September 18, 2025

 It almost slipped my mind again. I can't use the excuse that I was too busy because I wasn't. I had a few things to do today, but nothing too complicated and that was a good thing because my word for the day was the slogan Keep It Simple.That's always a good reminder for me not to over-complicate things. I have a tendency to do that. But, as I say, today was not too complicated. I went to a church thing, a men's lunch. An opportunity for us to share a meal and some conversation, get to know each other a bit. I always chuckle when I think that I do that sort of thing in my other fellowship quite a bit, and the people in each of the fellowships are quite different and the conversations, although similar in topic, are also different. I said this before, yesterday I think. It is good for me to get out and do things with my peers. I might even try to do that more. I find it easier to do in the other fellowship. In fact, on Saturday I'm going to a day long event

September 17, 2025 - Anti- Comfort Zone

 There is a men's lunch tomorrow at church. Good way for the men to get to know each other better. We have soup and sandwiches. I bring cookies, so does one of the other guys. It's good for me to get out and do something. I have a tendency to do things that don't require that I leave the house. Playing video games is one of my favorite past times, but I do other things that are good things to do. I write or blog, like I'm doing now. I sponsor people using the zoom platform. And, as I said, I can do all those things without leaving the house. Because I'm doing things with others, I don't see it as a form of isolating, but it is isolating. So, it's good for me to get out and do things to break out of my comfort zone.

September 16, 2025 Not So Sweet Dreams

 I had a dream last night. Like many dreams, it was a bit weird. I was out somewhere, at the bank I think. I had stopped there, on my way to somewhere else. As I was leaving, I noticed I had left my cell phone at home, so i wouldn't be able to call a cab. Actually, I have the taxi app on my phone so I just book a cab, but this was a weird dream right. I didn't want to ask the bank teller to call me a taxi so I decided to use the pay phone. It would have cost me fifty cents, but luckily I had the change. I picked up the phone receiver to call the taxi copany, but there was someone already on the line. He seemed to be having a conversation with whomever had been using the phone last. I got the impression that this person was in a prison and was trying to get help contacting someone on the outside. I interrupted him and told him I needed to use the phone so could he please hang up. Well, the fellow flew into a tirade of obscenities about how I was a rascist no good for nothing prick, I didn't even know the guy. I hung up my end of the call and as I was contemplating what to do, I saw a familiar taxi driver and he gave me a ride back home. Then, I woke up. As I was scratching my head over the dream, I noticed the TV set was on. We usually put it on a timer. the guy on the sitcom was berating someone on the phone, calling him a rascist prick. Dilemma solved.

I was talking to a guy I sponsor and he was telling me how he always had drinking dreams. Those were dreams that he had relapsed and was drinking again. I told him that I had a dream once that I could fly, but that hasn't happened yet. So, maybe it was just a dream.

September 15, 2025 - A Good Day

 Fall is definitely here. The sun is shining, but as Nancy put it, it's not a day for sun tanning. There's a bit of a breeze. Still, it seemed like a good day for a barbecue. It's a charcoal smoker so every time I want to use it, I have to clean the ashes out from the last time I used it. Reminds me of working in Swiss Chalet which I did about 40 years ago. Before you could cook the day's chicken, you would first have to dump the grease bucket. Smelled gross after sitting there all night. Greatest cure for a hangover. If that didn't make you puke, nothing would.

Cleaning my barbecue is much easier. While I was doing that, I noticed that I hadn't cut the grass in a while. I haven't been cutting it very often this year because it hasn't been growing because of the lack of water. So, I mowed it. And trimmed the edges with the whippersnipper. I had a bag of dirt that I bought for something, can't remember what; I used it to fill in a few holes the rodents had made so they could tunnel under the skirting. Filling those in with dirt won't do any good, but it was entertaining thinking that it might.

While all this was going on, I made a few friends on social media. Well, honestly, I was already friends with both of them. One guy I was just re-connecting with, and the other person I sort of know already and I'm just getting to know her better.

I recorded my weekly podcast today. I don't upload it until Wednesday but I like to have it ready to go and now it is.

So, it's been a good day. 

September 14, 2025

 I overheard a conversation today on a topic about which I disagree. I was tempted to insinuate myself into the discussion so that I could make my opinion known. But, then I realized that not every one wants to know my thoughts on certain subjects, so I did something out of character and kept my mouth that.

I did make comments to the people I was with about the same subject. It concerned a book that was recently written on a subject that is familiar to me. The original book was written in 1939 and this recent book was the Plain language version of that book. It's true that the language used in the old book was often outdated and not in common usage these days, and the language in the new book used terms that most everyone these days understands. I concede that point. However, the message in the new book is a watered down version of the message in the original book.

Back in the day, I used the dictionary a lot to look up words that I was unfamiliar with. The theory is that if you read a sentence and there is a word in that sentence that you do not understand, you might not understand the sentence. If you do not understand the sentence, you might not understand the paragraph. Nowadays, you can just google words like that, but we didn't have Google back then.

My thoughts are you don't need a plain language version of a book. You just need the original book and either a dictionary or a cell phone. Maybe it's because I'm from a different time zone.