2020 Winter January 31 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

33 degrees this morning 91% humidity

Miserable day yesterday, mainly because of the cold. High was 41 degrees.  Small chance of rain today, hopefully it will remain small!

Friday last day of the week and, unbelievably, the last day of January of 2020.  As usual, the year is speeding by!

I always wonder where I will be in a year, but the time has gone so fast, I haven’t even had time to think about it!

The Canon printer I have hated since I got it apparently  failed, even though it was actually used very little.  It is a piece of junk and I am never buying anything made by Canon again.  

It has always been a poor printer and yesterday morning was jamming and not recognizing that it had paper in it.  

I don’t like being tied in to buying HP ink, (HP printers require you to use their ink) but the price isn’t really that different and for as little as we use it, we wouldn’t notice the difference in cost.  

It is one of those devices, if you need it, you need it and it shouldn’t be jamming 

We have a “Square” insurance policy on it.  I didn’t get a response to my claim, but while I was filing the claim, the printer suddenly started working again.  I still will file a claim, obviously something is wrong.  I think it was designed wrong.  

Now that I am feeling much better, it is time for me to get back to my Strategic Plan and look at my projects and making “continuous improvement” as I move through the year.  

I always think how much I could achieve if I just did a little bit each day on one goal.  At least I would be making progress, however small.  

I actually have a favorite on the Super Bowl this year.  I grew up in the area where the Kansas City Chiefs were strong. 

 For whatever reason you follow a professional team, the Kansas City Chiefs have always been my sentimental favorite.  I don’t really have any idea who the main players are, but I still will support the team. 

Ditto with Baseball, although we actually follow 4 of the Major League Baseball teams.  The Chicago Cubs, for whatever reasons you follow the Cubs. (I actually started watching them in the 80’s and Aliene lived in Chicago for several years.)  We also follow the St. Louis Cardinals because when we lived in Memphis, we saw a lot of the future stars play for their minor league team, the Memphis Redbirds.  There is nothing like having a player you have seen start his career and then watch him become a major star.  Ditto with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  

We also follow the Kansas City Royals, again because I grew up near Kansas City, although I actually followed the Kansas City Athletics when I was a kid before them moved, but then transferred my loyalty to the Royals. 

Baseball season is only two months away, with Spring Training starting in less of a month.  If nothing else, it means Summer is coming!

That’s it for now, Friday, January 31, 2020.

#Resist 

2020 Winter January 30 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Jourmey_20

#Winter_of_20

 29 Degrees this morning, 99% humidity 

No rain yesterday, but cold was bitter all day.  The high all day was only 39 degrees and it felt much colder than that due to the dampness in the air.  At least it didn’t rain. 

Don’t want to start exercising again in they weather, except for inside exercise.  

Kansas Day yesterday , something I drilled in my memory when I grew up in Kansas.  Strange the things that you remember.  I also remember the Kansas State Motto.  

The Post Office recently started allowing you to “preview” your mail, in that it will e-mail you an image of the front of your envelopes of the mail you are receiving that day.   It is amazing they can do that (and it is free).

However, I have some mixed feelings about it. Most of the fun of getting the mail is discovering what mail came, kind of like finding a treasure (or not).  

I like having it when we are out of town, or for some reason can’t check the mail, but one of the little thrills of the day is when I get the mail.

I really am not that bored or have that boring of a life that the mail is the high point of my day, but it is one of the little things that make life enjoyable.

I have always been a mail box fan.  When I was a kid I was always the one that met the mail carrier.  When I grew up on the farm, I’d actually walk to the mailbox (it seemed like a long ways at the time, but when I went back, I realized it really wasn’t that far.

I would actually get there before the mail carrier and wait for him.  

Later I would always be the one who walked to the mailbox early in the morning when we lived in a city.  For some reason, we always got our mail at a Post Office mail box, and I continued the tradition until about 13 years ago when I started getting mail at our house.  

It became too much of a hassle to go to the Post Office, or, since Lakeland did not have a Post Office, to the mail box store.  

I don’t know why I enjoy getting the mail (I still do), maybe curiosity, maybe some overwhelming need to know. 

I actually feel the same about e-mail, I really enjoy getting it, although the overwhelming amount of junk e-mail or spam kind of limits my enthusiasm! 

By comparison, I don’t really enjoy phone calls at all and never have, although they (and voice mail) are a necessary evil.  

That’s it for now, Thursday, January 30, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Winter January 29 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

34 degrees this morning, 94%  humidity

Miserable day yesterday, rain all day, hard at times.  Seemed a lot colder than the 36 or so degrees it was most of the day.  It actually got to a high of 43 degrees although it didn’t feel like it. 

At least today is supposed to not rain, although it still may be miserable. 

I am officially “released” from my pneumonia, which gives me a feeling of relief.  I have to admit, I was feeling so bad for a while, I really doubted if I would ever feel normal again.  I wasn’t feeling horrible, just bad, it is difficult (or impossible) to explain.  

Anyway, I am ok now and now I want to take sure it doesn’t happen again.  You don’t know how good you normally feel until you feel bad for a while. 

I am glad today was an “office day” for me.  To be honest, it would have been an “office day” even if I had planned otherwise!  Fortunately I have some flexibility in that area as far as having an “office day” in bad weather.  

The “office day” work is always there, as we don’t have enough “office time” to get all the paperwork, followup phone calls , etc., we have to do.  

I saw an article about the danger of large batteries burning and exploding.  Obviously a concern where very large batteries (or small for that matter) are used.  

Firefighters are actually developing new ways of fighting battery fires, since the fumes  are toxic 

Many of the problems are caused by shoddy made batteries, bad installations etc,  but it still is dangerous.  It does mean that probably the problem can  be resolved with better manufacturing, installation, etc.  

I noticed even AA and AAA batteries are very different.  I bought some remote controls (for the Echo’s) that had Amazon batteries that went out almost immediately, so I now just replace them with decent batteries. 

As I have noted before, I think it is important for our homes to be “battery powered” so we are not relying on the electrical interconnect.  Batteries subject to burning aren’t going to help progress in that area!

Like any big advancements, continuous improvement is necessary and battery power will be no different.  

I’ll keep watching and researching this, since it is a personal interest of mine.  I know absolutely nothing about batteries and how they work, but I am interested in how they can be used to meet our power requirements and avoid depending on large scale electric distribution that can be disrupted at many points.

That’s it for now, Wednesday, January 29, 2020. 

#Resist

2020 Winter January 28 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

44  degrees this morning 85% humidity

Wonderful day yesterday, got up to 68 degrees although there was a coolness in the air.

Today it is supposed to rain with a possible chance of a light snow.  Just to let us know Winter is still around!

Going in for (hopefully) my final checkup on my pneumonia.  At least I have learned to spell “pneumonia”!  

Hopefully can get started with regular exercise again, although I will use care and learn to stop if I start coughing again.  It has been wonderful to not have any coughing or other cold symptoms for several weeks!  

Preparing for a short “Spring trip”.  As usual I am spending a large portion of my time planning for the trip!  Actually have it planned except for some final details.  I always try to avoid “over-planning” activities.  

Kansas dodged a bullet when the current Secretary of State decided not to run for Senator for Kansas.  Not that he would win, but his lies and threatening the news media means he shouldn’t hold any public office.  Attempting to destroy NPR because he can’t hold his temper or hide his lies is a gross abuse of his public office. 

Of course that is standard behavior anymore with the bad example since by the “leadership”.  

The current virus scare will probably be over soon.  However, every time this happens, it always makes you wonder if “this time” is the time that there is a virus that can’t be cured.  Hopefully not.  

The governor of our state is at it again, proving he doesn’t know anything about government.  He ran on the platform he doesn’t know anything about governing and he is proving it every day.

He proposed combining the turnpike and transportation departments so “turnpike toll payers can pay for roads in rural areas”.   I expect the bond holders may have something to say about that!  

Sounds like the  cell phone fees we pay for “remote areas," for technology in schools and to subsidize cell phone fees.  It turns into a racket that companies have learned to rip off for huge profits while it actually benefits few.  Meanwhile the “subsidy fees” we pay are rapidly becoming higher than the actual phone usage fees!  

Nothing against better roads for rural areas, internet/phones for remote areas or technology for schools etc, but why not just do it the right way?  If it is something the government would do, use taxes to pay for it!  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, January 28, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Winter January 27 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

35 Degrees this morning,   97% humidity

Exercise, 30 minutes stationary bike this morning 

Generally good day yesterday.  jAs seems to be the norm, it was cold in the morning and warmed to 62 degrees during the day.  

I’ve had a problem with the chargers provided by Apple with their devices cracking and eventually quit working.  They probably have actually lasted years, but I didn’t really want to pay $30 or more from Apple for a charger wire that would actually work.  

When trying to find an inexpensive replacement, I found there is a lot of “junk” out there that actually won’t work.  

I was able to find an inexpensive cord (without the actual charger, I have plenty of them and many USB connections).  It was described as “Apple certified," so I purchased one just to be sure it worked.  

After I found out it does work, I ordered several more so I could have enough connector to charge my Apple devices.  

I have several devices that have a USB port that I can use to charge my phones, and I carry one in the car so if I run out of battery on my iPhone or iPad I can charge it.  

For some reason, my iPad  won’t charge off of my car charger, which is one reason I needed something else. 

Start of another work week.  Going to be a busy week, which is good since I like being busy. 

Watched a 60 minutes show on the “photo ark” last night.  The photographer is trying to photograph every species to have a picture of them.  It was amazing how excellent his pictures were.  

Yesterday morning I watched a portion of “Blacklist” that had a plot where someone used “killer bugs”  to kill people.  Apparently this has some basis in history, at least plans to use insect and bugs as weapons of war.  

If you think about killer insects, cyberattacks, attacks on our power and food distribution systems, the lying coward lunatic allowing more pollution of our environment to get more donations from the companies who “benefit” and the relaxed inspection of our food, airplanes, etc., the world can seem like a scarier place!  

Probably the attacks on the “news media” by the paid off politicians and criminals running our government is of the most concern.  The lying coward lunatic and his cowering coward toadies are scared of a “free press” that exposes their criminal activities, ignorance, negligence and self-serving actions.  

That’s it for now, Monday, January 27, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Winter January 26 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

37% degrees this morning, 87%hu#midity 

Started off cold yesterday, high of 61 degrees, relatively nice day.  Supposed to be bad weather coming in again, we’ll see.  

Sometimes spellcheck is almost more trouble than it is worth, especially when it is “automatic”.  Nothing ever real embarrassing has happened, but frequently it can change a word without me knowing it, either not making any sense or changing the meaning of the sentence.

Friday I texted someone and “spell check” changed the word, even when I went back and corrected it!  What concerns me more is the “incorrect corrections” I don’t know about!

It seems they ought to have something that either quits changing the word after the second time, or something that asks “is this correct” or something like that.  

Download a “kindle” book to the kindle app and couldn’t get it to download to the actual  iPad.  After calling Amazon (an experience in itself), I deleted the kindle app and reinstalled it and it worked!  

I didn’t dare call Apple support or they would have tried to “back up, clean and restore," which I wasn’t about to do. 

I had started to make a reservation at the “genius bar” when I thought about deleting and re-downloading the app.  

Some days something clicks and you do something right!

I mentioned in my “Panama Journal” about using a backpack for the first time.  It was convenient enough that I bought a small “backpack”  (actually a :”sling” backpack. 

I liked the backpack I took to Panama, but realized I needed a smaller one.  For $25, I figured I couldn’t lose more than $25!

I really got it to take to the baseball games. I can carry my iPad, an extra hat, several  rain ponchos, an umbrella, a charger, some small bills, and my tickets , etc.  

I am already using it in my daily living, since it is convenient to carry my iPad, pens, my computer , etc., in one secure place.  

I plan on using it in days when I am “in the field” and take a lunch break, I can put my computer and iPad in the small backpack and take it into the restaurant or coffee shop and not have to worry about dropping them.  

Perhaps most important, I can carry a battery charger in case my iPad or iPhone battery  goes down!

That’s it for now, Sunday, January 26, 2020.

2020 Winter January 25 Saturday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

33 degrees this morning, 84% humidity 

Cold yesterday, but overall not bad, little wind and basically sunny

Glad the weekend is here.  As I have noted before, I love my job but I also like my time off.

Continue doing well as far as my coughing, little or no coughing.  Only anyone with a chronic cough can understand what a relief it is.  

I don’t know if it is the antibiotics, the Benadryl  or something else.  Hopefully whatever it is is permanent. I’ll see.

I haven’t started walking yet, I am getting back into exercise.  The big test will come when I walk or bike outside.  If I start coughing, I probably will need to change my walking patterns, no matter how much I will miss it.  I’ll see.  

As I have mentioned before, my morning walk means a lot more than just a walk.  It meant a chance to think, to listen to a book, and if nothing else just enjoy the physical effort of walking outside. 

Ditto with riding the bicycle , although I don’t listen to anything when I ride, and it is a completely different physical effort and environment.  I really just enjoy the feeling of gliding flow I feel on the bike.  Hard to explain, as they note, you have to do it to explain it. 

Actually got to use our home warranty, they didn’t say it was “lack of maintenance” or that it wasn’t covered.  The turning function quit working on our microwave.  Apparently at least one motor quit working.  I didn’t have any idea that the microwave had two motors just to operate the turning mechanism.  

I still remember the first microwave I saw, it was at the Kansas State Fair and it was considered a miracle.  If I figure right, that has to be more years than I care to think about, so the microwave has now been around for a long time! 

Sometimes I think about the children born now or recently, growing up with computers, smart phones, terrorism, robot vacuum cleaners and mowers , etc., and I wonder how my life would have been different.  

Not that I care to find out!  My sister mentioned that maybe when we are faced with a decision, whatever decision we make, “Alternate universes” are created for the decisions we didn’t make.

I doubt it but it is an interesting concept! 

That’s it for now, Saturday, January 25, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Winter January 24 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Days

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

37 degrees at 3:53 a.m. 77% humidity 

Miserable day yesterday, it was in the high 40’s, low 50’s, but the wind made it very miserable!  It was sunny, but the wind seemed to be especially vicious!

Friday. Somehow, some “4 day’ weeks seem to be more like “7 day” weeks.  I’m not quite sure why the week after a 3 day weekend frequently seems to move slowly.

Cox cable raised our rates about 10% last month and then another 10% this month!  Time to start looking around for another internet/cable provider!  

What is worse, when you call, their customer service it  is the worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with?  Kind of “we don’t really care what you think”.

Of course the FCC would say they “aren’t a monopoly," there are other choices, so they can jack up their rates at well.  

Obviously cable companies “donate” to politicians and are getting a tremendous “return” on their “investment”  

What is really disgusting about the recent tax giveaway to big donors, lobbyists , etc., is that not only are we paying for a huge tax giveaway shoveling tax $ to them, while we pay more, there iare also the “hidden” taxes.

The “hidden taxes” are  the billions of tax giveaways “purchased politicians” recently gave to the drug companies.  

Also the lack of regulation on our food allows food companies to vastly increase their profits while selling food that is making people sick or even killing them.  

Ditto on the decreased regulation of banks, coal, oil and gas companies , etc.  A huge ripoff of the middle class “purchased” politicians. 

I recently read where companies who have ripped off millions or billions by the tax giveaway that is paid by debt are now “donating” to the lying coward lunatics campaign and his toadies in the hopes of continuing the ripoff.

Of course the lying coward lunatic is now “reversing” himself and is threatening to ripoff medicare and social security to pay for the tax giveaways to donors, lobbyists and the fat cats that has increased the national debt by trillions of dollars. 

Anyway, enough of “venting”.  It really disgusts me, but I can’t do much about it.

Feeling much better, not coughing at all.  Waiting until I quit taking antibiotics to see how I feel before re-starting serious exercise.  I am starting on the stationary bicycle and starting my weights and will go from there.  

That’s it for now, Friday, January 24, 2020.

2020 Winter January 23 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

40 degrees this morning, 97%  humidity

Nasty day yesterday, rain most of day (at least it was just a mist), high was only about 39 degrees.  Could have been worse!  

The good thing is that we probably only have about 45 days of really nasty weather left, then there is a slight chance of nasty weather in March.

Saw the ending of the K State and KU game.  Too bad for both of the schools, the team members and the coaches.  

This is on top of something I saw on the news about parents fighting at a school or little league game and a father actually attacking a wrestler.  Maybe we are taking sports too seriously.  

It also could just be the nature of the times that people are more prone to violence, look at the poor leadership at the national level where violence is condoned and the president brags about being a “counter puncher” (whatever that is, sounds kind of scummy) instead of a leader.  

We definitely need another President who isn’t a chronic liar, among other negative things.  

Anytime something like the coronavirus spreads, I think about the limits of medicine and the change of a “superbug” that cannot be stopped by medicine.  

I remember reading the book “Hot Zone” about ebola.  I really wondered why I hadn’t heard of that before and I think of it anytime a new virus starts or a new ebola epidemic breaks out.  

Kind of like our integrated and interdependent electric, transportation and now computer systems.  All it takes is one “weak link” and the entire system goes.  

I read in a Newsletter where the author says there is a good chance a cyberattack will disrupt the internet and computer systems for a period.  

I think of all the actions I do on computer now, it is definitely a concern.  Banking, taxes, work, e-mail, even our cars and houses could be disrupted because of all the computers we have that are connected to the internet.  

It may well be true that the “wars” of the future will be conducted in silence as they make vicious cyberattacks.  Of course they are already disrupting our elections and I hear of computer fraud with people stealing literally millions of dollars from banks , etc.  

One thing I can’t understand is the lower form of  fraud where people are asked to get gift cards to pay.   I can’t even imagine doing that, but I’m sure I’m gullible in other ways and I need to keep aware!

That’s it for now, Thursday, January 23, 2020.

2020 Winter January 22 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights 

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

35 degrees this morning 95% humidity, light rain.

Relatively miserable day yesterday.  High was 44 degrees, some wind.  

However, it will be worse on Wednesday, with rain and a chance of snow, which makes it really miserable.

Field day yesterday.  Have an Office Day today, sounds good except I have a meeting, although if it is really bad I expect it will be postponed.  

Started to work on income taxes.  As usual it is somewhat of a like/hate relationship.  I enjoy the process of preparing the income tax returns, it infuriates me that we have to pay such a high percentage of our income, more that even the “rack” rate that companies pay, not counting all of their deductions, 20% tax free for LLC’s , etc.  

Definitely evidence the “tax cut” was simply an effort to shovel tax $ to donors, lobbyists and their rich buddies who will “donate” funds to the politicians.  

Meanwhile, we pay a higher rate and see the national debt increase by 3 trillion dollars that we or our children (for generations) will have to pay while the fat cat corporations, hedge funds etc., get huge tax breaks and buy themselves another jet and a 6th home with the tax $ shoveled to them on the backs of the middle class.  

Obviously I don’t really know how they spend our tax $, but I read about a group of relatively young business persons ordering $6,000 bottles of wine.  Sick. 

Anyway, I am merely repeating what everyone knows.  I use Turbotax now (and have for years), so it is a lot easier to prepare the tax returns.  

Also, since they “simplified” the tax law, we have to pay higher taxes since we can’t deduct our house interest, home office and work expenses , etc.    

Another item I can’t do anything about, so I’ll just hold my nose and pay the taxes and remember how to vote in November!  

Actually got my MacBook Air to the point that all of my current photos are “streaming” to my MacBook Air, which is what I really wanted.  Actually, they go back about 2 years. 

I have a 1000 Gig exterior hard drive, which has too many pictures on it to fit my hard drive.  I have about 111 gig of pictures on the exterior drive, which is more than I have left on my 250 gig MacBook Air hard drive!  

I probably will let sleeping dogs sleep and not try anything more.  When I upgrade in several years, I’ll get a larger hard drive and move the pictures to the hard drive. Since I have the pictures on the desktop and devices, it really doesn’t matter. 

That’s it for now, Wednesday, January 22, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Winter January 21 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Winter_of_20

25 degrees this morning, 73% humidity 

Cold yesterday, although relatively nice since little or no wind.

End of the 3 day weekend, start back to work today.  Not bad, although the 3 day weekend was very nice. 

Took my MacBook Air in to the Apple “genius bar”.   Didn’t get it fixed, but made some progress.  The genius bar person was excellent, and worked with me for several hours.  I have a lot of actions to take before I get it completed. 

I am glad I took it to the Genius Bar, I would never have even got as far as I got to resolve the problem by calling the “800” number.    

I think the people on the “800” number are simply reading from a manual, so they really don’t analyze what is wrong.  They always want to “back up and restore," which takes forever, messes up all of my web sites and almost never resolves the problem!  I just refuse to “back up and restore” anymore. 

I found out that I probably should have ordered a larger hard drive, although I think the price  jump from 250 gig to 500 gig, almost makes it infeasible  to purchase the computer, if I remember correctly.

I understand Apple may be  coming out with a MacBook Pro that has a touch screen. I don’t understand why Apple hasn’t come out with a touch screen a long time ago.

The iPhone Max has allowed me to take relatively decent pictures of my Hot Wheel’s cars.  It is an amazing camera.  

I have resumed taking pictures of my Hot Wheels cars.  I hope to get pictures of all of them, although at the pace I’m going, it will probably be several years before I complete it, if that.  

It’s not something I worry about, I’ll get it done when I get it done. It is a little relaxing project I can do on an occasional basis.  

As I have mentioned before Apple “Pages” (similar to Microsoft Word) doesn’t have a great spell check, or maybe I need to learn how to use it better. 

The spell check does always point out my sentence fragments, but I don’t really care about that.  Communication is communication.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, January 21, 2020.

#Resist