For the last few weeks, I’ve occasionally had weird dreams about travel.

– A few weeks ago, I had a dream that Laurie and I somehow got on a flight to France. Where, when we landed, we did not have passports, and couldn’t get back to the United States. How did we get on the flight without a passport? Or tickets? Who knows….

– Last night, I had a dream that I was taking the train to Boston, to meet my brother. For some reason, I only had a carry on, which had a few clothes, my laptop and my camera. I stowed my carry on, but remembered I needed to go back to my car to make sure it was locked. So I left the train. While I was gone, the train left the station, with my clothes, my laptop, and my camera.

These dreams tell me a few things.

1) Travel only domestically.
2) Don’t travel by train, or plane.
or
3) I’m just crazy.

Interesting article from the IEA on the verdict of Covid restrictions. Definitely worth a read.

Did the Covid Lockdowns Work?

A few years ago, there was a magazine called Byte. Which had a columnist whose name was Jerry Pournelle. Jerry wrote many science fiction books, but also wrote a column for Byte magazine.

Jerry had a saying “I do these things so you don’t have to.” Which referred to installing beta software, and playing with hardware before anyone else, to try them out so that he could tell people what he thought and experienced, so they didn’t have to do that.

I’m much the same way, although to a lesser extent. For probably the last four years, every year that Apple has released a new developer beta for their phone, I would install it on my main phone. Why? Well, two reasons. 1) I’m crazy, and I do these things so you don’t have to and 2) I have an Android phone that I can drop back to if things go too haywire.

Thankfully, they haven’t gone haywire for me.

This year, IOS 17 developer beta 1 has been released. Unlike previous years, you have to have a developer account with Apple to install it.

So, I signed up to be a developer with Apple. Paid my $99 for the privilege, and installed beta 1 on my main phone.

Very few glitches. I don’t see a lot new at this point, but, it’s pretty stable SO FAR.

I don’t recommend you do the same. Because, like I said, I’m crazy. You probably are not.

More as I see what I see.

Cruising to Colby starts the car show season (at least for me) in Washington state. That was held yesterday and today in Everett, Washington.

Went out, took a few photos, saw a few people I’ve seen over the years, saw lots of cool cars and an Elvis impersonator. Accosted by a group of four women, which was interesting, but a story for another time.

Here are the photos. Enjoy!

Cruising to Colby 2023

Forty three years ago today, my brother and I were upstairs at my grandparents house in Edmonds. There had been a very loud boom, and my grandparents thought that one of us had fallen out of bed.

We were staying with my grandparents because my parents had been in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for a conference for my dad’s work. They were flying back from Atlanta that day.

That was the day that Mt. St. Helens exploded. My mom got some great photos of it from the plane as they flew back from Atlanta.

It is the year we learned about a crotchety old man name Harry S. Truman, who was an innkeeper on Mt. St. Helens who refused to leave “his mountain.” He died in the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Along with a few others.

Ash spread far and wide and drifted (from what I understand) even to Japan.

It was a crazy day. Probably one of the biggest events of my early childhood that I remember.

1,826 days ago, I was laying in the emergency room of our local hospital. I had had blood work done in the morning, because I was having a problem breathing. After I would walk 25-60 feet, I would have to stop and catch my breath.

So I went and had blood work done. I received a call shortly afterwards that said “You are low on blood. Go to the ER immediately.”

So off I trudged to the emergency room. When I got there, they gave me four transfusions of blood. At that point, I was feeling fantastic. I said “I feel good. I can go home now, right?”

They said no. I had to have more tests done. I had a couple CT scans done, and the emergency room doctor walked into my room a couple hours later.
Dr. Gregory Burke. He looked at me with a straight face and said “It’s bad. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad.”

I was confused. And concerned. He explained that I had a tumor in my colon, which was cancerous. I needed to have the tumor removed. He didn’t know what stage the cancer was, but he was trying to find me a bed in another hospital where I could go and get the tumor removed.

(Funny story. I went back to the hospital a couple of years later and asked to see Dr. Burke. I thanked him for finding the tumor, and for his assistance. I thought he was going to cry. He said I was the first person in 25 years of being an emergency room doctor that had come back to thank him, especially after a diagnosis like mine.)

It took (I believe) three days for them to find a bed for me. I was transferred to Swedish First Hill, where I had the tumor removed. I was there for eleven days.

Shortly after leaving First Hill, I met with my oncologist for the first time. She said ‘You have stage 4 terminal colon cancer. You have 18-24 months to live. If there is anything that you have stopped eating because it was bad for you, you can start eating it again.” (She rescinded that a year later when I seemed to be improving and was gaining ‘too much’ weight, after losing 43 pounds from the initial colon cancer surgery).

Went through chemo. Went through a couple more surgeries, including one to remove another tumor that had grown in my stomach from the metastasizing of the colon cancer.

But five years later, I’m still here. I was declared in remission about two years ago. I still get checked every four months or so for any new growth, but so far, thank God, I have not had any new growth.

Along the way, I’ve met many people who have cancer. I try to be a positive light for them, whether they are someone I actually know, or someone I just meet in passing. Sometimes I fail. Most of the time, I think that I am able to give them hope. We all need a little bit of hope.

Anyway, that is my story till now.

God is good. He’s really the reason I’m still here.

I was at the gas station the other day, filling my wife’s car up with gasoline. Normally, I just get gas at the local Costco, but because she works for Safeway, after a certain amount of spending, we get a discount off the gasoline if you buy it from Safeway. So since we had $1/gallon off, I decided to take her car and get gas at the local Safeway that has a gas station attached.

So I get there, I get out of the car and start pumping gas. In the next aisle, a gentleman pulls in, gets out of his car and starts pumping as as well.
He looks at me and in a friendly manner says ‘Look like you’ve had an operation!’

I think to myself “You have no idea”

I said “Yes, I’ve had a few.” I go on for a few minutes while the cars are gassing up to explain my hydrocephalus story, and he says at the end ‘Wow. You’ve been through a bit.”

I laughed and said “You have no idea. I was diagnosed almost five years ago with terminal colon cancer. Declared ‘in remission’ about 2 years ago.”

He said “Wow. I lost my dad to cancer just about three weeks ago” (Keep in mind, this guy was probably in his late sixties, early seventies).

I explained that my dad had been diagnosed with B-Cell lymphoma shortly after I had been diagnosed, and he had passed away in January of 2020. I also explained (which I have told other people the same thing) that I wished my dad was still here healthy, even if it meant I was still fighting cancer.

He said “Your father would be proud of you, and the fact that you are willing to discuss your story with people. It gives them hope.”

Never thought of it that way. Just thought, well, you asked me about the scars on the side of my head, I’ll explain my story.

Anyway, it was a feel good little meeting. We shook hands (Covid be damned) and I thanked him and we went about our way.

Jan 1 – H – 40,282
C – 62,874
C – 71,327 when sold (12/4/2023)

For the last several years, I’ve wanted to keep track of the number of miles that we drive. Not for any purpose other than to have a history.
I always forget on 12/31 of the previous year to make a note of the mileage.

Not this year! I remembered.

So now I have a record, and we can see what the year entails, mileage wise.

Bears. Eagles. Big Horn Sheep. Owls.

I’ve always wanted to spend a week or so in Yellowstone National Park. Photographing bears, and eagles, and owls, and big horn sheep.

I found this video on YouTube today, and while this guy actually works in Yellowstone, thus is able to spend 3 months at a time in Yellowstone, I just would like to spend a week or so exploring. But the video is super interesting.

Three Months in Yellowstone

I’ve been an iPhone user for quite a few years. But I also have dabbled in the Android world. I’ve tried, many times, to leave the Cult of iPhone, because for me, there are quite a few benefits to Android that are (IMO) better than iPhone.

So why do I stay with the iPhone?

Three reasons:

1) IMessage
2) Facetime
3) CarPlay

1 – I have five kids. Four of whom have iPhones. So, communicating with them securely, using iMessage is a no brainer. Do we need to have secure communications? Probably not. But it’s a secondary level of protection.
2 – I have five kids. Four of whom have iPhones. Two of whom have children (my grandchildren). Being able to see them, especially when one of them is far away, is indispensable. Yes, I could use Zoom. But FaceTime is built in.

3 – I spend an inordinate amount of time in the car. CarPlay is something that makes using my phone in the car (HandsFree mind you) a breeze, and it works so much better than Android Auto. I’ve tried to love Android Auto, but it has so many quirks as compared to CarPlay that it is difficult to use, at least in my usage case.

On September 7,2022, Apple will announce their new iPhones. I have an older iPhone, and look forward to the possibility of upgrading my phone to a newer, larger model. We shall see what the rumors and the reality shows us on Wednesday.