That day has arrived… 3 January 2023… the first full work-day of the year. I had to take care of a couple of things yesterday, but that doesn’t really count.

OK, something timely to post. I know that what I write is read by a few eyes, and my intent is to write down stuff happening in the moment, so here’s something that happened late last night. On Monday Night Football, about ten minutes into the game, something happened. A defensive back for Buffalo, Damar Hamlin, was involved in a play, popped back up after the play, then immediately collapsed. CPR was performed on the field, and the reports last night implied that Mr. Hamlin had a pulse, but was not breathing on his own. He was intubated at the hospital, and I haven’t heard any updates… until now. Currently watching the news, Damar Hamlin is in critical condition, but he is alive.

Of course, the ghouls came out right afterward blaming the event on vaccinations. These people are awful. Commotio Cortis is currently being investigated as a cause, where a sudden blow to the chest causes an interruption in the heart rhythm. It’s part of the discussion, but I’m no doctor.

The whole thing reminded me of my cardiac event when I was in my 20s. I think it was 1989. I collapsed with chest pains on a basketball court and went to the emergency room. That was when I discovered the irregular heartbeat issue that I have dealt with for the last thirty years.

Today the new congress gets sworn in, and then we’ll have two years of investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Meh, I’m just not into this right now. I’m going to go make a pot of coffee and get ready for my class.

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

Peace y’all.

When is Monday not a Monday? When it’s the first Monday of the year following a New Year’s Day that lands on a Sunday. Yesterday would’ve been a paid holiday for many workers in the US, but as it fell on a weekend, today is that paid holiday. Also, as college football bowl games are normally played on New Year’s Day, there is another issue – the professional football teams all play on Sunday (with the exception of one Monday night game and one Thursday night game), so today we’ll have college bowl games starting a little before lunch.

I start off the year with a “break”. I regularly consume adult beverages and enjoy a good whiskey, but from now until the 29th of January, I swear off the hard stuff. It’s just a break for health reasons, for discipline reasons, and really just to prove to myself that I can. I have a cocktail because I choose to have a cocktail, and the cocktail doesn’t make the decision for me… so, a break. I choose to raise a glass on the 29th, which is a celebration of my dad’s birthday. This year he would turn 82. He passed in 2019.

I spent a little time yesterday with my planner, going over some goals for the year. The New Year is a great time to think about those things, but the fact is that anytime is a good time to focus on setting and achieving goals. I’m thinking about my health, my writing, my reading, daily meditation, hydration, diet, and creative outlets. No one is going to add structure to my life other than me – and I’m the kind of person that needs some structure. I don’t need to plan every moment of every day, but it is good to have a framework for my day. I think that’s one of the things I like about being a technical trainer – a lot of the structure and daily framework is built into the delivery day.

I write my blog in the mornings, drink a couple of large glasses of water, and soon I’ll prepare a simple high-protein low-carb breakfast – probably a couple of scrambled eggs, American cheese, and some leftover ham from dinner last week. Today isn’t a delivery day, so I need to scope ahead and take a look at the “must-see” sports events on the day… and there are a couple.

I also need to get some work done – a new four-week class starts tomorrow, and I have a couple of preliminary posts to the Teams channel that require some attention.

OK, off to it.

I hope you find something to be thankful for today. Gratitude can feel good.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday! 30 December 2022. Today might be the last day I write this year, as I don’t usually post on Saturdays during this “revival” period, but who knows? Tomorrow I may be inspired and feel the urgent need to get my thoughts on digital paper for all the world to see.

I also might just keep my mouth shut and ponder life in this mortal coil quietly while sipping a whiskey.

Anyway, yesterday was a good day. I went to visit my mom and spent some time with my sister’s family and my younger brother. My sister has a new pup, a male named Goose, and he’s a cute little guy.

One of the things we talked about is this new interest I have in neurodivergence, and mom had some insights about our family on the whole. She talked about my dad and some of the practices he had in place to manage his anxiety. Kids ate before the adults, and leave dad alone when he was out in the garage working on his cars and other projects. My dad had a pretty high IQ, and it’s not really a surprise that some of his neurodivergent tendencies would get passed down to us kids.

I have a feeling that this topic will be one I spend some time on in 2023. It’s kind of in the same realm as kids going to college to become psychology majors so they can figure their own brains out. Right now I feel like there is this puzzle in front of me that has pegs and holes, trap doors, and secret keys. One latch opens up a creative fountain, another opens overwhelming anxiety.

I’ll try to go slow. I get that not everybody is interested in the subject matter, but if I can figure out my own buttons, I can control which one gets pressed at the appropriate time, and I can also make the choice to not respond when the wrong button gets pressed… or at least recognize what is happening in the moment so I can react more appropriately.

Alrighty.

I’m going to get some goals written down for 2023 a little later. I’ll plan on spending some quality time with my planner on a daily basis.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, 29 December 2022. There are only a couple of days left in 2022, and there is stuff yet to get done.

As I mentioned last week, we were down with COVID the last couple of weeks, and finally had a negative test earlier this week. We chose not to run to see my mom and siblings last weekend due to the illness, but today I’m going to load up the family truckster and go for a visit… five hours in the car for a two-hour visit… but I need to make the sojourn. I’ve got a good audiobook queued up for the ride, the last book in Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force series.

Last night was fun. We ordered in some barbeque and gathered around tv to watch Kansas take on Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl. To be honest, the game was pretty miserable for KU fans for the better part of three quarters, and then the magic came to play. Arkansas took a 24-7 lead in the first quarter, and Kansas matched scores in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but Kansas rallied and scored 18 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to tie the game up and force not just one overtime, but 3 overtimes. Arkansas eventually won, 55-53, but it was a heck of a ride.

A topic that we’ve been discussing around here lately is neurodiversity. A family member has been looking into the subject and how it relates to the way they think and how they react to certain situations. This family member also suggested that I take an online test for neurodivergence as well, so I took an 80-question online test. The results were rather surprising. It would be inaccurate for me to say that I’ve never wondered about the way I look at the world – I have. I have often wondered how I can start off talking about one subject, then somehow flip through the index cards in my head to arrive at a seemingly unrelated subject then blurt something out to a room of blank stares… people wondering how I went from point A to point Garbanzo. Sometimes led folks to wonder if I was actively engaged in a procreative process with cashews, almonds, and macadamias.

It’s a subject I should look into more. Might explain a little bit more about why I sometimes feel more than just a little bit outside the scope of what most people consider normal.

OK, time for me to think about grabbing a little breakfast and a cup of coffee.

I’m looking forward to spending a few hours in the car with Joe Bishop and Skippy the talking beer can.

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

Peace y’all.

Wednesday morning, 29 December 2022, and I have my appropriate camel socks for this instance of Hump Day. Interestingly enough, I have a work meeting later this morning regarding my cloud admin course that starts next week. Not too demanding – I really don’t have any other responsibilities that have a higher priority.

The news on TV is still reporting travel problems across the country, and airline inadequacies compounded by weather problems. I’m glad I didn’t have any air travel booked over this break. I still know folks that are stranded out there trying to get from one place to another. It has to be incredibly frustrating.

Trains all ran on time.

I often wonder what the US would be like if we had a European-style rail system. It seems that we have allowed our industries to cannibalize other industries when the opportunity presented itself. Where there was an opportunity for profit, other industries were left behind. As the automotive industry grew, the bus and train systems were abandoned, and that was further compounded by airlines. There’s nothing wrong with rail – we still use it – but passenger rail is pretty much reserved for the east coast.

I often think it would be interesting to take a coast-to-coast train ride. Fly out to New York, go to the train station, and then go all the way across the country, then fly home.

Then, go to Europe and tackle whatever is left of the Orient Express.

Time to think about the tasks of the day. Barbeque acquisition prior to the 4:30 PM football game between Kansas and Arkansas.

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

Peace y’all.

I wish you all a happy and healthy Tuesday, 27 December 2022. Today is the 2nd birthday of Lily and Rosy von Floof, daughters of Freya the Morkie and Snow the Hawaiian Pomeranian. The girls are currently sitting with my wife as she watches a docu-drama on the Oxygen channel about a nursing home serial killer. Always the warmest way to start the day.

Nah… the warmest way is with a cup of coffee and a fire in the wood-burning stove, and the coffee isn’t quite done yet, and I’m not ready to brave the cold to bring in firewood quite yet.

Late yesterday morning I received a nice piece of news – a negative COVID test for the first time in a week and a half. Others in the house tested negative as well, so we’re all working to get back into our regular routine. That stuff really ground me down a bit, and I am very grateful to have been fully vaccinated and boosted. I don’t want to think about the result if I hadn’t been properly vaccinated – I likely would’ve ended up in the hospital or worse.

The ant-vax crowd still rubs me the wrong way. Telling people to not get vaccinated is a form of evil – I compare it to telling depressed, vulnerable teenagers to harm themselves. Kids get mean to one another and tell them to do the most vile things, up to and including taking their own lives. The anti-vax crowd effectively does the same thing, telling people not to get vaccinated so that they can watch the ICU circus. I wonder if they’re creating side bets on who dies and who doesn’t, all for their own entertainment.

That’s evil, folks.

Today I’m going to get some cleaning and organizing done here. I’ve got some work to do back in the sunroom. No meetings today, but I know I have one tomorrow, a pre-delivery meeting regarding my class that starts next Tuesday and covers the month of January. I haven’t had a conversation with my delivery partner, but we have traded some emails and chats. It’ll be nice to hear the voice of the person I’m working with next month.

I need to read more books. 2022 was not a great year for reading fiction or non-fiction for me. I read a lot of articles, but probably fewer than a dozen books. I need to bump up those numbers.

Other than that, not much to share. I look forward to tacos tonight.

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

Peace y’all.

It’s the day after Christmas, 26 December 2022, and a grayish Monday with the sun just starting to peak out from behind the eastern cloud bank. I woke up to Lisa and Bonnie watching an old black-and-white movie with Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Katherine Hepburn… and I have no idea what the title is… it’s certainly a movie I have never seen before.

Coffee is being, so I’ll grab a cup in a few. Yesterday I was gifted with a couple of new coffee cups… I later found out it was part of a concerted effort by family members to convince me to give up an old favorite mug with that has grown faded and has a little chip on the edge – the chip isn’t where I place my lips when I sip, so I don’t give it much thought, but if you heard my kids talk about that chip, you would think it was designed by an evil potter to rend my upper lip from my face.

The cup will live to see another day… it’s my cup, and I’m not done with it yet.

It was a good day yesterday despite our “quarantine Christmas”. 3 out of 4 positive tests, and Dane is the only one in the green. Today we’ll test again, and I do expect a negative today.

Oh… my wife just brought me over a cup of coffee, a kindness. It’s in the new dragon mug that Bonnie picked up for me at the Renaissance Festival last fall. Good looking mug. Nice dragon.

The dragon needs a name. I’m thinking, “Fausto”.

It was a good morning. My future son-in-law has an attraction to guitar, so I gifted him with one of my acoustics, a nice black Epiphone dreadnaught with active electronics. I picked up an Ovation for myself in November, and last year I bought a Martin acoustic on a good sale.

Right now, one of the floor sisters is trying to distract me from the task at hand so I can pay attention to her. Tomorrow, Lily and Rosy will both be two years old… five pounds of canine fur in a flood configuration times two.

Today will be a relaxing day. On my work calendar, it’s a work holiday. Tomorrow will be vacation time, as will Wednesday and Thursday.

I need to do a better job keeping track of my vacation time and personal days at work.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is 23 December 2022, and today will be a good day for me to wrap up a few Christmas presents. Gift bags are easy, but they are a bit of a cop-out, don’t you think?

I’ll be taking another COVID test later today, hoping for a negative result for the first time since last Thursday. Other folks here at the house have also had positive tests in the last couple of days, so that can put a bit of a damper on the holiday. I know we have one kid that is not happy with the situation, but what can we do? We don’t dare travel and risk exposing other family members.

Today is a vacation day, and there are things that need to get done. I should spend some time in my workspace organizing and dusting – one of the downsides of living rural is the constant influx of dust. It’s a never-ending fight, and the gaps in the windows will always win. Hopefully, I can get a handle on it and purge some of the particulate matter from the various nooks and crannies back in the sunroom.

I’d like to spend a little quality time with a guitar or two as well.

I wonder what sports are on today… there has to be a bowl game and an international futbol match on ESPN, one would think.

It is now time to grind some beans and add hot water. Bubba needs a cup of coffee.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, 22 December 2022… it is also my last full day of work for the year. I’m in the virtual classroom in another hour, an hour to prep and settle in, and two hours to deliver my discussion on business continuity, then I’ll take care of incidental stuff for the balance of the day.

Yesterday I shared that we were expecting colder temperatures starting today – it did get over freezing yesterday – but today I doubt we’ll be seeing no temperatures that begin with a 3 – well, maybe an actual 3. It’s 2 degrees outside right now, but I don’t think we’ll see it rise above freezing for a week or so. It might be a good day to get the wood-burning stove rolling for a little bump in the heat.

Last day of ugly Christmas sweaters for work… breaking out Clippy today.

I’m not always the biggest Christmas guy, for personal reasons. I usually spend quite a bit of time in the car traveling to see family, but this year is a question mark. Yesterday I took a COVID test, and I’m still testing positive. I’ll take another test tomorrow, and keep the hope alive that I can travel on Christmas day to see family in Clay Center. Lisa tested positive yesterday as well, so we’re just not sure if it will be safe – we don’t want to pass anything along to anyone else.

My youngest daughter is making plans with that in mind. She’s late in her second trimester and doesn’t want to take any chances, so we’ll be maintaining a distance a bit over the weekend.

Other than that, no other real news.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, 21 December 2022, and the holiday is just around the corner.

I might want to wrap up my Christmas shopping today.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I jumped back into my virtual classroom early and managed our class’s review/preview session. My training partner took the wheel for yesterday’s afternoon session. This morning I’m up first, as we dive into a case study, and after I manage that, I’ll have one more session that I lead on.

Then the Christmas/New Year’s break begins… right after I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with the training partner I am delivering with starting January 3rd. In the meantime, let the ugly Christmas sweater parade continue.

Cold weather arrives today. Currently, it’s 22 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but it’s going to take a nosedive later today and tomorrow, heading into zeroes and negatives. I’ll be availing myself of the opportunity to get a fire going in the fireplace. Not quite sure if we’re going to get any precipitation with the cold. Snow makes for more driving challenges, but we could handle a little water from the sky.

Time to take a decongestant. I’m not feeling as far under it as I did last week, but I still have some sinus congestion.

Time to make a pot of coffee, too.

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

Peace y’all.