Life is about making mistakes and learning and loving and finding your place in the world.
Finding your comfort. Finding your peace….
…especially now.
—Jess Piper
I agree with that. As usual my version is,
Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.
January 30, 2025
For years I have liked Albert Camus’s,
In the midst of winter, I found there was,
within me, an invincible summer.
But I didn’t know it came from a longer poem:
Invincible
In the midst of hate, I found there was,
within me, an invincible love.In the midst of tears, I found there was,
within me, an invincible smile.In the midst of chaos, I found there was,
within me, an invincible calm…I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was,
within me, an invincible summer.And that makes me happy. For it says that
no matter how hard the world pushes against me,
within me, there’s something stronger –
something better, pushing right back.
“Pushing right back.” Yes! The older I get the more important that is.
January 29, 2025
to guess that it was warmer out yesterday. Here’s what the Silver Sneakers class looked like:
There were a lot more people there than there were Friday:
Sure enough, it was already above 40°F by 10:30 in the morning.
January 28, 2025
The weather the past week or so reminded me of these January 2022 paragraphs in the Boston Globe about the weather there.
As she walked her dog on Saturday morning, with one plow after another passing her, she struggled to open her eyes as small flakes pelted her from seemingly every direction.
Trudging through shin-deep snow, the 34-year-old was among the few to venture into the neighborhood’s desolate streets — most of them miserable people walking happy dogs.
I hope conditions aren’t so miserable where you are! It’s cold here, but a lot nicer than that.
January 27, 2025
The above is a screen shot from yesterday’s Zoom meeting with the group I studied with in Germany 65 years ago. One of the students had stayed in Europe and passed away last year, and her two sons joined yesterday’s meeting. One still lives in Germany, the other lives in northern Spain.
As I’ve said before, the internet is my window to the world. This is the kind of social media that expands our horizons and deepens our thinking instead of just grabbing our attention and wasting our time.
January 26. 2025
This was a 2016 picture of the Silver Sneakers class I went to before Covid. I’m in the middle row, the third from the left.
These are pictures I took of my TV screen yesterday morning. It’s still Silver Sneakers, and the teacher is the same, but I don’t have to go out in the cold to participate. I just Zoom it to my iPad and mirror it to my TV.
How great is that?
January 25, 2025
Don’t be afraid to start over. This time you’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from experience.
—Anonymous
Andy doesn’t want to mess with computers and devices (unless the computer is set up for him), which is understandable, because it can take a lot of time and he’s not interested. But he rails against them and insists they are toys, not tools, because they are always changing. A tool, he says, is like a shovel. You learn to use it and it doesn’t change. With computers and other devices if you take the time to learn to use it that knowledge is soon wasted, the system changes and you have to start from scratch.
But I’m with the quote above. Yes, we may have to keep adjusting as they change things, but it isn’t starting from scratch. Every time I encounter a problem and work through it, I learn something new. And that experience helps. It gets easier and easier to guess what the designers were thinking and to trouble shoot when things go wrong. Plus it’s great practice in persistence and patience and not getting frustrated.
Anyway, I’m glad he was willing to learn the steps needed to connect his flip phone to Starlink up on the land. When I thanked him for that he said he was willing to do it because he was annoyed at Verizon. So I’m glad we made that phone call to Verizon about our diminished service and higher monthly bills. Some good came out of it. We can now phone one another as well as text reliably.
January 24, 2025
is ready for winter to be over.
What about you? (I actually like winter and am willing to wait.)
January 23, 2025
that Kaitln and Torben changed their plans. They had originally hoped to come out for a brief visit this past three-day weekend, but they decided to wait until next month. They missed an exceptionally cold and gloomy time up on the land — Andy says he mostly has stayed in the house because of the dangerously low temperatures. With any luck next month will be a lot nicer.
Fingers crossed!
January 22, 2025
I received an email from Verizon last week saying they were going to raise our bill by $15 a month. This was on top of the fact that even when Andy received my texts he couldn’t text back most of the time. So we phoned Verizon and talked to a fellow. He said, yes, Verizon was trying to get people to move to more expensive plans (we have unlimited text and talking, no data). And if we wanted more reliable service we should try a new iPhone 14, which he said would give us satellite service if needed. We didn’t listen to how much extra that would cost, because an iPhone wouldn’t fit neatly into Andy’s pocket, and we already had to replace his flip phone this winter when he lost the old one in the snow.
But… I did mention that our phone says we can use WiFi if our reception is poor. Would we be charged anything if we used that option? He said no. I had assumed as much, but I like to check my assumptions. So, I spent some time figuring out how to set that up on my phone down here, then Andy and I practiced what he would have to do to connect with Kaitlin and Torben’s Starlink up on the land. I couldn’t do it for him, because he had to be within range of the Starlink, but he tried it today and it worked! He phoned me and then I phoned him. So tomorrow when he gets up there he’ll phone and leave a message on the answering machine and I’ll text him to tell him I received the call. Fingers crossed it keeps working!
When the weather gets warm in a few months he will be taking walks out of the Starlink’s range, so he will then start practicing how to send text messages on the Garmin. He can already send pre-written texts, and of course Kaitlin and I can log on to the Garmin site and see where he is if he needs non-emergency help. For emergency help he will just press the SOS button and they will know where to find him.
Anyway, Verizon raising their price motivated us to learn about WiFi calling, and we’re happy and proud of ourselves.
January 21, 2025
