It is Thursday morning, 11 August 2022. I’m going to get this cranked out, because I have a talk in a couple of hours (closer to 3, actually) on a subject that is not my strongest. Every technical instructor has a gap here and there, and I am not a database administrator… so some database related subjects aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse.

That’s ok, though. We all need to stretch and flex our brains every now and then, and I get to practice a little cerebral elasticity… I hope my brain is made of just a bit of memory foam.

There’s still more fallout over the FBI search if Trump’s private residence in Florida. Here’s my take – if you don’t break the law, you don’t have to worry about the FBI coming to your residence with a search warrant. You can’t take souvenirs home from the White House – they belong to the country, they belong to history.

Part of the irony is that while the former guy was in office and not on the golf course, he signed into law more stringent punishment for people that walked off with classified information.

Oops.

Coffee is brewing in the background. I found out Lisa makes the coffee a little stronger than I had been… so I went with four scoops of beans rather than three. I like hers a little better than mine, so, learn and change, right?

Alrighty, time to organize my talk a little more.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, 10 August 2022. I have a case study to present to a virtual classroom full of learners across twelve time zones in about two hours.

Everything is going to be fine.

One aspect of my job that I really love is the opportunity to deliver with some very knowledgeable and experienced peers. My training partner this month has been at the mothership for better than twenty years. He delivered a session yesterday afternoon that was fantastic, and the case study we deliver this morning will build on that session with some more interaction with our learners. We love to get them involved and keep them involved, and we stay focused on the critical thinking skills necessary in this solutions architecture role.

I’ve got my glass of water at the ready as I wait to grab my first cup of coffee. Hydration was a little bit of a sidebar conversation in yesterday’s class, and I need to refocus on drinking more water. I haven’t been drinking my eight glasses of water per day, often settling for four or five. I can do a little better. Time to break out the orange flavoring … that seems to help me throw back an extra glass or two.

Time to get dialed in on my case study delivery.

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

peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, 9 August 2022. I am happy, healthy, awake, and looking forward to my first cup of coffee just as soon as the coffee maker completes the cycle. Some people pour their first cup of coffee as soon as there is enough coffee in the pot to fill a cup …. sociopaths!

I can now hear the last sound of water coursing through the pot. The time is upon us…

… but it can wait until I crank out this post.

The news today is focused on the raid at Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago. Keep in mind that last February there was a story about multiple boxes of government documents being found at Trump’s residence – that story can be found here. Yesterday, the FBI came a-calling again, this time with search warrants.

Today, of course, there is such righteous indignation coming out of both Trump’s camp and the GOP leadership.

Tough.

Back in the 70’s, there was a character played by former Little Rascal Mickey Gubitosi called “Baretta” – ok, he adopted the stage name “Robert Blake” – and that character had a catch phrase, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”.

The former president is learning another lesson. If you are going to attempt to overturn an election and prevent the peaceful change of administrations following a lawful election, you better pull it off. There are consequences for epic screw ups, and this is the biggest screw up in US history by a sitting president. He was impeached twice for a reason.

I look forward to the day when Trump is in everybody’s rear view mirror, and no one pays attention to him anymore.

If America. we love a couple of tropes – we love the underdog that overcomes tremendous odds to succeed. Always a winning story. The other trope we can’t take our eyes off – when the mighty fall.

This isn’t just a fall. This is a slow-motion train wreck.

Every American with even the most basic situational awareness saw this coming. Trump is too damned stupid to follow the most basic tenets of CYA… cover your ass. His inner circle is likely moving money around and taking a look at real estate in countries that don’t have extradition treaties with the US.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, the first day of a new work week. 8 August 2022.

This morning I’ll have to focus on some time management. I have a couple of lessons to cover this week on data storage and data integration, and there are several meetings hanging out there that I need to attend. I had a teammate reach out to me for help on a project that he’s been struggling with, so that task will get some coverage today. I have a meeting with my manager in a few hours as well, but I anticipate that won’t take too long.

There’s news out there about the budget and about the economy. Some things are going pretty well, some things could stand to be doing better. There are pics of destroyed documents floating around the toilet in the White House. There are accusations of laws being broken by a former administration, from missing phone records and missing texts to threats against officials.

It’s tiring.

So, I’ll focus on work. That is a wonderful productive escape.

I’ll do my thing, get some orange essential oils in the diffuser, pour another cup of coffee, and prepare for my week and the rest of this month.

September won’t be quite as stressful.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, the 7th day of August in the year 2022.

I tweeted something yesterday that I now regret a bit. Yesterday, Twisted Sister Lead Singer Dee Snider posted a picture of a bad tat – some dude was walking around with a full back tattoo depicting an image of Donald Trump throwing up a “Seig Heil” style salute with the words across the top that read “New Aryan Empire”. Considering the quality of the artwork, I’m surprised the artist spelled those two words correctly.

I made a comment that I don’t think we’ll be seeing that artist’s work hanging in the Louvre any time soon, some artists have it, some artists don’t.

I don’t want to discourage artists. I want to discourage Nazis.

I believe in art. I believe in people that carve wood, chisel granite, paint with watercolors and oils, and put their stories, their poems, their lyrics on paper.

The things we can create reflect our feelings and our experiences. We have love. We have fear. We have hope. We have dreams. We want to revolt against societal walls that create pain. We want to stand up for opportunities for all. The poor kids need some help. The rich kids sometimes need a little help, too, but the help the rich kids need might be a little different than the poor kids because the rich kids don’t need new shoes. These kids need to play together and go to school together (I’m not a big fan of private schools and their efforts to siphon off public school funds into their selective system).

I’m just ranting at this point.

Anyway. Make art. Don’t be a Nazi. There you go.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Saturday morning, 6 August 2022. I am quietly sitting in my recliner couch, Freya sitting beside me, Rosy perched on my shin bone. (Just as I typed that, Rosy jumped off… she must’ve smelled something stackable in the kitchen).

Today is going to be a mowing day. After work yesterday, I loaded up the diesel containers and got them filled up, careful to wipe any fuel off the exterior of the vessels before I put them back in my trusty old Ford Flex that I affectionately refer to as Ruby. Once home, I got the little tractor topped off, and I know I have some regular gasoline for the other riding lawn mower. The battery for the little electric mower that we only use in the fenced-in side yard is on the charger… but I have to confess, after a couple of hours on the big riding units, my enthusiasm for walking behind a push mower will have waned.

I just know I need to get out there and get going on it. I have a book ready to go on my phone, and my Boze headphones are on the charger. I’ll break out the Camelbak and get it loaded with ice water – I just have to remember to not “lean back” into the chair when I’m on the tractor – I’ve had a back covered in ice water after I ruptured the water bladder before. Doesn’t happen on the smaller riding mower, as the seat back doesn’t go up that high.

Currently wondering about mowing strategy. Big mower first, or smaller?

Bigger…

There is something I kind of like about riding around on that little tractor… although I do have to be cautious about where I place that bucket on the front.

Maybe I can get a 21-year-old young man to help me out mowing today…

I’m going to go get started. Sitting on my butt doesn’t get the work done.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday morning, 5 August 2022. I’ve got some work to get done today, starting with a two-hour stint with my cloud solutions architecture course, then a smattering of meetings spread throughout the day. I get a chance to look forward to spending a portion of my day tomorrow on the lawn mower, as I’ve let the lawn grow a bit – when it gets warm, it’s better to try and keep the grass a little longer. I’ll likely set the mower blade to around two inches when it comes time to saddle up tomorrow.

I’m feeling a little out of sorts. Not quite sure if it’s lingering blah or if it’s something more aligned with mental weariness. I don’t think I’m depressed, but I recognize that I seem to be lacking some motivation that is normally there.

Maybe I just need to find that switch and flip it.

Might just need to flip something.

Right now, Lilly is sitting beside me demanding I pay attention to her. I pet her for a moment, then Rosy notices and wants a little attention as well.

Pondering what I’ll do for lunch today. I know I ought to snack on leftovers… we have a few.

Yeah, the words just aren’t flowing from the font today. I’ll let the bucket reload, maybe I’ll have a little more substance tomorrow.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, and this week seems to be flying by. It seems August 1 was just a few days ago… and it was… today is 4 August 2022.

There is so much going on in the world right now. Politicians traveling to foreign countries, revelations about the Secret Service and Department of Defense text messages getting deleted, continuing investigations into election interference in Georgia.

I know I write this to share my thoughts and feelings about the day with future grandchildren, but I wonder if these notes will land the way I intend with any family members down the road. Who knows? By the time I pass from this mortal plane, I may have damaged a relationship with one of my kids to the point where they may not want to pass this journal along to their kids or their grandkids. I might be too political for their taste. I might be too far left of center for them. I may be a source of ideas too radical for them to share or embrace.

But I’ll keep writing. I’m going to relate my experience, my truth if you will, and let it happen. I could joke that “I’ll learn to live with it”, but seeing that my intent is for this to be read after I’m gone, I guess I won’t have to live with it.

I have a weird sense of humor.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday morning, 3 August 2022.

A little bit of news on the local front. The vote to amend the Kansas constitution went “No” and it was a resounding, winning by almost 20% with the largest primary voter turnout in Kansas history.

So… what did we learn?

I think we learned that women can and should be trusted to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive health. The whole point about Justice Alito’s opinion was to take Roe v Wade off the table and turn it over to the states and keep those laws local.

I would argue make it more local. Maybe rather than leave it up to the state, leave it up to the county. Or, instead of leaving it up to the county, leave it up to the community, the town, the city. Or, rather than leave it up to the town, leave it up to the neighborhood.

Or… this is a crazy thought – just leave it up to the individual.

I’m very proud of my fellow Kansans today. You don’t amend the state constitution to take away freedom.

Also on the news this morning, I see in a number of Republican primaries, election-deniers won. People are complaining that some of these election-deniers received backing from the DNC. I’m fine with that. The objective is to prop up a weak candidate that is easier to defeat in November. It’s the same strategy that Richard Nixon, with the help of criminal Roger Stone (yeah, he was pardoned by Trump, but he accepted the pardon, which in itself is an admission of guilt) used in the 1972 election to prop up weak candidate George Wallace over Hubert Humphrey.

Anyway, I need to get ready for my workday.

Once again, congrats to the women of Kansas.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, 2 August 2022. In the next couple of hours, I will begin my four-week delivery of a solutions architecture course along with a training partner. He’s on the east coast, I’m on central time. We’ve adopted a plan where I will take care of the morning sessions, and he’ll take the afternoon sessions.

It is also an election day as primaries for the Republican party and Democratic party will vie for the available slots on the ticket for offices such as State Attorney General and Governor. There is also a big decision being presented to the voters as to whether or not to modify the state constitution so the state representatives can change state laws on reproductive rights in Kansas. It has become a pretty hotly contested topic, generally driven by the ideologies of old men that have never had to face the reality of unwanted pregnancy, and folks that think that we shouldn’t overturn 50 years of freedom.

My perspective is simple – you don’t change the state constitution to take away freedom.

Tonight’s returns will be very interesting. I may just wait to read about it in the morning.

Time for me to contemplate the day and get a couple more tasks completed before we start the class day at 8:00 am central time.

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

Peace y’all.