Truman keeps an eye on the hummingbird in the tree. He occasionally makes a squeaking noise that’s usually reserved for when he’s chasing the laser dot. He’s not happy about having to wear a harness when he’s on an outdoor stroll but he accepts the practice as fact. The harness slows him down just enough that he would be easy to catch if he decided to make a run for it.
He tends to stay on the sidewalk or the patio; he doesn’t enjoy the stone that makes up our “lawn”.
I don’t know if TNSD is a thing. I made the acronym up; it refers to “Traumatic News Stress Disorder”, but I don’t know if someone had the same idea as me to call the constant barrage of bad news inflicting PTSD like symptoms TNSD. Maybe I should patent it. Capitalism.
We have Apple News as part of our Apple One family subscription. Apple touts the personal curation of the news feed, but it’s constant bad news. I don’t trust many news sources; everyone has an agenda. Who to believe? I end up reading something from the BBC. Someone without an investment in the success or failure of the United States.
I’m so very tired of news outlets and social media amplifying stupidity. I’m incredibly tired of the stupidity.
Let’s stop being stupid. Maybe the bad news will simmer down.
I don’t know why this came up in my YouTube suggestions today, but it looks like some bitchy fun.
The view from the gazebo right now. It’s currently 73ºF two weeks before Thanksgiving and I am really getting used to this. This is one of the main reasons we moved to the Desert Southwest.
Having flights in and out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base nearby makes the experience all the more sweeter for me.
My new glasses arrived in the mail today. I am wearing bifocals for the first time in my life and these glasses from Zenni Optical are wonderful. And more importantly, very affordable. With my prescription from late last year in hand, I ordered these glasses on the Zenni Optical website last Tuesday and had them by today. They fit will, they’re comfortable, and I’m getting used to the progressive nature of these bifocals.
I can see around me and read my phone at the same time without holding the phone out to the far reaches of the room. It’s a wonderful feeling. And it wasn’t expensive!
We went to a small family gathering today. My uncle brought along a photo album with some old photos; here I am with my sister and Grandma City. I can vividly remember this photo being taken and I think I was somewhere between two and three years old.
There were several other photos that I scanned with my phone and they make me smile. It’s been a good weekend here in Central New York and it was wonderful to see some of my relatives. Tomorrow we head back home to the desert and I’m looking forward to that as well.
This is my niece cat Skippy June Jones. She is one of two cats at my sister’s house but she is the more social of the two. Her sister is Peach Dot but she lives upstairs and wants nothing to do with her uncle. Skippy, on the other hand, is curious about her uncle but not used to the cuddles I tend to give cats. She’s rather stand in her sleek black coat and take a memo.
As I grow older and more solid in my ways, the more I realize that I’m at that stage of life where I want to live a “first class experience” to the best of my ability. I’m very fortunate to be where I am right now. I have the right job at the right time, we have the means for me to entertain a fairly expensive hobby as a private pilot, and we have been lucky to find a fabulous home in the desert with our chosen family. Not everyone finds their path and for the first time in over 50 years I feel that I am solidly where I am meant to be. It’s a great feeling. Many things have come together over the decades and now my goal is to enjoy this as long as possible.
When my husband and I plan travel I always push for first class. If I can’t be in the cockpit, I want to be as close to the front of the airplane as possible. I work hard and I am willing to delay my retirement a little bit so we can afford this luxury. There are two “first class” focuses in my life: airliner travel and computers. Since Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in the late 1990s and Tim Cook’s continuance and expansion of Steve’s vision, I’ve always considered the Apple computing experience to be the first class approach to technology. Many will scream in contrary to me about this, especially online, but I fully believe Apple still offers the best computing experience available to consumers today, and this belief extended to power users and full blown geeks like me. I try other platforms, often, but it’s like sitting in coach on a Boeing Dreamliner, the experience will get you there but will it be as enjoyable as it can be, that is the question.
I’m writing this blog entry from seat 1A on United Flight 6080 from Tucson to Chicago O’Hare. I won’t be posting this entry until right before bedtime for two reasons, there’s no Wi-Fi on this flight and my relatives don’t know we’re flying to see them this weekend. We’re just going to show up at their doorstep.
I’m writing this blog entry on my 2018 iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard setup. It’s a beautiful thing and since trading my 2015 MacBook Pro in for a gift certificate towards my new iPhone last month, I’ve pretty much adopted my iPad Pro as my mobile computer. It’s fills the gap of no laptop and works brilliantly in that regards. It’s thin, it’s light, and it does what I need it to do. If I’m going to do video editing or graphic related things, I have a Mac Mini at home. The integration is seamless and the experience is First Class.
My life is not a recipe for the life of anyone else. Everyone has their own path, their own goals, and their own future. I’m fortunate to be where I am today and to be headed in the direction I feel that is right for me.
It’s a First Class life and I couldn’t be happier.
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.
Weird? Eccentric!
