9.2.2023 – I took off for a

I took off for a
weekend last month just to try
recall the whole year

I don’t think I could be a part of any online enterprise that purports to celebrate word play and to recognize anyone who consciously uses words in way that causes joy just in the wonderful way something could be said and not give a shout out to examples wherever they occur.

Like I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year.

With that in mind, I will mention Jimmy Buffett.

I am no parrot head and I never went to concert, but I enjoyed his music and his lyrics and applauded and aspired to his off work lifestyle.

The first song of his I remember had the line, “If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane“

I heard the line.

Then worked it out.

Then laughed and laughed.

It really is clever to the point that double meaning doesn’t seem to do justice to the wit involved.

I listened to his music.

It is really odd to say that I was having a bad work day yesterday, if having a bad work day working for a beach side resort is possible (end of the month reports), so I played Jimmy Buffett all afternoon while working bare foot in my home office.

That night, I heard of Mr. Buffett’s passing.

Felt bad for us but good for him and I hope he landed on beach somewhere (If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached) and I also was glad that I was playing his music that afternoon and I thought that had someone described the scene of me at home, me in my favorite ratty blue jeans without knees and barefoot, writing reports about how many people visited a web site to learn about staying at the beach, Mr. Buffett would have liked that.

So today I will think of his song, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes and when I take my grand daughter to the beach this after, maybe I will try to sing it.

I can sing to my grand children but that is about the only audience that will listen to me.

At least, in the sand of the beach, I will scratch out the refrain.

If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane

As he sang, ““Only time will tell if it was time well-spent.”

Here are the complete lyrics to the song “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.”

I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year
All of the faces and all of the places wonderin’ where they all disappeared
I didn’t ponder the question too long, I was hungry and went out for a bite
Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinkin’ all night

It’s those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane

Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son-of-a-bitches I’ve seen more than I can recall

These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane

I think about Paris when I’m high on red wine I wish I could jump on a plane
So many nights I just dream of the ocean, god I wish I was sailin’ again
Oh, yesterday’s over my shoulder, so I can’t look back for too long
There’s just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can’t go wrong

With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane

If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane

9.1.2023 – the best target is

the best target is
a little more than what you’re
currently doing

From the article, “Do you really need to walk 10,000 steps a day? And 17 other fitness ‘rules’, tackled by the experts” by Joe Stone.

Mr. Stone, on those 10,00 steps, writes:

You should aim to walk 10,000 steps a day
“The first company that produced pedometers came up with the 10,000-step benchmark without any data, as that was considered an auspicious number,” says Lieberman. “Since then, plenty of studies have shown that steps a day is a reasonable way of measuring physical activity. As you increase your step count, you reap increased benefits, but it tails off between about 8,000 and 10,000.”

Hutchinson (Author of author of Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise._ agrees: “There’s nothing magic about 10,000 steps a day, but it is pretty good advice. In general, the best target is probably ‘a little more’ than what you’re currently doing.’’

How many steps do I make or take each day?

I am not sure as I got rid of my fitbit.

For some reason of carrying a tracking device by choice kind of got to me so I stopped wearing it.

I was also starting to obsess about it a little bit.

Besides, I always walk with my wife so I can ask her.

8.31.2023 – enough to do in

enough to do in
serving God, country without
abandoning themselves

On November 15, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, quoting George Washington, issued a General Order Respecting the Observance of the Sabbath Day in the Army and Navy.

Abe quoting George.

Ought to be good enough for anybody.

Mr. Lincoln wrote:

The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for men and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the divine will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.

The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. “At this time of public distress,” adopting the words of Washington in 1776, “men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.” The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended:

The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.

Hoping and trusting

That we might endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.

Hoping against hope it seems somedays.

8.30.3023 – hurricane waiting

hurricane waiting
rain raining and wind blowing
not much else happens

It became evident to me after a few fast rounds with the radio that the broadcasters had opened up on Edna awfully far in advance, before she had come out of her corner, and were spending themselves at a reckless rate. During the morning hours, they were having a tough time keeping Edna going at the velocity demanded of emergency broadcasting. I heard one fellow from, I think, Riverhead, Long Island, interviewing his out-of-doors man, who had been sent abroad in a car to look over conditions on the eastern end of the island.

That is a short excerpt from EB White’s famous essay, The Eye of Edna (The New Yorker, September 25, 1954) where Mr. White told the story following Hurricane Edna using live reports … on the radio.

It was on my mind today as Hurricane Idalia came by.

Lots of dire warnings.

Lots of views of other places.

But here.

Rain raining.

Wind blowing.

The tide might be high but there is that blue moon anyway to help that along.

But you don’t want to be caught out in this if it gets worse.

So the wait continues.

Back in Mr. White wrote that. “The radio either lets Nature alone or gives her the full treatment, as it did at the approach of the storm. The idea, of course, is that the radio shall perform a public service by warning people of a storm that might prove fatal; and this the radio certainly does. But another effect of the radio is to work people up to an incredible state of alarm many hours in advance of the blow, while they are still fanned by the mildest zephyrs.”

The people I used to work with in TV News always shouted, “We are here to INFORM you, not scare you!”

And pass along advice.

As they did in 1954 when Mr. White noted, “… a man was repeating the advice I had heard many times. Fill the car with gas before the pumps lose their power. Get an old-fashioned clock that is independent of electricity. Set the refrigerator adjustment to a lower temperature”

I never thought about the clock today but I made sure my phone was charged though that will depend on cell towers being up and working.

Mr. White said, “There are always two stages of any disturbance in the country — the stage when the lights and the phone are still going, the stage when these are lost.”

All these moderns connections and conveniences.

Haven’t really come that far in the face of a Hurricane I guess.

I will tell one thing that caught me off guard.

I have been watching the storm all day through my window.

Its gray and windswept.

I know these days from growing up in Michigan.

Then I went outside for a quick trip to grab some supplies and I ran out the door and ducked my head … into the 40mph 85 degree storm.

It WAS HOT.

From my window, it was a COLD gray Michigan day.

Walking into 100% humidity and seeing folks in T shirts and shorts caught me off guard.

I am not in Michigan anymore.

8.29.2023 – misapprehension

misapprehension,
willfully blind, plausibly
ignorant of facts

I had to hammer out some of these words to fit into what I self style a haiku.

The words should have been:

> misapprehension of facts

> willfully blind

> plausible ignorance

These are all terms used in recent newspaper articles to describe legal defenses or legal avenues that can be used to explain the actions of defendants in a this big lawsuit in Georgia.

Nowhere does anyone seem to suggest saying, “I didn’t do it.”

Because they did.

But, with the right wording, what they did was not wrong.

Right wording like a misapprehension of facts.

Right wording like willfully blind.

Right wording like plausible ignorance.

Hard to believe but back in the day I was a 4th grade Sunday School teacher.

I was asked to a be a summer fill in and it lasted 10 years.

(I know that means that if ever I am charged with any type of crime the headline will read, “ONE TIME SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER CHARGED WITH …”)

I would do a series of lessons based on the 10 Commandments and I would ask the boys if they tried to follow the 10 commandments.

SURE – YOU BET – OF COURSE they would answer.

Then I would describe a simple scenario for the kids in my class where they, the kids, were at home on a Sunday Morning and their Mom had left a candy bar on the kitchen counter and told them to not touch the candy bar.

In the story the Mom leaves the room and the kid eats the candy bar and when the Mom comes back and asks what happened to the candy, the kid says to himself a certain cuss word and then says out loud, “I don’t know.”

I then said that the kid …

Coveted the candy bar.

Stole the candy bar.

Took the Lord’s name in vain.

Lied about taking the candy bar.

Did not honor his parents.

And since it was on a Sunday, did not honor the Sabbath.

In five minutes, said kid broke 6 of the 10 commandments.

Not bad for a 4th grader.

Then I gave them this scenario.

Same kid and this time, his parents are going out and they say, DO NOT GO TO THE PARK.

The parents leave and the kid rides his bike to the park.

Later when the parents come home, they ask DID YOU GO TO THE PARK?

And the kid says with care, I went for a bike ride.

I would then ask the class, did the kid lie?

The kid DID go for a bike ride.

The kid DID NOT say I DID NOT GO TO THE PARK.

Did the kid lie?

I then pointed out that the commandment says, DO NOT BEAR FLASE WITNESS.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

And I let those 4th graders think about it.

Of course the Court Case in Georgia is not about 4th graders but adults.

Adults who maybe should know better.

Adults who probably know about and push the 10 commandments.

As Huckleberry Finn said, and I quoted this just the other day, “Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.“