2017 Summer July 9 Sunday

60/72 degrees this morning

Experienced a “live” performance of a play yesterday, something I haven’t done for awhile.

Definitely enjoyed it and hope live plays will not be a victim of technology.  To some degree of course, they are already a victim of technology, but at last they still survive.  

Actually for a Saturday afternoon performance it was well attended.  I don’t know if it was “sold out”, but it was very well attended, although it was a small venue.

Something I don’t believe I have ever experienced before was the seats were literally right next to the stage, we were literally a foot from the “action” so to speak. It seems like it would have been tough on the players, but they were obviously used to it.  

The crowd was obviously experienced in attending live performances, I didn’t hear one cell phone go off.  At times I would look at the crowd and they were all attentively watching the action.  

Most, if not all, of the players were professionals who are full-time.  The area actually has two venues and probably six plays going on at the same time.  Each player appeared to be in two or three plays at the same time. 

It was interesting and I am glad to see that there is actually a facility for persons who wish to do that professionally can develop, it helps both playwrights, players and directors, as well as the associated support professions.  

In all honestly, we don’t support it probably as well as we should, and probably are not even aware of a lot that goes on in that area.  

The theatre we attended actually has a long history, it started in 1933 as a “barter” theatre, you had to bring enough fruit, vegetables or even live animals to equal .35.  It was a time when a lot of people had crops but no cash, and the players didn’t have any cash or food, but are willing to perform, so apparently it worked out well.

They only take cash (or credit cards) now though.  It is amazing the number of well-known  players, directors and playwrights who have some connection to this venue. 

On another subject, I have always thought the influence of your environment in your life was interesting  I have read that people who grew up around mountains get a little stressed in areas with no mountains (such as a flat area), and people who grow up in flat areas feel hemmed in by mountains etc.  

Trees may also be a major influence.  I know when I first moved to the Memphis area, the trees imposed kind of a dream like quality.  It wasn’t stressful, and I don’t know that it was either positive or negative, it was just different.  Of course, the significant reduction in wind was definitely a positive!  

After living in the area for 13 years, I had to get used to living with a different type of tree when we moved, trees that had a lot less impact on the environment (shorter, not as full, and of course not near as many).  

While I liked the trees, I also like the  wide open spaces, especially the sunrises and sunsets you can see where there are wide open spaces.  

I can’t say I like one or the other, I guess I am just happy that we have choices and that even if we live in one area, with no trees or mountains, we can always visit an area with trees and mountains and vice versa!

Again, time seems to fly.  July of 2017 is almost a third over. I guess being aware of the fast passage of time is good if it prods me into starting/completing some long term projects!  Or at least, it  gets me thinking about setting priorities for projects!

That’s it for now, Sunday, July 9, 2017.

2017 Summer July 8 Saturday

78/67 degrees this morning (78 degrees OKC), No walk this morning

Airports are always somewhat of a strange experience, certainly not all bad.  When you think about it, the passengers are all temporary residents, for probably several hours at most.  They may be literally thousands of miles away in a short time, to many different destinations or have arrived from thousands of miles away. 

I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to work at the airport, with thousands of very temporary customers a day, most of whom you will never see again.  Somehow, most of them make you feel like you are a valuable customer that will come back again.  

I have never read anything by anyone who worked at a busy airport on how they felt or how they viewed their very temporary customers.  

While I can hardly speak for them, I expect that, to some degree, they tend to categorize customers  into certain categories based on how we dress or act.  Or, maybe not, maybe we are viewed as just valuable (or not) visitors who are there for a day.  

Thinking what it must take to run a major airport, the food, the transportation (especially an airport with trains etc. to different boarding areas etc.), the security, and especially dealing with people from all areas, all cultures, all languages etc. all every day, even to some degree 24 hours per day.  Almost an overwhelming thought.

In a lot of ways, it is like a big City, except that all of the “customers” are tourists, and not even tourists, since almost  none of them stay for more than several hours.  

Meanwhile most of the “customers” are anxious, mad, hurried, or otherwise tense from spending several hours or more in a big flying tube with 50 to 300 strangers!  

Kind of makes you wonder how it all works as well as it does!  Or at all for that matter.  

I read that one of the books frequently assigned to college students (although they said for some reason not as much as in the past) is “Nickel and Dimed in America”.  

I went to Google to check on the actual title of this book, and while there happened to read some of the reviews.  Generally, the idea is a writer “went underground” and tried various low-wage jobs to see how someone could really live on minimum wage.

Of course, as expected she found out it is probably impossible.  

What surprised me was the number of critical reviews for her even trying the experiment.  They ranged from she stereotyped low-wage people (probably somewhat true) to the reaction that she “can’t really feel” what it is like (she stated that at the beginning), to criticism for having a junky car (the criticism was made that most low-wage people can’t afford a car, which is probably true) to criticism to getting a rash taken care of by her “real” doctor (the criticism was that a poor person wouldn’t be able to get any medical care or would have to go to a free clinic or the emergency room) etc.

While some of the criticism was certainly valid, or more likely, just a fact of life, the book still asserted it goal of bring to our conscious mind an invisible world (to many of us) that we never really think about.  

Of course some of the criticism was that she  was “trying to get sympathy” for low-wage people and “promoting” their needs for medical care and exposing  the practices of many businesses.  Kind of makes the point she was successful! 

I think it also pointed out  that much of the “tyranny of big business” is not by the big business itself, but by practices or policies that allow persons who abuse their positions to do so.  

That’s it for now, Saturday, July 8, 2017.

2017 Summer July 7 Friday

77 degrees this morning, no walk

Taking a short vacation today, which is always nice.  

A big difference in “vacations” from work now and in my previous jobs.  I really don’t have to check e-mail or voice mails and am not expected to.  

However, the old habits die hard, and while I’m not obsessed with it, I still manage to check my e-mail and voice mails on a regular basis even when I am on vacation.  

I always think it also involves a desire to know what is going on and to keep up all aspects of my life, even when on vacation, which I feel is healthy!

Just saw a quote “Don’t spend time beating on a wall trying to make it into a door”.  I think it is a good thought, if you can recognize when there is no door!  Probably one of the keys to success is recognizing when it is a wall and not a door, or maybe knowing when there is a door and what kind of door it is!

Self-awareness and “denial” are two traits that are interesting.  I think self-awareness is essential, but, like knowing there is a door and not just a wall, you have to be reasonably correct in your self-awareness!

Like anything, self awareness is difficult to know if you are right or not!

Denial seems to be relatively common.  I don’t think denial is necessarily bad, but I think it is a reason for a lot of problems when problems aren’t faced.  On the other hand, I think some denial can be good, since it leads to extensive paranoia!

Finished listening to the audiobook “Desert Solitaire” yesterday morning, just as I walked into the door finishing my walk.  

It is strange how often it happens that I finish listening to my audio book right as I finish a walk or right before I end it.  A lot better than finishing it right as I start my walk!

It was quite a book, one of those books again that I wonder where it was all my life!  I especially enjoyed the  variety of the the different chapters.  I’m not sure which were “fictional” and which were actually factual.

I recently got a number of books from the Library that I had read about, some old ones that I hadn’t had time to read.  

“Dark Money” is one of them, the book about how some of the big companies actually got their huge fortunes and why they are spending billions to try to extort politicians to do their bidding and how destructive this is.

It is really scary to think that a couple of extremist wealthy nuts in Wichita or Las Vegas or Houston or wherever have more influence on politicians than millions of voters who the politicians are supposed to represent!  

Others are books I read colleges are requiring for college students.  I thought it would be interesting to at least know what the upcoming generation is reading!

That’s it for now, Friday, July 7, 2017.

2017 Summer July 6 Thursday

74 degrees this morning, walk 35:28 minutes

Walk was ok this morning, pace was 24 seconds slower than my goal pace.  This morning I did realize I was walking slower, but it may have been because it is Thursday!

It may be interesting to correlate my pace with the day of the week to see if there is any correlation between the day of the week and my pace on the walk.  Interesting but meaningless to some degree and probably a waste of time.

I’m not quite sure what I would do with the information except perhaps marvel if there is some correlation between my pace and the day of he week (or day of the month for that matter).  

This journal may be a little erratic as far as time of publication over the next several days, (it is already erratic!)  but don’t despair, it will be published sometime during the day.  

Read an article in a newsletter about “personal aircraft” and how this trend may lead to personal aircraft being used more and more, if not an “aircraft in every garage”, a “shared use” or more likely an “on demand” type of service where an aircraft is always available.  

Again, I think the key to this is the development of batteries to provide for electric flight for noise and fuel efficiency reasons.

There is a lot of reasons to believe this (on demand aircraft) is  feasible.  

I remember about 15 years ago, I went to a conference where even then they mentioned that the technology existed to remotely control an aircraft so it started, took off, flew to it’s destination and landed, all without any human intervention.  

If that was 15 years ago, the technology definitely should be here today for “on demand” flight, although for safety reasons there probably would be a human who could take over.  

This could certainly affect the plans for infrastructure improvement etc., as much of the infrastructure might not be needed if “on demand” personal aircraft are developed for daily use.  

I certainly thought when I was  child that we would not be using basically the same type of transportation system now that  we used when I was a child.  Cars are much improved in a lot of ways, but are still the same basic concept, as are trains, and airplanes etc.

I really thought we would be using something like jetpacks by now, or something like a personal  helicopter and certainly have driverless cars. 

However, …. it isn’t so, and I really don’t know if it (on demand aircraft, driverless car s  etc.) will develop all that fast even today.  

Again, I see the development of batteries as kind of a basic requirement before we can have big advances in on-demand aircraft and driverless car. 

It also will take some advanced thinking by State Legislatures.  The current State Legislature thinking is to “tax” hybrids and electric cars since they don't use gasoline, where logically if they really wanted to develop a “fair” system, they would look at some kind of “miles driven” model.  Of course, apparently the kook brothers are spreading money around to try to stop development of non-gas/oil related vehicles and power etc, which says something about their thinking.  

I still think houses powered by batteries (perhaps “peak” power  and emergency power at first) powered by solar etc. is a big future trend.  

On demand aircraft may not be actually commonplace in the near future, but then 10 years ago, no one could have foreseen the impact of the iPhone, so who knows?

That’s it for now, Thursday, July 6, 2017. 

2017 Summer July 5 Wednesday

74 degrees this morning, walk 34:53 minutes

Relatively nice walk this morning.  Felt a little sluggish, maybe the humidity.  (If nothing else you can always blew something  on the humidity!).  

Pace was 6 seconds slower than my goal, which basically means it took a full minute longer for the walk today than the walk Monday.  I have no idea why and I certainly don’t notice it while I’m walking.

It depends on how you look at it as to whether it is a lot or not.  30 seconds per mile is probably not really that much in the overall scheme of things.  It could easily take 30 seconds fro me to stop and retie my shoe or to look at something, except I didn’t stop to retie my shoe or to look at something!

Kind of like the car races where the difference between first place and 20th place might be 7 seconds!  Excellence takes commitment I guess.

Of course, I could always argue that, within reason, the pace of the walk is essentially meaningless, and 30 seconds per mile isn’t going to really matter when my overall goal is not to win any races, but to maintain health, control weight and just because I like to walk.   

I have to look at any “goals” in that manner.  I may set a “goal” for a certain pace, but that is hardly my overall goal..

I could actually apply that to a lot of activities and projects and reason that many of my “goals” are meaningless in any real way (but still important to me).

For example, my “goal” for continuing to work.  Money is a consideration, although hardly the major consideration.  If it was only money, quite frankly I would look for something else.  

My work goal could be to keep a structure in my life, but I find I can structure my own life well when I am not working.

I feel I need to examine my goals for any activity that takes a lot of time and obviously work takes up a lot of my time and thoughts and energy.  Not near as much as my previous jobs, but there are other considerations.  

The “freedom” of a home office and field days is counterbalanced by the need to account for time a lot more than in a normal office job and also the general fact that I basically sent my own actions for the day within a general realm of projects imposes a requirement that I am actually more accountable than if I worked in an office.  Certainly accountable to myself.

Another reason for working is to keep my brain active, which I could probably do on my own, although I think the type of work I do keeps you challenged and thinking.  

Dealing with a range of individuals during the day also is an aspect of my job I enjoy.  For the most part, I normally am helping  them, which also is a good reason for working.  

Probably the reason I keep working has a wide variety of goals.  I don’t think it is the fear of not working since, quite frankly, I could easily fill out my days if I didn’t work with reasonably satisfying activities.  I probably would do some  other activity.  

When I got my current job, as frequently happens, I had several other opportunities.  Since i had already committed to this job, it really wasn’t an option, but at least I knew I had other options if I didn’t like the job.

Obviously, I don’t know what my goals in continuing working are, except they are there!

That’s it for now, Wednesday, July 5, 2017.

2017 Summer July 4 Tuesday

69 degrees this morning, no walk, rain

Relatively heavy rain last night, not bad in this area.  Coolish weather this morning. 

July 4,2017 sure seemed to get here quickly!  2017 is now over 50% over. 

Recently read a newsletter where the author noted that the United States has “meddled” in some way in literally every country in the world.  He mentioned that perhaps it was time to consider our military action in other countries.  

I really haven’t concluded if I feel he is generally right or not. At least he brings up the conversation.

As he mentioned “you can’t shoot ideas, you can only shoot people”.  Obviously he feels that many of our actions in other countries involved trying to control ideas, which is impossible.   I have to feel he is right in many cases.  

I guess you have to go back to the general rule that “if we have the best system it will prevail”.  

Of course, that isn’t necessarily true as shown by the current political environment in the Untied States where “dark money” can have a major control over elections, and a few extremists with major sources of money (like the kook brothers and “think tanks” that are really just guises for tax exempt extreme political machines on both sides).  

A real extreme is the Senator from Nevada who was voting what he felt was best in voting against the GOP health insurance bill and voting as his constituents (and the Governor wanted) and then the corrupt  lying bully lunatic calls up a couple of his fat cat extremist  supporters and they start spending millions on a hate campaign against him.

Of course a lying clown “fake president” who encourages violence and hate and is an obvious racist bigot and panders to the lowest in people doesn’t help.  How the GOP Senators and Representatives  and his so called professional staff can  support his antics is beyond me.   

Anyway, back to the theory of the United States “meddling” in other countries.  I really don’t know how to feel about his comments on that.  

One major trend he sees is a huge increase in “escapism”, perhaps somewhat in reaction to the feeling of powerlessness by the huge influence of the “fat cats” money in political impact is a major increase in escapism, into video games, alcohol, drugs and other “diversions”, including  avoiding reality.  

He sees a “golden age of entertainment” as people try to escape reality.  (This is related so some stocks and investments he recommends etc., although he isn’t an investment advisor as suchI). 

He brings up the (in my opinion very real) dangers of “hacking” and cyberterrorism as major trends in the future, if not the present.  Obviously he is correct that the possibilities could be a major disruption in our lives etc., as is already happening.

He feels that it is a matter of “when” not “if” there is an extended outage of the internet.  Obviously we are dependent on the internet for a large portion of our lives now, so hopefully  steps are begin taken to protect the Internet and insure some form of the internet will be available. 

I can’t say that I necessarily agree with all of this, but then I never believed that a lying extremist lunatic would be elected president either.  Certainly I never believed that elected Senators and Representatives would support a obviously corrupt liar and vote for bills that benefit the very wealthy and big companies on the backs of low and moderate income voters.  

Somehow this all relates to the “Independence Day” and American ideals.  I can only depend on the fact that extremism is usually self correcting.  Of course, it normally self-corrects to extremism on the other side, which isn’t good either.  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. 

2017 Summer July 3 Monday

74 degrees this morning, walk 34:08 minutes

Foggy this morning, made for a cool walk.  

Pace was 33 seconds faster than my goal, close to a record, and verification that I can meet the goal if I lower it by 30 seconds.  Maybe only when it is foggy and cool, but….

Like frequently happens, I didn’t even think about my pace during the walk.  Also, it is the longest distance that i walk on this route.

For some reason, my distance varies, about .08 of a mile.  If I am figuring right that is only about 42 feet, so it probably is easy for me to vary my route by 42 feet, even though it is basically the same route each morning.  Just take a cove a little shorter or longer etc.

Sitting out on the patio this morning, even with the fog.  I thought it may be too cool, but instead there is a freshness in the air.  Cool, but bearable.  

Psychological speaking, the summer is half over, although in reality the actual summer weather isn’t half over.  However, soon the sun will start setting noticeably sooner and the shorter days will set in.

The company who makes the water bottles we drink (the little 16 oz ones) must be under intense pressure to cut costs.  They now make a “case”  (of 40 bottles) without any bottom, just wrapped tightly in plastic.  

They also have found a way to make the  bottles very light and thin. 

I am sure this saves them millions of dollars in the costs of the cardboard bottom and shipping costs.  A little adds up when you sell probably millions of cases of water.  

There are consequences.  Many times we get a case where the tight  plastic and the the light plastic of the bottle changes the bottom of the bottle so it won’t stand up straight or at all!  I am on a case of them right now.  

I am all for conserving resources and recycling etc and saving on gas by reducing the weight of the wrapping etc. but….  Sometimes they need to consider the reduction in quality also.

Of course, I didn’t complain when they increased the case from 32 bottles to 40 bottles at the same price, so I guess I won’t complain now!  

“Desert Solitaire” mentions about the illusions of the desert air sometimes, and I think about that when I hear the train.

Not often, but the train is to my east and sometimes, and when I am outside in the early morning, it appears to be coming from the west.  Really strange but true.  I don’t  understand how the wind or terrain makes that happen, but it is really a strange feeling.  

Normally we don’t even hear the train, but sometimes it seems like it is right on us.  Fortunately we almost never hear it inside the house.  

Today is a work day for me, also the start of the “fiscal year”, which means there is a lot of procedures changing etc.  As usually happens, an increase in office paperwork without any increase provided in office time.  The inefficiency of big organizations.  (Business as well as government). 

Planned to write some thoughts on the latest newsletter I read about the state of the country (as usual, interesting, some I agree with, some I don’t), but I will need to do that another day.  I got off track.  

Tomorrow (July 4) is one of those rare days anymore, a holiday in the middle of the week.  I don’t might a bit, in fact I kind of like it.

That’s it for now, Monday, July 3, 2017.     

2017 Summer July 2 2017

74 degrees this morning, walk 34:26 minutes

Pleasant walk this morning.  Pace was 12 seconds faster than my goal, which is good. I may be able to lower my goal yet!

Of course, if I lower it by 30 seconds, I may never reach my goal, so I may try lowering it 15 seconds, slough that would make it xx minutes and 45 seconds rather than a flat xx minus.    I would like a goal I can occasionally obtain, but not do it all the time so it keeps me hoofing a little.

Actually, probably part of the reason I am a little slow is I listen to books rather than music.  Listening to some music can improve my walking pace a lot, although I have no real empirical evidence  for that as far as my pace.

Thus far, I enjoy my books and am so far behind I don’t see myself listening to music while I walk in the foreseeable future.  

Three years ago today the moving van appeared early in the morning and our move here officially started.  Frankly, if I ever move again it will be too soon!  We still have some “downsizing” to do before any future moves!  I’m still working on it every day!

I’m not quite sure what to say about the past three years.  Perhaps it is not as bad as I feared or as good as I hoped, but it has certainly been, overall, some good positive experiences, especially with family members.  Also, while we don’t like our house quite as much as we liked the one we lived in for 8 years with the wonderful backyard, we like it very much, which really isn’t bad when you think about it.

Strangely enough, in looking back over the past three years, I’m sure there are some high points and low points, but it is all still sort of a blur, like three years have sped by.  We do definitely notice the change though in children!  They grow so fast.

The sun hangs in the sky at night, it is wonderful.  I think one of the things i like about watching baseball (live) is that it is outside and I can sit and enjoy the game, but I also can just sit and enjoy the outdoors without any real purpose, just enjoy it.

I still need to drive to where I can see the wonderful sunsets here.  

One of our Crepte Myrtles is blooming, the other one isn’t.  Hopefully it is just a “late bloomer” so to speak!

Listening to “Desert Solitaire” yet.  His writing and descriptive skills are just amazing.  He can teak the most humdrum scene and make it beautiful and his thoughts, while I don’t always agree, are very descriptive and “thoughtful” so to speak.  I know I”m not supposed to use the same word to describe the same word but I can’t think of a good alternative.

Anything I listen too after this will seem (at least the descriptive words) boring!

Finished a novel, an e-novel I got free from Amazon, a book by a relatively new writer.  Not bad, kept my interest etc., even though it is basically just another  mystery book.  However, it was  entertaining and somewhat real life (the “hero” so to speak, had a small child he went home to play with etc.) and it  added some human descriptions without making him some mythic perfect person. 

Anyway, I finished it and it was a good book, the characters seemed alive and somewhat realistic anyway.  

Still fighting technology in my wifi and scanner.  Technology always wins the war but occasionally I win some battles.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, July 2, 2017.  

2017 Summer July 1 Saturday

74 degrees this morning, no walk (rain/lightning)

Coolish out, with some rain.  I don’t think it actually rained after I decided not to walk, but you never know.  I don’t mind walking on wet streets in the daylight, but in the dark it can be a little different.  

Even though I knew it would be July 1, it kind of caught me by surprise to actually write it.  50% of the year 2017 gone already.  

While we were actually here  3 years ago, I count July 2 as our actual “moving date” because that is the date our “stuff” arrived, furniture etc.  

Over the past two moves, we had thrown/given  a lot of “stuff” and are still getting rid of “things” that don’t use or need anymore. 

There is always the question of “need”.  Like I was advised when I was “weeding” books, with the internet etc. you can always quickly buy a book if you want it and probably get it delivered before I can find a book in my library!  Anyway, that thought helped me “shed” a lot of books  

Tomorrow also makes 2 years and 10 months on my job.  One of those cases of the more I learn the more I realize I have to learn.  

I just saw a quote by Abraham Lincoln (or at least attributed to him) that “I destroy an enemy  every time I make an enemy a friend” or words to those effect.

This also marks the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, which was a major turning point in the Civill War.  I still remember how I felt standing at the actual spot where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address and saw the areas, peaceful now, where hundreds and probably thousands of soldiers died.

Until I saw Gettysburg, I had always thought “Picketts Charge” was a victory, instead of literally a slaughter.  We walked the hill of the “Charge” and I can’t even imagine how the soldiers felt who were involved in the “Charge”.  That was actually on July 3, I believe. 

Although this isn’t a 3 day weekend, it is the next best thing, a Tuesday Holiday.  The only problem is it is hard to get anything done on Monday since everyone if gone, or at least someone is gone that you need to see or talk to!

By the way, the Crepe Mrytles are “blooming” now.  They bloom for a relatively long time, which is why I like them. 

I mentioned the decline of “brick and mortar” retail the other morning.  Frankly, it is really getting creepy seeing the decline.  I realize change will happen and I own’t always like it.

I was thinking last night there must be a way for them to provide services that internet sales can’t provide.  At the very least they are going to have to change their thinking and methods or they will simply go out of business, which is the way the market has of dealing with change. 

Real Estate (in this case commercial real estate) has always been a way to make money, that may not be true anymore, at least commercial retail real estate.  

Just thinking how our patterns have changed in the last 10 years, there have been tremendous changes in the way we live and do business.  

Watching “Mad Money”, while I feel Jim Cramer usually makes a lot of sense, I disagree with him about “bonds”.  He espouses keeping a certain % of retirement funds in bonds.  Frankly I think bonds are a losing proposition other than very short short-term bonds.  

I wold never suggest to anyone in their 20’s to 50’s the they keep anything in bonds as such, (I don’t mean cash or cash type short term bonds, money market funds etc.).  

My feeling is, keep enough so you can withdraw what you need for 3-5 years in a short-term bond fund (or something relatively safe) and the rest in stocks.  Of course you may want to get out of the stock alert for strategic reasons (stocks going down etc.) but I am talking about permanent short term living funds.   My two cents! 

That’s it for now, Saturday, July 1, 2017.