I Could Do This

This is my view as I write on this last day of November.

I am looking out over the bay from the front porch of my kids' apartment in Puerto Vallarta. We arrived late yesterday afternoon, took a few moments to get settled, and walked into the commercial district for dinner and an evening walk on the pier, along the beach, and through the city.
It is a bit of an uphill climb to get to the apartment. It's a climb just to get up from the road in front of their place plus the uphill walk from the ocean.

Although the view is beautiful, there is a pretty busy road that passes right in front of me and the traffic noise detracts from the serenity of the setting. Nevertheless, watching the fishing boats set out from the bay in the morning is something I could easily get used to. 
Living in Mexico (Zihautanejo would be my city of choice) has been a desire of mine for quite some time. I am really happy to see the kids living their dream and being here now.  We'll be sharing their space and enjoying the tropical climate for the next few days. 

#Retirementdoesnotsuck

John

P.S. This completes another successful NaBloPoMo. Thanks for enduring my daily and often nonsensical posts.

Monday Motivation

 

Travel Day

Well sort of...
It's more like a pre-travel day.
We decided to drive to Bentonville AR today and overnight in a hotel rather than getting up very early tomorrow and driving then. We can leave our car at the hotel and take the airport shuttle. The cost of the hotel is about the same as the long term parking would be and we have less stress and a much easier travel day on Monday. And Groucho the cat gets an extra day of being spoiled by her cat-sitter/house sitter.

It has been so long since we've traveled anywhere!
We did make a short trip to Orlando almost two years ago. That may be the only real travel in about four years! I'm hoping that we can do much more traveling in the coming year -- coronavirus and its variants be damned!
I really didn't ride my motorcycle at all in 2021. I'm not sure why. I just didn't. I'm thinking 2022 will be different and I need to plan a few long rides. I can ride to see the kids in Colorado Springs. Chris would rather fly. I'll ride and meet her there.
The same for our Canadian friends, although it's a much longer ride! It's about 2100 miles to Hallifax, Nova Scotia and around 1000 miles to Georgian Bay in Ontario. Both would be great bike rides, but I'd need to find a couple of MLB cities and games along the way for the multiple day trips. If I stay south of the Great Lakes on the way to Nova Scotia I can pick up Ohio and Pennsylvania -- two states that I missed on my last bike trip east. And they have baseball teams, so...

Anyway, it is good to think about traveling again. I hope it works out in 2022.
I am looking forward to walking into the Pacific this week. It has been too long. 

A tropical beach
A tropical drink
A tropical cigar

A slice of heaven on earth

John

New Tech Toy for the Computer Illiterate Old Guy

This is the first Out of My Hat post on my new laptop! It's weird getting used to using the cursor and clicking instead of just touching the screen. The original keyboard to my 2 in 1 had the mouse pad and cursor, but the replacement Bluetooth one that I had been using for a couple of years didn't. Until I get used to this, I'll have a bunch of fingerprints on my screen.

I don't think I've owned a PC since Windows 3.1. I think it had a Pentium processor!
I've had a number of laptops, both larger and minis. The last few have been Chromebooks, which work well for me since most of what I do online is through Google or Google apps. 
To give you an idea of the dinosaur that I am, this is the first full sized laptop I've owned that doesn't have a built-in DVD drive! It is very lightweight and sleek looking compared to my old HP or Compaq computers. The external DVD drive that I used for one of my minis is so old that I doubt it would be compatible with this model. And I guess DVD technology is so far in the past anyway. Most of those things are now streamed rather than stored on discs.

I suppose it is a good thing that I am not so reliant on technology. I'm happy with a cheap laptop, slow wifi, a good cigar and an adult beverage. Actually, you could probably replace the cheap laptop and slow wifi with a good book and a plain old radio with a classic rock station and I'd be just as happy.
As with all of the technology stuff I've owned, I will greatly under utilize its simple capabilities and enjoy it, nonetheless.

John

My Black Friday Deal

I am not the Black Friday kind of shopper. I'll be camped out safely in my home while others are flooding the stores looking for "door buster" deals. I'm not even venturing out for a coffee shop cup of coffee or afternoon craft beer.

Sometime today I will be receiving a package from a pre-Black Friday deal. I took advantage of the sales to buy myself a new laptop. This may be the last blog that I type on my current rigged 2 in 1 tablet and keyboard. The keyboard part of it stopped functioning long ago and has been replaced with a Bluetooth connected keyboard and the whole thing is mounted in an old, generic tablet keyboard folder that I repurposed. It's been a long time since I owned a large sized (14.5") laptop. Even the last two laptops I've owned were of the 10" Chromebook size to make for easier portability and those go back to my working days almost seven years ago.

I'm sure that I'll keep this little gem, Maybe I'll ditch the additional keyboard and learn to use it more as a tablet. Maybe it will become my Kindle reader at home instead of always using my phone. Or maybe it will end up in an electronics recycle box with several other old computers.
Since I'm low tech and cheap, my new laptop is inexpensive and simple. I'll be getting it setup to suit me as best as a computer illiterate old guy can this afternoon/evening. Fun times ahead!

Any Black Friday shoppers among my readers?
Any great deals you've snagged for yourself or for a Christmas gift?
Any other "Bah! Humbug" on the whole Christmas shopping people like me?

John

Thanksgiving

It 's Thanksgiving Day in the US and I am thankful for so many things.
I feel like I should be writing something meaningful on this day or at the very least listing some of the traditional and expected things -- family, friends, home, etc., etc.

It's just not in me this morning.
I'm just going to enjoy the quiet of this morning, drink my coffee, and be thankful.

John

Wednesday Wisdom

 

Books

I finished reading How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion by David DeSteno. It was read due to the suggestion of fellow blogger and mentoring curmudgeon, Mike. 
I enjoyed the read as it was my kind of book. The science of how our brains work and respond to different stimuli fascinates me. This was particularly interesting as it examined ritual practices (both religious and non-religious) and their impact on our health and well being. Both the psychology and physiology of belief is pretty interesting. Community (religious or otherwise) is a pretty big deal when it comes to coping with life. 
I'm not sure how I feel about that. I always figured that community is the reason I need to cope with life!

I also finished the book Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrmann MD. It is good and has some worthwhile information. I'm not strictly following his diet plan, but I am using some of his eating philosophy and science as I move forward with my own lifestyle changes in diet, exercise, and healthier living.
I am currently re-reading The Abs Diet by David Zinczenko. It is the book I read when I began my last large weightloss journey over eight years ago. 

In the fiction category I am on book 3 of a three book modern day vampire series (Don't ask me why). It's weird, but entertaining and passes time in the evening. 
Although I have so many books queued up in my Kindle app, I picked up a David Baldacci book (Daylight) when I was at the library. I've never read anything from him, but have heard of him and he seems to put out a number of good books. If I like his writing, this could mean regular library visits are in my future.   

What are you reading?

John

Monday Motivation

 

Holidays Bring Joy, Sadness, and Stress

It is the Sunday before Thanksgiving in the US and small towns around the country have had their Christmas parades in the past few days. It is a kind of unofficial start to the holiday season.
It is so weird that the holidays can bring so much joy, some bitter sadness, and off the charts stress to so many people. I know that this 2022 holiday season will be the first without a loved one for some. For others it will be a different family dynamic due to divorce, rejection, geographic separation, or even deeply divided politics.

I don't know why I've been thinking about this. I just have. And I'm wondering how some of my friends are doing. Some will have new holiday traditions and new ways to celebrate; others will just be alone. Some will deal with old family stressors; others will have new ones.

If your holiday season is shaping up to be a rough one, consider reaching out and letting somebody know. If your in the Springfield MO area--give me a shout. We'll grab a beer or a coffee and chat for a bit. Sometimes life is hard. It's often less difficult if you can share it with somebody.

John 

Adios, Amigos!

It 's been two years or so since we have been on a tropical beach. The pandemic really hurt that area of the economy--at least for those of us that were being cautious about potential exposure. By the time our kids moved to Mexico last month, my passport was more than a year expired.

The government website said to expect 12-14 weeks for renewal or 10-12 weeks with expedited handling. I decided the two were close enough that I wasn't going to pay for expedited handling. 

You can imagine my surprise when this showed up in the mail on Thursday!

It had only been one month!
Because we were working around the house during the afternoon and I had barchurch in the evening, it took a whole 10 hours before I actually found and booked a flight for us to head for a tropical beach.

Now we just have to wait for the travel dates. 

Life's a beach!
John

Eclipse

It is just past midnight here in the Midwest US and the moon is just beginning its entrance into the penumbral shadow of the earth. To the naked eye, there isn't much to see until the moon enters the earth's umbra. That's when you can really see the shadow of the earth on the surface of the moon. It will be a couple of hours before that happens. That will peak a little after 3am here, then the shadow will grow smaller until it's gone near sunrise.

I'll be checking it out even though it is going to be a pretty frigid night. These kinds of astronomic events are just too hard to pass up.

John

Pogonophile

 A pogonophile is a lover of beards.
I don't think I fall into that category, but I do appreciate a nice beard.
I've never been patient enough to grow a good beard. Too much Asian genetics probably plays a role in the relatively slow growth of my facial hair. Pandemic isolation and plain old laziness when it comes to shaving has got my beard to the place where it looks like it may have some potential. I doubt I will ever be able to join a Viking revolution club, but with some proper grooming and a little time I may at least make a respectable showing.

John

Wednesday Wisdom

Running on Empty

Well it is just the first day of the second half of November and I am running out of things to write about for National Blog Posting Month. I'm looking at my coffee mug this morning and it reminded me that yesterday I was thinking of one weird thing that I miss about working -- stairs!

If you're also following my other blog, you know that I've been trying to get daily exercise. Before I retired I would often do the stairs on my breaks. It was 80 stair steps from ground level to the fifth floor where the elevator stopped. I always took the stairs up and rode the elevator down since going down stairs is hard on my knees. Six reps of that plus the twenty additional stairsteps to the sixth floor break room was an even 500 stairs and a decent bit of exercise several times a day.

It would be pretty handy to have easy access to some stairs like that, but definitely not worth going back to work! I'll manage with my exercise cycle, treadmill, and just plain walking. 
Sometimes I see social media memories of sunset or sunrise pics from the tower, and sometimes I think of watching thunderstorms rolling in from the tower. Those are about the only things that I miss about working. As it is, there are pretty good sunrises (although I'm rarely up to see them) and sunsets visible from our home, and the deck is a fine place from which I can enjoy a nice rainfall with a bit of thunder and lightning. 
All-in-all, the mug saying sums it up pretty well!

Tomorrow will probably be a lame Wednesday Wisdom meme. Thursday I'll need to figure something out or just decide that this whole National Blog Posting Month is lame and drop it. As it is, this will be my 184th post of the year, my third highest annual post count in my 15 years of blogging. 187 is second highest and 202 is the most I've posted in a year. 

See you tomorrow
...maybe.

John

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Do you remember when that was the slogan for AT&T? 
It was back when you had to pay extra to call outside of your local calling area. 

I've fallen short of my goal to reach out to 100 people in the last 100 days of the year. I was using texts, messenger, and emails for a time, but I think that getting no response or acknowledgement from so many has caused me to lose heart and set that project aside. But today I'm feeling a renewed sense of encouragement and wondering why I would let somebody else's actions deter my plan of being an encouragement to others.
I'm back!

How are you doing on reaching out to others?
Are you still going strong or have you (like me) slacked off?
Let's do this!
It's only 46 more days.

John

Why Are We Friends?

It's weird how friendships can be very strong for a season of life and then seemingly evaporate into nearly non-existence. The people I once worked with, joked with, conversed with, and shared several hours of life with on a daily basis I no longer see, hear from, or even think about except for occasional memories or posts that might pop up in a social media feed. Some of those co-workers transferred to other facilities, some retired before I did, and some are still working and it was my retirement that seems to have ended our common connection.

I really have no past church connections. I have had a few attempts at keeping in touch, but again, the commonality of a particular church or of how to practice our Christianity no longer exists so neither do our relationships.

Over the decades, I haven't kept in touch with any of my classmates that were once my buddies, my tribe during my youthful years. I am greatly pleased to have renewed a precious few of those old relationships in recent years. Our lives are very different, but we have some common roots, common memories, and shared life values.

For the most part, I still think of the people of my past with fond memories and would love to catch up on life over a coffee or beer. I think it's cool that our life paths intersected for a period of time and would like to know how things are on their current paths. Sometimes those path divergences were difficult ones and caused by difficult times or decisions. Other times they may have been joyous ones where everybody celebrated, cried, hugged, and wished each other well as we parted and one of us set off on a new journey.

I have a philosophy on friendships. Friendship aren't always reciprocal. Just because I consider you to be my friend doesn't mean that you have to consider me to be your friend. I'm sure there are people that I think of as friends that only think of me as an old acquaintance, and vice versa. It's just the way it is. Mutual friendships are definitely the best, but even those might only last for a particular season of life.

These are just thoughts in my head this morning.
If we have been friends in the past, chances are I still think of you as my friend. 
Just wanted you to know that.

John

Getting to know you

Tell me some thing about you that most people don't know.
This past Thursday night our barchurch pastor was absent as it was opening night for her daughter's high school musical, Footloose. Her daughter had the female lead.

That brought me back to the days of my own high school musicals. 
My junior year I played the role of Conrad Birdie in the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie. In our show, Conrad Birdie made his entrance to the auditorium on a motorcycle that was provided by a local dealer. The Kawasaki 125 had a tendency to die if it wasn't warmed up well. As the show began, I was out in the back parking lot riding the bike and just having fun. Then the stage manager comes running out screaming that I'm on! I killed the motor. He ran through the halls pushing the bike with me following. When we got to the auditorium doors, I sat down on the bike, combed my hair and there was my cue! The doors opened, I fired up the bike, and made my entrance right on time! 

Sure, people that have known me for most of my life know about my high school drama/chorus days. For most of my current friends and acquaintances, this is probably a surprise.

What's your "I bet you didn't know..." moment?

John

                                                                circa 1977

Slip Sliding Away

I've gotten off track.
Over the past month (maybe longer) I have really neglected to nurture and care for my contemplative time. I'm not sure how that happened. I just let it slip away.

Perhaps it would be more correct to say that I have let my meditative time slip away. I have spent plenty of time contemplating while listening to nature or smoking a cigar. I have not, however, been purposefully meditative for some time. Purposeful meditation has a way of helping to connect me to the universe around me. It connects me to God and all of God's creation. It keeps me centered, balanced, peaceful.

Many different faith practices work in the same way. Daily dedicated prayer time is a way of doing a similar connection to God. Some people use a personal kind of prayer time while others practice as a part of a ritual community prayer. Some (like me) are less about praying and more about just seeking a spiritual connection to the Creator, as well as to the creation. 

I picked up my mala yesterday. Maybe that is what clued me into the missing meditative time. It's a little weird because I don't typically use my mala beads during my meditation. They do, however, serve as a reminder that I am spiritually connected to the people and the world around me. I think that many Christians have a difficult time with this belief that we are all connected. Christians have been conditioned to believe that the Christ is only in other Christians and so we do not have a spiritual connection to non-believers. I no longer find that to be true. I find God (The Universal Christ) in all of creation. For so very long I limited the scope of Christ to the physical person of Jesus. Today I believe the scope and power of God through the identity of The Christ is much greater than Jesus of American Christianity. 
I'm going to spend some time reconnecting to that today.

How do you connect to God?
                                      the Universe?
                                      the people around you?

John

Camping

I'm 61. Camping is not my thing. We have been camping, but always been with more experienced campers. This was our first outing on our own as rookie campers. In spite of some minor problems, my overall assessment -- It wasn't bad.

First off -- November camping in Missouri is pretty much for hardcore campers and rookies. There were very few campers in a very large campground as water service throughout the grounds was off except for 1 bathroom/shower house and a few frost-free spigots to load holding tanks or containers. It was a beautiful setting and we may be back during warmer weather if we decided to continue this outdoor experiment.

Secondly -- While having a camper gives us the ability to travel to and see other areas, when it come to being outdoors and enjoying nature I do that most days from the comfort of my deck. We even sleep out here (yes, I am writing from the deck) many nights and a fully functioning bathroom is just steps away (more important to Chris than to me).

As I said -- It wasn't bad.
In the end, we will continue to venture out into the camping life if Chris decides that is what she wants to do. I am pretty easy about doing it or not. There is just a little mindset change in that camping is more work than what we have been accustomed to on our travels. It may be that we will haul our little camper to use as a place to breakfast, snack, and sleep, while making use of whatever local resources there are for dining out for lunch and dinner. We'll probably be back and making adjustments for a little while. Experience is a good teacher.
Only time will tell.

John

Wednesday Wisdom

"Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
--Albert Einstein

Rural Life

We live in a rural environment. There is a gas station convenience store a mile away and a Dollar General at about 1.5 miles. Not far from the Dollar General is a little family owned burger shop that makes fried pies that are delicious. It's about 8 miles to the nearest franchise fast-food place, larger restaurant, supermarket, or other shops, stores, medical service, etc.
Compared to our friends that live in Ozark, Nixa, or Springfield we live out in the sticks.

Not so out here in the southeast part of Missouri. We past quite a few homes (rurally speaking) on our way from the camp to the nearest gas station and town with a hardware store yesterday -- almost 20 miles away! (That's 32km to the rest of the world.)

I know how crappy and expensive satellite internet can be (ask me how I know) and I also know that the majority of these people vote for politicians that are opposed to an infrastructure plan that would address that. 
Even though I enjoy many aspects of living out and away from people, I do enjoy a nice dinner out, shopping for groceries without needing to pack a lunch, and having nearby doctors and other services.

This area is about 2 hours drive from St. Louis and about 4 hours from Memphis. The homes we passed ranged from small, rundown cabins to large homes with large fenced and well cared for lawns. It's a hard life for many, and others seem to be doing quite well. I suppose it's not much different than anywhere else. In some ways it's almost foreign. In other ways, it's like any community of people--just more spread out.

It is a beautiful area of Missouri. Living in this rural area wouldn't be so bad for a retired guy. I don't know that I'd want to raise a family out here. I feel like there is much that my kids would be missing.
Being retired makes rural living a lot easier. I don't have the daily commute that some of my working neighbors have. I also can plan my trips to town around times when most people are working and avoid the peak times when stores and services are crowded.   

It seems a little counter productive to pack up our recycling items and then drive 15 miles to a collection site. I have to plan that around another necessary drive. We live. We adapt.
We have lived in small towns and big cities. We are currently in the most rural setting we've ever been. There is still some adaptation that is necessary, but change is necessary for growth.

Sixty-one and still growing (up).
John

Rookie campers

Our first day out was okay and we survived the 40 (4.4c) degree night.

I misunderstood the "water accessible" to mean that there would be a water hookup. All of the water at the camp sites is turned off as of Nov 1, and water for holding tanks or containers is available at several places throughout the park. Only one shower house/bathroom (maybe a half mile from us) in the park is open. No worries. We'll manage.

We had a little trouble getting the electric hooked up, but finally did. One downside is that there wasn't an input for the heater/ac unit and I didn't have the proper adapter. Fortunately we brought a space heater with us and that worked out well.

We had a nice dinner of a salad and macaroni & meat sauce.

We'll run a few errands today and do a little hiking.

All in all, not a bad first day. 

John

Hello, Darkness My Old Friend

The US is back on Standard Time and the sun sets early in the evening. Maybe I'll shift my bedtime by an hour so I don't miss the earlier hours of the daily allocation of natural lighting. Today's allotment is just 10 hours, 27 minutes of sunshine in SWMO and that will continue to decrease until the winter solstice.

People don't usually celebrate darkness. I don't know of any night owls that are happy at the extra minutes and hours of darkness that the season brings. For the most part, even the fall lovers will be bitching about the early sunset tonight and every night until spring. Well light a fire and pour a cup of pumpkin spiced whatever! This is what you love, right?

Maybe I'll shift my exercise time to the evening hours. I can walk in the sun during the day, but cycling or weight-machine stuff can wait until the early evening. Exercise is supposed to be a mood enhancer, so maybe that will hold off on the winter depression (SAD).

I'm working on enclosing the screened in deck so that I can use it throughout the winter. I'm a little concerned that it might become a mini-greenhouse, so I'm going to make removable panels for the sunnier days (and to vent the cigar smoke!). On the other hand, shorts and t-shirt in the greenhouse doesn't sound like a bad way to spend the winter. I'll work on making the most of whatever sunshine I can get.

If you are a Northern Hemisphere reader, how do you deal with the longer seasonal nights? What are your hacks for maintaining a healthy mood throughout the winter months?

John

Winter Settings for Older People

...Not for "old" people, for people like me--you know, older than young people, but not really old.
Anyway, it is time to set-up winter heat settings in the house and I'm finding last year's 67 (19.4c) degrees to feel a bit chilly this year. I'm hoping it's just that I haven't adjusted to fall temps yet and the same settings of 67 in the daytime and heat off at night will work again this year. 
Even on the coldest nights the temp in the house would only be around 60 (15c) by morning and that's where we had the programable thermostat of our last home set for nighttime sleeping.

We haven't had the heat on for the past few days, and have only used the furnace for a day or two so far this fall. The house was 63 (17.2c) at wake up and I used the gas fireplace to bring the main living area up to around 70 (21.1c). By the end of next week the furnace will probably be in daily use.

Maybe I'll lose enough weight and natural insulation by January that I'll need to reconsider our settings. I wouldn't mind a warmer setting for thinner people vs a warmer setting for "older" people.
Have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of fall/winter?
#readyforspring

John

TV

I don't watch much TV. I don't get into binge watching series after series of soap opera like stories. I have watched a few seasons of a few shows, but not many. It's interesting how some shows seem to have a cult-like following and the followers are overly enthusiastic, unpaid proselytizers recruiting friends, family, and freaking strangers to join their mind numbing cult -- "Oh My God! You've got to watch it! It's soooo good!"

Chris and I watched Goliath on Amazon Prime. The final season recently released after its year+ delay due to COVID. I watched The Man in the Tower (or something like that) for a season or two, but really couldn't keep up with it. 
There was a Jack Ryan series that was pretty good (two seasons, I think) and a story on witches that I started while working the overnight shelters last winter. When the overnights ended, I stopped watching.

Do you watch TV?
Do you binge watch series programs?
What is your go-to streaming service?
What are your must sees? 

Just curious.

John

What's Your Struggle?

We all seem to have a daily nemesis, something we struggle with on a regular basis. 
It might be doing too much, or doing too little.
It might be finding time for ourselves or finding the time to take care of everyone else.
It might be being alone or it might be being around too many people.
It might be struggling to be yourself, the person you feel you really are.
Or maybe it's struggling with yourself because you don't like the person you really are.

My current struggle is with better health.
I'd really like to get to a point where I don't have to think about it. I just practice good habits. I'm not there yet.
I know that I need to move more.
I know that I need to eat better (and less).
And I know that I have to think about it ALL THE TIME or I'm likely to make bad choices.

I'm working on it. If you follow my other blog Healthy Living (by an unhealthy guy)  you already know of my struggles. Writing about it helps me to stay focused. Sometimes that's all it takes to get started--writing it down, saying it out loud, recognizing the struggle and addressing it.
So...
What's your struggle?
Did you know that you can comment anonymously on this blog?
You can write your struggles and not leave your name. Seriously, sometimes that really helps.
And since I moderate all comments, you can share with me and ask that your comment not be published.
In any case, I want to encourage you as you face your daily struggles. I know how valuable a few words of encouragement can be.

Life is a journey.
We can help each other along the way.

John

Wednesday Wisdom

 And a little bit of humor

Have a great day!
John

Irony and the circle of life

Irony
I grew up in a small town. (Cue the John Mellencamp song in your head)
I didn't want to live in a small town so I moved away when I got the chance.
It's now forty years later and I bought a home a different small town.
Smh.

Do you have some of those weird ironical incidents in your life?
Do you do or say the things your parents said or did that you once swore you would never do?
Do tell.

John

Monday Motivation and NaBloPoMo Begins

November is here!
National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)
It's also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but I won't be participating in that one.

This Monday meme works both ways.
If you want people to say kind things about you, be kind.

John