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.

Hello again. Today is Saturday, June 25, 2022. It is a warm, humid day following a few days of steady rain and temperatures. I have some mowing to do, but I’m not looking forward to getting on the mower. I better get my water supply ready for a long, hot hour in the seat.

I have a good book to listen to…

And I realize that I am ducking the 800 lb elephant in the room.

Yesterday a decision was handed down by the US Supreme Court. It is a bad decision. Turning a woman’s choice about her personal health care over to a bunch of tribal religious zealots is a mistake.

It may very well come back to bite them all in the ass.

Right now large voting blocs of women are being motivated and mobilized like the US hasn’t seen since the days of the suffragettes. Women are pissed, and like-minded men are going to stand right alongside them ./

I am one of them.

I have two daughters of childbearing age. I will not have any man, elected or otherwise take their rights from them.

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

Peace y’all.

Good morning! It is Friday… and Friday is good. This is June 24, 2022, and my name is Bob.

Yesterday was an interesting day. Two of Kansas’ basketball players were drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection had a very interesting day, as there was testimony that Trump pressured the Department of Justice to overturn an election without a shred of evidence in support of his allegations of cheating in any state.

Today I’ll wrap up my cloud solutions architecture class. I hope to be done talking by 2:00 this afternoon, but considering the content, I think 3:00 is more likely. I’ve got a good bunch of learners, some good comments kicking through the chat, but I do sometimes wish they were a little more engaged. Sometimes, with remote classes, you kind of get a feeling that folks just turn on the meeting, leave it sitting in the background like a yacht rock radio station, and go about the rest of their day.

The rain has been pretty steady this week. I hope it dries out a bit so I can get some mowing done this weekend. It’s a little mower weekend, taking my little John Deere riding lawn mower around the front yard and the back. Next weekend I’ll break out the tractor and get a little more aggressive around my property with the brush cutter.

That’s all I’ve got really. Time to work on the rest of it.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday morning, June 23, and I am starting my day with a glass of water while the coffee brews. I am halfway through my solutions architecture class for the week, and next week I get to do a repeat of the same material. I’m glad it’s a repeat, as I have a feeling that I’m going to have to spend some time on the mower this weekend. The rain the other day has kicked off a little growth spurt in our local flora.

Saw some news this morning from NASA Climate Change, a government-sponsored group within NASA that, quite obviously, monitors our climate trends. May 2022 was the 6th hottest May on record. That might seem like a good thing at first blush, but when you take a look at the trend over time, it isn’t good news. The site can be found here.

Part of my interest in checking the site was a meme – a little “haha” moment. An old friend posted the graphic pointing out that if the current grid can’t support our electrical needs now, how can will it handle a bunch of electric cars bring plugged in to recharge their batteries.

There are several important points that the meme addresses, sidesteps, and fails to consider.

I immediately pointed out that most people would be charging their cars at night, when the draw on the grid is substantially less due to changes in temperature overnight. I thought that was a valid point, but of course I got a little pushback from a relative of that old friend, who I have argued with before (he’s an adamant Trump supporter that refuses to get vaccinated).

I was also thinking about the heat, and rising temperatures, and the CO2 parts per million. I thought the red line was about 300, and we reached that almost 20 years ago… we’re now at 421. You think your air conditioning is running hot now? LOL.

We’re backing down on our fossil fuel use these days. Lisa is the only family member that has to drive to work with any regularity, and she drives a hybrid. I go into town once or twice a week. Part of the problem we have with gas prices is based in market forces – demand exceeds supply – therefore, driving less helps. I don’t think a gas tax holiday will help the supply portion of the equation, in fact, it might exacerbate it. If people get a break on gas taxes and gas prices per gallon go down, a bunch of people are going to go out and fill their tanks… and that will affect supply.

That’s enough for now.

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

Peace y’all.

This is Wednesday, June 22, 2022. It has been storming most of the night with some power outages. I went out last night to watch the fireworks, as lightning flashed and webbed behind the ominous clouds that moved in from the west. The rain was still coming down this morning when it was time for the dogs to go outside to tend to their morning business.

Odin looked up at me with an expression that I interpreted as “Nope” in his native Goliath Morkie language.

I guess I should expect to find a mess somewhere in the house later this morning.

I’ll start the second day of my architecture class here in a couple of hours. Yesterday was a pretty good day, as we worked through the intro content and the first couple of modules. It had slipped my mind how long that compute design module can be. This morning we’ll review that case study, review, then jump right into storage design.

I’m watching the morning news and the discussion is on the January 6th House Committee. Yesterday was not a good day for the former president. I hope he was a few more days like that. The more candid the testimony by the witnesses, the more it’s obvious that January 6th was an attempted coup.

I never liked Trump. You can go back through my blog entries from earlier years to fully grasp my loathing of that person. He was wrong in 2016, and he sure as hell is wrong in 2022.

The karma train has pulled out of the station and looks like she’s rolling downhill, and from the looks of the sparks, there’s no brakes.

It’s about time for me to focus on the workday ahead.

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

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday morning, June 21, 2022. I return to the classroom today – virtual classroom – to teach an architecture class. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve taught this class, so I spend some time the last few days doing some review. I’m pretty comfortable with the content, and it’s a smaller class, so I’m confident that we’ll have a positive experience.

Of course, the moment I type that, I’ve probably aroused the ire of the Gods of Fate, and I’ll get “that one guy” in class.

Every technical trainer has had an experience with “that one guy”. Sometimes that one guy is always that one guy, and other times it can be more reminiscent of the Star Trek (Original Series) episode, “Wolf in the Fold”, where a dark entity jumps from one unsuspecting human to the other, then commits heinous crimes.

It doesn’t happen to me that much these days. I guess I’ve reached a point in my career that I don’t come across that one guy as often. My interactions with learners are almost always positive, primarily due to the training situation. Generally, I get the best students these days, and not the folks that are under a lot of pressure to pass an exam, or work their way into a position to jump from one employer to the other.

Yesterday, we celebrated Dane’s birthday, and it became a bit of a book fair. I think there were 9 or 10 books in the pile by the time we started birthday dessert – not cake this year, but a strawberry-rhubarb crumble.

That’s enough to get me started on the day.

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

Peace y’all.