3029 Winter January 9 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My-Journey_19

#Winter_of_19

31 degrees this morning (feels like 26), humidity 78 degrees.

No outside walk this morning.  Walked/exercised at the fitness center yesterday, seemed to work well.  

Best of all, the swimming pool had open lanes the entire time , so that bodes well for swimming as part of my exercise routine.  (Part of the walking path overlooks the swimming pool.)

Walking for yesterday was two sets of walking (a walk to start, then exercises, then another walk).  Time was 18:07 minutes for the first walk and 17:00 minutes for the second walk.

I am still getting used to the exercises, there are a wide variety of them.  

One reason I haven’t tried walking outside is a hanging on cough and cold.  I am getting very tired of being sick, or at least the hanging on cold and cough.  

2019 has just started and January is already a third over!  I haven’t even gotten used to writing “2019” yet!

I mentioned the app “auto sleep” which works with the Apple watch.  It is really amazing, and it appears to be correct.  I haven’t even really gotten beyond the basics yet.  

Playing around with the Siri “shortcuts”.  Normal problems, but it appears to work well.  As always on this type of program, I move slow and experiment.  So far, the only thing I have seen up is my nap time, but then that is important.  

I like the concept of being able to automatically record thoughts.  I can use the Echo as a memory device, but not in the car etc.  

The “iCloud sync” sounds especially interesting since it means that the same commands are available on all devices.  

Watching the national scene with dismay as the lying coward lunatic spirals down into absolute madness and his band of incompetent cowards and thieves who are “running” the government into the ground.  

Worse is the coward congress that I’m sure will be held accountable for their cowardice and shoveling tax $ to donors and lobbyists, while running up the federal deficit to unbelievable levels.

Of course, now that they have paid off the donors, lobbyists and enriched themselves by shoveling trillions of tax $ to donors, lobbyists and themselves,  there are crying about the deficit and how they have to screw low-income people, the elderly etc. to “reduce the deficit”. 

Hopefully the ballot box will correct this madness and cowardly behavior  in 2020.

The lying coward lunatic who had completely lost touch with reality  and is surrounded by  coward “yes people” and letting extremist “talk radio” nuts run the government is bad enough.  

What is really bad is the congressional cowards who don’t stop this madness. 

That’s it for today, Wednesday, January 9, 2019.

2019 Winter January 8 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Journey_of_19

#Winter_of_19

41 degrees this morning, walk inside, 82% humidity 

Still have cough and cold hanging on (or starting again, hopefully not), decided to walk at fitness center this morning.  Also, walking at the fitness center will provide me experience in determining if it will work to walk and exercise (and swim) at the fitness center on a regular basis.

I am thinking of a combination, going to the fitness center 3 or 4 days per week and doing exercises and walking outside the other days, so I can incorporate exercises into my routine on a regular basis.  

Today is the first “real” day of a “regular” week I have been to the fitness center, which will also play a role in what I do in the future.  If it is busy and difficult to exercise, I will need to consider that in my plans.  

Outside Christmas decorations are basically down for another year (or 11 months), which means the Winter has truly started.  Somehow the Christmas/Holiday decorations and music delay the effects of Winter.  

Looking at the “Siri Shortcuts” for the iPhone last night.  I have been vaguely aware of them for some time, just got around to researching how to do it.  It appears to have a lot of possibilities, but some limitations also.  

The concept is that I can say a “start” word and the phone will perform some operations for me, like send a message, start a recording, file something etc. 

Just noted the upcoming weather, today is supposed to be the “warmest” day of the week, cooler weather, possibility snow and rain coming later this week.  They are forecasting a “cold rain”, which I assume is not a “freezing rain”!  

The college “national championship” is over.  I don’t have any problem with the game itself, but I was tired of hearing about it.  Fortunately I was able to avoid the gushing about it by using the “fast forward” button, not reading the sports pages (which I never did anyway) and avoiding any articles about it.  

I had to call about the “non-delivery” fo the local newspapers yesterday.  That makes one time since January 1 when they have been delivered without me calling about them.  

As I have mentioned the metropolitan newspaper has turned into a joke, the new owners have abandoned any idea of a decent newspaper to maximize their profit, so I will cancel my subscription including the “internet” part.  

Also, their editorial page simply makes me want to make sure I don’t support such organizations with views like they espouse.  The worst part is their extremist views and “profit at any cost) is now going to all of their news articles (those that aren’t “sponsored” articles or ads disguised as “news”.

I’ll see how my new exercise routine works this morning.  With the coming cold weather it sounds like I will be going to the fitness center for the next few days.  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, January 8, 2019. 

#resist 

2019 Winter January 7 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Journey_of_19

#Winter_of_19

61 degrees this morning, No walk (schedule), 79 % humidity 

No walk this morning due to my schedule, but I am also rethinking my exercise program.  Probably, for at least a test period, will go the fitness center and do an “indoor walk” as well as do my exercises.  

That would change an almost (if I remember right) 35 year habit of walking outside early each morning.  However, at one point (when I first started exercising in earnest againI), I actually went to a fitness center and walked on the treadmill and swim and then walk after work.  

I actually started walking outside early in the morning in about 1994.  (Before that I would walk in the evening or at noon).  I started at 5:00 a.m, than gradually slid the time earlier to the time I walk now, which I have been doing at this time for about 12 years at least.  (I started waking up earlier, but declined to walk any earlier!)

In 2000, I started riding a bike seriously after I developed plantar fasciitis, which is absolutely no fun, but I also continued walking.

It will be difficult to change from my my early morning walk (especially when the weather gets better), but I’ll see.  There are a lot of advantages to going to the fitness center, especially once I start swimming and I would still start early in the morning, although several hours later since the fitness center doesn’t open as early as I get up. 

My new exercise routine made me realize how limited my current exercise program at home is (sit-ups, lifting dumb bells and then bench presses), although I could do a lot of the new exercises  at home  also. . 

Since January 1, I have received my newspapers one time in a relatively timely manner, two days I didn’t even get a newspaper after I called.   

I made sure to call every day to document the missed and late deliveries.

The local metropolitan newspaper has turned into basically one of the weekly “free” papers.  They have fired all their staff except the ad salespersons and their sports writers (a little exaggeration but not much).  Literally 50% of the articles are sports articles that I have no interest in reading. 

Perhaps worse, about half of their articles are now “sponsored”, (i.e. ads)  just like the “free” weekly newspaper.  

Of course, there political leanings are now infiltrating the news stories so it is time to cancel.

I am also going to cancel the Wall Street Journal.  It is still a good paper, but, again, the political philosophy is starting to influence their articles and I really don’t have time to read it and they keep raising the price.  

A little more difficult decision is the Sunday New York Times.  I may decide to keep it, it is impossible to read it over the internet and I enjoy reading it.  

Start of the first “full work week” for several weeks and the first “full week” of the year.  

That’s it for now, Monday, January 7, 2019. 

#resist

2019 Winter January 6 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Journey_of_19

#Winter_of_19

50 degrees this morning, no walk (sore throat), 61% humidity

Weather is obviously much better.  Didn’t walk outside this morning, still have, or have a new cold with sore throat.  Not bad, may even be something else and not a cold

I did note the two days I didn’t go outside much, I didn’t cough etc., so that tells me something.  

Did a full exercise/walk session at the fitness center yesterday.  It may be time to switch to doing must of my daily exercise at the fitness center, although I definitely plan to keep on exercising outside.  

I tried doing some of the exercises yesterday seemed to go will.  Best of all, the swimming pool at the fitness center appeared to have open lanes etc. the entire time, which bodes well for returning to swimming on a regular basis.  

The fitness center is nice, I especially like the fact that they provide towels, shampoo, conditioner, soap, even mouthwash and lotion!  It is nice not to have to haul that back and forth and makes it very easy to take a shower.

The lockers even are “digital” locking, so I don’t need to haul a padlock and keys around either.  

Electric razor experiment is still going on.  I need to find out exactly how to clean it before I do too much more.  The company did send me an PDF of the manual, which will help.  

I have never seen a cleaning device like came with the razor so I am proceeding carefully.  It actually has a container of fluid, which I think is some type of oil, there is even a warning that it is flammable, so I am proceeding very slowly!

We have been using “Apple compatible” watch bands for our Apple Watches.  They are about 10 to 20% of the cost of the Apple watch bands and seemed to work well.  

However last night I got a defective one and almost couldn’t get it off the watch!  (I ordered two bands and one fit perfect, but…).   Anyway, no more “Apple compatible” watch bands, we’ll just bite the bullet and buy Apple watchbands. 

It is too bad because the ones we got looked good and seemed to work well.  We are talking about a big difference like 10% of the cost for the band I like, but I can’t take a chance anymore on it after my experience last night.  

Unfortunately my battery on my MacBook Air is starting to develop a shorter operational time before I need to recharge it.  Still not bad, but it doesn’t go all day anymore like it used too. The computer is about 5.5 years old, so it still is a good computer etc.  If the battery goes, I will have a decision to make, either I buy another battery, or a new laptop.  I expect I have a while to make a decision.  

If the computer is still good, it makes sense to buy another battery, since it is a good basic computer and should be good for basic tasks for years.  However, a new computer will be up to date etc. and run all the new programs well.  It may depend on when the next “upgrade” its expected. 

That’s it for now, Sunday, January 6, 2018

#resist

2019 Winter January 5 Saturday

#Purple_Dasys_and_Golden_Nights
#My_Journey_19
#Winter_of_19

34 degrees this morning, no walk, 90% humidity 

Yesterday, morning was icy but most of the snow melted during the day.  Refreezing melted snow etc., still could create problems.  It is supposed to get warmer today which should finish off any snow etc.  

Looking forward to a week of “warm” weather, in the 50’s.  Plan on getting to the fitness center today to walk and exercise.  

Several months ago, Google announced they were closing  “Google +”.  Actually I liked it and am sorry to see it closed. 

What puzzles me is that I haven’t heard anything about the procedure.  For example, are all entries going to disappear? If so, I’ll stop posting since I am wasting my time.  Strange that they haven’t provided any information on it.  

While I didn’t use many of the features of Google +, it was a well-designed site and I am sorry to see it closed.  I really don’t know if  they are going to continue some of the features or not.   

A consequence of using a product operated by a large company. 

We continue to experiment with our Echo’s.  It is fun to experiment with them.  Some of the features we depend  on (alarms, lists, timers, etc.).  I recently set up an intercom system for the house, it even supplements our security system.  I also have it hooked up to Sirius XM for music etc.  

It is fun to experiment with and learn new features.  We got a Google mini free as part of another purchase.  There are some things I like better about the Google mini, but  we already had the Echo dots set up.  

Another dream:

Dream: 1-3-19

Dreamed staying in motel room, an old building that had been renovated.

Apparently it was related to the current wether because i was icy outside, and I was working, but not out of an office.

Met a variety of people, I dreamed I was sitting in the lobby, apparently trying to work, while a variety of people paraded through.  (In the dream, they were very weird).

At one point, there were several vehicles in the lobby and a man sat in a pickup and commented about how Ford missed  by failing to “hybridize”  the truck.The truck was rising when he said it, like it was connected to the ceiling on a winch.

A woman sat on a chair and it broke apart.  At another point, I was looking for an elevator and all I saw was a wall.  

Kept thinking I needed to get to work, on my work items.

That’s it for now, Saturday, January 5, 2019.

2019 Winter January 4 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Journey_of_19

#Winter_of_19

32 degrees this morning, freezing rain, snow on ground, no walk.  90% humidity.  

Unable to walk even inside yesterday and today due to freezing rain and snow.  Just not worth the chance of falling, sliding off the road etc.

Yesterday started with freezing rain, than moving on back to snow and then freezing rain.   Still, not as bad as it could have been.  

For some reason, my newspaper delivery had become a problem.  Obviously yesterday was one thing, but ever since New Year Day I have had to call about not getting a newspaper.  Makes it easier to cancel them.  

As I have discussed before,  the major metropolitan newspaper has turned into basically an advertising paper with only sports news, and the only objective to make money, not to provide a quality newspaper.  Actually that is fine, but it is a shame and I don’t plan on supporting such an organization.  

Perhaps it is that “printed” newspapers are just no longer feasible, except that physical newspapers who provide quality news are doing fine  

The other national newspaper is expensive and I strongly disagree with their political and economic views and I have decided I don’t want to support an organization that bootlicks the lying coward incompetent lunatic.  It is starting to show in their news articles.  

Reading a book about a news reporter who got a job as a guard at a private prison.  Truly sickening how they rip off tax $ and don’t provide even the minimum of security or “rehabilitation” and are a bad joke that is costing taxpayers billions fueled by “donations” to politicians. 

What is really disgusting is the owners of the private prisons then use these tax $ to lobby and “donate” to politicians for laws for longer prison sentences  and more “private” prisons so they can really rip off the tax $ with their low quality service.  

Starting to try to use an electric razor to shave.  It has been years  since I last tried to use an electric razor.  I do have to admit electric razors  have improved a lot and I like the concept of using an electric razor. 

The one I have uses a new concept of cleaning I haven’t seen before, so I contacted the company about it. 

If it doesn’t work, at least I tried.  

Watching “Orange is the New Black” on my lunch breaks and Starbucks visits. While it is mildly entertaining, it is not even close to the quality of “Bosch”, “Downton Abbey” and “The Wire”,  I may or may not continue to watch it.

Hopefully it will clear this afternoon and the snow and ice will melt before the weekend!

That’s it for now, Friday, January 4, 2018

#resist

2019 Winter January 3 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights
#My_Journey_19
#Winter_of_19

31 degrees this morning, no walk, freezing rain, 89% humidity 

Had a short burst of freezing rain yesterday afternoon, indicating how fast freezing rain can create hazardous conditions.

In the metropolitan area, traffic was horrible last night due to numerous accidents from freezing rain etc.  

Today and tomorrow are forecast to include freezing rain and up to 6 inches or so of snow, which is a lot around here.  It is nice not to “have” to go out the weather so I can elect to work in my home office. 

Of course that also means I won’t get much exercise, other than what I can do at home. 

Had a good New Year weekend etc. (with one workday in between the weekend and New Year Day).  Didn’t watch hardly any of the college football bowl games, (actually watched 2 and kind of had a 3rd one on), but overall none of the  other games seemed interesting or involved teams that I could care less about whether they won or lost.  

I don’t believe we have watched a professional NFL game the entire season, maybe one when we had guests.  I always like to watch some of the playoff games, I will be pulling for Kansas City, even though I haven’t seen any of their games this year.  Professional football has basically become boring, there are so many other things hat I want to spend my time on.  

Part of it was the way the games are decided in “overtime”, it is strictly a matter of luck part of it is other factors.  I think there are so many teams I have no interest in watching  and obviously it is all about the money are major factors.   

Had a recent discussion on what term to use to refer to people over 55 etc. The starting age group can actually range from 50 to 65.  The term “Senior Citizen” is actually most used, I actually like the term ‘geezer” (not really), and the person I talked to liked the term “elder”.

Of course, my feeling is, why worry about any term for any age group?  The actually age is irrelevant, although I am sure there are some general common traits of age groups.  

We have started the new year by upgrading and replacing some furniture.  It has actually made a big (positive) difference in our house, although we are waiting for the final piece of furniture to arrive.  (Actually we only purchased two pieces of furniture and are replacing four pieces,)  

I have been trying to look at “weeding” our possessions with the view that the “carrying cost” of keeping it is more than the “replacement cost” of having to purchase something I dispose of.  

Also, I need to consider that, with product improvements, disposing of an item now may make sense since when I replace it, it may be a much improved product. 

That’s it for now, Thursday, January 3, 2019 

#resist

2019 Winter January 2 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Journey_of_19

#Winter_of_19

23 degrees this morning (feels like 16 degrees) no walk, 73% humidity

Temperature stayed at about 24 degrees all day yesterday and didn’t get much higher.  Supposed to get to about 38 degrees later today.  

No walk since not used to cold, but will walk at the fitness center later this morning.  Also went to the fitness center yesterday morning and walked inside after I did my round of exercises (well most of them) as prescribed by my trainer  

Walking inside is different to say the least.  At least I am getting my exercise although I like walking outside a lot better.  

Snow and perhaps ice may be coming in tonight or over the weekend.  We’ll see!  It is all still rather sketchy as to how the weather may be.  Anyway, since it is January anything could be expected.  

Today, 1-2-19,  marks 4 years and 6 months since we have moved, and 4 years and 4 months on my job.  I like to reflect on the major change in our lives that now seem routine.  

Although I realize life is lived “day by day” or even “moment by moment”, not by months or years, the decisions we  make in the “day” or “moment” impact our “day to day” or “moment to moment” living.

As I mentioned recently, I feel that pushy sales persons who try to get you to decide on a house, a car etc.  without adequate time to consider is simply unacceptable and I am not going to decide on such major purchases until I have had time to throughly check them out.  I normally have a “3 day rule” I simply don’t make a decision for 3 days. 

As an example, we have a 7 year old car we would never have purchased if we had known how incompetent the “settings” on the instrument panel were.  The design was horrible.  We had had the same model, which was excellent, and, of course, “assumed” that the design would be the same, much to our sorrow.  

There is also the “commission” effect.  An incompetent Realtor or car salesperson doesn’t really care what you really want, they just want their large commission, the additional commission they receive from an additional item is small. As an example, the 7 year old car I mentioned, had some safety items that we would have waited and purchased on another car.  

Same with a Realtor who pressures you to sell at a low price, what do they really care about 6% on an additional (for example)  $5,000 if they can make their $12,000 commission (for example) immediately?  Most probably aren’t that way, but I know from experience some are. 

Same with buying a house, a Realtor will make light of a defect so they can get their Commission.  I will never let the Realtor select the Inspector again!   

As I read once, I don’t care what someone brags about “getting a good deal”, a person who buys one car every 3-10 years is at the mercy of a person who sells several cars every week.  I think the person who sells cars or houses is ethically required (although not legally) required to research what you want, not simply try to get a commission.  Once they get the basic commission, the extras that are so important to the buyer or seller mean little to them.

Well, back to the start of the “normal” routine that happens after January 1.  I’m glad I have an office day scheduled today, with the temperature and weather!  

That’s it for today, Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

#resist 

2019 Winter January 1 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Journey_of_19

#Winter_of_19

23 degrees this morning (feels like 10 degrees), no walk, 73% humidity 

No walk this morning, although I am going to the gym to walk inside and also do my exercises.  A cold way to start the new year!

The cold weather kind of surprised me, I wasn’t really expecting until I saw a brief report last night.  May be snow at some time this week.

We haven’t planned our Winter get-away, can’t really plan it right now.  If I miss this year (actually last year was the first time we had actually done out “winter getaway” to a warm area, so it’s not like it is breaking a major tradition or anything), but I certainly would like to start a tradition!

A New Year is starting, my major problem with it will be remembering to write “2019”.  At work, there are some entries which can’t be corrected (other than with another entry making your error obvious), so I always try to double check that I put the new year in correctly!  

For some reason the newspaper isn’t here yet.   Not that it matters much anymore. 

The local “major” newspaper recently “downsized” to where it is a skeleton of what it was.  It has basically become classified ads and sports pages.  The major part of the newspaper now is actually the sports pages, which I don’t hardly ever read.  

Not that I don’t like sports, but I don’t waste time reading about them or listening to the endless sports talk.  It is what it is and I don’t understand the reason for the endless analysis or talking about it.  Whatever.  

Apparently the newspaper, which used to be a major force in the state and read statewide is now telling subscribers they are “no longer wanted” and cutting back the subscription base.  

Of course, they probably bought it on themselves by cutting staff, starting to run “stories” that are really just ads etc. and concentrating more on making money than being a newspaper.  

Probably the future of most newspapers, but the newspapers that actually attempt to be newspapers and not “cash cows” are actually doing pretty good and making a profit!  

Obviously it is easy for me to criticize, but I think the newspaper was bought by a corporation whose major concern is making a lot of money, not in being a decent newspaper, and it shows.  They are short-term oriented, which seems to be a problem with businesses.  

Have to mention a dream I had yesterday.  I just remembered the last part.  What was a little unusual was that I recognized the site of the dream, although it was not exact of course.  

I have had a lot of dreams lately, but I haven’t been remembering many of them.

Dream 12-31-18

Riding in our car (Camry) in Oklahoma City in a heavy rain.  We were going to eat someplace I believe. 

Some strange traffic, went by a man sitting in the middle of the freeway.  (right in the middle lane), a lot of stuff on the freeway.   Maybe a reflection of all the homeless people I see on my “field days”.  

Turned into a side street, the car suddenly jolted to a stop and would not restart.   I was thinking of what to do when I woke up.

Have a Happy, Rewarding and Wonderful 2019!

That’s it for now, Tuesday, January 1, 2019.

#resist