Today is apparently one of those days when I get in the shower, soap my hair and beard, have a sudden writing inspiration, rinse, dry, dress, and make it downstairs to start making coffee before I remember that I had forgotten to wash anything below my neck.
Do I:
Distractions! Aargh!
In our first month of cutting our ties with Amazon, we have taken the following steps.
1. Spouse cancelled her Prime subscription
2. Shifted all book purchases to a trustworthy list of independent booksellers, with Powell’s as our primary go-to.
3. Cancelled all “subscribe-and-save” subscriptions and found new and economical sources or substitutes for those items.
4. Ceased purchase of all Kindle books and began buying used hard copy editions from independent bookstores.
5. Began transcribing my Amazon Prime Music playlists in preparation for terminating Prime and beginning a long term effort to acquire LPs, DVDs, and legitimate digital recordings of my favorites.
There is no such thing as “flyover country.” I will not be taking questions.
This will be the last one for a while. I have now reached the point where the unread books on my shelves now exceed the funds to acquire more.
For the last 30 years I have lived by a simple maxim: when you have income but no time, buy books. When you have time but no income, read books.
And so the reading begins.
As a plane geek, I love living near Pt. Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station. There’s always something exciting flying around.
One day a Marine Corps OV-22 Osprey will fly over. Last week, it was an Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS. Over the past month, I’ve seen a Coast Guard HC-130J, several flights of Navy F/A-18 Hornets, E-2 Hawkeyes, Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphins, and Air National Guard C-130Js.
Happy/happy/happy.
The humidity was high, and the winds were low, so this looked and smelled worse than it was. Might have been a homeless encampment, or it might have been the brain-damaged testosteroids setting off illegal fireworks on the beach. Thanks to Oxnard and VC fire for jumping on the hard-to-access flare-up at 10:30pm.
You know you spend a lot of money on virtual courseware when the company you patronize sends you a free stoneware coffee mug.
Returning to higher education after an absence of over three decades demands a gradual approach. I would be no match for the kids just coming out of high school right now: homework, tests, and a 10-week learning cycle are figments of memory, not skill sets.
The Learning Company – via their Great Courses series – has helped put my brain back into learning mode. I guess my gratitude shows in my spending pattern.
A Bucket and a Pen 