Ponderings and Musings

Having a personal blog online for over two decades is an interesting experience. I’ve talked about going back and reviewing pieces of our life that happened a long while ago, but one of the more concerning aspects of the longevity of this blog is the amount of spam I receive that has one too many details for my comfort level.

I’ll get an email referencing a blog post from well over 10 years ago from sort of marketing spammy type thing and for a few moments it completely unnerves me. There are times that I wonder if it’s worth maintaining this now-antiquated presence without some sort of further guardrails around on the whole thing.

Of course, I’m a bit of a control freak, and I like to know everything that’s going on, to the best of my ability, at any given moment. In this increasingly chaotic world, that’s hard to achieve. But I like to keep up the façade for my own personal enjoyment.

I’ve been writing a daily post for the past few years because it wasn’t an exercise in sharing life, including the mundane points. When I first started the blog my posts were not as frequent.

As the Internet moves to a darker place, with way too many bad actors operating in the space and way too many corporations trying to monetize everything this side of my consumption of oxygen, I’m wondering if my ideals and values are outdated and in the long wrong could create further security concerns and the like.

I guess it’s a matter of what will happen first, I reach my expiration date or my blog gives out one too many secrets.

As I get older I realize that I have less bandwidth when it comes to patience with dealing with people. I don’t know if the average IQ is really plummeting (I suppose it is) or if people goes as brain dead on the Internet as they do when they step foot in an airport, but sometimes I really want to shake people by the shoulders and say to them, “Are you in there?”

I have the note shown above sitting under my work monitor as a constant reminder that I shouldn’t go into “meltdown mode” whenever possible. I despise the word “trigger” when it comes to human behavior, mostly because it’s a thoroughly overused word, but I do know that blatant willful ignorance is a “trigger” for me. It’s probably a trigger for most people, other folks just handle it better than me. I blame this on the American tendency to giving standing ovations to even the most mediocre of performances just so everyone involved feels good.

Maybe I’m just becoming a cranky old man. I’m actually OK with that.

This week has turned out to be a bit of a downer across the board for me, as it seems like one of those weeks where everything involves swimming against the current. The key is to stay away from the fishing lines. My mood has not been good and I’m hoping to regain my center by the end of the week, so I can enjoy the weekend with the family.

Maybe I just need a good dose of sunshine and fresh air, and step away from my Internet connected devices for a while.

As an American that went through elementary school in the 1970s, I learned that when one assumes the role of pedestrian on an American roadway, you walk facing traffic. So, in our U.S. ways, that’s the left side of the road.

It no longer seems to be a common theme amongst some folks here in our little development.

Early morning walks are a popular pastime here at Rancho Cancion and quite often I’ll see several of our neighbors out for a walk when I’m out for a stroll. The timing gets earlier as the sun gets hotter here in the Sonoran Desert, so right now folks are generally walking before 10:00 AM.

Most people walk as I described, facing traffic, along the left side of the road. I’ve noticed some of the younger folks (that have properly stayed off my lawn) walk on the right, or wrong, side of the road. Because I generally avoid people whenever possible, I cross the road so we don’t end up meeting face to face. That’s just not my jam.

Then we have the older neighbor who uses walking sticks. She generally walks on the right, or wrong, side of the road but today she decided to really keep me guessing and walked down the middle of the street.

I had to double my cadence so I could get around that chaos quickly. It boosted up my calorie burn for the stroll.

After spending several months on my own Mastodon instance, I’ve decided to move to one of the larger servers. This particular Mastodon instance has 17K users and is focused on tech. I like the community, know several of the folks over there and am looking forward to more robust interactions on this newish platform.

I’m am now on hachyderm.io. Please feel free to follow me there.

As I do research for my storm chasing trip coming up next month, I’m getting enthralled with videos like this one about The Great Plains. It’s such a fascinating area to me.

I have no idea why this clip crossed my mind today, but here we go. Let’s watch Charo perform “The Love Boat”. I don’t know why they’re in the lobby of a Holiday Inn.

When I was younger I noticed when folks said “life gets better as you get older”. They were absolutely correct. I’m comfortable with who I am and the way I look and the way I feel. Sure, the body doesn’t do everything it used to do (a bike ride would probably kill my knees right now) but I’m in a great place and right where I should be.

I always enjoy the small splashes of color around us here in our desert home. These are little reminders of all the good things that happen around us.

It’s kind of weird to think I have favorite photos that accurately represent who I feel I am on the inside. However, this selfie from 2009 captures my essence of the timeframe, and seeing this photo today makes me smile.