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July 25, 2025 – Boundaries, Chapter 9-10

July 25, 2025 /

These are two chapters that I have been interested in reading, boundary issues with the spouse and children. I feel like the two are kind of joined at the hip considering that one might have issues with one that bleeds into the other. I am pretty convinced that people don’t just have boundary problems in one area, at least I don’t.

The concept of systems thinking comes to mind. By now, I hope that it is obvious that most problems have a systematic approach to resolution. I am not seeing much of a difference between a boundary issue with friend versus a spousal relationship. Sure, there is more intimacy between partners and hopefully more grace as well but the reality is that they have similar roots and resolutions.

In fact, this chapter reapplies several laws found in chapter five to use as examples. The book also adds a nine point list to help with resolution. I don’t see it specific to spousal boundaries but to all mature boundary problems.

  1. Inventory the symptoms
  2. Identify the specific boundary problems
  3. Find the origins of the problem
  4. Take in the good
  5. Practice
  6. Say no to the bad
  7. Forgive
  8. Become proactive
  9. Learn to love freedom and responsibility

Moving to chapter ten, let’s hope that you don’t have too many boundary problems with children. Otherwise we need to call the police and protective services. Rightly so, a large focus of this chapter is all about installing age appropriate boundaries as well as teaching them so children grow up as healthy, appropriate adults.

When I was a young child (pre school) I remember that my bedtime was seven o’clock. As I moved into grade school, my bedtime became 8PM until summertime and then it was nine. Throughout grade school it bounced back and forth in this manner, it seemed normal. So that by the time I was in middle school, this was routine and there were no questions asked.

We had a bit of a kerfuffle in middle school as my peers and friends found Saturday Night Live. My mom said that we were expected to be ready and attentive for church the next day. The pastor’s husband was also a fan of Saturday Night Live and he could not make it to church routinely and slept late on Sunday’s. After that point, I never questioned that my bedtime was nine o’clock no matter what season or day it was.

It was late May in my senior year and my parents were confronting me with something else. I was already 18, but what I said in the conversation is that I had no meaningful connection with my peers. They were exercising their adulthood and transitioning out of the house and yet I felt nothing relatable with them. My parents responded with ‘there was no reason why I couldn’t do the things that they were doing’.

Somewhere in the age of middle school to high school, I missed the boat of age appropriate freedom and boundaries. Ultimately, it was my fault for not trying to exert or push for expanded boundaries but I never realized it was something that I should be doing or that would have long term effects. To date, I have a hard time relating to pop culture trends and platonic relationships.

This is a polite way of saying that I have to own my own problems. I have the power to do anything that I want if I desire to change this. That being said, it is the parents responsibility to guard their children against retarded development. I think that my parents fell into the convenience trap of saying ‘well he is not asking for anything, so it should be fine’ rather than saying some of these choices are more age appropriate.

My wife and I are completely opposite. As much as I had severely restricted boundaries, she had almost no boundaries. Therefore, we have struggled over the years to set appropriate boundaries with our kids. It is almost the opposite where she would want more and I would want less for them. And then we went full circle to boundary problems within our relationship. It is always way more complicated than this but it is an example.

End Your Programming Routine: There is a lot of discussion in chapter nine about feelings. Not what you do causes this or that result but I feel scared, lonely, abandoned, whatever. I have never been much into feelings but I now understand that these are signals for boundary problems. Be warned that it is just as likely a boundary problem that other’s own to cause negative feelings. But, that is delicate and this is the place that you really need double down on collaborative resolution.

July 24, 2025 – The Seed Test

July 24, 2025 /

I have spent some time soul searching and have come up with some answers. A large part of why I failed at getting motivated to plant a garden this year was because I had so few seeds germinate. I had new tomato seeds, new tobacco seeds and and kale that actually sprouted. Everything else was just dormant or dead.

The urgency to get a bed prepared was tempered by the fact that I would have to buy pepper starts and it was too early (at the time). Things remained at a stand still because this weekend was too busy, I’ll think about next weekend until that came and went. Pretty soon it was really too late to get started.

I was looking at my seeds and I was on a kick to pickup free seed packets at the library at one point. Many of the seeds I have, came from that mechanism. Most of them are at least seven years old and the truth is that I have been struggling with successful germination since I have started using library seeds.

I find it hard to believe that they have mistreated their seeds any more than I have the ones I purchased. Before library seeds and my germination station, I used to keep them in my garden shed where it would get to freezing in the winter and 120 degrees in the summer. I never really worried about germination because it was never a problem. Keeping them at room temperature for a year seems like a no brainer compared to what I was doing.

Now I keep them in the basement in my seed starting area. It is always dark and cool varying from 35 – 60 degrees. This should be even better than room temperature at the library. What I really need to find out is if this is a seed viability problem or some other factor. I am going to describe a seed test that I have used in the past in just a second.

But first, is there any other problems to consider? I think possibly yes. One of the things that I have noticed is that I am trying to start a batch of different things with different germination times. I use a humidity dome and heat mat that is supposed to jump start or optimize the process. I usually remove the dome when the first plants start to touch the top. It may be that those longer germinating seeds just don’t have optimum conditions to germinate when competing in the same conditions. Ideally, I would have more granular control over the humidity than all or nothing.

It is quite possible that I am trying to use a one size fits all approach inappropriately. Meaning, I started one tray of different things and they all got the same amount of water, light, humidity and temperature. I do know for a fact that different seeds optimally need different conditions.

What seems more likely to me to be the problem is that the library seeds are just bad. I don’t know their origin, they could have been reject lots that were donated. Given that my new, purchased seeds seem to be viable and my seed collection has morphed primarily to library seeds, this hypothesis is supported by the data.

Like any good scientist, I designed an experiment to test this hypothesis. The apparatus consists of a wet paper towel placed inside of a plastic bag. The seeds were marked as to what they are and I dated the last expected germination date. That bag is placed in a dark and warm spot and left alone. The last time I did this, I put the bags above the refrigerator. This time, I have them on the subwoofer in my office (behind the couch). If they germinate, they are viable and if they do not I am throwing them out.

A proper experiment would use new and old seeds. I did buy some new seeds and I didn’t think that I was going to write about experimental design when I put this together. But, here we are. My plan is to start new seeds if these do not germinate by the date I have on the test card.

End Your Programming Routine: I am not badmouthing library seeds. In fact, I hope that this works and I have some other problem. The library is a great resource and I love the idea of picking up new things that I wouldn’t buy otherwise. Unfortunately, I just have not had good results to date and this seems like the most obvious source given my several years of anecdotal data. Maybe the truth is somewhere between my hypothesis and the other variables. But, it is not how I realistically do things so it would be good to find out what is going on with the seeds from the library.

July 23, 2025 – Old Habits, Dying Hard

July 23, 2025 /

She knows that she is not supposed to be on the bed without invitation. But when Mom is not around to monitor, the rules get a little looser. In fact, she has a habit of jumping on the bed as soon as I come around. As if I am going to just stand by and let her take my space on the bed. Usually, I am just passing by and I have to shoe her back down to the floor.

The real reason that I took the picture was actually the book. But, since the dog was on the bed, she got in the shot as well. I had an extended weekend of babysitting a couple of weeks ago. One of the things that we did was read books on Thursday night before bed. Friday was a work day for me as well as camp for her. We definitely needed a normalcy strategy.

The first book we read was Where the Wild Dads Go. It is a take off or recent release of the book Where the Wild Things Go. That was the book I read when I was young. It was very short and so on to the second book, If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss. This was one from our library of books that comes from the era of reading to my own kids every night.

Reading time was something that I looked forward to every night. We started very young at even infant age. Some nights, I would read the book that I was reading. I figured that they really didn’t know what was going on and so reading was part of the routine. But, as the kids aged into comprehension, the focus shifted into age appropriate books and If I Ran the Zoo was on rotation of forty or so books.

As my kids got out of lap size, we migrated to more mature books like the Harry Potter series. But, they learned how to read themselves and we found that they would read ahead and even finish the book before we could read it as a family. And so, reading before bed shortly came to an end.

We even tried to incentivize reading as a family by trying to wait to rent the movie before we had completed the book. But, this was the time that I was travelling heavily and eventually those standards quickly got bent. My wife was also running the dance studio and bedtime as well as family time became significantly less routinely structured and idealistic.

Its funny, I haven’t read this book in the neighborhood of eight to ten years. Despite that, the words roll of my tongue like it was yesterday. I know that Dr Seuss can be a sing-songy. But, he also uses made up words that trip you up if you are not ready to pronounce them correctly. I anticipated those things because I was so familiar and we breezed through the book as if was a normal reading night.

I know that Dr. Seuss was taken down by the woke police. I understand that the way people talked and acted in days gone by are not exactly acceptable in today’s paradigms. This book is actually one of the titles specifically identified as controversial. But, I actually believe that Dr. Suess didn’t necessarily mean harm any more than good.

History is just that. You can easily search the term ‘historically racist presidents’ and find the argument that Thomas Jefferson was one. Yes, it is a complicated subject. He was a slave owner and yet coined the phrase ‘all men are created equal’. I really don’t want to expand the discussion into a whole new dimension and so I will leave all the specifics here. My point here was that I think that is clear that Jefferson contributed significantly more good than bad.

It is pretty hypocritical to celebrate the first amendment and condemn the dangers of book banning and such only to turn around and censor work that has been in the public orbit for up to ninety years. I think that what is lost here is that our culture has forgotten its historical origins For instance, the legal system requires intent for a crime to be present. We have changed the burden of proof from intent of harm to ‘I feel bad as a result’ and that is good enough.

Of course, our legal system has different aspects. For instance on the civil front, then there is a lessor standard of guilt. However, a civil case must have damages to valid and have a case. What are the damages from offensive words or pictures, especially when there is a right to say whatever you want? You see this is the problem, we have succeeded philosophical, moral authority on all issues.

End Your Programming Routine: This is not an endorsement to be racist or even offensive. I am advocating for things to be the what they are, like children’s stories from a past era. Maybe we should choose to throw away books where we encounter such feeling rather than mounting campaigns based on our own insecurities. At least, that is what I would do if I ran the zoo.

July 22, 2025 – Tis the Season

July 22, 2025 /

Maybe you cannot tell (or do not know) from the picture that this is a Jenn-Air range. One thing that they had unique was that the burners were arranged in cassettes. Meaning that you could pop out the unit on one side and replace it with something else. They used to offer a griddle option so that one side could make pancakes or whatever while the other side was boiling soup.

We didn’t install this range, it was done in the late 1990s. So, it was six or seven years old when we purchased the house. We never had the griddle attachment, but there was a grill. I never used it because I just couldn’t imagine grease dripping down inside my range. But, there was a significantly older Jenn-Air in the little house. It actually had the griddle. It also had an attachment to screw in a mason jar to catch the grease. Great idea although it significantly cut down on oven size.

I replaced that tired, 1970s range in one of my first remodels and I took the griddle off thinking that I would use it in my house on occasion. But, I never did. My wife purchased a 14″, round pan that looked very much like a paella pan. That was our pancake griddle, tortilla Comal, grilled cheese maker etc. That pan was used to death.

As much as we used it, there was a lot to be desired. For instance, I was limited to warming one flour tortilla. I could get three corn tortillas with overlapping edges and pancakes had to be poured very carefully to get three. It also hung off of the edge of the range profile. So whenever we were using it we had to move all the stuff of the counter to give space for the pan.

One final issue, Jenn-Air is not the company it used to be. It is no longer it’s own company and is owned by Whirlpool. Like all gadgets, appliances, etc. it has a shelf life. Parts are no longer available at least new. Heck, even keeping it running is now cobbling parts together. So, it’s days are numbered. A griddle is not really an option at this point.

I know that my wife has been looking for a replacement. One day, this Made In package showed up. I thought, that is fancy. I have seen them sponsor shows like Top Chef. It looks like cast iron but I read through the literature and it says that it is carbon steel. Hmmm, what is the difference?

In order to be considered carbon steel, it must contain more than 2% carbon in the iron. So, that means that cast iron is iron plus less than 2% carbon. There you go. If comparing two pieces and one has 1.9% and one contains 2.1% carbon, the first one is cast iron and the second is carbon steel. As you can see, there is not much difference.

The internet would have you believe that carbon steel is a wonder material. At the very least that validates the marketing and justifies the significant cost difference. My experience so far has been there is not much significantly different between the two. I have used cast iron for most of my life. I like the no fuss nature i.e. no cleaning just wipe clean.

As far as I know, you treat carbon steel exactly like cast iron. Season before use, don’t use soap, continue to keep oiled, etc. I made blueberry pancakes for dinner the other night. This was a trial run for the product. I can say that the results were as expected. This means that it works, I enjoyed having plenty of space but time needs to be spent optimizing the controls and overall seasoning.

On my range, there is an 8″ burner in the back and a 6″ burner in the front. This means that it heats slightly unevenly. I know, this is not what the literature says but the reality is there is more power to different areas of the griddle. That is just a fact. Even though I had the dials on different settings to try and accommodate, I still found that the back was too hot. I don’t know if it was the temp or the seasoning, but I still had some sticking mostly in the back,

I am not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is a nice piece of cookware that I hope will get a ton of use. I just need more than one session to make a good judgement on the overall capability. The non-burnt pancakes were pretty good and even the burnt ones were alright.

End Your Programming Routine: This is a huge upgrade over the pan it is replacing. Not only is the surface area larger and more useable but it is also not covered with a non-stick coating that is going to fail in a few years. I can’t stand that stuff. Even though I haven’t mastered the pan, which I will assume will get better with time it is definitely going to have a place in my kitchen.

July 21, 2025 – Our America

July 21, 2025 /

If you listen to the news or social media, then it will drive you crazy. Not only do we have to take responsibility for our burgeoning ‘Idiocrasy’ but also the constant stream of lies over our whole lives. But, if we dwell on that, we will get sucked down the whirlpool drawn and deeper into our own personal Matrix. Today I talk about current news and then what I am doing about it.

July 18, 2025 – Boundaries, Chapters 7-8

July 18, 2025 /

As I mentioned last week, it was the last chapters of the part one. This of course means that these are the first two chapters of the part two. I guess I would describe this part as scenarios with the different social groups that we frequently interact. For instance today we read about boundary conflicts with family (ch7) and friends (ch8).

It shouldn’t be any wonder that boundary issues with family start with them as well. The term arrested development is probably a pretty good descriptor. If steps are not made to mitigate old roles and problems then it is pretty likely that they carry forward.

Dave Ramsey has this term of Powdered Butt Syndrome. In his case, he is referring to any person that has powdered your butt will never see you as an authority figure. I don’t find that to be completely true but it is definitely niche. In my case, my dad is frequently coming to me for technology issues. He sees me as an authority in that space.

I also secretly suspect that he likes and trusts my approach better than other helpers because I don’t just push buttons or click the mouse. I am cautious and deliberate when I am working on his computer. But, the fact remains that this phenomenon is real and my point is that boundary problems start right where they ended.

The thing that I like about this chapter is that it talks about boundary resolution. To me, it seems like it has nothing to do with family specifically. In my book, the concepts that the chapter talks about are pretty universal. They would be: Identify the symptoms, Identify the conflict, identify the need that drives the conflict, take in the good, say no to the bad, forgive the aggressor, respond don’t react, live in the freedom

Switching gears into Chapter 8 now and boundaries and your friends. Back in chapter 3, we learned about the different types of personality disfunction. This chapter goes through some scenarios with your friends and what happens when one type interacts with another.

I don’t know for sure, but I assume by the type pairings that this book is targeted toward the compliant personality type. Otherwise, this chapter misses on what happens when an aggressive controller and a non-responsive get together. I hate to get too negative because I have to assume that the intent of the audience was everyone and not just compliant types.

  • compliant/compliant – lack of leadership
  • compliant/aggressive controller – takes without asking
  • compliant/manipulative controller – always in a jam
  • compliant/non-responsive – ignored

This is part of what bothers me about this book. When two compliant types are friends, the book makes a point of using an example of they both make conflicting plans. Each one agrees to the other despite the conflict. The point was each were so timid that they could not possibly say no to the other despite the looming disaster.

As I have stated repeatedly, I am not a psychologist or therapist. That being said, I have to say that scenarios such as what is used in the book has to be almost zero. Maybe it is hyperbole or possibly I do not have enough exposure to other people’s problems.

The other three types of interactions are pretty much as you would expect. As such, I don’t think that much explanation is required. Like the discussion in chapter 3, I find myself in between compliant and non-responsive. I don’t really have a ton of friends (surprise, surprise) but there have been some times when I really wanted to say no but I didn’t and so I ignored the decision. Remember that compliants cant say no and non-responsives do not answer.

You know, I am sure that it is dysfunctional but I really do not have many friends and I really do not value their place in my life. My attitude is sort of take them or leave them. A part of that has to do with some friends that I had 20 years ago. I did not recognize personality type before this book but I knew that I could not say no and if I stayed around long enough, I would eventually get into serious trouble.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t mean to be disparaging, but I do recognize that my boundary issues are a result of my upbringing. Despite that, I have been an adult longer than not and I feel like I have outgrown my interpersonal boundary issues with my family. It wasn’t always smooth but they understand that I am an independent adult. That feels good and normal.

July 17, 2025 – Eat Like You Give a Fork: The Real Dish on Eating to Thrive

July 17, 2025 /

Here we go again. This book by Mareya Ibrahim is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection for July. It is part cookbook and part guide book for clean eating. I don’t know all of the specifics but we now have a member that has dietary allergies. This is kind of unfortunate for the club but we are working our way around it by now labelling all of our dishes with an ingredient list.

When it comes to cookbooks, I don’t really read them word for word. I do scan every recipes and I will read any sort of ancillary comments or recipe introduction. This book is really half text and half cookbook. A lot of it is a justification or overview of the section. More on that in a minute.

This book is a conundrum for me. Part of it I absolutely agree with and part of it I absolutely disagree with. But, let’s save the overall judgement to the end. Ibrahim’s reasoning for clean eating I absolutely agree with. The basic premise is our American’s diet is garbage. Like any other detox, you have to break your association of activity to result. She suggests a two week training course to re-adjust your taste buds. She talks about how kids need to try new things a number of times to get accustomed to the food. This is the first section.

I have no issue with that. I do feel strongly that our diet is a choice. Many of us are lazy more than we should be. Lazy becomes habit forming and pretty soon we have health problems. Ibrahim’s suggestion is that every plate should be 50% non-starchy carbohydrates. I have no issue with that either, it seems pretty smart.

When you start to re-introduce starches, she goes into a lot about good and bad grains. I certainly understand that people with gluten sensitivity absolutely need to stay away from gluten. The research that I have done into paleo says to me that it is not the grain per se that is the problem, but the glycemic conversion of sugar to energy that is actually the problem. It is that conversion reaction that causes inflammation and inflammation is the root to many of our modern health problem.

The next subject that the book talks about is protein. Guess which way it went? You guessed it, fish and white meat chicken. Red meat is highly recommended to eat very sparingly. I can certainly say that I disagree with this recommendation. Fish, chicken and red meat are all good sources of protein. This is especially true when you are not combining fat and inflammation at the same time.

Since I brought up fat, I certainly side with Ibrahim on eliminating trans fats. In my book there are two types of fats that are good. One is pressed from something like olive oil and the other is from animals. I can in no way endorse grape seed oil or any oil that is the result of distillation.

What I will say as a positive for the book is that if you followed it, I am confident that it is an infinitesimal improvement over the typical American diet. I think my concerns over the book is I cannot fully endorse the science or lack thereof. This is a huge problem in the health and nutritional field. It is so convoluted with industrial food, pharmaceuticals, politics and money that it is almost impossible to find truth.

My real worry is that people already ignorant of how to use logic to assess truth from fiction come out of this reading half baked. One other thing that bothered me about this book was that the language was pretty chippy, it is even in the subtitle. Just like all the crap on YouTube/Facebook/Tick-tok that is entertaining more than educational. There is an old saying that ignorance is dangerous.

End Your Programming Routine: Maybe I was a little harsh on the book? It’s not bad, it’s just not great. I wouldn’t give it as a gift to someone else but if you wanted to start somewhere why not here? This is why I started where I did today because I could strongly agree and disagree with parts of the book. The first place to start is actually starting and this book can help with that.

July 16, 2025 – Made in India?

July 16, 2025 /

This is one of the most serendipitous events that I have ever encountered. My wife recently asked for relish to put on hot dogs. I really don’t care for relish much. Years ago, I made zucchini relish and I thought that was pretty good, but that is long gone. When I went to the store, I deliberately sought out something different that what normally is purchased in a squeeze bottle.

I picked out this Wickles brand in a specialty area of the store. I actually thought that it was pretty good, very close to my zucchini relish. The fourth of July came around and we had a few hotdogs but we also had a ton of buns left over. So, I have been eating a bunch of hotdogs lately that include this relish on it.

Now for the serendipitous part. A few days ago I saw an article on MSN that I had to read. It was something along the lines of ‘The most famous food brand of each state’ I am a sucker for these kinds of articles because I am always interested in what a likely non-resident thinks of my state and other states that I am familiar with such as South Carolina.

Most of the time, I can pretty much guess what the choice is for Oregon. I will get to that in a minute. But, it just so happens that Wickles is the most famous brand in Alabama. Before I purchased this jar, I had never heard of or seen Wickles before let alone ever read the label.

The other night, I was eating a couple hotdogs and thinking about this article. I couldn’t remember the state and so I flipped the jar around to look at the label. Low and behold it said Made in India on it. What? I cannot think about the last time I saw Made in India on it. Even more than that, why relish?

As I went through the the article, I guessed correctly that Oregon’s most famous brand is Tillamook cheese. If you are not familiar with the brand, it is pretty good cheddar cheese. We of course grew up with it but it has gotten pretty big in the last twenty years. I remember seeing it in one grocery store for the first time when we lived in South Carolina, it was a big deal for us. There was a time when my wife’s family sent us a care package. It contained some Tillamook cheese and some wine and a few other things. It was in an insulated box but it was warm outside and I remember the cheese being soft. It was still good though.

Tillamook is a town on the Oregon Coast and the cheese is a farmer owned coop. It was traditionally made in a factory along the coast. But, about 25 years ago, they built a second plant along the Columbia river gorge. It doesn’t even have a visible sign on it. But, it is that plant that produces about 75% of the overall volume. In fact, there was even a lawsuit over this “It claims the creamery’s marketing led consumers to believe its milk is sourced from small, family-owned, lush-green pasture-based dairies in Tillamook County, when in reality, the case alleges, it sources two-thirds of its milk from one of the country’s largest dairies with cement floors and barren feedlots and over 28,000 cows east of the Cascades near Boardman.”

Without that plant, there would have never been Tillamook cheese in South Carolina grocery stores. Now that I am back in Oregon, I could really care less if Tillamook has distribution on the east coast. It is however quite the double edged sword. Are you willing to let your small, hometown favorites compete against the likes of one of the seven large food companies? And if they can’t compete, eventually they become acquired. This happens over and over.

End Your Programming Routine: I know a lot about the food industry, most of which doesn’t impress me very much. I cannot say why relish is made in India. That being said, it probably has to do with product cost and distribution. They are clearly very small, they have 82 followers on LinkedIn. There is a separate LinkedIn page for Wickles that has 125 followers. I mean, I have more than that without too much effort at all.

July 15, 2025 – Summer Projects 2

July 15, 2025 /

I had a great idea for my wife’s 50th birthday. It has taken 32 years for her to warm up a tiny bit to firearms. I have never been involved in any crimes and nobody has gotten injured when I am around. She has finally come around to recreational shooting can be a lot of fun. I thought that I would buy her a really nice looking 22 rifle. That is until she wanted to redo the bathroom to the tune of $2000 for her birthday. How can I deny that?

The bathroom wasn’t exactly the bathroom. It also included replacing all of the light fixtures in our bedroom. We had a free day during the weekend of the fourth, that is hard to believe so I took on the task of replacing the fixtures.

I really didn’t want to do it, my hand and arm are still hurting quite a bit. The fixtures we replaced a week earlier, I tried to instruct my son and wife on how to do the job. I am sad to say that he ran off saying that it was impossible and I ended up doing at least half of the job. I decided that I didn’t need the aggravation of trying to get help. It was more pain than my arm.

I definitely won’t argue that the the old fixtures were dated. They were stamped 1999 and they had a Victorian brass look. They had already been updated once by replacing the globes from Victorian flowers to clear. Despite the fact that these new fixtures do look updated, every single one we have replaced has been a downgrade in light the fixtures put out.

My son’s fan went from four full sized lightbulbs to two small base bulbs. The sconces in the living room went from clear glass to shaded. An now the fixtures in our bedroom went from full size bulbs to small base bulbs. I guess that this is the only thing that bothers me is that fixtures are purchased by how they look and not by what they do. But, if this is the only problem then I will just put up with it.

At least a victory I can celebrate is that my wife agreed with me that it would be best to wait until the winter season to do the dry wall finishing from the rot repair and new window that was installed. I think that it is prudent not to spend a bunch of time repairing when I am not 100% confident that the leak is resolved.

I don’t know that I would call this a project but I recently purchased new wheels and tires for my pickup. I have needed new tires for quite a while. The problem was that the wheels were chrome coated and the chrome is what seals the inside of the tire. Over the years, that chrome has started to crack and therefore leak. It is very slow no doubt, about it but it causes the tires to be run on low pressure and wear the tires out prematurely.

I have had the local tire shop seal the inside of the wheel but they said that they have done all they can do. It is not an expense that I really wanted to make but this old pickup deserves some love. I have done very little in the 22 years I have owned it and things are starting to wear out. Now that my son will be gone in the fall, I plan on taking it out hunting this year as well. That is not to mention that I am also going to need it when I go get dirt for my fall season platers.

End Your Programming Routine: With summer ticking by at a breakneck pace, it is time to be buttoning things up as much as possible. There is still plenty to do for sure but if I gauge my progress I think that I am on track to get everything done. That is good because checking things off of my list makes me happy.

July 14, 2025 – The Advanced Placement Lie

July 14, 2025 /

End your programming means that we have to start questioning and evaluating some of the most hallowed status quo. That means that institutions such as the local school district or education first groups like Advanced Placement have more in mind than college credit. There is an extremely effective message on overselling the value of participation. Don’t get me wrong, they do what they claim, but it certainly matters what the definition of is, is if you get my drift.