2018 Fall December 9 2018

33 degrees this morning, 67% humidity, no walk

Almost walked this morning, but decided to follow Doctor’s suggestions and not walk until after medicine is taken.  I thought a short walk may not hurt, but I don’t want to take the chance of a relapse.

I am feeling much better, even not coughing as much.  

If my Mom was still alive, she would be 106 years old today.   I look at her papers of when she was a young girl, in college etc and read about her hopes and experiences and wonder about the the shortness of our lives.  

I’m not sure what “wasting time” is, maybe there is no such thing if you are experiencing life as you want it.  

There are a lot of sarcastic (and similar) comments about the weather forecasters.  I am glad they “called it the way they saw it”  

Some people were concerned about the “the boy who called wolf” syndrome, but I think they need to call any sign of a storm they way they see it.  The dangers of an unexpected storm are just too high.  

If nothing else, grocery stores are happy and many residents  have a full supply of food on hand!  Also, the storm simply shifted (and was less than expected, it wasn’t like it was a deliberately false forecast.  

We were ready for a weekend of spending time inside, so we were glad to be able to go outside!  (Even if it was at or below freezing all day!)

Saw some information about new techniques for making biodegradable plastic.  In this case they were making plastic from “crab shells” and other products that would be wasted.  

As with many such advances, it is too expensive to do it now on a mass basis because of the cost, but you never know.  

Since plastic is relatively easy to recycle, it seems it would be quite as much of a problem but I expect there are factors I am not aware of. 

I save the plastic bags the newspapers come in and I am always surprised how fast they get very bulky and are an amazing amount of material.  I just hope it gets recycled.

I still remember the movie “The Graduate” where he was told the “future was in plastics” and everyone nodded wisely!  

Probably trying to find the next “miracle product” is one of the most unproductive ways of spending your time (unless you find it).  

I watch/read about stories of how detectives/Police Officers try to solve crimes.  Much of it is unproductive, time consuming work, but usually worth it if a breakthrough happens.

I think that (having to spend so much time on false leads”, would probably drive me nuts!  

In my current job I have a number of cases where I do spend a small amount of time on “false leads” but I also know the feeling of accomplishment when I resolve a problem! 

Hopefully will be able to start walking soon, although now it looks like it could be as long as next Saturday.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, December 9, 2018. 

2018 Fall December 8 Saturday

33 degrees this morning, no walk, 79% humidity

Cold this morning, but the ice and snow storm are just to the south of us, maybe 3 miles.  It can stay there!  Hopefully it won’t come this way.

Even where the ice and snow is, it is a lot lighter than they forecast, thank goodness.  

Weather forecasting must be frustrating, so much can change so fast.  Of course, it is a lot more accurate than it used to be.

I still think it is surprising that we (certainly not me, but scientists, inventors, meteorologists, etc.) haven’t figured out a way to control the weather, or at least minimize some of the harsher effects.  

Like robots, artificial technology, gene editing etc., controlling weather is another technology which has a lot of potential for good, but also a lot of potential for evil.  

Probably controlling these advances could be as hazardous as just letting them develop.  Somehow “control” always turns to the advantages to the persons “controlling” the technology.  

Dream this morning (didn’t keep a record of it), a very weird dream where I looked around at various people and situations i my life and was thinking ‘who am I and how did I get here”?  

Perhaps a good question, but the dream didn’t give any answers!  Actually, this isn’t really a question I have asked myself, maybe my dream was a sign I need ponder the question.  

What is strange, I didn’t really recognize anyone in the dream, I do remember my granddaughter in the dream, but even she didn’t look like herself.  

Actually, this is something I rarely consider, maybe I should.  I never really believed in “review the year” type exercises, I felt my time was better spent on “look forward to the coming year”.

However, I do believe, actually very strongly, that we can learn from history and we need to learn from our failures as well as our successes.  

No reason to fail at something if you don’t learn from it!  Same with mistakes, the purpose of mistakes is to learn something from it!

In a way a snow/ice storm is about like a trip on an airplane.  I may not like it, but I have this feeling that it is also an opportunity to get reading etc. done since I can’t do anything else! 

That’s it for now, Saturday, December 8, 2018.

2018 Fall December 7 Friday

34 degrees this morning, no walk , 67% humidity (feels like 27 degrees)

Hoped could start walking this morning but the Doctor said to wait until I completed the medicine therapy, which means next week.  He extended some of the medicine.  

Original forecast was for ice and snow this weekend, but I noticed that it appears the percentage  chance of snow had substantially reduced. Which doesn’t upset me one bit!

Hearing more and more about the role of robots, artificial intelligence, machines etc. in the process of displaying human beings in the workplace etc. 

I have always thought that robots etc. would eventually make our life better by displacing drudge work and assisting us by allowing us (humans) to do more interesting and challenging work.

Of course, “interesting and challenging work” is defined by the individual person,  but even around the house there advancement of machines (such as computers etc.) and machines has substantially increased our leisure time.  

We are listening to Michelle Obama’s autography.  It is a fascinating book, made even more so so she is reading it herself and we know what the future is.  

Regardless of your political beliefs, it is, if nothing else, a fascinating perspective of a part of American society I was not familiar with, from the perspective of a person who lived through it.

In the book, she mentions working in a bookbinding company for a short time and mentions it was quite an incentive for her to do well in college.

I know the feeling since I worked in a factory for summers while I was in college.  While I am glad I had the experience, it was definitely an incentive to do well at college.  I got the same incentive in early high school when I was mowing yards and realized I didn’t want to do that for a living!

A “driverless” truck, etc. could have a significant impact on the labor force, but it also may open up other jobs that may open up other opportunities for drivers etc.  

I didn’t realize how much my life had changed until a meeting yesterday where I sat for 6 hours. While it was good information, it has been a long time since I sat in a six hour meeting!  

Add to it that I am mildly claustrophobic, and the longer I sat there, the more I resorted to “deep breathing” to reduce the mild claustrophobic feelings.  Mild when I look back at it.  I just tried to keep my mind on other matters than concern about the closed in feeling.  

Being used to setting my own work activities during the day, including breaks etc., the experience at least reminded me of how good I have it!

That’s it for now, Friday, December 7, 2018.

2018 FAll December 6 Thursday

47 degrees this morning, no walk, 57 degrees humidity

“Feels like 41 degrees”, 13 mph wind.  

Hopefully will be able to start walking tomorrow morning, although it may be too cold and with a “winterly mix” by then!

Winter storm supposedly coming in this weekend. Scheduled to start tonight, although now it sounds like it may be may be Friday afternoon before it really starts.   Cold air, ice and then snow.  In this case, it’s not likely one of those storms that the wind changes and it goes around us or whatever.  

Saw on one of my spam e-mail this morning the phrase “It’s not what you know but who you know”.

The thought may have been why it was a scam e-mail.  I believe it was a spam e-mail for LInked-In or one of those programs.

I have to disagree with the concept, although “who you know” is probably part of the process, “what you know” hardly is irrelevant.  I think it takes a combination.  

I have basically quit using Linked-In, I’m sure it has it’s purpose, I haven’t even looked at my page for a long time.  It can be a valuable resource for many, but for me, it had just become a bunch of sales pitches.  

However, while  “who you know” is important, it is very misleading to imply that “what you know” isn’t important.  It simply is not true.

The services of George Bush certainly illustrated the low-class incompetent, coward liar who currently is President.  While I didn’t agree with Bush on a lot of things, at least you could respect him.  

Seeing a lying coward lunatic actually attempting to salute him made me cringe.  

It certainly emphasized the gutter, pandering methods of the current President.  

As I have mentioned before, what really floors me is the congressional bootlicking cowards who enable a lunatic president to destroy the United States with his cowardly lies and incompetent actions.  

Of course, you can look at Wisconsin and North Carolina and see what criminal crooks have been elected. Destroying the from of government just so they can stay in “power”, and when the voters vote the criminals out they probably will scream “vote fraud”, just like the lying coward lunatic.  

Thank goodness for the legitimate news media which doesn’t bootlick a lying coward incompetent lunatic just so he will throw some tax $ their way.

The actions of the criminals in Wisconsin and North Carolina is actually traitorous.  Hopefully the courts will stop it, no matter what party or group is involved in attempting  to destroy the democratic system.  

That’s it for now, Thursday, December 6, 2018.

2018 Fall December 5 Wednesday

26 degrees, no walk, 84% humidity “feels like 20 degrees”

No walk again this morning, still don’t feel 100%, even if feeling a lot better. With the temperature I may not have walked anyway!

Probably as bad as being sick at it’s worse, is the continuing nagging feeling of not feeling quite 100%!  

While i obviously didn’t like the feeling of wanting to sleep all the time (that only lasted several days), I really don’t like the feeling of continuing not to feel “quite” well but feeling well enough to function otherwise!  

Miss walking and exercise.  Since I’m not supposed to walk until Friday, and the  weather is bad over the weekend, it will be next week before I can start walking.  

What I really want to avoid is for the “normal” to be to not walk and exercise.  So far that hasn’t happened, but the cold temperature etc. all adds to discouraging walking!

I’m not too worried, I have had periods before where I couldn’t walk and I resumed to regular walking without any problems.

However, like they say about a frog being boiled in water (if the water brought to boil slowly, the frog doesn’t realize it until it is too late), I don’t want to gradually slip into inactivity and the trap of not feeling well so I don’t do anything. 

One problem I have is that I tie all of my exercise into one time frame (i.e., walk, situps, weight lifting etc.) so if I don’t walk I don’t do anything.  

I’m going to change that process.  

Aliene and I are planning to start working with “trainers” to help us exercise the right muscles and, more important, the right way.

I have never used a trainer before, so it will be interesting.  Actually I like to follow my own path, so I will need to make the necessary adjustments to follow instructions etc!  

Since I was sick, our original schedule was changed, but we will have a “demo” training session soon.

The major problem with group exercise classes etc. is that the leaders tend to forget that we aren’t 25 years old and exercises that benefit us are different!  

Of course, ever since high school, I tend to stay away from “group” exercise sessions anyway, no matter how beneficial!  I don’t think I have been in a voluntary group exercise since and I doubt if I will start now!   

That’s it for now, Wednesday, December 5, 2018.

2018 Fall December 4 Tuesday

27 degrees this morning (feels like 20), no walk, 74% humidity 

No walk this morning, still having effects of cold.  (In this case the Doctor did advise not to walk in cold weather until I was better.)

Thinking about recycling. Recycle cart  the other day was full, have to think about getting another recycle cart, which is fortunately available at a relatively nominal cost.

Like any possession, the hassle is that we have to find a place for it etc.

Recycling material is getting a lot more difficult (and expensive), hopefully this can change in the future.

This is the time of year when either I upgrade to the latest edition of the iPhone or decide it is too late and time to wait for the next edition!  

My phone is certainly still operating acceptability.  Of course I have noted that it does seem slower, which is normally the first tip that I am starting to at least subconsciously  starting to think about buying another phone.  

I think in the back of my mind I am always thinking, “what if the next upgrade has a truly inventive feature I just have to have”.  

With the iPhone, unlike cars or tv’s etc, you just go ahead and upgrade!  

On the other hand, you also can upgrade and then decide you simply don’t like the new phone, it is more difficult.  (But still not as difficult as buying a car or tv you find you simply hate!).  

I always resent the car dealer (or especially the Realtor) who expects you to buy something after a first drive or visit.  

I always think, I have to live with this for at least 3 years, probably 7-10 years (or in the case of a  house a lot longer), why am I expected to purchase it without adequate consideration?  

Of course, the answer is they want it for their convenience and profit, it has nothing to do with what I want or my needs!  

In any buying decision there is a point you need to “pull the trigger” and make a decisions, but I think to avoid “buyers remorse” you have to be able to say “no” a lot more than “yes”!

I have, and I have seen, people develop what I call “new car fever”  (or new truck fever) where the main focus of your life at that point is researching and buying a new vehicle and research etc. takes up a lot of time until the decision is made!

I try to stay out of the “new (name it) fever”, but it is difficult to avoid. 

That’s it for now, Tuesday, December 4, 2018

2018 Fall December 3 Monday

31 degrees this morning, no walk, 85% humidity 

No walk this morning, as I continue to recover from my respiratory bug.  Feeling a lot better than last week, some coughing still when I get out in cold air or at just random times.  

Read in the New York Times about a criminal purporting to provide home care fo migrant children picked up a the border ripping off the federal government to the tune of over a billion dollars, supposedly a “non-profit’ paying fat salaries and unable to show where the money went.

I’m sure that is just the tip of the iceberg of the “donors” and “lobbyists” who steal big tax $ because of who their “friends” are.  

Reading this morning about all of the attempts to reduce food stamps, subsidized insurance, by making applicants “work” etc.  

The conflicts and number of outright criminals in this administration is appalling, but then “look a the top”.

It just amazes me the lengths some go to try to make sure someone isn’t cheating to get such benefits  while  letting the donors, lobbyists and big businesses of all types steal billions and rip off consumers without any enforcement action.

And it is only getting worse, I expect, leading to another recession as big businesses take  huge risks and then get bailed out by the taxpayers, keeping their huge salaries etc. 

I am trying to make sure I am ready to resume my exercise and walking program as soon as I feel I can proceed.  Right now, I expect it will be this weekend. 

Of course, this weekend, there is expected to be snow and ice so that won’t be too helpful!

Overall a good weekend, especially since I felt so much better.  Couldn’t do a lot outside, or inside for that matter.  

I was able to get several of the “Smart plugs” I got on sale at Amazon set up, and they are truly amazingly good.  

they aren’t all that huge, and we can control the “on/off” with our voice (through the Echo), schedule times of operation, and set it up so it will start  (or whatever action when we arrive/leave  at the house (kind of like the Nest through the cellphone).  

While it is limited for devices (such as tv’s, computers) that have extra steps when it is started, it works well for a lot of devices.  I guess it it’s use is limited by your imagination.  

Start of the work week.  I expect the week will go fast as normal.  Hopefully it will be a little warmer!

That’s it for now, Monday, December 3, 2018.

2018 Fall December 2 Sunday

37 degrees this morning, no walk, 76% humidity feels like 31 degrees, 14 mph wind

No walk this morning, still not quite up to a walk outside yet.  Really miss my walk, but I’m not going to take any chances!

Feel much better, medicine, rest etc and probably just time in misery is gradually working and I am feeling much better.

One side effect of the medicine is that I now feel “wired” part of the time.  Not an unpleasant feeling, but I am aware of a low level feeling and don’t nap (or at least a lot less etc.)

Fortunately, it doesn’t affect my regular sleep, I’m not sleeping much more than normal, but I am still sleeping well at night.  That is a gift in itself, especially the ability to sleep when you want.  

As I have noted before, it feels so good to feel well, I want to celebrate the feeling of feeling well every day!

December 2, marks our time since we moved to this area at 4 years and 5 months and my time on my job to 4 years and 3 months .  Time passes fast, it seems like just a short time again (or forever) that I was noting we have moved her two months and I was just starting my new job etc.!

Somehow we found the right place to live and I found the right job for me.  Not perfect in every way and we miss our old house of the past, the place, friends and experiences, but it fits the present circumstances well.  

But, as they say, change is necessary and desirable, even if unpleasant.  

By chance, right now a video tape is playing that one of the refrains is “Life Changes, Just Jump on the Train”.  

While I didn’t agree with a lot about President Bush 41, (and a lot I did), I did respect him.  

At the time, I didn’t realize that the American people would ever elect someone I have absolutely no respect for and who had embarrassed and diminished the position of Presidnet, the federal government, spending billions of tax $ to attack his personal ‘enemies” enrich himself, daily lie numerous time about both significant and insignificant and generally display his incompetence, gross corruption, delusional grandeur of his own incompetence and gross abuse of power.

What is even harder to understand are  how the elected cowards who enable him in his waste of federal resources, corruption, gross incompetence and criminal activities.  

the time of politicians showing any “Profile in Courage” is long over.  

Even harder to understand is how “news media” lie, distort and make up “news” to support the criminal, lying, incompetent behavior of politicians.  

I am looking forward to the time when this changes, if our society can survive this  period of greed, cowards, lies, gross abuse of power, gross stealing of government tax $, government by donors and lobbyists etc.  As I mentioned, the enablers are almost the worst part, a group of cowards who are willing to bootlick and enable gross incompetence, criminal waste of government money and allow obviously lies and incompetence to go unchallenged!

As a friend used to say, “Karma is coming”.  It will be part of the natural order that will restore us to sanity.  

I hope. 

That’s it for now, Sunday, December 2, 2018.

2018 Fall December 1 Saturday

52 degrees this morning, no walk, 53 degrees humidity, 14 mph wind

No walk this morning, still sick, but feeling MUCH better!  I actually want to do something besides sleep!  

I think I was starting to recover by yesterday morning anyway, but the Doctor prescribed some medicine that really helped. 

I even briefly thought about walking this morning, but obviously it is still probably too early for that, right now I expect it will be after Monday (my next Doctor visit).

It feels so good to feel like doing something again! 

One of the medicines is the “pack”  (I think it may actually be “pak” of pills), you take like 7 the first day and then one less per day after that.  

Actually this treatment sometimes “wires me up” to where I get or need little sleep and then towards the end there is a let down before I get back to “normal”.  Since I am aware of it, I am able to adjust for it.  I think.

Probably the best aspect of feeling better is to just feel like I am able to do something, even if it is just reading a book!  It is amazing how lethargic  I felt.  

While I am much better, I still have touches of it and my main problem will be to remember that I am still not 100% and trying to do too much.  

I think the problem is you feel so good not feeling bad, you want to take action!

December 1, the time between Thanksgiving and Near Year Day, when many projects become “after the holidays” projects!  

Always amazed at the number of e-mails I get, especially the “useless” e-mails I receive. 

On the other hand, I am always surprised when I get an e-mail from businesses or groups (or individuals) that I thought had forgotten me!  I don’t recall even seeing them in my Spam mail!

For example, I got an e-mail this morning from a speakers non-profit organization that I heard in 2003, almost exactly 15 years ago.  He was very impressive, but I tend to donate closer to home, so have never donated or even really responded.  I guess you call me a “silent, non-contributing supporter”!  

I hadn’t gotten an e-mail for a long time, so I was surprise to get one yesterday.  Almost so surprised I almost opened it!

I almost never check my “spam” e-mail, which can cause me to not get some important mail, although I sometimes I wonder if the time and effort to check the spam folder is worth it, with all of the truly criminal and hideous spam e-mail that is sent.

However, I accidentally checked my “spam” e-mail folder on my work account and was disconcerted to discover several “legitimate” e-mails that fortunately I had handle in other ways.  (I get absolutely 0% personal mail on my work account, which keeps spa to a minimum, as well as e-mails.)

So good to feel good!

That’s it for now, Saturday, December 1, 2018.