2017 Fall October 22 Sunday

 2017 Fall October 22 Sunday

76 degrees tis morning (52 degrees in Oklahoma City)  No walk

One more comment about unethical behavior.  

Yesterday I went to Formula One qualifying.  It was amazing.  The crowd was also amazing (in numbers), especially since it was just qualifying.  

On the way back, we were tricked by the State of Texas into taking a toll road instead of the free  interstate.  

There were several layers of trickery.  First it was strictly payment by either a “pike pass” you purchased in advance or “pay by mail”  Pay by mail was a lot higher than the “pike pass”, of course, an attempt to gouge out of state people.

That was bad enough.  However through signage (absolutely no signs on getting to the free interstate), you were tricked to taking s high price toll road, which also took more time than the free interstate!

I figured a politician owned some road contractors a “return” on their “investment” of political contributions and the huge toll road contact was the “return”.  

It obviously was unneeded since very few cars were on it, and absolutely no commercial development etc. to justify the cost. 

I never did figure out the actual cost of “pay by mail”, but it was at least $30 for tolls that in other states, for equivalent mileage would be  about $4. 

That is really corruption at it’s highest, especially by a State Legislature and Governor who love to tell everyone else how to live and how corrupt they are.  They need to look at themselves first!

The benefits were it was a pretty and relaxing drive and the speed limit was 85 miles per hour, if you really wanted to go that fast.   

Bring tricked into talking a high priced toll road (absolutely no signs for the free interstate literally 5 miles away) is simply something that visitors should be warned about.  It makes you wonder what else Texas is  tricking you on.

On the positive side, there have been numerous examples of the overall goodness of people and this happens in almost every state.  

In spite of the typical stereotype of “big city” residents not being helpful, etc., in almost every major city I have found individual residents who are pleased to assist visitors (and I assume fellow residents)  and frequently go far beyond  simple courteous and helpfulness in assisting other people.  The image of most big city residents as hard hearted and unkind is simply untrue.  

Even the drivers here are relatively courteous (with a few exception) and in spite of huge volumes of traffic, signal and drive in a courteous way.

That’s it for now, Sunday, October 22, 2017.  

2017 Fall October 21 Saturday

2017 Fall October 21 Saturday

71 degrees this morning, no walk 

Sometimes, even your trusted “brands” of businesses fail you.  Today, three “brands” I normally trust have really disappointed me,

The Residence Marriott has been an extreme disappointment, since I normally feel that Marriott is a good brand.  The bed creaks, the room is somewhat tattered and the noise level is extreme to say the least.

All night I heard footsteps, occasionally some kind of high pitched noise, sounds of a shower etc. Really bad to say the least.  

Fortunately nothing stops me from sleeping during my appointed times, but I know I will really hesitate before I stay in a Marriott again of any type.

Also, Hertz has always been a dependable car rental.  While we rarely rent cars anymore, since we don’t travel that much, we have come to trust Hertz as a dependable company.

We rented what we thought was a nice car (weekend rate).   An “engine warning” light came on about the level of coolant in the car.  I called Hertz, expecting to get another car bought out, a technician to check the car or whatever. 

I realize any car can develop a problem, and I expected Hertz would fix it or look at it. 

Instead, I was advised by three separate Hertz representatives to “put some coolant in the car”. 

Sure, and then be sued by Hertz for cracking the block (or whatever your call it).  Plus I didn’t even know how to open the hood of the car.

The other alternative was to drive about 20 miles (on a Friday evening in rush hour traffic in one of the worst traffic cities in the USA) to “Pep boys” or Firestone and have them do it.  Of course, Hertz would reimburse me, but what about my time? 

We were spending some very limited time visiting friends and and didn’t really want to spend several hours on a problem caused by Hertz lack of maintenance. 

The third dependable brand that disappointed me was AAA.  While I have found they are not that dependable (they responded to Lakeland Florida once instead of Lakeland Tennessee!), this was perhaps the worst yet and probably I will save some money by not renewing my AAA membership.  

We have always been advised that they will respond to “any emergency or car breakdown as long as we are driving it”, a snooty AAA representative advised me “they don’t respond to calls for more fluid”. 

  

Actually i doubt very much the the problem was for “more fluid”, but it certainly decided me about AAA and how it is a waste of money.

Anyway, I just drove it anyway, I figured if they didn’t care, I didn’t.  (It said “check coolant level” which to me is a relatively threatening warning, but apparently  it is just one of those glitches in the car.  Obviously if the engine had started overheating etc. I would have pulled over and had them tow me in.  I can’t wait to get the car back to Hertz.

After this, I will just depend on one of the “travel websites” and save some money!

Anyway, we had a good visit, but a truly disappointing day in some if what I considered “dependable brands”.  

That’s it for now, Saturday, October 21, 2017.  

2017 Fall October 20 Friday

2017 Fall October 20 Friday

63 degrees this morning, no walk (schedule)

Saw a sign on the street corner by a panhandler the other day “I won’t lie, I want money for a drink”.  (It didn’t work with me.)  

I really expect he meant it as a gimmick, but he may have just decided to tell the truth.  In a way, I am glad to see someone telling the truth, with a despicable liar in the office of President right now.  I am stunned at the number of people who support a vile liar., who seems to feel it is acceptable to make vicious lying attacks on people.  

Busy trying to wind down everything for our vacation.  Vacations are a lot different than they used to be when I had to maintain contact with the office all the time.  I still do, out of force of habit or probably more likely, because I like it that way.

The Chicago Cubs did their usual inept playoff act and collapsed early.  I realize sports are just a contrived activity, but it is easy to get wrapped up in it.  So much for another season, but it is only a game. 

The house is decorated in fall decorations again.  We always add a few things every year for the seasons, or rather Aliene doses, since she is good at it. 

Another dream I wanted to note.  This was actually several days ago, I just didn’t have room for it.  

This dream was actually several days ago.  It was one of those really strong dreams.

Dreamed taking a trip with Aliene

For some reason I went the the Airport first  and parked the car in a private garage that did repairs for people .

Than apparently I was going to  take our pickup back somewhere but got it stuck in the mud while parking it along the side of a road.

Vague what happened, but Aliene was with me and we didn’t have much time, but we needed the car and didn’t have time to get the pickup and and bring it in, but we were scared to leave it there.  (It has actually been years since we had a pickup)

We went to pick up the car and found other cars had been pulled in to be repaired, thus blocking our exist.  Somehow I found the owner and he grinned and said I could leave.

We were discussing what to do with the pickup (since we didn’t have time to get it back home but couldn’t get it it out I woke up. 

Strange, the dreams we have (both awake and asleep!)

That’s it for now, Friday, October 20, 2017.  

 2017 Fall October 19 Thursday

60 degrees this morning, no walk.

General weather has been cool, beautiful weather when I have a “field day” .  Unfortunately it means colder weather,  which isn’t so beautiful, is coming.  

Probably no formal walk until after vacation is over.

“Vacation” is an interesting concept.  As noted yesterday, the ability to have continued communication through is a major change.

I can remember at conferences in the past, there would be long lines at pay phones as people called for their messages etc.  Then, as the internet developed,  people stood in lines both at phones and computers.

Of course, now people simply use their phones (there are few if any pay phones) and perhaps printing stations rather than many computers.  I have also noted that instead of e-mail or calls, many people now text.

For kids growing up now, they will only know the instant connectively 24/7 and whatever new technology may develop.  

I really am waiting for the “driverless cars” I thought would be forthcoming years ago (probably 60 years ago at least, which is scary in itself) when I saw the ad of people sitting in the car playing cards as the car went down the road without any driver!  

As I have noted several times, I am amazed that the technology is just now really becoming to the point it may be commercially available.  I really thought it would be here years ago, one of the great disappointments of technology!  

Even 20 years ago, at a conference they mentioned it was possible to get on a plane, have it take off, fly to your destination and land without human intervention.  I have to wonder, why wasn’t that ever available?  Perhaps over-reliance on cars.  

I do frequently speculate on what life would be like if, for example, tires hadn’t been invented, would we be traveling on a pad of air, or with individual power packs?  

I have noted the in countries without wired phone infrastructure, cell phones are being used without the wired phone infrastructure ever actually being developed.  (at least that is what I understand).

Why technology has developed a lot of amazing and wonderful products, sometimes I am also amazed by the limits and lack of development in some areas.

That’s it for now, Thursday, October 19, 2017.

2017 Fall October 18 Wednesday

2017 Fall October 18 Wednesday

56 degrees this morning, walk 35:07 minutes

Gradually getting used to the coolish air.  Don’t like it, but getting used to it.  Difficult to realize probably no more hot weather until late May of  2018 (with some warm days of course).  

This year, we are planning on taking a break in mid-year and going to some warm weather for a week or so!  

Difficult to imagine how we used to just take off for a week or so, and maybe, just maybe call back once or twice and send a postcard.

Now, with cellphones, I don’t even like to walk outside without my cell phone on me!  In fact, if I go upstairs I try to make sure I have it! 

Nothing wrong with it, actually I think things are a lot safer, as long as you don’t text and drive or get too involved in a phone conversation while driving.  

I basically almost never talk on the phone while driving anymore, even hands free.  

The primary reason is that, when driving for work, we are absolutely prohibited from talking on the phone, and I can see the reason for it.  

I remember when cell phones first came out I thought it was like being able to “buy time”, and it is, except now I avoid talking a lot while driving (and never while driving for work).  

Maybe when “self driving” cars of some type are more prevalent, it will save a lot of time since you could talk on the phone (and probably read etc.)  

I was thinking this morning about the parable of the “three talents”.  When I was younger and went to Sunday School and got the little comic book bible stories.  They were actually very effective since even now I remember them well!

I was thinking about this in relation to the stock market. It isn’t a matter of using your money, it also a matter of knowing when to not invest your money, if that makes any sense.

For years, I thought “talents” were a form of money, and actually a “talent” at that time was worth about 3 years of work for a laborer.  

Then I realized that “talents” meant using our abilities and making sure we used and enhanced our natural skills, and I am sure that was the real thoughts behind the parable.  However, I just checked and found out that a “talent” was actually money as I noted.

Anyway, I think there probably is a time to deploy our money in different ways and perhaps speculate and other times to put it under a mattress!  (Not literally) 

I read and attended some sessions  off shoot concept of this several years ago was the idea that you  should concentrate on enhancing and using your “talents” and not waste your time trying to improve your weak areas.  

I thought, and still do, feel that this concept is good, at least up to a point.  I’ll ponder on  this and write more on it later.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, October 18, 2017

2017 Fall October 17 Tuesday

2017 Fall October 17 Tuesday

46 degrees this morning  walk 35:29 minutes

Apparently starting to get somewhat used to cooler weather, or at least so that I know how to dress for this weather.  

For some reason my pace was 31 seconds slower than my goal.  That is a significant difference, although it may just be a reaction to the cold weather and dressing different.  

Or it could even be a reaction to what I am listening to or the way I am dressing warmer for cold weather.  I have noticed that when I listen to music, the faster the music, the faster I walk!

One thing the new Watch IOS has is a more detailed report on your heart beat.  Instead of just an average, it gives you a little chart, with the high heartbeat, low and average.  Of course, I immediately wonder why my heartbeat was faster for a short period of time!  Not high, just higher than the average.  

The development of immediate feedback on your heartbeat, blood pressure etc. is interesting since it is so easy to read too much into the findings, but on the other hand,   you don’t want to ignore any warning signs either.  Probably will drive Doctors crazy with all the questions but they may prefer the new interest in health!

Completing listening to the book by Ben Bernaneke.  Whether you agree with him or not, I was surprised to note that one of the major criminal companies of the era, AIG was released by all regulation by the lying bully coward’s “no regulations” administration.  

While I agree there can be too much regulation, the business community (unfortunately like all sectors) has shows a distinct lack of ethics,  and emphasis on greed and  a policy of wholesale “cut regulations” is insane and I expect will lead to another crisis after several years.

Fortunately extremism usually corrects  itself and  (in the perspective of time) those two criminals along with the lying bully coward will soon be gone and their policies reversed.  Unfortunately the low quality  of judges being appointed  (or who purchased their positions with “political contributions”) will last for a considerable longer time.

It is scary to read about the the policy and laws that allows persons to be assigned to “drug diversion” programs where they basically become slaves for private companies with little or no drug treatment.  

It is hard to believe that such a program is being allowed to continue in our society without high profile criminal charges.  

Maybe it is a case where the “slaves” can use the legal system to stop the practice.  

Ditto with the “for profit” education companies who are allowed to charge for “no shows” with only lame “we’ll look into it” by the officials who are supposed to enforce the law.  

That’s it for now, Tuesday, October 17, 2017.

2017 Fall October 16 Moday

2017 Fall October 16 Monday

46 degrees this morning, walk 35:07 minutes

Coldest of the season this morning, I believe.  Actually wasn’t that bad once I got moving.  For the first time I felt a little unease during the walk as I heard some “hoot owls” and remember how in frontier days could mean you were being followed!  

I looked up hoot owls just to be sure I had the name right.  I was surprised at a video that shoed there mouth moved while “hooting”.  Logically that would be so, somehow I never thought about how they made the sound.

Pace was 14 seconds slower than my goal.  

Finished up the upgrades of the phones etc and the watch.  The watch took a lot longer than I expected to upgrade although the process seemed to work well.

Weekend is over and “work week” starts again.  The weekend seems to go fast, but the workweek does also!  

Major League Baseball playoffs are here and we have the problem of two of our favorite teams playing each other.  We generally take the attitude that we just hope each team   does it’s best.  

We have four teams we generally watch or at least follow.  

Dream yesterday,.  A little confusing but a very symbolic dream.s

10-15-17:

Sunday morning dream.

Dreamed I was attending a scheduled meeting at work.

When I walked into the room all of the doors leading out had been replaced by new metal doors.

Someone walked out and I was able to slip into the office area. When I tried to leave, I found all of the doors leading into the conference room were the top that had no handles.

Somehow (as you do in dreams) I too to another area and a tall lady (with here hat I couldn’t see her face) and tattoos told me she would help me.  Handbag swas haped like some type of animal (a possum”) or actually had a live one.

She gave me a map.  I walked out and went up a staircase.  There were lots of roos with people in them, but not my meeting room. 

I realized the map she had given me had turned to newspapers.  I threw the newspapers away in a cream can style wastebasket wondering why they had such an inconvenient wastebasket.

Still couldn’t find the meeting room. 

Suddenly I was i a huge room and all of the doors did not have handles.  I was the only one in the room

I realized I  was missing the  emceeing and I was thinking  I needed e-mail my supervisor and explain as well as complain about the lack of communicate that the meeting was not in the room it was supposed to be in

There was a lot of stairs as I walked around looking.

I woke up and it took me for awhile it was only a  dream    

the symbolism in the dream is rather simple and understandable, to say the least! 

That’s it for now,, Monday, October 16, 2017

2017 Fall October 15 Sunday

2017 Fall October 15 Sunday

55 degrees this morning, walk 34:48 minutes

Obviously much colder this morning than yesterday morning, I felt it as I walked.  I am glad I sat on the patio yesterday morning when I had the chance!

Pace was 4 seconds slower than my goal pace.  

Updated all of my phones etc. yesterday to the new IOS. Now the real work begins tying to figure out what all it does and how it differs.  The only real problem came in updating an old iPad , but  it worked out ok.

I haven’t updated my watch, I will try to do that today.  

It appears they made a lot of enhancements to “Notes” which is good since I depend so much on Notes.  

I have found that most of the basic programs and apps on he iPhone work well and I don’t need to hassle with other apps for basic functions like calendars, contacts, “to do”’s etc.  

Probably many of the apps do a more comprehensive job etc., but I don’t feel it is worth the time and hassle figuring them out, plus they add a small amount of time and complexity that adds up.

I am still tying to place he role of  “Evernote” in my daily life.  It always seems to have a lot of potential, but I never really do anything with it.  Anyway, I decided rather than worry about not using it, I am going to determine what I need and use whatever will do he job best for me.  

After at least either nine years with Evernote, I still haven’t figured out the role of it in my life.  Maybe it doesn’t have a role.

I decided the best way to handle new programs and apps is to find one thing I want to to do or accomplish with  it and go to the internet or whoever and learn how to do that one thing well.  Than I will see if I use it enough to make it worthwhile to keep.

One device I have purchased that is really worth it is the Air Pods.  I use them a lot more than I thought I would,   They are good both for hand-free conversations n the office, listening etc.  I have been very pleased with them.

Still haven’t decided when I will upgrade to the iPhone X.  I’m know I’m not going to do anything for awhile, until at least after Thanksgiving.

One thing I dread is moving is transferring everything to the new hone, although    they have made it a lot easier as the years by and it is relatively painless.

The only thing I haven’t really been able to transfer is the ring tones I snipped from music.  One of my projects is to take my old desktop computer and put it next to the music keyboard so I will be more likely to use it to compose music, complete transferring my ring tones etc. 

October is already half over, it just seems like it started!

That’s it for now, Sunday, October 15, 2017

2017 Fall October 14 Saturday

2017 Fall October 14 Saturday

75 degrees this morning, walk 35:21 minutes

Windy this morning, but good walking weather.  The Fall coolness is in the air, even at 75 degrees.

Sitting on patio this morning, probably the last, or one of the last times until late Spring in May 2018.  Scary thought that May 2018 is even that close but also so far away!  

As I mentioned about the walk, there is a coolness in the air, even at 75 degrees that wasn’t there earlier in the Summer. The wind may have something to do with it.

Pace was 13 seconds slower than my goal.  Generally I accept 15 seconds allowance as generally meeting my goal, although if I take a hard line, I would have to say I didn’t meet my goal.

Kind of makes me wonder about goals in general, first of all, how valid is my goal in the first place?  And does it really make any difference?

Perhaps my basic subconscious (and maybe conscious) feeling is that a goal isn’t something you meet all the time, or it is just a measurement, not a goal.

One the other hand, there really isn’t any use is setting a goal I will never reach either!

Perhaps my goal should be just to finish my walk or increase my walk a certain amount each month, or whatever. 

Actually, I like the length of my walk, it isn’t too long and, hopefully, isn’t too short.  

Going through my address book (on my computer) deleting contacts I don’t remember or don’t care to remember.  Not depressing at all, actually it helped me feel good about the number of contacts I am still in contact with or at least could be in contact with.  

What surprised me, and the reason I just kept some of them, was how a contact could bring back memories of someone I hadn’t even thought of for years, especially people like a resident who I talked to once of twice about a problem.  Memory is strange!

While I think my contact list is, for all intents and purposes, infinite (scary thought), I still like to occasionally go through and sort out the ones there is no sense leaving on my contact list as well as check for address updates etc.  

I have been using my contact list in my work, finding that a little bit of upfront time can really save time down the road as well as make me more efficient.  

Thinking about efficiency, I wonder if you are “efficient” at doing something the wrong way, is that good or bad?  I guess if it leads to leading to a bad result or product more “efficiently”, it wouldn’t be a good!

Maybe that is why it is good to have well reasoned goals, since there is no reason having a goal which doesn’t make any sense or that makes something worse. 

Hopefully the relatively warm weather  will continue, nice to sit on the patio as I write this.

That’s it for now, Saturday, October 14, 2017.