Tammy's Samis and Oh No, Snow!
I'm back at the salt mine after having had two weeks off. Wow...that was so nice! It's been years since I've been away from work for two consecutive weeks. Thoughts of retirement kept taunting me...you don't have to go back, you know. But each time I managed to shoo them away. 
I'm still intent on sticking around at least until next spring, then after that, I'll be month to month.
Tammy made a quick trip up to Babbitt yesterday to see her mom and Cindy but she came back today, one day early. There's so much I'd like to say here about why she came home early but I'll let it go for now. Tammy is such a good person who goes out of her way for others. She's the most giving and compassionate person I know, yet, there are those in her family who have nothing but disdain for her.
I don't get it and I have little time for them, especially when they know better.
Speaking of Tammy—she's been busy making Sami bracelets. She's done quite a few of these already and has given many of them away to friends but her plan is to create an Etsy site where she can market them. Everyone in retirement has to have a plan or two—a side hustle. She's never far removed from her creative side and I love that about her. The photo to the right is a close-up view of one of her bracelets.
She took an acrylic painting class a couple nights ago where the lesson was to more or less copy the instructor's work. I'm still hopeful that she'll dust off her watercolors again one of these days. She has so much untapped ability and I'd love to see what she can do if she took some time to develop her style. I mentioned before the watercolor class she took in college. It's been a while since I've pimped her work from that class here.
I've beefed up the RAM on my Macbook Pro from 4gb to 8gb with hopes of reducing the lag time I've been experiencing, mostly on its PC side through Bootcamp. It appears to have solved my problems. No more walking away in frustrating waiting for programs to load. I can now see getting another couple of years of use out of my nearly 4.5-year-old laptop. A hat-tip to Jim Knoll for the suggestion!
Skip the next few paragraphs if you've had your fill of politics. I just need to make mention of this here for years from now when I look back.
I'm disappointed in the midterm election results but mostly I'm disappointed in the pathetic campaigns run by Democrats. Rather than pointing to and embracing the many achievements of the Obama administration, they chose to run from them while at the same time shunning Obama. Why? Typically during an election season, I'll see Airforce 1 (the president's plane) making its way across the country from big city to big city in full campaign mode but I saw none of that this year. I didn't have to mess with one TFR (temporary flight restriction) airspace. Right-wing media with their constant drip-drip-drip of made up or overblown negative narratives about the man and his administration has been a success; such a success that even people who knew better were afraid to stand up and refute the talking points for fear of being tarred and feathered by the propagandists.
To put things in perspective: Bush presided over the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression and had the worst record of job creation since Herbert Hoover; there was a complete collapse of the stock market on his watch and he turned a budget surplus into a trillion-dollar deficit. Since Obama was elected, we've seen 65 straight months of economic growth; unemployment falling from 10.1% to 5.8%; the budget deficit reduced by 2/3 and record stock market growth. Oh, and the ACA (ObamaCare) isn't looking nearly as bad as those on the side of disinformation would want you to think. And I'm to believe we should go back to the policies that caused so much distress to our country?
Yes, I get that neither man nor party deserves full fault or credit for all that happens while they're in office but if you look at the unforced errors committed by Bush (the war in Iraq and costly tax cuts mostly for the wealthy) and compare his abysmal 8 years with the rebuilding undertaken by Obama but dragged down by an obstructionist Republican Congress, there's a huge difference between the men. One was as pathetic a president as I've witnessed in my lifetime and the other is someone I admire very much.
It amazes me that people bought into the lie machinery to the extent they did and continue to.
Moving on...
I spent most of yesterday stringing outdoor lights for the fast approaching holiday season and just in time! We've got a winter snowstorm working its way toward us that's expected to dump between 8 and 10 inches (20 to 25 cm for my European friends) of snow on us beginning late Sunday night and into Tuesday. Fortunately for me, I spent a few hours this morning making one last sweep of the yard for leaves. I won't say 'bring it on' but I'm about as ready as I can be.
Time to fuel the snowblower!
I'm still intent on sticking around at least until next spring, then after that, I'll be month to month.Tammy made a quick trip up to Babbitt yesterday to see her mom and Cindy but she came back today, one day early. There's so much I'd like to say here about why she came home early but I'll let it go for now. Tammy is such a good person who goes out of her way for others. She's the most giving and compassionate person I know, yet, there are those in her family who have nothing but disdain for her.
I don't get it and I have little time for them, especially when they know better.Speaking of Tammy—she's been busy making Sami bracelets. She's done quite a few of these already and has given many of them away to friends but her plan is to create an Etsy site where she can market them. Everyone in retirement has to have a plan or two—a side hustle. She's never far removed from her creative side and I love that about her. The photo to the right is a close-up view of one of her bracelets.
She took an acrylic painting class a couple nights ago where the lesson was to more or less copy the instructor's work. I'm still hopeful that she'll dust off her watercolors again one of these days. She has so much untapped ability and I'd love to see what she can do if she took some time to develop her style. I mentioned before the watercolor class she took in college. It's been a while since I've pimped her work from that class here.
I've beefed up the RAM on my Macbook Pro from 4gb to 8gb with hopes of reducing the lag time I've been experiencing, mostly on its PC side through Bootcamp. It appears to have solved my problems. No more walking away in frustrating waiting for programs to load. I can now see getting another couple of years of use out of my nearly 4.5-year-old laptop. A hat-tip to Jim Knoll for the suggestion!Skip the next few paragraphs if you've had your fill of politics. I just need to make mention of this here for years from now when I look back.
I'm disappointed in the midterm election results but mostly I'm disappointed in the pathetic campaigns run by Democrats. Rather than pointing to and embracing the many achievements of the Obama administration, they chose to run from them while at the same time shunning Obama. Why? Typically during an election season, I'll see Airforce 1 (the president's plane) making its way across the country from big city to big city in full campaign mode but I saw none of that this year. I didn't have to mess with one TFR (temporary flight restriction) airspace. Right-wing media with their constant drip-drip-drip of made up or overblown negative narratives about the man and his administration has been a success; such a success that even people who knew better were afraid to stand up and refute the talking points for fear of being tarred and feathered by the propagandists.
To put things in perspective: Bush presided over the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression and had the worst record of job creation since Herbert Hoover; there was a complete collapse of the stock market on his watch and he turned a budget surplus into a trillion-dollar deficit. Since Obama was elected, we've seen 65 straight months of economic growth; unemployment falling from 10.1% to 5.8%; the budget deficit reduced by 2/3 and record stock market growth. Oh, and the ACA (ObamaCare) isn't looking nearly as bad as those on the side of disinformation would want you to think. And I'm to believe we should go back to the policies that caused so much distress to our country?
Yes, I get that neither man nor party deserves full fault or credit for all that happens while they're in office but if you look at the unforced errors committed by Bush (the war in Iraq and costly tax cuts mostly for the wealthy) and compare his abysmal 8 years with the rebuilding undertaken by Obama but dragged down by an obstructionist Republican Congress, there's a huge difference between the men. One was as pathetic a president as I've witnessed in my lifetime and the other is someone I admire very much.
It amazes me that people bought into the lie machinery to the extent they did and continue to.Moving on...
I spent most of yesterday stringing outdoor lights for the fast approaching holiday season and just in time! We've got a winter snowstorm working its way toward us that's expected to dump between 8 and 10 inches (20 to 25 cm for my European friends) of snow on us beginning late Sunday night and into Tuesday. Fortunately for me, I spent a few hours this morning making one last sweep of the yard for leaves. I won't say 'bring it on' but I'm about as ready as I can be.
Time to fuel the snowblower!
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