Evelyn Day 41

Good morning! It is Wednesday, Hump Day, 26 April 2023.

Last night I wished all of my learners “Peace, Happiness, and Tacos” as we signed off from class for the evening, then realized that maybe they are all synonyms.

I’ve often thought about traveling the world. When I’m teaching here at home, I flip on Youtube for the dogs – yeah, I know, sounds a little weird – but there are these little drone videos from various parts of the world with soft background music and very dramatic landscapes from everywhere.

I think it would be nice to travel to Paris, Australia, Norway. I would love to see the Himalayas firsthand. Bora bora, Fiji, the Seychelles. All would be fun to visit.

And then I start to think.

I’m almost 60. Trips of this nature to see these beautiful spots take time, and as much as I love the idea of destinations, the travel to those destinations can be a huge pain. I’ve been to Europe a few times, Japan once, and neighboring countries more times than I can remember, and indeed, I want to see more of Canada and Mexico.

Those are places on a globe. They look beautiful. But I know that at my age with the responsibilities I have between now and when I retire, I realize that there might be a handful of those destinations that I’ll actually get to see (yes, Wayne, I do want to come visit you in Australia!).

What I’m thinking is maybe I am seeing the world. My world isn’t 26,000 miles around. My world is my wife, my kids, and now, my first grandchild. My dogs look at me as if I’m their world.

Maybe my world is something I can define in the moment. My wife is sitting beside me, and she has three dogs on her lap. Friday I’ll have breakfast with my daughter and my granddaughter.

Nothing like seeing more of the world.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 40

Good morning! Today is 25 April 2023.

Began my 4-day class yesterday. I’m not the lead on the course, that role falls to one of my co-deliverers. Another co-deliverer is serving as a shadow, filling on where he says he can fill in as he learns to deliver the course. The shadow was double-booked with another responsibility yesterday and could not cover the module he had volunteered for last week, so I covered that module. If things go as intended today, I’m covering 2 of 3 modules today as well, so of the first 6 modules, 4 go to me. I hope the learners enjoy my presentation style.

Watched some basketball last night with Lisa. We’re generally more focused on college basketball – that comes with living here in the University of Kansas area of dominant influence – but after the college season wraps up, we take a short break, then dive into the NBA post-season. It’s easy to put the NBA on the back burner because there are so many college games every night during the fall and winter. It almost seems like the regular season for the NBA is just staging for the real season that comes after.

Not much else going on. I’ll make the weekly taco run tonight for dinner. Breakfast will be a low-carb bagel with cream cheese and coffee, and lunch = a protein shake.

Time to take the ducks to the parade ground for drill.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 39 

Good morning! It is an early Monday morning on this day 24 April 2023.

I’ll jump back into my virtual classroom here in another hour, my glass of water at the ready, and coffee ready to start here just as soon as I post this missive.

Lisa and I stayed busy here this weekend with work both professional and domestic. We hit the lawn and garden center on Saturday morning and spent some time focused on spring work around here. I was tasked with getting out utility vehicles running after a long winter nap and was pleased that my little tractor and riding lawn mower responded positively to my coaxing. I spent some time yesterday on the riding mower and tended to the dandelion patch in from of the house that someone might mistake for a lawn.

I haven’t slept as well as I would like the last couple of nights. I like to sleep on my left side, but I guess I raised my left arm up and put my hand under my pillow on Friday night, and that has led to a couple of nights of shoulder issues. It was rather frustrating on Saturday when I was changing guitar strings on my Godin Classical (I have three Godin guitars, made in Montreal – a nylon string classical with synth access, an LGxt electric, and a Montreal Premiere jazz guitar) and I had difficulty raising my left arm into a playing position. Not fun. It’s a little better today, and I figure if I choke down some anti-inflammatories and stay on top of my water construction.

My class this week is on Eastern time, so I start a little earlier than a central time zone class, but we wrap up at 5:00 PM Eastern time, 4:00 Central. If the day stays dry, I might get a chance to spend a little time on the tractor this afternoon and start mowing some other spots here on the property..

I get to spend some time with Evelyn and my daughter this coming Friday. I have a tire appointment (again) at Walmart, and we’re going to grab a little breakfast at IHOP.

Other than that, just some reports/paperwork to get done for work.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 36

Happy Friday, everybody! Today is 21 April 2023.

I wrapped up my four-day class yesterday, and the early feedback seems to be positive from my learners, once again a collection of folks from multiple time zones, including people from India and Argentina.

Right now there’s a little drama on the couch with Freya defending her territory from Odin, who has insinuated himself onto Lisa’s lap. Freya is not happy with Odin right now.

I’m headed into town shortly to get some tires on Ruby, my Ford Flex. She’s due… but I’m glad I waited as long as I did. I knew she needed new tires last fall, but I no longer drive that much. I work from home, and I go into Lawrence a couple of times a week for this and that, and there’s the occasional trip into Kansas City for one reason or another. I came across a tire sale, and checked the price tag and the checking account, so, there you go.

The installation is supposed to take about an hour, so I’ll slide across to IHOP and grab a couple of eggs for breakfast. I think they have wifi, so I’ll take a laptop with me and maybe get a little work done. I’ve got some meetings later today, and I have some paperwork (is it safe to call it “paperwork” when there is no paper involved?) to do as the end of the fiscal year approaches.

I need to get the mower running. The weeds are getting long in my dandelion patch.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 35

Good morning, folks! It is 20 April 2023. For those living in the United States, it is 4/20, and that means in certain parts of the country, grooves of all ages will be lighting up the hippy lettuce as part of a pseudo-holiday.

Right now in rural Douglas County, the sky has opened up. This is one of those April prairie monsoons that sets the stage for everybody’s lawn to freak out. When I sat down with my glass of water to start writing this, I was getting just a smidgen of bandwidth, and the satellite TV system was completely out. It came back on briefly a moment ago but is being further interrupted due to the weather. I hope this doesn’t mess with my class here in a couple of hours.

My youngest daughter came by the house yesterday afternoon, and Evelyn came along. Both Lisa and I were thankful to spend time with them both, and I briefly shared Evelyn with my online class,

TV is back up – apparently, the weather isn’t just bad here, as tornadoes have hit Oklahoma. Two supercell storms collided for a perfect recipe for destruction. It has taken lives in Cole, Oklahoma.

OK, might be time for me to pay closer attention to the weather and maybe take a look at where the weather is going and how long we’re going to be sitting in this storm.

Sorry to be abrupt, but this situation requires my attention.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 34

Good morning! It is 19 April 2023.

Our senior dog, Lucy, is outside in the dark barking at clouds. She’s kind of odd that way. Freya is on my lap, as well as Rosy, both of them keeping an eye on my wife and the possibility of extra bacon. Odin is just running around barking at stuff randomly.

Yesterday there was some news. During the 2020 election news cycle, one of the allegations was that Dominion, a manufacturer of voting machines, was conspiring against the GOP and Donald Trump to get Joe Biden in the White House. Fox News and their cadre of pundits were all in accusing Dominion of this negative thing and that negative thing. Dominion sued Fox for 1.6 billion dollars. As the jury for the trial had been selected, and lawyers were prepared to deliver their opening remarks when it was announced that a settlement had been reached – the largest defamation suit in history against a media company – to the tune of 787 million dollars.

Fox lied.

Later on today there are going to be committee hearings on UFOs, and I would love to be a fly on the wall during those conversations. Over the last few years, there have been some pretty high-profile events with very credible witnesses, and people want to know what’s going on. I have a passing interest in the subject.

Today I’ve got three modules to cover, and that coffee has yet to be made to give that little legal bump.

Time to get this boat on the water.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 33

Good morning to whoever is reading this. It is 18 April 2023.

Lisa is asleep here on the couch, and Lily is at her feet, Rosy is beside her, and I’ve got Freya tucked up between my legs under my lap desk. Lucy and Odin are camped out on dog beds over by the fireplace.

There’s news in the world today. A young man in Kansas City went to go pick up his sibling at a house, and went to the wrong house… he was supposed to go to an address on a “terrace”, and went to the corresponding address that ended in “street”. An 85-year-old man shot the young man after the young man rang the doorbell. No conversation, no words, no threats, just straight-up shooting. Makes me wonder what is wrong with people.

In New York, a 20-year-old woman was shot and killed when she pulled into the wrong driveway.

I don’t get it.

Unarmed people making the most innocent mistakes.

In the Kansas City case, the young man, Ralph Yarl, is home. He was shot in the head and the arm (yes, the homeowner shot him again after shooting him in the head). The first shot must’ve glanced off his skull – he got very lucky, and is, in fact, home recovering from the shooting.

There are some other big-time news events going on. The Fox News/Dominion lawsuit just started and is expected to run for six weeks. I have a feeling that this suit will not go Rupert Murdock’s way.

OK, time to start the coffee and get ready for the day.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 32

Good morning, folks! It is Monday, 17 April 2023.

I’ve got coffee dripping over in the kitchen, and soon there will be that warm, wake-up juice that gets me going in the morning. I’m thinking a toasted English Muffin with some peanut butter.

Lisa and I went into Kansas City to see Bonnie on Saturday, and we grabbed some things we need for planting here. Next weekend will be a planting and yard-working weekend. I need to get some utility vehicles working.

Evelyn, you turned a month old yesterday. You’ve already been doing quite a bit of traveling on the weekends, and your mom has been taking you everywhere she needs to go. Yesterday she posted a picture of you napping with your dad, and it was a beautiful picture. It was a very peaceful picture, and I hope you have many more moments like that.

In a little bit, I will be returning to my virtual classroom for a delivery. I have an administration course this week, and I am delivering with a new instructor. I hope I can be of some guidance to the young man. The one thing I know I can offer any younger trainer is the benefit of experience. I don’t know that I’m that great or that good, but I do have quite a bit of experience learning stuff and telling people what I’ve learned.

Coffee pot is making noises in the kitchen that let me know that the pot is ready to pour. My cup is ready. Time to get a muffin in the toaster.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 29

Happy Friday, folks! Today is 14 April 2023.

For some odd reason, I woke up at about 3:00 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. Nothing is really bothering me, but for some reason, my mind got started and decided not to quit. It happens every now and then – like the night before I teach a new class – but last night there really wasn’t a good reason. There’s stuff going on, but why I would wake up and have a rerun of Ted Lasso running through my head, I have no idea.

Some of it I can attribute to ADHD. That squirrel brain of mine doesn’t need much to get going and never stops.

I’ve got some meetings in another couple of hours, mostly stuff dealing with internal operations at work. This afternoon I have a project to work on dealing with teaching neurodivergent populations.

One of the news items that popped up earlier this week was the discovery of classified information on a game site. A number of gamers use a service called Discord to chat and share with like-minded players. My Wednesday/Sunday game group uses it for voice communication during our sessions, and I have no qualms about it. A young man with the Massachusetts Air National Guard started posting classified info into a room to share with his group, which apparently also had a number of misogynistic and racist posts in typical juvenile attempts at humor. He was arrested at his home yesterday by the FBI. It’s funny to see certain representatives rushing to his defense. I’m not real sympathetic to his plight. He’ll be spending a substantial part of his life in a federal penitentiary, I suspect.

Time to get the coffee going.

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

Peace y’all.

Evelyn Day 28

Good morning! It is 13 April 2023, and my granddaughter is 4 weeks old today.

Today I wrap up the course I’ve been sitting this week. It’s helped me to get a firm grasp on the content, and I’ll be delivering this course in about 2 months for the first time on my own.

I have a feeling that today is going to be an interesting day. Not for any particular reason, but just a hunch. There will be some piece of breaking news that will affect us all in one way or the other.

Yesterday I didn’t write well. My post was short and dismissive, and on most days I pull it together and get the content out, but yesterday was one of those ADHD days where I became distracted and never got my stuff back together.

One of the tools (toys?) I have been experimenting with is ChatGPT. It’s an artificial intelligence tool that I use for creative purposes. I like to ask questions for fun, such as, “Can you create a list of 100 items found in a fantasy wizard’s laboratory in the style of David Eddings”, or “Create a list of original place names for a medieval fantasy world in the style of Douglas Adams”. It can be a tool for spurring creativity or working as a substitute when the creative juices just aren’t flowing.

It’s about time for me to get focused on the tasks of the day. Time to make a pot of coffee and get something in my belly. Yesterday it was chili and eggs. Today might just be a couple slices of toast with peanut butter, and an old favorite that can go so well with a cup of Tanzanian Peaberry.

That coffee isn’t going to make itself.

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

Peace y’all.