Ponderings and Musings

I see a lot of chaos in this photo. I’ve scribbled the family’s Chinese take out order on my the notebook adjacent to my work computer. The left margin is not flush. I’ve written the letter “e” in two different ways. The blotted out area is my Tucson phone number, written old school without an area code, and of course this is all mingled with a few scant details about a work project I’m working on. This particular work project is one of several projects I’m coding in parallel.

Luckily, the Chinese Food was very good.

The weather is suppose to reach 110ºF and higher starting Saturday. When telling folks about our move to Arizona we’re often warmed that it’s going to be hot. Then someone in the conversation says, “But it’s a dry heat”.

It IS a dry heat.

I try to get my morning walk in before 8:00 a.m. Sometimes my work schedule does not allow this but I won’t go for my walk of the neighborhood after 9:00 a.m., the sun is just too intense and uncomfortable for me.

Earl bought me a hat more suited for the desert sun and I’m finding it enjoyable. The walks are pleasant, but when I get back to the house the first thing I do is wipe the collected sweat off the top of my bald head.

Neighbors are friendly when our paths cross in the neighborhood; everyone says “good morning” and folks driving by all wave. I wave back. I’m happy to be in our little development here. We’re a few degrees cooler than the more urban areas of Tucson. It’s still very hot but I find it enjoyable. I’ve just had to adjust my schedule to enjoy the sunny weather accordingly.

After all, it is a dry heat.

As I get older I’ve noticed that I’m more sensitive to background noise and music. I don’t know if it’s from a decade of working alone in a home office or because I’ve always had focusing issues and I don’t have the tolerance I used to have or what, but I find it increasingly difficult to get things done with music playing in the background. I can’t watch TV while writing a blog entry, I can’t listen to music with lyrics while writing code, and I’m thankful that I no longer have to listen to the Samsung top-loading HE washer back in Chicago that made cricket noises when it was going through a wash cycle.

I’ve noticed that others in the house revel in music. We have speakers everywhere; no only do we have various HomePods and Sonos speakers, the house has a speaker system wired into most rooms and outside. We’ve begun hooking up these hard-wired speakers with a magic little device from Ayrlic. The magic little devices allow us to stream music from our favorite music apps and the like through these little amps that power the speakers in the designated room.

I drive in relative silence. If I do listen to the radio in the car these days, it’s Yacht Rock radio, which is way outside of anything anyone else in the house wants to listen to. I work in relative silence. I moved the little file servers into a separate room so I don’t hear the whine of the fan. I specifically use Macs and iPads because they don’t make any noise. When I’m folding laundry or cleaning out the dishwasher or something, I do it in silence.

It’s just my jam.

With all of the tech and associated companies pushing consumers to buy headphones and speakers and earbuds and overpowered devices to drive these accessories, it seems like the new habit is to have music going all the time. Good for the people that enjoy the music. I hope it fills their soul.

I’m not one of those people. Enjoy the silence.

Youtube has been throwing old episodes of “To Tell The Truth” my way lately. I vividly remember the show from my early childhood. Kitty Carlisle always seemed so regal and Peggy Cass seemed like such fun. The theme song was boppy. I don’t really care for the latest incarnation of the show; it’s just too vulgar. (God I’m sounding old).

I don’t remember Peggy Cass sounding like such an encyclopedia, but apparently she was well read.

My husband rides along with my various diet requests on an ever changing basis. This was my enjoyable breakfast this morning. I probably eat too much bacon and would eagerly switch to a vegetarian substitute if I could find a said substitute that cooks as crisp as regular bacon. I don’t enjoy a chewy bacon experience. I have tried various vegetarian bacons over the years and while they taste almost too bacon-y, I find them a little too close to a jerky substitute, which I don’t enjoy.

I’m happy my husband doesn’t find me to be a jerk with my every changing diet requests. I’d cook my own meals from time to time but things aren’t that desperate and even in this huge house with a big kitchen, I’m not allowed in the cooking area.

Our new home has nite lights wired throughout the hallways and stairwells. These little lights have LED bulbs, are fit into a standard-sized outlet box, and have downward pointing shades so the walkways are illuminated. When we moved in they were all wired to standard three or four-way switches.

There’s three circuits of these lights. The third circuit illuminates the stairwell that goes to our guest room. I was going to replace the switch this evening; when the project was completed then all three sets of lights would be controlled by home automation.

Except the stairwell bannister passes directly in front of the switch in question. There is a one-inch gap between the wall and the bannister. I decided tonight was not the night to tackle this. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to take the bannister off the wall to swap out this switch.

There are several interesting design choices in this house and this is one of the examples. At times we’ve found the wiring to be equally creative, but we’re getting that part figured out.

I just don’t understand why someone would install a switch and then place a bannister directly in front of it.

I have an ironclad memory. I’m known as the guy that remembers everything. I can tell you the bell schedule from high school (which I graduated from 35 years ago). I can tell you every home room number, every bus number, and I can give you SKU numbers from Ames Department Store, which closed in 2003. Magazines? 02730021. Greeting cards? 81230013. Candy bars? 67235515.

I can tell you very little about our drive a month ago from Chicago to Tucson.

It’s all about impact. The drive down made little impact. We drove through St. Louis. No big deal. It’s St. Louis. We drove through Kansas. It’s flat. It was our first time driving through the panhandle of Oklahoma. There’s nothing there. Our cat Truman settled down, we ate fast food, and bam, we’re living in Tucson, Arizona. We had very little interaction with the public, we didn’t see any friends between points A and B and I probably filled the tank on our 2016 Jeep Cherokee six times.

It was uneventful and for the first time in nearly 53 years, the ride did not make an impression on me. At all. I remember little about it.

I’m ready to make memories again. Our new home is a delight and we’re getting settled in, but I’m still not quite on my game. Things are not locking in as I would expect them to. Am I overwhelmed? I don’t think so. I’m missing my structured schedule. I’m still finding that structure. I like structure. It’s comfortable.

And when I’m comfortable, things make an impact. And that’s when the memories are written.

I need to find my comfort.

I was feeling particularly introspective during my morning walk today. I don’t know if it’s the arrival of spring (however that’s defined in our new home) or the magical sound of the wind sweeping across the desert or the presence of nature all around us again, but something had me pondering life and I’m better for it.

I am happy. I’m actually very happy and am thankful for this blessing of life. I try to never take things for granted and I realized it could all be taken away in nearly an instant, so I strive to treasure each moment, each thought.

For some reason I was thinking of my high school friend that passed on from cancer a couple of years ago. We were close friends in high school, lost touch with one another, found each other on the streets of Boston, connected again, and then he became ill and passed on to whatever lies beyond. I enjoy that he was always a calm one with a dry sense of humor. Now that I think about it, many of my high school friends were rather calm. Maybe I was the high strung one of the group.

This led to me to thoughts about death, and my eventual passing (it happens to everyone, you know), and how I’m very likely well beyond the half way point of this life. I’m not afraid of death. I fully believe without hesitation that something lies ahead on our path and it’s beyond our comprehension as to how wonderful it is. What we call life is just a part of a much larger journey. A sixth sense, a flirtation with death as a youngster, it all just makes sense and is part of a universal truth. I just know these things to be true. I need no proof. I need no reassurance. I just know it to be.

Where am I going with these thoughts? Forward. That’s it. They’re probably mere ramblings written down buy some middle aged guy in a blog of little consequence or impact.

I’m thankful to be able to share them.