It is Monday morning, 1 August 2022. Vacation is over, dogs are barking, and I have a new class starting tomorrow. Today I will get my ducks in a row, have a couple of meetings with other trainers and managers, and get my focus dialed in for a good delivery.

Getting up at 5:30 in the morning after a week of sleeping in is necessary, but another hour of sleep would’ve been nice. A lunchtime siesta between meetings for 20-30 minutes might be in the offing.

A week of vacation also means I took a week off my meal plan… I probably shouldn’t step on a scale for another week. Back to eggs for breakfast and low-carb yogurt for lunch for a while. I need to get back dialed in on my water consumption as well – I haven’t been hydrating the way I probably should.

So, the time has come to get to work. Coffee is in the pot. I have eggs already made (I made extra yesterday – but the biscuits and gravy were so good – leftovers are welcome!). I have Teams and Outlook open, dogs are getting comfortable in the dog beds. I’ll get the essential oils diffuser rolling with an appealing mist shortly as well.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday morning, 31 July 2022. I am awake, I have a cup of coffee, and I’m going to pound out the last blog entry of my vacation.

I received my second booster on Friday. Yesterday I didn’t get much done, and to be honest, I don’t know whether my lack of motivation was due more to the after-effects of my second booster, or if it was more about that lingering voice in the back of my head whispering, “Your vacation is almost over… relax, sit in that chair, take a nap”.

Naps are good.

Lisa is making biscuits and gravy this morning for breakfast, and I am very much looking forward to that. I’ll be getting back on my plan tomorrow, eliminating the carbs and drinking more water. I haven’t been drinking enough water this last week, so I’ll get back to focusing on hydration starting today. I think I feel better when I drink more water.

I have meetings tomorrow as I ramp up with my training partner for our delivery starting on Tuesday. It’s a different structure than my normal 4-day class deliveries, and I have written about it before. Days are about the same length, with some longer breaks throughout the day, 4 weeks rather than 4 days. I

Coffee, news, church online, some women’s soccer later (England v Germany for the EURO Championship), followed by some online gaming with the guys for a few hours. We’ll eat dinner about 6:30, then take a last dip in the pool before cleaning up. I’ll fix myself a cocktail and relax with an episode or two of Peaky Blinders with Lisa before calling it a night and calling it a vacation.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Friday, 29 July 2022. Last vacation day of the work week. I still have tomorrow and Sunday to kick back a little bit before I resume the regular work days on Monday. I’ll be starting a Blended Learning class that will keep me occupied through the end of August. September looks pretty manageable right now, as some of my classes have been moved or reassigned to accommodate some schedule changes.

I front load my year if I haven’t mentioned it before. I have a tendency to put my head down and grind for the first six months of the year, then I’ll use up my PTO during the second half of the year, and use that time from July 1 through January 1 to catch my breath, focus on new certifications and renewals, and just prep my mind for what comes next.

Right now I’m sitting in my mechanics’ waiting room, waiting on Ruby to get her oil changed. Ruby is my 2009 Ford Flex with 190,000 miles on her. She still runs well and gets me where I need to be. I don’t have to go very far very often, and even when the time comes to get a new set of wheels, I’ll probably keep Ruby around as a spare set of wheels when those moments arise.

Oil change, a run by the doctor’s office for a little paperwork, maybe a bite of lunch while I’m in town. All in all, just a mundane sort of day that will likely culminate with a decent Friday night meal, a glass of wine, a trip to the swimming pool, and then something sweet later in the evening.

I hope I’m living a simple, humble life. There was a time when I really wanted to attract attention to myself for one reason or another. These days, not so much.

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

Peace y’all.

Oooh… one of those nice round number days. Today is 28 July 2022, a Thursday morning, and the end of my work break is in sight. Monday morning I’ll be back in meetings, in preparation for my 4-week delivery of a solutions architect course with a great peer instructor.

I forgot to write yesterday, but I’m not going to beat myself up over it. That’s kind of the reason for vacations in the first place.

Saw that there was a compromise on some legislation, and the senator from West Virginia is going to get on board. The senator from Arizona will most likely follow the marching orders she gets from Wichita… I have little doubt she’s been bought and paid for by an energy-sector billionaire that is based in Kansas. Follow the money and the campaign donations. I took a look at the comments section on a couple of stories, and the garbage needs to be taken out. Just about every comment was negative, which means that the energy sector and our overseas adversaries that want to see America destroyed are not happy with this move.

Boo freakin’ hoo.

Just one time I’d love one of these climate change deniers to show me their science, and every time the subject comes up, the only thing that gets proven is that a lot of people don’t know the difference between climate and their local weather.

21,500. On the site where I get my “day count”, there’s a little note. I posted in the beginning that the average person lives about 30,000 days. The note on the day-count page mentions 28,835 as the number of days in an average life.

Everybody is on the clock, and very few know when the clock hits zero.

Make the most of this day.

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

Peace y’all.

Good afternoon! It is 26 July 2022, a Tuesday afternoon at this point with moderate temperatures and some solid cloud cover, but no rain in the immediate forecast.

Now watch… right after I type that, the sky will open up and drop buckets on us here in Douglas County.

It’s a good day. I got a few things done earlier today. I made breakfast for Dane and I, threw back a post of coffee, watched some educational stuff, and did something a little more proactive…

… I renewed my passport.

It’s not a big deal, really, but my passport expired about six months into the pandemic, but I’ve been sitting on it. Now that there’s just a crack of travel optimism on the horizon, it seems like a good time to get that little booklet updated. Who knows? Maybe there’s a trip waiting out there in the wild blue, just waiting for me to do that carpe diem thing.

Someday.

I decided to pop into my old favorite brew pub for a late lunch, a half-order of their naked nacho, a nice deconstructed appetizer. I’ve got chips, cheese, ground beef, peppers, onions, and a large serving of the Crimson Phog ale. I can feel some vacation feelings settling in on this second day off.

Later, I’ll get home and put together an office chair. Such excitement!

Anyway, I’ll let you all get back to some more important diversions.

I hope the world is treating you better than deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, 25 July 2022. I have laundry going, a fresh pot of coffee, and an empty bowl next to me that used to contain a couple of scrambled eggs topped with cheese and leftover chili. I am being semi-productive at a moment I don’t really need to be productive, so I’ll call that a win.

I am on vacation… it’s official now, as I normally have a break from Friday afternoon through 7 or 8 am Monday mornings. I have a week to decompress, realign my magnetic fields, bolster my chakras, and get my head screwed on straight. I’ll practice some guitar, draw a few pictures, write some semi-meaningful words (more meaningful for me than probably anybody else, I’m sure), and think really hard about getting some things done out in the barn and garage.

It’s a good day for me to start my holiday. Overcast skies and gentle rainfall, cooler temperatures with highs in the 80s Fahrenheit.

Coffee moment…

I have a delivery coming a little later today, some new wheels for a new office chair. So many of the office chairs that we can buy today come with the cheapest wheels they can get by with. It’s a 20 to 40 dollar additional expense to get decent ‘roller blade’ style wheels. No point in putting the chair together until the wheels arrive.

I’m going to go tend to my rat-killing.

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

Peace y’all.

Sunday morning, 24 July 2022.

I was thinking about how you never see a group of professors criticizing the way semi-tractor trailer drivers drive. Most of the professors I know, and I know a few through my wife (who is a professor) have an awareness of expertise – a self-awareness as well as a situational awareness. Just about every professor I know understands that they know more than the average person about one or two things based on their education level. They also recognize that they don’t know everything and have no business criticizing others when they have no professional experience in that area.

I have this fictitious conversation going on in my head with a high school classmate.

“Hey Jon, that professor would like to talk to you about your driving”
“What?”
“That professor… the one with the Ph.D. in Romance Languages”
“What?”
“He noticed the way you were backing up your rig and would like to give you some tips”
“Oh, hell no. What does that clown know about driving a rig? Has he ever been in the cab of a rig?”
“No, but…”
“Tell him to go and **** himself”
“OK… hey he’s standing next to that professor in climatology… looks like they’re discussing the latest study on global climate change”
“Oh, that’s some scam bullshit right there. I need to go give that loser a piece of my mind”

It’s not a real conversation, but it’s not a difficult conversation to visualize. I do want to make clear that I’m not picking on truck drivers – I come from a family with some pretty good truck driving roots, with my dad having been an owner/operator as well as a diesel mechanic, and my brother currently working as a long-haul driver. I do mention a high school classmate that does drive, and based on his posts on social media, he spends quite a bit of time listening to conservative radio pundits that want to blame every single problem in the world on liberals.

I didn’t have any classes with him in high school, with the possible exception of gym class. I took woodshop in 7th grade and steered clear of power tools after that until adulthood. There was a core curriculum for all, covering English, Civics, and Math, but our schedules were different enough that we didn’t see each other much. I just remember having had a locker next to the guy in 8th grade, and I have a decent memory for my classmates.

I believe in experts. I have a tendency to trust people that have spent their lives in pursuit of a skill set, whether that skill is programming computers, researching pandemics, balancing the books, or leading a company. I trust long-haul drivers to deliver freight. I trust accountants to do the books. I trust veterinarians to care for my pets.

And I trust NASA Climate Change to tell me the truth about climate change.

I’m sending positive thoughts to my friends in Europe that are coping with record heat.

For those that think global climate change is a myth, or that human beings aren’t responsible. I challenge you to do a little research. Look up the top ten most common greenhouse gases – here’s an article from Popular Science from about 13 years ago. If you have a better source, please share. The other thing I would ask you to do is get information about the presence of those gases in our atmosphere and track the change in those gases since about 1955 or so. In 1955, CO2 parts per million was measured at about 315. Last month that number was about 420, according to researchers on the big island of Hawaii.

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

Peace y’all.

23 July 2022. Today is my youngest daughter’s 24th birthday. Last night the family went out for dinner at one of her favorite restaurants and enjoyed a very nice evening.

I am currently on vacation until a week from Monday. Lisa and I are talking about what needs to be accomplished – the list will be long, and I may very well accomplish one or two things on the list. I keep looking at the barn, and if it wasn’t 100 degrees in the shade (38 degrees C), it might be tolerable to get some organizing done out there, but this July heat is unbearable and unforgiving.

I shouldn’t complain. I have central air conditioning and ceiling fans. Folks in Europe aren’t used to this kind of heat, and they are getting it in waves… and air conditioning is not a common household feature in many parts of central and northern Europe.

I’m wondering once again if I’m part of the solution or part of the problem. In some media, I probably should lower my profile. I’ve hacked a few people off with my interpretation of current events, and I have been told it is not appreciated. Oh well.

I’m going to get back focused on relaxing. My mind needs a little time to unwind.

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

Peace y’all.

22 July 2022. It is Friday morning. The trash has been taken out to the road, and meetings start in an hour and a half, plenty there to keep me busy through 2 o’clock… then Bubba gets to take some time to close out the business on the table and prepare for Gracie’s birthday celebration and a full week of vacation.

Last night we watched a little bit of the January 6th hearings as they aired in prime time. Pretty damaging stuff, with the blooper video of Trump filming his post-Jan 6 video for his supporters. The outtakes were hilarious, and reinforced one important point – Trump didn’t want to step down. He wanted to hold that office as long as possible.

Trump let the mess go on for almost three hours before taking any action. He loves the circus – and I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point he wondered about the tv ratings.

Last night I posted on my Facebook feed I posted this following the live hearing coverage, “Worst dereliction of duty in the history of the United States.”.

Two of my friends took a little umbrage with my statement, one Canadian who thinks it’s not fair that there aren’t more Republicans on the committee, and another that brought up Hunter Biden. The Canadian friend said that Lynn Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney (VP under Bush) was a “Republican in name only”, and said the same of Adam Kinzinger. I guess the only real Republicans in his book are those that support Trump. I told my other friend that I don’t plan on voting for Hunter Biden… but I didn’t mention that Hunter Biden can still run a charity for veterans and children, unlike some presidential children that cannot by law.

Still no word on the loss of Secret Service text messages on Jan 5/6. Golly, I wonder how that could’ve happened – and so convenient, too!

Time to grab a little breakfast and buckle down.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is 21 July 2022, a Thursday morning, the sun is rising, and the coffee is brewing.

Yesterday I planned on having a good day. Some parts went pretty well, I think my delivery was generally positive, but at some point right after lunch, I came to a realization. I need to get my ears checked.

I had one of my students asking me to do something, and at this point, I’m still not quite sure what he was asking. It seems that he was asking me to perform some pretty basic demonstrations were the subject of the labs – I interpreted that as he wanted me to do the labs for him, but I have to confess, I didn’t receive that message well. One thing I learned way back in my Speech 101 class in the summer of 1981 is that communication requires a message and a receiver, and it might be time to check out the hearing on the receiver. I might need hearing aids.

I’m done with my lecture component on this delivery, and I’ve got the next couple of days to get a few things wrapped up before I start vacation Friday afternoon.

Sometimes the “getting old” monster sneaks up on you, but this one hasn’t been quite so stealthy. I always knew it was a likelihood, considering my dad’s and my grandfather’s hearing loss. I just need to address the problem before it gets worse.

I’m going to wrap this up and get started with my day. There’s stuff I need to attend to.

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

Peace y’all.