Accomplished

Remember how a few weeks ago I was on my soap box about how sometimes minorities need someone in the majority to champion them?  The Google doodle for today is for Hertha Marks Ayrton.  Shame on me, but I had never heard of her.  It turns out she was a very distinguished mathematician, inventor, and electrical engineer despite living in England in the late 1800's and early 1900's before women became more accepted as scientists.  Check out her biography on Wikipedia and notice that part of how she achieved some of her accomplishments was because other people in the majority helped champion her.  What always amazes me about those kind of people is how much they accomplished.  I'm in my mid thirties and feel like I haven't accomplished all that much.  I suppose that's the danger of comparing amongst ourselves.  We all have different talents, skills, and opportunities and live in different periods of history.

Speaking of accomplishments, I have some "old" blog post fodder to catch up on.  I did accomplish a few things last fall.

This was the mail pile at the end of November

This was the mail pile at some point in December.  The bad news is the mail pile right now is looking more like the first picture again.

Old kitchen faucet that was leaking underneath the sink.

Installed new kitchen faucet all by myself!

Just because.  This makes me laugh because it reminds me of my brother.  Are you kittens me?!?

Everybody Dies, But Not Everybody Lives

It was a beautiful sunny day here today.  Spring is here!

I saw this on facebook the other day.  I don't agree with all of it, but I still found it to be inspirational.  One thing he says is people don't choose dreams; dreams choose people.  I don't think I fully agree with that one.  God gave us the freedom of choice for a reason.  But we should use that freedom of choice to move forward, not to sit in fear.

While I was on YouTube, I watched a couple other of my favorite videos.  Just because they inspire me.

Someday maybe I'll be able to play this song on the piano.

This is a good one too....

Are you all inspired and stuff now?  As Dr. Laura says, "Now go take on the day!"

When The Moon Hits Your Eye

I have big news.  I recently paid off my home mortgage loan.  It hasn't quite sunk in yet, but it probably will when I get the official letter and the refund from my escrow account.  Now I suppose I should start saving for a new car so I can pay cash for that when I get around to buying a new one.

Also, somehow I injured my lower back while playing racquetball a couple weeks ago.  I'm not sure whether I just turned wrong and wrenched it somehow, or if it's from when I got hit right in the butt with a racquetball going at a high rate of speed.  My back was kind of sort of feeling OK a few days after the racquetball incident, and then I went and aggravated it by doing T25 three days in a row.  So now I've been on "rest and ice and reducing inflammation" for about a week and a half.  It's starting to feel better, so I'm working back into things by doing low impact stuff like yoga.  And getting massages.

Also, a couple weekends ago after I returned from The Pass, I drove over to Unca Bex's house for the weekend.  Saturday wasn't too strenuous - we went for 3 walks, baked some cookies, and played Ticket to Ride while kinda sorta playing Aggravation at the same time.  There were three people for special meeting company for supper and the night.

That evening Father Dan brought out his serious star gazing telescope, and we looked at the moon and saw Jupiter and five of its moons.

Sunday was special meeting.  It was special as usual.  I even got to see Cuz Windy as an added bonus.

Here are a couple pictures from that weekend.

The moon with the "naked eye" using my 30X optical zoom on my camera.

The moon through Father Dan's super powerful telescope.  It was amazing how much detail we could see in the craters and stuff.

Let's just say it takes one to know one.  This is the lunch preparation spreadsheet.  One sheet where you mark your sandwich fixings, and another page for Lunch Accessories / Other.  And it wasn't me who made this.  Just saying.

El Paso and Juarez

Hola amigos!  Last week I traveled down to El Paso and Juarez for work to visit one of our suppliers.  A place where hatch peppers abound.  That reminds me of a song.  Anyway, we stayed in a hotel in El Paso and went across the border to Juarez for day trips.  El Paso and Juarez aren't known for being the safest places around, but we didn't experience anything crazy.  But we weren't in the tourist part of town.

Actually, it was quite enjoyable.  The weather was in the 70's and 80's.  We ate good food (including lots of good Mexican food).  The hotel had a good breakfast.  I wasn't terribly overworked - I even had time to catch some rays by the pool for an hour.

That's really about all I have to say about that except sharing a few pictures.

In case you didn't know, El Paso is in a desert.  But....it's the only big city in Texas with mountains according to what I read on the jetway.

We ate here one night - it was very delicious.  It's actually east of El Paso in Faben out in the middle of nowhere.  Like for real.  We thought someone was leading us out to the boonies to steal our stuff and beat us and leave us for dead.  But there were still lots of people there on a Thursday night.

One of the best filet mignon steaks I've ever eaten.  I know I went wimpy since it was only 6 ounces, but I wanted to sleep comfortably that night.  I passed on the 2 lb T-bone steak (The Cowboy), but a couple of the guys we ate with went for it and actually finished it.

We ate here one night too.  They have delicious enchiladas.  With hatch peppers and verde sauce.

 

L&J Cafe - the old place by the graveyard.  It was a 45 minute wait to get a table even at 7 PM.

 

Look!  There's already a wall between Mexico and the U.S.

Speaking of a wall, I know Donald Trump is saying he's all about building a wall across the whole border.  I kind of doubt he's truly serious.  He has some business that involves construction, and I think he probably knows it's unrealistic.  Personally, I think it's a waste of time and money to try to build a wall across the entire border.  Have you been to the Berlin wall museum in Berlin?  There's a whole section of the museum dedicated to stories about how people escaped East Germany and escaped the wall.  Crazy things like people hiding in the engine compartment of a VW bug.  Human creativity, particularly in desperate times, will find a way around or through a wall.  That's my two cents on that.  Now maybe in large population centers like this it makes sense to screen out the people who aren't truly desperate or screen out the drug runners.  A wall across the entire length of the border though is silly.

On the way from Juarez to El Paso, we walked through customs so the van driver could take the quick route through the traffic.  It was kind of fun.  There is a $0.40 tariff to walk on the pedestrian bridge.  It seems like underkill.

Seen at the airport.  This cracked me up.

Tough Spring

The last week or so was a rough one.  I got "the influenza" - I haven't had a fever in probably close to 10 years, but I had one for about 4 days straight last week.  It was just bad enough that I didn't feel good enough to be at work, but it wasn't bad enough that I felt like I could stay home.  I lost about 3 pounds, and it took more than a week before I really started to feel like I had my energy back.  That really put a crimp in my T25 plans.

The weather has been variable, which is kind of normal for late March / early April.  Saturday was an especially roller coaster day.  When I went to the Y for yoga around 9:00 AM the weather seemed OK.  It was a bit cold and you could tell it had rained overnight, but it wasn't raining then.  The yoga instructor made a big mistake and promised no more snow.  By the time I left the Y, huge flakes were falling, and the snow was starting to stick.  It stayed that way for a few hours, and then the sun came out and melted all the snow.  Then by the time I went to bed, the ground was covered with snow again.  What a perfect day for a nap and being lazy!

Taken on the same day - make up your mind!

Have a lovely week.