Page 119 of 138

December 4, 2020 – Footwear, Not Just Fashion

December 4, 2020 /

There are some common truths in niche circles around gear, specifically footwear. As I have mentioned previously, my upbringing was frugal and I still have a hard time letting go of some of those tendencies. I have held on to shoes that as long as they are not falling apart, they still have life. As I age, I am starting to change my opinion on that definition of life left in shoes.

Several years ago, I trained for a half marathon. It was supposed to be a goal to be more healthy at 40 than 30. As life got in the way, and I mostly mean work, I didn’t make a half marathon at forty, but I did at forty-one. I ran a number of different races in preparation and I met a lot of people, most of which were much more serious than me about running.

A commonly held belief is that running shoes have about 150-200 miles in them before they are worn out. Training for a half marathon at 5-10 miles a day, that is about a pair of shoes every month or two. What I noticed is that my hip and or knee would start bothering me about that mileage and the pain would go away when I switched to new shoes. So, I guess that I concur with that consensus.

A lot of those shoes would not appear severely worn out other that what I would see is tread wear at the heal. I felt bad throwing out a mostly intact pair of shoes, but I couldn’t keep running in them. The pain was not worth it. So, they would get rotated into the casual wear pile. For that type of use, the pain would not appear unless I was literally on my feet all day, not something I would plan on but would occasionally happen.

I didn’t run seriously long enough to develop much experience with all the different brands. I have always had an affinity with Asics that goes all the way back to my cross country days. Trying and using multiple models from that manufacturer, some were really great and others I hated. I tried other brands along the way as well; I have never liked Nike, New Balance seem to take a long time to break in but seem to last longer, Fila – No. There are still others that I would like to know about but never got the opportunity.

I say all that because I believe that shoe comfort and performance is personal. I suspect that mass manufacturing has enough variability in the tolerances causing users different experiences in use. There are some specific stores focused on running apparel that take pictures of your feet and pressure points to provide optimal performance like Road Runner Sports. This of course comes at heavy price. Average shoe costs are running at $150-200. They do offer great returns and sell used items kind of like REI and Patagonia do for there circles.

Running is one example, but there is also a colloquialism in hunting that nothing ruins a hunt like bad feet. Boots also come in many different styles and features. There are many different designs for different applications and terrain. High lace is supposed to help for ankle stability. Mountaineering boots tend to be super stiff. There is insulation at different levels.

What I have learned about boots is that I would prefer a non-insulated boot if I am going to walk a lot because you feet tend to sweat with that kind of activity. I haven’t been in cold enough to benefit with the amount of insulation that I have in my current boots. Many have soles that are glued onto the shoe which makes them non-serviceable in the future, if the glue fails. I also like a waterproof boot because I don’t need to be as careful where I step.

This whole diatribe is about the fact that I need new shoes. As much time as I am spending on my feet delivering packages, I am noticing pain with my old shoes. I have one pair of shoes that I bought last spring to start training for a multiple day hike that are still usable. They are running shoes, so my feet are getting wet walking in wet grass and stepping in puddles. So, I am looking for a pair of waterproof, low hikers. I want to keep it light, durable and comfortable. I haven’t decided on a brand or model yet.

I wanted to go through all of this to encourage you to consider the condition of your footwear and provide some of the insights I have learned with my sporting activity. You shouldn’t need pain and being on your feet a lot, consider this some of the most important gear you can invest in. One more thing, I feel like you get what you pay for for the most part. I am not convinced a $50 versus a $75 pair makes much of a difference but $40 versus $180 could.

December 2, 2020 – A couple more things

December 2, 2020 /

I had a few more things to say about being an Amazon delivery driver yesterday. I was running up against my deadline to get ready to go for work and I thought about putting the whole article on hold, but instead will continue today.

One of the things my employer asked me to do in my first interview is google ‘What I learned from driving for Amazon’. So I did. And I got what I expected. There were former drivers complaining about the pay, the pace or volume, the use of the phone and software and how it was wonky or clunky.

I guess that it is just me, but it is pretty much everything I expected on all of those fronts. Put it the other way, imagine only being on the job a week and delivering 180 packages in foreign neighborhoods. From my personal experience, nearly impossible. Half my deliveries are in the dark and I cant even read the addresses on the house. Without the device pointing me in the right direction (almost always correctly) I could probably only do it in the daylight. This time of year there is at most nine hours and we don’t get loaded until almost noon.

I have also been big on honoring the original terms of the agreement. So as for pay or work, those were stated up front. I find it disingenuous to complain about those things when they are constants set when the employment is started. I am under no illusions that this will turn into a salary replacing career, this is just something new to learn about and make some money.

7. Having a bathroom close by is underrated– This is one thing that takes some getting used to and strategy. Being on the clock, I cannot just leave to go to the bathroom. Sometimes, I am literally more than fifteen minutes away.

Why is that significant? Because lunch break is only thirty minutes long. So that is fifteen minutes there and fifteen minutes back. See the problem? In theory, if you are right next to one then no big deal, but if you have to drive somewhere then you have to clock out to do so. You are then impacting your route and finish time to use the restroom.

Being both winter and COVID, parks and other public areas like parks are often closed as well. I know, in the country… well getting caught is a termination offense so tread very lightly there.

8. Thirty minutes is really short- Back in my software days, I used to eat while I worked. I am not a break taker by nature. I was thinking that I would have to invent things to do during my forced lunch break. In reality, I don’t have time to eat while I am delivering other than snacking and I don’t really snack.

I typically drive somewhere to use the bathroom, take ten minutes to eat and then it is time to drive back toward my route again. Ten, ten, ten and lunch is over. I should say that we can take more than thirty minutes since it is a non-paid break. But, I don’t like delivering in the dark very much so I would like to get as much done during the daylight as possible.

9. I spent more time writing than I realized- Going into this, I thought that I would layer this job into what I was currently doing. It has proven more difficult than I thought. At night when I get home, I am tired and mentally drained. Then there are family responsibilities and dinner and getting ready for tomorrow.

By the time I leave the house at 9:45 AM and return at 9:30 PM, it doesn’t leave time for a lot of extras unless I am going to subtract sleep. So, I am working to try and get a couple hours in the morning to write and look for jobs and such where I was working in this vein until almost noon before I was delivering packages. On the plus side, I am only scheduled for four days a week, I have always wanted to have an extra day off.

10. A list is always better with a good end point- The sun is out today. It looks like the fog has lifted and this is the end of my week. I signed up for call-in work, if they need it but I am kind of hoping to enjoy my next three days off. I have yard work, painting and putting up the Christmas tree to do.

I plan on enjoying my day delivering packages and hopefully seeing new neighborhoods today. I hope that you enjoy your day too.

December 1, 2020 – What I Have Learned After a Week of Delivering Packages For Amazon

December 1, 2020 /

Greetings, back from an extended holiday weekend (plus). I had a great holiday with just my family. Friday, I worked and Saturday was spent doing things around the house. Sunday and Monday I worked which is why I am only writing on Tuesday.

So I took a leap of faith a couple of weeks ago. Part of my normal weekday routine was looking for and applying for jobs. In the back of my mind, I have been thinking about getting something steadier than just my attempt at building my own business and saw that Amazon was hiring drivers. I have always thought that I would like to try truck driving or delivery driving, so I gave it a shot.

  1. Amazon does not deliver packages– I know it seems strange, but packages are delivered by contractors. In my training, they talked over and over about how we are the face of Amazon, but we don’t even work (directly) for them. At my facility, there are six different independent delivery companies that have territories.

I had a hard time interviewing because Amazon advertised the postings and setup the technology to do the interviews, but it is up to each delivery company to determine if they need or want to hire drivers. My first scheduled interview, no one even showed up to an online conference.

My second attempt, I went to the physical location. The building is run by Amazon. They have no idea what the independent driving companies are doing or that anyone is expected. There is security protocol to jump through. When I got there, there was no one waiting to receive me so I got passed through multiple people until my now boss happened to walk by and was asked ‘Do you want to interview someone?’. She said sure.

2. Interviews are overrated- I was asked to bring my driver’s license, resume and wear casual clothes. So I handed my employer my resume and she looked at it for thirty seconds and handed it back to me. She said ‘I don’t want to take your paper’ and ‘you know this is a seven day a week job’. I said that I did, she proceeded to explain that this was a very physical job, some people cant do the work and that there are are four holidays. My employer took me to meet her son, the operations manager and schedule for a follow-up.

The next day I came back for a second interview. It consisted of watching the drivers load the van and a bit of an explanation of how the process worked. Then they sent me for a drug test and I had to load the Amazon Flex application on my phone to do a background check. Barring any complications of those things, it seemed like I was hired.

3. The most job training I have ever had- One of the things that I have always been passionate about is onboarding and getting people on to the right foot as quickly as possible. It is also one of the things that I have never had. I had two full days of driver training before I even started. I have to say, there is no substitutions for doing, but companies can remove anxiety and eliminate many easy mistakes by doing some initial training.

They also start you out on some half day routes to get the hang of what you are doing. The training didn’t address every issue I have had so far, but it did a good job of getting started with them. All in all, I was happy with what I got.

4. This job is physical- It isn’t a huge deal but it is something. I have load my own truck with containers up to 50 pounds each. I have to load them in an organized and methodical fashion so that I am minimizing the handling as I deliver and I only have 20 minutes to load the van at the station. The routing software is OK, but it often prompts you to drive to the next house when it is easier to stop once and carry packages to three or four house in the vicinity, at least that is what I prefer.

City routes are roughly organized by neighborhood. I have seen my home delivery driver parked next to my house for fifteen minutes or so and wondered what they were doing. It turns out that they were in the back organizing packages for the upcoming neighborhood since there is so little time in the station to get organized. Once you get into delivery, you are in and out of the van a lot.

5. Mobile phones rule delivery- The entire process for a driver is on a phone. The time clock is on the app. There is an app that monitors my driving. And the deliveries are managed on an app.

The packages are scanned with the camera. The route is displayed on the phone. The app keeps track of how long you have been signed in and forces you to take a lunch break after four and a half hours. I literally cannot do anything when it is break time because without the phone, it won’t scan packages or let you look at your route.

I have heard that we have some rural areas where we need to use ‘airplane’ mode because there is no service. Also, because the routing software is wonky at times, it often has me coming back to make deliveries in front of places that I was literally stopped fifteen minutes earlier. What I have learned so far is sometimes, I need to trust my gut over the phone navigation. It is mostly right, but not always. Nor is it usually the most efficient from a stops standpoint.

6. Being a driver probably isn’t a career- Plenty of people work shifts and punch a time clock so I am not begrudging. Right now, I start at $16/hour and after three months I would get $16.25 but that is it. Making less than a forth of what I was making, I know that I can do a lot better so I will keep looking, but I want to a least go through the holidays.

Despite the future downsides, I like my company owners. They gave us a $25 gift card to a local grocery store for Thanksgiving, I thought that was really nice. They seem like good people and they are working harder than us drivers. They are there when I get there and they are there when I leave. This is a seven day a week enterprise for them where I only work four.

All in all, this is kind of fun. I am thinking that it is good physically and I enjoy seeing the world. It is an excuse to drive up streets that I have always wondered what was down there. I was hoping that by being on the inside, I might see more places that I could go, the jury is out on that right now.

November 25, 2020 – You Have To Want It… Being Thankful

November 25, 2020 /

This is the last time that I will write on this, for a while anyway. It got three days because it obviously struck a nerve with me. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, most Americans give a topical examination what we think that we should be thankful for.

I have heard time and time again that people can’t wait for 2020 to be over. We all know what is going on between politics, pandemic and such as if the calendar is going to change those things. Are we as a people going to put our faith into the the number of the year or are we going to thrive despite that?

Thanksgiving brings out stories and lore as the birth of the United States of America. A small group of people left the Netherlands to seek religious freedom and a great unknown. The celebration was the end of the harvest season, one last time to celebrate and hope they did enough before things got really bad – winter.

Thanksgiving is a romanticized holiday that we have put a silver lining on a dark time much like our own. The very event that we celebrate was a time where many people starved to death or succumbed to illness. The native population was decimated by European disease and changed the landscape of the world forever. I bring all of this up to say that maybe 2020 will have a new perspective two or three hundred years down the road.

So again, I am writing about being thankful because I need to remind myself to make my world better. For me, 2020 wasn’t so bad. Yes it didn’t go exactly the way that I wanted it to go. Yes it will require new ways of thinking to thrive. No I didn’t get many of the things that I wanted. But, there is a lot to be thankful for here are many of the big ones.

  • No one in my immediate family or even extended family has suffered from the effects of COVID or any other major illness for that matter this year.
  • We rang in the New Year on a family vacation in Southern California visiting Hollywood, Disney, Universal Studios and the beach!
  • I completed a whole new set of pantry cabinets in a woodworking project that used lumber milled from this property
  • We spent three months developing a relationship with our exchange student.
  • I completely remodeled our little rental house, hopefully giving it another 20 years of useful service.
  • We replaced our beloved ‘Snow Dog’ with a handful of puppy Raya.
  • I got this site going after talking about it for a year and thinking about it four years. I am learning many new skills as a result.
  • I got the freedom to pursue interests and desires, testing entrepreneurship and creativity.
  • I have forged a stronger bond in faith and built techniques into my routines to continue to improve and be successful.
  • I have some steadier work work delivering packages and still have time to keep going.

If anything 2019 was a worse year for me. I was burned out and bitter beyond belief. I was at a point that I went out into the unknown and try to do better just like the pilgrims. I know that from a financial risk standpoint, it is a terrible decision to up and quit your job. But, there are times when you just have to do something different than what you are doing.

For me, 2021 is going to be a better year because of all the things that were done in 2020 to do so. And, it is not going to be better because the calendar changed. With that, I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving holiday. I thank you for reading and I hope that you consider the things that you should be thankful for.

November 24, 2020 – Mantel Project is Complete, More Have to Want it

November 24, 2020 /

I finished my mantel project on Sunday. I kind of fell off of keeping track of my hours and I definitely didn’t hit my target date. I suppose if you are keeping up with the theme, I didn’t really want to.


I had other things that I would rather do. I had bids that I needed to get out. I had interviews to attend, I had blogging I wanted to do. I had other things that I had to do like hanging light fixtures, moving furniture for new carpet and assembling new furniture.

As with all projects, I ran into some things that didn’t go exactly as I expected. I was going to use a special router bit to make the 45 degree miter stronger, but I found the setup to be way too fussy without a proper router table. I also found that the air dried fir was too brittle to precision route an touchy joint. Those kind of derailments made me pause for a new strategy and that kind of pause put the brakes on momentum of the project.

To be truthful, I am looking more forward to the table that I am going to build next. I built this one first to get it done because the next project is going to be significantly bigger. I will need to do some more planning to get a more accurate estimate of how long things are going to take. One thing for sure is that I am not going to have the kind of time that I had previously.

With the holidays approaching, there is always significantly less free time. I also took a seasonal job delivering for Amazon. I may be working four to six days a week doing that for now. I think it will allow time to keep looking for a replacement job and writing but there is only so much time in a day and week for doing projects.

This is a job that I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, it is my lowest, post college degree paying job by a long shot. But, it is a four ten hour shift a week, turn it off when you clock out kind of gig. It is going to bring in some money consistently and there are worse jobs for less money out there. Believe me, I have been looking.

I have always thought that I would be interested in a job driving. I can download my playlist, listen to my podcasts and get paid to do so. I will talk more about my experience later, but I am thinking that this could be fun for a while.

If you were to ask me what my favorite job was, I would tell you that it was when I was a student janitor my senior year in college. Many people could find the downside in being a janitor, but I actually liked it, a lot. Beside the obvious benefit of getting some spending money, it forced me to budget my time effectively because I worked every week night. The best part was getting away from my complicated cerebral calculus and high level science projects and spend three hours a day sweeping, mopping and doing event setup. I lost twenty pounds, stayed focused and got paid.

I am hoping that this job will be a motivator with some of the same side benefits. In the mean time, I still have some days to do my own business if I get any or work on projects.

November 23, 2020 – You have to want it

November 23, 2020 /

I will be more forthcoming about what I am up to as time goes on. However, let’s just say that I was busy this weekend and I missed church for the first time in months. Since we host a small group, we just can go willy-nilly, we are committed to attending as much as possible.

Good news for me, they have started releasing the audio in podcast format and it works really nicely to listen to it while I am walking the dog in the morning. This is something that I have started about a two months or so in the spirit of getting more connected to faith and doing something different than I always have. The real intent is to spend time reflecting on the day, to prioritize the most important things and to pray on the issues, particularly my issues.

The big message this week is about healing wounds by doing something different. Of course it is bent towards doing something different in Christian tone. But, some of the first words of the sermon got me right where I was week, I suppose that you would say committal or even want.

I have talked about this some in the past. I have talked about my lack of jumping when there are two sides of the fence. As I have analyzed my situation in life, it is a bit like arguing minutia. If both sides have significant drawbacks, than is one side better (or worse) than the other? The answer is probably not and by staying on the fence, I am delaying the inevitable including the the inevitability to move on in life.

This idea continues to play a theme in my life. I first realized the significance of the concept when I was dealing with addiction. I was reading the pamphlet that came with the gum and one of the first things it said after all the false congratulations was that “you have to want to quit”. I was immediately struck by my stance. In past attempts, I really didn’t want to quit, I wanted to 95% quit. I wanted the freedom and choice without the reality. I wanted my wife off my back, I didn’t want to be judged or condemned, I didn’t want my kids to see me. I didn’t really want to quit.

Since I realized my issue, I have seen it crop up in other scenarios. For instance, I have noticed on most job interviews, I don’t really want the job. I feel the pressure to need the job is high, but in every instance I am very reluctant to give my soul away again to another employer. The alternative is to seek unacceptably low paying jobs that don’t require that level commitment. That has not really been an option either. So, the results have proven that I have had just enough self sabotage to not get the job. I am too good for entry level and no where near good enough to go up a level.

When it comes to branding and building my own business, I can find lots of things that I don’t want to do. I really don’t want to get too deep into social media. I know that is probably the number one thing holding me back at this point. I haven’t wanted to ‘advertise’ on Nextdoor or Facebook. I haven’t wanted to become active on MeWe or YouTube. I am not quite sure what this says about me and what I think I want, but I think that it says that I probably won’t be successful in this area either.

Turning the corner toward inspiration, I believe that once we as humans set our minds to something, those obstacles fail to become issues for us. Quitting addiction is a mindset much more than it is physically (in most cases). Once the conscious decision is made, the rest is commitment and follow through. I won’t say it is easy because you have have resolve that every day is a new battle and you will be tested. You can’t rest on success yesterday and it does becomes easier.

As for my other problems, I don’t know where I am being led. It is not easy for me to always know or see what I want. It seems like I am in spiritual boot camp of sorts. This journey is breaking down the old thoughts and reforming new ones with the wisdom of age. That has to count for something.

November 20, 2020 – French Toast, from garbage to delicious

November 20, 2020 /

This is one of those recipes that I don’t make often. The biggest reason that I make it is usually to use up old bread before it becomes inedible. How many of you bake bread? My observation is that a whole loaf can last several days if the crust stays intact. Once the loaf is cut in any way it will start to become stale overnight.

This time I had half a loaf of the pumpkin bread left and half a loaf of gluten free bread that has been sitting for two weeks. Another nice thing about this recipe is that is prepared ahead of time so it can all you have to do is pop it in the oven in the morning. As long as you have an hour to wait, you don’t have to do any work to make it.

  • 2 tablespoons Butter
  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
  • 4 slices of Bread
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/4 cup Cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
  • 2 Apples or Pears

I cook a lot by ‘feel’. Meaning I am dynamically sizing and scaling ingredients as I go. For instance, I may add more or less egg depending on the initial moistness of the bread and the size of the pan. Pumpkin bread was pretty moist to begin with so it shouldn’t need a lot of egg. Unfortunately in this case, I had eight pieces of bread to begin with of which the dog ate four while my back was turned and I was melting the butter and scrambling the eggs. So all that is to say my pictures don’t really match what I should have done.

Start by melting the butter and spread across your baking pan. Then, add the brown sugar on top of the butter in an even layer. Put the bread on top of the sugar/butter layer. Next, mix eggs, cream, vanilla and nutmeg. Pour over bread. Finally, slice apples and put on top. Cover the dish in foil and put in the refrigerator overnight.

When ready to cook, start the oven at 350 deg F. Leave the foil on the dish and bake for 45 minutes. Take the foil off for ten minutes and it is done. Serve with maple syrup or whip cream or we usually eat it alone and enjoy.

Enjoy some french toast and enjoy the weekend.

November 19, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

November 19, 2020 /

Some would say, and I agree with them that the pump action shotgun is the most versatile firearm there is. As with every compromise, none is the ideal solution. It just so happens that this is a pretty good one.

I own several pump action shotguns of different brands and gauges. It used to be back when I was young there were essentially two brands Remington and Mossberg. The Remington 870 was the king of pump action shotguns. The most popular Mossberg 500 came with two barrels: a field barrel of 28 inches and a defense barrel of 18 1/2 inches.

Today Remington’s future is in limbo, Mossberg is going gangbusters and there are a whole lot of clones out there. The clones have interchangeable parts with one brand or the other. That allows you to accessorize by adding or changing your shotgun as you please. Some examples of things that you can change are: barrels, stock, fore end, add a laser, add a light, add an optic or extend the magazine.

I would be remised if I didn’t mention some of the other peripheral details. There are some other brands like Weatherby and Winchester as well as old brands like Ithaca. I am not sure what the situation is with aftermarket support. So, buyer beware in those cases. You might want to ask the seller about those details.

Also, not every shotgun is as easy to accessorize, notice I didn’t use the adjective ‘pump’ here. When you start to get into the foreign brands like Berretta/Benelli or Browning there are some extra barrels available but they are far and few between. Mossberg does a pretty good job of supporting all of their products and offer rifled barrels for their semi-automatic shotguns, but that is it.

I wanted to talk about my experience shopping for used shotguns for a minute. My son and I were looking around this time last year. We went to a very large gun show and I had a difficult time finding an inexpensive and serviceable shotgun for him. In fact, there were not that many to choose from period. We saw a couple and they were old for nearly what we could buy a new one.

Old is not bad but be aware there are a couple potential limitations. If you are not hunting, it probably won’t ever matter but the first limitation might be chamber length. Old shotguns could only chamber 2 3/4″ shells (really old might be 2 1/2″ chambers). Three inch shells are prevalent for waterfowl hunting.

The second is the interchangeable choke feature. Almost all shotguns come with the ability to change chokes. The choke is the mechanical restriction in the barrel dictating how broad the shot pattern will be. That makes your shotgun a turkey gun, a deer gun, a trap gun or a sporting clays gun. Chokes are not 100 percent necessary to change for every situation, my son shoot everything with a full choke. But, they do give a little more advantage when applied in the right circumstance.

In my opinion, if you are going to buy used it needs to have the features above or it needs to be a significant discount because all of those things can be added, but at a cost. If you are buying something specific or rare discount this advice however you are not reading this for education anyway.

I should also add that most what I am talking about has been in twelve gauge. I have noticed that there is lesser aftermarket for Remington in the 20 gauge and even less so with other brands. My dad has a 870 in 16 gauge. Good luck with finding extra barrels or chokes for that. Sometimes finding ammunition is even difficult.

I have found that looking for accessories is best done online. I guess that there is not enough interest in keeping well stocked stores with extra barrels and such. You will often find one thing but maybe not exactly what you want. For instance, there are three types of rifled barrels. One has a scope attached, one has just a mount and one has sights (or neither). They also make one that has sights, but is not rifled. All of them are called ‘slug barrels’. Not everything is equal.

One experience that I had was I bought a Mossberg barrel for my Remington 870. As the barrel heated up, it didn’t have the clearance between the barrel and the forend and the action would get stuck. I had to Dremel out more clearance (this is a good reason to test your gear, it only happened after the second shot).

There is lots more to say about this subject, but this is a pretty good introduction into what to know about accessorizing a pump action shotgun.

November 18, 2020 – Updates to the Virtual Book Club today

November 18, 2020 /

Yesterday, the thinking about 1984 by George Orwell left me partially excited to go into that book again and partially disgusted to think about what has happened on my watch. I am going to save the stronger editorials to another time to get to a happier place today.

I spent this morning backdating the progress of the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Book Club. With the impending second lockdown and the weather really getting wet, it is a good time to read and cook. I have created separate pages, by year on where we have been as a club in case someone was interested in where we have covered. Those links are on the left hand margin.

I am strongly thinking in the future that I will repurpose the ‘Approachable Wine’ page and change that into a ‘Resources’ page for people interested in the things that I am such as freedom, gear, skills and books. That page was really intended for a different purpose. I was wanting to build an app and tie all of this together, but I didn’t get started and probably wont.

So, we have bunkered up into our ‘two week freeze’. Our Thanksgiving shopping is done and the menu is largely set. There definitely won’t be more than six people at our table. As Thanksgiving signals the end of the harvest season, it is time to appreciate the year behind and look forward to the year ahead. Do some reading in your free time.

November 17, 2020 – When will 2020 cross into 1984?

November 17, 2020 /

I have been mulling over this topic for a while now. One catch-22 is that I want to stay as apolitical as possible. But I watch some of the things and I have a hard time not screaming for people to wake up as they seem to be stuck in a logic wormhole. I am trying to evaluate fake news and propaganda versus real problems and I have a difficult time separating or seeing the truth.

One thing that is extremely apparent is that many people are scared out of their minds over Covid-19. I hear it and see it all over the place, particularly with the more aged and health susceptible people in my life. I know people that still believe hiding out or washing and sterilizing shopping bags, voting for the right person or refusing to associate with people will tip the scales on this virus and outcome.

I am one of those people that believe that collectively we have more in common than we have differences. I watch in disbelief as our governor threatens the citizens of my state. And, just as fast as the threats went up, they seem to have been whitewashed. It is difficult to find the quote in the news stories for this post.

November 11, 2020; OPB

I would like to point out (again) the extreme lunacy in the current social distancing schemes by using an example.

  1. Put on mask to leave the car and enter a restaurant
  2. Be seated, take off mask
  3. Be served with mask off
  4. Get up to go to the restroom, put on mask
  5. Return to table and remove mask

Does anyone remember the earliest debates about mask usage? They were originally not recommended, largely because they are generally not considered medically viable. Just as all things get thrown into the meat grinder and become distorted and re-propagandized, it has now become the ‘must have’ accessory to make people feel better about doing nothing. I believe that the guidance was changed for the appearance of doing something that we as humans have very little control over, the spread of a disease.

I am not saying masks are equated to freedom. What I am saying is that people are losing their ability to discriminate between fact and feel good. I have no issues with wearing a mask when required to participate in society. Any private entity has the right to make rules or conditions for entry i.e. masks. People have the right to ask people to adhere to hygiene practices or social distancing to enter a residence. I do have an issue when the government limits how society will associate together. This I find to be strictly un-American practice.

People are abdicating their responsibility to use common sense in situations and wanting the government to handle it by policy, rule and regulation. I draw that conclusion based on the overwhelming election results to double down on state policy that will never work. I read a headline this afternoon that 75% of Americans support an national mask mandate. I am wondering if this is really true or this is another propaganda push?

I will leave with the non-scientific but logical litmus test for this entire situation.

  1. Does the bubonic plague still exist? The answer is yes.
  2. Does polio still exist? The answer is yes.
  3. Does the Spanish flu still exist? The answer is yes.

Covid-19 is never going away. It is never going to be eradicated. Children still get cancer, not just smokers. Shit happens and we don’t know why. Pharmaceuticals may some day do wonders, for now have to do the best with what we have.

I feel like I am living in the transformation of the world of George Orwell’s 1984. We have the surveillance state with the Patriot Act in collusion with social media. We have perpetual war in the middle east and Afghanistan. We have xenophobic hate egged on by the partisan groups. We have a population that subsists on processed food garbage and funded by government rations. Most of all, we have a population that is numb to critical thinking and is spoon fed ‘news’ that gets rewritten .

Just wait, there is going to be some neighbors turning other neighbors in when seven people are gathered. I can sense that it will soon be time for my re-education.