Evie Day 666

Good morning, and welcome to the last day of the Western work week! Today is Friday, 10 January 2025… 2025, Bob, get the year right.

I may have shared earlier that my wife and I gifted each other with “smart rings” for Christmas this year. We both have the Oura 4, and we have the software to receive and interpret the data on our phones (I need to get Lisa a new phone… I have a feeling they will soon be going up in price).

We’ve primarily used the rings to monitor our sleep. Some nights we sleep pretty well, other nights not so much. It has a couple of metrics that I find interesting, as the ring can monitor my heartrate and a few other vitals.

I am fairly open about my health issues, and that leads to me having pretty serious thoughts at times about the topic of mortality. (I just realized that morality and mortality are just a letter away from each other). I make jokes about it, but part of my reality is I have high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, and anxiety/panic attacks – not a great combination of conditions. Part of how I approach my life is to try and keep my stress levels manageable so I don’t have another little bomb go off in my head. I had one small stroke back in 2008 and recovered fairly quickly, but let me tell you, it changed me. These days I try to practice moments of mindfulness and meditation to try and manage that part of my life, but some days are going to be better than others, right?

I hope I have another twenty years or more, but I’m also realistic. I’ve had friends who passed away far too young. I’m not young anymore, age 61, but I think I’ve got a few good years left. I am also keenly aware that I might get up out of my chair one day and hit the floor never to get back up again. I’m not trying to be morbid, I’m just accepting that reality.

Time to get this in the can.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 665

Good morning, and a happy Thursday to you all. Today is 9 January 2025.

It will be a while before writing “2025” becomes second nature. Knowing me, I’ll have it down on January 3, 2026.

Yesterday was a good day. My class went well, and on my first morning break, I noticed a small bipedal visitor in the living room… my granddaughter, saying “Pampa” when I rounded the corner.

I love being a grandfather.

Gracie and Evie had come over to check on us and pick up some things that they had left while they were here last Saturday before the storm. When she left around later yesterday morning, her car became stuck in a drift. Gracie is pretty resourceful, and she knew who to call to get her car pulled from the deep snow, shortly after she was able to get her car going, a neighbor with a snow plow came through to help folks out. Today we may very well be able to go into town. Dane went in yesterday, and I think Lisa is planning on going into the office this morning.

My commute is considerably shorter. My space heater is already on, and I am trying to get the sunroom up to a manageable temperature.

Last night I jumped online to do a little gaming with the guys, but we were missing a couple of critical team members, so we ended up chatting for awhile, and then calling it a night for gaming. I retreated to the living room to watch the Kansas-Arizona State game. Kansas was down by 6 at the half, then recovered to defeat the Sun Devils by 19. I could go back and watch that second half again.

I don’t have much more to share, really. I pop into my office and virtual classroom in another hour and a half, but between now and then, I get a little me time. My wife has been up longer than I, so that means my me time includes her, four dogs, and the 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice”, one of my wife’s two favorite movies… the other stars Jimmy Stewart.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 664

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. It’s cold outside. Today is 8 January 2024.

We might be snowed in here for the fourth straight day. I think Lisa and Dane might try to get out. Dane’s car and my Flex have the best clearance, and they both have all-wheel drive. Being snowed in means we weren’t able to go to Cascada La Golondrina for our usual Tuesday night taco run, but Lisa recognized the problem, got out some masa to warm up, and we made our own tortillas last night. That tortilla press I picked up for her last year has been a wonderful kitchen addition.

My second day in the classroom went well. The engagement I’ve had this week might be the best I’ve experienced with this particular course. There have been some really great conversations.

I’m probably not going to dwell on this post too long. I have some work to get done before my class, so I need to hit the gear shift and make a hard 90 degree turn.

One other thing. The Oura 4 ring is very interesting. I just need to remember to put it back on after I shower (looks down at finger). I’ve received interesting feedback about my sleep habits as well as my cardiac health.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 663

Good morning, and a very happy Taco Tuesday to you all. It might be my first Taco Tuesday post of the new year, but Tuesdays will not change anytime soon. Today is 7 January 2025.

That also means that yesterday was January 6, the anniversary of one of the darkest days in US history. There were plenty of stories about it, and plenty of comments by folks with short memories claiming it was a peaceful protest. I watched the whole thing unfold on TV. It was not peaceful. People died. Anybody that claims it was peaceful is an absolute ********** idiot. It’s as if some of these morons only ever saw the Tucker Carlson cherry-picked cut of the events, edited at Putin Studios.

I started my first class of the new year yesterday, and the first day went very well. We had a good class, with abundant interaction and a few jokes to serve as the cherry on top of the parfait. Or banana split. They are both good.

Today, we’ll continue. I’ve got my little space heater already working to warm up the sunroom. I probably ought to get my diffuser/humidifier going this morning as well. The cold can take a lot of the moisture out of the air, and I don’t want to get freeze-dried.

Last night Lisa and I found some new episodes of “Outlander” on STARZ. They weren’t showing up last week, but for one reason or another showed up yesterday when I was nosing around. It’s a fun show, not for kids… lots of adult interaction, both violent and sexual.

OK, time for me to contemplate the rest of the day…

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 662

Good morning, and welcome to my first full-time working day of 2025. Today is January 6, 2025. I almost want to call it “Insurrection Day”.

Today will be a good day not to watch the news other than the weather.

We received about 16 inches of snow between Saturday and Sunday. It started Saturday afternoon with sleet, which ended up creating about a 1/4″ of ice, followed by the snow.

I went back into the sunroom first thing this morning and started up my little space heater to warm up my office. I have a security course starting at 9:00 AM Central Time. I also have some emails to crank out this morning, as it is a full work day. It’s funny. I took time off over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday break. The first week I was messed up with a pinched nerve in my back, and then the week of New Year’s, I was focused on that dreaded certification exam that did not go as well as expected – I got very close, but still came up a little short. I’ve already rescheduled my next attempt.

Other than the weather, the weekend was pretty uneventful. Lisa, Dane, and I went in Saturday morning and met Gracie and Evelyn for breakfast at First Watch. We picked up a few supplies to prepare for the coming storm, and then we tried to relax a little bit.

Relaxing is something I can’t do right now. I’m worried about some changes on the horizon with the economy and my work. My employer tends to react quickly based on real and perceived economic changes, and like many large businesses, they lay folks off. I worry that it could happen to me. That doesn’t do much to help my anxiety, let me tell ya.

OK, time for me to focus on what comes next today.

Coffee… breakfast… water… morning meds.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 659

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you all. Today is 3 January 2025.

It might be my last relaxed Friday for a while.

It’s my last day of vacation, and after the last few days, I will relax. I spent most of the last three or four days preparing for yesterday’s certification exam (cue Don Adams: “Missed it by that much”). Today, I’m going to have a little “me” time before I head into the weekend with family and back to work on Monday teaching a security course.

I’m starting with a little writing, and then I’ll make a pot of coffee and contemplate the day. It will be a day of escapism from one perspective or the other. It’ll be more of a vacation from the things that weigh me down, and I’ll get back to working on them tomorrow… it’s not procrastination, it’s mental health.

I’m going to move on with my day.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 658

Good morning, and happy New Year to you all. Today is Thursday, 2 January 2025.

I slept in yesterday after staying up late on Tuesday.

Some of you have read my posts before, and some of you may not have. I keep track of the days I have lived and the days my granddaughter has been alive. The average person lives to be about 28500 days old, so if I’m average, that leaves me about 6,111 days on this mortal plane.

I’ve had a good couple of days. All of the kids went out for NYE, and Lisa and I stayed home. We aren’t big New Year’s Eve people as our first child was born on December 31, 1996, and since then the focus has been on Bonnie’s Birthday rather than other social activities. Now she’s 28, and doing her own thing with her own friends, and mom and dad get to stay home and watch reruns.

Lisa and I both made it past midnight the other night, which is pretty impressive for us old folks.

Yesterday was a quiet day here. I have been focused on studying for a certification exam I’m taking later today, and Lisa and I both took note of the fact that the television was off all day. We didn’t flip it on until it was time for me to head to the sunroom to enjoy a little 2025 gaming with the guys. I have a feeling that for some time, it might be best to leave the TV off unless there is something specific we want to watch. I often have it on, with some YouTube travelogue drone footage with light piano playing. I do like to look at parts of the world where I have never been. For me, I wonder if it’s more enjoyable just watching it than having to be present at the location so I don’t have to worry about mosquitoes that can drain a pint of blood in three shakes.

This year will be a year of change for me, as every year is. There are some things that I worry about, of course. Everybody has worries about health and job security, and I’m not different. As I joke (kind of), I have to worry about my blood pressure. High blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and panic attacks are not a great combination of conditions that play well together. I hope I don’t have to explore the depths of my resiliency anytime soon.

Time to get something in my tummy and get back to studying. This certification is one I really need to nail down.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 656

Good morning! Today is the last day of 2024, and the birthday of my oldest daughter, Bonnie, who turns 28.

Bonnie has plans this evening… wouldn’t you if your birthday was New Year’s Eve? Lisa and I will have a cocktail and probably head to bed around ten or so, as is normal for folks in their 60s. We don’t go out much.

Yesterday was a very energetic day around here, with a lot of activity. Bonnie and her dog came over, Gracie and Evelyn were here for a big chunk of the day, and the rest of us were already here, so no real surprise there. It was a bit frenetic.

Today will have some activity, but not as much. I’m taking Bonnie out for lunch, as I often do with the kids on their birthdays. Sometimes it works, sometimes the kids have something else going on. Today, Bonnie and I will go to a local restaurant … I think “bonbon” is back open again, and it’s a cute place for a meal.

One thing I would offer up for my friends. I like to write. I haven’t always written – I went through a very long period of time when I did not. One of the interesting side effects of my ADD is rejection-sensitive dysphoria, and when my writing was mocked a very long time ago, I quit. It took me a long time to get past that, and start writing again. I wish I had not stopped, but I can’t do anything about that now. What I can do is keep a journal at hand and write things down when they pop into my head. Notes, numbers, drawings, whatever.

I won’t be writing tomorrow. I hope you all have a great New Year’s Eve, and I hope 2025 is peaceful and prosperous for all.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 655

Good morning, and happy Monday to you all. Today is 30 December 2024. Just today and tomorrow left in 2024.

The first story I noticed this morning was “17 Dead Giveaways That Someone’s Ignorant and Uneducated.” If I had paused for a moment, I could’ve added a couple more giveaways to the list.

I had a friend who insisted on being referred to as “Doctor”. Every time he answered the phone, “Doctor” this, “Doctor” that. It wasn’t too long into our friendship that I realized the guy had gone to a two-year community college, followed by a trade school where the graduates are called doctors in that particular trade. I did the math and figured I had spent more time in college and accrued more hours, but I sure as heck was not going to call myself something that I wasn’t. Years ago I read a book by Robert Heinlein called, “The Number of the Beast”, and there were four protagonists – all called “Doctor”. One of the characters had intentionally pursued a doctorate in a field as a joke to satisfy some clause in a will. Today I would simply tell him to skip that doctoral program in favor of the fastlane approach my old friend took.

The funny thing is very few people refer to my spouse as “Doctor”, and I have heard her refer to herself as that on only a few occasions, typically when we’re making introductions at some dinner or professional function.

I sometimes think I’d like to return to school and pursue a PhD in history.

Today, I have some work to focus on. I’m on vacation, but I have a certification exam scheduled for this Friday. It’s not optimal, but I need to get it done. After that, I’ll get another scheduled to complete my security suite of certifications.

Oooh… Lisa made bagels.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Evie Day 652

It’s Friday! I’m still on vacation! Today is 27 December 2024.

My back is still bugging me. I’m trying to stretch it out, but it’s still pinched and tight. I’ll take some ibuprofen in a bit, along with the rest of my normal morning meds.

Today is going to be a day of studying, relaxing reading, and probably some sports on TV.

Yesterday was some quality time with Evie, which I always look forward to. She’s recovering from a cough and is still a little under the weather.

Lisa and I gave each other for Christmas some “health rings”, the Oura 4. It’s interesting, and I think it’ll take a little time before it get completely dialed in to our vitals, but so far it is interesting to see it keep track of our activity and our sleep.

Today, there might be a little sushi on the schedule. Dane and I usually grab a meal out this time of year. Next Tuesday, lunch with Bonnie on her birthday, probably over at a restaurant called “bonbon” here in Lawrence.

That’s enough. I need a cup of coffee.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.