Entries Tagged 'Lifelong Learning' ↓

 
If all goes well Andy and I will go to Santa Fe tomorrow to visit our truck, and maybe even bring it home. Originally we were going to pick it up last Saturday but that morning we received a phone call saying the modifications wouldn’t be done until that evening. We could pick it up Monday. We were tied up most of this week so we asked about picking it up Sunday instead. No problem. It was guaranteed to be done. We didn’t need to phone to check.

Yeah, sure. We haven’t lived this long without developing a bit of paranoia. So we phoned Sunday morning slightly after 10 am. No answer. We tried again after 11 am. Again, no answer. We checked on the internet, which said it was closed on Sundays. The answering machine did not give their hours so we gave up for Sunday.

Monday I phoned the fellow I had talked to Saturday to see what had happened. He said they were open from 10 to 5 on Sundays, but the truck still wasn’t quite done. It would be done that evening for sure.

Anyway, we decided to put it out of our minds until tomorrow at the earliest. But then Tuesday the friendly paperwork fellow phoned to say he had forgotten to give us a couple of pieces to sign. Could we come in and sign them? The sooner the better. And the truck was ready to be picked up.

Needless to say, we didn’t rush right down there. We’ll go tomorrow, see what happens and let you know. We can’t lose them all, can we?

Update: Friday, September 16

We got down there by 10 am and it only took an hour to be on our way home. Here’s a picture of Andy climbing into it:
 

 
I haven’t tried it yet, but getting in and out doesn’t look as if it will be very graceful. I’m even shorter than he is.

The big danger/problem after a severe fire is flash flooding, of course. Here’s a picture of a beaver pond that was down the road from us before the fire:
 

Here are two pictures that Andy took today:
 

 

 
As you can see from the animal tracks, it has now turned into a mud flat.

Here’s a picture of the erosion the water caused in the road. Andy included his walking stick to show how deep the rut was.
 

 
As the saying goes,

Life is seldom simple.

Do you have any messes to clean up in your life?

 
Kaitlin and Torben arrived in Albuquerque yesterday around noon and will fly home early Saturday afternoon. We had hoped to go up to the land today, but we’re still not officially allowed. So instead Kaitlin and I spent most of the day documenting what was destroyed in the fire. She was an enormous help, and the whole job doesn’t look so impossible now. Bless her!

Torben and Andy helped some, but as you can see from the picture Sudoku received some attention too. I hope everyone else enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Православни икониикони на светци

May, 1997 (before the fire)
 
Los Alamos used to be a beautiful town, nestled up against the tree-covered Jemez Mountains. Those trees burned in the 2000 fire, so the area isn’t nearly as beautiful now. But still, it was a shock not to be able to see the mountains at all last Monday evening. They were hidden by smoke from forest fires, most of them in Arizona, hundreds of miles away.
 

June 6, 2011
 

June 7, 2011
 
It was much better Tuesday, June 7, and during the day today (June 8). But the smoke was bad again tonight, so we’re keeping the windows closed because of the health hazard. That’s the big news here. Is anything unusual going on where you are?

 
Evan recently mentioned that the important thing is to keep out of ruts. For me that’s easy…I play with electronics and the technology keeps changing. Before when I went on a trip I packed my audio cassette and/or CD players and a lot of cassettes/CDs to listen to. This time we took the train and I didn’t have room. So I figured out how to convert my tapes and CDs to MP3 files. (I’ll spare you the details.) I learned a lot and got hooked on the MP3 format, especially since The Economist lets me download audio versions of each issue for no extra cost. Anyway, it took some new learning and a reasonable amount of time on my part, but the payoff was worth it.

I also had to make some changes the past couple of days because of my blog. My source of comics has moved and isn’t as convenient to use now, and my web hosting service has changed the way I do backups before upgrading to the latest version of WordPress. Both of those changes have been a nuisance with no obvious benefit for me, except for keeping me from becoming complacent and stuck in a rut.

What about you? Does life keep kicking you out of ruts or does it take more initiative on your part?

 
Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is finally admitting there is some inflation in the U.S. But he says it’s moderate and temporary, so still no worries. Some economists aren’t quite so sanguine. They’ve bought their own 100-trillion-dollar Zimbabwe notes to remind themselves that we shouldn’t get carried away trying to pump up the economy by printing more money. That’s what Zimbabwe tried to do and the 100-trillion-dollar notes are selling (as I write this) for about $5 (U.S.) on e-Bay.

As the saying goes, inflation is being broke with a pocketful of money.
 

 
Are you tempted to be a multi-trillionaire?

икони

cheerfulmonk. Creative Commons license.

 
I’ve just added another item to my Things to Be Grateful For list: I’m so glad I don’t live in Iran. I’ve always felt that way about countries who treat women poorly, but this Time article, Enemies of Iran: Dogs and Their Owners, has grabbed my attention.

Apparently having dogs as pets has always been un-Islamic , but mostly Iranian authorities haven’t been enforcing the restriction. Now lawmakers are thinking of explicitly making the practice illegal. Why? Because dogs are thought to be dirty and dangerous and hence health hazards. And because dog ownership is becoming more popular and is a cultural threat. The practice is a “blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West” and must be dealt with.

I agree that parts of our Western culture are vulgar, but I don’t agree that caring about dogs is one of them. What do you think?

ikoniИкониПодаръциикони на светциИдея за подарък

Amazon.com has come up with a new idea to entice more Americans to buy Kindles. Starting May 3rd buyers can save $25 by agreeing to have ads on the screen saver and on the home page. They will not interfere with reading books. The picture on the left shows what one of the ads would look like. It also illustrates that the user will be told of special offers to save money on products.

I think Amazon has come up with a winning idea. If I ever have to replace my Kindle I’d be willing to try it. What do you think?

Message to my daughter Wednesday evening:

Thanks for the pictures. I just got home from the hospital and am going to take a nap. I feel great, just lazy. I’m supposed to take A….. for 7 days and am reading about side effects. Hope the doctor knows what he’s doing. The people were very friendly.

Love, Mom

Kaitlin’s reply:

I am so glad you are home!!! I love you! A….. is what almost killed me, but that is just me.

Take care!!!
Kaitlin

The two-day visit to the hospital was an interesting experience, but I’m too lazy to write much about it right now. I went to the emergency room Monday morning because of severe chest pains…it hurt to breathe… and because I felt really sick. In the past that feeling meant I needed medical help. I naively expected to go back home that afternoon. Instead they admitted me and kept me for two days, even though I felt a lot better that afternoon. They eventually decided I had pneumonia and prescribed A….., an antibiotic.

I was completely relaxed about the whole affair, until I had the prescription for 7 more days filled and came home and read about the side effects. (I never take a prescription drug without reading about the side effects first.) What?!! They seemed even more scary than usual, why didn’t they prescribe something less scary? Well, the doctor had asked me if I’m allergic to any drugs and I told him my standard answer… not that I’m aware of. So they had given me three intravenous doses of A….. in the hospital. I didn’t even question it at the time, so it was a bit late to ask for something else instead, and it did explain the extra day in the hospital. It gave them a chance to see how I reacted to it. It never occurred to me that I would have a bad reaction and I didn’t. I’ve been very lucky so far with antibiotics. I hate taking them, they completely mess up the fauna in our bodies, but sometimes we need them. I also eat plenty of yogurt to replenish the good fauna.

As it turned out in Kaitlin’s case she had taken a cousin drug a few years before and had a negative reaction, which the doctor insisted wasn’t from the drug. So after a couple of days of taking A….. she went into anaphylactic shock. It could have been avoided if she had known the cousin drug had caused problems. As it is she’s also had to make trips to the emergency room because of inadvertently eating chicken. For instance, once in a restaurant she had told the server about her allergies and ordered a salad. Guaranteed to give her no contact with chicken. She suddenly felt the telltale reaction, then saw a chicken bone in the midst of the lettuce. Life can get very complicated.

Why chicken? Her best guess is it’s factory farming. Producers used to give chickens the cousin drug that started her severe reaction. She has since experimented at home with guaranteed antibiotic-free chickens and that seems to be all right.

Anyway, Andy has suggested I wait until he comes home today to take my daily dose of A….., just in case. That makes sense. I’m back to being relaxed about the whole thing. The general rule about drugs still applies…don’t take them unless you have to and keep your eyes open for rare but serious side effects.

What about you? Have you had much experience with antibiotics or other prescription medicines?

 
Guess who’s working on income tax? It’s a big project, and, truth be told, not my favorite activity. But I figure it’s a good yearly test of how well I’m doing in emotional management. Every year I practice, as best I can, enjoying doing taxes.

The secret of happiness is to ask yourself every day

1. What’s good about my life?
2. What needs to be done?
3. How can I get this done and enjoy the process?

So what’s good about my life?
  (1) For starters, we have enough income to have to deal with taxes. We not only have a roof over our head and plenty to eat, we also have disposable income.

  (2) My husband and I work well as a team. When we get tired and confused we don’t snip at one another. He takes that for granted, but I know too many couples that fight when they’re frustrated. I appreciate how lucky I am.

  (3) When I find we need more information or forms I can go on the internet and get it. That’s a real boon. If I’m in the midst of trying to figure something out I love being able to tackle the problem right away and not have wait for more information.

What needs to be done?
Figure out a way to enjoy doing taxes.

How?
I love solving problems and doing puzzles. So why didn’t doing income tax feel that way? Because I thought I had to sit down to do it. I don’t like to sit, and I hate searching through a big pile of papers looking for what I need. I also hate having to keep switching between pages in the manual to fill out different worksheets.

Analyzing what was bothering me was a big help. I no longer sit at a desk to do the taxes. I first spread the forms out on the bed in relevant piles and I kneel so I have easy access to everything I need. I’m a visual learner and it’s much easier for me when I can visualize where things are. And I no longer have to flip through manuals for worksheets. When necessary I copy them ahead of time… again I have them right before me so I can see them. When it’s time to do calculations I put my numbers into an Excel worksheet so any number I need is right before me, not on some other page. I have a fairly good visual memory so mostly I don’t even have to label the cells. Excel makes calculations trivial, and if I need to add or change numbers the calculations automatically update.

Why not just use tax preparation software? We do that too. My husband uses TurboTax and has the patience to go through all of the questions and type in all of the information. It’s not foolproof either… in our case it’s too easy to misinterpret some of the questions. We guessed wrong one night and spent an hour or so trying to figure out how to get the numbers out of the wrong spot and into the correct one. We would never trust it if we didn’t understand what we were doing.

On the other hand, we figure if we each do our taxes in a different way we probably won’t make the same mistakes. It’s reassuring to do a rough draft as a puzzle, then compare our answers, see what needs to be changed and easily make the changes. It means there’s no pressure going through the steps. When we compare notes afterward it’s easy to fine tune the solution.

Why don’t we hire someone to do it for us? We’ve gone to a couple of local CPAs for other matters and they knew even less than we did. So we will continue doing our taxes ourselves and hopefully learn a few things… if nothing else, we can learn to enjoy the process.

What about you? Do you have any challenges in your life to keep you learning and growing?