I watched this storm gather itself up, inch its way across the mountains, and make its way into the Tucson area. I admired the beauty of this effort for nearly 45 minutes until the rain finally let loose and chased me inside.
Watching and experience a storm is a life affirming experience for me. It makes me feel so alive and at the same time so part of this planetary experience. Mother Nature is a thing of utter beauty, and I’ve felt this energy around thunderstorms since I was a small kid in the bedroom of my folks’ 10×50 trailer (with 8×40 addition) when my sister was young enough to still be in a crib.
Mother Nature is awesome. It’s a privilege to witness her beauty up close.
Last night, Jamie came running upstairs exclaiming “you gotta see this!”. He then talked about a huge shooting star and it was amazing. I walked out on his patio and saw this:
I immediately knew it was a rocket launch, apparently somewhere over California. Space X launched a Falcon 9 rocket last night from Vandenberg Space Force Base last night and living in Southern Arizona gave us the opportunity to witness the event. The rocket was carrying 15 Starlink satellites that will be used in the existing “mesh” network of satellites providing Internet connectivity to rural areas.
The Falcon 9 rocket is designed to return to Earth for reuse after a successful separation in orbit.
It’s been quite a week at work! Oh, that’s right, it’s only Tuesday night. I’m writing this at 9:30 PM Mountain Standard Time. Guess who’s on a conference call.
While we were up at La Encantada shopping mall yesterday we had some lunch at a place called Italia North. A great place for a Sunday lunch, I enjoyed a soup and salad selection, along with a glass of Prosecco. I’ve been getting into Prosecco and Champagne lately.
One of trends of the 2020s is printing the caloric content of the food choices to be noticed by those perusing the menu. I suppose this is to encourage healthy eating, but if I’m having lunch at a swanky shopping center with a glass of champagne, I’m not sure I want all this knowledge.
Admittedly, seeing the calories listed next to each of the dishes inspired me to go with a soup and salad selection. That’s probably the intent; educate the consumer so they can make an informed choice.
On the other hand, sometimes I want to just enjoy some time out without counting calories in my head. Since this trend started I once considered a piece of cheesecake at the local Cheesecake Factory. Since the calories in a piece of cheesecake could support the hunger needs of a small African village, I decided against the experience and breathed in the fumes of a small piece of water cress I picked up at the local Safeway instead.
I now have a hankering for cheesecake. Don’t show me the details.
We are at the Apple Store with our friend Marshall. He is trading in his iPhone 12 for and iPhone 14 Pro Max. I like the vibe of this store here in Tucson.
It’s been a long time since we did an in store selfie. Today we used a MacBook Air identical to my personal MacBook Air. It’s fun to do Apple Store selfies again.
There’s a “Today At Apple” basic training class going on at the next table. I enjoy the age range of the attendees. Good for them.
Marshall took this most excellent photo of Truman this week. We were watching “The Good Wife” but Truman doesn’t have an interest in Christine Baranski, as dynamically interesting as she may be. He’s more concerned with his next round of kibble, which accordingly to the clock on the wall in this photo, was 16 minutes later.
Truman enjoys his automatic feeder, even if it doesn’t give him enough kibble when it starts making rumbling noises.
Truman’s pose in this photo may be attributed to the scant bits of thunder and lightning we’ve been getting each evening (though there was one impressive storm early in the week). Usually he doesn’t care, but if the lightning is distracting from listening for the rumble of the kibble dispenser, then it’s important to stand up and take notice.
While I am not a religious person, I am very intrigued by the idea of rituals. It’s the structure of rituals I find most appealing; as I get older I find comfort in predictability. It helps the world make sense to me.
There’s a lot of chaos in the world, especially evident in social media and the offshoots of the behavior, with the pearl clutching, outrageous adjective use, and desire for clicks and clacks.
I had a revelation this morning. A good chunk of my participation in social media has to do with validation. It’s an exercise in trying get that next trophy. Good job, you’re funny, and all that. And I’m seeing that as wasted energy. There must be better uses for the energy expended into writing short blips of content on the social media sites; things like reading, learning, thinking, reflecting.
I don’t want social media to be part of my daily rituals any longer. At my age I suppose I should no longer need to seek validation, after all, I’ve made it this far and as I enjoy the better half of my life, I should just be content in being me. So many rely on social media for contact with others. That’s always been my excuse for maintaining a presence of Facebook. It’s a way to maintain contact with those that share a common interest, and more importantly, friends and family back east. We all know phone calls and letters and FaceTime and emails excel over social media. For many these methods seem outmoded and outdated. Well, maybe I’m outmoded and outdated.
I’m content with that.
I have always admired the ways of Vulcans in the Star Trek universe. Completely fictional, there are elements from Stoicism that inspired the writers that conceived and continue to expounded upon Vulcans. Is Stoicism for me? Not entirely, but it’s something to read and learn about. And energy once used for social media can easily be redirected to more important things, like reading. I still enjoy reading books, although I have been known to try to make the print larger in a hardcover book by spreading my fingers as if I was trying to zoom in on an iPad.
As I moved my daily rituals from frivolity to a more intentional existence, I can’t help think that I’ll feel more fulfillment in the long run. When my time has passed and folks talk about me I hope they say, “he really grew into his own, and he was very pleasant to be around”.
Perhaps that’s the greatest trophy to earn in life.
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.
