Andrew's View of the Week

2017

Posted on 01/08/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

I thought about doing a review of my goals for last year along with a list of my goals for the new-year.

I did find one post from last year with a list of goals, but I can’t believe I said I was going to do that stuff. Really, I was planning all that? Well, it didn’t take long for me to forget those were my goals, so we’ll just skip that part of the exercise.

Some nice things did happen last year. On the blogging front I’ve managed to grow my followers from about 800 to just over 1,500. My thanks to all who follow my posts and a big thanks to everyone who takes time to write a comment.

I did get a nice trip to England this year. It was great to see places and people I don’t get to see often. I’ve been mostly healthy all year, except for starting out the year with having to get a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea. I was able to get a lot of stuff done in the workshop this year – even though little of it was planned at the start of the year.

On the writing front, I finished editing my poetry book and started serious work on my novel. I’ve managed to keep my regular posting schedule on my blog, with only a few misses.

Sadly there was the election, which I found disturbing.

I do have things in mind that I’d like to do in the coming year. I’ll list them, but they’re more hopes than actual goals.

Self publish my cancer poetry book.
Finish writing my novel.
Start a new poetry collection and actually submit some to literary magazines.
Keep doing stuff in the workshop. First project is a total shop reorg.
Build a new ladder for the kitties (poor dears only have one).
Exercise more and keep my FitBit happy.
Participate in a protest march or two.
Write my elected leaders on a regular basis.
ROAD TRIP!!!
Keep this list someplace where I can find it next year.
Attend a writer’s workshop/conference (do tell if you know of a good one on the west coast).
Don’t adopt any more cats – the house is full.

That’s a long enough list of things. I will admit to love writing lists – Actually doing the thing on the list, not so much…

Till next week,
Andrew

Posted in General | Tagged 2016, new year's goals, year in review | 34 Comments

Friday Wisdom – Work?

Posted on 01/06/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

If work is so terrific,
how come they have to pay you to do it?

Wednesday Woodworking – No Pictures

Posted on 01/04/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

I have been in the shop, mostly cleaning and getting ready to do a major shop reorg. I did build a couple of more planter boxes. There are no pictures of this. It’s pain to upload pictures without my main computer.

That and I forgot to take any. You see, it’s been cold, raining, and my back hurts so the effort of lifting my cellphone and pressing the button has just been too much. Maybe next week I can muster the strength to lift my camera high enough to get a good picture.

I did manage to get my computer repaired yesterday. Last week I made an appointment at the Apple store to get it looked it. Yesterday I took it in and the tech agreed with me that the hard drive failed. He told me it would be 3-5 days to repair. Then said, “That’s standard and what we’re told to tell everybody, but sometimes it’s only a couple of days.”

That was at 11:30 am. At 2:30 pm they called saying the repair was done and I could pick it up anytime. I was thrilled, until I looked out the window and realized that it was now raining heavily and likely I’d be carrying my repaired, heavy iMac two blocks through the rain.

Well, that part was so bad as it was only one and half blocks through the rain.

So now I have a repaired computer and need to restore all my files.

There’s a fun job for tonight.

If you need me – I’ll be in the office stressing over a computer,
Andrew

Posted in woodworking | Tagged computer repair, wednesday woodworking | 27 Comments

Discombobulated

Posted on 01/01/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

What is a Poem?

It is a mystic who hides behind words.
The right question is far better,
than the right answer.
Apples are compared to rocks
as their differences clarify the soul.
Writing a poem is turning a feeling,
image,
concept,
emotion,
into the mystery of creation.

Poetry is an act of translation.
Use tree words to describe a flowing river.
Explain an orange sunset to the night.
Tell the desert of the sea.

Such is poetry.

My mother would have used the word, ‘discombobulated.’

That’s what writing feels like today, discombobulated – confused. I wrote the above poem and it makes some sense to me. Part of my problem today is that my main computer is dead, and I am writing on my work laptop in the living room while waiting for the oven to heat up so I can put the pizza in.

On my other computer, I had notes on an amusing post I was putting together about our recent purchase of FitBits to track our exercise and fitness levels. I think I mentioned a few months ago that I wasn’t feeling well. After exhaustive medical testing, the doctor discovered not much so I took upon myself to start exercising more. Heather had mentioned that she wanted a FitBit for Christmas so she could track how many steps she does in a day. I figured you could get two as easily as one so I clicked on some web pages, entered my credit card number a few times and presto – two FitBits arrived at our doorstep three days later.

Personally, I have started to refer to mine as the, “band of obedience” as its little alarm goes off every hour reminding me to walk. I’ve been learning to ignore this function (there is a way to turn it off, but that would require effort – I don’t do effort).

On the plus side, I’ll admit that the accountability part of this has been working and I’ve really stepped up my exercise level. That’s funnier if you read the little hourly messages of encouragement the little device displays.

One thing I do wonder about is the accuracy of the FitBit. A few weeks ago Heather and I went on a hike. Note that we walked together the whole time. Her FitBit recorded what we went 3.5 miles while mine said we went 3.2.

Then there was last Friday. We went up to San Francisco for the day and walked from the train station up to Union Square and back to the station. Now, we compared and Heather walked 6.6 miles while I walked 6.1. According to the FitBit, at about 12:51, I took a twenty six-minute bike ride. Now I haven’t been on a bike since last June when the grandkids tried to kill me on one near Lake Tahoe.

This morning Heather and I went on our New Years day hike and I thought I’d be clever and turn on the GPS exercise tracking function on the cellphone FitBit app. See, I figured that with GPS, I’d get a more accurate reading on how far I went and whether or not I was riding a bike. When we got back to the car, Heather suggested we take a picture of us at the trail sign.

That was when I found the cell phone battery dead. After recharging I found that it had only recorded about half the hike. Guess I need to haul a big battery pack around to collect all the digital proof that I did a three-mile hike.

I take the computer in Tuesday to get it fixed. Maybe by next week I’ll be able to access my notes and write something.

Till next week,
Andrew