When I was a lad in elementary school Grandpa City retired from his job at the country club. Retirement was apparently an exciting thing that happened when one got older and he seemed happy to be retiring. At least that’s how I remember things.
After he retired we spent a few days visiting and I was curious as to why he and Grandma were still getting up quite early? If they didn’t have to go to work, why not get a few extra winks?
Now that I’m in my middle 50s, I’ve discovered the reason: even me, one of the strongest “not a morning person” type of people around, now gets up at sunrise and actually feels awake, alert, and productive in the early morning. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa City didn’t have a cat making louder and louder demands at the crack of dawn like we occasionally do here in the desert, but I’m finding my natural wake up time seems to be following the patterns of the sun a bit. Whether I’m up late or not the night before, I’m waking up with the sunrise.
I grew up in the Lake Ontario Snow Belt outside of a village of approximately 2,500 people. While we didn’t live on the “other side of the tracks”, we lived about four miles from the quaint little downtown area. A mile in the other direction brought us to a very small hamlet with less than a dozen businesses. The former was described as “going downtown”, the other was “going uptown”.
I have fond memories of shopping “downtown”. Some of my earliest memories are of a drug store that still had a soda fountain and I remember visiting with my mom and godmother after going to the nearby “yarn shop”. There was a Sears catalog store, a department store, a men’s clothing store, a ladies’ dress shop, and a whole bunch of small, locally owned businesses. I can still hear creaking floors and warm smiles as we walked in.
The last time I drove through “downtown” there wasn’t much in the way of commerce. There were a couple of service based businesses, a hair salon, a Chinese restaurant, and several of the storefronts had been combined to form a tavern that had apparently closed during the pandemic. The building that housed Western Auto and a grocery store was removed for a bank drive thru.
We often look back at our childhood and focus on the fond memories and I can’t help but smile when I think back to the excitement of going from store to store while “downtown”. Businesses began leaving the shopping district when the department store was built out by the Interstate. That spurred fast food restaurants and the relocation of some of the small chain stores from the downtown area out to the new commercial area.
From Wikipedia. This is the north half of the shopping district.
As a guy in my mid 50s with a good memory, I’m happy to have experienced this earlier version of small town shopping districts. The world seemed bigger while the community seemed closer. There seemed to be more smiles on faces. In the 80s it was the malls and in the 00s it was about the online shopping experience.
When I go on my storm chasing trips I often drive through “Business Districts” (as guided from the roadway designed to bypass the original town), hoping to see glimmers of what I once knew. Once in a while I find it; this year it was Garden City and Independence, both in Kansas. Last year it was Gothenburg, Nebraska. Smiling faces, fairly business shopping districts, pleasantness.
Sometimes I wonder if moving to online shopping is really progress.
One of the perks of working from home is that it’s fairly easy to take a nap during a lunch break. I do this quite often. It doesn’t work out for me as well as it used to. Lately I’ve been feeling groggy after a nap. I used to be able to Power Nap.
I set a timer for 20 minutes. I immediately fall asleep and generally wake up with six minutes left on the timer. I feel like I’ve slept at least three hours, I can usually remember a dream, and I feel refreshed. If I get up then, I’m fine. It’s the “oh I have six more minutes” and I shut my eyes when things go sideways.
So starting tomorrow I’m going to try to not nap at all and get my body back on track. Getting old is interesting.
I’m always on the search for better wallpaper for my devices. I need my backgrounds to be non intrusive, muted by colorful, inspiring, and very high quality. I don’t want to see the pixels, just the theme.
This is my current selection.
Orange is the color of inspiration. Blue is calming. This makes me happy.
With the insurance checkouts and the work on my instrument rating last year, it’d been nearly 30 months since my husband went flying with me. It’d been nearly equally as long since I’d flown without another pilot in the right seat.
We were definitely overdue for a flight. So yesterday I rented the club Cessna 172 and the two of us went up and did some flying south of the city. We had a lovely time.
The key to flying in the desert during this time of year is to go early in the morning and get back on the ground before 11 a.m. or so, at least for smaller airplanes. Otherwise it’s bumpy and windy and not as enjoyable experience for anyone.
We arrived at the airport at 7:00 a.m. and were in the air by 7:45 a.m. and on the ground by 9:00. Earl took a bunch of photos and the airplane handled beautifully.
Truman has been changing up his napping habits over the past couple of weeks. It’s a rare occasion for him to relax inside his little carpet tube (that was imported from Chicago) but lately he’s been using this area to nap and maintain watch over the dogs of the house.
He’s also taken to sleeping in the middle of the floors as the weather gets warmer. Perhaps we need to install a small fan that follows him around.
It’s been one week since my stomach bug and the extended downtime last weekend. I have surprisingly been able to keep the weight off for that week and am feeling better for it.
The biggest change in this whole thing is I gave up drinking Diet Coke or Coke Zero. I’ve also ramped back my caffeine intake; cutting my coffee and iced tea consumption in half. This has helped my sleep experience quite a bit.
As I navigate my way through middle aged life, I have to remember that my body isn’t what it used to be and it’s not what it’s going to be. Paying a little more respect to this vessel has helped me have a productive week and a better outlook on life in general.
I don’t talk about work very much on my personal blog. I gripe about it once in a while, as at times work can be quite intense, but for the most part my career hums along and I’m in a relatively good place.
Today I celebrate eight years with the company. When I started in 2015 I traveled a lot, particularly to Greenville, S.C., where the team I worked with at the time was based. I really like Greenville, S.C., particularly the downtown area. I’d like to go back there some time.
There have been many reorganizations in the past eight years, some changes in focus, and for the most part I’ve grown in my career. It’s a good feeling. When I started with the company I was hired on as an individual contributor. Today I have a team of 20 or so folks reporting to me.
On Monday I was promoted to the new title of Associate Director-IT Engineering. A director level position in a company this size is something I didn’t think I would ever achieve, but here I am.
I wouldn’t say that I’m comfortable in the new role, but I’m very pleased with the new opportunity and I’m content with the company. At this age, contentment is very important. Yes, there are very stressful days, but that’s what keeps me awake.
Fuel prices have been outrageously high in the Tucson area for the past two months. The oil companies say it’s because there’s been maintenance on the pipeline from California or Texas, I’m not sure which, and that the oil companies were also doing maintenance on the refineries during this time. Interestingly, fuel prices at stations just outside of the city limits were sometimes over a dollar cheaper a gallon.
I also find it quite interesting that all the fuel prices at all the gas stations in the area went up to these outrageously high prices at that same time.
That’s not supply and demand. That’s corporate greed.
Fuel prices have started slowly coming back down toward the national average, but they’re not coming down nearly as fast as they shot up earlier this spring.
Again, more corporate greed, plain and simple. We live in discouraging times.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
