The last week has been about 20 degrees warmer than the usual Oklahoma average for this time of year. I haven't worn my heated jacket for the last several days but I don't keep it far from me ( Read more... )

Amy is ready to file our tax return. Unfortunately, all that overtime last summer on the engineering warehouse job appears to have bitten us pretty hard: we're going to get back less than half of what we got last year. File that under "not good" and take it as a reason for us to start looking for more/better income elsewhere. There are a lot of ( Read more... )

The big surprise of the last few days is that I got pulled (well, kinda walked...) into the church pickleball tournament. Barrett told me that his partner crapped out, so I said I'd play with him. I was a casual tennis player through high school and much of college, so I figured I could dive into it without much trouble. There is not much of a ( Read more... )

I actually did a lot of reading in 2024...however the majority of it (in terms of time as well as content) was reading the Bible, as part of the Bible-in-a-year program I subscribed to in mid-January 2024- at the general insistence of our pastor. I did finish all of the readings on time*, even though I "fell behind" more than a couple times ( Read more... )

Back in October, this article was posted that included a video about how shooting competition stage layouts can and have reflected some real-life police shooting incidents ( Read more... )

I am back at a job site with my current company, after a little longer than three months with the other guys. Last Friday afternoon, the Other Electric Company guys let Marcus and me off early*, with all of us already knowing at that point that we wouldn't be returning next week. We shook hands and said friendly goodbyes; I was definitely ready ( Read more... )

Our Response Team training session today went in a number of unexpected directions ( Read more... )

Like many others before me, I believed that for a while, Jimmy Carter was the worst US president in recent history. Certainly, many others after me will believe that Carter has been overshadowed in the last decade or three- some will say that Clinton, Obama, or Biden were worse...some will say all *three* were...some will even say that the Bushes ( Read more... )

Fortunately, I did not have a sedentary Christmas vacation: there was a lot of hiking, some swimming, and even running outdoors in the cool Arizona weather- that was an unexpected treat in a number of ways!- that allowed me to keep and feel active, despite how much (and what) I was eating. However I must keep track of my gym performance so that I ( Read more... )

As always, it's great to be home. The cats were overjoyed to see us! Both of them clearly wanted to have lots of pets and other contact: Luna actually climbed on me as I was lying in bed for a little after-dinner rest (and phone scroll), and licked my face everywhere and vigorously nuzzled on my forehead. I hugged her and announced that I was ( Read more... )