J.P.

I recently saw a friend that I haven’t seen in a couple of years. We were very happy to see each other as it had been much too long. As we shared hugs and conversation, he mentioned the fact that I am clean shaven. It’s not a look that he is used to on me. I gave him my standard answer when asked about the absence of my beard these days, “most pilots don’t have facial hair.” This was something that my Dad mentioned to me over 30 years ago during my first trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I know many of pilots with a beard or mustache, but I don’t feel comfortable amongst their number.

It’s not the first time that I’ve heard a comment about being clean-shaven. Back in the day I was known for my huge fireman’s mustache.

I thought about growing a mustache again but I’m not really feeling it right now. I love the attention that I get when people compliment the mustache but I’m not looking for attention these days. Getting that attention pushes me into a prideful mindset. I’m content with who I am and how I look these days. In the past it’s been rare for me to be able to say that.

I feel good. I think I look good. I’m a happy man.

Anyone that’s had any sort of awareness of the 21st century has probably noticed that technology has permeated the life of everyone in some sort of a modern society. I sometimes wonder how my grandmothers would have enjoyed the likes of Skype and such but they moved on back in the days of AOL floppy disks so I never had the chance to see how their interactions with the Internet would have been. I think my city grandma still had a rotary phone in the kitchen, now that I think about it.

I’m digressing.

With technology everywhere, it’s easy to see that people are now becoming dependent on technology. It’s not uncommon to see a driver behind the wheel of a car in the dark without their lights on because the whizz-bangy doo-dads didn’t turn the lights on for them. This drives me crazy for many reasons, including the fact that it’s a safety hazard for the rest of us. Is it necessary to use technology to automatically turn the headlamps on? Shouldn’t the responsibility fall on the shoulder of the driver, not the computer?

There was recently an article in the LA Times that suggests getting rid of automatic flushing systems in toilets to could save California millions of gallons of water. I know that back in the day when these automatically flushing toilets came about that we were told it was better for the environment because the toilet could control how often it was being flushed. I don’t know about anyone else’s experience, but every time I use a public toilet that has the automatic flusher, it flushes two or three times as I move around in the stall trying to get my pants back up. If it was a manual system, like in the “good ol’ days”, I would have flushed the toilet once and that would have been it. If we figure three gallons of water per flush, that one incident would have saved six gallons of water right there.

Who’s idea was it to automate toilets, anyway? Have we become so lazy as a society that we need someone to flush our toilets for us? Have we become unable to use our foot to push down the flusher (because god forbid we use our hands.)?

Sharing information and having the world at your fingertips at all times in pretty nifty in many ways. But when people are more focused on their phones than on the world around them, who is benefitting from the advancement of technology? The user? The viewer? The ad companies?

I’m all for technological advancements, even in my middle aged years where I’m probably a little crankier than I used to be. But those advancements need a purpose. We should have a reason for implementing technology, not just throwing an electronic doo-dad in every thing we use and do because we can.

I like to think of Earl and me as a “power couple”. We both have pretty intense careers; Earl’s is a little more high pressure than mine, but in recent years my career has really started to move in a positive direction and I am very happy with that.

It is because we work hard during that week that we are able to play hard on the weekend. Traveling isn’t an easier affair for us; I carry two computers, one or two iPads, my iPhone and possibly my work phone (I usually use my iPhone for both work and personal business) and Earl carries his personal iPad and his work iPad. There have been many occasions where Earl has taken care of conference calls along the side of the road in places like Des Moines, Iowa or at the entrance gate to Animal Kingdom. Last week I spent two hours along the New York State Thruway in a snow/sleet/rain storm fixing a server issue using my iPad, my work computer and a smattering of profanity. I know others that do the same thing; a very good friend of mine writes applications using his laptop whilst sitting at a resort hotel swimming pool.

The only time that I’m really disconnected from the world is when I’m flying an airplane, and even then I’m not disconnected; I can still get phone calls and text messages, I just wisely choose to ignore them.

I am living the life I had always dreamed about and it’s because of a lot luck, some crazy twists and turns along my path and a lot of hard work. When you put your mind to it, one can accomplish anything.

I had my annual physical this morning with my primary care physician. I’ve been seeing the same doctor for nearly 20 years and he’s a good guy. He’s moved his practice a few times but I follow along like the good patient. One of the reasons that I like my doctor is that he is always punctual. If my appointment is scheduled for 9:20 a.m., he is in the room at 9:20 a.m. There’s no waiting around. He doesn’t like to keep his patients waiting.

To comply with FAA medical expectations, I had to resort to taking medicine to control my blood pressure. Happily, my blood pressure has been staying where it belongs, it was good this morning. I don’t like being dependent on medicine but if it’s going to keep my alive longer, and it allows me to fly an airplane, I won’t complain about it. My doctor didn’t pressure me to start taking medicine, we just discussed the pros and cons. We had the same discussion about cholesterol medicine today. I’m waiting for my blood test results before deciding if I want to do go down that path or not. He said it was up to me.

I’ve been wanting to exercise more now that the spring-like weather has arrived, but Mother Nature is still living on the wild side a bit. I started a 20 minute mid-morning walk in the sunshine this morning, but a fast approaching storm had me being pelted with hail for the last five minutes of the walk.

It made for a pretty sky, though.

Sears Holdings Corp. recently announced that they will be closing the Sears store in our local mall in June. This particular location opened with the mall in 1980. It is one of four anchor stores. The mall has been struggling a bit over the past decade or so; I’m not surprised to see the Sears store has been slated for closing.

I am surprised that the nearby Kmart, also owned by Sears Holdings Corp. is not going to be closed. The store has not been updated since the mid 1980s and shares a building with an abandoned grocery store. It seems to never be busy and is often in disarray.

I’m sad to see that our Sears is closing. I don’t like to see any establishment closed down, even a national chain in a nondescript mall, and especially an establishment that’s part of a company that’s been around for a century or so. Sears is as American as the Brady Bunch.

Hard times have fallen onto the Sears Holding Corporation; I don’t know that the folks of K-mart really knew what they were getting into when they bought Sears. There’s been a whole bunch of missteps since the acquisition; Sears Grand, Sears Essentials, the continuance of “Big K” (when we all know the damn thing is just a Kmart). However, a few years ago Sears tried a new concept in Duluth, Minn Georgia, and from the outside it looks like an upscale version of your typical Sears store. I think the return to the original script Sears logo adds a touch of elegance.

photo courtesy of Labelscar.com

Personally I think Sears should completely abandon the Kmart name and focus on two things: upscale Sears stores with a boutique approach, located in malls and revitalized downtown areas, and Sears Essentials, the Sears name going after the Kmart crowd. With names like Kenmore and Craftsman behind them, I think Sears Essentials can carve out a niche outside of the Walmart/Target mindset. Get rid of all the other variants and stop trying to be everything to everyone everywhere.