Sunday, September 24, 2023

I was invited to an outside, around “the fire pit,” birthday party for Kelli, a close friend of our mutual friends, Ashley and John. Yesterday after work, I went to the event and was surprised to find an almost large gathering. I knew some of those folks and felt comfortable. Ashley whispered that a surprise was about to occur. At seven o’clock, a handsome bagpiper playing “Happy Birthday” came rhythmically toward us, and then continued to serenade with Irish melodies.

He’s a retired Bend firefighter and among a group of retired firefighters that meet and play their bagpipes regularly, and they march in firefighting- and police-related parades. He explained some history of firefighting’s complex evolving and learning about ways to protect this, then even more vulnerable growing community.

He described starting to play a bagpipe at twelve years old, and that he’s never stopped nor wanted to change instruments. A cool fellow. I’ll try to learn more about that group of ex-firefighting bagpipers.

The party was great. I found myself among a mix of horsey and unhorsey folks. Our farrier usually avoids such gatherings but is close to Ashley, John, and Kelli, and was enjoying himself. The group was interactive, talking and laughing lots. I made some new friends, and later, while driving home still felt delighted for having been there.

Dear Friends: I find myself in a “reconnecting period” and am savoring it. Diana

Saturday, September 23, 2023

This month’s Harvest moon coming alive overhead brightly is half-full and beautiful. Next week, Susie and I will go to the countryside to see Harvest’s first glow as it rises from behind the long, slanting, and dim horizon of Horse Ridge. Anticipating an always exciting moonrise draws my attention to cameras. Mine are too little being used.

For a long while, I have focused almost totally on improving my Eight Pines Ranch. Long overdue property needs seemed unending and now some big ones are addressed. With fixes apparent, other interests draw attention.

Photography is pleasurable, and I miss being out and shooting what draws both eye and imagination. Prior to next week’s moon run and our photographing, I will head out with cameras to regain my comfort, taking a tripod and practicing with it. Tripods might aid Susie and me in capturing that Harvest moonrise.

On another note, my donkey, Pimmy, has had blood work that shows her having a metabolic disorder. Cushing’s disease has made her vulnerable to those hoof infections. Cushing’s can be controlled by medications. Two starting meds daily administered soon will improve Pimmy’s health. Then, one of the meds will be dropped, and she’ll receive the other one daily for the rest of her life.

Dear Friends: All sorts of fixes, and now forward to doing work with cameras. Diana

Friday, September 22, 2023

Today, my list of to-dos is at the forefront, starting with an electrician. He is due any moment to set up a new outside pole light and repair an outside fixture not working as it should.

Yesterday, there was a surprising amount of rain. I did as little outside as possible.

Had a long lunch with my friend, Julie, and we caught up with each other. Coming home, I stopped at Safeway for a loaf of bread. Its parking lot was full and the store was packed with shoppers. Rainfall in this community is a popular excuse for shopping indoors.

It occurs to me that I’m doing most of my shopping online. That’s so easy! Yesterday in Safeway, while looking for a particular brand of bread and not finding it, I surprised myself by wondering if that or a bread similar is available from Amazon. Who’d a’thought of buying bread online! I’m not quite ready to explore that, but someday might. Lots of happenings start with notions.

I wonder how retail selling might change in the future. It’s been the “American way” to shop among easily available items, select, and find a register to pay. To avert ever-growing thefts, retailers often are making valuable items less easily available, keeping them under lock and key or in windowed cases. Employees will hand those items to customers and perhaps escort buyers to checkstands.

All Home Depot’s locations stock some 30-40 thousand items. These days, nearly every aisle has locked merchandise because of rampant theft. HD instructs employees not to try taking merchandise from a thief, and never to leave the store and chase someone. Those activities are too dangerous. Instead, employees must get the best possible description of the thief, and hopefully, a vehicle license number. Next, a theft will become a police case.

Not-chasing instructions have made thieves bolder and theft losses increase store prices. To respond, merchandisers are moving more toward selling online. And are becoming more efficient at that. So, what may happen to brick-and-mortar shopping experiences?

Dear Friends: Just one of many questions about the futures of everything. Diana

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Got a quarterly performance review yesterday and passed with flying colors. I’ve given some feedback to my manager in the form of a suggestion to improve the store’s customer response system. He said he has listened and will speak of it to upper management.

Currently, if a customer does (or doesn’t) like the service he/she receives from an employee, that customer can tell HD by going online to the store’s site later and explaining. Few customers do this, although the store encourages feedback. My suggestion was that business feedback about customer and sales relationships needs easier and quicker ways of assessing satisfaction. For example, cards with check-off questions about service satisfaction could be beside each cash register. A customer easily and quickly could rate experience quality and drop the card into a nearby collection box.

My manager says he plans to elevate my suggestion to the store’s upper management. That’s good feedback.

I will have this day and tomorrow off from my job. Today I’ll have lunch with my friend, Julie, to talk and catch up. Tomorrow, an electrician will arrive to repair an outside lighting fixture and to put a new pole light into place. The new pole light will replace a long-ago pole light that my Jeep knocked over and destroyed as I attempted to drive off quickly.

Dear Friends: Yesterday’s rain and cooler weather initiated our fall season. Diana

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Yesterday, all by myself, I did all this: Dug two one-foot+-deep holes, placed gravel in their bottoms; measured needed heights and cut posts, set the posts, attached them to a top rail; and then, mixed two batches of concrete in a wheelbarrow to secure the posts.

Needing those two posts in the horses’ area has kept me awake many nights. Recently, while a handyman was here to fix some broken posts, I watched, asked questions, and learned enough to think about tackling fixes for other needy posts.

Horses are hard on property elements. They lean, scratch, chew, and dig around. Over the years, pieces of fencing have sagged, and I’ve hired fixers. Well, today’s economy stinks, and capable fixers are expensive and often unavailable. Through the years, I have met women who own livestock and property and by themselves handle tough repairs and construction challenges. During my sleepless nights thinking about fencing, I wondered about doing more myself and seeking help less.

Yesterday, I moved on that. The post-related tasks demanded physical strength and a knowledge of basic physics. I lacked both but hoped, if needed, friends could bail me out. While working the various steps, I created workarounds for sheer physical strength. As to the physics, I made mistakes aplenty but managed.

Today, while at work, I will collect some tools to ease the handling of some jobs at home.

Dear Friends: Whatever made me wish for large animals and property! Diana

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Yesterday at work, I was cutting keys for a couple while we chatted. They’re from Alabama and are here temporarily to help their daughter become established in her new home. We exchanged observations about the local culture and the unhappy extent to which this city is growing. They asked where I came from, and I in turn asked about them. (His wife had moved away, now in a lengthy phone conversation with their daughter).

He smiled, said his name was Parke, and that he was born in 1960 in New Jersey. He grew up in the era of emerging computers and software, eventually becoming a lifelong “computer guy.” He started by working for IBM, selling hardware, but evolved into selling software, which better suited his capabilities.

He was interesting and spoke about the beginning of the computer age and described the earliest machines. He also explained his methods of selling software, and suddenly became serious, shifting and exclaiming that the internet will become the ruin of everybody and of the whole world.

Before I could ask his opinion of artificial intelligence, he continued by making specific points: (1) the internet gave everybody unlimited opportunities to explore beyond previously dreamed-of reaches; (2) social media has been destructive, as a way of applauding, criticizing, bullying, and simply blabbing, and has caused great separations; (3) cell phones have become as complex and capable as any computers for reaching and exploring the internet, and now, people are constantly staring at phones; and (4) the entire world order is being arranged and disarranged by software technology that eventually will lead to the doom of everybody and everything.

I couldn’t disagree with him. So, I asked for his opinion of AI. Parke countered, however, by asking for my thoughts about it. I decided to paint a rosier picture. I explained that I’m a blogger and also have drafted a few short stories and one novel. While blogging practices have improved my writing skills, I can’t improve my stories because I can’t self-edit appropriately. To explain, instead of cleaning sections, I tend to start rewriting them, and the original story wanders out of hand.

AI technology offers a way to have my stories edited by an independent source. I’ve not paused to explore this for having too little time to spend on total creativity. However, I frequently use another AI asset, which is illustrating. For a blog, maybe I’ll request an image of someone daydreaming while relaxing in a beautiful forest, and AI technology will produce satisfying choices.

Parke acknowledged that the internet and AI technologies can be very helpful. We agreed that at the bottom line, all possible outcomes emerge from how what’s available becomes used and/or exploited by humans.

Dear Friends: So, you see, key cutting and tool selling aren’t necessarily boring. Diana

Monday, September 18, 2023

It’s crept up on me that my morning reading routine has changed. For almost forever, my days began with reading the Times, and then turning to the Post, and finally, glancing at the WSJ. That was my order of reading since my personal politics lean liberal. In the past weeks, however, I’ve begun reading by going to the WSJ and studying several of its articles. Afterward, I shift to other newspapers, but feeling decently informed, I read them lightly.

The WSJ isn’t a liberal rag by any means. I avoid its more conservative perspectives. The articles that make me pause are well-written with balanced perspectives. For example, today, a fascinating news story focuses on a massive South Korean munitions factory, its history of growth associated with the nation’s politics, and that manufacturer’s increasing global importance.

The story included elements of Korean history, the relationship between North and South, and the ways that technology and political awareness have altered weaponry and land fighting over the past many years. Today’s WSJ-highlighted South Korean manufacturer designs, builds and sells howitzers to many NATO countries, some of which send their howitzers on to Ukraine for use against Russia.

The Ukraine-Russian conflict has made us aware of the changing nature of wars. In a new wrinkle, now we wonder what might come from last week’s Kim-Putin meeting. If we understand better by learning more about the current world order, we will balance new questions more fully against other elements of the ongoing and hard-fought war.

As to the NYT and Post, they’re great newspapers and satisfying to read. My intense but pedestrian world interests find the WSJ speaking to political and economic conditions in ways that assist my knowledge and thinking processes.

Dear Friends: It’s another Monday which always sneaks in new energies. Diana

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Today and in the near future, I’m scheduled for earlier shifts at HD. It’s good, except that I’ve had a stretch of having to be at work by 4 p.m. and finally figured out how to get to do that. Now, I must toss that schedule and start figuring out how to arrive earlier at work (like today) at 10 a.m.

Doesn’t sound like a big challenge, huh? I’d like to agree, but I am predisposed to running the clock and arriving at places, especially work, in the bare nick of time. Horses to feed, dogs to feed, birds to feed and move around, repairs to make, and spaces to clean. If therapy were less expensive, I’d seek a shrink and try working through my time problems.

Of course, the problem isn’t about being too busy, for everyone is busy. It’s about ranking and organizing tasks, about arranging one’s time and activities. Many people who simply do that make the talent seemingly organic. Well, some of us who don’t organize well may appear slouchy.

I have caring friends with time brains who advise me to make lists and keep calendars. They’ve coached me on being time-savvy. Even knowing how, I can’t. I try to adopt advice by making lists but don’t follow them. I try organizing my time and quickly forget how it was arranged.

My problem is organic, early learned in a family that wasn’t time-focused. In fact, the big sister on whom I wished to model myself always considered it fashionable to arrive late. So, my problem evolved as one learned, embedded, and resistant to change.

I enjoy writing about aging and what the process may be teaching. Well, it’s shown me that changes are possible. An individual may decide to toss certain old habits or behaviors, Bingo!, and then fill in spaces with ways more pleasing. So, I’ll use that map to move ahead.

As of this moment, I’ll try tossing away my time confusion. I will pause to organize for what’s needed and when and to allow the space to achieve. As a side note for my Dear Big Sister: I have appreciated and emulated you, but now being on my own must become evermore my own.

Dear Friends: Fooey on therapy, let’s do our thinking and work to “get over it.” Diana

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

I read the old letters my friend Linda had stashed, forgotten, and recently rediscovered. I wrote them when we were in our thirties after she had left Kansas City and was living in LA. Several months ago, she sent those letters. I had hesitated to read them but settled in to revisit a bit of my youth last evening.

Reading them brought surprises and was fun. My letters were full of conflicts about decisions facing me that created anxiety. I wrote of them to Linda, my mentor and encourager. Last night, I realized that, even back then, I was articulating some complex brain workings.

Perhaps that’s a direct line to today when I enjoy blogging. Writing those early letters taught me that thinking and writing can enhance the comprehension of what’s happening around and within oneself.

I had forgotten my mighty struggle over whether to study law. It turned out that I followed my preferences by taking another direction. I studied the humanities, becoming a scholarly expert on the management of organizations. I learned that sustaining viability directly involves managing people well at all levels while addressing larger goals.

Those days of youth are past. Today, my way-inner self sees a new good year beginning.

Dear Friends: I am on my way out now to address yet another failing fence post. Diana

Friday, September 15, 2023

My forever friend, Linda, recently moved to CA. While cleaning and rearranging, she happened across letters we had exchanged long ago in the days of snail mail. She re-read them and was excited to find them eager and bright with ideas. That was near my birthday this year, and Linda (big on birthdays) sent a packet of letters from me.

I was pleased and curious about the idealistic, younger me. I set the packet on a table beside my “evening recliner” but never opened it. Yesterday, Linda asked if I had read the letters. I admitted that part of me resists renewing an acquaintance with my long-ago self.

Because of possible issues to consider.

Might I feel disappointed by reminders of “those roads” not traveled? Or, perhaps, how my life has evolved–as hoped for or not? What emotions might accompany revisiting my past? Could those letters make me feel sad?

Through the years, Linda was my primary mentor and encourager. She’d not have kept our correspondence if it had disappointed. Okay, I will trust her and shoulder up. I’ll read and rediscover my earlier self and probably also blog about it.

Interestingly, I shrugged off a similar timidity yesterday by going to Wilco to meet with its stalwart co-manager, Donna. I left Wilco over a year ago and have missed Donna, one of the kindest and most honest individuals I’ve worked for. Plus, here’s a biggie: Donna is a horseperson! We talked, reconnected, and will go horseback riding. What a delight!

The pleasure of acting boldly yesterday helps me muster the courage to read my letters. Okay, Linda, I will this evening. Despite my emotions, I can anticipate fun in traveling down memory lane.

Dear Friends, my complicated brain often confuses the most straightforward choices. Diana