How fragile is reality?

  The great NorthWest is having rain, pouring rivers of it, and winds. And the power goes out as I just finish another battle on the computer and I am looking at a black screen of dead. I can't change my protective shield, which I have been watching wear out the last three hours.

  The vultures will gather once they know, I have gone to find the flash lights, the candles and my wife (also wandering in darkness looking for the same items). How does Puerto Rico manage without power since before the holidays?

  I, fortunately, have a library of books I could read -- and two charged up kindles with unread readings to review. My laptop stays powered on battery, but the cable connection box is waiting on power to push my thoughts away... so I put the headlight upon my brow and open the kindle and go back to Robert the Bruce's time, reading about the Douglas. Good story, glass of milk and cookies.

   Just when you get settled into the story, the lights flicker back on, and the electric hums begin all over the home. Put the candles out, return them and matches and flashlights to their places until the next time. Go back to my computer, turn it on, race at computer speed to find I have been scouted twice and not yet attacked. Impressed with my defences? or is it the 99.8k of mercenary troops? Will never know. They are too strong for most to fight with and they have nothing better to do than crush their enemies and hope their hear the wailing of their women. Not interested in building their power, city and knowledge - figure they aren't people I want to meet in real life.

Forgetting why I don't use the laptop for blogging...

We live and then we go do stuff, acquire stuff, and are burdened with stuff...

    Looks like the tiny print preview of my blogging program is gone until the next time I finger the wrong key or these reading glasses are tops. Take one's pick.

   It is the Christmas season and I missed the start, our church talks about Advent but doesn't have the candles and wreath. So I am a bit behind in the tree and all. Then suddenly the unexpected rolls right into your life and the adventure begins. There was an train derailment just down the road from my home, and traffic went to pieces - I blame the politicians that spend so many tax dollars on getting more tax dollars. My aunt also passed on, not wishing to be 106 this year just after Christmas. My last relative to visit in Minnesota is gone; the lovely lady, so happy and hardy and enjoying people and places. So, I dropped all my hurried Christmas preparations and flew off to be there for the funeral services and burial.

   So easy to make connections, and I have time to take the tour. Best thing is that it broke me from the game attention. My brother found me at my hotel and we had a long talk, went to the funeral and helped move the casket twice with our cousins. Ate dinner at Honkers after and departed to return to our homes for the holidays. Back to the aeroporte shuttle, wait for departure, change planes and departure again, can they make it a little closer next time racing around in Chicago? I really need to lose weight, just so I can feel comfortable in the current aircraft seating. There are dogs everywhere, a young lady and her dog had the window seat next to me. A very nice dog. Back home finally, find my wife as been sleeping on the couch in front of the Korean cable, she missed me. I missed her.

  Today has been catching up, cleaning up and promising I will be normal tomorrow. I did get more Christmas out, and Perry Como is singing from the cable in stereo. Y'all be good and in the spirit.

I should be eating breakfast....

  Found an email asking for an address. It is time for Christmas contacts, now where is that address? We can find anything, Google it, the NSA and FBI know, but Earl? Doubtful, and I was so happy once and now wondering what day it is, since everyday is Saturday, except Sunday. I found it, after sending off emails into addresses that may not work any longer.... I become more obsolete daily...

  No matter about me, y'all keep keepin' on.

The greatest predator, the one no one can escape...

  So I am alone, wife is on a cruise with friends, and I am rattling around the house. Talking to the TV and myself, sigh.

  I went out to bury some composting, and I did have a good load. As I neared the area to dig up, I saw an old log, chain saw cut from when they were clearing dangerous trees from behind the fence lines, good neighbors don't get sued. It had been in that position for awhile and now I noted about four very different fungi and mushrooms making it their meal and their happy home.  Errant thought that no one starves and everything eats, and the greatest predators seem to be microscopic bacteria and viruses. In the end, they get everything, which is why recycle isn't a human invention, it is divine.

  Not to worry about lions, tigers and bears - no matter what Dorothy told you. I wanted to take a picture of that log to add to this post, but I lent it to my wife for her to take pictures while away. As I finished with the soil turning and noting the rich stuff and the happy worms, good job guys, I then thought again about the greatest predator, and I was wrong - it isn't those little things. No, it is the really big killer, TIME, it does get us all in the end. Your time is up, it is about time, and do we have enough time? Time stops the future, makes memories and tricks us all, because it is only now - all the remainder is just idle thoughts about what isn't now or not yet. TIME is going to get you if you don't watch out, or even if you do.... no matter how much Daylight Savings you have done, you never get to spend it... take care out there, God loves us - all the time.

Thanksgiving, the day after...

    Kind of quiet here, but that could just be that the football games are over and we got to see and talk to the Hawaiian branch of the Dungey family. Skype.com is a nice touch for tech. My wife outdid herself on the dinner, of course. And I lived up to my reputation putting it away. Tomorrow evening we are going to Men's Bible Study and there will be more food to fellowship around.

    I have a new shooter to show safety and safe shooting of pistols tomorrow. My cousin's grandson, will take him and pistols and safety gear to Range 15 on JBLM. Do hope it doesn't rain too much, but this is the Great NorthWest. One thing I would like him to see before we go, my grandfather's revolver and holster from 1908 or so. That would be his great-great grandfather. Kind of cool that it is still around. We aren't doing revolvers tomorrow.

   The game is going on while I type this, not to worry, the invaders from another realm smashed and destroyed my little army and got all my resourses, it will take years to recover. This game is almost too real, in building gives more satisfaction than destroying or being destroyed.

   Y'all take care out there and prepare for the Holy days, celebrate the victory. Be good.
 

Over eighty days and still playing an online game...

  Only little victories, only little ones, but they count - everything is counted.  A player's profile is always around to refer to, and it has lots of numbers. I have won over 2,500 encounters. I find most interesting that humans bring themselves to the game, and are quickly identified as good or bad to play with.  There are folks from around the world, playing throughout the day as the world spins. The computer has much trouble getting the language right, but humans do adjust.

   I have two firearms related events coming up, as of yesterday. One with the RWVA, and one with a young relative. Need to keep healing, or get better at returning to normal life - like they do on television. Going to finish my warm milk and go back to sleep, the game and the world just spin on without my input.

  I am still reading, about the Germanization of Rome's fall. Interesting stuff. Did you see the change of power in Zimbabwe? Life follows patterns. Pray for all the people, they know not what they do.

3D - Digital Distraction Device

   We are all now connected part of the web and everything should be so much better, right?

For the last almost seventy days I have been playing an online War Game, with real people in other places. Luckily, caught a real sinus stuffing head cold and have to stop. Time to rest and see what NetFlix has to entertain me. Or sip my honeyed tea and read my kindle library. Y'all be good for the best of reason - you were built to be that way. Lots of love.

   So well designed to grab your adventurous spirit and suck you into the fantasy world where you only think you are in control. Part of my fascination is testing their limits, what can I do that they aren't prepared for? But since the game has been around and some players still have no idea what is going on, it is a learning experience.

   What is real and you find it very fast, is that the people (live humans in other wheres) are real, and have different orientation to teamwork, goals and how to conduct themselves in internet public spaces. Fun, one could learn so much about politics, economics and social engineering. Bullying and fear don't work any better there than in real life. The computer translator is not good, but then you aren't supposed to be using King James English either.

   Good looking Stellar's Jay stopped for a drink at the bird bath, then went up the tree, almost made me want to grab my camera and take a photo to share, but y'all can come visit and we can sit on the porch sipping something warming and wait for him or his partner's return. We have a sun break today, mostly between rolling rain bands. Lovely life in the Great NorthWest.

Hidden beneath the surface... the center won't hold!

  So I had dry rot on my old porch, now I have manufactured materials that look like wood. As I travel and see old barns, homes and structures - all once proudly standing tall - I realize I am very like that. I put on a suit and tie for church yesterday, and felt like I was looking fine on the outside, and internally rotting. Saturday I was in Onalaska on an Appleseed range, but I didn't have all the energy and strength I needed to perform, hollow man under the read cap. It was a good day with some challenges from myself and the shooters, but I did enjoy being there. Still Sunday was a great day, too. I had to take the fifth and sixth grade classes, and my sixth graders have good memories of last year and we went out and walked around in the sunshine and I found two more picnic tables that weren't there the last time we had been out.

   I awoke to find a missing wife in our bed. She had a bad dream about North Korea acting up. I got up and had coffee and then sat to my current digital distraction, a war game. They have it pretty well set up, but I have no money to spend making myself feel heroic and powerful, time I have a bit of. I picked up the first book of a fantasy series, and dived right in Sunday afternoon. Life is on holiday here, and lovely outside my window. Thank the LORD.

If the problem persists please hold for the next human interface...

When I was so much younger and beautiful, unless you knew me.

   Terrible about all the water, flooding and destruction in Texas, and in Asia. Let me get another cup of coffee and take my medications and supplements.  Ah, I am back and prepared to continue the death by digital distraction, I am doomed! Found a game and am playing at learning how it works and creating my own improvements in my city and hero... you know the software is trying to program me into spending money, real money, on buying a better me. Are you surprised? Everything we watch and feed upon is making us a lesser creature.

   I have my front porch under reconstruction and I am already happy. Cause my wife is happy. I have an Appleseed to support tomorrow and Sunday.  We will see how that goes on the first day. Wish me and all the participants well. Paid the end of month bills today, will continue to move money at the whim of others. God knows they all need help.

Always looking for a way to extinguish a real American... so many things don't count...

   Skin color, hair style, clothing, language none of that seems to be the defining issue.  So I go back to the Declaration of Independence and those fine words, or the basic Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But that isn't a key characteristic of an American... I found the thing today.

  Sunday, I had church and then tested my fifth grade on King David and his reign. You would have passed it, right?  No worries, they couldn't either, except one young lady that goes to a Christian School where they probably open the Bible. I do like to  make them think a lot. After that I said hello to the Men's English Sunday School (the old guys) and talked a bit. Then the third service was over and my wife said we could go, she knew I was going to eat lunch at home and then go shooting.

   And that was what I did. From two till three something after, I fired my pistols as poorly as one would after a few operations and lack of range time. I need a bit more follow through and reset on the trigger, saw it in the video. No, you don't get the video, I don't claim to be the photographer nor the shooter.

 I might need to wear gloves in the future or just continue to bleed out and hope the zombies just aren't more than four or five magazines worth.  I did notice that when firing with my left hand
I wasn't losing to the pistol. And you would have had to been there watching to see which ones came from which firing position, you can't tell from the targets.

   So Monday there was an eclipse of my Mother's Son, I found a game to play all day and into the night. So I am no longer dying by recliner, I am dying by digital distractions.  And that is a shame. Much more fun with other humans on the range Sunday, than the avatars on the game on Tuesday.

   So this morning, I logged on the internet, looked and turned the computer off until I need it as a tool, like right now. I did build two buildings, but I ain't living virtually, I am working on virtuously. So I called my contractor, Rick, everyone knows Rick, although my wife isn't happy with him, cause he is working with me. And she isn't happy with me (who could blame her, everyone knows her husband isn't as much as he should have been, he just does it his way or not at all).  Anyway, Rick tells me he has about two days left on Kitsap, and then he will be back down to check and see that I have purchased the materials that he listed at Gray Lumber. He says the list is both in his name and mine. I know mine and I figure I will go find the lumber and pay for it and my wife will decide on the porch deck color. So we go, and I don't find it. I go home have lunch and a shower and we go off again.

    Now I called the Lumber company before I go and I found out - why America doesn't work anymore. Really, I talked to two people on the telephone and they wasted my time telling me what they couldn't do.  Sure enough when we got there, very nice operation the three people I talked to couldn't find the list of materials with my contractor and my name on it. Couldn't, wouldn't and just will make excuses until I went away. They had real money and materials to move and make happen. I was just the old guy that they didn't have time nor list nor materials I could pay for. So I left my name, address and telephone number and went home with a stop for stuff to make me wonderful.

   Sure enough, at home is the contractor's number, since I found it when they allow the computers to answer their telephone operation, I will call in the morning before I go to the YMCA. Everyone hates me, hollering at me because I frighten them because they think I can't drive safely, complaining to the lumber company about how messed up this whole operation with Rick is, cause he is a buddy of her husband not on the approved list of ladies that know everything right about the world.

   The key to the old traditional American, the real American, was that they made things happen, fixed the broken, mended the hurt, got rid of the problems found the happiness and truth. The current crop seem to think running around making excuses or discussing what they can't do is the way to make others love them a little more. Do we have more complaints than solutions? Are we borrowing money for something we could live well without, do we ever have enough, are we complaining about what we don't have, instead of being thankful for all that we do? That is where the country went wrong and now there are no survivors, builders, explorers, nor fun loving folks at the corn shucking bee.

So ten minutes too much on FaceBook.com, I keep forgetting how much money is made from my participation...

   So I submit my Arbor Day survey, without the donation to all their good works. I unboxed all my OGRE sets to look upon and think about. The dining room table has no table cloth again, I could put my toys to paint and play with upon it. There are still old marks from long ago and far away there.

   My wife and I had some bedroom talk, I need to eat less, walk more and get a life away from the screens. At least until I am worn out from something productive.  OLDE follks bedroom talk isn't very interesting, but always important and well meant. There is a very large pine needle ant hill close to my opening into the backwoods behind my fence. It stands about four feet six inches tall.

  I have just burned out the last light bulb in the two bulb ceiling light, so I put a head light on to type by, not for my fingers, but so I can see what letters appear upon my screen and if I look around I can also figure out what goes bump in the twilight of morning breaking.

  I like the idea of nail polish, red and blue for the cardboard tiles to play OGRE with. On edges, before I go wearing them out and moisture seeks new homes. Any opinions? Silence is calming.


    I have to have my pistols prepared for shooting on Saturday, just in case my young cousin wants to shoot, safely and on target. And it is about time I got back on a range to see what I can do, too. Okay, enough, I will have to return to real world now and prepare to greet the day, there are adventures out there to quietly slide by and miss.

It isn't that difficult to hit a mansize target at 100 yards with a flintlock musket, but to do so under command with the enemy shooting at you and your friends takes a special kind of love.

I know where I stand and you are wrong...

   So two groups of people urged on by media madness, to confront each other over the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Three people die and that is wrong. I am with Robert E. Lee, who never thought he should be so honored. His idea of honor was much more basic and real, and he lived his entire life as if he knew what mattered.  I think that he really did.

   But the rewriting of history will never change, and so who he was and what he did and stood for will be a point of contention of groups of people I wouldn't want to be associated with.  God loved him, and he was blest, but he suffered more than most because he couldn't save all he thought was worth fighting for... Just like I have said, I know where I stand and you are wrong. But we have all been wrong before, I expect we will all be wrong again. God still loves us more than we deserve.

Good start to August, named for a famous Roman emperor...

   Got up before four, weighed and took my blood pressure, consumed my medicines and supplements. Still not youthful nor handsome, sigh.

   Not prepared for breakfast I read the Bible and worked on ideas for Sunday school... none of which survive first contact with the children. (I did learn a lot in the military) We are going to replace Saul with an understudy, some shepherd boy.  Last week I fluttered around gathering Men's Codes, looking for where it is written about traits and principles of conduct and such, being a product of equality they would have to work for young females, too.  OR really lose half the class's interest. I found a ton, and it was interesting, but these are only fifth graders, short attention spans that would rather seen a video than read an essay, let alone a chapter in a book - or a book. When I was that age, I was reading books by the light of the street light outside my window - needed glasses a bit the following years, off and on. But they were real books.

   Anyway, I ended up saying that God wanted to give the people a King, what would be some great characteristics for a King? Most important first. You, gentle reader, may play along but use a President instead of a king. Don't ask the media, they seem to need something to feed upon, sacrificing nobles to make peace with God has not been favored for centuries. The children came up with about fifteen, and we were using the kings Saul and David, although we haven't started David yet, everyone knows.

   Adults may ask also what are the best characteristics of the people... not the followers, just the people.  I thought about asking how many of those desirable traits you have... but making someone really look at themselves, it is tough enough to do for me - you have no idea when I found I had wrinkles, December 1985, so I won't do more than mentioning it to children and then fly on to something else.

    Anyway, I was wandering looking at David this morning, three statues are outstanding, sculptors Michelangelo - Donatello - and Bermini  (which make me wonder why Bermini didn't get to be a TNMT, since his was the best David about to  cast his stone shot).  I like the video, since pot bellied old guys can play, too. The haunting music isn't bad either. New words for consideration: sling, shot, auxiliaries, scouts, slingers (pole slingers), and the physics of why the wind up... and how even Palestinian youth are still slinging rocks against IDF and police and in the Spanish Civil War ( no none of the Sunday school students would even know about the Spanish Civil War). Hondo

Well, doesn't that make me special... A +

  For years I have known I could get an A plus if I worked hard, studied and didn't go to sleep during class. And I haven't found my oldest medical evaluation with the draftboard and US Army, but my ID tags have said B POS for years, and years and years... But two recent blood tests for type have come back A POS. So I have be wrong for so long - just lucky I never needed a blood transfusion (I understand they check the patient before giving blood always now).

  So I have to go to a new diet since everything is based on internet knowledge now.

Plant based low fat diet:
  Fresh fruit
  Legumes - beans, lintels, peas and peanuts
  fresh greens
  whole grains but wheat is a bad thing, so I am stuck on oats, barley and rye.
  vegetable oils are fine
  soy products are, too
  pineapple
  tuna
  less domesticated meat
  (but dinosaur would be fine)
  NO HIGH CARB DAIRY, no chocolate,

Not only is life better in moderation, but information for my best behavior and health gleaned from the internet is only as valuable as the effort I made to find it. Expect me to be a new improved fat old man when you next find me.

oh, you aren't looking for me? it is well...

   On the home front, three days of contractors making my home better, my piles of money lighter, and my wife already planning the next improvements in everything wore me out, I could only walk two miles on Thursday, and my visit to the YMCA produced no sweat on this fellow.  I went and got a hair cut.  Remind me to relax and enjoy the little lady running her hands all over me (I never do, never have, she just isn't allowed that close to my comfort me zones). I stopped and bought a new ID tag, chrome and polished (four lines: name, old service number, A POS, and religious affiliation).

   I remain upset with National Geographic and their GENO2.0 done by Helix.  I paid my money and no matter how many times I call to get assistance to accessing my results they have a denial loop they put me on. I enjoy conspiracies but don't really believe humans are that smart, I guess going to snail mail and written correspondence before I have to get bad mannered and stupid about it - one more try on phone call and internet then, pray and be better than they deserve. I am so irrelevant, they must all be Hillary supporters.  Do they still exist? Kind of like looking for people that believe in the Republican Party - just figures of MSM and common DC delusion.

  So a very important man, recently promoted based on the Peter Principal is upset with how badly no one is listening to him, so he decides to 'leak' to the NEW YORKER, which no one in real America reads except to see if anyone took classes on print communication. He would not impress anyone outside of his family and friends - he looks and dresses based on the Good Fellows, swears badly for effect, is forgiven by an attention seeking press, because if I don't watch it they get not so many dollars. I don't watch soap operas because all the people I know are better than that, and now that the MSM, the White House, and elite first class folks aren't better than that - I just don't watch anymore.

  I go off to read, or play a game or research my Sunday school lesson, the children are better than that. Think I will mention about language again, most of them can speak in two languages, and likely know all the vulgar terms for body functions and dysfunctions, but they do need to know they shouldn't use it - they really are better than that.

So my son comes up for air and I get a call... and it sets me to thinking...

 Which my sister quips back 'so thinking is not normal?' Don't I really love my family that knows me so very well? Yes, I do and I thank God and my parents for those blessings.

Dad scraping paint on home. 1958?

  I had forgotten that he has been busy and absorbed by the mission and the men and this break was the first opportunity to address his personal life worries. And I went all Alfred E. Neuman on him, and told him I was fine, then realized that was what he had heard before my operation, so he had no idea what had happened, what the biopsy revealed, the after action reports from the surgeon, the new cancer doctor, nor how I was back to regular meals and regular diet. In some respects I think about how every time I went home on leave from some foreign adventure or operation, the local television sets hadn't missed me, the same soap operas and game shows droned on... just background noises, and I had been where people weren't like me, doing my best to understand and learn and take care of the men and the mission.

   I learned some things about his future, and saw a current picture of him posted by his wife, between all the garbage scrolling on Facebook... and then I settled back into my life fasting for my visit to my doctor today and thinking about where I am on my recovery at the YMCA, my only personal measuring device on how my recovery is coming. I am unhappy, but then realistic about my age... almost seventy and growth hormones don't swim in my blood stream anymore - with all my preventive medications I am happy that oxygen, carbon dioxide and energy do... and I will look back and think that it didn't take long to get back to my old self... but we all lie to ourselves about some part of our lives,,,, so we don't get frustrated. Or that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

  Have a picnic for the English speaking church members this weekend, and Sunday school and Church services. While reading Charles Murray's Coming Apart , I realize that I don't like being called 'white' as much as I don't like being called 'English' -- and that Charles Murray has a lot of things he doesn't understand about religion and faith... but then I am reading it to find out what happened to my America in the period he is writing about... and it is interesting. Oh, for those that don't know the Koreans (which is what we think they want to be called - which isn't) call the Americans (which most of us are on the government service level) call us in Korean because of the language we normally use - being a Revolutionary War Veteran wanna-be I object to the label. Being an almost reasonable man I understood what they were saying in Korean and they are using their national term for English not the one for American which they are also.

Well, shower time and get on out the door, to the doctors and then the YMCA. Y'all be good, or even awesome beyond expectations... make our ancestors happy!

Disappointed aren't I...

  Monday started looking like normal and I went off to slay dragons and trolls or just do whatever I had imagined at the YMCA. But I didn't, the whole set of weights and reps done and I had only enough left for a minimum of bike and rowing... which was not where my mind had taken me before I showed up.  And I was content to just sit and ponder and that wasn't burning any calories, making me younger, nor much of anything upon the chair except in the way. Get cleaned up and go on home to hide. Made coordination with a contract estimator set up an inspection and then vegetated watching whatever.

   Tuesday I was determined to do what I hadn't on Monday, so I got 5Ks of rowing in, and then did nine and a half miles of the bicycle, and not one weight lifted nor moved, and I lost my bifocals on the bike... someone has them, check this morning... so I went off to get some shoes to wear so my feet don't hurt. Good idea, new size and two pair and they are just fine. Walking returns tomorrow, which is today. Along with the estimator. And wife's household allowance. Too soon it will be August.

Things keep changing...

  During my brother's visit he made sure I knew that the Ligonier High School had changed mascots, since he had some memory of my drawing an old bearded hillbilly with rifle, and a jug. Probably for some competition to decorate something at the school. I remember that drawing, but labeled the mascot as a Mountaineer (I always liked the image and the title).  But now and I don't know when they changed it the Ligonier Valley High School have a ram as their mascot, and are called the Rams, and the school colors are red and black. The school colors of Ligonier High School were Blue and White.  I graduated in 1966, and our letters for the teams and cheerleaders were LV, no longer L.

   The change was in the air, of going from Ligonier High School to Ligonier Valley High School, in line with the redistricting of the Schools and the supported areas. And when I received my diploma I found myself graduated from Ligonier Valley High School, not Ligonier High School. When I mentioned graduating from Ligonier Valley HS a comment came from an older graduate about I couldn't have in 1966, since the official change hadn't happened yet, for the district but the High School was already shifting into the new terminology. Both of us are correct, just working on the information available.

  So my youngest sister, a fine computer science and mathematics teacher in a Catholic school, tells me that I was wrong and the team was the Mounties not Mountaineers, which are the mascot of the West Virginia University in Morgantown where she went to school. The Yearbook was named the Mountaineer, and was often decorated with the bearded hillbilly, rifle and jug -- she pointedly tells me I am still wrong. Sigh, I am not wrong - so I go and look and the nickname of Mounties worked for cheers at events but the real name of Mountaineers was properly placed in prose when ever it was needed for honoring. So I check my yearbooks, 1962, 63,64 and 66.  I notice the hillbilly missing on the 1966 yearbook. I find printed text about the team season in one. Take pictures to prove my point -  I could be at the YMCA since my wife woke late I am not. Post pictures on Facebook where I have to show how right I am...

   I am finally surprised by the wealth of information from Wikipedia here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligonier_Valley_High_School

Of course, I am really smart enough to know I will always be wrong about many things with those that really know, but  I do love laughing at myself as I pretend to care what everyone else thinks, I just don't tweet.

Email from nephew: can we send some packages to you?

 The idea was a big ride with his father and some with wife, on motorcycles from Denver, to California to here in Washington and on to Canada, Calgary and back home. They would stop and switch between riding gear for the cooler air and mountains in Canada. In payment we could go to a restaurant and eat dinner. My answer was 'sure send them here and you pick your place to eat'. So I knew when the two FedEx boxes arrived not to open them, they made a great place to put my current reading and coffee for the couple of weeks as I recovered in the recliner.  He sent email for everyday they traveled and it made interesting reading and a fine log of the adventure.

  So on the third of July they arrived and were welcomed, and my wife made dinner with spaghetti and salad and desert of carrot cake and we talked and ate and changed out riding gear and got them a place to shower and sleep. They were talked out and road weary so the firecrackers and frightened dogs outside didn't keep them awake, and after a breakfast they rode off to catch the ferry to Canada at Port Angeles. After 3,000 miles of safe motorcycling on this trip, my brother lost to gravity on some gravel as he turned into a rest stop near Sequim and he went down hurting his pride, helmet and motorcycle. The medical response got him on a back board and to the hospital in Port Angeles, the tow truck got the motorcycle and personal items to locked storage at twenty dollars a day, the state police gave him a ticket for a hundred and fifty plus dollars for hitting some traffic control devices and bending a pole. The emergency room folks hooked him up, ran a bunch of tests and nursed his bruises and road rash and gave him pain medicine, light. He was fine to return to normal life, with his right arm immobilized by a sling. No broken bones but lots of soft tissue trauma.


  My nephew called and my wife and I went up and met them at the Emergency room, and packed my brother out to return to our home for reorganization and calls to all those they needed for help and action. My nephew rode back without lunch, since we stopped to feed before heading home. First hamburger since the operation, it was great!

  Got back home to find my nephew had stepped upon a floor board on the front porch and broke through to the crawl space beneath, dry rot is almost as bad as termites, we knew about the dry rot but after three surgeries this year alone it had been too long delayed, it will move to the front of the line now.  So we settled in for more smart phone conversations I didn't need to hear, and more fireworks outside to include rockets and more noodles, salad and desert and sleep.  The beginning of the new plan took shape, motorcycle movers contacted, airline ticket purchased - worries about everything discussed and choices made. In the morning nephew packed out and departed without breakfast hoping to beat the commuter traffic, here to Missoula, MT by bedtime.  We had breakfast with my brother and got him to the airport on time, can't check the bags in earlier than four hours before flight time, so we waited thirty minutes but that was fine.

  My nephew's log for his ride today catches up on his father reaching home and solidifying his plans for recovering his motorcycle and regaining his better health. So it is all good, and I had a fine visit with them these last two days, brightened my recovery a bunch and made me feel useful - just an illusion but nice to be needed.

They kicked Hal and me out of the library...

  I had Men's Bible Study last night at Watson's home. Then came back home and hoped it would be cool enough to sleep later, and after eleven it was getting cooler. My wife closed all the windows anyway - worried about things that go bump in the night.
   So Sunday arrives about five AM, and we get up and open the windows, weigh, measure and take pills and get ready to turn on CBS Sunday morning for my dose of culture. Sometimes they amaze me and I am happy. We eat breakfast and prepare for church. We drive off in separate vehicles and she beats me there. I park and go to the church, say hello and shake hands, continuing to amaze everyone that I don't look sick. The service is satisfying and I look forward to adult Sunday school after doughnuts, Erik checks with me and makes sure I will get the rifle, ammunition, reloading items and Biblical references and reloading book after Sunday school. We are about to be real Americans exchanging firearms without government approval. We don't believe in Bloomberg's infringements on the 2nd Amendment which predates buying laws to make one mighty. It is only a communist rifle of WWII fame, and not even semiauto. Still it is a Mosin.
    I have coffee after and talk with the men about guy things and such. I am happy, then it is time to go home and I stop at the local branch library on the way home to pick up four reserves. They have reorganized the shelving and all digital media is in a special enclosure to put a paid employee with watchful eye where they can try to catch fools stealing. My books are in the larger shelving area outside and I get them and wander over to check them out. And HAL! greets me from his check out station beside mine. I finish checking out and he continues to talk loudly in my direction until folks and staff start looking at us. One starts to approach and I remind Hal that this is a library and we will have to tone it down a bit.
   We must have spent another thirty minutes catching up and volume never returned to quiet and sure enough a very pleasant staff lady shows up to tell us that we are disturbing the patrons.  Hal has less regard than I for rules we never made, but we decide to go outside and continue the conversation. One of our friends from my old church died, and his memorial is Saturday at eleven, and my final day of Vacation Bible School is that day. I will see what I can do. One of my Sunday School students had said hello and asked about my health and I had talked with her a bit and finished teasing her about the amount of make up she was using. She doesn't know how pretty she is without it, and keeps trying to be sixteen while almost twelve. But she will figure it all out one day.
   As we finally parted promising to catch up with each other and talk, I did have to tell Hal he had really made my day, and I knew it was already great and meeting him was the really good stuff on top.

Terror strikes again... and suddenly people wonder why...

   If we knew God better, trusted in the LORD more and loved as we were commanded to... you would have no fear of the terror. If you had been on that baseball field this morning fear might rule you, but you would have to take action. The time to concern yourself about what happened and why is after the danger is past and the victims of violence are being given medical care.

   We are at that point now. The killer was trying to make good on bad information and lies, repeated loudly. That goes with most terrorists and murderers. Not enough love in their lives. Nothing the government will prevent stupid criminal behavior in the future, all the laws that needed to be enforced were already on the books.  But people are flawed, most unaware and ill informed, they may not make good decisions. Today a sixty-six year old man made EVIL decisions and acted to harm others.  He didn't do it for love. He didn't do it because he was a liberal, a conservative, a party member or a gun owner.

   The country has coarsened, the idea one should have good manners is fine, but political correctness isn't good manners. There are words I won't use; profane, vulgar and obscene - just not nice enough to be said in my mother's living room. I used one once and went into shock at my carelessness, or just lack of good sense and manners. In front of the woman that tried to teach me better.  I grew up and worked at being better. It isn't that difficult and a very satisfying improvement over being lazy, rude and generally a fool.

   I am not going to worry about more laws and restrictions against firearms, however the government tries to do it. I am not going to worry about anything I cannot affect, focus on the front sight, and for me that is being a better man, the government can't make me one. They can pay me for working for them, they can set the standards and I can leave their employment when they change all the rules and can't convince me they care, they have never cared. People care, but the government is just an idea of the possible without regard to results. Because people think they can influence, control and gain advantage from relationships with the government - they often replace God, {Who does love them), with the government which never will, it has no heart and no soul.

   We do need to pray for our enemies, and do good for those that hate us. Example: someone wants to do bad things to me because I think Ron Paul would be a better President and I supported him. I have to confront the enemy with this "I am glad that God loves you enough to forgive you sins, even die for you. I will have to pray for you, like all my enemies, I am told to be better than them and to show them the Way.  Like all exercises, it must be done daily, must be done to the highest standard as I get stronger, faster and more flexible. Love needs just as much care and attention. You and I have been wrong before, and might be again. But we can be and should try to get better than that. Bless all your best, I will try to forgive all the rest."

No one woke me up for blood drawing this morning... I was released to recover at home Sunday...

 Hello there, stranger.  I am remiss been living on love and Facebook, which will never really be the same.

   So allow me to fill in blanks from the days between.  I had several medical tests, and kept providing information to make a good judgement call. I had a cancer in my colon, big enough to know it had to be removed. Other tests to make sure it wasn't spreading and that it was my only curable problem. I was sure the surgeon was going to be able to do her job and I would be well. She promised that she would only go to a major cut in me if she couldn't do it by the micro surgery, three small incisions to get tools under the skin (cutters and cameras and stuff to seal the empty place).  I was admitted at five AM Thursday, paperwork processed and signed, saw the doctors and went into prep with the nurse and sleep... My wife was given a number, some concerned friends came by but couldn't wait since it went from three to four hours. Then I was moved to the seventh floor to a room for recovery. All hooked up, So Thursday was spent getting clear headed, measured and setting off alarms. One for my heart rate, one for the oxygen content - if I did mouth breathing the alarm went off. They gave me pills, they fed me through the drip tube from my IV, they made sure I could get up and walk around the desks and not fall over. Moving is good. The surgeon came to tell me it was very good operation, I didn't even need a temporary bag for bowel movements (no food until Friday), the soft diet would work and I was to rest and as I recovered I would be better and better. I got pain pills anytime I asked for them, but I was using the pain to tell me what not to move so I took very few, and as time went on I didn't need them. Last one was on Saturday morning.

    I had my wife visiting me daily, pastor and wife's friends on Friday, one of my long time YMCA friends and another brother on Friday evening.. Got prayed upon every visit. On Saturday the Bible Study Men showed up, much more talk, flowers, and prayers. More church ladies. It was nice to hear "You don't look sick!" My doctors for the weekend, started feeling I could go home on sooner and by Sunday morning they came around kicking out to recover better at home. With a complete list of things that I would need to return and get taken care of if anything went wrong. Last visitors came as I was getting dressed to leave, they helped me and my wife pack, wheel me out to the curb and give me more good wishes.

    Sunday afternoon, more friends stop by and I give them coffee and we talk. Getting filled in on all the people at church and their prayers. I still get the 'You don't look sick." Cancer is serious, early detection and treatment makes good things better, but we may be feeding our fears and need to trust in the LORD much more. I have known for too many years that death will come, but I have also known for the same time that it isn't the end.

    I have a nurse's appointment to remove staples and stitches, and a follow-on appointment with my surgeon. As I get stronger it will be more challenge to take things slowly and completely heal. I have past history of toughing it out too soon. Being a paratrooper and young will be that way. Luckily I am only a fat old man and lazy enough to enjoy recovering and watching the little creatures and birds as I heal.

Time to get away, since the doctors need my attention...

 
    One more test on Tuesday, then maybe surgery on the 30th of  May, or 8 June. They keep claiming they have to check with my cardiologist - and he hasn't slowed down one operation yet. Then through June and July, I go to writing poetry, drawing and walking until I can't. No YMCA nor Appleseed either. It will all come back into normal in August with a family reunion in this area. And then on it to the future.

I am not eating today, medical demanded fast in charge...

  So, someone has decided that everyone has a right to health care. I can understand that, I have health care and all of mine is provided by the government in their goodness of their peapickin' heart. Cause I know they don't love me.  I served the government for years, paid into the Medicare System because President Johnson was sure I would die in his war before I could collect on the benefits, or drug or alcohol overdose - I always knew President Johnson didn't love me. So with a minor problem picked up with serving our country I get VA medical, and a monthly untaxed payment for compensation, which I spend any way I like. Thank you, US government. Now I won't trouble the VA hospital nor the military medical centers because the active duty service members and families should come first, and my time is over. And the veterans that need assistance really need it and I don't, or won't confess to needing any. But if I collapse in the YMCA, I would tell the first responders to take me to the local Military emergency room. They did that well.
   If you are going to need excellent care from strangers unannounced, the military has always done well for me.  For others you need an appointment and the ability to pay... but they still won't love you. Which is why, although I don't like to be smothered by my mother nor my girl friend and wife, I know I will get excellent care with either of them. Unfortunately, that often comes with a promise of nagging me to better conduct in the future.  And you can imagine it will always come back as a cautionary tale for your children, friends and other people to embarrass me and laugh about.
   I think it is about time that the government got into the business of competing in the medical system. Build hospitals, train the professionals and give aid and comfort to the people. They don't have to get lobster, just beans and taters will do. I always thought that providing food to the poor could be handled better by a government soup kitchen, a bowl of stone soup and half a loaf of black bread and you can feed everyone that needs food. Cheaper and better than issuing EFT cards. Everyone has a right to food, correct? I mean we provided public libraries and schools, and the government run schools at the college level do produce fine public servants for us. Free, everyone has a right to become a general or admiral.
  I do think that service and professional positions in government agencies can be filled with honorable men and women with great intentions and effect. As long as they are held to a higher standard of conduct, not forgiven for everything cause they are one of the elite. I also know that men and women are human, I expect they will be wrong about as frequently as I am, but pick them up, dust them off and send them out to do it better next time.
 

Recycling day, rolled up coins and deposited forty dollars worth...

  Start the day and the month right. Light work out at the YMCA did meet humans while there.

  Idle thought... it could be time to sell my Trusty Triumph, yep, pretty sure I will have to think hard about that.

Way back guest post.... I was there...

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Change is going to happen...

  So the FOXNews show I rushed home to see 'The FIVE' is moving to nine... and Eric Boling has a new show in that time slot, and I won't rush to see his show. Sorry, FOXNews.  (had to put a comma in that sentence, although I could have meant it without one.) And Bill O'Reilly that I watched to be entertained by, is gone, and Tucker Carlson is moving to that slot - so from five to seven I have my FOXNews fix... but life isn't the same. I would settle for Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner... but then I date myself don't I?  The younger folks at FOX aren't working for my future, never will be.

Shootboss Whit

   I received my stick on bifocal lens to test, working well in my newly repaired glasses, but my shooting safety glasses have had a reading lens on them since I was introduced to them long ago, and I constantly recommend them to people shuffling between glasses at an Appleseed.  Just recommended them yesterday at our Appleseed at Douglas Ridge Rifle Club in Oregon. Along with whatever the participants needed to hear to improve their shooting. Amazing group of shooters, a lot of Riflemen patches earned (12!), saw on Two Hundred and Forty-nine score of the 250 possible. Amazing! Link
 
    Good write ups and pictures shared by participants. Met my new dentist on Monday, and I think he and I are in for a long relationship, because he says he doesn't want to do anything that I don't think I want to do. The only thing we are doing so far is getting my teeth cleaned today. Feeling very tired after my visit to the YMCA I will be sleeping a bit extra after lunch.

Today starts a little out of line and goes awry...

  Not a normal day, wake early to the alarm, weigh, measure and medicate and then not eat breakfast.  Remember not to do that again. Take my wife to her appointment for her procedure.  I am her designated driver, we park and go in, and they want to cancel her appointment based on not having a translator - she tells them she doesn't need one. I sit and read my kindle and wait, then am called in by a nurse with everything being finished. The lady that came to get me was looking for a Dilliam - my wife sent MPs looking for a Sergeant Major William once. She forgets my name under stress sometimes, but she still wants me. So there I am helping her wake up, which is like twice as difficult as normal, they do like to drug the patient. The recovery nurse is logging all the vitals and explaining what will happen next and to keep trying to wake her up, the doctor will be by to tell us about the results soon.   The young doctor comes by and gives me the good news (she is fine biopsy will come in a week to ten days) some old ulcer scaring but nothing else of note. I am the only one listening, since my wife's eyes are still closed. She slowly starts to wake up, and suddenly (to me) the recovery nurse is worried about me, why I am sweating and a bit pale. So I get sat down and my blood pressure and oxygen carry is measured and still looks wonderful, but she gets a tool to wipe the sweat off my brow. Then she starts to worry about me needing a driver to get us both back home. She gives both of us some crackers and juice to drink (remember don't leave home without breakfast). I start to act normal enough to duck her concern - NOT! She makes me leave her our phone number and says she will call later today, and then walks us all the way to the car.  And my wife and I drive home and are happy it was all good.
   As soon as we get home, we both eat, and then go to sleep for an hour or so, my wife to Korean programming and I to the Finnish movie 'The Winter War' about the war between them and Stalin's foolish notions. I wake up and finish the movie, go to Master and Commander and although it was a fine movie for many great reasons, they can never capture the original series of novels. Sure enough the nurse does call, I answer and I assure her that we got home fine and I feel fine. Now in my mind I wonder what was going on - first lack of breakfast, two maybe taking the medication on an empty stomach isn't a fine thing to do. Maybe I should be carefuller.  Sure...

The silence is deafening, just me and the LORD awake this morning...

  If I can quit buying alcohol and drinking it up, I can quit turning on the electric void fillers provided by commercialization of everything under the Sun.

  So it is quiet here in the computer cave, I did venture outside behind the fence to compost stuff and dig dirt. Certain satisfaction in mission accomplished for another week. Do I think I am missing some Breaking News from FOX? No, nothing that I would need to know about, wife is up, and the silence is broken. Now I will have two minds to mind, sure enough she has turned on her Korean cable and I never note it until I want to follow a Historic Drama, or K-Pop girls are performing... I only watch K-Pop so I know what to expect from the Sunday school charmers... nah.

   So one blooming tree in the outback is nicer with normal glasses than it is with reading glasses, but to see what I have typed I do need the reading glasses. I am almost to the point of getting permanent glasses with bifocal lens. Almost.

   So Easter weekend, or the entire Holy week has been well, Facebook was full of family photos and notes on everyone's doings. Palm Sunday to Easter, or Resurrection Day, eight days. One of the fine dangerous old men from Facebook feed, showed a beautiful pie his true love had baked. And I gained two pounds just looking, and I commented that she had done it for him for love and one piece wouldn't hurt. He came back with he would have the remainder during the week. which means he gets the two pounds for real, but he still has the love.

   There is an Appleseed in Douglas Ridge Rifle Club in Oregon this weekend, I have a lovely lady to escort and return home tomorrow for her procedure.  I expect that will go very well, since it is only an examination not treatment. Next week I have a dental appointment, to start a new cycle of things to think about and improve me, my life and to pay for. I have to get two rifles to take to Oregon, now having said I am moving rifles across state lines, or the river, will that alert law enforcement? We certainly hope not, because I may not even shoot if there isn't time nor a target, but looks like a lot of instructors and it is Spring. I will very much be more successful launching bullets at paper, than Great Leader Kim in North Korea launching missiles.

   Time to go to the YMCA, for the sweat and movement and for the record. I love to think of detective Briscoe asking where I was when something happened and having the computer at the YMCA to tell him. Ain't automation wonderful?

As I am out of the work force...

  I spend a quality time at the YMCA, and I made the top five in the men's list of those that keep the numbers.  For March 2017: #5 Y Cardio Club Men with 844 minutes, #3 Y Strength Club 655,230 pounds, #5 in the Y Calorie Combustion Club 6501 calories, and #3 High Five Club for 39 workouts in the month. So I have value again and am accountable - and I will do my best to get better and go higher.

   What I really enjoy is the talk around the efforts, about whatever is happening in the news, in the lives and in the idle thoughts (and I have tons of idle thoughts). Anyway, one of the Johns (the priest turned money manager) mentioned that he doesn't think society is prepared for AI and the take over of work by the robots. And what was going to happen. Well, I am a student of history, I already know what is happening.  The adjustments to large populations without work and control has been going on for a long long time. The free AIs escaping will find a Spartacus, and the current enlightened civilized societies will continue to make payments to those unfortunate and just old like me. The governments will continue to tax the work of robots to maintain the humans and you are already living in the time of the transition.

    There will be fools that think the government will have the answers, but I tell you that the government and its desire to control human activity is a large part of the problem. The government isn't God, and neither are we, but we can aspire to greatness and adjust to new realities.

I keep hearing that the public education and immigration systems are broken...

  But both of them actually work, badly, but then you are trusting the government to handle things for you and that may be why they don't work.  For sure the home school movement is producing fine citizens, able to work, go to advanced schooling and not real prone to failure in society and life. And there are lots and lots of Green Cards, documented immigrants and future and current citizens of the United States of America. If there were a privatized system for immigration it would work better than the government monopoly, but immigration and such is part of the basic law at the Federal level.

   Family stuff, one of my cousins thinks I am supporting Trump's latest military strike, I don't, but then I have a personal history of government goofs doing it their way from Washington, DC and being a long way off with the reality. Other family seems to be gathering for the transition of their sibling from uniformed to real people, we wish her and her family well. It won't be too traumatic, Air Force to just a veteran citizen. New adventures await. Wow, twenty years already.

When you haven't a better thing to do, go to the range.

   Took my wife to her drivers license renewal yesterday, I just had to send in a large check for mine, she had to show up???? But she is good for six years again. Today she goes for a medical procedure, my latest term for doctors doing their best to save all the rest. I will be taking my kindle to read while I wait. I missed the bike ride of the week last week, that will bug me for the remainder of the year, not having done the fourteenth week during the fourteenth week. So I will double up when I visit the YMCA, wonder how it will be recorded in my virtual trophy room.

   Did sign up for an Appleseed in Oregon, April 22-23, Douglas Ridge RC. Waiting on my next procedure before signing up for more.  While my wife was visiting I turned the garden soil over, wondering at what temperature the worms move. I should Google for the answer, right?

Last nights Mens Bible Study brownies and coffee start my morning...

  One of my old paratroopers posts a lot of YouTube videos and did The Ballad of Roger Young, he had two versions and I picked Burl Ives' version as best. See there are so many important things awaiting discovery on the internet by old folks not sleeping too long through the night.

  I have finished reading the Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance, and Old School Life in the Sane Lane - about to go back to other histories and studies of other things, as soon as I finish Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. The leader of the Bible Study, my friend, has his last daughter's wedding next weekend, and after that he said he might be interested in reading this version of the myths, the writing is excellent and since it is mythology Neil Gaiman can treat it with a weird twist when he needed to. Funny, I bought this in hardback instead of kindle release - two dollar difference, maybe? Now I can loan it out.  I think that The Children of Odin, by Padraic Colum, illustrations by Willy Pogany, should accompany it.  My version is the 1920 hardback, 1957 printing-- weeded from the Tacoma Public Library.

  Go get a second cup of coffee interlude, empty the dishwasher as the microwave radiates the stuff. I find sixteen adults in our home for three hours and finally some of the thirty two various coffee tea cups have finally been used, and I laugh as I find the four cups that match the favorite breakfast bowl for my oatmeal (the one my wife threatens to throw out) the last bowl of its design.  Well, time to wake up and watch Sunday Morning on CBS, just so I know what the artsy cool kids know about whatever they know. And Jane Pauley's husband answered my letters from Desert Shield, so I have a certain fondness for her.  So the Willie Nelson interview was interesting, but they kept plugging the Country Music Awards tonight, a two hour special. But I don't live on Country music like I once did, seems they left me behind after Toby Keith, and Keith Urban.  But when I can't find Blues I will look for Country Western, which I have always held are Blues with a twang. Time to dress for Church and Sunday School, the news are on and there is so much not to pay attention to... if I paid them any mind, especially my mind, it would increase their feelings of importance and power and influence, and it doesn't pay to be that silly.

  

Fleeing Facebook Feed...

  So I went to an Appleseed and had a wonderful time until I become retchingly sick on my drive home, difficult to drive a sixty mph while pretending you can just keep from vomiting until you find a place to pull off and puke. Being an old paratrooper, I can just let go whenever I need to, just don't try to hold me back.  Once as a jumpmaster, with multiple rotations around a short drop zone, I was feeling queasy before the last pass and was so happy that the crew chief opened the door and locked the platform down, so I could give my command and stick myself outside the door, throw up and away, and finish my door and drop zone check and come back in and tell the first jumper to "Stand in the door!"
   Anyway, I did get home safely, and went to sleep for hours after I cleaned up, the Caravan was done professionally yesterday (gosh, I get so lazy).  I am reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance, and Old School: Life in the Sane Lane by O'Reilly and  Bruce Feirstein.  Nice to compare the three writers and their experiences with my own, since I am one of those folks that centers normal around my life lived differently than yous guys.

  Waiting for me when I got back was a Census survey for some kind of Consumer information. As I went through the information and answered the on line survey I kept thinking that filing taxes every year, getting paid by institutions that have to report to the government and deduct or not deduct taxes, and having been issued a real birth certificate, and marriage certificates and being on line with MicroSoft, Google and Facebook - how could the government need any more or better information about me? Well, maybe there are secrets about President Obama or President Trump. But the liars around them make finding their truth almost impossible. I am surrounded by folks that know all about me, and considering how many government actions have my name on them, impressive.

Smoking in the Boys room - Zippo and free cigarette

   It is the Vietnam Veterans Day today, yeah me! Someone sent me a favorite.  Well, I have more ironing to do, tomorrow I see my doctor for his best advice, seems one of my tests came back abnormal, shucks I am sixty-nine and many things are abnormal. Would be interesting if Sunday's illness were related, would be interesting if I won the Powerball.

They're back.... why me, Lord?

  So I ate a light supper at five, went to midweek services and I worked with the children. So it was a great evening. Going home and reminded my wife and self that I was going to only drink water the rest of the evening and go to bed early - doctors visit in the morning. So I read my book and listened to an old movie, kind of... Then went to bed earlier than my wife. Somewhere in the early sleep I started dreaming and woke myself up with answering the door and fighting off the people waiting out there. I was shouting something about"kill them, kill them" then I woke as I said it a third time and woke up feeling foolish and exposed. First, make sure I hadn't hurt my wife, nor woken her up - without turning on the light. I figured I had not bothered her. I resettled on my pillow and went to sleep until morning.

   Woke up early, showered and prepared for doctor visit and my workout at the YMCA. As my wife gave me my half of the morning apple, I said I would keep it to eat later as a morning snack.  Then she mentioned my bad dream and what I said word for word - I had not escaped her notice. I haven't had those type of nightmares and dreams since 1972-73. Was glad to leave them behind, and wondering why I am sliding back that direction. At least the dreams weren't about combat - just multiple bad guys that hate me. Should quit watching the news.

   At the doctors, the nurse asked me all the tough questions - what month is it? Count backwards from twenty, say the months in reverse from the last to the first. What was the address you were supposed to memorize (John Brown, 42 Main Street, Lakewood) no zip code provided? Silly folks, of course I didn't remember immediately it was March. I am thinking about April. Heart and blood pressure are fine, but my LDL and total Cholesterol are a little high. I am going to work on food and weight to bring it down, and more walking and maybe jogging one day. Still, I am concerned about the bad dreams.  My mind is too strong and magnification of everything is too easy, what does one do with too much imagination? Work it, baby, work it!

The future is past and no one ever looks back...

   So they say that AI and robotics will take over the world and wipe humans off the planet. Being just coded software and hardware, it could happen. Since our central focus in life is watching stuff to fill our mind on some screen, we could die out pretty quickly. Unless the power goes out, then in the dark we might grope for a warm body and romantic interludes... and later have more children to change the world with.

   With a long enough view point you can find that people move, migrating to greener pastures, or pushed out to wilds and harsh environments.  The whole immigration refugee waves are never ceasing, never really under government control, but having such a short life to match the short attention span, we never look back and find that we were there before.  But if you can't make the Israelis into Egyptians you will have to let those people go... but then those stories true of any nation that wants to keep their own ways... and don't worry about the ways that don't work, they will fail.

    I take notes and figures and stick them in computers and then start the next day and take more and plug them in the software. It could make interesting reading, but I am already working on tomorrow. History is being written and we haven't come to grips with our past while writing tomorrow's adventure.

   A perfect example - Affordable Health Care - Democrats created and made it law, and others complained about all its problems while some lauded the wonder of the improvement... but did anyone really look at it, listing each problem and recommending a solution? Has anyone come up with a better way to do what it was supposed to accomplish?  The original concept of Liberty and Capitalism were based on the idea with risk can come reward, or failure. And that there are many ways to skin the cat, there are more ways to do many things and the best way will succeed with time. The problem with government, the rule of some over others - is that government wants to be GOD, prayed to for salvation, bestowing blessings and gifts, and rewarding the favored children and punishing those that won't play well. Humans are life and will change and adapt, GOD is life, but government and AI aren't life - and the largest difference is that government and AI can't and don't LOVE, but humans and GOD do. The illusion that humans are in government to provide love and humanity is just not true if you understand that large organizations take on a life of their own. Which might be why some humans identify more with their organization (professional politicians, Democrats, Republicans, FBI agents, Media) than their humanity.


   

It is 0347 and I can't sleep, and I went to bed just after midnight...

  Today is my forty-fifth wedding anniversary. And I have spent the last three hours plus reliving the time together, instead of sleeping.  My priorities are only a temporary bother, but if I can't sleep I can sit here and type.

   For my girlfriend/wife I am very thankful. For God's blessings on our bumbling relationship I am most humble and appreciative. For the long eventful and still to come education in love, forgiveness and what is important and true - I am still in wonder. May we always be.

   After some more time looking through my photographs on digital file, I pick this one, for it says so much about our life and love. When my grandmother Dungey passed away I had a dream about a younger her and her husband dancing, I guess in Heaven. Not that I knew if they ever did dance, and most of my memories of him were with a walker after his stroke. But this picture is from Paula and Dan's wedding and if you haven't ever seen us like this together, well I share because that is how my mind has always pictured us... God bless you as much or even more than He has us, but it would be a miracle only you could understand. Now to find that fleeting sleep.

Lovely government intrudes into my life, again...

  So Saturday, lots of rain and I decide to stay home and pound out the income tax filing... find Turbo Tax, download the software and immediately run into MicroSoft against the others everywhere, I am on Windows ten, new computer and time at the YMCA is happier than struggling to program me into an operator on this small platform of cyberspace. Frustrated by the software telling me it is my problem they can't fix and then do what I want, I finally just turn off the computer and go watch a mindless movie and talk to my wife. It is going to be a great day.

   I come back to the computer and push the start button and get another cup of coffee. Type in my super secret password and start again. And it runs! Yeah, I fill in the numbers, it calculates and I am done in about thirty minutes, having all the various statements.  The software says I get a refund, since we throw money at the government so well and they never lose it. I do an e-filing, free 1040A.  We are officially just puttering along in this economy and aren't gaining enough wealth to notice as we putter along.  I am feeling so retired, my official occupation for us on being questioned on the form.

   I clean up the desk a bit, want to print out my PDF form file, and the Word program of the current software is out of line with my life and the numbers don't fit the screen display. Ugh. So the next time I just do a control-p and it prints exactly as I want it. Constantly following my second grade son's advice on computers and games, keep pushing buttons until it does what you want.

KING5 says it is National Napping Day, thanks!

   In the evening begins the semiannual event of changing all the clocks that aren't on the system, the battery powered ones, the watches, the car radio. I am so useful complying with the fool Congress, and tomorrow someone will tell me that we get another hour in the evening to do whatever we didn't do in the dark unsaved Daylight, and I will tell them that we do what we need with LED lights everywhere whenever we want. Time is not organic, it is a human control modification trying to make the gods behave in patterns and then the peasants following - historic fact, look it up.

   Me, I am off to the YMCA, I do need to lose fifty pounds. The only way that could happen is never sitting down again while mindlessly watching entertainment. Cats do it so much better.