Happy Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for my many blessings.  I am Thankful for the Lovely Sharon, my son Alex and my parents. I am Thankful for my friends and the bounties of life.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Norman Rockwell

The Last Leaves of Autumn

The last of the leaves on my backyard trees have fallen.  They rest on the ground, yellow and tan damp from a November rain.  I had raked the yard a couple of times and then my yard guys finished for me several weeks ago.  When they raked there will still some leaves in the trees.  Those leaves have now fallen; the trees are pretty much bare.  The current smattering of leaves does not completely cover the lawn, only partially.  There is grass showing through.  It puts me in a quandary.  Do I allow this last batch of fallen leaves to remain on the ground until spring, or do I rake up wet, heavy leaves into clumpy piles and shovel them into bags?

 I am apt to leave them until spring.  Probably not a good idea but it fits into the “Why Do Today What You Can Put off Until Tomorrow” school of thought.

 There is something forlorn looking in the last of the fallen leaves, lying wet on the ground.  They don’t have the cheerful, wonderful, colorful look of the previous batches of fallen leaves.  The trees themselves, now completely bare, are exposed for all to see, I can see broken limbs and nubs of limbs that were once covered with leaves hiding the imperfections of nature.  I can see empty birds nest including a big hawks nest.  No baby birds protected by parents are in these nests.   Bare trees always make me feel a little lonely.

 A few days ago it was almost dusk when I looked down in to the back yard.  Sitting on the lawn were two deer.  Usually when I have deer in the back yard, they are walking or grazing.  These two were sitting and seemingly relaxing; perhaps after a day of foraging for autumn food.  I walked outside on the patio with my camera.   They looked up at me when they heard me call to them but they were not frightened by my presence, probably realizing I was too old to get to them quickly.  So I took their picture as they continued to sit.  They looked at me a few times and then they turned their heads away. 

 

 

 

Important Stuff I have Been Thinking About -- Redux - A repost from December 8, 2010

 A repost

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Important Stuff I have Been Thinking About

I have been home alone quite a bit for the last 45 days or so and have had plenty of time to think about important things in life. Ideas that need to be explored. Questions that need to be answered. Maybe it will expand your horizons and bring a certain amount of enlightenment to you if I share some of these intellectual and, yes, somewhat mystical ideas, questions and comments with you. Maybe you should not read this essay unless you are relaxed and are enjoying a nice warm cup of herbal tea, or a glass of that special wine. For those of you in a contemplative mood consider the following:

Just how big is a “rounded teaspoon”? I cook fairly often and I find myself frequently making a recipe that calls for a rounded teaspoon of something. I struggle with the concept of exactly just how high above the top edge of the spoon do you go for a properly rounded teaspoon. If you think about it, the volume of spice, or flour or sugar that can be put in a teaspoon can vary tremendously depending on how high you pile it. Does the word “rounded” mean literally what it says “rounded”? I doubt it because if you attempted to make the volume of content exactly round it would fall out of the spoon. Does rounded mean a slight arc above the sides of the spoon? I really don’t know. What is the difference between a rounded teaspoon and a heaping teaspoon? I suppose these culinary mysteries will continue to challenge me.

I just read an article about a Russian Billionaire who bought an island just to house his art collection. I know how the fellow feels. If you have the art and you have the money what’s wrong with spending some of your personal wealth for the beautiful and important things you love. I am thinking about doing the same thing. In this economy my “wealth” has plummeted but I still have enough to buy some things. I have decided to buy a new toaster. My current one does not seem to be doing the trick for me. I don’t want to go crazy so I think I will buy a two slice toaster as opposed to the more expensive and luxurious four slice toaster.

I just read another article that reported that Walmart is going get involved in the war on terror. What does that mean? I imagine while in Walmart you will be hearing announcements like: “There is a blue light special in the diaper department, just go through the body scan and pat down on aisle 13 and grab a couple of bags of diapers made in Malaysia by workers making a dollar a day. If you see anyone that looks suspicious, please let a store employee know. If you see an unattended shopping cart, please notify security immediately”. I think we may be over reacting on everything.

I send a fair number of notes and cards to folks. I think a nice note received in the mail is a little more special than an email even if the email expresses the same sentiments as the written note. Don’t get me wrong, a thank you email or other nice sentiment sent to me by email is well appreciated but I do love to send and receive a note or card delivered by one of God’s own, a member of the US Postal Service. Because I send cards by mail, I buy a fair amount of stamps. The post office has a big variety of wonderful stamps. Stamps that are colorful or historical or whimsical. Stamps celebrating a particular season or holiday. Wonderful stamps are indeed available. A month or so ago I bought some special stamps in addition to the just regular first class stamps. I bought stamps that say “Love”. I bought a sheet of stamps with the black and white photo of old time singer Kate Smith. Finally I bought a sheet of stamps of famous sailors who are each depicted in a black and white photo. In retrospect these were not very good stamp choices.

The persons who in the group of appropriate addressees for the Love stamps is fairly small. I mean I may like someone or even really like someone but do I really want to express the sentiment of Love to such addressee by affixing a stamp that explicitly expresses the concept of Love on the envelope? Not really. So who do I send the Love stamps to? Certainly the Lovely Sharon in a proper candidate. But do I put a Love stamp on the thank you note I send to the yard guy for his good work for the last season? No, I don’t.

The other day I made my car payment and without thinking, I put a Love stamp on my payment to GMAC. I like GMAC, I appreciate their loan that allowed me to buy my Buick Enclave, but I cannot honestly say I love GMAC. Once I put the stamp on the envelope, I was locked in. I could not throw a properly addressed and stamped envelope away could I? So I mailed it. When GMAC gets my payment mailed in an envelope with the word Love on it what social obligations do they have to me? Are they obliged to send me a thank you note? Do they reduce my next payment? Do they invite me to the company picnic next summer? I mean the tax payers bailed out GM and its GMAC subsidiary with millions if not billions in loans and guarantees. As a tax payer I was one of those people helping with the bailouts, right? After I help with the GMAC bailout, I send them an envelope with Love written on the stamp. They must be wondering what I am after.

I have also had a conceptional problem with the Kate Smith stamps and the Naval hero’s stamps. What do I really do with them? They are too unusual to use on regular bills and who would you be sending a note to that upon receipt would think ”What a nice stamp with Kate Smith on it” or “ Wonderful,, Bud sent me a card with a stamp that has William S. Sims on it”. One of the Naval heroes stamp is a black guy whose first name is Doris. Really, a naval hero named Doris? Makes you wonder what is up with the “don’t ask don’t tell” controversy when we have already celebrated in our stamps a fellow named Doris.

The other thing I have been thinking about is the Tea Party leader who suggested that only property owners should be allowed to vote. According to this fellow, if you don’t own property, you should not be allowed to vote. You don’t have enough vested in things to be able to vote as an American citizen. Regardless of your political leanings, do you really want a political movement that wants to take away the right to vote? Remember in the beginning of our country’s history, women could not vote, blacks could not vote and for the most part only white property owners could vote. Is that what the Tea Party wants? Why does this kind of thinking not outrage all of us.? I think I am going to send this guy a letter telling him he is crazy and un-American. I think I will put a Kate Smith stamp on the envelope. Wait, maybe I should put a Love stamp on the envelope. The mixed message between the content of my letter and the Love stamp might drive him crazy.

Kate Smith and I send you holiday wishes.

Ian Flemming - James Bond

I just finished reading a biography about Ian Fleming written by Andrew Lycett.

 

 

Ian Fleming was the author of the James Bond books and stories.  As teen age boy (my young teens), I read the James Bond books.  I loved them.  I have been a lifelong fan of the James Bond movies.  I have seen them all several times each and I am always excited for a new one to come out.  My favorite James Bond actor is Sean Connery and my next favorite is Daniel Craig.

 

The biography by Lycett is approximately 460 pages and is a good read.  

 

I learned from the biography that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a short story written by Fleming for his only son Caspar that was later turned into a movie and stage musical.  The Lovely Sharon and I saw the musical on the stage in London a few years back.

 

I found the following biographical blurb about Fleming at:

 

http://www.ianfleming.com/ian-fleming/

 

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London on 28th May 1908, the second of four brothers. He was educated at Eton College and then abroad in Germany and Austria. After an early career at Reuters news agency, he became a stockbroker. During World War 2 he worked throughout as assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence in the Admiralty in London, privy to many secrets. It was his experience in this job that was to provide many of the characters and incidents that he was to write about later in the Bond books. Following the war he became foreign manager, in charge of foreign correspondents, for Kemsley newspapers, owners of the Sunday Times and other papers. But his creative imagination remained under wraps until 1952, when, at the age of 43, he settled down in his house in Jamaica, and produced – in not much more than two months – Casino Royale, the first adventure of James Bond. He published a further thirteen James Bond titles. He married Anne Rothermere in 1952 and in August that year his only son, Caspar, was born. While convalescing from his first heart attack in 1962, he wrote a short story about a flying car for Caspar – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Ian Fleming died, aged 56, on 12th August 1964 at Sandwich in Kent.

 

Fleming was a great womanizer and seemed to have dozens if not hundreds of one night encounters, short term affairs and long term affairs. Fleming loved to sail and he loved golf. He was a live long member of several of the London's famous men's clubs where those with pedigrees and/or money congregated for drinks, lunch and dinner. One of the Clubs was Boodles. Boodle's is a Private Members' Club, founded in 1762 by the Earl of Shelburne, later the Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister. The Club was originally located at 49-51 Pall Mall, and moved to its present premises at 28 St. James's Street in 1782. The Club was named after its Head Waiter, Edward Boodle. So Boodles has been at the same location since 1782.

 

He was married once, to Anne Rothermore,  with whom he had a multi year affair while she was married to Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere.  Ulitmately Fleming and Anne had affairs with others during their stormy marriage but they were still married at the time of his death.

 

One of the parts of Fleming's life I found interesting was his many friendships and interactions with so many well known people:  Noel Coward and Evelyn Waugh ( Brideshead Revisited), Raymond Chandler and dozens and dozens of other people that from the 1920's to the 1960's were on the front page of the news. He seemed to have a regular flow of celebrity guests at his house in Jamaica.

 

Flemings' life reads like a novel.  If you have the time and if you are a James Bond fan you might want to undertake to read this biography.

 

Ian Fleming

 



If it weren't morning I might have a martini, shaken, not stirred.

More Cool Photos and Graphics

Photos and Graphics found on the internet

Wouldn't you love to come across these ladies at the beach?

Great hat

The Lovely Sharon dresses like this when she cooks.  She also has the seductive smile when she uses the mix master

I love elegant ladies

I will be glad to dance with the Lovely Sharon soon

Too scary for me

Cool photos from the 1940's

I am always looking at retro photos. I especially like photos from the 1940's. I found these on the internet.

Important Stuff I have Been Thinking About Redux

Here is a post from 2010.  After reading it again I still like it.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Important Stuff I have Been Thinking About

I have been home alone quite a bit for the last 45 days or so and have had plenty of time to think about important things in life. Ideas that need to be explored. Questions that need to be answered. Maybe it will expand your horizons and bring a certain amount of enlightenment to you if I share some of these intellectual and, yes, somewhat mystical ideas, questions and comments with you. Maybe you should not read this essay unless you are relaxed and are enjoying a nice warm cup of herbal tea, or a glass of that special wine. For those of you in a contemplative mood consider the following:

Just how big is a “rounded teaspoon”? I cook fairly often and I find myself frequently making a recipe that calls for a rounded teaspoon of something. I struggle with the concept of exactly just how high above the top edge of the spoon do you go for a properly rounded teaspoon. If you think about it, the volume of spice, or flour or sugar that can be put in a teaspoon can vary tremendously depending on how high you pile it. Does the word “rounded” mean literally what it says “rounded”? I doubt it because if you attempted to make the volume of content exactly round it would fall out of the spoon. Does rounded mean a slight arc above the sides of the spoon? I really don’t know. What is the difference between a rounded teaspoon and a heaping teaspoon? I suppose these culinary mysteries will continue to challenge me.

I just read an article about a Russian Billionaire who bought an island just to house his art collection. I know how the fellow feels. If you have the art and you have the money what’s wrong with spending some of your personal wealth for the beautiful and important things you love. I am thinking about doing the same thing. In this economy my “wealth” has plummeted but I still have enough to buy some things. I have decided to buy a new toaster. My current one does not seem to be doing the trick for me. I don’t want to go crazy so I think I will buy a two slice toaster as opposed to the more expensive and luxurious four slice toaster.

I just read another article that reported that Walmart is going get involved in the war on terror. What does that mean? I imagine while in Walmart you will be hearing announcements like: “There is a blue light special in the diaper department, just go through the body scan and pat down on aisle 13 and grab a couple of bags of diapers made in Malaysia by workers making a dollar a day. If you see anyone that looks suspicious, please let a store employee know. If you see an unattended shopping cart, please notify security immediately”. I think we may be over reacting on everything.

I send a fair number of notes and cards to folks. I think a nice note received in the mail is a little more special than an email even if the email expresses the same sentiments as the written note. Don’t get me wrong, a thank you email or other nice sentiment sent to me by email is well appreciated but I do love to send and receive a note or card delivered by one of God’s own, a member of the US Postal Service. Because I send cards by mail, I buy a fair amount of stamps. The post office has a big variety of wonderful stamps. Stamps that are colorful or historical or whimsical. Stamps celebrating a particular season or holiday. Wonderful stamps are indeed available. A month or so ago I bought some special stamps in addition to the just regular first class stamps. I bought stamps that say “Love”. I bought a sheet of stamps with the black and white photo of old time singer Kate Smith. Finally I bought a sheet of stamps of famous sailors who are each depicted in a black and white photo. In retrospect these were not very good stamp choices.

The persons who in the group of appropriate addressees for the Love stamps is fairly small. I mean I may like someone or even really like someone but do I really want to express the sentiment of Love to such addressee by affixing a stamp that explicitly expresses the concept of Love on the envelope? Not really. So who do I send the Love stamps to? Certainly the Lovely Sharon in a proper candidate. But do I put a Love stamp on the thank you note I send to the yard guy for his good work for the last season? No, I don’t.

The other day I made my car payment and without thinking, I put a Love stamp on my payment to GMAC. I like GMAC, I appreciate their loan that allowed me to buy my Buick Enclave, but I cannot honestly say I love GMAC. Once I put the stamp on the envelope, I was locked in. I could not throw a properly addressed and stamped envelope away could I? So I mailed it. When GMAC gets my payment mailed in an envelope with the word Love on it what social obligations do they have to me? Are they obliged to send me a thank you note? Do they reduce my next payment? Do they invite me to the company picnic next summer? I mean the tax payers bailed out GM and its GMAC subsidiary with millions if not billions in loans and guarantees. As a tax payer I was one of those people helping with the bailouts, right? After I help with the GMAC bailout, I send them an envelope with Love written on the stamp. They must be wondering what I am after.

I have also had a conceptional problem with the Kate Smith stamps and the Naval hero’s stamps. What do I really do with them? They are too unusual to use on regular bills and who would you be sending a note to that upon receipt would think ”What a nice stamp with Kate Smith on it” or “ Wonderful, Bud sent me a card with a stamp that has William S. Sims on it”. One of the Naval heroes stamp is a black guy whose first name is Doris. Really, a naval hero named Doris? Makes you wonder what is up with the “don’t ask don’t tell” controversy when we have already celebrated in our stamps a fellow named Doris.

The other thing I have been thinking about is the Tea Party leader who suggested that only property owners should be allowed to vote. According to this fellow, if you don’t own property, you should not be allowed to vote. You don’t have enough vested in things to be able to vote as an American citizen. Regardless of your political leanings, do you really want a political movement that wants to take away the right to vote? Remember in the beginning of our country’s history, women could not vote, blacks could not vote and for the most part only white property owners could vote. Is that what the Tea Party wants? Why does this kind of thinking not outrage all of us.? I think I am going to send this guy a letter telling him he is crazy and un-American. I think I will put a Kate Smith stamp on the envelope. Wait, maybe I should put a Love stamp on the envelope. The mixed message between the content of my letter and the Love stamp might drive him crazy.

Kate Smith and I send you holiday wishes.

Autumn Deer

Yesterday morning I was awake and up around 5:00.  I know it was a Saturday and it should have been a sleep in day, but I wake up between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. seven days a week.  I don’t set the alarm, even on work days, I just wake up.   The Lovely Sharon is in Palm Desert so the Salt Lake house is quiet and even kind of lonely no matter what time of day it is. Even though we are no longer on day-light savings time, at that time of morning it is as dark as night.  I sipped a couple of cups of Dunkin Doughnuts brand coffee, I read several online news stories, collected my Salt Lake Tribune from the driveway, read it and then made breakfast. 

 

I finished eating my scramble eggs and homemade country style potatoes around 6:45 and as I stood at the sink rinsing off dishes and fry pans, I looked out the window down into our back yard.  I saw movement in the now dawn light and realized there were three or four large deer moseying through the yard near the creek bed.  I walked out onto the patio.  It was cold outside.  I walked to the patio rail looked down at the deer and whistled.  At the sound of a whistle the deer stopped walking and looked up at me.  I called down to them as they continued to look at me.  We were probably 40 yards or so apart.  I suppose they were wondering what I wanted and I was wondering where they were going.

It is not unusual for there to be deer in our back yard. In fact, as I was raking leaves Friday afternoon, there were a couple of them across the creek bed from me, seemingly paying no attention to me or my raking.  Still, each time I see deer in the yard, there is a sense of wonder about it. You would never see them so close in the mountains and they would not seem so unafraid of a human.  Sometimes I have been working in the yard and they have been grazing 30 or 40 feet from me.  Keeping an eye I on me but accepting of our coexistence in the back yard.

Yesterday was unusually warm for this time of year in Salt Lake City. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be even warmer.  Its 1:30 a.m. now and I need to go back to bed.  In a few hours when the sun is up, when breakfast is made and eaten and it warms up, I think I will go for a walk.  This warm streak will soon end and December is only three weeks away.  Any walk then will require a coat, gloves and a stocking cap. Today merely a light sweater.

 

A couple of backyard photos from last week

 

Look closely and you can see the leaves floating through the air.

 

Here are two photos from 2011

You can see the rock embankment of the creek in the left center background of this shot.

I take a great number of photos of the back yard every autumn and you cannot tell one year from the next.  But the compelling beauty of the change of seasons causes me to grab my camera and take a  few more pictures.  Maybe one day I won't be able to go outside and the photos will be all I have left.

Orange Dragon Fly

A month or so ago the Lovely Sharon and I were playing golf at Hidden Valley Country Club.  On the 2nd hole of the Lake Course, we came upon a beautiful orange insect, a dragon fly I think, but I might be wrong.  Whatever it was it was beautiful as it rested on a red water hazard stake.  Here are three photos I took of it:

NSA Spying

I recently wrote a post about NSA Spying.  In this morning's Salt Lake Tribune there is an editoral from Newsday about NSA spying.  Check it out:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/57072347-82/nsa-data-agency-google.html.csp


 

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Newsday: Be careful what you search for ... NSA can see you

Newsday

By newsday

Published: November 2, 2013 01:01AM
Updated: November 2, 2013 01:01AM 

 

When you use Google or Yahoo, the National Security Agency can secretly monitor and collect data on everything you view or communicate, according to leaked documents revealing the latest privacy-shredding excess of the nation’s electronic sleuths.

In a covert project called MUSCULAR, the NSA and its British counterpart broke into the main fiber-optic links that globally connect Google and Yahoo data centers, according to The Washington Post. Using that access, the agencies can intercept in real time the content of communications such as texts, audio and video, and funnel massive hauls of data from user accounts in the companies’ internal networks to NSA data warehouses at Fort Meade in Maryland.

Because the tapped cables are outside the United States, legal restrictions on domestic surveillance don’t apply and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has no jurisdiction. That’s apparently the point for the NSA since, under a different program known as PRISM, it can gain access to online accounts if the court approves.

With each leak from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the NSA looks more and more like an agency gone rogue. Officials there seem determined to duck every legal restriction on their spying, and to thwart any attempt at oversight.

Congress can’t let that continue.

The advance of technology has made the distinction between domestic surveillance, with its appropriate constitutional constraints, and spying abroad, where there are few if any restrictions, increasingly meaningless. 

The situation demands congressional hearings to uncover what the NSA is doing, to determine whether it’s legal and acceptable, and to help lawmakers devise ways to make sure the agency stops trashing the rights of Americans.

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