2019 Winter December 31 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

26  Degrees this morning, (feels like 19) 80% humidity

Cold and rather nasty day yesterday.  Day started at 34 degrees, high was 47 degrees, wind make it colder. 

Office day yesterday so I avoided most of the bad weather.  Hopefully today will be much better, since I have a field day.  It isn’t looking good this morning thought with a start of 26 degrees! 

My cough , etc., is much better, hopefully the medicine is working well.  I would love to get rid of it all together.  

I did order some face masks to help with cold weather.  Hopefully I can get used to driving with the face masks on.  Of course I can’t wear them into businesses! It may or may not help.

2019 will be over in just a few hours.  I really haven’t given it a lot of thought, except that the year 2020 always seemed far into the future and now it is suddenly here.  I don’t have any forecasts or qualms or even any New Year Resolutions, although I normally don’t have a New Year Resolution/s, since I kind of do that during the year.

I have been thinking of my favorite quote to repeat in December. I probably will repeat it when I retire, or have a major change in my life.

Quote from "And the Mountains Echoed"

"Now I was free to do as I wished, but I found the freedom illusory, for what I wished for had been taken from me. They say, Find a purpose in life and live it.  But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind”.

I first saw this in December 2013, right after a major change in my life and it resonated in me as what I had done for 37 years suddenly changed, literally in a few hours. 

Over the last six years, every time I review this quote I am still struck at it’s powerful message that perhaps only I can see, but if I see it still bring a tingle to my brain.  

As life progresses, I think I see the different aspects of this.  Frankly, I’m not sure if I understood the book all that well, but the quote hit me like a stroke of lightning and I will never forget how it affected me when I read it.

It relates to  another favorite quote, “The World Without End is Ending.”  I thought of this during one period when my life was dominated by an unreliable water tower that was close to be back porch, not extremely close, but close enough I could tell if the water level was low.  I always checked the water tower when I stepped out to see if it was low enough I needed to call Public Works to check.  Then one day I suddenly didn’t have to worry about it anymore, I was not responsible for it.

I saw a copy of the book in my library the other day.  Maybe it is time to read it again.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, December 31, 2019. 

#Resist

2019 Winter Decembrer 30 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_ Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

 35 degrees this morning  69% humidity 

Generally cold and cloudy day yesterday.  Not a great day, but one more day of Winter gone.

Finally gave up and went to “convenient care," which is a place our Hospital has you can go without an appointment and see an excellent Nurse Practitioner , etc., and get prescriptions if necessary.  

Anyway, I have a small case of pneumonia, she gave me some prescriptions and I feel a lot better, still some coughing but not near as bad.  Thank goodness I am feeling better.  

Today is my first day of work since Thursday, December 19.  I certainly enjoyed the vacation etc, it will be nice to get back to work and especially finish up some of the projects. 

Had our “family” Christmas today, with some absences due to illness , etc., but still very enjoyable?  It is always great to see everyone enjoy Christmas.  

I will be enjoying  the extra food for some time, which always is nice!  

Disappointed that the Christmas music has already disappeared from XM radio.  Another Christmas season soon will be past. 

Five of the eight “Work Holidays” during the “Holiday seasons are gone.  It is hard to believe eight of the eleven yearly holidays are during a 4 month season with 5 in basically a 35 day period 

One hyped item that is ever better than the hype is the cameras on the iPhone Max Pro.   The camera is probably worth the price of the phone, although I would actually pay that for just a camera. 

The camera is so much better in low light situations and the zoom is absolutely unbelievably good.  

The fact it then goes to all my other computers , etc., is absolutely wonderful, makes it very easy to use the photos.

I need to stat “weeding” out the photos I don’t need,  Digital photography encourages you to take a lot of pictures, which comes the obligation to delete the photos that aren’t so good!

One thing about the iPhone Max Pro is the ability to frame your photo so much better.  I still haven’t gotten it all learned yet but I learn (I hope) from experience.

That’s it for now, Monday, December 30, 2019.

#Resist 

2019 Winter December 29 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

 38 degree this morning  88% humidity

Miserable day yesterday, 60 degrees but  very cold rain most of the day with a fairly heavy rain.  Miserable to be outside.  

Watching the college football games reminding me again of the unique unfairness of the “targeting” call, which kicks a player out.  While I can certainly understand the need to protect the players, the “targeting” call is capacious  and judgmental and called incorrectly much of the time

Yesterday, whether called correctly or not, it basically changed the games.  

I will probably stop watching college football if the “targeting” penalty is not changed to just a yardage penalty like all other penalties.  Most of the time college football is rather boring anyway, so I won’t be missing much.  I read or work while I watch college football anyway, so I won’t gain a lot of time, but I will gain some time.

I saw an article where “Youtube” had basically  taken away the right a video maker to charge advertisers for his showings (or whatever you call it).  A lot different from my case, but the same example of making appeals difficult and just denying all appeals , etc.  To be honest, I didn’t read the article, just scanned it.  

I don’t care to watch videos, and I really don’t understand the appeal of videos.  They take time and just aren’t worth the time to me.  I don’t even like to watch instructional videos, I would just as soon use written instructions, as long as they are written concisely and well.  

The lying coward lunatic has obviously lost all sense of reality with his insane tweets and obviously pathetic  attempts to buy the next election with taxpayer funds.  Hopefully enough people will see through this insane idiot and his cowering coward toadies.

In his second term he would destroy Social Security and Medicare, and all of the “safety net” and environmental laws to  benefit and shovel more tax dollars to his donors, buddies and lobbyists.  He would have nothing to lose so he would go completely bonkers and try to destroy the low and moderate income citizens and rip off billions for his failing trump enterprises.  

The billionaire and large company tax break he gave that increased the national debt by trillions will catch up with him, as will his insane and ignorant “trade war” that he obviously lost.  This will destroy the economy for years to come.  

His appointment of incompetent, young inexperienced paid off political hacks as “judges”  will create problems for decades, probably requiring laws to remove them.

Hopefully the madness will stop at this election.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, December 29, 2019. 

#Resist

2019 Winter December 28 Saturday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_19

, 

60 Degrees this morning, 84% Humidity. Wind 16 mph. 

Temperature is higher this morning than the overall high for yesterday!  Forecast is for rain most of the day.

Miserable day (weather wise) yesterday, low of around 34, high of 50.  Little sun, windy, occasional  rain mists.

Today is supposed to be worse.  

Haven’t mentioned my cough for a while, primarily because I am tried of bringing it up.  It is still there and anytime I am around cold, or exercise , etc., it kicks in.  At other times, it kicks in for no reason.  

The Doctor called in some medicine for me, I doubt that it works, but I’m willing to try anything.  If I have a reasonable opportunity, I try to make sure I emphasize it is asthma or something like it and not contagious.

Still not feeling 100%, but not feeling bad enough to just go to bed (thank goodness).  The main thing I don’t like about being sick is the absolute loss of time from not being at full capacity. 

Unfortunately for our “family” Christmas Party, a sickness bug is going around, we may need to cancel or postpone the Party.  It will be difficult to reschedule it since everyone has other plans for the next several days prior to New Year Day.

The football bowl gams are starting, or at least the ones we care about.  I always think how difficult it must be to be “off” for a month and then be expected to perform at their pea.  I guess the good ones learn how to deal with it.   

Haven’t watched any NFL football games all season, probably will watch the playoffs, or at least the teams I am somewhat familiar with.  I grew up with the Kansas City Chiefs, but I’m not sure if they are in the playoffs this year.  I’ll see.

Everyone has their own preference as to which sports they like, which is good.  While Baseball is somewhat slow, that is one thing I like about it.  I agree there are a lot of ways they should modernize baseball, as always it is how and what is appropriate.

We realized we were short some Christmas presents today and so had to run out and try to figure out some decent gifts. That’s kind of the way it used to be for me all the time  

I think the definition of a “gift” is being something that they want, but wouldn’t buy for themselves.  Easy to say, hard to implement.  

That’s it for now, Saturday, December 28, 2019.

#Resist 

2010 Winter December 27 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

 378 degrees this morning 59% humidity 

Back to the cold weather!

Yesterday was another nice day, Sunny and cool.  Rain is coming in tomorrow.  

Kind of a day of recovery, I guess you would call it. Caught up on a little sleep, unpacked , etc.  

Preparing for our family Christmas this weekend etc, family visiting , etc., so we have been keeping busy.  

I prepared a slideshow of my Panama pictures, all 368 of them.  I still need to “weed” out some and also add in Aliene’s pictures.  I don’t know that I will add  a title to each picture,  but I would like to add a brief description to at least some of them.  

I also made a slideshow of our previous trip to the Grand Canyon.  

I like preparing  slideshows and adding music.  I just kind of got away from it.

Several years ago, I made a slideshow and added my “original” music to it as a soundtrack.  By “original," I mean I made up music of my own that I made up in the Garage Band program.  

I uploaded it to YouTube basically just to prove I could do it.

I was shocked several months laster to see some company had claimed the rights to my music.  I didn’t protest it but I should make money off of any small royalties they would receive.

YouTube has an amazingly difficult maze you have to go through to flight someone stealing your original work  stern warnings about being banned if you attempt to fight it and didn’t succeed.  

It seemed like Youtube was taking the side of the thieves.  

I proved I could do it and didn’t really have any reason to do more projects  and I’m sure any money involved was small so I dropped it. 

I am thinking of starting to compose original music again, and I want to make sure it doesn’t get stolen 

I never really tried to contest it, so I can’t complain, but I assume it was some kind of program that went around claiming music , etc., that wasn’t theirs hoping that pennies would add up to big dollars if they stole enough rights. 

That’s it for now, Friday, December 27, 2019. 

#Resist 

2019 Winter December 26 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Fall_of_10

 48 degrees this morning, 89% humidity

Yesterday obviously varied a lot, since we started off in Panama City, but basically it was sunny and nice in all places.  Temperature obviously changed a lot.  

Literally all of the day was either spent in an airplane, in an airport or going, etc., to or from the airport.  Fortunately we had good seats on the planes and at the airport.  Panama Air Security was really strict and somewhat of a hassle, but I assume they have a lot of challenges there also. We had to go through security when entering the terminal and then when boarding the aircraft. 

Looking back, it was a great trip.  Obviously the Panama Canal (in my opinion) was the top experience, but we had a lot of experiences that were close  

Certainly the lunch on the beach was wonderful, as was the tours of different parts of Panama.  We loved the old town and the modern city.  

We especially enjoyed our experiences with the Panama people.  One that sticks in my mind is the restaurant where the staff didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Spanish.  We communicated some by Google Translate, but mainly by facial expressions, hand gestures , etc.   

What was really interesting was that the server, who was a very young woman, started asking us questions about where we were from , etc., showing a true interest in us as people.  Basically a trait of most of the Panama residents.  

We could get two English speaking TV channels, CNN and BBC.  Of course we weren’t there to watch tv anyway, but I got so tired of them spreading the vicious lies, personal attacks and other sneezy scummy actions by the lying coward lunatic and his coward toadies.  

I also noted in the internet newspapers how they spread his lies, lying personal attacks and his juvenile behavior.  They prove they are lies in other stories, but why spread them in the first place?

The lying coward lunatic, a proven chronic liar, coward, criminal and speaker of vicious untrue personal attacks has forfeited the right to be treated as a president as have coward toadies forfeited the right to be viewed as anything  but two-bit coward  political hacks who cower around the lying coward lunatic making sure they tell the lying coward lunatic only what he wants to hear.

Talk about isolation from criticism and the inability to live in the real world.  Scary to think these characters are destroying the country. 

Taking a couple of days off after vacation, time to kind of get reoriented and get some things done.   

Completion of the Panama trip is actually a major shift in my life.  For the past few months a lot of my time has been spent on researching Panama for our trip.  Suddenly I no longer will be researching Panama in my spare moments.  It is like a major change in my life.

That’s it for now, Thursday, December 26, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Fall December 25 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

79 degrees this morning, 94% humidity 

Beautiful day yesterday, after an early morning rain.  The humidity dropped, the sun came out and our guide said the “dry season” weather had started.  Anyway, it was beautiful weather. 

Out last full day in Panama City.  We went to the Panama Canal Visitors Center, (which is excellent) and watched some of the huge ships go through.  We also visited some of the places and ate lunch in a local restaurant.  

I couldn’t help but think how “gray” everything will look when we get home after the green and color of Panama!  Everywhere you look there are trees, plants and flowers.

Panama City has a lot of “hills” that are actually inactive volcanos.  I don’t know how they decided they are permanently inactive.  I assume since there are trees on the sides, they are inactive, since the trees couldn’t grow on a hot volcano!

We were going to continue our tradition of eating at the Hard Rock Cafe, but the air conditioning had gone out (I assume temporarily) in the entire mall, so we decided quickly not to eat there!

Christmas Eve is a big celebration here in Panama City, with fireworks at midnight.  We like fireworks ok, but don’t see any reason to stay up past midnight.  

We didn’t wake up for the fireworks, so we must have been tired!

We had a taste of Christmas Eve traffic yesterday (fortunately we weren’t driving).  It is amazing how they drive with very few traffic signals.  It is a matter of very aggressive driving (getting into the lane or anything)  but also giving way before you get hit. As I mentioned the motorcycle delivery drivers  adds to the chaos. 

I saw the first “inverted street” I’ve ever seen today.  “Inverted” means the lanes change, and if you normally drive in the left lane, you drive in the right lane.

The inverted street was set up to avoid dangerous left turns and generally make sense, if they are marked as such.  (They aren’t.)

We “went shopping” for some Christmas gifts this year.  It was an interesting experience.  They call t-shirts “sweaters” here which could lead to some confusion. 

The ‘backpack” experiment actually worked fairly well for me and (if I am correct) wonderful for Aliene.  I think I will need to get a smaller backpack so when I arrive I will have a smaller backpack at my destination.  

I used only my iPhone camera and didn’t miss my other camera at all.

Heading out to the Airport for the trip back.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, December 25, 2019.

#Resist

2019 Winter December 24 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_19

79 Degrees this morning, 89% humidity

Yesterday was a beautiful day, 79 degrees with a high of around 87.  A brief rain at noon, which cooled things off.  Our Guide advised us this is the “dry” season and it normally doesn’t rain that much here.  The humidity didn’t seem near as muggy or maybe we are getting used to it.

We realize how international the world is  when we are advised “we seem to have   an American accent”!  This is truly an international city.  Our guide today and tomorrow was originally from the UK and somehow ended up in Panama in the 90’s.  

Saw a lot of Panama City this morning, some of the administration buildings and churches and then walk through the “old town” area, which was an education and extremely interesting.  A lot of restoration work, one cafe dated back to 1650 and a church to around 1560.  (The cafe was operational.) 

The “old town” has very narrow streets and is an amazing diversity of small businesses and high end residential as well as lower income residential.  

Panama City is a very clean city, and they seem to work at keeping it that way.  

There are some extremely poor areas and our guides have made a point of showing us them, as well as the very modern parts of Panama.  

Our guide noted that some of the existence of very poor areas are a result of structural culture. 

 Now that I think of it, this is basically the same problem in the United States, where I pay a higher income tax rate than corporations and an administration attacks lower income people and the average citizen while shoveling tax dollars to corporations, donors and lobbyists and themselves.

Our guide helped me buy a “Panama” hat.  He took it as a personal goal when he heard I couldn’t find one big enough to wear.  (This one does fit.)  I learned (I hope) how to roll it for travel , etc.  Our guide actually helped me bargain down the price, or at least insured I didn’t get gouged.  

Strange that this will the last true day of our Panama City visit.  We have seen a lot and are going to see more today.  We have been lucky with our guides who have gone above and beyond. 

The people here have been extremely nice.  Most people speak English and the ones that don’t we try to make it work, since we are in their country and Spanish is the major language.  I wish I had thought of “Google Translate” before I came so I got better with it.

I probably should have worked on “Google Translate” rather than attempt to brush up on my Spanish. Some small businesses used it very effectively. 

We ate dinner tonight at a very local small cafe, were they spoke only Spanish.  I tried Google translate and it worked what little I was able to get it to work, but I thought of it too late.  Otherwise we communicated fine, just not by spoken language.  They were extremely nice people.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, December 24, 2019. 

#Resist

2019 Winter Decembrer 23 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

 , 

 79  Degrees this morning, 90% Humidity.  (Panama City, Panama)

Heat around 84 degrees yesterday here.  No rain, although cloudy and high humidity.

Went on the Panama Canal cruise yesterday.  Actually, it was a “partial cruise”.  We took a bus part-way and came back on the Panama Canal for several locks.

It was fascinating and interesting, as well as amazing.  Of course there was a lot of hurry up and wait.  

Some really interesting facts, I”ll try not to repeat too many:

-The highest fee fro a single trip across the Panama Canal was $1,000,000+.  Still a bargain for the ship!

-A ship may wait as long as 24 hours just to get on the schedule 

-A Panama Canal pilot has to ride on every ship (including our little cruise ship).  

-The Panama Canal uses the same gravity technology  successfully as when the canal was built (starting operations in 1914) 

We went through two locks and it was amazing as we dropped 32 feet in about 8 minutes.  (we took pictures of the drop just to document it).

We had to have a partner ship (I assume due to the cost of operating the locks).  Our partner ship was  carrying frozen nitration gas which could “vaporize” if something went wrong.  They didn’t say how far the “vaporization” spread, but I assume the danger wan’t all that great.  

The cruise ship we rode on paid a fee of $4400 regardless of the number of passengers.  The maximum capacity of the cruises ship was 350 people  and it probably wasn’t even half full.  

On the bus ride to the Canal, we drove close to a  “protected rain forest”.  I don’t believe I was ever near one before and I would have liked to stopped and looked at a true jungle.  

I thought about the original construction crews on the Panama Canal, and I had to wonder how in the world they could do it.  

The narrator said at one point, the construction company building the canal (I think this was the original French), they started the rumor that there was gold in the Panama
Canal to attract laborers!  (No gold was ever found.)

On the way back we drove through the original United States Assault on Noriega Headquarters exactly 30 years ago.   

Everyone who has discussed it in Panama, refers to “Bushes” invasion.  Of course, (according to history), most Panama citizens supported his removal.  

Two days of really interesting tours/trips etc!  

That’s it for now, Monday, December 23, 2019.

2019 Winter December 22 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_19

#Winter_of_20

79 degrees this morning feels like 86 degrees , 94% humidity  (Panama City, Panama)

Yesterday was a great day, 88 degrees, a short rain mid afternoon.  A little muggy, but what the heck!

I am amazed that anyone would encourage a non-resident to rent a car here and drive.  I think it would be impossible.  There are few traffic signals, numerous one-way narrow streets.  

Driving appears to be a matter of being experienced in driving here, not to mention the motorcycle delivery riders that take impossible risks to get their food , etc., delivered.  I mean flat death defying risks!

It appears to be “drive by honk," kind of like in China.  One honk means “go ahead," another honk means “watch out I’m here”.  

It works because all the drivers seem to know what to expect.  

We had lunch on the ocean and it was wonderful, probably one of the longest lunches we have ever had!  We watched as the sun was out and then a brief rain storm, and then the sun.

We also actually watched the tide go out, I did’t realize it was that fast.  

Then we rode all over Panama City, seeing the very old, (1650, now ruins), the “new” (1870) and the modern.  A very interesting city.  We were tired when it was done!

We went “shopping” along one of the narrow streets of the city the hotel is located in after we got back, mainly numerous souvenir shops.

I was going to buy a Panama hat (by the way, all Panama hats are made in Ecuador.  I’m sure that drives Ecuador nuts!)  There are a lot of reasons for that, as early as 1835, although Teddy Roosevelt did increase the popularity of the hat and name, he didn’t start the term “Panama hat”.

To be honest, I couldn’t find one that fit well (I wear about an 8 14 or a “65 or 66, although some hats fit me just due to size differences.  

Also, the cost was much more than I expected, $35 for one and $90 for the “quality hat”.  Frankly it was way too much  for me.  I settled for a $6.00 baseball cap that says ‘Panama”.  

Actually I found the price for the Panama hats was very negotiable when I told them I didn’t want it, but who cares what it cost if it doesn’t fit?  They started to drastically some down, but I just wasn’t interested.  Maybe I’ll find one that fits and is reasonably priced. 

I got some Panama coins today when I paid cash for something.  I guess they will go into my collection of Canadian, Spain, Mexico and Chinese money I keep.  Not worth anything I’m sure, except for the memories.  I also got a very old Roosevelt dime.  (American and Panamanian money are interchangeable.)

Going on the Panama Canal today, a “partial cruise” of the canal.  It promise to be very interesting.  We will actually be on the canal at the same time as the “big ships”  The smaller ones go through at night.  We have our ponchos and umbrella in case it rains.  Fortunately the rains here are short.

That’s it for now, Sunday, December 22, 2019.  

#Resist