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It's almost the end the end of October, and the trees are showing off their most colorful dresses. There is a bit of nip to the air in the morning, but by afternoon I'm still able to run about in short sleeves.  There is a bit of joy in the air over our weather, and I spend some of the time working on the yard trying to clear some things and get some ground ready for - yet another attempt - at a garden.   We are as prepared for winter as I can get with four tons of wood pellets in our garage, some additional insulation placed.  I've not done as much as I would have liked or have wanted but old addictions and my own lazy nature have stood in the way.   At least I'm back to moving forward now.  Depression can be a horrible thing, and I've suffered from it most of my life in one form or other. My job is a steady, and the work is not hard, although I never figured that I would end up where I did, life has always had a tendency to blow me about to where I ...
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Notes at the beginning of Autumn.

 It is officially autumn now, and slowly but surely, we prepare for the coming winter.  It is the time of year when nights are getting longer as the temperature drops. While I find it rather comfortable, my wife would rather turn on the fire to warm her hands. We are both getting older and the chill comes easily now.   It is the time of year when the shadows are growing longer, spiders find themselves in the way and we find ourselves doing a silly dance in an effort to avoid getting them on us after walking into their homes.   Pumpkin spice is everywhere.   I think about autumn as I lug the bags of wood pellets in one by one into my garage.   Last year we ordered four tons, or basically two hundred bags weighing 40 pounds (18.1 Kg) a piece.  Moved from outside the drive to the inside of the garage and restacked, over and over again.  It needs done.  We used three and a half of those tons.   This year I only order...
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Dopamine fix and my take on AI.

When I sat down at the computer recently to type all of this out,  I let out frustrated sigh.    I had plans to release a completely different blog post long before this date but over the last two weeks or so I've done everything I could do but actually work on the yard, or write, or just do anything that was constructive. When you are moving towards a dream or an idea or...well anything really, you can't break the chain.  Even if it's just 10 minutes a day working, that is constructive.    I have an addiction.  It's not to drugs or alcohol and in a way that would be a bit more excusable.   I have an addiction to dopamine .    Dopamine simply is a chemical in your brain that makes you feel good, and it in turn unleashes other "pleasure" chemicals in your brain.  In my case it a program called Second Life,  (SL) which honestly, I used to be on all the time in the early 2000's.  It's hard to explain but the term multius...
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You don't give up, you never give up.

 I'm really not in the mood for this.  It's raining again and I am on the phone making calls and sending emails and texts; letting myself get frustrated over things that I know, deep down in my soul, that I can not control. I'm very disappointed in people right now.  Roughly two weeks or so ago I started on a quest to find a small flock of goats of clear some land.   I have made phone calls, texted people, contacted websites and made inquires on sources like Reddit and Facebook.   I even spoke to a few Amish that live in the area.    Leads were given to me by various sources, companies were found and contacts made via text and voice mail, however, no one got back to me.   Not a single one.   No call back from the local 4 - H club.  No call back from the goat farmer.  Emails went unanswered.   Well that's not true.  One company did get back to me but the cost was higher than I expected.  Actual...
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Calling in the professionals

 I come from a long line of guys that call in professionals.    Part of that reason is my own lazy nature, part of that reason is that I would rather have it down right the first time.  Everyone has their own skills and abilities, so why not call in an expert to have it done right the first time? In this case; why not seek advice in the battles against the invasives that have not only invaded my yard, but also a nearby piece of property that my neighbor simply refuses to take care of?  I find myself in a bind of my own design. I let part of my property "go wild" in the first place because that area had a lot of exposed roots, stumps and rocks.  At the time, I was not expecting a bunch of invasives, of which Mulitfora Rosa  is the worse of the bunch, to be a problem.  Yet, here we are. I decided to let parts of my yard "go wild" back in July of 2021.  It has proven to be a mistake, and in order for me to ensure that the invasive plants st...
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Just a short interlude to catch up.

  resting cat Recently I found myself with a bit of time on my hands.  Normally this time of year my wife and I like to take some vacation time.   We generally don't go to far, having visited Niagara Falls and New York state the last two years, the plan this year was to go south, to visit an old friend that has just accepted a facility position at Duke University .   A few days there, a few days in Charlotte; where I once lived and then, if we had time, a few days in Charleston, SC where I also lived for a brief time. Sadly however, due to circumstances that I won't get into here, our vacation became a staycation .  Which was fine because I still had a tree to plant from the Native Plant sale, odds and ends to do and to continue my war against some aggressive neighboring plants, which it seems I was now finding everywhere, as well as other small jobs that I've been putting off. I actually wondered if it would be affordable (and reasonable) to rent a f...
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America's 250th - I am still a Patriot, I still believe....

  I could not let America's 250th birthday pass without some comment.   I love this country, but frankly this is not the country that I grew up in.   I'm not sure exactly where we went wrong and although it would be very easy to blame the current administration and the whole MAGA movement, that is to easy of a solution and not entirely true. What ills America today is a combination of things.   A combination of errors, bad decisions, mistakes that created a cascading effort.   We simply are not the country we thought we were and the proverbial chickens have come home roost.   Nor do I have a solution.    So why write about America's 250th birthday at all?   Because I believe in this country, despite where we are currently.  Because I am a student of history and we have seen all this before, and we have seen the solution to it as well.  Because after much thought about the state of the world and reading ...
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