Alabama Trip

We just got back from a week-long road trip. First to Louisiana to see an uncle and cousins, the over to Dothan, Alabama, to see my dads’s twin brother. I hadn’t seen that brother in 16 years. Last saw him at my dad’s funeral. A lot has happened in those 16 years to keep everyone busy, but that’s still way too long to go without seeing someone. From my observation I’d say he’s in the early stages of dementia right now. Not too bad, but I’ve seen this before and I think I know what is coming.

It’s weird the things you think about as you get older and the previous generations are almost all gone. A lot of wishful thinking. Being there with my uncle and my two cousins, I couldn’t help but think that my grandmother would be very happy that we were all together, even for a short time. I would love to believe that my dad somehow knows I went to see his brother.

It sucks that families are so spread out. Maybe it was better when people didn’t move far from home and continued to live, suffocated (haha), in small communities where there is some continuity of life and sense of connectedness. Sitting here in the Dallas area, with my parent both dead, my wife and I have no family life at all here.  We have each other. We have friends. This is where our life is, but for me there is a sense of aloneness now that my parents are gone.

I’d not been to Alabama since I was about 13 or 14, when we drove from Dallas to Florida on vacation. Beautiful land. I found the people there welcoming. On the way home we went through Selma, where we drove over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where cops beat the shit out of civil rights marchers in 1965. A good reminder of who the law actually works for.

Honestly, between Dallas and Dothan there isn’t really a lot to see along the I-20 route.

The trip made me appreciate Texas’s own Buc-ees, where you can stop and refuel, get a breakfast taco at any time of the day and some reasonably good coffee, and use a restroom clean enough to eat in. Traveling on a lot of roads most restrooms look like recent murder scenes. I always wonder how the employees can even stand to use them. They have to use them too, right?

Yeah, this is kind of a rambling post.

We rented a Ford Expedition for the trip. Our own cars would be considered small-ish SUVs. Mazda CX-5s.  The Expedition was really nice on the road. While it didn’t get very good gas milage, the massive tank allowed to go nearly 600 miles on one tank of gas. The seats were wide and comfortable. I wouldn’t want to own one. They are expensive, too big to really fit in our garage, and the insurance on one would be a lot more than I want to pay, but as a rental for vacation I liked it a lot.

It was good to get out of town for a few days and see my family. It is now Sunday, and I still have Monday and Tuesday off to chill and get refreshed.

 

 

A Good Weekend

It’s been a good weekend.

It is now Sunday night 9:20pm.

Friday night we turned off the screens for about 3 hours and just listened to music on the big stereo. It was really nice. We turned down the lights, turned on the color-changing LED “candles” and relaxed. Perfect.

Our front room during music night.

Saturday I taught for two hours at our aikido dojo. A mix of experienced non-black belt students and very new people. Everyone did well. I enjoyed it. We just relaxed for the afternoon and listened to more music in the evening. Another good day.

Today we got up and took our beloved sheltie for a walk at Oak Point Nature Preserve in Plano. He loves it. The trails were dry enough enjoy, and he loves it. Came home and made coffee and chilled before going to Portillo’s for Italian beef sandwiches for lunch.

I’m now listening to this new XTC album while my wife does some stuff in another room. I have always liked XTC and I’m just now gettting around to buying their music. Weird. Anyway, this album was released in 1980. AMAZING!  Sadly my weekend is coming to a close. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.

XTC album

 

New Turntable Cartridge

I can imaging myself going down the audiophile rabbit hole very easily. I have thus far refrained, but a few weeks ago I ordered a new Ortofon 2M Red cartridge for our turntable. To simply installation I got the one that is pre-mounted.

Installation re-balancing the tone arm were both easy.

Sitting here right now listening to XTC’s Skylarking. Honestly, this album sounds amazing anyway. It is one of the best produced albums we have, but the new cartridge really does it justice. It sounds fantastic.

I’m really glad I made this purchase. Records, CDs, and this stereo are my only real indulgence besides coffee.

Ortofon 2M Red turntable cartridge
clicky clicky for full sized image

 

Anti-Productivity

I am firmly Anti-Productivity.

Obsession with productivity and optimization is the antithesis of a life well-lived.

You will never be productive enough the leaders of the Cult of Productivity. “Productivity” as it is measured is higher than ever in history, and yet we still all slave away. The idea of Productivity is bullshit as are the methods of measuring it.

The so-called Protestant Work Ethic is simply a means of getting people to slave away for their whole lives. It’s a lie.

No matter how optimized you are, you will still eventually die. No matter how rich you are you will die just like everyone else. Beyond not smoking, killing your liver with booze, you have no control over anything. Fit people get cancer and die every – single – day.

This is just a reminder. For myself.