On Sunday night, out of boredom perhaps, I scanned the offerings of the TED app on the AppleTV. One I watched resonated so strongly with me, it genuinely excited me. It offers a new dimension on something that I've been writing about, off and on, for many years now, and that is meaning.

I think meaning is important, because I think the absence of meaning in the lives of far too many people is what's behind so many of our societal and political ills. Especially the political ones.

As children, I don't think we were exposed to the idea of meaning. We had Aesop's Fables, and "the moral of the story," but I don't think we ever examined the value of meaning. Even the fables were more about living a "moral life," but did we ever talk about the value of that? Only in the context, I suppose, of "going to Heaven and not, presumably, to hell. Our reward, or punishment, was in the "after-life," not this one.

But as children, we were exposed, constantly and relentlessly to messages about achievement, about desire and acquisition, about competition and rank. We were saturated in these messages, and children today still are. We relentlessly observe each other, in part I suppose, in the traditional sense of getting to know other people. To make friends, or to learn who our enemies are. But mostly, I think, to compare ourselves with others.

And we're indoctrinated into the dominant narrative of what the "good life" is, the "American dream." A good job, a house in the 'burbs, 2.3 kids (less I suppose now), a nice car. A new phone every year. Promotions. Bonuses. Consumption. Travel. FOMO and YOLO. Producing, filming, photographing, editing and starring in our own stories streaming in the feeds. Getting the likes, the shares, the followers.

But eventually comes the crisis. And what happens then?

If you're lucky, you come out the other side as a different person. You have some clearer idea of what is meaningful, what matters.

If you're unlucky, you double down. "It'll get better when..." is a familiar phrase to me. It'll get better when I make CEO. It'll get better when we get acquired. It'll get better when I get elected to office. It'll get better on this new platform. It'll get better when I get elected to higher office.

You keep pursuing "better" achievements, more money, a younger wife, a fancier car, more followers. You run harder, work harder, because if you stop, the void is there and it's terrifying. And that'll work for some people. Fear, even unconscious fear, is motivating.

And exhausting.

Or if you're unlucky, you'll self-medicate. Food, flesh and pharmaceuticals. Numb or intoxicated. Hide the void. Dull the void. Silence the silence by filling it with the sound of hedonistic bravado.

The void is the absence of meaning. Your life doesn't matter.

If you're very unlucky, you'll end your life.

People debase themselves pursuing illusions and delusions that will never offer the relief they've been promised.

"You matter," is the meaning of your life. You matter. Not because of your achievements, or your possessions, or your wealth, or your power.

Just you.

How much you matter depends on how much meaning you make. As a child, just being a child makes meaning for parents. Love makes meaning. Faith makes meaning. To simply be is to matter, to make meaning, for yourself and for others.

Anyway, I have much more to say about this, but I suppose you should probably watch the video.

It's worth your time.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:06 Thursday, 5 December 2024

The drive back to Florida was pretty easy. Weather was good, traffic wasn't horrible. We drove about ten hours down to Fayetteville, NC on the first day. That was a bit exhausting, but not as much as driving north to DC was.

The drive south through the northern part of Pennsylvania was beautiful. Snow and frost-covered trees filled the landscape. That's the best part of the drive. Once you get near DC, there is no scenery to speak of.

We talked a lot on the drive. Mitzi's enthusiasm seemed a bit diminished by the snow and cold, but it hasn't turned to opposition. Last night she was looking at comps nearby and she thinks she can get what she wants for this place.

So it looks like we're into planning.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:11 Thursday, 5 December 2024

Just another sign or symptom of everything wrong in America. No dining room, just a drive-thru. Another reason to despise Chick-fil-A.

It’s colder in North Carolina than it is at Winterfell. Just a degree, but still… colder.

Winterfell.

I miss it already.

Headed back to Florida. Stopped at the Tioga Pennsylvania Welcome Center. Beautiful.

It's impossible to avoid the news entirely. People talk about it like they talk about the weather, and it has about the same relevance. Can't do a damn thing about it.

I'm going to try not to give the unfolding catastrophe or comedy any of my attention, or as little as possible. There's nothing I can do about it, and thinking about it is just a waste of time and attention that could be put to more productive uses. When the mid-terms come around, I'll get more engaged. Hopefully up here in New York.

I do care about the weather, since we're going to be on the road tomorrow. Looks like the worst of everything will be to the north and west of us as we start out. We're getting a few flakes here and there this morning, but nothing heavy or steady.

Mitzi stopped by the Toyota dealer in Ithaca after she returned the cargo van and they were able to find the part that holds that plastic piece of the wheel well liner in place. Charged her $3.00 for the part, and nothing for looking at the problem and popping it in. Pretty decent of them, I think.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:06 Monday, 2 December 2024

It's 25°F out, and the garage door opener guy is here at 0845. Pretty amazing.

Glitches on my 14" M3 MBP this morning. Maps refused to do any route planning, just spin the fiddle thing. Rebooted and it's working again. I'm running a beta version of Sequoia, so shit happens I guess.

I was trying to figure out how far south we want to go tomorrow. Looks like Fayetteville, NC.

Anyway, we're getting ready to head back to Florida, thinking about all the things we ought to do to button this place up for the winter.

We'll leave the heat on, naturally, but set the thermostat for something like 60°F, Maybe 55°. Should keep things from freezing and save some money. We're going to replace the batteries in the smoke detectors, because we don't know when the last time was they were replaced. Turn the hot water heater off.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Florida, if only because I'll be more comfortable at the computer there! I'm going to build a little "Murphy desk" for the bedroom here. At least I'll be able to set the desk height appropriately, and get a good chair. All the trim in this place is yellow pine, so I'll practice building it in my garage in Florida so I get it right when we get up here next summer. If I'm lucky, I may get it right the first time and just haul it up here when we come up. I'm not that lucky, usually.

Apart from having a climate controlled garage and an actual desk, I'm also looking forward to trying to get somewhat more fit. This is the best time of year for that sort of activity in Florida. You're less likely to suffer heat stroke.

But that's about the only attraction.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:47 Monday, 2 December 2024

It's 26°F outside, that's -3.33°C "for those who observe." But it's clear and it's not snowing. Yet. Might be later.

We rented a cargo van from Home Depot yesterday and drove to the little town of Waverly to pick up a used table and chairs Mitzi found online. It was interesting to see some new scenery.

This aspect of New York is familiar to me. It's "diverse" in the sense of economic status. There are no gated communities. You're not shielded from poverty and its effects.

When I was a kid, we rode the bus to school. We were the first stop in the morning, and the last stop in the afternoon. We saw every house along our rural route. The well-to-do (no one was "wealthy" there, at least then), to the barely surviving. Nobody wanted to sit next to the kids from houses that were falling apart, because of their body odor. There was no overt cruelty or bullying, but there was little in the way of welcome or friendship either.

I think this is why this place feels like home. I've often described living in St Johns County, Florida as living in a bubble. Because it is. It is so far removed from the wider reality of life in the United States. It makes it easy for people to be malignantly indifferent to the plight of the poor. They never see them.

Apart from the climate risk, there has always been this vague, gnawing sense of discomfort living there. It feels like cheating somehow. I'm more convinced, more certain, now that I want to get out of there.

Of course, there's a risk of gentrification here. Money is finding its way here, and it will alter the landscape. If I'm lucky, perhaps not within my lifetime. There are efforts to preserve farming in the region. Will they be enough to counter "Big Money"? I don't know, but at least there's an awareness of the risk.

A lot of the houses, the residential lots, here are from families, gifting or selling to children or grandchildren from farm acreage. That's how the place we're living on started, and how each of our neighbors to the north and south of us started.

I've read some calls, post-election, that we recognize that "we're all in this together." But so much of our political and economic activity is directed toward obscuring that fundamental truth. From gated communities, to gerrymandering, to disenfranchising people, we try to divide ourselves, isolate ourselves in our particular bubbles.

If I am to live out the rest of my life witnessing the beginning of the end of this civilization, I'd rather do it here, among these people, than cloistered in an entitled reality distortion field that relies on blindness. I'd rather pay New York State taxes, than fleece tourists and rob the poor with regressive sales taxes.

Florida was founded on fraud and fantasy, selling swampland and a theme park existence.

We're headed back on Tuesday, but not to stay.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:51 Sunday, 1 December 2024

Shot this with the iPhone as I went to get the car Thursday morning. Turned out pretty well. Unedited.

Was watching some YouTube videos of cars stuck in the snow south of Buffalo. Pretty bad.

One thing that's very helpful is the outside temperature reading. As long as the air temperature remained above 32°F I wasn't too worried. I was worried that if it dropped precipitously, we'd be facing a much different situation, with wet snow freezing to ice. I'm pretty sure they were salting the roads as they were plowing, but I'm not certain.

Snow, in modest accumulations, I can handle. Ice means get off the roads.

Another feature I'd like to see added to either CarPlay or the general instrument cluster is an elevation display. Below 1,000' we were seeing mostly rain, above 1,000' it was generally snow. I asked Siri once what my current elevation was, and I got a response that sounded reasonable, like 1,300' or something. I asked again later, and it prompted me to give Siri permission to use my location, which seemed weird. And then it couldn't tell me my elevation.

CarPlay would show yellow and red roads where there were no backups, or cars, for that matter. I'm guessing they were getting data from cars moving slowly in those stretches.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:03 Saturday, 30 November 2024

We made it to Mom's, and later my sister's, for Thanksgiving. A three and a half hour drive took five hours, under some very challenging conditions. Route 88 through the Catskills was mostly clear, but the snow was falling nearly faster than the plows were keeping it clear. The last part of 88 was at about 30mph, behind three snow plows.

It was more challenging on the side roads, where the plows either hadn't been yet, or had been through long before we got there, and accumulation had built up.

Before we got on 88, a wierd sound began at the back right tire. Increased and decreased in frequency as the car accelerated or slowed. We stopped at a red light, and no one was behind us so Mitzi jumped out to look at it. A piece of the plastic interior wheel well liner had come loose and was pressing on the tire, causing it to vibrate as the tire rotated.

As soon as we could, we pulled into a gas station and took a closer look. I don't know how it happened, but whatever retainer or fastener that clipped it to the body had either broken or unscrewed, and slush building up pushed it backward into contact with the tire. I was able to clear the icy slush and push it back into position, but I had no way to secure it.

Forty miles later, it did the same thing again. Again we stopped and pushed it back into place. We were supposed to take State Road 206 to get onto 88, but 79 was barely clear, and getting worse. We weren't confident that 206 would be clear at all. We ended up getting on Route 81 going south to pick up 88. 81 and 88 were passable. Visibility was variable. Fortunately, there was little wind.

We saw a semi had somehow slid off 88. A trooper was present and we pressed on. There were drivers with little confidence in their vehicle or their skills, driving at 20 to 25 mph, with their flashers on. The right lane was the clearest, but the left lane looked ok, so I passed the first one.

I was quite impressed with the RAV4 Prime. It handled magnificently. Never once did I feel as though it wasn't firmly connected to the road, and never sensed any wheel-spin. It just went where I pointed it as if the snow wasn't even there. That said, I never got much above 55 mph. I passed about three "convoys" of cars stuck behind slower vehicles but unwilling to pass.

The last portion of 88, as I mentioned, was in a large group of vehicles, all behind a three-abreast formation of plows. Smooth sailing, but slower than I'd have preferred.

Once off 88, it was back to very snowy, slushy roads. On a side road with a 40mph limit, there was a woman driving with her flashers on at 20mph. I passed her and this seemed to offend her, as she treated us to a very long blast on her horn. (Perhaps it was a celebratory salute to our conquest of the elements?)

We were to pick up Mom to take her to my sister's. When we arrived at her place, a tractor with a blade had just cleared the parking lot. We stayed and chatted for an hour, then got Mom into the car and headed to Diane's, which was only a few miles away. They'd left one side of the driveway clear so we could get as close to the house as possible. We were able to get her safely inside.

The good news was the lack of wind, and the temperature never went much below 33°F. Snow would accumulate and sort of melt, but nothing froze. Until that night. We had a lot of frozen slush on the roof of the car, and pieces would break off and slide off the back, hitting the deck-edge of the rear hatch with a loud bang.

Mitzi drove back to Burdett. From Albany, all down through the Catskills it was sunny and clear and the views were magnificent. We were able to take 206 this time, but it became overcast with light snow. Temperatures again hovered at 33-34°. We stopped in Greene, NY for a late breakfast, and I was telling Mitzi that I was getting this very powerful Groundhog Day vibe. The place, Bonnie's, was nearly full with the kinds of people you saw in the movie.

We gassed-up and pressed on for home.

It was snowing off and on as we approached Burdett, but it was clear that there hadn't been the kind of accumulation we saw out at the eastern part of the state.

My brother was driving in from East Syracuse and he turned around at Canajoharie because his pickup was fish-tailing and because of the number of accidents and disabled vehicles he was encountering on the Thruway. So it clearly snowed very heavily to the north of us, which was somewhat consistent with the forecast.

I'd expected to encounter rain, but we got snow. It all worked out, but it was a tiring drive. I ended up napping on the couch after everyone had left.

We had a lovely get-together with no family drama. My sister worked very hard to put on a wonderful meal and everyone had a nice time catching up. We FaceTime'd with my brother from Syracuse, and I checked in with my kids.

I'm glad we did this. Mom's Parkinson's is getting worse, and that's not going to change, so...

The weather seems to have cooled Mitzi's enthusiasm for moving here somewhat. But she's always insisted that if we did, she'd be wintering elsewhere. I'm pretty sure the plan is still viable, but this experience has been very useful in terms of knowing what to prepare for in coming years. For one thing, we're buying a snow brush/ice scraper today and leaving it in the garage when we head back to Florida.

This was an extreme event in terms of recent climate experience. To some extent, I worry that the state and counties may let their snow-removal infrastructure wither due to lack of use, and then something like this will happen. To be clear, the weather the past couple of weeks is quite familiar to me from my experience growing up in New York; but it seems to be a rare occurrence now. But that investment in equipment and supplies to keep the roads clear is just as important as it ever was.

Anyway, we enjoyed some leftovers last night, watched the Ted Lasso Christmas episode and then Groundhog Day, and I was quite content.

Feels like home.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:37 Saturday, 30 November 2024

It's not exactly "over the river and through the woods," but we've got a three and a half hour drive to Mom's this morning. Ordinarily, it's just a long drive; but this time it's into a winter weather advisory.

It's been raining until now, and it's expected to turn to snow. I'm more glad than ever that we got the new tires before we left.

Well, wish us luck.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the marmot readers.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:58 Thursday, 28 November 2024

Jack Baty has been doing some interesting things with Tinderbox lately. From self-contained html exports with embedded images, to file attachment management.

I'm looking forward to playing around with these ideas when I get back to Florida. Right now, I'm typing this on a folding table, seated in a piece of patio furniture. I suspect this is the reason why my back has been bothering a lot more the past few days. I'm hunched over this laptop too much.

But in this week of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for smart people like Jack, who share their ideas and insights with everyone. The Tinderbox community is blessed with an abundance of such people, like Mark Anderson who maintains A Tinderbox Reference. Michael Becker, who hosts many of the Tinderbox meet-ups. And lots of regular participants at the forum.

Which is to say nothing of the generosity and engagement of the developer, Mark Bernstein, who is responsive to support requests, new feature ideas and always present in the community.

As disillusioned and cynical as I have grown about the value and utility of "personal computing," Tinderbox remains a bright spot that illuminates the promise of the vision many of us once had, now beclouded by bad actors, corporate greed, and the empowered worst aspects of human nature.

Anyway, I'm grateful for this app and this community.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:32 Tuesday, 26 November 2024

The snow is nearly all gone. Just some remnants where it piled up. It's been in the 40s and raining since last night. We're driving to my sister's near Albany on Thanksgiving day, about three and a half hours. We'll be taking a southern route, and not the Thruway, which gives me some encouragement that the traffic won't be that bad. But the weather is going to suck, near-freezing rain. Because of course.

Next weekend is going to be downright cold. Highs Saturday, Sunday and Monday all projected to be below freezing. But who knows?

Spent much of yesterday doing some home automation additions. Added an Aqara hub to the network so I could add some flooding sensors. They get mixed reviews online, mainly centering on disappearing from the network. It's a roll of the dice these days with these IoT devices.

I bought a package of three, the smallest number you can buy. There's a dim blue LED inside the sensor itself, and that's the light you need to watch for when you're pairing it with the hub. I kept watching for a blue light on the hub itself. Once I figured that out, I got them all paired up. One is in the utility closet with the hot water heater, the well expansion tank, and the radiant heat boiler. One is under the toilet, and one is under the washing machine. (We replaced the rubber hoses with braided steel hoses, which I recommend to everyone. Especially since the shut-off valves are inconveniently located in our case, and the washing machine isn't easy to drag out.)

The toilet and washing machine are in the same room, but depending on how the water flows, which one alerts first should give us an idea of what is leaking.

Our only course of action is to call the neighbors and ask them to come over and shut off the water. We could do that before we leave, I suppose. But then the radiant heat boiler has a make-up feed system in case the water level goes low, and I don't want to lose heat if that happens during the winter. So the water stays on, and we'll hope for the best. I'll have a servo-controlled shutoff valve installed next summer and figure out how to wire that into the network.

I spoke to the original owner and his plumber about the weeping union. The plumber said to just go ahead and snug it up, that I didn't have to worry about hurting anything. I related that every time I try to do something related to plumbing that I think should be within my capabilities, I end up calling a plumber anyway. He laughed.

I don't have a combo wrench large enough to fit the union, and there's not enough space between the adjacent fittings for an adjustable wrench or channel locks. We're going back to Home Depot on Saturday to rent a van to pick up a table Mitzi found online, so I'll buy a few larger sizes, or a set, and try again. It's just a weep. There's no dripping, no water on the floor. It dries on the fitting and the upper part of the tubing. So it's not a potential catastrophe, it's just unsatisfactory.

Last September, I brought up one of two Apple iPod HiFi speakers that I have, and an AirPort Express. I got that added to the network yesterday, and connected them with a TOS optical cable, so now we can AirPlay music. I don't have anything to set the speaker on, so it's on the floor. I stuck some cardboard under the front edge to angle it upwards and it made a significant difference. I'll figure something better out next summer.

I also brought two Eve wifi-controlled 110 outlets that I'd bought for the house in Florida, for which I never found a use. We have two floor lamps here, so they're plugged into those controllers and now Siri can control the East Lamp and the West Lamp. I have to use my watch or my phone, since I don't have a HomePod that can listen for commands. I'll bring my office HomePod up next summer. Of course, then I won't need the iPod HiFi. Maybe it'll migrate to the garage for tunes out there.

Anyway, despite the weather and the power outages, still enjoying rural life. If we have another extended outage due to an ice storm, that assessment may change. We'll see. It's a challenge that can be overcome, but we're not well prepared at the moment.

The beat goes on...

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:59 Tuesday, 26 November 2024

It'll melt rapidly with the sun shining again. Put the drone up to grab a quick shot of what may turn out to be a rare scene. I won't necessarily miss the snow, but I'm glad it happened while we were here.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:52 Sunday, 24 November 2024

I didn't plug in the RAV4 yesterday evening because we had no power. Mitzi reminded me this morning, so I went to the garage and plugged it in. Saw this on the way back to the house and figured I'd try getting a shot with the iPhone 16.

Studying the radiant heat contraption last night after the power came on, I noticed that one of the unions from the header to the tubes running under the slab has a minor weep. I could feel some wetness, and there is scale building up around it. Probably just needs to be tightened, but I'm not going to touch it.

I'll try and reach the previous owner and see if he recommends someone, preferably the installer, to come out and take a look at it.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:01 Sunday, 24 November 2024

Came back on at about 2110. Checked all the house systems, and everything seems normal. Had to read the radiant heat boiler manual. "DFT" was showing in the LED display, so I had to look up what that meant.

It stand for "Dry Fire Test," and it's to make sure there's water in the "boiler" before it goes online. Cycled through the test and was apparently satisfied because the alert went away and the water temperature began rising.

We spent last night at my sister's in Buffalo. Partly to visit her new house, partly to not die of boredom. When we got back here this afternoon, it was 62°F in the house, which was quite warm compared to the 42°F outside.

Snow has begun melting, but quite a bit remains. Tens of thousands of people were without power, but most appear to have been restored. There's space in the utility room for some good-sized batteries. We'll need to wire in some kind of transfer switches for the pump and certain circuits. I'll be working on that solution this summer. Have to figure out the loads and capacity we'll need. As a rough estimate, we can use the electric bill and get kind of estimate of an "average" day's load.

This has been a good drill for figuring out what it's going to take to live here comfortably full-time. Mitzi's been a great sport and it hasn't seemed to diminish her support for moving here.

Something to be thankful for, I think.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 21:48 Saturday, 23 November 2024

Power went out a little over an hour ago. Looking at the outage map, it looks like it's going to be a while before we get it back. MBP is on battery, using the iPhone hotspot.

Still snowing pretty good. The driveway is white again. The neighbor came by and plowed it for us.

I think we'll get a generator before we spend another fall or winter up here.

Going to play it by ear and see how it goes. Can always get in the car if we have to.

It's still pretty!

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:53 Friday, 22 November 2024

Same name as another post, but felt appropriate.

We brought a shovel up from Florida, because we don't use it that often, just moving pygmy rattlers and I can use the rake for that. We didn't try to shovel the whole driveway because that would be insane. But I did have to clear the snow that the plow pushed into the entrance to the driveway.

The RAV4 Prime has a trail mode, where power goes to all four wheels. I was about to test it out when the guy came who was giving us an estimate on installing a garage door opener. He had a 4WD F150 and got up the driveway just fine. Had some trouble getting back down, but he made it.

I think I could get the RAV4 out if we had to, but I'm by no means certain. I got it out of the garage just as the door guy showed. No wheel-spin in about 10 inches of snow, but who knows?

We could hear limbs breaking from time to time. Snow packs well. I tried to make a snowman, but I seem to have lost all of my snowball rolling skills.

Power's out at my sister's place out near Albany, but all she had was wind and rain. No snow in Buffalo either.

Anyway, this is pretty amazing. One good thing is that people seldom end up dragging all their shit to the curb after a snowstorm!

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:55 Friday, 22 November 2024

It's been snowing for about 15 hours straight. It's changed to smaller, more powdery flakes. The temperature continues to hover just at freezing. It may go up after the sun rises, but clouds may limit the amount of snow that melts.

I'd welcome clearer skies for a better shot, but I couldn't wait to get one posted.

This is a relatively rare event around here these days. Mitzi isn't thrilled. I think it's great.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:49 Friday, 22 November 2024

It is beginning to stick, but for how long is anyone's guess. Very large, wet flakes. Any accumulation is going to weigh heavy on tree branches.

It is pretty though. Saw a deer run across the street down by the pond.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:25 Thursday, 21 November 2024

Rained hard last night, only .3", but it was often horizontal so I don't know how accurate my rain gauge is. 33°F this morning, but clear. We could see fog rising from Seneca Lake, but I had to wait a while before launching the drone and a lot of it had cleared.

It's so pretty here.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:08 Thursday, 21 November 2024

Busy evening yesterday, installing an over-the-range microwave. We've been very fortunate here to encounter some remarkable people in the trades. Derrick Marsh is just the nicest guy. He was here for about two and a half hours getting this microwave wired and installed.

I'm loving it here. We took a little walk around "the property" (sounds very pretentious), and imagined where we might build another house, keeping this one as a guest house.

There may be some snow in the offing tomorrow night, we'll see how she feels then.

Got the weather station on the new network. YouTube is your friend here. Ordered some flood sensors. We're not here long enough for me to figure out setting up a solenoid valve to cut off the water in the event of a leak, but that'll be a project for this summer. As it stands, if we get a report of a leak, we'll ask the neighbors to check it out.

It's a gamble, buying these IoT devices. A significant number of the reviews are negative regarding connectivity issues, device malfunctions or battery life. I went with Aquara, as that's what I'm using for cameras. They're not ideal, but they seem to work and I was able to switch them over to the new network without developing a throbbing vein in my temple.

Spent a lot of money at Home Depot yesterday, adding tools to what I brought up here from home. Partly trying to anticipate price increases due to tariffs, and partly as a hedge against a potential SHTF scenario. I'm certain I don't have anywhere near what I'd need, but I'm in better shape than I was yesterday. Being friendly with the neighbors is probably the best investment in that regard.

It was cloudy most of the day, clearing a bit toward the afternoon. I'd put the little Olympus XZ-1 on charge earlier today and used it for this shot. It may be my imagination, but there's something about this landscape that "feels like home."

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:39 Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Got up early hoping to get a shot of the waning gibbous moon, but not early enough I guess. Just as I stepped outside, a line of clouds passed overhead. They were thin, and I could make out the moon, but it would have been a very soft shot.

The clouds were drifting south, so it would be a while before the moon emerged again. I came inside and checked my RSS feeds.

Stepped back out and the clouds had spread, thinner now, but the moon wasn't going to emerge from them anytime soon. I took a few shots, all soft. Looked behind me and saw this.

Always look behind you. "Never look back," may be good life advice, but it doesn't apply to photography.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:26 Tuesday, 19 November 2024

In DC this morning with Mitzi's daughter and son-in-law. Back on the road later this morning. About six hours to Burdett, depending on how long we dawdle for gas and lunch.

It's been kind of depressing being here for me. We went to dinner last night and drove past the building that houses the Heritage Foundation. They had some kind of event and many of their members were standing around. A wave of revulsion overcame me.

Anyway, checked my feeds this morning, and I'm reminded that there's more here than meets the eye.

Commended to your reading are posts from John P. Weiss and Steve Makovsky.

All we ever have are moments to live, and the only power we have is the power to choose. I've been writing about these things for decades now. You'd think I wouldn't need to be reminded of them.

It's different, though. The shadow I cast lies before me now, and I can almost see it lengthen before my eyes.

What to do with the time left?

Not die in Florida is one.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:58 Sunday, 17 November 2024