Category: Opinion

September 23, 2021 – Grab Bag or a Flaming Bag?

September 23, 2021 /

Even though I am going to the range tomorrow, I am out of mental energy to come up with an appropriate topic today for Tacticool Thursday. Hopefully, we will get my dad’s rifles sorted out finally after two years of trying. Hunting season starts in two weekends so it is time to get this finished.

I was listening to the Orvis Hunting and Shooting podcast the other day. I don’t remember the guest by name but I think that he was around 70 by the timeline of his life. He was talking about his childhood and how they would spend months out in the field. By my speculation, that means this was likely in the 1950s or 60s.

I started thinking about how life has changed since that time. For instance, I don’t know anyone that takes months off year over year unless you are a teacher, but certainly not in the fall. I also don’t know any kids that don’t attend school on a rigid schedule. The guest was also talking about how they had to live off of what they procured such as small game and fish. With all of today’s laws, that type of recreation would not be legal.

My mind wandered a bit more. From everything that I read about history, this kind of more leisurely lifestyle was more common earlier in the century. My how life has changed. Now, we can’t even take vacation without worrying that we are impacting our career. I am not going anywhere specific here, I am just lamenting that I cant even imagine taking months off a year.

One thing that my job hiatus taught me is that I need some downtime periodically. The difference between a week off and two years is night and day. It is almost as if one week off makes things worse because it is not like you can drop everything and pick it back up when you return.

Maybe it is the type of job that I have? Maybe if I was building houses rather than computer systems it would be better? I don’t really know because I have never worked a non-professional job longer than three months at a time. I have said this before that my favorite job was working as a janitor in college. It was a complete context switch between the lab and studying to just mop the floor. I feel that way about delivering for Amazon as well.

For me, having that time off allows me to reflect on what I could do differently so as not to have the same problems or experience in the future. I don’t think that there is enough time in a typical vacation to do that. There is also not enough time to resolve anything either. Maybe I should just take my own advice and accept the situation is what it is?

Another interesting topic came up in that conversation. It is the decline of the ‘outdoorsman’. As a result of the compression of time, people have become very specialized in their interest and less so a generalist. You think of people that identify as a hiker, trail-runner, mountain biker, hunter, or fisherman. Then you can break it down even further such as I am a bowhunter, big game hunter, upland bird hunter, duck hunter and everything has specific gear and seasons and dogs.

The point was made that people don’t need to know knots anymore because you can now buy a cheap ‘thing’ to replace what a knot would have done in the past. That all counts for some of the decline of general outdoor skills. I have heard it said that the number one tool for pioneers was the ax. With it you could blaze a trail, build a house, make other tools etc. I suppose if all I had was an ax, I could probably so some stuff I never thought possible. But, as of now I have no idea where to begin.

I thought that those things were interesting and thought provoking. I ran across this photo today and I am sure that it is not what the headline appears. That said, what a disgrace that our media uses to propagate this nonsense. I wonder if they were vaccinated?

End Your Programming Routine: Between my choices I am making and circumstance, I am exhausted. Today was kind of a free form writing as things come to mind. I am looking forward to spending my month out in the woods some day. At least I am looking for ways to add leisure back in my life if I can.

September 22, 2021 – Top of Mind Today, Estate Planning

September 22, 2021 /

I am certainly no expert in this topic and I hope that you will not find it boring but I have learned a thing or two about participating in the process. I hope that I can provide some perspective for you to think about. The other truth is that I had one perception and the reality is something different.

First of all, if your estate situation is complicated, I would definitely consult an attorney. Proper steps made make a big difference in the outcome. I had always assumed that being married had the simplest transfer and to some degree that is true. What isn’t exactly true is if assets are not jointly held or titled, then they are subject to probate.

Let me try to explain a little further. Let us say that your partner has a vehicle titled in his name only. If that partner dies, that asset gets thrown into the probate pot. If there is a will specifically designating the spouse as a beneficiary, then it is pretty clear that the spouse will get the asset post probate. If the will is not clear, then the asset is subject to the executor clearing the estate post probate.

What does all that mean? It means that first of all, there is a ‘cooling off’ period which is called probate. This is a legal procedure that recognizes the estate’s executor by name. The executor provides fiduciary responsibility until the probate period has closed. That means that the executor is entitled to sell assets to cover outstanding liabilities during the probate period. It also means additional creditors have time to make a claim against the estate.

In the end, the heirs named in the will and post the probate period will get the remainder of assets divided appropriately. If you made the assumption like I did that the spouse will assume all of the assets, that is not true. The spouse assumes 50% of the assets unless they are jointly titled in which case they do get 100% or they are specifically named in the will as getting all of the assets or the court deems it was the deceased intent to do (in the case of an inadequate will).

Debt that is in the name of the deceased is slightly different. It is true that all debt is still owed, but that is subject to the value of the estate. Meaning, any assets that are singly held must be liquidated to cover the debts until they are all paid or there is no money left in the estate.

There are some loopholes here, for instance retirement accounts or life insurance. Those things (hopefully) have a named beneficiary. That money would then move directly to the beneficiary without involvement of probate. However, if there is no beneficiary name, the money goes into probate for paying the debt of the the estate or split amongst the heirs.

Whoa, I thought this was going to be easier to explain. A vehicle is significant, but what about a house? This is the same thing. What is even more complicated is that if there is current debt against the asset, the asset is the security for the loan payment. This is one of the best cases for life insurance.

I think I have gotten through all of that, now is time for a relevant detour. I am staring out the door at my office. The basement is literally littered and clogged with junk. Most of it has an occasional use and a purpose. The question is ‘is it used, do you know you have it, can you find it?’ I have had this theory that it is so much easier to acquire things than it is to actually get rid of them. Not necessarily emotionally (sometimes that too) but physically. For instance, I ordered a dumpster to help with cleanup at my in-laws which cost me $650.

As a person with a preparedness mindset. I am always thinking about spares and backups and a way to re-use things, I also know that I have acquired my fair share of ‘other peoples problems’. When you think about getting a house ready for the market where some of the stuff is going to go into storage there are lots of things that won’t. I have hazardous waste for garden chemicals, paint that is two colors removed and hardware of one million varieties. Me being a handy guy and a tool guy, I have most of what I need. But, I don’t want to just throw stuff of value away. But in the vein of estate planning I think it would behoove us to think about the lifecycle of all the things we acquire so that it doesn’t become another problem.

My plan after finishing my office was to initiate the basement and garage clean-up. I never anticipated this life altering event to occur. As a result, I have been trying to combine my clean-up with helping out my mother-in-law. That makes it go quite a bit slower (for me).

End Your Programming Routine: I used to think ‘who cares what happens when I die’. I think this event has made me more thoughtful to the consequences to this line of thinking. I am not rushing out to make a will just yet, but it definitely needs to be on the short list this year. Additionally, I am thinking long and hard about what I may think is acceptable to keep laying around as I reorganize everything.

September 20, 2021 – Speaking of Saving Time vs. Money

September 20, 2021 /

We had our first taste of fall come on Saturday. It rained nearly two inches which is really unusual. Despite the fact that I plumbed the heat pump condensate to the sump and it has been running lightly all summer, wouldn’t you know that the pump failed Saturday morning.

We were trying to get ready to head out the door for a day of clean-up at my in-laws property. Since we were expecting it to be raining and miserable all day, we were getting our rain gear from the basement. Luckily I was near the pump and I heard the pump running dry. I went over to inspect and found that the screw holding the switch bracket in place had rusted off and had wedged the level switch in the on position.

Knowing that we were going to be gone all day and knowing that we expected a lot of rain, I could not leave the house with this situation the way it was and not end up with a lot of water in the basement. I have done this repair before, My first attempt was to extract the broken part of the screw. But the mud, low light and depth of the pump made my first attempt not successful. Since I needed to remove the pump to try and fix the problem, I decided to replace the pump instead. There is no guarantee that I can get the broken screw out anyway.

It is 9:30 AM Saturday. The local hardware store is five minutes away and open. The short of it is that I had the pump swapped out in an hour. There was no major issue and hopefully, I will have a spare if I can fix the old one.

Given that we already had a long day scheduled and that we were late to begin with, I appreciate that the local hardware store was not only open but had what I needed in stock. Remember what I said on Friday maybe not always what you want, but will work? In this case, I replaced a 1/6 HP pump with a 1/3 HP pump.

Well, the smaller one was doing the job fine. Secondly, I paid probably twice as much for this pump than the smaller one. Lastly, pumps rely on pumping for cooling and the on/off cycle is the hardest part of the job. It is possible that this is oversized and will have a reduced lifespan as a result. I guess we will see. But, we had a dry basement and most of the day to do what we needed to do. Despite the trade offs, this will be good enough and price checking after the fact, I paid the same as at the big box.

End Your Programming Routine: How’s that for timing? I just want to reiterate that I appreciate that I could get the job done in such a short period of time. Anecdotally, I was explaining to my boys what was the problem and me fixing it. Meanwhile, on Sunday, the pastor was lamenting how his father never taught him anything around the house (which of course was the lead to a deeper subject). But, I think I was given a strong message with this problem.


September 15, 2021 – Ode to Norm Macdonald

September 15, 2021 /

I had something completely different planned for today, in fact I had already started writing it but when I heard that Norm Macdonald had died, I had to say a few things about him.

If you have heard of the doppelganger theory, then some people say that I look like Michael Keaton (that is a story for another day). I feel like Norm was my comic double. I am probably not as good of BS-er as I think he was, but I feel like he can really deliver one liners like nobodies’ business. So, if I think I was ever going to be a comic, then I would look to Norm for inspiration.

I am not going to go on and on about him but I thought that it was worth mentioning that he was probably my favorite comic. I liked that fact that he would would just keep plowing through jokes that ended up being terrible. It was probably the years of training at Saturday Night Live. See below for an example.

He also seemed to be able to fit in a wide variety of situations. Not everything was filthy/raunchy but he could keep right up there with the Eddie Murphy’s of the world if he chose to. I read this joke on Wikipedia yesterday and I was laughing at the punch you in the face technique Norm would use.

After the announcement that Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley planned to divorce, Macdonald joked about their irreconcilable differences on Weekend Update. “According to friends, the two were never a good match. She’s more of a stay-at-home type, and he’s more of a homosexual pedophile.”

I listened to his podcast a couple of years ago, at times it was pretty rough. But again, despite the disaster of the show, Norm kept going. This was going on at the time that he was also playing Colonel Sanders for KFC so he also new how to make fun of himself too.

End Your Programming Routine: Life is short. We should laugh once in a while including at ourselves. We don’t always have to get so offended either. Norm was a writer and a comic more so than an actor which means that he liked to make others laugh. I know that I am going to miss his work.

September 14, 2021 – Be Gone

September 14, 2021 /

It seems like every few years, I get on a cleanup kick. It is probably more like I run out of energy every few years and then something sparks it back up. That is the case here. Now that my office is done and stuff is strewn all over the basement, it is time to get organized again. There is no sense putting everything back.

The day after I quit my job in 2019, I spent the afternoon in the basement. It was my intent to start cleaning out and consolidating. That was the last time I made any attempt. But, now it is for real since my office took over space that was formerly storage and now there is less of it.

I have another motivator, fall is coming. With the weather change comes the occasional flooding in the basement. I always spend some time in the fall moving and preserving all the things that get carelessly left out in the bustle of summer parties and knowing there is a tomorrow to take care of it.

This year is more than a tidying up, it is a major remodel. I am finally getting rid of my college textbooks and old software, the original drapes my wife’s grandfather’s desk, baby furniture parts, etc. First, I need to reclaim some space that I lost, but second I haven’t accessed most of that stuff since it made it into the basement in the first place. In fact, some of it didn’t make it out of the box it was packed in before we moved in 2005.

I typically don’t consider myself a pack rat. Using my textbooks as an example At the time that I got them, there was barely an internet. Certainly, in the mid 1990s it was not developed like it is today. The reason I kept them was that it was the only way to access that specific information at the time. I hate to throw them out because the information is still valid, but I am not an active chemist anymore. I haven’t used that information in over ten years at least.

My now Linux computer still has a 3.5″ floppy drive. I paid an extra $100 when I built the computer to have it. At one point, earlier in my career I did access some calculations that I did in school. They were highly complicated calculus equations to model tank volumes which I used as a chemist. But, I haven’t been a chemist since 2008. Both mine and my wife’s college work is on the stack of disks. I am going to save the data before I toss the disks.

To be 100 percent honest, I have no idea what is on the 5.5″ floppy. Our first 8086 IBM in 1986 had a 3.5″ drive so I don’t know why I would have the other size disk. I kind of think it came from my wife but I have no ability to access the disk.

About a year ago, we helped my in-laws move back into their house after a remodel due to water damage. What I was saying to them was this is a process. You have to know that you have it, you have to know where it is and you have to use it at least occasionally.

We do have a few things that I am not quite ready to part with despite the fact that it doesn’t meet that criteria. For instance, we have a silver plated punch bowl that we got for our wedding. I think we have used it at most three times. But for most everything else, it needs to go.

End Your Programming Routine: I am trying execute this in the most efficient way by minimizing the trips to the dump and donation centers. That being said, it is difficult to keep moving piles to new piles but I am getting through it. I think that it going to take a couple weeks as I continue to peck at it in my free time. I am looking forward to finishing this project.

September 13, 2021 – You Probably Think I have Lost My Mind

September 13, 2021 /

Friday seems like a generation ago for me. It was another blur of a weekend that I can barely remember. Since this is not Facebook, I am not going to get into all of those details but what I will say is that everything was about closure and preparation to move on. For the foreseeable future, it is just us guys home.

One thing that I haven’t done in a couple of years is canning of peaches and pears. In fact, we are out of pears and down to our last quart of peaches. I think the last time I did it was 2018. Ideally, you would plan to can what you would eat in a year. When I was growing up, my mom would shoot for 1 quart a week. For us, I think that is a little steep but I definitely want to have a little more than what I think we would eat so I am shooting for 24.

What you are looking at is 60 lbs of peaches and 56 lbs of pears. With peaches at least, you always want to get them a little firm and let them ripen up. Otherwise, they get crushed when packed for transport. Both of these I bought at a local feed store chain so I didn’t really get as much choice as I would have liked but I got volume and I didn’t have to pick them. I will also need to get the pears laid out but I think I have a little more time since they are still green.

What does one need to know to prepare for canning?

  • Get your recipe in line, that way you will have an idea of how many jars to have ready and how many other supplies will be necessary like sugar or salt or spices
  • Keep your calendar flexible but realize that when it is time to go, it is time to get canning. I am hoping everything can last until the weekend.
  • If you haven’t done this before, allow plenty of time when starting and plan on completing the job when it is done, not by a time slot
  • Have a place ready to store the jars when done ideally for the rest of the year.
  • Be prepared for a mess, you may end up having to clean the kitchen after a late night even if you are careful.

So, not only do I have single parenting responsibilities, handling some estate duties on this side of the country and dealing with my own messes now I have a bunch of canning to do. I am keeping it short today but now you know why I titled today’s post.

End Your Programming Routine: When harvest season comes, the work has to get done. This is the one time to take advantage of the bounty and put it away for the rest of the year. I am going to enlist the boys to help me out because they eat most of them anyway but it is now or never (for this year).

September 1, 2021 – Wake Me Up When September Ends

September 1, 2021 /

Continuing on the theme of music as a distraction today, can you believe that today is September 1? My kids are going to a half day orientation for school today and tomorrow. The summer is for all intents and purposes over. As my wife and I were talking last night, we did some fun things but all-in-all it was another Covid summer. I can say that my kids are looking forward to going to school and having a little bit of normalcy even if it isn’t.

When I was looking up songs to help with the playlist for my father-in-laws funeral last week, I was reading on one song list that ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ was the number one grief song. It was apparently written about the passing of Billie Joe Holliday’s father in 1982. When you read some of the comments, they are all people hurting, except for today when people just want to comment and be silly.

It is interesting that the video does not actually match the true intent of the song. It does however have current relevance. We don’t know the true story, but it seems like the boy enlists and ends up in either Iraq or Afghanistan where he becomes a casualty. We don’t know his fate, but it seems like the parallel reality to this story is the girlfriend waiting and worrying about the boyfriend.

I am going to diverge for a paragraph here. I was sickened and horrified by September 11, 2001. But to start a twenty year war with two theatres and all of the senseless death, destruction and cost was a total waste. In 2001, I was at the apex of my Republican beliefs but I was on the fence about war. Now, in 2021 I am totally against any form of aggression outside of self defense. I am hard pressed to find vengeance as justification for war. This was George W Bush’s war, but Obama campaigned in 2008 for ending it which he never did, Trump actually set the withdrawal date and Biden finished it. I feel really bad for what is currently happening in Afghanistan but we cannot correct a wrong with another wrong (by staying in country).

I am not sure when things will return to normal at my house. September 13, my wife has tickets to return to Texas to support her mom with cancer treatment. Everything is so much up in the air at this point because there is no return date on that trip. There is a real possibility that this is another trip ending in bad news. There is another possibility that this trip is not just two weeks like the last one. We are going to do our best to stay strong and normal as possible.

You can probably tell from my writings over the last couple of weeks that this family is still grieving. The funeral service was a milestone which I don’t see as the end but rather the beginning of the cycle. People were so focused on the logistics of the service that there was no time to grieve. Now that is over, emotion is boiling.

But, I don’t want to make another post strictly about grief. Sometimes I want to hear a certain song, I will look it up on YouTube and then I let it play. The problem is that when you do that too much, the AI starts to develop a pattern and then it goes into the same genre loop every time. Sometimes I use a different browser so I can try to fake that it is me. I like to have some variety from time to time. It is kind of like Chicago, maybe I want one song and not everything in that particular genre or artist.

In my previous job, I used to frequently create a Friday playlist. You can see it on my YouTube channel still. They were songs that I thought captured the week or were funny or silly. After I set the initial list, I would open it up for the rest of the team to contribute. Sometimes they did and sometimes not, but we would usually put it on while we were working Friday afternoons.

Maybe I should have been a DJ? I am not deep into all of the facts about bands and songs but rather the connection music has with emotion. There is something about the senses of sound and smell that have a more triggering connection to memory more so than sight. It is probably because we are constantly using our eyes, but when we isolate our other senses, then we are specifically focused on that particular pathway.

End Your Programming Routine: If we are not careful, we will wake up in a few short days and it will be October 1. I don’t want to skip through the month, I want to get through the month otherwise we will be at the exact same place as we are now.

August 31, 2021 – Distraction Through Music

August 31, 2021 /

There are so many things going on in the world at the moment, it is hard to stay focused on the best ones to talk about. There are a number of things that are heavy on my heart and those tend to be the ones that are pushed to the forefront. I think I am going to go in a different direction today.

I will say that the American evacuation of Kabul is my generation’s evacuation of Saigon. The war in Afghanistan has lasted almost twenty years and it ended about the same fashion as Vietnam. I don’t really want to get into politics but what a sad situation that we created and then left.

Clearly I have been pretty quiet on Covid in the last couple of weeks. This state has lost it’s mind and the majority of the people have joined in the ‘hate week’ celebration. We have counties passing even more restrictive measures. Again, I don’t want to get into politics.

Harvest season is really kicking in. I have a bunch of plums planned to make some wine. My wife wants to put up some peaches and pears for the next year. Our chance to do so will be in the next week. School is starting next week. We are barreling into hunting season, the fall and then the holidays. Right now, the plan is that my wife is going to be out of town for most of it.

A few months ago, this was planned as a period of celebration. We had a tickets and a family trip planned to go to Silverwood. My wife had four different days of the state fair tickets, that we were looking forward to. We did get one day where the primary plan was to see Chicago and we are going next Sunday.

Chicago is one of those bands that I have always liked, I suppose that it is my 1980s childhood. Depending on where you fall on the generational gap, most of their top 40 songs were released in the 1970s. But, it is also a band that I had to be in the mood to listen to. The funk was not really my era and the melodrama of the 80s is often times kind of moody.

It really wasn’t until I saw them last Friday that I really appreciated the band. What I was thinking as they were on the stage was when was the last time there were musicians playing brass instruments as part of a rock bank? And more so, a major rock band? I looked up a couple stats and it said that Chicago has the most top 40 hits of any band in the 1970s. Chicago was really the grand finale of big band, jazz and funk and the transition into popular rock, something that had lasted for around 40 years..

There are those kind of seminal moments like Guns n’ Roses full orchestra that are combining two unique elements in a way that hasn’t been done, done for a long time or just doesn’t mix. And when done right, like this case you get it. The primary reason for going aside from already having tickets was that it was an homage to my father-in-law as this was his era of music for sure. We enjoyed the concert which was primarily the earlier side of band but it was OK as we felt a healing connection for that hour.

End Your Programming Routine: I think of music as a vehicle to jog memories of happy times. Maybe I didn’t have the same kind of memories as my wife does, but I could imagine the feel good part of being a seventies youth or young adult. I still prefer the 80s part more, but I came away with a different perspective about Chicago. That is to say that I enjoyed the concert.

August 19, 2021 – Sad, Short and Sweet

August 19, 2021 /

Today is going to be short. I have already spent a bunch of time working on an obituary which has cut into this time. Happier times are on the horizon though. I have a range schedule booked for tomorrow afternoon.

When I was charged with writing the obituary, I was getting some of the other details of the service and what was going to happen. My wife told me that she was going to ask our pastor to perform the service. I thought back to different services and how they were administered and something struck me.

I have grown up in a family of faithful people on both sides. My maternal grandfather was highly catholic. Unfortunately, grandpa developed dementia and the last two or three years he was in assisted living. When it came time for his service, it was performed by a non-denominational reverend. I am pretty sure that my grandfather would consider that against his Catholic faith. I know that I heard it enough from him that I was following the wrong path and that there was only one true denomination.

Most of my ‘greats’ were also regular church goers but when it came time to have a funeral service, they were performed by someone that really had no connection. I suppose that we age to the point where we lose connection to our former life be it that we can’t physically make the service or move out of necessity. Maybe when we lose the connection, others may not have an idea of where to start?

What I am trying to say is that is saddens me that a funeral service is performed by someone that has never met. I am sure that it is God’s work and that there is probably a formula for it with reverence but it would seem a little dishonest in the end. Nothing against our pastor, I love him and I think he is genuine. If this was my service, then much more appropriate.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t make a lot of distinction between denomination and faith. In the end, I don’t think that it matters. My in-laws had a church that they occasionally attended. It was large enough and they were infrequent enough that they didn’t really have a connection and here we are. There is no real lesson here, I am just writing what is on my mind today.

August 10, 2021 – Covid Strikes Again

August 10, 2021 /

Despite my opinion of how people and media are reacting to Covid, it doesn’t mean that I am a jerk. I found out today that my son and I were exposed to Covid over the weekend. I have been very open about my experience and I am not worried about it in the least. That being said, I don’t want to potentially expose other people until I can confirm I am safe.

That means that we are again in quarantine, at least until we get a negative confirmation. In some ways, this is going to be a good thing. We have some family health issues that called my wife out of state today for an undetermined length of time, likely at least until the end of August. My very own Father in Law is currently in the hospital as a result of pneumonia from Covid.

I am playing both roles (mom and dad) and there are a lot of activities still on the calendar before school starts. I was already planning on spending an hour and a half a day running my son back and forth for his summer job. So, this quarantine will at least help us get our footing as just us boys are home for a few weeks.

It will also help me focus on getting my roofing done. I think that I am a couple hours (4-6) hours from getting all of the shingling done. The downside is that the forecast is predicted to be in the hundreds again. If you know anything about roofing, you know that there is a sweet spot for temperature. You want warm enough for the shingles to be pliable and adhere together but when it gets too warm they start to tear easily and it gets really hot on the roof.

End Your Programming Routine: I may become erratic in the next couple of weeks. I am working around my normal work schedule and all the running around that I usually split with my wife. In addition, I am managing a high workload already plus I have a family vacation scheduled in a couple of weeks.