Sunday Five - Where to When We Can?

Traveling is like riding a bike, you never really forget how, though you do need a little practice to sharpen your skills.  Someday travel will become safe again, adventure will become normal and acceptable.  When that happens, where to? Hence this weeks Sunday five 

Name five places you want to travel to and and why.

1. Great Britain, we have dear friends (and bloggers) in Wales and London, and I still need to go find the house my grandmother was born in, I have not been to Scotland, I could spend a month. 
2. France, it has been too long, there are a few bloggers to meet. I could spend the rest of my life exploring small French villages and wandering in the museums. Oh and the food! 
3. Philadelphia, there are a couple of bloggers to see, a couple of great museums to revisit, and Hamster has some old college friends to see. 
4. Arizona, there is something about the landscape that makes my heart go pitter-pat.  There are a couple of dear bloggers to see. I want to go back to the Grand Canyon and spend time exploring the high desert and mountains.  
5. New York City, we have a dear old friend who has moved there (west side of Central Park, near the middle of the park.) The new platforms at Penn Station are opening this week. Shopping, food, museums there is just so much.  I need to go to Brooklyn, I have a couple of addresses connected to my grandmother's time there, and the bar her Uncle Bob ran (just over the bridge, on the left.)  

Well, that will cover my first year, onward from there.  

Please share your top five in the comments.  

 

The Saturday Morning Post - Learning

 The last day of class, in my last year of high school, the english teacher gave a bit of a lecture about life and the future that awaited us.  He said, "you will read and learn so much more in life, than you did in school" and at least half of the class laughed at this statement.  Most of us figured school was over. That by finishing high school we had mastered the skills that would carry us through life.  Oh, how I wish I could go back and take away the chuckles and teenage eye rolls.  If there is an afterlife, he has sat there chuckling at many of us, for thinking we were done with learning.   

When I finished high school I couldn't figure out what to study, or why, and told my father, unless I knew that it would be a waste of his money and my time.  Everyone told me to go study photography and art (and I can't draw to save my soul.) Inherently I knew that was an unlikely way to make my way in the world.  I bounced around for a while, never having a "real job" then went to work doing sales and marketing for a land developer and home builder.  A couple of years into that I realized that if I wanted to move beyond a low level position, I needed to get more education.  I started to know, how little I knew.  I was driving past a community college on my to and from the office, I stopped one morning, enrolled, and started classes (after the shock that books cost more than tuition.) That really started my learning.  It started my love of reading, my love of connecting seemingly unconnected concepts and finding what they have in common and how they differ.  

I continue to learn, and YOU are a part of that learning.  One way to learn is to offer up and idea, and listen to the comments or replies of others.  Your comments help me to develop my half-baked ideas, to see the strengths, and flaws in my thinking - to learn more about what I thought I knew.  I learn by reading your blogs, glimpses into your lives, your minds, your life experiences.  

As bloggers, blog readers and commenters, we are a social community, we are an entertaining community, and we are a learning community.  

Thank you for being a part of my ongoing education.  

Are you still learning? 

Random Thoughts and Rambles

This post was started, for posting later this month, but needs to be moved to today. Foodie Friday starts next week with Yorkshires fruitcake in a couple of weeks.   

 

I am shocked at how easily the Capital perimeter was breached by terrorists. These are not patriots and very fine people, they are anarchists - terrorists.  Around the time I moved to DC, we spent billions of dollars building a secure space at the Capital, that was used, and was secure, at the same time entrances to the main Capitol building were closed and security theater was put in place on the historic building.  Security that failed miserably, with a security force that was vastly undermanned and under prepared for what we knew was likely to happen.  That will be investigated.  

I am proud of the restraint of the police and security forces.  The invading terrorists were largely unarmed, and not an invading foreign force.  To the extent possible, as long as it was possible the police defended the building and when necessary retreated to safety.  This is what was needed, doing otherwise would have resulted in a bloodbath, creating martyrs in the eyes of the terrorists. There should have been sufficient force to secure the perimeter,  but once it was breached the police did what they should do. Now to get them to practice the same restrain when facing black or hispanic crowds.   

The challenge with prosecuting the terrorist is creating martyrs in the eyes of their followers. A very difficult balancing act for prosecutors.  

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram suspended Trump's account on January 6th, after the Capital was invaded by terrorists that he urged on, talk about closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.  FB and Instagram have extended the suspension indefinitely at least through the end of his term. Again, too little - too late. 

Scotland has told Trump that the country on lockdown, and playing golf at one of his shuttered country clubs, would not qualify a essential travel, in other words, he is not welcome to come there when he leaves office - he is not welcome here either. 

2% of my high school graduating class died in December, at that rate we would all be dead in 4 years. I hope that trend ends. 

Amazon recently posted a list of 100 books to read before you die, I have already read 14 of them. Probably all of that list I will read. 

 

 

 

Onward to the Future!

I painted this a week ago.  It started out as layers of blue and white with a lot of texture to it.  I paint things like that. Some of them end up being interesting, some of them end up in a stack in the corner of my bedroom. My painting mentor (Esther Miller a neighbor in the condo we spent a couple of winters in Florida when I was in high school) told me to paint what I felt, to paint from my heart. Part way through it, I realized that the colors expressed how I was feeling about the year that was coming to an end.  I felt a need to do something constructive to put the past in the past, and move onward to the future. The blue, and words were painted on New Year's Eve, the red circle and banning slash, were painted on New Year's Day.   

2020 was a difficult year for everyone.  We can carry that forward, or we can put the past in the past, and move bravely and safely forward.  Every year has challenges, and 2021 is no exception.  The world didn't change with the calendar, but we can move forward, life does not have a reverse.  Don't let the past get in the way to today. 

Do you paint or draw? 

 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Cars

I don't remember the year, it was early 70's vintage, my first car.  I bought is used in the fall of 1977. An Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale coupe.  It was typical of early 70's detroit scrap metal, it ran - sort of, it went through water pumps every 10,000 miles, rain leaked into the trunk. I drove it a couple of water pumps worth, and bought a four-door version of basically the same car from someone I was working with, who was trading up to a new Cadillac. It was freedom and responsibility. It was the first car I ever had to fill the gas tank on, pay for maintenance and repairs on.  The thought of it breaking down terrified me.  I seldom drove it more than 20 miles from home. The second one was a better car, it was soon traded on something newer and much more reliable. 

I remember my grandfather talking about the cars he bought and sold in the 1920's and 30's.  Essex, Ford, Chevy.  He bought his first new car just before World War II and drove it until new cars were available after the war, then bought a new one every other year, mostly Ford and Mercury four door sedans.  New cars where his one splurge.  

 

Travel Tuesday - Brussels

Welcome to random Travel Tuesday.  I have nearly 70,000 photos in the archive, most of them from travels over the past 20 years.  Once a week I will pull up the unsorted photos, give the mouse a long push and see where the pointer stops, select a photo and write about it.  

The image above is along the main pedestrian zone in Brussels Belgium.  The second time that I went with Jay on his quadrennial trip for the Oxford Patristics Conference, we spent a week with friends in Yorkshire the week before the conference, he went off to Oxford and I took the Eurostar to Brussels.  Why Brussels? I had never been there.  I was going back for a second visit to Amsterdam, and Brussels was a good stopping point on the way.  I stayed in a nice Hilton near the train station, visited a transportation museum,  and took the local slow train onto Amsterdam. I liked Brussels. From Amsterdam, I flew to Paris, then encountered a cancelled connecting flight, and took the TGV to Normandy, another adventure, to be written about at another time.  

Should we go back to building buildings with this kind of architectural detail?  

My Music Monday - 2001: A Space Odyssey

My grandparents were alive when the Wright Brothers and others were first experiencing controlled flight, my father was born the year Lindbergh flew the Atlantic solo, I was grew up in the space race, and lived in the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center for years.  The Chinese recently brought back lunar soil, are we on the verge of new space exploration?  Would you go to the moon for the weekend, if you could do so comfortably and safely? 

Just be careful about those pod bay doors, they can be tricky. 

The Sunday Five - Nesting Time

 The eagles continue to fix up this nest, likely there will be hatchlings in coming weeks or months.  Fixing up the nest, inspiration for this weeks Sunday Five. 

1. How long have you lived at your current nest? 
2. Have you ever done a major remodel? 
3. Have you ever built a new nest? 
4. If you could have any view in the world, what would you look out on? 
5. Is your current nest, too large, too small, or just right? 

My answers: 

1. How long have you lived at your current nest? 11 years the end of this month. 
2. Have you ever done a major remodel? Both bathrooms in the past 18 months. 
3. Have you ever built a new nest? Three times in three years. 
4. If you could have any view in the world, what would you look out on? Hard to pick one, Golden Gate Bridge 
5. Is your current nest, too large, too small, or just right? It would be nice to have just a little more space. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post - Art

 Welcome to the first ever, Saturday Morning Post, not that I haven't posted every Saturday morning for years, but this year I am going to take a stab at a new daily theme.  Saturdays will be sort of a random ramble of what is rattling around in my brain.  We will see how this works.  This photo was taken a year ago, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.  An old friend of ours was in town for a couple of days, we met him here and went to lunch at a nearby restaurant.  

Art galleries make great art available to everyone.  I can't imagine anything sadder than the Mona Lisa hanging in the dining room of a private home in Florence, seen only by the family and those few who are lucky enough to be invited to dinner.  I remember the first time a museum moved me to tears.  I was in London in late may 1990. At the time I was living in Orlando, and I had not been to any major US cities, like New York, or Chicago, or LA, or San Francisco, or Washington DC where I might have seen more great art. I went to the National Gallery, I stood there staring, and had to sit down.  I realized I was looking at an entire wall of paintings by "Old Masters," painters I had only ever seen one or two special works from, and there was a wall, probably 20 feet tall, and 50 feet long, packed one next to another with world famous paintings.  All there, for anyone who walked in the door to see.  Seeing one in a special exhibit, allows you to focus on that one special piece of art. Every city should have a real art museum.  World class museums are worth going out of your way for, seeing a gallery full of masterworks changes you as a person, everyone needs that.   

Has a museum ever moved you to tears?   

Happy New Year!

If this posts, we made it through 2020 without the earth exploding, imploding or being taken out by a giant meteor.  With 2020, it was a close one.  Happy 2021, pronounced twenty twentyone, in my brain.  

I can remember my grandparents and my great grandmother making remarks about things that happened back at the turn of the century, today that is looking back at the Y2K non-events.  

My goals for the year I covered yesterday.  Today will be more about wishes and dreams. 

I wish the world health this year.  The threat is not over, but hope is on the horizon.  Advances in science are offering solutions our grandparents and great-grandparents only dreamed of at turn of the century before this one.  Their lives were changed by antibiotics, early vaccines, ours by RNA, DNA, therapies beyond the science fiction of a century ago. 

I wish the world, and our country recognition and healing on issues of race, segregation, discrimination, hate crimes and murder in the name of race. Acknowledging the maltreatment of our fellow human beings is necessary, to start the healing process.  May this be the year of acknowledgement. 

I wish the world peace.  It is time to end the cycle of endless wars.  Deep down underneath it, the majority of people just want a safe secure life, with enough to eat, a sound place to live, and an opportunity to make the most of their talents and abilities.  Wars fought over politics, economics and religion fail to deliver peace. 

I wish everyone peace of mind.  A sense of security, freedom from the past, hope for the future, happiness.  If you need help, reach out and find help.  It takes strength to change, but it also takes a lot of energy to suffer, direct your energy to finding help if you need it, if you can help others who are struggling, please do. We are all in this together. 

Go to sleep each night dreaming of what might be, wake each morning with the will to make it happen.  We can change ourselves, we can change our world.  

Wishing all of my readers a happy and healthy 2021. 

   

  

 

2020 and 2021 Goals

 A year ago I posted the following goals for 2020: 

• Keep moving, go to the gym at least 5 times per week, start keeping a gym / activity log (I haven't done that in close to 20 years.) 
• Take a two week trip to Ireland, Wales and London in early March.  
• Read 50 books
• Daily Blog 
• Add 5,000 photographs to the archive 
• Continue to build a life outside of the office. 

So how did I do? 

2020 was a year of unexpected changes, kind of complicated. 

• Going to the gym, and the gym activity log was kept for the first couple of months, then we went to Ireland, Wales and London for 16 days, and returned to the gyms being closed.  Hmm, I shifted directions to my nearly daily walks in the marsh along the Potomac river.  Weather permitting, I walk nearly 2-miles every morning. I did drop the log - it is here in the keyboard drawer on my desk.   
• The trip to Ireland, Wales and London in early March went off, not exactly as planned, but it was a wonderful experience. I am so glad we did what we did, when we did it, we even had dinner with John of Going Gently.  
• I finished 28 books, instead of 50.  For years my primary reading time was an hour plus, five days a week on the subway train going to and from the office, and frequent long airline flights.  I have only been on the trains once since the end of February.  I am actually pleased at having finished 28 books, considering the changes in routine. 
• Daily Blog - mission accomplished once again, I have missed one day in 6 years.  
• I added about 8,791 photos the archive this year, far exceeding the goal of 5,000 
• "Continue to build a life outside of the office." I had no idea how much of my life I would spend outside of the office this year, or is it that I am always in the office now that I am working in my bedroom? Working from home, has given me a good handle on post work life.  My daily walks - with the camera in hand, I have had three recipes published this year (I see a cooking blog in the post employment era.) I can much more easily see life after the office, most likely three years from now.  

 Goals for 2021

• Read 24 books, two a month is a healthy goal. 
• Continue 45 minutes to an hour per day of physical activity.  Restart the daily activity log, what gets measured gets done. 
• Blog daily. 
• Add another 5,000 photos to the archive. 
• Start to learn to identify birds, flowers and trees.  
• Reach out to at least one friend per week, even if just to say Hi! 
• Develop my storytelling - putting a lifetime of adventures into words. 

For the first time in years, there are no travel expectations on my list.  I would love to travel, I miss it as much as Maddie misses sex, well maybe not that much, but I long to travel, when is it safe to do so.  In the cold of winter, I think of warm Florida sunshine and seeing family and friends.  I am coming along well on figuring out life beyond the office, I have some work left to do before I stop working, but I can see the finish line.  

Do you have any plans for the coming year?  

    

The Way We Were Wednesday - Early 1960's

 In about 1960 my grandparents bought a tiny house, in the fishing village of Istachatta Florida (Google it) to spend winters in. I think this was taken in 1962 or 1963. That is my oldest brother on the porch, with my sister who is almost 2 years older than I am.  The white car was my father's, the blue car was my grandfathers.  When my grandfather replaced the blue car, my father bought the blue one, it is the car we drove to Arizona twice.  

The first little house in Florida, didn't have an indoor bathroom when they bought it, the bathroom was installed just before we visited that winter.  

Did your family have a vacation home?

Reading List 2020

Here is what I finished in 2020.  As will be explained in my next post, my normal reading time was turned on its head this year.  One other thing that has happened, is I have started reading more print books.  Food books are better in print. 

1. The Kitchen House, Kathleen Grissom 
2.  Walden, Henry David Thoreau 
3. The Truth, Michael Palin
4. Never Turn Your Back on and Angus Cow, Dr Jan Pol 
5. The Great Book of Ireland, Bill O'Neill
6. Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
7. The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer
8. The House on the Irish Hillside, Felicity, Hayes-McCoy 
9. In Foreign Fields: How Not To Move To France, Susie Kelly
10. First Time We Saw Paris, Neal Atherton
11. A Year off, Alexandria and David Brown
12. The Bluffers Guide to Philosophy, T.V. Morris
13. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
14. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo
15. More Ketchup than Salsa, Joe Cawley
16. The Reluctant Expat: Part Three, Alan Laycock 
17. Get the Picture, Dan Richards 
18. 100 Plants that almost changed the World, Chris Beardshaw 
19. Drinking French, David Lebovitz
20. Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast, Laura Cotterman, D. Waitt, A. Weakley
21. Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay, James Goodall
22. Do Not Go Gentle - Go to Paris, Gail Shilling
23. Undue Influence and Vulnerable Adults, Sandra Glazer et al (work related, very-very good.) 
24. Get Out of your Own Way, Dave Hollis 
25. How To Cook The Victorian Way with Mrs. Croncombe, Annie Gray and Andrew Hann
26. Pieometry, Lauren Ko (more design than pie)
27. Winter Warmers, by Narrowboat Chefs, Magi and Ryan Duncan 
28. Oh Cook! 60 Easy Recipes Any Idiot Can Make, James May 

YouTube Monday - The Queen's advice on wearing a crown

Perhaps there are other Queens who will offer suggestions in the comments on wearing a crown.  At least once, when you are in London, I encourage you to go to the Tower and see the crown jewels.  It is a nice little collection.  Crowns are always a thoughtful holiday gift.  

Sunday Five: 2020

 Well I have to admit, 2020 was not what any of us expected, yet there has to be something good in here.  Let me ask? 

1. What was the biggest surprise of 2020? 
2. What brought you good luck in 2020? 
3. Name one positive thing you experienced in 2020? 
4. What did you do in 2020, that you never thought you would be able to do? 
5. What made you laugh in 2020?

My answers:

1. What was the biggest surprise of 2020? My office converting to telework literally overnight. 
2. What brought you good luck in 2020?  Patience and perseverance. 
3. Name one positive thing you experienced in 2020? Renewing my love of walking in the woods. 
4. What did you do in 2020, that you never thought you would be able to do? Voted for an openly Gay man for a national office. 
5. What made you laugh in 2020? Mrs. Browns Boys on YouTube. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Fast Away The Old Year Passess,

Happy Boxing Day, to those who observe.  We did a Boxing Day Brunch several years in Lexington, got us out of the usual loop of we'd love to come to your party but we have three invitations for that evening.  

There is a line in an old Christmas carol, Fast away the old year passes, for me 2020 has flown by.  It seems like just yesterday I was setting goals for the year, planning a trip, then returning to a world that was changing rapidly.  It is like I have hardly moved since mid-March, and yet I have.  

So many changes, a year that flew by.  Soon we will be able to say, that looking back everything is in 2020 hindsight. 

Presidential Inauguration day is January 20, 2021, abbreviated in the USA, 1/20/21, the most anticipated palindrome in American history. 

I expect another year will Zoom by, filled with Zoom meetings.  

Fast year, or slow year for you?  

 

 

Merry Christmas Everyone

 Wishing each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas.  This season finds us apart, yet united in caring for one another.  For many of us, being apart, is the greatest expression of caring this year.  

This season has many meanings and traditions for many people.  Some deeply tied to faith, others steeped in winter festivities (or summer festivities in the southern hemisphere.) Practice whatever fills your heart.  Be thankful for what we have, mourn the losses of the year. Remember, just as the sun rises each morning, we are given new chance, new opportunities, the new year will be upon us in a week. 

Take care, stay safe, stay well, 

Love,

David & J & Travel 

On the Eve With Panda Claus

We are as ready for Christmas as we can be.  Panda Claus has his hat on ready to deliver to all the good little cubs and bears. He is so huggable. He does double duty as summer clause, spending the summer in the back seat of the convertible.  He likes going for slow rides with the top down.  

I will cook something special, and we'll snuggle down for a long winters nap, if there are reindeer hooves on the roof, they will be a dozen floors above us. Santa better wear a facemask in the elevator, or the neighbors will call security and complain.  

A comment I made on a blog recently brought memories of the year we went to Paris for Christmas.  The reason we went, is complicated, I was upset with my mother.  But the experience was wonderful.  The highlight was out pouting a French Maitre de, and getting seated for Christmas dinner at Altitude 95 on the Eiffel Tower for Christmas dinner, without a reservation.  He didn't say no, and I just stood there and waited until someone seated us. Memories are often the best part of the adventure, for the memories last longer than the adventure.  

Wishing all of you, a peaceful and love filled Christmas.     
 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Christmas Memories

This would have been my second christmas, my sister says the doll was mine.  My father loved the aluminum Christmas free, no lights and no needles.  My mother wanted lights, and electric lights on a metal tree were not recommended.  I have at least one of the ornaments from that tree.  When we were cleaning out Dad's house after he died, I grabbed a little santa figurine out of the glass cabinet in the dining room.  I thought it was something my mother had picked up after they retired to Florida.  Then I scanned this slide, and sitting there on the front corner of the TV, is the santa figurine.  Connections across a lifetime.   
 

Holiday Baking

When All else fails, post about food.  Here is a cranberry cake I dreamed up.  The cranberries create flavor bombs in the cake. It makes a great coffee of dessert cake. 

Cranberry Cake 

Ingredients grouped as you will add them:

4 ounces salted or unsalted butter (room temperature will work best)

1 ½ cups granulated sugar 

4 large eggs 

2 cups all purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

1 ½ teaspoons Saigon Cinnamon 

½  teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg (about ½ a nutmeg)

½ teaspoon ground cloves 

2 fluid ounces orange liquor 

12-16 ounce bag of fresh or frozen whole cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 

Process: 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat liberally with non-stick baking spray, a 9-inch tube or Bundt pan.   

Measure and stir together the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside. 

Cream together butter, and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (3 to 5 minutes you really can’t overdo this.)  Add the eggs and beat until light a fluffy.  Beating the mixture with the eggs incorporates air into the mixture, making the cake less dense. This will take 5 minutes or so, you will notice a significant change in color and texture.  

Stir in the dry ingredients by hand taking care to not over mix. 

Carefully by hand fold in the cranberries and nuts. 

Transfer to prepared tube pan. 

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester or wood skewer comes out clean. 

Invert on cooling rack and remove the cake from the pan.  

Could be dusted with powdered sugar or glazed if desired.  

Cool 2-3 hours before slicing. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.  

Use fresh whole cranberries.  Cranberries freeze well. If using frozen, thaw under running water, shake dry before folding in. 

My Music Monday - Angels From The...

Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, relax and enjoy the beauty and peace of the season.

The Sunday Five - What Do You Want - What Do You Not Want

The Sunday Five - What Do You Want - What Do You Not Want me to write about.  Believe it or not, I have been blog planning for 2021.  It is that time of the year.  So let me ask:

1. Should I continue the Sunday Five? 
2. Should I continue My Music Monday?
3. Should I continue The Way We Were Wednesdays? 
4. Should I do more food and baking posts? 
5. How would you feel about a random travel photo and short memory (I have about 50,000 photos to select from at random)? 

This one is for your answers, so I will refrain from leading by example, please share your answers in the comments.  

If We Could Understand The Animals

 One morning recently I was watching a pair of bald eagles, one was perched in the top of a tree, the other one was fishing, then flew up an perched in the tree near the mate.  And the two of them proceeded to talk with one another.  Loudly, I was probably 500 feet away and I could easily hear them.  

I wonder what they were saying to one another? Was it kind? Was it affection? Was it disappointment? Or anger? I wonder if they wish they could understand us?  

A Dark and Dismal Exploration

As part of my annual evaluation at work, we are asked to set goals, one of which is a work related personal development goal.  Last year my development goal was to learn basic video editing, and I did, it has come in handy (audio editing also, audio is easier to edit.) This year I thought about what I was weak at, pulling out a calculator to check the math on a spreadsheet with messed up formulas I couldn't figure out how to fix, and I put down, complete basic training on Excel.  

I recently had a day I didn't have anything on my calendar, and frankly I didn't feel like working but I wanted to bill the hours, so I went down the dark hole that is exploring Excel. The cheerful virtual trainer chiped, "of course every formula starts with an "=" sign!" WHY, if all formulas or functions start that way, why do we need to put it in everytime? You need to be a math geek to have a clue, this is not an accounting program, it is an engineering project. The only reason anyone uses this nightmare is no one else has come up with a decent alternative, there is no other rational explanation. There I feel better for having said that. 

Oh well, I have completed module 1 of the 2 modules I set the goal of completing.  I will force myself through the other one sometime in the next ten days.  It will help me understand why finance people drink martinis at lunch (or for lunch.) 

Are you an Excel expert? 

Zoom-Zoom

Only 9 years ago, Zoom-Zoom was Mazda's sales slogan in the USA for a few months.  I bought one of the cars in the "If it is not worth driving, it is not worth building - Zoom-Zoom era."  In 2020 Zoom took on an entire new meaning, being the massively used video meeting platform.  I have been using Google video chat for over a dozen years.  When we were working 500 miles apart, we used it almost everyday to spend quality time together when we were apart.  So I took to Zoom like a duck to water.  

Zoom has a virtual background option.  My desk at home, is in the end of my bedroom, as I point out there is an unmade bed over my right shoulder, and art supplies over my left shoulder, as soon as I discovered the virtual background option I started using it.  It allows you to upload your own images.  It is a little tricky to find, on the virtual background popup, there is a "+" sign, click that and follow the prompts.  I change my background image at least once a week.  The photo above was last week.  

I use a headset for sound, the boom microphone gives a little better sound and the headphones hide my hair, that has not been cut in about 10 months.  I have a circular broadcast light, an overstock deal of the day on Amazon, that I use as needed.  The computer is connected to the WiFi box with an ethernet cable.  If I am on a platform that does not have a virtual background I have a pop-up green screen backdrop that I can open up, it is blue on the opposite side, I did two full days of training with the blue background propped up against the easel behind my chair.

With all of that, life is just zooming along.  Not a skill I expected to perfect in 2020, but 2020 was the year of the unexpected.  

Are you a Zoom user?   

The Way We Were Wednesday - My First Christmas

 I was born in August, this would have been when I was less than a year old.  I don't see a cable release, and this was before cameras with self timers, I suspect my Aunt Edith took the picture.  She was good. When my father upgraded to an Argus c3, he gave her his first 35mm camera.  I bet it is still in the house in Florida.  I have vague memories of the sofa with the square arms, there was a green one that followed it.  

Did I grow into the ears? 

Reflections

 Looking back at a couple of last week's posts, on politics and the economy, I was a bit of a Debbie-Downer. I was feeling a lot off for a few days, it has been a shitty year in some ways, and it all gets too me sometimes. I am pretty good at faking that everything is okay, until my ability to believe my own delusions reaches its limit.  The office keeps reminding us to take care of our physical and mental health.  I am fortunate that I seldom get down, and I have never been in the dark hole of clinical depression, but there are times when I have to take steps to move myself to a happier place. 

For me, an important part of that process, is admitting to myself that I am feeling off, and sharing with at least one other person that I am feeling low.  I am often able to identify what is bothering me.  This year, isolation, a loser that refuses to admit he lost, people that are sick and dying from COVID, recognizing racism is still a problem, not being able to travel - you know the same thing that is driving a lot of us to the edge.  A good laugh helps me, I spent a couple of hours watching the Graham  Norton show on YouTube one evening.  Cooking and baking helps, I just pulled a cranberry walnut tart out of the oven.  My blogging buddies help.  

Unfortunately for my dear readers, blogging goes on no matter how I feel. I have only missed one day in six years.  I can only post so far ahead when I am feeling strong, so you get a few when I am not. 

What do I want for Christmas, to see the door hit Trump and 2020 in the ass on the way out of the door.  

  

My Music Monday -Rollin Christmas

Something a little different and kind of fun this week.  And it is short, less than a minute 

The Sunday Five - How Modern Are We?

 One of the first things I do every morning, is put my watch back on. If I don't it runs down and stops.  This got me to thinking, hence this weeks Sunday five. 

1. Do you wear a watch, and if so, digital, electric, or mechanical? 
2. Do you carry a smartphone, and if so do you turn it off at night? 
3. Have you lived in a home, that didn't have electric lights when it was built? 
4. Have you owned a television that didn't have a remote control? 
5. Tell us about your first email account? 

My answers: 

1. Do you wear a watch, and if so, digital, electric, or mechanical? I wear a mechanical watch, a Seiko copy of a famous Swiss self "perpetual" movement in a slick modern case.  I love the miniature machine. 
2. Do you carry a smartphone, and if so do you turn it off at night? Yes, and I turn mine off every night, in fact I don't turn it on every day.  
3. Have you lived in a home, that didn't have electric lights when it was built? I have not, my parents did, in fact my mother didn't have electricity at home until she was a teenager.  
4. Have you owned a television that didn't have a remote control? Yes, I can remember the first TV I bought with a remote control in 1982. 
5. Tell us about your first email account? When I started Law School the University assigned me an email account, followed shortly by a personal account (fall of 1996.) 

Please share your answers in the comments.

Rambles on Housing

There has been a moratorium on evictions in the US for much of this year.  It didn't relieve people of the obligation to pay rent, it merely closed the courts to eviction proceedings.  The bills have added up, for an estimated 1,000,000 families.  The moratorium is due to end January 1st. The courts are bracing for an avalanche of filings.  

There are calls to "cancel the rent," but doing that is beyond the power of the government, unless the rent is owed to the government.  Most of it is owed to people.  I know a couple of people who are dependent on collecting the rent to pay their bills.  They have their life savings invested in rental property, the rent paid on that is their income.  Forgiving the rent, would be taking away their income.  Some of it is owed to corporations,  and partnerships, and those are funded by private capital, in other words people's life savings.  If Congress wants to deal with this, Congress needs to step up and make the landlords whole. As it is, much of the arrears will never be collected, resulting a meaningful loss of income for people who invested their life savings in owning rental property. 

Well that ramble is a bit of a downer.  I wish I had easy answers, sometimes there are no easy answers.  

How do you respond to calls to "cancel the rent" or "cancel the student loan debt"? 

Get Out and Move

 My doctors recommendation last year, was to keep doing what I was doing, but do more of it.  Kick-it-up a notch.  What was I doing, walking nearly every day for 30 minutes.  For a couple of months, I increased my treadmill time, then the gyms closed down, and even when the gyms reopened, I didn't feel safe returning.  After a few days closed up at home I started getting out for a walk.  At first here on the hilltop, and things close to home.  That grew boring, so I moved on.   I have tried a few places, and have settled into a daily walk in a national wildlife refuge near home.  My average walk is about 2 miles, and takes me 45 minutes to an hour. It is my alone time, my thinking time, my fresh air and sunshine time.  

From my late 20's through my early 40's, I was a runner.  I miss running, and my running days are past.  And I am okay with that.  I am very glad that I was a runner before digital music players and smartphones.  I ran, as I walk, without headphones, with the thoughts in my head and the sounds around me as accompaniment.  

I realize not everyone can walk for an hour.  As long as you are able to get out and move, move the way you can.  The longer we stay active, the longer we will be able to.

Besides, you never know what you might see or hear.  

Politics - and other rambles

I spent a few minutes looking back at my blog posts from four years ago.  My, but I was rude the third party voters who elected he-who-must-not-be-named (HWMNBN.)  I didn't need to go back and ask them how they felt about the outsider as President.  Pretty much anyone with common sense has cringed through this administration.  

It is obvious HWMNBN, didn't heed my advice.  He didn't get rid of Giuliani.  He surrounded himself with family and sycophants who reinforced what he wanted to hear.  He deepened the swamp, rather than draining it (Ivanka was recently deposed by the DC Attorney General's office for funneling public funding for inauguration events to family operated hotels, charging three times market rates for space.)   

I underestimated the depth of his racism, his running on the Wall should have alerted me to that. 

I didn't vote for him.  But I naively had some hope that he might set politics aside and do something productive.  Instead he spent nearly 1/4 of his term playing golf, and hours sending mindless tweets.  Interestingly he is threatening to veto the defense spending bill, unless it repeals liability protections for social media providers for the content posted by users.  That would make Facebook and Twitter responsible for damages for false or misleading content posted by users on their platforms- at least half of the garbage that HWMNBN posted on Twitter over the past few years.  Without that shield from liability, they would have to ban his accounts to keep from going bankrupt.  

His rants increasingly sound like the ravings of a madman.   

I have some hope for sanity starting January 20th.  Joe is a kind man, a man of integrity.  When he was Vice President he was the lunch speaker at a conference I attended.  He spoke of volunteering at legal aid.  That experience changes people.  (Been there, done that, my soul has the scars to prove it.) I am thrilled with Kamala Harris. She is young, she is bright, she is multiracial, she is a no nonsense for prosecutor, who also understands working, family, and the value of education.  She has my vote for 47.  

There is so much work to do, so many mistakes to undo, I hope the new administration if ready for the challenge. 

Sorry for the ramble, sometimes I just need to talk, 

I thought about not posting this.  I think there are a lot of us that are growing tired of faking it, that everything is or will be okay.  Things are a bit of a mess. 

Take care of yourself, stay safe, stay well.  

   
 

The Way We Wednesday - Yearbook Geek

 

In high school, I was a yearbook geek.  I spent three years as a staff photographer on the yearbook team.  It had some nice perks, getting to go out and take add photos, getting into the occasional football game or school event.  I enjoyed it.  I have the books I contributed to.  The individual photos are not credited, but I can identify some of the one's I took.  Interestingly one of the photos Michigan yearbook, was taken in my bedroom in Florida.  

I continue to be a yearbook geek.  Back in 2011 we spent a week in Normandy, and I wanted to share the photos with a couple of people so I went online and created a book.  I have done several since then, my 2020 yearbook has been printed and is on it's way.  There are several services that do this.  I have used Shutterfly.  The interfaces can be a little bit of a pain, especially if you only use them once a year or so.  But you get the hang of it.  The books are a little expensive, a couple of times a year they have a half price sale.  

Were you, or are you a yearbook geek?

Land, Labor, Capital, and Entrepreneurial Ability

Way back when I first started at University, I took an introduction to business class.  The class was taught by a successful local hotelier. His message, if we didn't remember anything else from the class was that the four sources of wealth are Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneurial Ability.  If you could remember that, and define them, you passed the midterm exam.  

Land, I own a home - actually owning real estate has generated about 25% of our net worth.  Labor, I have long worked and continue to do so. Capital, we have savings and retirement savings that earn income and grow.  Entrepreneurial ability, my work really does not fit this category, I am paid a salary, the same amount win or lose.  In my younger life, I had a few small (really micro) businesses, and my current work restricts what I could do, but I am a content creator.  The blog is content, Google provides free hosting, so that Google has content.  Google offers to place adds, generating more revenue for Google, with a share of that going to the content creator.  

In a moment of reviewing the four principles I learned all those decades ago, I signed up for adsense a few years ago.  I actually don't remember how long ago, 4-5 years ago.  I haven't gotten rich on adsense, I recently received my second payment, about $105, bringing my lifetime earnings from my blog(s) to just under $210. But it is something, in exchange for the content I create. I seldom think about visits or hits when I create content, in the spirit of entrepreneurship I should.  The blog is more a labor of love, and my contribution to an online community of friends. The friends have been the biggest payoff, the little bit of income is fun money. 

So, yes I know there are ads on my blog.  Yes, I know the ads are sometimes annoying.  No I am not getting rich from them, but there is some small reward.  

If Blogger hosts your blog, on the content creation page is a link for adsense, it is not hard to sign up.  I don't know if or how to invite ads on blogs hosted outside of Blogger, but I would guess there is a way.  This is not a sponsored post, I know a few bloggers that occasionally are paid extra to  write about products or services.  Some of them clearly mark sponsored posts as such, some don't.  I have never been asked to write a sponsored post, hint to the airlines - I can be bought with first class upgrades on transAtlantic flights.  

Have you ever considered including ads on your blog?   

My Music Monday - It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Okay, I admit it, I like upbeat music, something bright, and sweet, and sappy.  And this is a glorious time of the year for it, some might say the most wonderful time of the year.