New Year 2023

My reader "TA" left a comment to my previous blog post in which she wrote, "Weird things happen in our lives, miracles exist. Remember that we are in this earth for a reason. Do you know which one is yours?"

I could not agree more. Definitely, weird things do happen in my life. Miracles do exist. I am certainly in this earth for a reason.

The reason we are on earth is to learn lessons that we could not otherwise learn. We have to experience life, and do things, and face consequences, and then we learn a lesson. When we do unto others, others will later do unto us those same lessons, and we will learn how we made them feel. Then, in the future, maybe we will choose to do something different.

It is impossible to learn all our lessons in one lifetime, so we return to Earth. We return many times—hundreds of embodiments. With each lifetime we learn a little more, and our lessons go from primitive to sophisticated. We learn what it feels like to hurt someone when we experience being hurt. We experience physical pain, then we move onward to experience emotional pain and mental anguish. We betray someone, then in another lifetime we experience betrayal, and we learn how it feels. With each life we live, and with each experience, we become better people. We become aware of how our actions affect those around us, how our actions hurt others, and how our actions can comfort others. With each lifetime we grow a little. It's a long process: we live hundreds of embodiments on earth just to nudge us from a primitive soul to a caring human. Eventually we know the Truth and feel the Truth. We evolve.

I knew a woman named Marion Starnes. She headed the Terra Nova Center, a spiritual retreat in North Carolina. She was one of those gifted people who could see the past lives of others. I asked her, "Do first generation souls ever come and talk to you?" Marion replied, "Very rarely. No, first generations are too busy trying to get themselves out of jail." I thought her reply was excellent and cut right to the heart of the issue. "First generations are too busy trying to get themselves out of jail." We are here to learn, and sometimes our lessons are harsh, but only because our actions were harsh. Physics tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's how it works for our souls, too. We are always learning and we are always evolving. We are becoming better souls and better humans. 

No doubt some of my readers won't believe what I am saying, and that's okay with me. But if they behaved as though my words are true, then they will end up being better people despite what they believe. You never forget bad things that happen to you. You always remember the wonderful things that happen to you. Eventually, you will learn that your life here on Earth has a purpose.

"Weird things happen in our lives. Miracles exist. We are here in this earth for a reason.  Do you know which one is yours?"

May God bless you and may you have a wonderful year ahead. Just remember to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who hurt you. I hope that you have a wonderful New Year!

Terry's Double

It's 3:10PM on New Year's Eve. The New Year is 8 hours and 50 minutes away. I don't feel like writing a new blog post, so, as I've done once before, I'm going to steal a post from one of my other blogs. This post was originally published on The Applebee Chronicles. And oh yeah, Happy New Year everybody!

The Nissan

We picked up Nuria's rental car yesterday. It's a 2021 Nissan Sentra SV. Cars have come a long way since my Jeep was built. The Nissan owner's manual is 510 pages. There are also several other manuals about the vehicle.

It doesn't use an ordinary ignition key. No, it uses an electronic pendant. First, you use the pendant to unlock the car. Then, you use the pendant to start the car. Starting the car is complicated enough that there is an online video showing you how to do it. (See the video below.)

Doing anything, like turning on the A/C, or the headlights, or even the radio, is different enough that you have to learn how to do it. I suppose that eventually you would get the hang of it. I'm hoping we won't have the Nissan long enough for me to remember how everything works.

Late December

This morning, I got out of bed and I walked around the bed to the bedroom window (one of them) to adjust the Venetian blinds, and I discovered that the window was cracked open a half inch. It's probably been open since autumn, but I keep the blinds closed and no one could see that it was open. That may explain why my heating system has been running so much. When it's 8 degrees outside and your bedroom window is open, even a half inch, the room is going to be chilly and the heat is going to run. The opening was a half inch wide and 36 inches tall. That's equal to one inch by18 inches tall. And that's 18 square inches, which is equivalent to a round hole that has a 5.75 inch diameter. That's an almost six inch diameter hole in the wall. When the oil company fills up my heating oil tank, I'm going to pay for that oversight.

Nuria is going to get a haircut today, her first since she arrived here on September 20th, a little over three months ago. She's going to walk to the hairdresser's shop for a 3PM appointment, then walk home. Then we'll drive to Enterprise Rent-a-Car so she can pick up a rental car to use until the insurance matters are settled and she can buy another car. I hope that will happen in January.

We visited one of my very good friends yesterday. He is in poor condition. He is unable to stand up or walk due to several health problems. I hope he will survive this year, but with the condition that he is in, he's probably ready to go. There often comes a time when life is more of a burden than a joy, and the future holds no promise of change. 

I'm going to start a diet on New Year's Day. I'd like to lose about 30 pounds. I've tried before, and I've given up. I went on the Atkin's Diet three times. Each time, the same thing happened. I began losing weight for two weeks, then my weight stabilized for two weeks, then I gained weight for two weeks, at which point my weight was equal to my starting weight. At that point I quit the diet. So this time I'll have to do something different. Maybe combine Atkin's with a fast every other day?  I know I'd feel better if I weighed less, but I definitely don't want to be hungry every day.

Jonah Goldberg has an interesting column in the LA Times today. He compares Trump's annus horribilis (as he describes it) with Nixon's scandalous presidency. You can read it here.

Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas!

The song of the day is 2022's Kid On Christmas from the 2022 album Holidays Around the World by a cappella group Pentatonix (Kirstin Maldonado, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kevin Olusola and Matt Sallee). The song also features Meghan Trainor. The album includes three originals: "Kid on Christmas," a collaboration with Meghan Trainor, "Star on Top" and "Prayers for this World."

Kid on Christmas (below)

Star On Top (below)

Prayers For This World (below)

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve. At 7AM the temperature outside my house was 8° and with wind chill it feels like -7°. (-13° and -22° Celcius). That will wake you up! We visited with my friend Butch at about 1PM. He lives a few houses down the street and usually we would walk there, but the air was bitterly cold, so I drove us to his house. His daughter was visiting, and we exchanged gifts with them.

We came home and I watched the Minnesota Vikings defeat the New York Giants (27-24). It was a very close game. Either team could have won, down to the last minute. That made it interesting.

There was more football on the TV, but I decided to switch over to YouTube and listen to Christmas music. Nuria made dinner and I put some relaxing piano jazz on the sound system. By sound system I, of course, mean my TV set. Sure, I could play sound through my computer speakers, but they sound like crap. The TV, at least, sounds halfway decent.

The outside temperature is 20°F, or as we say hereabouts: freeze-your-ass-off cold. It will be 14° by morning.

At seven we ate dinner, and afterward I went back to typing a blog post about nothing. We've already given each other Christmas gifts, so there is nothing exciting to do on Christmas morning. But that's fine with me. 

At 7:45PM I received an unexpected phone call from an old friend that I met in university and later worked for at his company for 14 years. We talked about old times for an hour. I really enjoyed hearing his voice again and reminiscing with him. How many friends do you have that you've known for fifty-six years and you still talk with them like you saw them yesterday?

I posted a video here that played some pretty piano jazz, but it only lasted a day before YouTube (or somebody) removed it. So if you're here after Christmas Day, then sorry, you missed the music video. But you can still go to YouTube and search for "Smooth Piano Jazz Music".

Friday Evening

Friday turned out to be a sunny, cold day. At 5PM the temperature had fallen to 23°F (-5°C). The low temperature forecast for Friday night is 8°F. I'm gonna be burning dinosaurs and kilowatt-hours, and a fire-log or two.

Nuria warned me that the fruit on the rum cake was soaked in rum. She doesn't want me to get hooked on rum cake alcohol. I used to drink a liter (about a quart) of vodka every day. I did that for years. I chose to quit drinking alcohol. I don't think eating a tiny piece of fruit soaked in rum is going to turn me into an alcoholic. There is probably no alcohol in rum cake anyway—just the flavor of the rum. What concerns me more than the alcohol content is the calorie content. There's a diet in my future, and it's getting closer every day.

I just lit a fire log. There's Christmas jazz music playing in the room. Nuria is sitting on the sofa behind me, phone in hand. She's sending a message to her sister in Costa Rica. 

Time passed. The fire burned. The temperature outside continued to fall. It's 16°F now. 

Nuria and I watched It Happened One Christmas starring Marlo Thomas, a 1977 remake of the 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life starring James Stewart. We ate more of Nuria's pumpkin pie, which is delicious. In two more hours, Christmas Eve will arrive with the midnight hour. I have nothing exciting to relay to my readers. We're homebodies now, Nuria and I, until Christmas is behind us. There's too much traffic and too many last minute shoppers for us to be driving around. We've already lost one car this Christmas season. Auto-wise, we're now down to my '95 Jeep. But it's a reliable workhorse. Nuria has begun looking at used car ads. Before, long, we'll be a two-car household again, I think, and hope.

"¡Feliz Navidad!" as José Feliciano would say. 

Friday

The expected cold front hit this morning, or at least the leading edge hit. A strong rain shower began falling. After a short while it stopped. Nuria had papers to mail to her lawyers in Chicago, and she wanted them to get there as soon as possible, so she just left the house on a trek to the Post Office. She likes to walk there and the rain isn't falling now. I hope she gets back before the weather gets bad. It's only about 8 minutes to the Post Office and, of course, 8 minutes back. She may spend 5 minutes inside the Post Office, doing business there. So, unless she decides to extend her walk, she should be back about 20 minutes after she left. 

Last night we had a fire log burning in the wood stove and relaxing music playing and it created a very nice mood. I captured a glimpse of it with my phone camera.

Nuria just returned from the Post Office. Her package of paperwork is in the mail to Chicago, 2 day delivery and signature requested. 

Tomorrow we'll walk up the street and visit my buddy Butch. I'd do it today but I fear we might be caught in a downpour.

Nuria is in the kitchen making rum cakes. She said she will make three cakes. She wants to give a couple of them to friends and, of course, there will be one for us. Her last home-baked cake was a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, and needless to say, it was very good. When the new year gets here, I have to lay off these tasty treats. I've already gained five pounds just in the last few weeks. If I keep gaining weight, I won't be able to get out of bed. Then, I'll have to give up snacks, unless Nuria keeps bringing them to me. There is a YT video about a man who fasted for more than a year and lost 382 pounds. He fasted under medical supervision, but fasting that long is dangerous and doctors don't advise it. When he ended his fast, he resumed eating but he did not put the weight back on. There's a video about his experience here.

I've fasted, and I can tell you that after the first three days, your hunger goes away, because your body switches to burning ketones (which are derived from body fat) and so you're not hungry. Our bodies can burn two kinds of fuel: glucose (sugar) and ketones. As long as we have glucose in our blood, our bodies don't make ketones, and excess glucose is stored in fat cells. When our bodies run low on glucose, we switch to breaking down fat into ketones, which our bodies then burn for energy. That's the basis of the Atkins diet and the reason it works. I'll be joining the millions of other Americans who will swear, on New Year's Eve, that they're going to lose weight in the New Year. Good luck to all of them, and good luck to me.

Christmas Countdown

One of my readers concluded a comment with this sentence:  "Can't wait for your Christmas blog and New Years full of wisdom and hope through the sparkling words of the author !!"

Oh shoot, really? Now I'm blushing! I've always thought that my readers, through their comments, were the ones who were full of wisdom, and I still feel that way. But thank you for the kind review.

The high temperature today is supposed to be about 50F° and the low tonight is forecast to be 38°F. The storm gets here tomorrow, and tomorrow night is forecast to be 9°F (-12.8°C). I'm gonna be burning those dinosaurs (or whatever heating oil is made of). I've seen colder weather here and I've written about it. But I shouldn't complain. The temperature in Great Falls, Montana, is currently -25°F, and today's high temperature there is forecast to be -12°F.

For Christmas, I gave Nuria a Garmin GPS for her car. Now she is car-less, so I tested the GPS on my Jeep. It worked fine. I figure she'll need it until she knows the area. Even then, it's a handy device when you're driving around a part of the city that is unfamiliar to you. I used to have a TomTom GPS and it worked great. It worked on a trip to Inverness, Florida, and back home—a 24 hour round trip. After that, the TomTom prompted me to update the map. I tried to, and it began installing the new map. But then it said that it was out of memory and couldn't install the new map, and the old map was gone, so the TomTom was useless. I threw it into the trash after using it one time.

I got up at 6:30AM today, after being awake since 3:30AM. I always wake up during the night and usually can't get back to sleep. Now it's 8AM and a light rain is falling. I will drive Nuria to a doctor today to pick up paperwork for her permanent residency application. She has to sign it in front of the doctor, and the doctor has to sign it in front of Nuria. Then it goes into a special envelope, is sealed, and is sent to her lawyers in Chicago, then they check everything and send it to USCIS (Customs and Immigration Service). Nuria and the USCIS have been swapping paperwork since 2020. But the money flows only one way, from her to them. The lawyers charge $4500, and the government charges a few thousand dollars. When all is done, the paperwork will have taken about three years and the cost will total about $7000. Even after that, she can be denied residency. The government promises nothing.

I hope my next blog post will be more Christmas-y and less complaining. I recently bought some fire logs, and today would be a good time to use one or two. Stay cheerful, people!

Winter Solstice

It's Wednesday, December 21st, the middle of the work week and the first day of winter for this year in North America. Winter begins on the day of the winter solstice, which is today. In earth's southern hemisphere, winter began on June 21 this year. 

Coincidentally, on this first day of winter, a raging blizzard is crossing the country and headed my way. It is due to arrive in my city on Friday. The low Friday night is expected to be 12°F, and the high on Saturday is expected to be 27°F. Christmas will be a little warmer: a high that day of 32°F and a low of 15°F. And it's "just" December. January is the really cold month where I live.

I broke the handle off the sliding patio door that leads to my backyard. I just yanked it too hard. So I ordered a new door handle from Home Depot. It came today. I removed the old handle and tried to install the new handle, but it didn't quite fit. The mounting holes were very close to the same distance apart as on the old handle, but not close enough. Then I dropped one of the parts of the outside handle (a part I need to use with the new handle). I saw the part fall—a black, metal piece about 1/2 inch square. I watched it fall to the outside step and bounce off, then fall into the clover beside the step. I looked for it carefully, pulling clover up so I could see the ground. I couldn't find it and finally I called for Nuria's help. She looked for it and pulled more clover out of the way. Neither of us could find it, even though I saw exactly where it fell into the clover. It was freezing cold and after an hour I gave up trying to fix the door. I decided to replace the patio door. But not just the door: the whole installation including the track the door rolls on. It's old and needs replacing, anyway. 

It's also time for a new garage door. So that's on my list for the beginning of the year. I may wait until spring so that it won't be so cold when the installers are working. And oh yes, I just remembered, the garage has two old wind turbines on its roof. One has failed and won't turn. The other is equally old and will likely fail soon. So add two roof turbines to the "to do" list. I wonder if I can get all this done for under five thousand dollars. That's what it cost me to remodel my kitchen when I moved into this house. Oh well, what is money for, if not to spend?

Two milestones for Nuria today: One, she passed her medical exam (another $455) and is expected to see the doctor tomorrow to pick up the paperwork. (This is in regard to her application for permanent resident status). Second, the Toyota incident (in which her vehicle was totaled by another driver) is moving forward. The other driver's insurance has taken full financial responsibility for Nuria's auto accident, after they looked at photos of the Camry and determined the car is a total loss. I don't know what they'll do next, but the insurance claim is in their ballpark now. 

I hope everyone is well, and stay safe, y'all. It's a busy time of year for the roads. Drivers are distracted by thoughts of Christmas shopping, and the expected bad weather will only make the roads more dangerous. Take care.