The sun has yet to peak over the eastern horizon on this Tuesday morning, 20 September 2022. Today is the birthday of several friends and family, including my sister, so I wish them all well.

For us here in rural Douglas County, it’s the last day of our summer, as the pool service folks will come by later today to shut down our pool for the summer. Lisa got good use out of the pool this summer, but my ears had some fits with water persisting in weird cavities I apparently have in the channels up and around my ear drum. Hopefully next year I can figure out how to keep the sensitivity to a minimum.

Last night we had a little excitement as a neighboring cow somehow wandered into my backyard. I called the sheriff to report it, and while the cow’s owner wasn’t available, his neighbor was able to offer some guidance on how to get that beast back over on their side of the fence.

I’m on for most of the day today, with two of the three modules being covered falling to me. Lots of networking to discuss, and it is a favorite topic of mine.

That’s about all I have to say this morning. Time to finish my water and grab a cup of coffee.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is 19 September 2022. Today is expected to be a bit warmer, with temperatures into the 90s (Fahrenheit… over 35 for those of you that prefer Celsius). Most likely, today will be the last day that our residential swimming pool will be open, as we scheduled our pool closing for tomorrow some time ago. Just about right – highs in the 90s early this week, then a severe drop off as autumn imposes her will on the change of seasons.

I’m back in my virtual classroom in about an hour. This week I’m teaching with a teammate from Baltimore, and our delivery is on east coast time, so an hour earlier start, but an hour earlier finish.

Time for me to get back on my mealplan. I took a break for the last week+ (call it 9 days, a week with bookend weekends). I need to get back to eating right… I feel a little thick. I’ll wait another week before I step on the scale again. I don’t think that little appliance will give me a friendly review of my situation for a few days.

No real changes to the landscape here. Time for me to get focused on the day ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, 18 September 2022, and I’m thinking about books.

I read. I love books, whether the big is on paper in hand, or an e-book reader (Kindle, Android or Windows tablet), or in an audiobook format – although I will admit, when I’m listening to an audiobook, I prefer just a narrator and the story, you can leave all of that other-the-top radio production stuff out – I find it is more of a distraction than an enhancement.

These days I’m lucky if I have one or two fiction titles in play while I have a dozen or more technical titles in play as I continue my ongoing professional pursuits. I don’t think I have to worry about any of the technical titles I work with being banned by local libraries, but I have a real problem with this growing trend of banishing books because they don’t “fit” conservative populations.

Here’s the reality that conservatives don’t like to admit… our kids are going to be different than we are. Some children that come from conservative households will continue that to form a multigenerational trend. Some other kids are going to go their own way, and some of those kids can probably benefit to read stories about kids like them. Some of our kids are going to grow up in households with single parents, some with same-sex parents. Some of those kids are going to grow up feeling differently about gender and sex, and we as a society have a responsibility to let those kids know they are going to be welcomed, loved, and accepted for who they are. Conservatives can pray all day for that reality to change, but just wishing for something does not make it so.

It’s a proven fact that those who favor book banning and book burning are never on the right side of history.

Go read a banned book.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, it is 17 September 2022. As some have noted, yesterday was my birthday, as I rolled over into the last remaining year of my 50s. It’s going to be an interesting year, as I will have some more significant life changes – Lisa and I will move one more year closer to retirement, and we expect our first grandchild in the spring.

I haven’t posted in the last few days, as that is kind of my plan when I travel. I’m not really big on informing the world about my travel plans, as it could endanger any potential home invaders. I might be prone to negotiate, but I think other family members might be more likely to take defensive action and ask questions later.

The leaves are shimmering and waving in the early morning sun, the wind, and just enough dew present on the leaves to reflect the light coming down.

It’s halfway through September, and the arrival of fall is being announced by the crispness of the morning air. Lisa and I are going to get out a little later – she has her eye on a shirt for me, a belated birthday present, and who am I to turn her down?

OK, time to attend to this cup of coffee and the breakfast that has arrived at the table.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is Monday, 12, September 2022. The work day is looming, but I don’t think it will be that bad. I’ve got a presentation to put together with 8 minutes worth of content, and I have a few notes to put together for my manager.

Starting this Friday, I will begin my last year in my 50s. Kind of crazy to think about, but here we are. There were days and weeks that I really didn’t think I would like long enough to see 59. I probably ought to quit jinxing myself by mentioning it.

I’ve got some meetings to attend tomorrow and more on Wednesday and Thursday. One of my scheduled discussions will be with my training partner next week. We have a cloud administration course to deliver over four days, and I look forward to it. Then, another non-delivery week, followed by another four-week stint delivering a solutions architecture course.

Our swimming pool gets shut down for the season a week from Tuesday, and I’m hopeful that the dogs don’t completely lose their minds. I shouldn’t get my hopes up, though.

It’s about time for me to get focused on my to-do list.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, and happy Saturday to you all. It is 10 September 2022. I’m tossing the weird orange ball around the dining room table and living room for Lily… she seems to be the only dog we have out of five that will bring a tossed ball back to the original tosser.

Odin is outside scratching at the sliding glass door. He likes to grab the ball and keep the ball. Rosy likes barking at the ball. Lily… Lily likes to play.

It’s a highlight of the day, actually. Watching 5 pounds of floof jumping up to try and catch this weird-shaped orange ball that bounces funny. She contorts herself into some of the most unusual aerial poses while she tries to snag that little rubbery sphere.

Today is going to be a slower day. Lisa ordered a couple of trees months ago that just arrived the other day, so we’ll get those in the ground. A local business that we’ve patronized a couple of times is closing its doors this weekend, so we may drop by to help them out by buying some of their leftover inventory (it’s a distillery, so decent shelf life, right?).

Football is on the docket today as well, with a K-State-Mizzou game at 11, and KU playing at West Virginia later this afternoon. The KU game is at 5, and SportingKC has a match at 7:30, so we’ll be able to watch some decent sports. I just hope Kansas can keep up with West Virginia. It would be nice to be competitive.

That’s all I have for now. Breakfast is on the table, so…

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday morning! Happy Friday, everybody! (OK, when Wayne sees this, it will likely be Saturday for him, time zones and date lines being what they are). 9 September 2022.

Yesterday was kind of a bummer for fans of the British monarchy, as the 96-year-old leader of the British royal family passed, Queen Elizabeth II.

I pass along my respects to her family and those that cared about her the most. She was the only British monarch that most people alive today have ever known.

I have done a little research on Ancestry about my family history, and I was able to trace a branch or two of the family back to England. It has a significant margin for error, but if you go back far enough, there are some significant folks that pop up in the family tree, including ties to King John, born in 1166, and died in 1216.

That and 6 bucks will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks, right?

I’ve come to the conclusion that most people alive today are descended from some “royalty”, whatever that means. If you stop and consider who had access to food, clean water, and shelter, ultimately most of the survivors had some sort of strain of nobility, whether through traditional marriage and family, or through affairs, trysts, and the all-to-common rape back in that time.

Yeah, I know if you go back far enough, you’ll come across some rapists. I’m not that naive.

The Plantagenets demand a recount!

Nah… not sure I’d ever want to be the focus of all that attention all the time.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, 8 September 2022. I’m slow rolling up on my day, dogs (most of ’em anyway) are outside. I’m thinking about breakfast, at this point focused on something involving eggs, another protein, and cheese.

That other protein is the sticking point – I have bacon, sausage, and ham… and that makes for a tough choice. I like all three, and of course, you can never go wrong with bacon… but I do have all of the ingredients for a good Denver omelet.

I guess I’ll just have to buckle down and make a decision.

I think we have my daughter squared away. The insurance agent arranged for a rental car for her, but I think she’s delaying while they complete the road construction in from of her rental home. Her car got hit while parked on the street, and she’s concerned about a rental car getting hit as well.

I’ll get back focused on my recertification today, as well as putting together an agenda for a team meeting I called earlier this week.

This week is going by very fast… I guess that’s likely to happen when you chop the normal workday Monday for a federal holiday.

Time to get focused.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, the 7th day of September, 2022.

I woke up this morning with the phone. My oldest child had a problem. Due to some construction, she was not able to park her car in her driveway as she usually does, so she had to park on the street.

You can probably guess what happened next.

Sometime in the night, some jackhammer hit her car, tore up the driver’s side, and ran off. Now she’s upset, no car, and has had to reach out to file a police report and an insurance claim.

It’s not a great way to start off the day.

I helped her with the insurance stuff, and I forwarded the info she needs about getting a rental car. I worry about her, always will, and when stuff like this happens it’s always a bit of an anxiety-inducing violation. I can’t blame her for being upset.

She’ll either get her rental car today, or either Dane or I will head over to her workplace to give her a ride home later today.

In the meantime, I’m focused on work stuff. Plenty to do here.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning, folks! It is Tuesday, 6 September 2022, and I have to run to the computer store later to buy a new UPS. Looks like one of my smaller UPSs has given up the ghost, so later this morning, I’ll be running to the computer store and will hopefully avoid any unnecessary impulse purchases, and history has demonstrated that I’m not always too good at that…

… Hey, that’s shiney!

I go into a computer store and I turn into Doug the Dog from the Pixar movie, “Up!”.

“Squirrel!”

I was pondering a conversation I had with a dear friend when we first met. We were talking about political ideology, and this person admitted to me that they were a “Star Trek Socialist”.

I’ll be the first person to admit that the word “socialist” hasn’t always hit me right, but in our society, we have a lot more social programs and subsections in our society that are very close to socialist in their structure and distribution of resources. Some rural communities go out of their way to check on each other and make sure that folks have enough to survive. That starts out small, but also goes to the very top with the farm subsidies that the federal government distributes. We have Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly and poor. Even big energy companies receive a hefty chunk of funds to keep fuel prices down.

I sometimes think that the words “socialist” and “socialism” have been demonized by some folks for pure ideological reasons. The concept of sharing is generally cast aside by those that “have” and don’t want to share with the “have nots”. Oh, they’re generally fine with selling to the “have nots”… but that requires having goods or funds to exchange.

Right now, in America, the “haves” really don’t give a rat’s ass about the “have nots”.

Maybe I should distinguish that there are more than one kind of “haves”. There’s the “have some”, “have much”, and the “have most” subgroups. Some folks within each group do share. Others think that life is all about dying with the most toys.

Reminds me of an episode of Star Trek.

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

Peace y’all.