were still creating problems, electricity out etc.  

I guess you could say “I fought the high concrete curbs and the curbs won” or words to that effect.  I decided to get the front bumper replaced and, at the same time, get the high and run damage to the rear fixed.  

The front bumper damage was caused by the extremely high curbs in this city for the car bumper.  I wonder how much damage is created by whoever designs the too high curbs.

While I love the car, I think the front part is a design defect, it is just too low and is not sturdy enough.  I can understand “crumple parts” which absorb energy in an accident, but not a bumper that is too low and crumples at the slightest scratch with concrete.  

Last day of August.  While the Summer still has several months, or maybe 45 days of “real summer” left, I am not looking forward to Winter.  Fall is fine, but I can already feel the cold in my bones.  

AAA baseball season (at least for our team) is over Monday.  We are actually going to 3 live baseball gams in about 36 hours, although  weather could change that.  When you go on a regular basis it becomes it’s own little community as we get to recognize people etc.  

For my speech exercises, I am reading a (summary) of a book by China Achebe “Things Fall Apart” .  I had never heard of it before, so it has been an interesting read.

It is written by a Nigerian writer, based in Nigeria.  It is interesting to read about the customs of the villages in Nigeria etc.  and I have become more interested as the story unfolds.  

For some reason, one aspect stood out.  The culture (as described in the bookI)  strictly delineates “male tasks and behavior” and “female tasks and behavior”.  The “hero” is  engrossed with making sure he does only “manly tasks and behavor” and “Manly emotions” (I.e. no emotions).   One reason is he thought of his father as a failure, so he feels it is important for him to only show “manly” actions, thoughts and emotions.

Of course, in so doing he limits himself because he is so scared of showing “female” traits that he can’t live a full life and also spreads miserly in his family.  

Strange that I never realty consciously thought of it that way  until I read this summary.

That’s it for now, Saturday, October 31, 2019.

#Resist

2i019 Summer August 30 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

80 degrees this morning, 74% humidity.  Lightning and thunder storm close, not sure if coming in, but didn’t walk. 

Temperature high of low 90’s degrees yesterday, but generally there was a cooling breeze that made it seem cooler.

August 2019 is almost, today the last workday of August.  The start of 2019 seems like a mere memory now, just as August of 2019 seemed so far away back in December of 2018. 

The Camry seems to have an attraction to high concrete curves, why the city and businesses build them so high is beyond me, other than it increases the engineers fee and the contractors profit.  Anyway, it is going to cost us some money to get it fixed replace the entire what used to be called a bumper, not sure what it is called now, probably a good money maker for Toyota due the too low design.  

It seems strange that Toyota should profit from a design flaw in the car. 

At the same time, decided to go ahead and fix the hit and run damage I had several months ago.  Mechanically the car is perfect and I don’t see any reason we’d be replacing it soon.  My deductible will be more than the insurance will pay, but at least it won’t count against me and they may pay for the rental car while it is being fixed. 

The insurance industry and the collision centers have the dance all worked out, which makes it easy and very expensive.  

I am always surprised at how much time it takes to repair a car.  On the other hand, today’s  cars are so complex, maybe it is very fast!  

I think the problem with the front bumper (it isn’t really a bumper anymore) is that it is  designed to crumple to absorb accidents, so it breaks away at even the smallest bumps or scrapes.  

I am going to start asking why they build such high curbs, other than a plan to make more money by the engineers, contractors and concrete companies!  I’m not sure if I’m serious about that or not, but the amount of concrete wasted on streets where simple paint would work in this city is amazing. 

My experience has been the paint is just as effective and much safer.  It is true in some cases the concrete barriers may be drainage facilities but not all of them. 

The Camry seems to be popular with used car dealers, we get all kinds of offers to buy a new one at the same monthly payment we are paying now.  We just say no  thanks, it is almost paid off and we like it that way!  

After the newspaper was delivered after 8:30 am literally every day this week, I almost canceled, but couldn’t quite bring myself to pull the trigger.  I almost did it but decided to cool off first!

Three Day weekend this weekend, which will be nice!

That’s it for now, Friday, August 30, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Summer August 29 Thursday

#Purple_Days_andI_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Supper_of_19

75 degrees this morning, 86 % humidity. 

Another day yesterday of cloudiness, possible rain threatening all day, but it never rained.  Chance of rain again today.

Exercise yesterday, Walk 27:36 pace of 1 second faster than my goal.   

AAA game last night was opposite of the they night before, the team played horrible.   Of course, the pitcher is such a key part and he just didn’t have it last night and they allowed him to stay way too long when it was obvious it was not his night.  

I expect it is hard to continue when you really don’t have a goal.  There only goal now is to finish the season, since there is no way our team is going to make the play-off’s.  

I had assumed, especially at the AAA level, that the individual players would continue to be motivated by the opportunity to go to the Major Leagues but it is also a team sport.

Listening to the “Deep Work” book.  He mentions how distractions can take so much time, much as I was mentioning how easy it is to waste time.

I think the concept of “multitasking” is actually a term for many short-term, short focused tasks.  While I don’t doubt you can watch tv and read etc. it still is difficult to actually do both.  

My laptop is rapidly losing the battery, it will operate fine and then suddenly cut off, so I have to be careful.  I am keeping it charged all of the time now.  I really don’t think there is much of a chance for an upgrade this Fall,  but the small chance that there may be an upgrade  is keeping me from buying a replacement right now.

Actually, I can see how  the iPad may be a replacement for the MacBook Air, or perhaps even better in a way, since it has touchscreen and can use apps.  However, I just don’t think I”m quite there yet, maybe when it comes time to replace the new one! 

I see a lot people with only smart phones who use the smart phone fro everything including paying bills, filing reports etc. and the smart phone is the only access  to the internet.  

I am always surprised at how fast time passes and it seems like we just purchased an iPhone etc. and it is suddenly obsolete and needs replacement.  

My work phone and my personal cell phone but definitely need replacement this year, but they will also be five years old, which is about 100 years old in people terms, assuming each year of an iPhone is one generation.  It may even be worse since the “operating system” keeps getting upgraded also!

That’s it for now, Thursday, August 29, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Summer August 28 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

68 Degrees this morning, 72% humidity 

Clouds all day yesterday, thought it was going to rain some more, but it never did.  Probably good, we have had enough rain for a while.  As usual we either have too much or too little.  

A good night at the ballgame last night, weather was comfortable and the game was good! 

All runs were scored off of home runs, which seemed to be the trend.  That is fun, but I also miss the strategy of the succession of hits etc. that score runs.   

68 degrees this morning.  I may feel cold during my walk!  While  there are some storms around they appear to be going away from me rather than towards me! 

While I don’t mean to dwell on it, the lying coward lunatic and his band of clowns have gotten so bad, it seems even the congressional cowards will need to do something!  Pure theft for the benefit of the lying coward lunatics business must be stopped! 

Just the thought that the lunatic will attempt to have an International conference at his bedbug and cockroach infested slum “resort” is sickening and is a criminal attempt to steal millions for his personal use.  

They criminal lying coward lunatic has already stolen millions by his numerous “golf’ vacations at this crap “resorts” in a desperate attempt to stay out of bankruptcy.  

The “governor” of this State recently stated that the people of this state shouldn’t vote on “criminal carry” because “people knew he was for it when they voted for him”. That is about the stupidest thing I have every heard anyone say.  Another attempt to stop a vote of the people! 

The governor ran on the platform he didn’t know anything about government and he is rapidly  proving it by his incompetent actions.  

I think that is the problem with having a potty mouth chronic liar criminal clown as president.  When he lies, and using lying personal attacks on his “enemies” in and steals millions for his “golf resorts” and takes illegal actions, it seems to enable others to take similar actions they normally wouldn’t take. 

The early morning is a time when I notice the time consumed by “piddling”, such as looking at the news, facebook, e-mail etc.  This morning I literally spent 15 minutes “piddling” before I got my day started.  

I think awareness of a problem is good, because then I can start to do something about it1  

There is nothing wrong with “piddling” if that is what you want to do, but I really prefer to get my journal done, my walk and exercise done etc. before I “piddle”.  

I am beginning to realize there is no such thing as “multitasking”, more on that in the future!

That’s it for now, Wednesday, August 28, 2019.

#Resist

#25thI_Amendment_Time

2i019 Summer August 27 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

73  degrees this morning, 88% humidity 

Spent last night in the basement of a ballpark as winds up to 100 mph and heavy rains poured outside!  Originally the ballpark had concerns about a tornado, but that dispersed.  Fortunately we didn’t have any damage etc.  

As before, there was a wide variety of forecasts bout when and what the storm would entail.  

Currently, more storms are coming in this morning with lightning and thunder in the area.

Walk yesterday was 27:32 minutes, pace was 3 seconds faster than my goal.  While I generally don’t keep track of my “steps”, my total steps were13,024 for a distance of 5.84 miles.  That includes my walk, walking for work (it was a field day) and walking at the ball park.

The newspaper delivery has gotten extremely bad again.  I really am starting to believe that they really are trying to get customers to stop the physical delivery so they can make more money by going to only “on-line” delivery.  

That may well be the future of newspapers, in fact it is probably the future of newspapers, but they will need t develop a better system than they have now.  

One problem is I really don’t read the “online only” delivery that much, I tend to forget about them.  Also, I really don’t read any of the ads, which is one of the primary  profit centers of newspapers and I tend to read only the headlines and miss many stories I read in a physical newspaper.  

Reading a book about the early part of WW II, the early war with Japan and China.  I  really have a hard time believing people could commit such atrocities, even in wartime. 

I think that is one of the problems with attempting to stereotype people and “dehumanize” people (including immigrants, etc.) so that atrocities, brutality and oppression can be justified by the physiological mind framework that “they really aren’t people” etc.  

Another dream that was very strong:

Dream 8-25-19

Dream was based in a city where I used to live.

The dream involved repairs to a furnace in our house, which, in the dream, was a City Hall building where I used to work.

The furnace went out and we called and had it repaired by a local Plumber. 

Then it went out a second time and the plumber (in this case it was a plumber rather than a  HVAC person, but the person (in real life) who also worked on furnaces) came out.

He gave us a bill that seemed large and wasn’t itemized at all.  I looked at it and told my wife, “maybe we should try to get someone else next time”.

I’m sure the dream relates to our recent Air conditioning problems and also I read about the death of the plumber we used in the town in the dream.   

By the way, he would never have done that, but as I say it was a dream.  I think somehow it related to the difficulty of fixing a good person for work on the house, since you could always call him and he would be out to fix things, one way or another!  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, August 27, 2019.  

#resist 

2019 August 26 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden _Nights

#My_Journey_19#

#Summer_of_19       

fe

74 Degrees this morning, 87%humidity j

Rain yesterday morning, in spite of forecast it wasn’t going to rain.  Actually rained most of the morning.  

Exercise included 30 minutes on stationary bicycle 

Start of another “work week”.  Actually with my job, while it differs all the time, there are similar tasks depending on the time of the month.  

Reading in this state about the extreme fraud of a “for profit” Charter School, probably just the tip of the ice-berg.  

I just don’t think “for profit” schools make any more sense that “for profit” prisons, which basically includes a business that doesn’t provide the service they are being overpaid to do since they are too busy concentrating on the profit and trying to show where they can ‘cut costs”, most of which are actually service cuts.  

In the end, the children are the real victims.  

The lying coward lunatic’s lies and incompetent actions are finally coming to roost on him and of course he is trying to bluster and lie and blame his way out of it. I don’t think it is going to work this time.  

The lying coward lunatic and his coward toadies are becoming completely irrational as everything crumbles around them.

What is really criminal is the way the “1%” have ripped off the tax payer and tax $ after the lying coward lunatic and the coward congress was elected (or stole or s purchased the election they quickly paid off their donors with tax $) 

Labor Day weekend is this weekend, meaning the end of the ‘traditional” summer time.  Also the last holiday until Veterans Day in November. 

Another dream  I have not been remembering my dreams, but remember  this one.  

Dream 8-23-19

Dreamed Alene came in and for some  reason I stayed in after work.  That would be hard since my office is in my house.

Anyway, Aliene must have been working on a project.  I had apparently exercised and was just wearing a wrap and a shirt I wear after a shower.  

Of course this was in a public place, not my home, so it was unusual, but, of course this was a dream.  

I was sitting at a table with a bunch of paper bags, and some decorative bags, I believe with cartoon characters and pumpkins.  

There were several other people in the room but I only recognized Aliene who was a working  hard on on something.

Anyway, my supervisor came in and whispered something to me, I’m not sure if I was dressed inappropriately (I was) or I was being too loud, which i wasn’t.  

Then he set down and watched Aliene and the other people working while I set there.

I woke up.

That’s it for now, Monday, August 26, 2019

#Resist 

2019 Summer August 25 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

73 degrees this morning, 92% humidity.  Lightning and thunder storms coming in.  

Temperature high of 86 degrees yesterday.  The conference on a huge lake, was very sultry in the afternoon when we started back!

Fight with the skunk is resuming.  I put some “skunk repellant” out again, hoping to disrupt the skunks routine, so it goes somewhere else.  (As long as it isn’t part of my walk also.)

As anyone who reads it knows, in spite of no wifi in our hotel,  I got my journal posted yesterday, via my iPhone, which I used as wifi for my laptop.  However it was extremely frustrating to have such weak internet connections.  Anymore, almost anything depends on a good internet connection.

Reading with interest about the new iPhone since I am going to be ordering one shorty after they are announced.  I usually wait until November, but I plan on ordering one as soon as possible this year. 

I especially like the possibility of the “pencil” that will work on the iPhone.  I’m not really sure how much I would use it, but I like the concept and the idea of having it.

Of course, I have dithered about buying a new iPad for at least two years now, one with a pencil etc, but I really haven’t seen any real reason to by one, as my almost six year old iPads are working fine for what I am using them for. 

Of course, my now 9 year old “original iPad” is also working fine although I can’t use it for much anymore, since it is basically obsolete.  

It may be I don’t realize how much I would use a new one with more features, kind of like the first iPhone.

Actually, my first iPhone, I originally was going buy an iPod Touch and when I saw the iPhone I saw it was so intuitive I didn’t even consider anything else for a phone,  nor have I since.  The only decision  is when to upgrade. 

Waiting for the announcement on the MacBook Air.  I don’t think there will be any announcement on that before October, so I will see.  Currently I have started just plugging it I all the time (except when I am using it) and that has worked fine.  I figure I”m not going to hurt the battery any more.  I am amazed it has lasted so long after the “replace battery” signal came up.  

Read an article about the “benefit of clutter”.  The article mentioned it can be creative to have “clutter” and it could even be considered artistic and lend some personality to your office.

My office and desk have lots of “personality” if clutter provides personality and I should be very creative!

I think it really is a matter of a little clutter isn’t that bad, but too much is too much!

I am always willing (and do) find new ways of organization, some work, some don’t.

Still working on Evernote, also happened to find my  (free) “Shoeboxed” app, which works very well for eliminating paper, since it is stored electronically. I was surprised to find many files from years ago sitting there waiting for me!  

It used to be, even as a “free” app, I could send it items to be scanned, and I did so liberally.  That option is no longer available, but it is so easy to scan items now it really doesn’t matter.  

Another thunderstorm coming in. It was not forecast, although that isn’t unusual this time of year.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, August 25, 2019.

#Resist 

2019 Summer August 24 Saturday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

73 degrees this morning, 92% humidity. 

Strange day yesterday, started off with heavy rain in the morning, then cleared up and high temperature around 81 or so.  

A rather strange experience right now, staying at a hotel without wifi or internet In the rooms!  The cell signal is good for some things, but not strong enough for my phones or iPad to act as wifi for my computer.  

I really don’t remember when I last said in a hotel without wifi in the rooms.  (They said they have it in the lobby, but it is an “unsecure” network, that Apple, in all of the ignorance, won’t let me access even though I am using VPN!).  

The lobby wifi is also so weak it is useless.  

It flat isn’t available in the rooms.  I don’t remember the last time I paid for wifi in a motel, much less didn’t have wifi!  I think I had to pay for wifi once in 2010, (when St. Louis won the World Series).  

Actually, when I think of it, we had a family reunion several years ago where I had absolutely no access on my iPhone and ATT refused to even admit they didn’t have any access in that town!  I started feeling a little wonky there also, but I believe we did have wifi in the hotel.  

Anyway, I do have a signal strong enough for the cell phones and my iPad, at least to pick up Netflix and watch “Blacklist”.   Of course “Blacklist” has absolutely no educational value, pure entertainment and unrealistic entertainment at that.  That may be why I like it so much for short periods!

I decided I’d write this in Pages, and then try to post it in my normal places.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably just post it tonight.  

Wifi is important, not as important as electricity, but it is up there.  Being without wifi, I think of all the things I do with it and can’t do without it

I am attending a conference and really didn’t realize there were still hotels as backward as this one.  I will certainly never stay here again.  

I have a strange trapped feeling, like I am caught someplace where I am in some weird world where I am closed in a box. Maybe I am.

At least I have some access on my iPhones and iPad, but just not enough to really have access, other than I can check the weather and news.  

Anyone who says we need to go to the “good old days” without internet needs to stay here for at least one day!

The lying coward lunatic has gone cold wacko, and hopefully congress will develop some courage and stop him from his insane rampages.  

There is plenty to use the 25th amendment and remove him from office for insanity  

It has been interesting to read about Kings, etc. who went insane and how the population dealt with it.  

The lying coward lunatic has sold out to so many donors, lobbyists and businesses, he actually can’t remember anything and is blindly striking out as he realizes his gross incompetence has destroyed so much, someone will have to stop in.

Waiting to get back to civilization with Internet and wifi! 

That’s it for now, Saturday, August 24, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Summer August 23 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

71 Degrees this morning, 97% humidity 

Yesterday, light ran morning, cloudy all day, high of around 85 degrees.  Heavy thunderstorms Thursday evening and this morning.  

Exercise yesterday Walk 27:37 minutes, pace was 1 second slower than my goal.  

Listening to “Deep Work” on my walk.  I thought it was rather interesting for the author to say he  wasn’t on “Facebook’, but somehow he had a response for all the people who used Facebook and (in his opinion) tried to justify it.  

I have to wonder, if he never used Facebook, how did he know so much about it? If he didn’t experience it, how can he say so much about it?    It is one of those things I think he would have been better off saying he didn’t use Facebook and maybe state the reasons people might avoid it based on his perceptions.  

Actually I use Facebook and I don’t see any reason to justify my use of it.  I certainly have no plans of quitting using it, although I do try to  avoid simply wasting time on it. 

Kind of like people (like me) who say they don’t watch tv sitcoms, but know all the plots!  On the other hand, I don’t watch a lot of shows on tv, but I still generally know some of the plots , etc., just from the mountain of news stories on such shows.  Somehow you just pick up some of it even if you aren’t interested. 

I was able to get a copy of Deep Work, which I will enjoy looking up items I either missed in the narrative or wanted to review.  

AAA ball game was “rained out”, which means we get kind a “double play” a free meal and a future game and another free meal!  That is, since there only a few games left, if we  can still exchange our ticket.  Actually exchanging your ticket isn’t hard, finding a good seat when you exchange a ticket is hard.  

While they said “sit where you like”, it is still embarrassing if you are sitting in a seat and someone has tickets for that seat!  

The game never got started, the rain was coming so they covered the field and then I assumed it rained more than then expected.  

We are looking at having a game almost every night for a week and then going cold turkey after Labor Day (the last game).  We’ll probably feel relieved for several days before we start to miss it!

Unfortunately it does mean the end of Summer as such is coming and the long phase of Winter is coming.  Of course, Fall is usually nice, but the days that I consider the real Winter, from around Christmas to mid-May is what seems to drag.   As they say, I just do one day at a time!

Our schedule of events is changing, as I decided not to go to a conference I have attended for over 40 years and we probably aren’t going to the CMA Fest next year.  Missing the Conference doesn’t bother me, I am in a different place.  Missing the CMA Fest doesn’t bother me, it is in a different place, targeting only younger people and people who spend a lot of money on partying.  

Time passes, but we do have some trips planned that promise to be interesting and a little different. 

That’s it for now, Friday, August 23, 2019.

#Resist

#25th_Amendment_Time

2i019 Summer August 22 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Summer_of_19

84 degrees this morning, 60% humidity 

Good day yesterday, some clouds, but basically clear at a high of about 100 degrees.  

Exercise yesterday, walk 28:17 minutes, pace was 24 seconds slower than my goal.  

The new walking shoes feel good, my previous shoes were definitely worn out for walking.  Considering the length of time I wear the shoes, it makes relatively little difference what the cost is when compared to the possible damage to your feet of a set of worn out shoes.  

One of my comparisons of cost is the “cost of eating out” because that is something that is a fleeting benefit (although a vital benefit in he long run!).  While a new pair of walking shoes costs more that a meal out, it still is a relatively minor expense.  

It is difficult to really compare the cost of a major expense.  For example, the cost of repairing the air conditioner was not even really a matter of debate, probably no matter what it may have cost! 

I am certainly much more reluctant to buy anything anymore that has a “cost” of taking care of it.  I think that is one reason for the increase in rentals, leasing or “borrowing”, there is a cost of ownership that may exceed the value of owning something.  

One “cost” is that it is very hard to dispose of something once you own it.  I am even still carrying around pens I picked up (probably free) years ago while obviously it would be much better to simply give or throw them away and buy a new pen if I ever needed one.    

We are certainly debating the cost of owning a house, especially since I am not a good “maintenance” person.  Good or bad, that is simply the truth, and it really is hard to find someone who will do decent quality repairs, regardless of the cost.  

A primary example was some work we recently completed on our fence and retaining wall.  Fortunately we went through a “Handyman” service that stood behind the work of it’s contractors    The first person who did the work would make appointments and not show up, which is rather typical.  Finally, he simply disappeared after probably ripping off the Handyman company.  

Fortunately the company stood behind it’s work, especially on a retaining wall, and the work was completed satisfactorily.  Of course that points out that they also had a probably finding quality workers.  

The Governor or our state appears to be acting more and more like the lying coward lunatic, recently displaying extreme “Age Discrimination” in apparently trying to bludgeon someone into resigning because they have “been around too long”, which is the classic illustration of age discrimination.  He can’t even mention where he wants improvement, just that he wants one of his business buddies to get a job. 

He regularly uses the tactics of the lying coward lunatic in attacking people in bullying playground taunts etc.

It is sad that a lying coward lunatic who is an incompetent  criminal clown is apparently setting the standards for other politicians, especially those who cater to business, donors and lobbyists on the back of the rest of the citizens.  

Thats it for now, Thursday, August 22, 2019.

#Resist