It’s Saturday night, and the end of a long day. We’ve been productive around here, with Lisa and Dane getting some space cleared out in the garage while I got some things done out in the barn.

Kansas is about to tip off against the Auburn Tigers in the second round of the NCAA basketball tournament, and I have to be frank, I don’t think this is going to go our way. I’m getting myself ready for that potentiality. I love the Kansas basketball team, but this team just doesn’t seem to have that “it” factor that some of the other teams in the past had.

That said, I think the future looks good. Kansas has been starting four freshmen at times, and that bodes well. Lawson has been the anchor, and moving forward, I have a feeling he’s going to declare for the draft after this season. Doke will be a question mark. The other big, big question mark is Silvio DeSousa. His NCAA suspension is under appeal, and I’m hopeful that he’ll get a season back.

Anyway, not much else to talk about. I think my new workbench out in the barn will come in handy.

I hope I have something positive to write about tomorrow about this basketball team, but I’m going to stay realistic.

Peace y’all.

Good evening, fellow human beings, my progeny and otherwise. It’s a Friday night, and some historic stuff happened in the United States today. Here’s hoping there’s still a United States in the time and space in which you live. The Mueller team turned in their report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Stuff is going to get weird from this point forward. I fully expect Trump to have a twitter spasm throughout the weekend. It could get really stressful for the orange one… but, if things do go bad, and they could go really bad, he can simply kill the report.

That’s the reality. Trump has the power to invoke executive privilege and kill the whole thing. That would likely result in near immediate impeachment. I’m not even sure impeachment is in the mix at this point, because if it is as bad as it could be, with lots of Russian names and Trump family members’ names in the same sentence, Trump might run, and take his family with him. Seriously. I can see the guy running off to a country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States and living out the last of his days tweeting about how badly he was treated and inspiring his base to overthrow any other government in his name and restore him to his seat of power.

Yeah I think the guys nuts. And I exaggerate when I speculate over things. Might not happen at all.

For all I know, Trump and his entire family might get completely vindicated. I know there are likely some people praying for exactly that.

It has to be said. There’s a gauge from 0 to 10, with 0 being vindication, and 10 being incrimination beyond imagination. It will be between those two extremes. Might be a 1, might be an 8. Whatever it is, the whole world needs to stop, take a breath, and let the system work things out.

That’s enough for me tonight.

(…and if my cyberstalker is still reading this, go ahead and add a comment. Who knows? I might even post it after I review it)

Peace y’all.

Good evening, my future grandchildren. It’s been a beautiful day here in rural Douglas County, Mother Nature teasing us all a bit with hints of spring. This means that this weekend will be filled with lawn care and some cleanup of the gardening beds, removing the unnecessary biomass left over from the horrific winter we get to finally, finally, finally say goodbye and good riddance to.

I’ve got some stuff to rake up.

The weeping willow out front has been weeping hard enough that I’m thinking an anti-depressant might be in order. The front of the house is littered with the little twigs, and a couple of big ones, that have snapped off this past winter as ice built up beyond the tree’s ability to ride out the season.

Our garden beds out back are filled with the remnants of our tomato and okra attempts. Maybe we’ll focus on a few more pepper varieties instead. I think (there I go again) that just growing the ingredients for a decent salsa would be a goal.

Time will tell.

Business trip got cancelled. At first I thought it was just me, but after a review I realized that there were about half-a-dozen cancellations across four or five countries. Not to worry, I’m sure I’ll be getting on a plane sooner rather than later for a training engagement some where. I just won’t tell y’all about it until after I get back.

Peace y’all.

It’s a lovely March evening in rural Douglas County, with the smell of spring just around the corner. I welcome it.

Today I discovered some new things at work that required my attention, so that gave me a sense of accomplishment. Got some stuff done! I’ve talked with some of the folks on my team, and their advice across the board has been “enjoy this slow time… because it’s going to get busy soon, and there won’t be some breaks for awhile.

The nice thing about where I’m at right now professionally is that I haven’t pigeon-holed myself. I’m at a place in the road where I can stay on the current path, with high-road and low-road options, or I can take the fork to the left of me or the fork to the right. My journey is on an exaggerated chicken-foot road.

I spent a little time today taking care of a need for my bride. She’s having a little computer trouble, but I think I’ve got her squared away for now. Keyboard issue… good thing we’ve got a spare keyboard or two around here.

Back to the regular grind tomorrow. Need to go back through my decks and my demos again. Can’t let that stuff get rusty.

Peace y’all.

It’s Tuesday night in rural Douglas County, and I’m in pretty good spirits. Helped out my team a little earlier today with some info… sometimes it is good to be the outside guy coming in. I just knew a few different people… in Europe…

It’s not a big deal though. I’ve known a lot of my community peers for twenty plus years. It’s nice to know that I’ve got friends that have my back. I wonder how some folks get by though. It seems like there is an entire subspecies of human that thrive on chaos. They stalk people on social media, pull that Roger Stone crap to try and ruin people’s reputations, and threaten people rather than simply admit they were wrong.

I’m lucky that I paid attention to some of the things my dad taught me.

Wish I’d paid a little more attention to the welding parts, granted…

But my dad taught me what to watch out for with some folks. Watch out for the guys that smile a little bit too much. Watch out for the “man of god” that doesn’t practice what he preaches. Watch out for those that distort something good and turn it into something that justifies hatred, greed, and evil thoughts towards not just some random humans, but also people that love the same country you do.

Some folks are going to have to come to terms with some really difficult realities in the coming weeks. I hope we can pull the country together. God knows there are foreign influence campaigns dedicated to tearing the US apart.

Peace y’all.

It’s a Monday night in rural Douglas County, and I started off the work week participating in an event that my team puts on where people on the Worldwide Learning team spend a few days thinking about other stuff. Some tackle a personal goal, others just try to broaden their horizons. I kept my goal simple, starting in on the Azure Solutions Architect material. Down the road, I’ll tackle some other topics… maybe dabble a bit in the Internet of Things space, like Arduino or Raspberry Pi devices to monitor the property, take snapshots of some of the wildlife that passes through this neck of the woods.

I was also hit up about my availability to travel. My manager reached out to me to ask about my availability to teach someplace that requires me to have an up-to-date passport. I am excited about the prospect. Things might start happening fairly quickly now on that front, and I’m all for it.

Meanwhile, some other goals are being met, some ahead of schedule. It’s exciting, and unexpected… but at the same time it’s exactly what I signed on for. Lisa is excited for me, as are the kids.

I’m not quite sure how the dogs feel about it… but it’s not really up to them.

More tomorrow.

Peace y’all.

Today I was not diagnosed with narcolepsy, so I’ve got that going for me.

OK, back to the serious for a moment. I’ve got a problem with pharmaceutical companies advertising on TV. After all, it comes down to the patient asking the doctor for a particular medication suggested by the people selling the medication. It just seems a little bit wrong to me.

OK, that rant off. But trust me, I could go on.

It’s a Sunday in rural Douglas County. Lisa and I are sitting in our family room watching a tv show… (to be completely honest, more of a “Lisa” show than a “Bob” show, but that happens).

We watched the NCAA bracket show to see where out teams came down, and Kansas plays against Colgate in the opening round. Hey. at least their team doesn’t begin with a “B”, like Belmont or Bradley, right?

There are some other Big 12 teams that are probably a little peaved at Kansas right now. Texas Tech and Kansas State are likely to face a more difficult road to get out of the first round of the NCAA tournament.

It’s set. Gotta roll ahead with the load you’re pullin’.

Peace y’all.

Saturday night, and the household is tired. We’re just playing out a string of minutes tonight. I’m eyeballing a snack before bedtime myself… and wondering if I’m going to be good or cast my discipline to the four winds and eat whatever the hell I want.

I’m big. I’m about 6’1″, maybe 6’1.5″ (there were times I said 6’2″, but I doubt I ever hit the whole number on the inches). I’m between 300 and 310 pounds as well. I used to be thin, but between any number of issues, it really all comes down to not taking care of myself. I’ve destroyed my knees via sports – there was a time thirty plus years ago that I was a better than average athlete… a lot of guys don’t take on the decathlon as a track and field event, but I took the chance and tried to compete… and I’ve come to accept that my best years as an athlete are way back in the rear view mirror.

I should try to lose some weight, though. Diet, exercise, all of it. I just need to put some discipline into it. It’s one of the reasons that I wanted to go into the military when I was in school… I wanted that discipline. I offered, they said no, and so it was up to me. Oh well… I’m more disciplined when I pursue intellectual/academic goals than physical goals. It’s the nature o things… some folks do better with the physical aspects of their lives and pursuing their health goals.

Time to get back on that track. I’ve done a pretty good job taking on some better habits. This is just one more thing I need to commit to.

Peace y’all.

OK, it’s Saturday morning… I didn’t get my blog entry written yesterday, but there was some stuff going on, which means that I should’ve gotten the writing done earlier in the day. I didn’t. I’ll get over it.

I do make an effort. Sometimes life happens. Yesterday was one of those days.

I had my regular Friday meeting with my team at 10, and that lasted until 11:30 or thereabouts. I went into town to wash my car and grab a bite of lunch, and then came home. That’s when I should’ve focused on writing, but other things required my attention.

Last night, Lisa and the girls returned from their trip to Washington, DC. I made a run to the airport to fetch them, and got them home safe, with a brief stop at a McDonald’s to get a couple of orders of fries and a Shamrock Shake. I grabbed a Filet O’Fish sandwich just to satisfy my minor hunger pangs.

I’ll write some more later, but I felt it important to get some sort of recap addressed. It’s about the habit. I like routines. I like taking a portion of my day and spending some time writing, and I hope it turns out to be something positive. I could’ve gone off on the social media interaction I had with the Trump supporter that really liked to focus on my weight for one reason or another. Couldn’t win with facts, so let’s body shame? Really dude? I’m a 55 year old man – you think I give a rat’s ass that I don’t have the same build I had when I was 22?

That’s all for now. I’ll write a second blog entry later today.

Peace y’all.

The wind is still blowing hard, with gusts approaching forty miles per hour tonight. Colby ran off for awhile tonight, and came back considerably dirtier and funkier than when he left. Dane and I will have to clean him as well as some of the furniture tomorrow before Lisa and the girls get home from D.C.

I sat in on a meeting today to discuss a client’s educational needs. I know that there’s a language I need to get comfortable with, and I just don’t speak it yet. I’m reminded of one of my favorite science fiction novels from my youth, “Stranger in a Strange Land”. I think I read it once, then listened to the audiobook version a few years back when I was getting back in to Heinlein. The word is “grok”. It has to do with gaining a deep understanding, something you don’t just know, but you can feel (Right now I’m hoping I got that definition right).

I’m watching the first round KU-Texas game, part of the Big 12 Tournament. KU is playing pretty well right at the moment, up by ten, but there’s eight minutes left in the game, and as I’m well aware, anything can happen in that amount of time.

Meeting first thing tomorrow. Somewhere I’ll need to get Colby bathed and the furniture shampooed.

Yay.

Peace y’all.