It is Wednesday afternoon, July 6, 2022.

I want to make something very clear to anybody reading this.

I think Joe Biden is not perfect. I think he is flawed, and I think he has made mistakes.

I still think he was a better choice than Trump, and I’m not going to change that opinion.

I look back at the times that Democrats were elected into the presidency in my lifetime. I know very little about LBJ’s campaign in 1964. I know he beat Barry Goldwater by a pretty significant margin. Considering Goldwater’s position on the Civil Rights Act, I doubt I could’ve ever supported him. Goldwater represented the new conservative in the GOP. Nixon would win in 1968, after his very effective dirty tricks campaign (hello Roger Stone!) helped George Wallace split the Democrats – Nixon won with 43.4% of the popular vote, but Humphrey and McGovern combined pulled in more than 9 million votes more than Nixon.

Nixon’s administration is a matter of record. He screwed up, got caught, ran away to California, and left Ford to solve the problems. Ford couldn’t solve the problems and left a pile of crap for the new President elected in 1976, Jimmy Carter.

Carter inherited 14 barrels of crap from his GOP predecessor. It would prove to be a trend.

I like the idea of leaving things better off than you found them. Reagan and Bush were great for the wealthy of America, but real wages stagnated, and Reagan chose to ignore a pandemic for years. Bush tried to clean up problems previous administration (see “Iraq”… Sadam Hussein rose to power with American backing). The economy slipped into a recession, and the governor and law professor from Arkansas was voted into office.

Clinton inherited about 6 barrels of crap from his GOP predecessor. Not as bad as Carter, and he had a couple of changes to the economy that created a very quickly expanding economy. He had his problems, no doubt, but I think it’s safe to say he left the country better than he found it – at least Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, and the guys over at Google probably thought so.

Then we had Bush – the W. 9/11, the continuation and expansion of our ongoing issues in the Middle East. Then the market collapsed in 2008, and the country fell into recession.

Barack Obama was elected in the fall of 2008, and he inherited 14 barrels of crap, too, although it might be more accurate to round up closer to 15.

Eight years of Obama got things turned around. The economy expanded at an almost predictable and steady rate. Call me nuts, but I like slow, steady, and predictable. Less drama.

In the fall of 2016, we, the American people, made the biggest freaking mistake in the history of democracy when we elected a reality TV host who was playacting the part.

Two impeachments later, we have Joe Biden.

Joe inherited 22 barrels of crap from Trump. How anybody could ever claim Trump left the country better than he found it. He crapped on it and then used the Statue of Liberty’s dress to wipe his ass.

Biden is not perfect, but the pile upon pile of residual crap he’s had to deal with could fertilize a desert.

And guess what is going to happen?

In 2024, I see a GOP candidate winning.

We’ll be right back here dealing with barrels in 2028. I’m pretty positive that after the GOP sits in the White House for 4 years, we’ll all be wondering what happened to our freedom. It will only be the treasured possession of the gilded set.

I hope the world is treating you better than deserve.

Peace y’all.

Good morning! Today is July 5th. Yesterday I think I forgot to post, but that’s ok, I get to take a break every now and then.

It was noisy in my little corner of Douglas County yesterday. Neighbors decided it was a good day for target shooting, and we live out in the country, so it’s a part of daily life. The dogs fought through their anxiety and eventually calmed down until more giant fireworks started going off in the nearby communities.

It’s the 4th of July. I get it.

We’ll likely have fireworks going off for the next two weeks from time to time, as folks shoot off their reserves or find that box of last year’s fireworks that were stashed after the owner polished off a 12-pack and later forgot about ’em.

I have a non-delivery week this week, so it’s a good week to book a trip to the eye doctor and get some new specs ordered. I’m wondering if ordering a pair of safety glasses might not be a bad idea. I’ll let that idea sit out on the front counter for a couple of days.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday evening, July 3, 2022. It’s a little later than I usually write, but it is a three-day holiday weekend, and that’s going to be my excuse as long as I can use it.

So, my excuse until Tuesday

It was kind of a funny moment this evening. Lisa is acting like she’s going to call it an early night, so I started looking for shorter shows for us to watch. I flipped it over to “What We Do In The Shadows”, just as the energy vampire, Colin Robinson, is logging onto social media and sucking the energy out of people on Facebook. My wife thought that particularly funny, and let me know it.

I then paused a moment and logged out of Facebook.

Next scene, Colin Robinson starts responding to all of the troll comments on social media, and he realizes that he is not the predator, but the prey.

I thought it was funny.

After she heads off to bed, I’ll probably jump back into some serial sI need to catch up on. “Stranger Things” season 4, part 2 has come online and I have displayed surprising willpower not to bury myself in a binge-watch.

I’ll get to it this week… but let’s spread it out over a few days, shall we?

I’m going to go tend to my rat killing, as my dad would say.

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

Peace y’all.

It is a rainy Saturday, the 2nd day of July. Looks like it is going to rain all day so no real need to worry about the mowing. Might be a good day to daydream and work on my clothing situation a bit.

I am happy to have some time away from the classroom. I have some other projects I need to focus on (Klaxoon), and I have some additional training I need to get squared away.

We expected Bonnie to be moving into her new place in Missouri this weekend, but her landlord had some repairs they needed to attend to, so we’re putting her move off for another week.

With the rain, the dogs are a bit reluctant to do their bodily business outside… they just don’t like their fluffy bits out in the rain.

I’m going to see if my muse wants to come out and play today, whether it’s playing and practicing the guitar (I still need to work some things out in my signal chain), or drawing some pictures just to relax. Sometimes doodling can be good to settle an anxious spirit. It’s been a long time since 7th grade art class, but I still remember a bit about perspective and horizons.

I picked Dane up a book for his birthday on fantasy illustrations. Might be time to crack the spine on that and see what visions of castles and cities in the sky.

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

Peace y’all.

Good evening, or late afternoon. It is New Year’s Day. Well, new fiscal year anyway. And the dogs can’t shut up. Geez… it’s getting loud in here.

OK, a few of them just went outside, so now I can hear myself think.

It’s been a pretty casual day. Had some meetings earlier in the day. I was focused on some other work-related content.

Right now Lucy is barking her little head off on the patio. No sign of one of those murderous painted box turtles that the floors like to corner in the backyard. Just feeding time for Bonnie’s dog, Ruthie, and all of the other dogs like to voice their displeasure that she gets special treatment at meals while the others have open food and water.

Ordered an additional power supply for my personal laptop, and it was the wrong one. I’ve ordered another that should be right this time. I do like this Alienware M15 R6, but the power supply connector is pretty much the same sort of connector that was used thirty years ago. The Microsoft Surface power supply with the magnetic attachment is so much more practical than this traditional plug, and it’s also easier to get a good connection. The whole reason I’ve had to pick up another power supply is that on day one, I ordered an extra power supply to more easily move between rooms, and the third-party power supply connects, shows as connected, but won’t charge the battery. Kind of a pain.

I’m looking at my battery meter right now noticing my laptop power is just about dead. Better post before this unit rolls over and dies a gruesome death.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday, June 30th. For folks that work where I work, it is the last day of the fiscal year. I’ll go back through and double check my emails to make sure I’ve got my ducks in a row, but I’m fairly certain I’m in good shape with my required paperwork.

Tomorrow is a new month, a new fiscal year, and I need to formalize my plan for advancement. The first couple of weeks of July will be a chance for me to refresh and sharpen my saw, take care of some pending renewals, and focus on what comes next. There are a few courses that are hanging out there on the horizon that I think I could deliver with enthusiasm, as well as apply some of my background experience.

My oldest daughter returned from her trip to New York very early this morning. I think she arrived home around 2 a.m. . We were planning on moving her to her new place in Kansas City this weekend, but it looks like that is going to have to wait a bit – the management company let her know yesterday that they had to complete some repairs on the property before she could move in.

I might stretch my weekend out a bit. I have a casual meeting tomorrow morning, and not much else on my slate, so shutting down a few hours early on Friday is within the realm of possibility. I enjoy the Fourth of July weekend, but my only real problem with it is the fireworks and how the loud noises frighten the dogs.

OK, time to get my day rolling. There are website links to manage and discussions to be had.

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

Peace y’all.

It is the 29th day of June, the day before the last day of the company’s fiscal year (for me, anyway). Class today, class tomorrow, then a little break from the classroom.

Yesterday was an interesting day in the US Capitol, as a young lady who served as an aide to Trump’s Chief of Staff testified under oath regarding what she witnessed and what she was told by key members of Trump’s inner circle leading up to and including the 6th of January, 2020.

The testimony was riveting and quite damning for the former President. You can read about her testimony in the records (if they haven’t been purged following a revolution). This may have been the “John Dean” witness, comparing her account to that of the former Nixon-era White House Counsel, who is known as the first big domino to tumble during Watergate, which took place when I was 8-9-10 years old back in the early seventies.

At the end of the special session, Liz Cheney, GOP lead for the investigation, produced a written statement regarding possible witness tampering. Somebody was trying to tamper with a witness, it seems, trying to convey the importance of somebody (unnamed) to remain a team player and have a positive role in “Trump World”.

“Trump World” sounds like a bad circus… with clowns that might end up getting indicted for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and interference in the electoral process.

I have meetings starting early today, so I’m going to wrap this up and see what my day looks like.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, June 28. I’ll be starting the second day of my solutions architecture class in a couple of hours, but I’ve got a little time to get my mind in the right place prior to the start of my training day.

Yesterday afternoon something struck me while I was thinking about the Supreme Court ruling – yeah, I know, I’m kind of dwelling on it – but let me tell you why. After dinner last night, we were relaxing, watching a little TV, and I flipped the station over to some women’s soccer, the US Women’s National Team versus Columbia (nice win in a friendly for the Americans). It struck me that there are a lot of women’s sports programs in some deeply red states that might not care for the changes to abortion laws. There are some really good women’s sports programs in some of these states – soccer, volleyball, basketball… the lit covers the complete range of women’s sports.

The transfer portal that opened up during the pandemic is wide open these days, and I think there might be some interesting developments in that area. I fully expect a few young ladies will take umbrage at the desire of a few to control so many.

There might be a shift…

There might also be some other considerations school athletic departments might have to make to keep their teams intact.

I think there will be a story or two yet to come on this subject. Kansas votes on a constitutional amendment the first week of August, and if the state constitution changes, Kansas will ban safe abortion.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Monday morning, June 26, 2022. Today I start my last class of the year, another cloud solutions architecture course, and it runs on east coast time, so I’ll be heading into the sunroom here in about 50 minutes after I grab a little breakfast and a lot of coffee.

My daughter took off very early for New York, so I’ll be rewarded with an extra cup of coffee. Right now I’m watching the news, and there is more fallout from the SCOTUS decision regarding Roes v Wade. There’s a panel with the two anchors and four other women, and there is an obvious nth degree of pissed-offness in the air.

Women don’t like getting their freedoms taken away.

Who didn’t see this coming?

I wouldn’t want to live in the same neighborhood as any of the conservative Supreme Court justices for a while. I have a feeling the protests outside their homes would be quite a distraction…

All I can do is hope that the anger fuels motivation to the polls. Based on what I’m seeing here in my town, the motivation is strong.

I probably ought to start looking over work related content.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Sunday evening, June 26, 2022.

I originally started this blog to pass along my feelings, my interpretation of the day’s events. My hope is to chronicle a completely subjective interpretation of the day’s events to pass along to my grandchildren if I ever have any.

I want my kids and grandkids to be very clear about my nterpretation of my role in today’s society. I am a technical trainer. I am not a hero. I am not a role model for anybody by my own declaration – if anybody else thinks I do my job well enough to model themselves based on what I do is their choice… and their goals should be to improve the track and improve themselves in whatever way they see fit.

One of the messages I want to pass along to those that follow is that you are responsible for your journey (I have to pause here… I hate that description… I think it is overused). Your collective set of experiences are going to be directed by the choices you make.

Do the work.

The things in this life that make life worthwhile require effort. You get up, you learn, you apply, and you share. You grow. You accept responsibility at a manageable pace. You take care of your teammates, and you help them along this same path.

And you try to figure out what is right.

Yeah… it just turned a little heavy.

Right now this country is at a fork in the road. One goes to the right, one goes not to the right.

The road to the right has a lot of signs and a lot of those walls you see along the highway that block the view of the landscape. It might be smooth and well paved but may not provide a lot of room for picnics and unscheduled scenic overlooks.

The other road might be harder.

It might have some obstacles. It definitely will have obstacles… who am I kidding.

But… this is a big butt…

The people you meet on that road will be much more interesting.

There will be color. There will be variety. There will be art. There will be freedom of expression.

If you pick the right fork in the road.

I love you kids. I hope someday I get a chance to tell you face to face.

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

Peace y’all.