Monday Moods October 16. 81

I still have anxiety over walking away from the money, but not from the stress and pressure of the job.  I was surprised by my level of emotion when I drafted my official notice to retire from the job. I have been drafting messages to various people who need to know. I have replied to a couple of emails with X-days, then it is not my problem.  

The job has been good to me.  It opened the door to work with some of the best and the brightest in the field. At times I have been in the shadow of giants, at times I have cast a giant shadow. It paid fairly well. It has allowed some great adventures.  I have read sentences that I wrote, copied and pasted into federal legislation, the highest form of compliment, I don't want credit, I want to improve the system without being noticed.  In many ways this was my dream job.  But that dream does not include having someone find me decomposing at my desk.  I have done what I can, it is time for new voices and new ideas, it is time for me to pursue other interests.    

Starting the short term countdown, seems to have freed me from many of the worries.  There are a couple of hurdles left to cross.  About 40 years ago, a boss told me, "if this was an easy job, we could hire anyone to do it, it isn't, that is why we hired you."  I have done my best to rise to meet the challenge, and I will continue to do so.  I promise not to kick the hard choices down the calendar for someone else to be forced to deal with.  

There are a few more bureaucratic mazes to navigate. It will take time, but it will all work out. I am glad we have flexibility to not be living paycheck to paycheck.   

Plans for the next chapter are starting to come together.  A little travel, more connection with my community, time to see places I live in the shadow of, that I pass by often, and have not seen.  

I have also realized how many hours I need to take off before I take off, or forfeit paid time off that I have earned.  Oh my, not a lot of work left to do.  

Sunday Five: Dinner Food 82

When I travel alone, I don't mind eating breakfast or lunch alone, but as I have gotten older, I don't enjoy going out to dinner alone.  I will, but I would prefer not to.  If I find a local diner, like the one above in Soda Springs, Idaho I love to stop for breakfast.  The food is simple, good, moderately priced and the service is polite and attentive.  

1: What is your favorite meal to eat in a Diner? 

2: Did you eat in Diners when you were growing up? 

3: What is your "go-to" order for breakfast? 

4: How close is the nearest Diner to where you live? 

5: Do you order something hot or something cold to drink? 

My answers: 

1: What is your favorite meal to eat in a Diner? Breakfast

2: Did you eat in Diners when you were growing up? Only when out with my mother, not my father. 

3: What is your "go-to" order for breakfast? Eggs Benedict 

4: How close is the nearest Diner to where you live? There is one across from the subway station about 15 minute walk from home. 

5: Do you order something hot or something cold to drink? Always something cold, iced coffee if they can make it. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Big Red 83

So, how did I end up driving a big red Cadillac? I paid for most of law school with student loans.  For undergrad, I had worked full time, went to school part time and paid as I went.  Law school was different, full time law students are not allowed to work the first year, and discouraged from working for years 2 and 3.  

Six months after I graduated the payments started. The minimum payments were about 1/3 of my take home pay.  Almost as large as the mortgage payments on the house in Kentucky.  I buckled down and paid.  The car I was driving I had bought new a couple of years before I started law school, and paid off when we moved to Kentucky.  It was about 10 years old, had a lot of miles on it, and I got to the point I didn't trust it.  So I bought a compromise used car to drive until the loans were paid off - a basic Saturn.  It was simple, and reliable, but not terribly comfortable.

I did as much moonlighting as I could, I was saving up cash to pay off my student loans.  I had about $10,000 saved up.  

Then the higher education authority sent out a letter about a public interest loan forgiveness program.  I had worked in a non-profit legal aid program since finishing law school.  The paperwork was daunting - but what did I have to lose.  I had been paying on my loans for about 7 years, I still owed about $12,500.  I checked the balance one day and it was $1,400,  $10,000 and year's interest had been taken off my balance.  I sent a check in the next day and paid off the balance. 

And I had the extra cash I had saved up to try to pay off the student loans early.  Smile - it was time for a nicer car.  $10,000 even at that time wouldn't buy a new car, and I really didn't want any debt.  

I decided a nice used car would be perfect. After having driven small and basic for a few years, I decided what I really wanted was a "fat assed middle age man car."  I started looking around town, and I mentioned to friends of mine who did a lot of probate and estate work that the ideal car for me was something a few years old with not very many miles on it.  A car to old for the banks to be interested in financing, that I could easily pay cash for.  A couple of leads trickled in, a Jaguar X type - I drove it - it felt like a four-wheel drive pickup truck.  

Then Robert said, "I have just the thing, a 9 year old Eldorado with 12,000 miles on it, that has spent a lot of time sitting in a garage, for $9,000."  I didn't say I will buy it on the spot, I wanted to see it and drive it first.  A few days later I met him, drove it down the street, said yes, and we were off the clerk's office for the transfer.  It was part of a guardianship estate.  The owner was an older woman who had never worked a day in her life, she had a large inheritance in a trust fund.  She had developed dementia, and was in a care facility (the best around, money was no object.)

It was huge, and comfy.  The first time I drove it, I thought of a line in the movie Titanic, "take her to sea Mr. Murdoch!" That is what it felt like.  I drove it 4 or 5 years.  After I moved to DC, parking became a nightmare.  Half of the parking spaces in this area it was simply to big for.  And a couple of things broke and the local dealer here in DC was expensive with an attitude.  I decide one day, I wanted something nice and much smaller.  I traded it on a sensible 5 door hatchback, with all kinds of bells and whistles.  

I have owned a lot of cars, Big Red was the only one that ever drew a compliment from my father, "a damn fine automobile," high praise from him.  

Fabulous Friday: Fruitcake Season 84

I was about 10 when my mother started making fruitcakes for the holidays.  She had given up on Clackston, and abbeys for this holiday treat. She continued to make them until she was about 80.  I started baking them a few years before she stopped.  

A fruitcake is a confection of a heavy spice cake with just enough cake to hold together a heavy mix of dried and candied fruits and nuts.  It is important to not expect it to be a cake, it is a distinct confection.  If you think of it as a cake, you will find it heavy and sticky, and not cake like. A fruitcake is a cake, like a pizza is a pie.  

Baking it myself, I can control the spice level, I like lots of Saigon Cinnamon, a little less cloves, and lots of freshly grated nutmeg.  I can control the fruit mix.  I use twice as many raisins as the recipe suggests, and I soak them in good bourbon and dark rum before adding them.  For the candied fruits, I use mostly cherries, because I like cherries.  

Fruit cake is best when it has had time to age.  To age it, you wrap it in cheesecloth, soak it liberally with good booze, bourbon, dark rum, and brandy, seal it in a plastic bag and refrigerate.  I usually soak it, wrap it let is sit in the refrigerator for month, then add more booze, and let it age in the refrigerator for at least another month.  This year's was set to age on October 1st, the first will be ready for Thanksgiving, the second one of Christmas and New Years. I made a couple of small one's this year to give as gifts.  

Thursday Ramble: English it should be an easy language 85

The bug, is a lantern bug, I should have squashed it, but I was not sure what it was.  

Inspired by a recent comment a few words that vary from English to English. 

In the United States we refer to motor fuel as gas. Gas is actually short for gasoline.  Gasoline is a petroleum distillate, the English refer to it as Petrol, also short for petroleum distillate.  

Pants in the United States are what you wear as outerwear on the lower half of your body.  Pants in England are underwear, short of pantaloons.  Trousers is the word for what you wear over your underwear pants in England, that word also works in the United States but it is much less commonly used.  

In the United States the room that contains a toilet is referred to as the bathroom, even if it does not have a bathtub in it.  In Canada it is the washroom - in many parts of the United States a washroom is where you do laundry.  In England a toilet is a room with a toilet, and there may or may not be a bathtub in the room.  In continental Europe, it is common in some countries for the toilet to be in a separate room, away from a bathtub or shower.  American tourists often feel squeamish about asking for the toilet.  You get over that in a hurry. 

An aside to this.  My soon to be Ex had heard that public toilets were hard to find in England (a myth.) We were in London in 1990 and she remarked "bathrooms are not hard to find, half the building have big signs saying "To Let."  Buildings with space for rent.  (I thought BWNT, bright one next time.)  

In the United States you rent property, and you hire labor.  Hence you rent a car, you hire a taxi.  The English hire a car, but it does not come with a driver.  I am not sure what they call paying a taxi to take you where you need to go. 

In the United States a jumper is a simple dress worn mostly by older women. In England a jumper is a knit warm wooly top you wear on a cold day. In the United States we call that a sweater, but hopefully it does not make you sweat, that would be too warm and wooly. 

When I first started traveling, reading works written on both sides of the pond, and watching BBC programs, the differing words would throw me off.  It is fairly easy to learn the subtle differences.  It is helpful to not see one as right and one as wrong, just as different.  Easier than learning German.  

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws. October 11th 86

Where is the Photo from?  The deck at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, looking south toward Memorial Bridge. 

What have I been up to?  Work, getting some contracts signed off on, some fundraising progress, drafting retirement messages, farmers market, 1st Saturday Cup of Joe, 1st Friday LGBTQ Happy Hour, getting ready for a couple of trainings.  

What broke this week?  My printer, scanner, copier, jamned and flat spotted a roller - I bought the latest model of the exact same machine.  Now to convince my computer to not keep looking for the machine that is no longer connected.  

Who have I talked with? A couple of old friends, neighbors, and friends from out of town.  

Where have I been? Farmers market, gym, community center, the restaurant, Mt Vernon, Air and Space Museum, out to dinner a couple of times.   

When is the next adventure? Omaha next week.  Sometimes work travel is just work.  

Why has my attitude improved? 86 days until my retirement and yes I am counting.  

What am I reading? My current in progress is A Month In The Country, a short novel, and a collection of John Muir essays, I finished Sheep Theory, and a collection of stories from early aviation.  In the queue For the People, For The Country a book about Patrick Henry, I have booked tickets for lunch with the author at the George Washington Presidential Library in January.  I have long wanted to see the library, and booking tickets for a special event is the only way to get in without an invitation as a scholar. With my new schedule, I will be able to lunch on a Wednesday.  😋

Who deserves and ata-boy this week?  Uncle Jeff's people made the printer replacement so easy. 

Who deserves a slap this week? I am not in the mood, let's be nice to others, no matter how senseless they are being. 

   

Travel Tuesday: Pennsylvania State Capital 87

The Pennsylvania State Capital was built in the late 1800's to replace an earlier capital that burned down.  I had a nice walk about.   

 

Mural / Music Monday: Kenny Rogers - Lucille (Audio) 88

It has been a long time since I have done a Mural Monday, or Music Monday post. Today you get a little of both.  The mural above was in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Nice color on what would otherwise be the featureless wall next to a parking lot.  

Many years ago, I worked with Patricia, whose ex-husband wrote part of the lyrics for the song.  She was a bitter ex. Her name wasn't Lucille, though that probably Lucile rhymes better than Patricia,  he left, she didn't, she had the hungry kids to feed, and most of all, she didn't get a cut of his royalties on the song.  She had a successful career, and remarried to the guy who pushed the destruct button when a NASA launch went awry (most of the destructs are done by computer, as a backup there was a person sitting there watching all of the data with their finger poised to push the button- the range safety officer.) 

The Sunday Five: Cats Eye Views 89

1: What is your favorite local view? 

2: What makes you look up when you go by? 

3: What do you hope to see in your lifetime? 

4: Do you wear eyeglasses or contacts? 

5: Do you think the cat is happy? 

My answers: 

1: What is your favorite local view? The Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial from the Yellow Line train over the Potomac River. 

2: What makes you look up when you go by? The private jet center at the National Airport - I look to see how many planes are in today. 

3: What do you hope to see in your lifetime? Viena 

4: Do you wear eyeglasses or contacts? Glasses for about 30 years now.

5: Do you think the cat is happy? She/he appeared to be very happy. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: We Can Do Better 90

We, you and I, can do better, we need to do better, 

We need to speak up about what is right

About what is kind and gentle. 

We need to seek fairness for everyone,

We need to help those who need help,

We need to give our fare share. 

Time has shown that the rich get richer, 

But our tax system has unfairly tilted for those who have the most,

We bought into the lie that if the rich paid less in tax, they would create jobs and everyone would prosper, what has happened is a concentration of wealth, by people who do not pay what they should pay for the general good. 

It is easier for the rich to get richer, without paying their fare share. 

We allow the paranoid among us to dictate weapons policies

That leads to the murder of many more than are saved 

It is past time that we demand better, 

That we not twist the Constitution to protect the few, at the cost of the many. 

Our immigration policies are a disaster, 

Long have been, 

Nearly all of us are the product of immigration, of colonization 

Yet we allow an irrational fear of other people, 

To dictate immigration policy.  

Will immigrants change the country, I don't know, ask the Algonquin  what happened when my English ancestors arrived. 

There are nearly twice as many job openings in the United States, as there are unemployed adults.  If every unemployed adult found a job, we would still be short by about 4,000,000 workers.  Don't tell me that Bubba can't get a job because someone from someplace else took it.  If Bubba can't get a job, either he is not trying, or he is unemployable.  

We can do better. 

We must do better. 

Vote - never miss an election. 

 

Fabulous Friday: French Lunch 91

A week ago, I was feeling kind of stressed, and I was checking something at the office and noticed that I was nearing the limit on the number of hours of paid vacation I can have. When I reach the limit I stop accruing the time that I have earned.* I needed to take vacation time before today.  

So last Friday, I sent a message to my team, restarted my office computer and took the afternoon off.  I looked at the sweet bear and said, let's go have lunch.  There is a new French Restaurant in old town Alexandria, but alas the door was locked they are not open for lunch.  A couple of blocks later I remembered that there is a hole-in-the-wall French Restaurant on Washington less than a block off of King Street that has been there forever.  I had never been in. 

Oh my, it was good.  I had a cold salad with beets, and a quiche, the sweet bear had mushroom caps stuffed with crab, and bouillabaisse. It was amazing.  The service was good, the food was fabulous.  We should do this more often.  I could learn to live like this.  

*A truly evil policy. 
 

Thursday - Science Fiction or Technology? 92

On the farm when I was growing up there was an old bachelor farmer Mr. M., up the road about a mile (hmm, looking back at it a 50 year old never married farmer, with a fresh young farm hand most summers - makes me kinda wonder) who didn't have electricity installed in his farmhouse until the early 1970's.  He heated his house with wood, cooked on a wood and coal stove.  He couldn't see electricity, didn't understand it, didn't want to pay for it, so he didn't use it until he had to.  Then he didn't use it much. He grew up in an era when electricity was the stuff of science fiction, light at the touch of a button, from a source you can't see, that flows magically through the walls in a solid wire.  Pure fantasy of H. G. Wells.  

Within my lifetime video calls, on demand, have gone from the science fiction of beam me up Scotty communicators, to early video calls that required special phone lines to transmit a grainy black and white image on a tiny screen, to 100 people online with 30 people at a time, on a massive screen, in full color with live audio, and virtual backgrounds. If you had asked me 25 years if we could do this, I would have responded, only in our dreams. Good video calls have been around for about 15 years.  Google video chat or hangouts, Skype, and others.  Many of these required accounts, most were limited to just two parties (until the last few years.) Recently I was at a conference where a speaker needed to appear on video and I was surprised that the AV team were struggling to make it work, after Covid I thought everyone would be video connected. But then Mr. M. was the last house in the neighborhood to give into the unknown of electricity.  

I watched fax machines take over the business world, at one time there was a shortage of phone numbers in big cities because of companies adding extra lines for fax, or data service on dial up. Fax was science fiction before World War II, boomed in the 1980's and is all but dead today. (I took the fax number off my business card years ago.) 

Landline phones, connected to a wire someplace in your house or office are rapidly going away. A technology that was science fiction before the 1870's, talking here and being heard miles away, how crazy. 

My prediction, phone service as we know it will largely go away, even voice only calls on the phone in your pocket.  Video calls will replace it. Instant messaging, and AI interaction is taking over.  There are those that say email is dying, what we need is a better instant or director private messaging services. There are too many fractured players in the marketplace, with technology that is incompatible with one another.  If phones hadn't established standards so that calls could pass from one carrier to another, phones would have been passing fad.  

We are in the early stages of wearables, smart watches, Google Glass.  Implantables are still on the edge of science fiction - but I live in an area that is a center for cochlear implants, science fiction / technology enabling hearing. So maybe in the future, we won't need a device, we will be the device.  Scoff if you may, Mr. M., did about light at the flick of a switch. 

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws October 4 2023

What is the image?  Sur Le Table has Duralex glasses in colors, I have never seen the original french one's in colors.  They only have the small size in colors.  I have some of these that are literally 40 years old.  I ordered them from the Williams Sonoma, the catalog described them as nearly indestructible - I have broken a couple of them in 40 years, but only a couple.

Where have I been?  The office a couple of day, work from home the rest of the week. Out for a random lunch in old town (more on that on Friday.) The farmers market. The Kennedy Center for the season opener of the National Symphony Orchestra.  

What are we planning?  Dear friends from northern Indiana are going to be here next weekend, a trip planned BC, that is finally taking place.  The weekend after that Jay's last department chair will be here for a few days (she grew up here and has family in the area.) 

What is the weather like? It has cooled off, a few nights with lows in the 50f, highs in the 60's or low 70sf, a few rainy days.  It was a long hot summer, it is a nice change.  I bought a couple of long sleeve thermal shirts to add to the collection.  

Who have I talked with? The office team, a couple of my board members, my boss, a couple of neighbors, and the sweet bear.  Pastry Boy at the market, he was starting college this fall, and it looked like his rather buff brother was going to take over the market.  At the last minute he was offered a seat at Virginia Tech's new Arlington Campus and decided to stay home for college. 

What am I cooking?  Early in the summer I made pickled beets, we ate the last of them recently and the sweet bear commented on how good they were.  So I bought 5 pounds of beets from the organic gardener at the market and I will pack several more pints of them.  I made my holiday fruitcakes and set them to soak up the booze for a couple of months to reach their peak of flavor.  

What have I been reading? "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin, it is unconventional, as Rick is. He is a music producer.  I really liked the book, I ordered a print copy to have around for when I need to jump start creative thinking.  I have enough books on my Kindle to blow past my reading goal for the year, at the pace I will finish 60 books this year.  

Who deserves a slap? Congress.  I really can't explain what is happening.  How many slaps, 5 out of 5.  

What surprised me this week? A man on King Street in old town Alexandria walking down the sidewalk with a Hasselblad. I am a camera geek.  It was 501 series film camera.  They are rare and valuable, I think it is only the second time I have seen one on the street.  If I won the PowerBall, I'd have one as my daily carry. I know someone who carries one, he has never told his wife how much he paid for it, she would make him wish he was dead. 

93 

  

 

Travel Tuesday: Idaho

 My time and Idaho was limited, I only saw a small but very interesting corner of the state.  It was so worth it.