Hobby Heaven

 

For some people it’s trains…

To paint them, or ride them around, or have

a big model railroad layout in the basement.

Makes their life complete – and happier.

Others may collect cast-iron car models,

larger or smaller or matchbox size.

They line shelves and collect dust,

but look racy like they want to go fast.

Some buy a lot of glass sculptures,

then shelving to display their finds.

If the sun hits them just right they gleam,

but also attract dust that obscures the shine.

Others like life-sized cars or statues,

or whatever they take a fancy to.

Collecting things is addictive and fun,

but lightens the bank accounts too.

The shrewd ones collect money itself,

buying stocks, bonds, or precious metals.

Money as a collectible takes many forms…

And can yield some great returns, as well as

disappointing results at times.

Sometimes it is more fun to have ‘things’

of indeterminate, fluctuating values.

Things you can touch, hold in your hand,

enjoy heft and girth, rather than estimated worth.

And when the markets crash,

as they often, inevitably do,

you still have your pieces,

something solid to hang on to.

No doubt the weather changes

 

One day we get 80 degrees and high winds,

the next it’s 35 degrees and snowflakes are swirling.

The Iowa weather roller-coaster is really moving!

Another reason to have a good HVAC system.

Once upon some distant time, I thought things were

more, well, static, or frozen in stability.

It was cold in the winter, hot in the summer,

and moderate in the fall and spring.

Then as I grew, developed or paid more attention,

began to notice these wild swings in weather.

Warm or hot early springs, tulips popping up,

then sudden blizzards snap us back to winter.

Summer weather with its nasty severe surprises,

tornadoes and derechos and 8-inch downpours.

Would find myself asking, “It never used to be like this,

did it?” I cannot remember weather being so wild.

We seemed to get long stretches of warm or hot days

in summertime, moderate ones in the fall,

cold and snowy ones in the winter.

Actual temperatures? I never knew or kept track.

Maybe we just didn’t have as much information,

which today we get bombarded with, inundated.

In 1973, the entire state of Iowa got buried from a

freak snowstorm, up to two feet of snow.

The whole state was paralyzed. Snowmobiles became

ambulances. Everything else shut down.

A week later, it had all melted off, and life resumed.

Freaky weather has always been there,

whether anyone realized it or not.

Let’s see, only 10,500 more years until the next ice age.

Hotels

 

They can be a source of real joy, or of frustrations.

You get parked after a long day of traveling. Maybe you drove on interstates or state highways, and endured detours or slow traffic. Maybe you overpaid for gas, or endured smelly rest areas, with sketchy characters lurking. Or maybe you flew, and had to lay over at expensive, crowded airports, with confusing gate locations. But whatever the case, you walk into a hotel with some sense of relief. You are finally here.

In a good place, they only need a few pieces of information, maybe an ID. You may write down your car license plate, and check the boxes that say you agree not to destroy the room, etc, etc. Then they hand you the card-key, and give you relevant details, like wifi passwords. And off you go to the elevator or stairway, card in hand, anticipation building.

You get to your floor, and then seek out your room number. Assuming you can see the room numbers on a wall somewhere, and get to your room, you present the card to the door reader, and hope the door opens. Most of the time it does, with that satisfying green light and a click. You open the door, and enter.

Most often when I get to this point, I like what I see. There is a large king-sized bed (or two queens if I’m going with a friend). There are three or four pillows lined up atr the headboard, sheet and blanket tightly made, and appealing furniture around. A chair and lamp in a corner past the bed, by the window. In some rooms this is a pretty simple chair, in others a larger, more commodious one. The desk along the wall facing the bed varies. The ones I really like have a lamp or two on the desk, with rocker switches at the base to turn them on. They also have some kind of base or strip to plug in USB cables, and hopefully a couple of three-way plugs for laptops. The TV usually rests on a separate area of the desk, or on a chest of drawers. A remote should be sitting right by the TV, so the guest doesn’t have to hunt for it.

The better rooms will have a simpler remote, and a large selection of channels. In some hotels, many of these are blanked out. But most rooms now have a decent-sized flatscreen in them, at least 32-40 inches wide. In one area of the desk, or on a separate table, will be a small coffeemaker and some packets of coffee and tea. This is often a welcoming sight – I’ll be able to get up, and get my cup of java in me before I head out. Some have Keurig coffeemakers. Nice, as long as they work. Most of the time they do work.

When I look into the bathroom facilities, I see varied sights. More and more have bottles mounted on the walls, for hand soap, shampoo, even lotion. One I stayed at recently had a small note on the sink basin mirror, that said “if you would like separate bottles of lotion and soap, you can request these at the front desk.” I didn’t, and I doubt most people would. But it’s a sign of the times. To lessen environmental impact, and perhaps save a bit too, more and more hotels will just mount bottles on the wall of the shower, and the sink area. If they do offer the individual bottles this gives me a better impression, like the place isn’t cheap-ifying everything.

One of the last hotels that I stayed in had a room that was palatial, by older hotel standards. It even had a couch – was more like a suite. Hotel rooms seem to be getting larger, with more amenities included, like the fridge and microwave that seem to be almost ubiquitous. No wonder costs are going up. Enjoy your stay, everyone.

Compassion Rules

 

So thankful for those compassionate human beings;

Their kind manner and positive regard make my heart sing.

They uplift my spirits and give me confidence in the future.

So glad that compassionate people are around,

to make life bearable, to smooth the path forward.

Their kindness makes a bleak day tolerable, and a

sunny day so much more brilliant.

They are a gift from the universe (to the universe).

Antidote to darkness and despair.

They are the key to progress in many ways.

They forgive mistakes and push people forward.

A heartfelt message of gratitude for those

patient and willing to overlook blunders,

compassionate enough to give a hand to a straggler.

Your kind acts will not be forgotten, rather appreciated

for as long as there is memory in this human being.

Thank you!

Hard Copy

 

Words on the screen are insubstantial,

waving in and out, blurring the lines.

Words on a printed page

Black stamped on white

sharp relief, solid-gold reality

steady and always present.

Maps on a screen, all jittery and jumpy,

tell you which way to go with voice or line.

Scroll and zoom in and out,

fingertip convenience but energy-expensive.

Maps on a printed page are there solid,

never change, always tell you where you are going.

Reliable and steady, always there – one-dimensional.

The virtual world is alive and stimulating,

appealing and energizing.

But the day that you lose power,

printed material once again resolves into sharp relief,

and we are all relived that we thought to save it!

Just in case….

No, Do Not Go Backwards

 

In the recent past, there was a general trend in our society to be more open and accepting of different races, and sexual orientations, and gender identities. But in the last year or so, there has been this mad rush to dismantle these added protections and frameworks. Like DEI, for instance.

Many corporate entities added DEI initiatives in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. These were meant to make someone feel welcome and included in most any kind of a corporate organization, no matter your skin color, gender or sexual orientation. And what is wrong with that? They wanted to hire a diverse workforce, representative of society, and to make everyone feel like they fit in. To me, this is the sign of a strong and prosperous society. We are big and strong enough to welcome in all of our diverse elements, to make everyone feel welcome and at home.

But, a sign of a weakening and fearful society, one that is becoming less prosperous, is to exclude. To exclude classes that one has recently allowed to come out in the open and breathe freely, without fear. To create divisions and conflict between diverse groups of people, to distract them from some bigger picture perhaps.

There is a minority of people who were recently allowed to come out in the open and participate in society. Society was adjusting. Rest rooms were being modified to be single-use, or designated a ‘family restroom’, to accommodate different genders. Gender pronouns were being recognized, accommodated, used widely, disseminated generally. Society was making the adjustment, despite some grumbling from certain quarters. We were all getting used to this new world. And when one thought about it, why not – what is the harm in being a fully inclusive, loving society? This is the mark of an advanced, enlightened civilization!

Nope, it just couldn’t last. The dank qualms of a reactionary group were just too much to ignore. Our baser, more fearful natures took over our political leadership. They threw out the enlightened treatment of everyone in society. Tossed out the good with any perceived “bad” (like letting schoolkids discuss gender issues. ). We are just setting ourselves back, and setting up renewed fighting and struggling in the future. We are just creating more pain and anguish, and for what reason? In some cases, it is being based on an ancient set of texts that barely even mention anything about gender or sex. People are getting all up in arms about what some very old literature supposedly condemns as ‘wrong.’

To me, humankind, over many millennia, have created a body of absolute truth outside itself. And while the basis may have originated in religious texts, the law has evolved and changed to recognize the changing, growing, vibrant entirety of humanity. As the human race grows and changes, then so must our body of agreed-upon body of laws governing behaviors. A law that governed a tiny tent society in Judea is not adequate for over eight billion human souls today. Absolute truth, the body of law, must reflect the change that humanity has undergone.

To take a recently recognized group of people and render them invisible under the law again is a major offense of the idea of universal law itself. To give them recognition and protection, then yank it away a few years later, is completely unjust and harsh. It is the sign of a fearful and sinking society, a society that is moving in the wrong direction. Any thinking, feeling human being should oppose this hard turning back in our laws and society! It is only going to do harm to the ones we may love and care about, to our family members, and ultimately to ourselves, as our legal structure further erodes.

Thanks for reading.

Math Formula is our Friend

 

Once upon a time, there was a quantity

measured in an arcane formula,

or not so much, really.

It was just called Delta-vee.

Nothing so erudite as E=MC/2

or long-winded like X + Y + Z =0.

Just a measurement of change in velocity.

Distance and speed together,

for a full reckoning of directionality.

Just make sure your propulsive element

has full functionality!

No ‘Buck Rogers’ without the big bucks,

No high performance rocketry;

No reaching Earth orbit, either,

without enough change in Delta-vee!

Thrust is everything, you see,

as long as you go in the right direction.

So make sure of the proper Delta-Vee,

and avoid any meteorite deflections!

But I never claimed to be an expert in rocket science,

So thank you for following this simple explanation;

Lucky that we have computers to rely on;

digital servants to calculate those Delta-Vee variations.

Mathematics is a map of our entire reality,

so sometimes it’s good to revisit the science;

reminding selves that formulae like Delta-Vee

help us tame and explore many externalities.

Elon and Jeff need help lofting all those rockets;

The math computers tackle care of all the details;

the proper Delta-Vee ensures profitable orbits,

So they can celebrate, tell tall tales and sip cocktails.