2020 Spring May 22 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

73 degrees this morning 90% humidity Wind  15  mph

Weights (yesterday morning) sit-ups, barbells, benchpress

Wonderful day yesterday, except that it kept looking like rain (actually a 70% chance most of the day), but the 30% chance prevailed)!  Not like a clear sunny day, but a lot better than rain.  

Looks like, at least early this morning, the rain and thunderstorms will come today. Probably start right when I have to drive to my Doctor appointment! 

Walk:  24:25 minutes 4 seconds (yes 4)! slower than my goal.  Almost made my goal, and I can pick the times I probably wasted 6 to 8 seconds!  I actually felt like I was moving fast, although I don’t really think about it much while I was walking.

What is strange is that I always seem to walk my fastest when I walk the longest.  Maybe some sort of situation  where I feel good so I walk faster and longer.

Today had a “teleconference” about transitioning back to a from of normal work (i.e., outside the office)  Still a lot of details to be worked out, as you would expect. I won’t be going back in the field until at least July 1, and even then we will probably have a lot less field time since they realized, on some things, we are more productive and efficient on the phone in many situations.  

One month to go before Summer starts.  Actually the last month of Spring is my most enjoyable month of “Summer” in a lot of ways.  I love the long evenings and the long days of daylight.  

Also, I love the anticipation of building up to the first day of Summer, especially when I feel a little disappointment when the days start getting shorter again, even though “Summer” as such will last another 3 months and the hottest days that I enjoy are still coming.  

I really always look forward to the long sunsets, although I usually end up not seeing many, due to trees , etc. 

Not sure what I will think of this year when it starts to cool and October and November come but it will be different than most years.  

By this time most years, we would have been to a few AAA baseball games and watched a lot more MLB games on tv along with a lot of other activities.  

Finished watching Longmire (a great series) and trying to find another one.  I have been lucky in the past.  I didn’t want to zip through “Bosch” too fast, since it is only one season so I was trying to find another series.

I was stunned to start one promising series that had a “laugh track”!  I watched as far as the second laugh track and shut it off.  I couldn’t stand to watch a show with a laugh track now!  I didn’t even know they still made them with laugh tracks.

Today is Friday!  Before a 3 day weekend yet!  

Also have my annual “wellness visit” this morning, Already did the lab tests, so at least that is over.  

That’s it for now, Friday, May 22, 2020. 

#Resist

#Time_to_Leave

2020 Spring May 21 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights
#My_Journey_20
#Spring_of_20

64 degrees this morning, 74% humidity, wind 11 mph

Another wonderful day yesterday, high of around 81 degrees.  Little wind until later in the day, some clouds.  Supposed to have at least 70% chances of rain today.

Walk;  21;36 minutes, pace was 52 seconds slower than my goal.

One unfortunate consequence of the pandemic (and the vile lying coward lunatic  scum we have as a “president”) is it really has bought out some of the latent (and not so latent) ageism, racism etc. and any scapegoating of different segments of our society. 

Of course, I have been well aware of the ageism for some time now, although it was somewhat of a shock when I realized I was a “victim” of it and it was commonplace.  Since if they are lucky, everyone will become “elderly”, it seems in their self interest to eliminate ageism, but I expect everyone thinks it won’t happen to them, or it just seems so far off.  (It isn’t).

Ageism has been a word only since 1969, which might say something in itself.  The comments about “God’s way of thinning the herd” etc. are blatant examples of scapegoating, discrimination against vulnerable groups.   Of course, when they said it they didn’t think that “thinning the herd” may be regarding the people who don’t make some attempt to protect against the virus or they may be one of the “thinned herd”.    

I read that some Asians etc, even the Doctors and Nurses are encountering some scapegoating activities, primarily due to the scum “president” and his targeting China as scapegoats for his failure and incompetence  and the cowering cowards who let him get by with it or even encourage it. 

The few people I know  who had the virus, it is absolutely horrible, depending on how bad you have it.  (This is if you don’t die from it).

So many people believe in the “silver bullet” or some magic vaccine is going to be invented before they get it.  Me, I’m just not taking any chances.

We watched a “Frontline” about the pandemic in Italy and it is really gave what I assume is a realistic picture of it. 

Still dithering about the type of security system we want, either up upgrade of the “old style” we have now or a Nest system.  Both of them have advantages. 

I was leaning towards the Nest, but now that they are staring  two-factor authentication, where they e-mail or text you a code.  Frankly, I don’t wan to have o hassle with an e-mail  to look up my code while someone is breaking into the house!  

I realize there is good reason to go with that in some instances, but I think some places are overdoing it to make up for their own lack of security features.

Still debating the KIndle.  Besides the obvious factor of being waterproof, I also like the idea of having a “button” to push on the kindle to change the page.  

While it normally works ok on the iPod etc, sometimes it is hard to turn the page or otherwise navigate through the book.  Even an arrow like the on-line newspapers would help.

Only two more workdays until the 3 day weekend!

That’s it for now, Thursday, May 21, 2020.

#Resist
#Time_to_leave

2020 Spring May 20 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

56 degrees this morning 85% humidity 

Another wonderful day yesterday, a little cloudy and cool, high of 80 degrees. Still a wonderful day.

First day in 65 days I’ve worn anything but shorts, scandals, t-shirts or sweat pants or walking shoes.  I did note my “virus pounds” when I put the clothes on!  As I noted yesterday, I had a medical test this morning.  Fortunately they didn’t weigh me.  

Walk today was 22:38 minutes, pace was 53 seconds slower than my goal.  I’ll keep trying, but I”m not worried about pace right now.

Cool down walk was 15:52 minutes.  (My “cool down” walk is when I walk with Aliene after my main walk, which I enjoy.)

I am just astounded that the lying coward lunatic is getting away with stealing billions of dollars, giving a billion $ contract to a big donor who licks his boots and “donates”  to get the “wall” contract to build a junky super expensive wall.  

Of course, he’ll do such a crappy job that it will be easier to demolish in a year or so.  I don’t understand how this lunatic clown can made the decision on his own to put some kind of expensive black paint on the wall at the cost of $2 million dollars per mile just because he gets some crazy idea in his demented mind.  Even the experts question it  

Also, allowing this criminal to give a new company a $800 million dollar contact is really criminally insane and the cowering cowards just let him to continue stealing tax $.  

Now he is spending literally billions more on farmers trying to buy votes.  

What I really wonder is why does ANY President have this authority?   Obviously this criminal clown provides the rationale fo not allowing such impulsive actions that only benefit the clown and his donors. 

I happened to read the story about the lying coward lunatic starting  up his new  personal company and then giving it an 800 MILLION $ contract do and right before my medical appointment and I was scared it would raise my blood pressure, but I don’t know what it actually turned out to be.  

Fortunately the contact can be canceled right after the lunatic loses in November  

It has been interesting to see how people react to the “opening up”.  There are people in gloves and masks and people with no protection.  Went in for my test, most people were wearing masks (and they took my temperature before I went in), but some people still weren’t wearing masks.

I wore a mask and used sanitizer (or washed my hands) every chance we had!

We stopped by for a “curb delivery meal” and noted that everyone on the patio didn’t have a mask , etc., and weren’t really keeping the “social space” although all the servers had masks and many wore gloves. 

I guess everyone takes different views of the dangers involved. Probably most won’t get it no matter what, but I want to even avoid the smallest chance!

Thinking about buying a water proof Kindle.  Might seem kind of strange with the iPads etc we have, but I’d like something that is water proof and I like the “white print” concept.  I really like the idea of being able to read while I in the bathtub without having to worry about ruining the book or destroying an expensive device. Of course, I wouldn’t even try to read my iPad or Kindle Fire in the bathtub.

That’s it for now, Wednesday, May 20, 2020.

#Resist 

2020 Spring May 19 Tuesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

61 degrees this morning, 81% humidity 

Weights yesterday  morning (sit-ups, barbells & bench press)

Yesterday was a wonderful day again, high around 84 degrees, sunny, no wind.  We need more like them.

My daughters birthday is today.  I won’t say how old she is, but she is at an age where I can remember what I was like at her age!  Time really flies when you see how children grow.  

Walk today was 24:08 minutes, pace was 27 seconds slower than my goal.  One of these days I will suddenly zip past my goal without me even realizing it until I actually exceed my goal.  

Somehow that is how goals are achieved.  Of course, then the problem is how to maintain the goal, which is the toughest part of it. 

Tomorrow, for the first time in 63 days, I’ll be in a building other than my home.  I have a medical appointment.  I have been instructed to “come alone” and to wear a mask the entire time, which is ok with me.  Probably makes it a lot safer for everyone.  

Listened to a “podcast” during my walk (somehow it slipped in with my music) about involving youth in city planning , etc.,  especially since they will be the ones living in it.  I always thought that was a good idea, but it is still a matter of the procedures for involving  them and how you do it.

Isn’t easy for any group. It is difficult for people to take the time from their personal and professional lives to be involved in local government, important as it is.  

The second part of the podcast was about tourism and how cities should plan “responsible tourism”.

Both are easy to say it is a good idea, but hard to actually implement it, like many projects. 

I had where bicycles are now actually in short supply, selling  at the rate of  double or triple the normal amount of bikes sold.  Apparently people are buying bikes both for exercise as well as a way to avoid public transportation.  

Fortunately, I have enough  bikes that I won’t be needing one in the near future.  Of course, first, I need to get back into riding on a regular basis after I stopped during my coughing spell a few months ago.  Walking has been fine thus far without any coughing, but I like to keep it that way.

I still having given up on my “ride with the Summer” plans.  Doesn’t mean I’ll ever do it, but it is nice to plan.

Maybe the increase in bikes will lead to better bicycle paths etc.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, May 19, 2020

#Resist

2020 Spring May 18 Monday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

56 degrees this morning 88% humidity

Yesterday was a wonderful day, high of around 81 degrees, sunny, very little wind.  One of those wonderful Spring days 

Spent part of the afternoon after the walk finishing up some work we were doing in the yard.

Due to my extensive gardening experience when I was a kid, I do not garden, plant flowers or do any work in the yard I don’t have to do.

When I was a kid we had literally acres of gardens, and I always swore I’d never had have a garden again.  I kept my promise  I’ll do what I have to in the yard, but I find noting relaxing or entertaining about it.  I may feel some satisfaction in achieving a project but that is it. 

I never really minded mowing, although I am allergic to grass and when I first started I always teared up and almost couldn’t see to mow.  After I had started for a while, it settled down. 

Walk 24:30 minutes, pace 46 seconds slower than goal.

Cool down walk:  15:45 minutes

The little robot vacuum cleaner was active at it last night again.  It is a very basic robot vacuum cleaner but it is still amazing.  I just looked at Consumer Reports and bought the highest rated and cheapest one, which happened to be the same unit!  That is great when that happens.  

Finished up a typical “normal weekend.  Had groceries delivered from two places Friday, ate “curbside pickup” supper Friday night, Picked up one “no contact” grocery pickup  Saturday, delivered one plant to a relative (who was sick) in a “no contact yard/driveway visit,"  than “curbside pickup” breakfast  Sunday morning and one “no contact” grocery pickup Sunday morning. 

Of course the “meal pickups," we ate at home.  I can’t stand to eat in the car, except when I am “in the field” on my job 

I would have really thought that as strange just a few months ago. Now it is relatively “normal”. 

Monday, of another week.  It will be a little different since I have a several routine medical appointments this week  and this weekend is a 3 day weekend, which will be nice.  This will be the first “in person” medical appointment since January and will be the first time I have been in a building other than home in over 60 days 

Virus beard is coming right along.  May need to take a picture of it soon! 

That’s it for now, Monday, May 18, 2020.

#Resist 

2020 Spring May 17 Sunday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

62 degrees this morning  93% humidity

Yesterday was cloudy, some rain (light only) and reasonably cool 63-67 degrees, but no wind.  

I looked at the temperature and dressed way too warm for my walk, which was ok, since I dressed much cooler for the rest of the day! 

Walk, 22:36 minutes, 37 seconds slower than my goal.  65 degrees and no wind is a lot warmer than 65 degrees at a 13 mph wind or so!

Got two deliveries of groceries Friday, picked up one yesterday and will pick up one more today.  Grocery shopping has changed!  But that is about all we will need for several weeks.  When you order for “contactless pickup” or “delivery”, you don’t order just one or two items!

This morning I ordered some books from the Library.  The branch I use has been closed for remodeling since early January , so it has been a long time since I have used the library. (The Library system was closed in mid-March and just “opened”, at least for “curbside” delivery of books.)

While I could have used other branches, it was just too much of a hassle.

I always like to look through the Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal and order some of the books I read reviews of from the Library.   

Probably the only reason I keep subscribing to the Wall Street Journal (at least the delivery version) is I really like the Saturday edition and I probably wouldn’t read the on-line version that throughly.  

While the Wall Street Journal is a great paper, I don’t like supporting their editorial page, which is just lying coward lunatic  trump sucking junk lies and it is starting to affect their stories.  I have heard some of the better reporters, like the scum trump does, are fired because they are too good at their job and report the truth.

Anyway, I always see a couple of book reviews of books that I want to read, or at last look at the book, but I don’t want to pay for it, since I don’t know if I’ll really be interested.  

Today they had what looked like a really good book on Lincoln, which the library system actually had! I also ordered several other books that look good.   

If I like them it Is great, if I don’t I just return them.  If I bought one, I’d feel like I had to finish them! Also, if I really like one, I can always buy it.

Difficult to realize it is May 17.  The time this year has really sped by, partially, I feel, due to the fact there is no way of “marking” the year, all the usual rituals, dates, events etc. just aren’t there this year.  

We try some to mark birthdays and other events, but there are just too many things that aren’t occurring this year, so it is kind of like living in a fast forward vacuum tube.

That’s it for now, Sunday, March 17, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Spring May 16 Saturday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

 60 degrees this morning,92% humidity

Weights, sit-ups, barbells, bench press

Yesterday was another strange day.  74 degrees most of the day, although it was cloudy and seemed like rain all day, but never actually rained

When I walked, I took a different route so I would be close to home if it started raining before it ruined my iPod, although I expect I could have covered it enough until I got home. 

Walk 26:32 minutes, pace 51 seconds slower tan my goal.  It was a nice walk at 75 degrees or so.

After work, the temperature dropped from 74 to 63 within about an hour.  

The “opening up” schedule was sent out today at work.  Of course it is flexible.  It appears to be reasonable with provision for safety PPE , etc.  Not that I expected any different, they have always been good about safety.

The time table basically has me going back about July 1, which right now appears to be reasonable, depending on the circumstances at the time.  

Some of the other “opening” scenes I have seen make me wonder, but I guess  everyone has their way of reacting to things. 

It was exactly 2 months today (March 16) that I got an e-mail instructing me to stay in the office.  

We’re going to be continuing the “curb eating," (i.e., picking up the food at the curb and eat it at home) for a while.

We actually didn’t drive either car since Sunday.  I hope that never seems “normal”!  Right now it is fine, I just don’t want that to be the “new normal”.  

It that’t the way it is, fine, but I hope it isn’t.  

One good thing is the public libraries in the county are opening up and will provide ‘curbside” service in picking up books.  Since we get most of our books mostly through “holding," it works well for us.  We can simply order our books through the computer and have them delivered. 

One thing I really like about this area is the wonderful library system.  Of course, I have always loved libraries.  We would stop by when we were kids and check out the maximum number of books.

Libraries have evolved through the years, and even now people without their own computer, I suggest they use the Library computer.  I like the way most libraries have evolved to be a resource for the community in any area. 

The library system here is fortunate to have their own source of funding, which means they are affected by the political winds  .Especially these political winds.

That’s it for now, Saturday, May 16, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Spring May 15 Friday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

74 degrees this morning 82% humidity Wind 14 mph

Yesterday was overall a nice day, high of 85 degrees, although it was very windy.  Still better than a “cold windy day”.

Supposed to rain today, 50 to 70% all day

Walk 24:08 minutes, pace 17 seconds slower than goal. What a difference walking in warm weather in shorts and a t-shirt make!

Cool down walk was 15:48 minutes.

Listening to my “original ipod” today because I forgot to charge up my “listening” phone, a repurposed i-phone 5+.   For some reason I use my wife’s ex-cell phone with the Kate Spade case (which I love) for my walks and we use my repurposed i-phone 5 for our listening to our books in the car.

Both of them work fine.  I think it was because I switched to my iPhone 6 while my wife still had the 5+, and then she jumped to an i-phone  7 about 4 years ago.  (actually September of 2016). 

We were in Kansas City for a conference and we found the last iPhone 7 exactly like she wanted at Crown Center  Apple store in Kansas City and grabbed it.  (They were scarce at the time.)

It is also where I fell for the Apply watch with the “Milanese loop”.  I actually ordered it at home after I bought about it for about 2 seconds.  (They didn’t have my size in Kansas City.)

Anyway today I had my original iPod on “shuffle”. 

Actually had an surprise while I was walking, I was listening to  the music on “shuffle” and suddenly a stirring edition of “Let Freedom Ring” was on.  For a moment, I forgot about the virus, about the lying  clown we have as a “president” and his crowd of cowering coward dunces , etc., as the music soared.  

May 15, it was exactly 60 days ago that we had our last “free day," our last regular  breakfast in a restaurant.  The day before they closed the Fittness club and the next morning, I got an e-mail advising me to work only in my office at home.  

I don’t think anyone at the time thought it would be this long, or at least at this point we realistically would still be looking at an extended period of “Sheltering in place” if we don’t want to get the virus.  (Hopefully the “opening up” won’t cause a spike and another shutdown, but….  We’ll see. 

The “Virus beard” is coming along.  Of course, since I don’t go into businesses (or now I will always have a mask), no one will see it, although I am really growing it just for me.   Not saying I’ll cut it when the virus threat is over, can’t say I won’t.  

We aren’t going to take any chances now, no matter how “open” it gets, until we feel comfortable.  I have seen too many cases where one simply lapse was actually fatal.  

That’s it for now, Friday, May 15, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Spring May 14 Thursday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#My_Journey_20

#Spring_of_20

 69 degrees this morning, 62% humidity Wind 30 mph

The “30 mph” Is correct!  Rained some overnight.  

Walk:  25:20 minutes, pace was 1:10 slower than my goal

Another “day of gray,"  yesterday although it warmed up some as the day went on, to a high of 74 degrees.

Actually in my poem “My Day of Gray," I had “blue buffalo scattered on the green grass” that brightened up my “Day of Gray”.   Unfortunately no blue buffalo here although there are a few flowers and the grass is greening up. 

How I ever came to write poetry is strange in itself since I didn’t really read poetry.  Several years before that I enrolled in a weekly evening  poetry course just to have something different to do.  It probably lasted about 6 weeks.

Somehow I took a regular poetry class at a college several years later.   It was a very tough, but a wonderful course. 

The Instructor said there “was no such thing as a bad poem”.  I think she probably didn’t mean that literally, but she did mean that there is some good in any poem if someone wrote it.

That was the end of my poetry career, such as it was, although I still like to read my “chapbook” of the poems I  wrote in the course.  I did develop an appreciation for all poetry writers.

Actually a few years later, I was involved in a group of fiction writers.  I also developed an appreciation for fiction writers. 

As I have mentioned, I have always loved writing, it has a flow to it, almost like music, or maybe a river flowing.  However, it doesn’t flow like that for fiction or for poetry writing!

Actually I started to really like writing in high school when I worked on the high school newspaper and learned the 5 W’s and H and learned the basics of news writing.  

Back to the present, we are beginning to realize that the “Staying in place” or whatever you call it may be a lot longer than we expected when it started.  I read that several colleges have already decided to go to “on line’ courses fro next Fall and not have students attending classes.

Talk about a major change of life, of course that means no sports, no events , etc.  Maybe there is an end to it, but who knows what it will be.  

Probably the worst of it is the inability to interact with family members , etc., outside of your household.  When the slightest mistake can result in possible death, or at least a lot of pain, it makes you careful.  Even more careful because we don’t want to pass it on to someone else because we should be contagious and not realize it.

That’s it for now, Thursday, May 14, 2020.

#Resist

2020 Spring May 13 Wednesday

#Purple_Days_and_Golden_Nights

#Spring_of_20

#My_Journey_20

52 degrees this morning 98% humidity 

Years ago, I wrote a poem about a “Day of Gray” . Yesterday was a “Day of Gray”.  Absolutely no color, it was cold and cloudy all day.  Hardly what you expect in the Spring!

I don’t believe it got above 53 degrees, and when I walked it was around 46 degrees, not a good day for anything!  Actually I heard on the news that the “high” was 53 degrees, which broke a 106 year old record of 55 degrees as the “high” for the day.  

I guess it is a little hard to get excited about a “weather record” since we have absolutely noting to do with it, but I get excited about it anyway. 

Walk was 24:54 minus, pace was 1:01 minutes slower than my goal.  The walk was actually reasonably nice, considering the weather. 

Finished my series “Longmire”.  It was really a good show.  Better yet, it ended well, they wrapped up everything well. 

It lasted six seasons and kept me interested the entire time.  I had a wide variety of characters who were relatively realistic.  

I looked at some other shows, but didn’t see anything I really thought would grab me, so I”ll probably watch the next season of 'Bosch”.  

I don’t know how long it would have taken me if it had been “normal," but I guess I”ll never know, not that it matters.  

It sounds more and more like “opening up” is  mistake, although it may not be.  

I really wonder how anything can be “normal” with the virus going around and still contagious.  I don’t know what the answer is, but I know what the answer is for me.

I expect we will need to learn to wear face masks and do “social distancing” for some time, or at least expect it and it if improves it is all to the good.

What is scary is seeing some of the ways it is changing?  

I can vaguely remember getting my first polio shot and the relief in all the parents around.  I didn’t remember  it all, but I’ve read about it and it was just something everyone dreaded but lived with.  

I don’t know if this is the same or not, it appears to be a lot more contagious than polio was.  

Of course when I was a child, we all got mumps, measles and chicken pox.  It was just a fact of life.

There is always something to be concerning about, although this is certainly a threat like  I have never seen before. 

That’s it for now, Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

#Resist