Month: May 2024

May 16, 2024 – What Happened, How Should I Feel?

May 16, 2024 /

There she is, this is the actual RV that I attempted to purchase. In a fit of luck(?) I was denied a loan. OK, that is the bottom line. But now let us get into the story of it.

Last week, I wrote about looking at RVs. In the week that transpired, I found one that I liked the price and would fit the immediate needs. That is, a place to stay for a month while my wife goes through a medical treatment where we have to stay close to the hospital. As I wrote last week, I am really kind of taken by the class B (converted van) type of body. While what is pictured below is a class C.

This was a 2007, had under 50,000 mil and was in really good shape. The best part was that the price was $28,000. I liked it a lot for our upcoming trip even if it was not exactly what I would have liked. My wife and I were really impressed when we saw it. She told a couple of her friends that we were looking at RVs and one of them asked if we wanted to split it. She immediately said yes and was ready to start pursuing it.

I don’t want to give off negative vibes. These are good people and the women are deep friends. In my mind, I was thinking “no, this is not what I want”. Despite the cost of ownership being split, I didn’t want to have to worry about I want to do this so you need to pay half or I really didn’t want that even if you paid for it all.

I have talked about being frugal before. If it were up to me, I would probably have piles of money. Of course, we have a yin and yang in our marriage and the financial side leans away from my yang quite a bit. I was definitely worried about taking on another obligation with my wife’s future. If I didn’t want this for her, it would be a hard no from me.

While I was wrestling with this, I prayed. I asked God for a sign on making the right decision. I started softening a bit after I didn’t get any sign I could see in the proceeding days. I started thinking about splitting the cost was really as safer starting point. I really didn’t want to commit, but I wanted to please so I said yes.

We were denied by the loan application. How does that feel? Relieved actually. I wanted this for her and I kind of wanted it for me. But all of the work getting ready to park it, the extra financial burden, the sharing aspect that I did not want actually makes me feel relieved.

I don’t know why we were denied. I suspect that it may be that my wife is on FMLA leave and not making any income, but you know all of the variables that go into that. I figured it was a slam dunk once we filled out the paperwork. God thought otherwise.

I won’t deny that there are some other emotions involved. The second one being shame. We started making plans with people and sharing what we are doing to now have to back track. I also won’t deny that I think we have too much debt. For me, any amount is too much and I wish that we had none but that is the whole yin/yang thing again. For me, that is a little shameful as well.

The third emotion is worry. What if there is something that caused this? I am waiting for the denial letter and then I will check my credit to see if something is amiss. We will need a new(er) car in the next few years and I make a lot of money per month. Not being able to qualify for a modest car sized loan is concerning.

End Your Programming Routine: Too often I only talk about success. Granted I don’t have that many, this is definitely a failure. I probably should have stood with my gut and said no from the get go. I am definitely weak when it comes to putting my foot down financially and I haven’t done a lot of it for many years. Thank goodness God has my back.

May 15, 2024 – The Monster Is Growing

May 15, 2024 /

This is kind of a fun one for me. I have had some time lately where my wife is getting long visits with friends. As a result, I hide out in the basement working on my experiment with Linux and radios. I do have my Software Defined Radio working, it is just not quite dialed in.

I am monitoring the stations that say are Police/Fire but I have yet to hear anything. It is kind of like fishing. You don’t catch anything if you don’t try but just because you are fishing doesn’t mean that you are going to catch anything. I don’t know if my antenna is not good enough or the frequencies are wrong or the software doesn’t work as advertised.

Regardless, the bottom monitor was one that I had in my office. It stopped working reliably in December of last year. It would plug in and work for a day until the computer went to sleep and then it would stop working until I unplugged it for a day or so. I replaced the monitor and put it in the recycle pile.

But, since the monitor was in my way, I decided to test it a little further and plug it into my Linux computer. I had a bit of a working theory that there was something to do with the graphics card since the monitor seemed to work on one machine but not when I switched over to another computer with a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch. Low and behold, it worked all week. Then I decided to hook two monitors up and it worked another two weeks.

Rather than throwing a 27″ monitor away. I decided to go for it and order a dual monitor stand. In the picture you can see that the tower on the left is the computer I have been talking about. The tower on the right is my XP machine running Linux Mint (32-bit). You read that correctly, Windows XP. This is the machine that my wife insists still has pictures and data that she still wants. These two also have a KVM switch attached to them.

Given that the Linux Mint computer is almost twenty years old and running out of date hardware, it actually runs pretty well. In fact, it runs significantly better than when I try to boot into XP. That is a good 10 minute wait before everything gets going. As an example, I swapped out the wireless card with one that I replaced in my main computer around Christmas time (to add Bluetooth). Mint recognized the card and added a driver and XP did not. I don’t really care because both of them are wired as well. I use it mostly as a troubleshooting tool.

I learned though that the same KVM problem came back when I tried to use the 27″ monitor as the primary monitor by both systems. This means that the upper monitor is the one that works with both computers but I don’t see myself using the old Linux Mint machine much given that it is somewhat limited. I wouldn’t have done this anyway if I didn’t have two monitors in the first place.

Given that I am getting things real cozy in that spot, I started thinking about it would make a good place to put some radios as well. Lately, I have been scrolling through a lot of vintage CB base stations and different GMRS radios. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that is in my future. I will have to modify shotgun hull storage area to do so. Given that reloads can’t be used in trap competition it is unlikely that I will be ever doing that.

End Your Programming Routine: My only real problem with this new setup is that it is cold. It is not a good place to sit for a long time even bundled up. That being said, it is kind of fun re-purposing old hardware and upgrading at the cost of pennies on the dollar compared to their technological heyday. If I have to keep something around, I might as well enjoy it.

May 14, 2024 – Local Alert, Local Alert…

May 14, 2024 /

Your experience may very. I should say that I certainly hope it does. But, I am going to talk about another recent trip to the local Emergency Room. In my area, there are four hospitals that are within 30 minutes.

The closest one, about fifteen minutes is a small, feeder type hospital. I would go there for common or simple problems. Those would be things like stitches or simple casts. In fact, I would go there if I was on the fence because they will transport to the larger hospital if it is actually life threatening. But beyond clear problems, you are better off going to the larger, regional hospital (coming later as option 4).

One of the four I will skip. It is not a regional trauma center and it is the farthest of the four. I will call option 3. This is a larger hospital and is fully functional. It serves as the regional life flight location. I like this one for ER visits because it is significantly easier to get in. This is a different hospital network than the first option I talked about. It makes it difficult to cross between the two systems.

Option 4 is what I would call the preferred hospital. It is the one tied to my wife’s doctors and has the most capability. Lord help you if need to go to the ER. A few weeks ago we had a routine appointment and the nurses were worried about high blood pressure so they sent us to the ER.

I have seen unsubstantiated claims that this is one of the busiest ERs on the west coast. We sat in the waiting room for several hours before getting some attention. They do triage walk-ins and certain people were sent back before us despite arriving after. This was also a day that the waiting room was only about a 1/4 full. What I would consider a light day in my experience.

We had a second trip to the ER recently as well. In this one the waiting room was full and there was a line out the door. Even when we were discharged at 1AM it was still full. This unit was built in 2010 and there are already not enough rooms. They are now putting beds against the wall. The people that are admitted that they think are not seriously injured end up in those beds.

My point is, given that they really don’t do much well besides trauma, you are better off not going to the ER. It ends up with an expensive price tag and a referral back to your primary for follow-up. Please do go if you feel like you need to go, Just don’t expect it to be like TV. They rarely solve problems or do anything other than checklist type care. They are going to make sure you are stable and then discharge to get through the full waiting room.

There is one thing that I have learned. If you really must go to the ER, go by ambulance. Of course this adds another expense to the whole process but you will surely get admitted and immediate care. I know that I may be coming of with lack of compassion. I think that you know it when you see it and I haven’t really seen it yet. Most of the people that go to the ER go to try and cross out worry rather than solve an immediate problem.

End Your Programming Routine: By all means, the emergency room is for emergencies. Unfortunately, most people’s definition of emergency is different than mine. I would also say that you have a voice. Yes, we would have not gone to the ER if the nurses hadn’t insisted. But, you can also say no. It is not easy but it is your life.

May 13, 2024 – Shifting To a Seven Day Mentality

May 13, 2024 /

We all have limited time and ability. I think what most employees get wrong is that they look at the engagement as what do I have to do and not what can I do. Even in the former case, entrepreneurs know that the buck ultimately stops with them. You have to be in the mindset to think creatively.

May 10, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Canto XXII – XXIV

May 10, 2024 /

We are on cornice six in Purgatory. That is one cornice or ledge or terrace from being truly in Heaven proper. The is the stop for gluttony. Of course the punishment for gluttony is starvation. Every other sin has the opposite action, why not this one?

I have often wondered about the deal with Gluttony. I mean, it is kind of grotesque when people cannot control themselves and wreck their bodies. But, I have often wondered there has to be something more. The more that I wondered, it finally came to me what the significance is.

Gluttony is about self control. Yes, there is a lot about moderation in many different contexts it in the Bible. But, here we need to go all the way back to Genesis and the origin story. After God created the world, he created Adam. Because Adam was lonely, he created Eve. For some reason, even the biblically created humans were still tempted and ate the forbidden fruit.

Moderation and self control is the antithesis of the original sin. It would seem that gluttony is the representation of that. Now, at least I get why it is an issue. I am not sure that I totally agree about the severity but I suppose this is why we are almost at the end of purgatory.

I didn’t totally map all of this out but from my recollection that the sins of hell seem to mirror Purgatory. That is to say that the first levels of Hell are actually the last levels of Purgatory. So, at least that makes sense from a logical and organizational standpoint.

I guess the other significant thing that I disagree with was Dante’s interaction with the character Forese Donati. His claim was that as soon as he died, his wife prayed so hard that he ended up at the sixth level of purgatory. That really violates the integrity of Christianity. We are responsible for our salvation, not anyone else.

Next week will be the last cornice of purgatory. That doesn’t finish the section but that is Cantos XXV – XXVII. The final study we will do is something about ‘Earthly Paradise’. I guess we will see all about that when we get there.

End Your Programming Routine: I know that I only touched on moderation and it can be a tricky subject because it is subjective. It’s OK to drink some but not too much and not too often. It is OK to eat cake but not too much and not too often. Who says when is too much, I don’t know. Maybe you know it when you see it?

May 9, 2024 – Don’t Blink, Summer is Coming

May 9, 2024 /

This is going to be an unprecedented summer for me. Of course, it is going to be centered around my wife’s treatment. We are going to have to temporarily move to Portland to be near hospital. It is looking that is going to be mid-July and run through mid-August to be optimistic. I knew this in general terms which is why I haven’t even tried to do any sort of gardening this year.

If I look at it objectively, it is no different than me travelling for work. I have been gone for nearly months at a time many times in the summer. Not only will I have to be working but I will also have to be a health-care support person as well. I am going to do my best to keep doing what I am doing now, We’ll see if AltF4 has to go on hiatus, kind of like last year.

One of the options to stay in Portland is to park an RV. We have battered the idea around a little bit. I grew up around RVs and I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I hate camping in an RV park. I don’t like the proximity to people. To me RVs shine when you want to do something else. When hunting or fishing, it is sure nice to pull in and not have to setup camp. Indoor lighting makes it much easier to get the most out of your day outside. It sure beats a tent when the weather turns sour as well.

For me, I think the ideal setup would be a class B RV. This is essentially a converted van. I feel like this would allow me to reasonably get off the pavement. I could see weekend excursions to fish coastal steelhead or a week long deer hunt. Add a trailer hitch bike rack and figure out a place to stow the Kayaks and this is pre-canned adventure. This really is not the vehicle to park for a month and work and heal. It is too small to really live in, we would need to live out of.

I would like to hold off a little bit. I don’t think it is the right fit for spending a month. I also feel like we don’t need extra expenses nor do we have a place to park it. That being said, this is my third reminder that life is fleeting. Once we get through this business in Portland, it may be a good idea to make some changes regardless of prognosis.

The primary downside of class B RVs are they are expensive. The one I really want costs around $200,000. Even used ones are running $40K on up. The more ubiquitous class Cs can be found much cheaper used but that is not really the format I want for the type of recreation I want to do. These are the perfect pull into the RV park for a couple of days. They may be much more suitable for parking for a month as well.

The truth is, we probably need new cars much more. My pick-up is 21 years old and my SUV is 14 years old. So, it is hard to justify an occasional vehicle when we really depend on a reliable vehicle. But, this is the same story that has held me back for years on looking at boats too. Once again, I am going to defer this.

End Your Programming Routine: The reason I titled this the way that I did was that if you want to make reservations somewhere you are running out of time. Memorial Day is right around the corner. I was thinking about it in context to RVs so if that is your jam you better get on it. It is hard for a fiscally conservative with an uncertain economic future to pull the trigger. That being said, we only have one life to live and sometimes it changes without our input.

May 8, 2024 – It’s Not the Time…

May 8, 2024 /

In December, one of my culinary book club peers gave me a sourdough starter. He is a tremendous bread maker and everything that he has shared seems nearly perfect. He says that the starter is over forty years old. Clearly, his efforts are the result of years of effort.

I didn’t ask for it, so I suspect that my wife did. Because as far as I knew, it was unsolicited and therefore I felt a sense of duty to keep it alive. Since December, I have made probably ten or so loaves of bread. All of them pretty marginal if I say so myself.

Like many of the things I do, I push the boundaries. I also don’t like waste. About a year or so ago, I accidently purchased some whole wheat flour. People in my house refuse to use it for anything, so I have been doing a half bread flour and half whole wheat flour loaves. The thing about whole wheat is that it does not develop the same gluten reaction and it comes out dense.

As a result, I have been messing around with the rise variables. The problem with sourdough is that left too long, it becomes gummy and thin, not bread at all but pancake batter. If not allowed to rise enough, it is a rock. Neither are desired results.

Ideally, this loaf would be 50% larger. I didn’t have time to let it sit for extra days nor did I actually have time to bake it properly. Hence, chock it up to another failure. But for every failure knowledge is gained. In this case, I used the oven off function because we had a doctor’s appointment to go to. All the while, the oven wasn’t on it continued to slowly dry out. It wasn’t a total puck but a 1/4″, rock hard crust all the way around.

Now to my point about time. Looking at the recipe, the only time listed as the bake time. It needs to bake at 400 degrees for approximately an hour. But, bread by its nature is way more complicated than that. Let us look at the variables and conditions.

First there is proofing time. This has been what has mostly been burning me. I find that in the winter, the kitchen temperature is not warm enough for dough to rise properly over night. This in turn puts it in jeopardy before I get started with meal planning. I think commercial operations use a proofing device or room for more consistent results.

Baking time is pretty straight forward. Some variability is expected but it is more or less along the time of the recipe. Another thing that burns me is bread needs to be done at least an hour before dinner. You cant just take it straight out of the oven to the table. I think if you are planning to eat by 6:00, bread should be done by 4:30.

Working backward, to be done by 4:30 it needs to be in the oven by 3:30. And don forget that the oven needs time to heat, so that means the oven needs to be turned on by 3. This means that the bread has to be risen by 3. If you check your progress at 12:00 and you don’t have the proper proofing, you are likely out of time to make perfect bread. So, you need to know whether you are going to gamble or throw in the towel for another day.

End Your Programming Routine: Now that I have written this all down, it seems simple. Hopefully, I can get my timing down such that all I really need to be concerned about is the proof. I am still working on that too. It is a good thing that I have to waste sourdough starter every week and I still have five pounds of wheat flour. Maybe I will get this figured out.

May 7, 2024 – Will It Juice?

May 7, 2024 /

When you start to get some age on you, unfortunately some people we once new are no longer with us. Also some people that we know are also survivors. In this case, one of my wife’s friends is a cancer survivor and she said that juicing was a key part of her treatment process. The first couple of weeks she brought some juice by and then she bought my wife her own juicer.

This is a nice piece of equipment. It is Breville which means that it is pretty high dollar (and well made). My first thought is where is this going to be stored? Then looking at it a little more, how much of a pain in the butt is this going to be to clean? It is my opinion that a healthy life tips the balance more towards a diet of whole foods. I think juicing is a short cut in a sense, but it certainly must be better drinking things that came from a can or bottle.

Putting my reservations aside, my wife wanted to use it so I set out to find some recipes to try. I found two that were advertised as ‘Energy’ and ‘Anti-Cancer’ so that is what I set about to do. Will it juice?

These recipes are for one batch which seems to produce about a cup worth of juice. The first one is Energy.

  • 1 stalk celery
  • 1 apple
  • 1 lemon
  • 4 leaves of kale
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 inch of peeled ginger

The second one is cancer fighting.

  • 2 carrots
  • 4 stalks celery
  • 1 lemon
  • 1/4 head of cabbage

This is the output of the second one. Once everything is stirred together it is a very vibrant orange. Left to its own devices, it will separate again in about a day. It appears that a very fine degree of solids is allowed to pass through the screen and those solids float to the top.

I tasted both of them. Neither were bad. I have to say that the green grass taste of the ‘Energy’ was less appealing, but not horrible. I could see having a glass of this every breakfast or something like that. I would probably want to try some other recipes to find what I really like. There were some recipes that contained rhubarb and that stuff grows like a weed from my plants. It seems like a good strategy when gardens start to become prolific.

I made a couple of batches with the thought that they might last the week. I have to say committing to this uses a lot of produce. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some might say it is the point of juicing. Just be prepared that finding a steady stream of vegetables are going to have a financial impact.

After trying things, there are still two downsides. The first is to find a home for this machine. I don’t want it living on the counter for the rest of my life. The second is cleaning. The catch barely holds a double batch and there are a lot of parts to wash. The filter screen has to be scrubbed because the fine fiber tends to plug the screen with each use. It definitely takes more time to clean than to use. Not ideal. There is a fair amount of waste generated. This makes excellent compost fodder or even chicken food. Since I have neither at the moment, I feel bad about throwing it out. But beware, you will have to deal with that as well.

End Your Programming Routine: Will I ever become a juicer? Probably not. I could definitely see making some custom Bloody Mary mix though. Think about it, the possibilities are almost endless. I am committed to making juice while my wife goes through treatment. I am going to sneak in a few things that I want to try while I am going through the effort to do this. I have to say that it is kind of fun and amazing to see the amount of water in celery.

May 6, 2024 – Addicted to Outrage

May 6, 2024 /

We Americans have a problem. We are addicted to outrage and that doesn’t lead to anything productive. I have to say that participating in outrage is the very tool that controls us. Join me to today talk about what to do about this.

May 3, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Canto XX – XXI

May 3, 2024 /

In all of my years of reading, I have never seen this word before. The word is avarice. Apparently, it first appeared in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I guess I missed that in high school because I had to look up the definition. According to Webster’s in the intense desire for wealth. If you are not used to reading the word like I am, I will call it greed from this point forward.

Another quasi difference I see with my version of the book is that it calls these levels of Purgatory as Cornices where everywhere else I read them as Terraces. Along with the names and mythology, this book has some of the most challenging vocabulary in any book I have ever read. It is modern English, but it is very highbrow. There are a lot of esoteric words that I have to look up if it is not noted in the footnotes. I don’t know if that is because this is a poem and the word is used for meter or not. I don’t recognize it as such, but the formatting is certainly grouped as poetry.

The big todo in these two Cantos is the earthquake that happens in Canto XX. It is not totally clear what the significance really means but it seems like the consensus is more along the lines of a soul leaving purgatory and heading into heaven proper. Another interesting debate in my noted section of the book was that when souls leave this Cornice, they start to gain some freedom.

This freedom means that the purification process is succeeding. Thus, souls are allowed some more self governance when it comes to sentence and repentance in Purgatory suggesting that they can ascend at their own rate. This all goes back to what I was saying about how sin is organized last week. The next three levels (including this one) belong to loving too much.

We cannot get by without discussing the sin and the atonement of greed. On this level, it was jam packed with souls. So much so that there was really no room to maneuver. I am speculating that this represents greed where the only thing left in their heart was the pursuit of wealth. I haven’t really seen it discussed anywhere but that seems intuitive to me.

There is supposedly one significant interaction here to. They meet someone called Statius. Apparently, he will be with Dante and Virgil until Dante moves to Heaven. Statius is a Roman Poet who wrote several classics which makes him a minor celebrity. As the legend goes, Statius is a converted Christian and represents redemption. So now we have Virgil as logic (and free will) Dante as humanity and Statius as redemption.

End Your Programming Routine: We are getting very close to closing out Purgatory. There are two levels left, gluttony and lust. Next week will be covering Cantos XX – XXIV. Just as promised, things have lightened up quite a bit since the beginning. This is good because I don’t want to read and write a downer for a whole year. I think that I am also expanding my vocabulary too.