I thought that it would be fun (for me) to reminisce about my time in the Carolinas. Of course, I was interested about whether they were getting equitable treatment in the clean-up efforts as well as whether Helene was as bad as I imagined. I suspect that it was worse because things look alright considering the amount of work that was still being done.
Author: bhayes952
April 11, 2025 – Revelations 1-7
There is a bit of controversy surrounding the book of Revelations. It was allegedly written by John based on some visions that he had. It is the last book of the New Testament and follows a couple letters from John. Apparently, during the Counsel of Nicaea this book was on the chopping block as to whether it belongs or not. There is even controversy that Nicaea actually debated the bible. For simplicity sake, let’s just agree that the Bible is was adopted in its current form at that event just like a lot of other things they adopted.
Revelations is one of those books that is extremely galvanizing. It has often been a focus of Christian splinter groups (or cults) like the Branch Davidians as an example. The colloquial view of the book is that it predicts the second coming of Jesus Christ. As such, those who have been faithful will ascend directly to heaven while those who have not will be damned. At least this is what I have already heard and believed.
One might wonder about it’s placement in the bible. I actually think that it is genius. Scare the Christians into obedience. If you have just read all of this love your neighbor doctrine straight through and then you get obey or else. That seems like a strategic position.
I am certainly no bible scholar. I have read bits and pieces here and there. One time I set off to read it and got into Joshua of the Old Testament and then put it down. There were too many names for me and it is really hard to read the Bible like a novel. I have also read all of the Corinthians I and II as well as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke of the New Testament.
What drove me to want to read Revelations is that attraction of the Doomsday groups to this particular book. I cannot condone the Branch Davidians activity, but I recently watched an accounting of the FBI masacre and I really cannot condone that either. There is something like us tin foil hatters that have to stick together.
Here is a quick synopsis. Chapter 1 is John’s vision of Jesus. Chapters 2 and 3 are about what the churches are doing wrong and what they need to change. Chapters 4-7 are all about the elements in the vision.
Having never read this before, I am not sure what to really expect. One thing that I can say is that Chapters 4-7 read remarkedly like Dante’s Paradiso. Dare I say that maybe this was the template to what Dante used? It kind of makes sense how Dante would come up with the dancing and singing angels. It was all in John’s vision with Jesus.
If this were a sermon, I might start off talking about the the seven churches and the context of each in relation to John and maybe even history in general. Then I would talk about the animals, thrones seals and scrolls. But I wont. Partially because I don’t really know all of that and partially because I think this time we will read all the way through before disecting each little part. There are internet sites that can help with the symbology if you want that.
I have to leave you with something though. So we have some churches gone astray as well as scrolls that contain a list of sins that is getting checked out. It probably indicates that trouble is brewing or at the very least stuff is being accounted for. Better get ready because the rapture could come at any time. We will see what happens next week.
End Your Programming Routine: When I think of the theology, there is probably a reason why Revelations doesn’t get a lot of Sunday air time. I know the bible stories about Noah and starting over but is God going to really empty the earth? I thought that he created it for companionship? Would this be the end of the human experiment? It sure seems likely.
April 10, 2025 – A New Year New Gear, Part 8
Whoa. It has been a busy period. I have been waiting for a long time to pull the trigger on my next purchases because of cost. Recently, I bought my tent, a satellite tracker and a new head lamp. Not only is this a big purchase but it represents a significant change to my strategy in training. I am shifting from my training pack to my new trail pack. I will also be moving from day hikes only to include overnights.
After these purchases, I have a few other things that I want to buy but they are truly optional. There are a few things that are possible as well. For instance, I may or may not buy new shoes. Right now it seems like they are holding up just fine but my actual hike is still a ways away. The last expensive and necessary purchase is going to be my food,
This tent is incredible. I have yet to set it up but I will of course test it out. I researched features and made some optional choices like doors that open to the side so each doesn’t have to climb over to get out. I decided on a two person tent rather than a one person tent. This is because it only added three ounces. I figured the versatility of possibly allowing another person and certainly more space was worth the weight.
The tent itself is only two pounds and eight ounces. It feels like nothing. I have seen bread loaves that are bigger than everything when it is packed up. There is one optional accessory which is called a footprint that I would like to buy. It’s purpose is to add a second layer to the bottom and prevent moisture coming through. But it also adds more resiliency to prevent tears in the fabric. I sure don’t want a $400 tent with a rip in the bottom.
A tent is potentially optional. I could have chosen a bivy bag or hammock or even toughed it out under the stars. I wanted a tent for two reasons. If the bugs get crazy, I want to get away from them, especially as I sleep. Also, if the heavens open up I want to be able to get away from rain if I have to. A tent is peace of mind for me and it is something I can use for years to come.
The satellite communicator is definitely a luxury. What it is supposed to do is send periodic GPS coordinates to somebody as well as contact emergency services when summoned. I don’t think that it is strictly necessary and wouldn’t have one if I hadn’t fought with my wife for the last twenty years about going into the woods alone.
I am looking at this device as an opportunity to be able to do some more back country hunting and fishing. Year over year, I have held back because I didn’t have a partner to go with me. Even this trip, I am supposed to be lining up some fellow travelers (which I do not really want). This of course requires a subscription service that can be turned on and off. I am planning on turning it while I train and probably leave it on until hunting season is over.
I would have gone on the trip without the satellite communicator but it happened to be 25% off this month. When the stars align with income and sales, it is time to act. More on how this works as I do more testing with it.
Finally, I really did not need a new headlamp. However, there were some new features that this has that I wanted. First of all, the other headlamp I have is in my hunting pack. I used it on my fishing trip last year and it worked fine. I didn’t really like how it accidentally would go to the red light when the button sequence was not pushed correctly. Plus, it is good to have some redundancy.
But more so than that, this new headlamp has a rechargeable battery pack that can also take alkaline batteries. Hopefully using rechargeable, batteries will never explode in the device and when it becomes discharged, I can replace with alkaline batteries until I get the point to charge again. It also has a nice carrying bag that will turn the lamp into a lantern by the light reflecting inside the bag. Pretty cool.
End Your Programming Routine: What started as a desperate search for topic ideas has now gone eight versions. As I said, I am not likely done buying things but this topic has run it’s course. It definitely wont be the end of my hiking topics. I plan on doing a whole pack-out before I leave. I am going to talk about lessons learned from my training as I get through them but the strictly buying gear posts are done. You probably didn’t enjoy them as much as I enjoyed planning and buying the stuff but more hiking coming on Thursdays.
April 9, 2025 – I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK
You may have seen the Stihl Timbersports competition on ESPN. This is the logging related competition where competitors cut through a log the fastest called ‘hot saw’ with souped up chainsaws. They also chop through telephone pole thickness poles with an ax in less than 20 seconds. Like other competitions, rodeo as an example, timber sports have their origins in practical skills.
When I was a kid growing up, our town hosted the biggest timber sports competition in the world and the competitors reflected that. It was called the Albany Timber Carnival. As with the fall of timber in the mid 1990s, so too went the Timber Carnival. But the lasting tradition of the competition and quietly preserved skills can still be found, if you know where to look.
I shouldn’t be surprised but I ran across the Oregon State University’s competition area when I was doing some of my practice hikes. One of OSU’s foundations is a strong forestry school. The hiking I have been doing is in the forest owned and managed by the college for teaching purposes. Why wouldn’t they have a competition program and the facilities to perform?
Ultimately, these competitors have to come from somewhere. My cousin competed on a team in high school in the late 1990s. I remember asking what the secret was to chopping with an axe. He said that there is definitely technique but a lot of it is how you sharpen your tools. That part I don’t quite know but I spent a couple of days sharpening my ax one time. I put a whole new bevel on the blade that was much sleeker. That thing definitely cuts like a house of fire.
I am no expert in this by any means. I have never competed or trained let alone barely watched one of these competitions on TV. I just think it is pretty cool to see this of throwback activity (to me and my past) is still alive. I takes me back to when I was a kid and timber was king. It was a time when my town crowned the world champion in each of these events.
End Your Programming Routine: I would love to be able to climb up a pole and know how to sharpen an ax so that I could whack a giant log in less than ten swings. Even more than my sentimental pride, the point of my writing today is you never know what you are going to find in the world. You have to get out there and explore that world to find it. TV and internet can expose and publicize things but when you just run across it incidentally, it is pretty neat.
April 8, 2025 – Air Fryers
We are continuing with food again today. I know that I am late to the game with the kitchen gadget ‘Air Fryers’ but we recently got one. I have messed around with it a little bit and so I am going to provide some insight to all of you holdouts out there. Is it a necessity or is it a gimmick?
About a month ago, my son called my wife and asked for help making a debit card purchase. Their is a large, box store out there that does not take Apple Pay. When I woke up the next morning there was a Ninja brand Air fryer on the counter. My son said that was his belated Christmas gift to us.
I have been an air fryer skeptic from the beginning. Not that I have used one nor have I eaten anything that has been made with one. My opinion is based on the people that I know who love them and rave about them are people that I would consider subsistence cooks. They cook because they have to, not because they enjoy it (or are particularly good at it either). They also tend to be very small cooks, generally for one or two people.
I am not trying to put anyone down, but I suspect that part of the motivation for my son was that he eats a lot of what I would call garbage. There is a lot of frozen dumplings, ‘chicken’ nuggets and things like that. What I have heard about air fryers are that they are faster than an oven and easier on the dishes. It is the perfect appliance for bridging between the microwave and a full blown range of someone that want’s to spend minimal time in the kitchen.
I have used it a couple of times and I have seen it used quite a bit more than that in the last month. I made pulled pork sandwiches a couple of weeks ago and the family wanted french fries to go with the meal. So, I tried out the air fryer. And my verdict – they are marginally better than baking in the oven. But, the volume of the basket led me to have to make two batches causing a lot of up and down from the table.
I find the air fryer, french fries to be overly dry. This is a slightly better texture than the greasy and limp oven baked fries. But, compared to the fry daddy, french fries I made at the beginning of the year there is no comparison. Those would be worthy of paying for from a drive through window, not a compromise of cleaning and mess.
I can only speak from personal experience. Ours seems to be a supercharged convection oven. So, it does a reasonably good job of browning all the way around what is put into the basket. Just like the french fries, I find other things to be overly cooked and dry and not just evenly browned. I am following the package directions, so maybe I just need to subtract a few minutes for model variation.
I do plan on doing more than just french fries. Maybe a frozen burrito would be a good test? That is not something I normally eat, but I remember the oven directions being something like 45 minutes. That is too much effort for a $1 junk food. I know people that cook roast beef, so I would be willing to give it a try for the sake of experimenting.
I will admit that the last time I was in Williams and Sonoma (months before air fryer) that I was looking at the Breville models they had. My interest was to have a second oven that is also an air fryer. I have no idea if the price was worth the performance, but again I was thinking of the extra utility. It is possible that I find this experiment worthy of upgrading at some point.
Let us bottom line it. Is the air fryer a gimmick? No, it does actually work. That being said, I see my kids using it way more than I do for things that I really don’t eat. I don’t find the performance or utility worth the counter space. But, since we have it, I will make an small effort to find what it is best at.
End Your Programming Routine: With family of five eaters, I do not find the capacity of our air fryer adequate. Maybe when there is two of us, I might change my tune if I can find things that it does well. I really don’t mind spending time in the kitchen and doings things traditionally. The speed that the air fryer offers, I don’t consider an attractive enough benefit. My vote would be a no for the air fryer, but to each his own.
April 7, 2025 – Why Do I Care About Food?
I am not outing anybody, but I do talk about what I would call food processing nightmares today. In some cases, it is enough to make your appetite turn. But we all have to eat to thrive. Fortunately, we have choice and at least at certain times of year we have tremendous abundance. Food can be one of the great pleasures in life that is also a necessity. I encourage you to learn more about your choices.
April 4, 2025 – The Fourth Turning, Wrap Up
Wow, what can I say but just wow. This book has fundamentally changed my thinking about my understanding of right and wrong. Up until now, I have believed in universal and binary thinking originating from sound fundamentals. I have come to change my understanding to think that right and wrong are generational and that is natural.
As we have learned, we are near the end of the sixth full cycle of the American experience. Can you image that just two cycles ago, it was a widely shared belief that slavery was justified? It was actually even biblically sanctioned because people that looked different were lessor. As saecula change, so do right and wrong. I have to believe that if I was alive in that time instead of now, my beliefs would have supported the status quo and not a radical abolition ideals of the time.
It is very hard to say how much our generational identity is truly ordained because of circumstance or other factors. I shared many of the cultural experiences of my generation but I also missed out on many of them as well. Because we lived in the country, because my parents are early boomers and took on less of the boomer characteristics, because we weren’t left home alone until later, because we didn’t have free reign of the TV, I was aware of Gen-X even if I didn’t fully participate.
Other portions of my generation I have exhibited in spades. The part where I am self-reliant and not willing to get involved in other peoples business. I am certainly a reluctant leader that only takes the position when there is no choice. Certainly, we all couldn’t be born this way or there would have been no class presidents or team captains. But when it comes to the real world, my generation is still waiting until they have to step in. I wouldn’t be surprised if we wait long enough that the Millennials just side step us.
After reading this book, I saw an example of how history can help us in real life. We have often heard the phase ‘study history so that we don’t repeat it’. If you follow the turning’s theory that is just plain not true. But, what I took away from it was I never understood how the GI generation could just trample all over the Constitution. I have come to realize that the Constitution had nothing to do with it. It is when the Hero generation is in charge, it is just the way things are going to be, legal or legitimate or not.
The Artists are going to continue the Hero’s lead. The Prophets are going to question everything from the Hero and Artist Generation. Finally, the Nomads are going to ignore it all until it falls apart and the next Hero generation takes charge. If you think about a cycle, this actually makes perfect sense in all aspects of life.
For most of my life, I have always bought into the marketing that the GI generation was the ‘Greatest’ generation. Now that I see that they actually broke the natural cycle of passing the baton to the Silent generation. Feeling emboldened by their success in every aspect, they kept the party going. The Silent’s stayed true to form and never really assumed power and not rock any boats which allowed the Me generation (Baby Boomers) to take over directly. They have brought their awakening and reborn fundamentalism to do the same thing to Generation X.
If I am being honest, it was the GI generation that started the mess our country is in by not following the natural laws even though naturally we were bound for trouble. My fear is that we have artificially influenced the natural cycle to cause a more delayed and catastrophic fourth turning. If there is one thing, there is nothing that I can really do about it but prepare for the eventual hard times.
If I were to prognosticate, I would say that Generation X missed the boat. I think that we may be entering the fourth turning right now. Many of the things that Trump is doing seems a lot like we just entered the Crisis. I don’t think that it is a crisis to eliminate a bunch of government bloat, but it is a dismantling of the system as we have known it. Whatever happens, we have taken a position of no coming back.
When the political winds swing the other way and they will, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a full on ‘Idiocrasy‘. I would imagine that we will have several cycles of this extreme push and pull. The net of Crisis is a diminished America. I do not see any way that a country who a significant portion of the citizens believe that men are women and vice versa are grounded enough in reality to thrive in a way that Americans have typically in the next high.
I have already stated how I feel about the book. I will now add it to my reading list. It is one thing to have books about what the world is doing to you. This book covers the why those things are happening. It doesn’t mean that I agree with what is happening, but I understand it in a way that I have never have before. You might read it and get something completely different but that is the beauty of this endeavor.
I stated last week that the next Friday series is going to be Revelations from the Bible. I think I will take it several chapters at a time. I don’t think that I will have an introduction week but if there is any need for background information, I will include it with Chapter 1. I have never read it but I see that it has 22 chapters. Since it is relatively short, I will probably read ahead and group as I see appropriate.
End Your Programming Routine: I have to say that last year was a struggle between Dante and Sun Tsu. In fact I almost gave up on this. Not reading but writing about it here. This book I thoroughly enjoyed and I am even sad that it is over. It gave me such perspective that I am taking a gamble on Revelations. I would probably read it anyway, but let’s see what we get out of it.
April 3, 2025 – Gone to Carolina
My nephew is getting married this weekend in North Carolina. They actually moved cross country to Charlotte right after Christmas this year. We are going on a lightning trip to be there leaving tonight and back on Sunday. Charlotte was the closest city to when we lived in South Carolina at only 30 minutes away. In some ways, it seems like our second home even though I haven’t been back since leaving our driveway in 2004.
But, we aren’t going anywhere close to Charlotte. We are going to western NC in the foothills of Appalachia. It is definitely a beautiful area but not home (#2). That’s OK because we are not going to have time to do anything fun or reminisce anyway. I have already looked at the weather and we are going to get some typical Carolina spring warm, wet and humid.
There is a chance that this will effect Altf4. Although I am very much ahead on things, there is a possibility that some kind of unforeseen situation will happen. It is also likely that I will get some good ideas from this trip so I am excited. Flying into Asheville, I expect that we will see firsthand damage from Helene as well.
I’ll be back in a couple of days. Tomorrow will be normal with my conclusion of the Fourth Turning which is already written. I have decided on how I want to handle Revelations. Week 1 will be books 1-7, including introduction. Week 2 will be books 8-20 and Week 3 will be books 21 and 22 with conclusion. I want to wrap that up around Easter, then we will be onto something new, likely Ayn Rand again.
We keep moving along. Just to make things interesting, I ran across this the other day. It is thought provoking. So, I will leave with this.
April 2, 2025 – Cross Training
I won’t say that I grew up skiing, but I did go probably once or twice a year in the high school years. Once I got to college, I purchased my own skis and would go four or five times a year. But once we moved to South Carolina, I got rid of them and never did it again. That is, until a couple of weekends ago.
We have been to the snow a number of times over the years. Sometimes it was to take out of town family to take lessons. Sometimes it was to take our kids to take a lesson. Always, I would just stay in the lodge with my wife while they did their thing. The truth is, I was never a good skier and I was afraid that being older and out of shape was a recipe for injury.
Our exchange student loves the snow. He has been invited four or five times since he has been here. So, this was a family trip. Since my kids had very limited experience, we decided to take lessons. Good decision since it has been 25 years since I had even been on skis. My wife asked me, do I want beginner’s or advanced lessons. I think that I already know about the snow plow, so I chose advanced.
It turns out that there were eight levels of lessons. We ended up at level 4. Since my one and only lesson was a couple hours at 14, I actually learned a lot of things that I did not know. Plus, equipment rental was included in the price of the lesson. The result was that I am way more confident now than I was before we went on the trip.
There was a lot of struggle with this experience. At first, I couldn’t get my boots to buckle. After carrying everything downstairs to the rental, the tech just undid the buckle. Then, as I was testing the boot fit, one of the instructors told me that the boots were too big. It was not easy to get my feet in the boot, I was already sweating profusely just trying to test fit.
The new equipment does seem to be better than it used to be. The one and only time I fell was getting on the chairlift with my boys when they did not leave enough room for me to sit down on the chair. During our lessons, we practiced control, skiing back and forth across the mountain. This technique took a lot of physical effort. Rather than carving swiftly down the mountain, we were inching our way down. Runs were taking 30 minutes.
By the time the lesson was over, I was definitely ready for a break. My knee was hurting a little bit and my thighs were burning. There were periods of total sweating from the exertion of control. After we had lunch, I decided to sit it out while the kids went off.
After an extra half an hour, I went out alone. By this time the mountain was getting a lot busier with new people all over the easier slopes, I do mean all over. This meant that I had to practice my controlled descent even more intensely. By the time I got to the bottom, my physical reserve was gone. I didn’t want to risk tweaking my knee or eating it a bunch of times.
The reality is that I didn’t get my money’s worth from a lift ticket and rental standpoint. I was only skiing about two and a half hours. But I definitely got my workout’s worth. The next day, I could hardly walk up the stairs, my thighs were still burning and I was out of breath going up and down to my office. Having not skied in so long I had no idea what muscles were going to hurt. I feel good about what I got from the lessons and my confidence has improved tremendously.
End Your Programming Routine: I stand by my decision to quit early. I could feel my body fatigue on the last run was at the edge of empty. It was definitely more fun than sitting in the lodge all day but it doesn’t make me want to run out and buy skis again. I still think cross country skiing might be a better fit for me now. After a good long hike the day before, I was bushed for several days afterward. That sounds like good cross training for me.
April 1, 2025 – April Fools Day 2025
I remember the days that comedy was king. It was staying up late to watch Saturday Night Live, sitcoms were the top shows on TV and slapstick comedies were the most popular movies. Now, I was a kid and taste’s change in me as well as the culture.
I can list off movie after movie that you had to see if you wanted to be in the in crowd like Airplane, Caddy Shack, Police Academy, Vacation, Revenge of the Nerds, Ghostbusters and many, many more. Some were more risque than others but yet still very popular amongst my grade school peers like Porky’s and Sixteen Candles. Nevertheless, comedies were everywhere.
I had a friend in middle school that gave me a cassette tape of the Dr. Demento show. It was a radio show that played all kinds of wacky songs and comedy bits on a weekly radio show. My brother and I listened to it several times and laughed and laughed. I don’t remember the time slot or station but it seems like it was on too late or a station that we didn’t get very well.
It’s always the friends. We weren’t permitted to stay up to watch Saturday Night Live mostly because we were committed to church Sunday mornings. I now occasionally watch it here and there and mostly find it disappointing rather than catching a good night’s sleep. But, it was pretty common to hear all about it on Monday morning at school.
My parents were interesting. They were very strict about how much TV we watched or movies we could rent. But, we could listen to the radio or read almost anything. But, if they heard somebody they respected say something, it was lights out. One time our Scoutmaster said that we were banned from listening to Guns n’ Roses because of their drunken behavior on an awards show. That then followed through to my household as well.
Of course we disobeyed. I really liked their music (still do) and that was really hard to enforce. I look back on a lot of this stuff now and I think that it is pretty tame compared to what access to things kids these days have. I have even asked myself, would I try to prevent my kids from watching or listening to this or that? My bias says no.
It is hard for me to remember whether Dr. Demento got banned or not. I kind of think yes. After listening to this YouTube throwback, I have to say that it does not appeal to my now either. But, to be twelve again, in a more innocent age this was entertainment. Some of those songs are still stuck in my head from that tape all those years ago.
This kind of humor seems pretty innocuous. A lot of it wouldn’t pass the DEI filters of today. I think that the root of humor has to be laughing at yourself first. How else would you have a parody song with the ‘Yoopers’ stereotyping themselves. Funny thing is that a lot of these songs would make it occasionally on popular radio. Dr Demento was just a show of all these kinds of songs strung together.
End Your Programming Routine: Just like last year, I am not big on pulling pranks. Listening to this kind of takes me back to the days of Mad magazine. Not everything in there was funny either. Some of it I didn’t get until much later in life like the parody lyrics to Born in the USA changed to Porn in the USA. All of a sudden, I felt like I was back to my youth.
Recent Comments