manlypoodlekip

Tomorrow is my 80th birthday and the 12th day of my new knee. Am in bed icing my knee and writing this blog. Soon I will binge watch something. Maybe Daredevil, season three or finish La Niña. Am supposed to keep new knee above my heart. Be careful out there and have the best Saturday ever.

Not only am I getting closer to 80 but now have a brand new knee. Am sitting on my bed looking out the window at trees, houses and the foothills. Could there a more tranquil setting. Hope my new knee feels the soothing nature of my surroundings. This will be a brief blog. So have a great day and my new knee sends greetings.

Years have flown by and I am almost eighty. Such a short time ago I was standing on the Administrative Building grass as I started as a freshman at Texas Tech. Life has been filled with the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly. Mostly it has been a good and exciting time. There was the Air Force, more college, a wonderful family and a great retirement party.

With all this experience am I able to endow you with sage advice? Yes, don’t roller skate in a buffalo herd. Have been reading of new exoplanets, old termite mounds that are really, really big, and a huge meteor crater in Greenland. And we live in exciting times. What will tomorrow bring? Who knew among those other freshmen standing on the grass that we would one day have iPhones and cars that drive themselves almost? The car maybe but not the phone. What will this year’s freshmen have to say in their blog as they turn 80?

Japan had recorded breaking heat as did Algeria, Hong Kong and most every where else. Even Oslo has banded barbecuing near it’s forests . It is good to have air conditioners. As a child on the high plains of New Mexico we did not have air conditioning but we did have many many centipedes. We often found rather large ones under the ubiquitous white rocks of the region. I am so glad that we did not eat them raw or for that matter cooked. We all believed that you skin would rot where they crawled. But some people use dried and powdered centipedes for medical purposes. If they are raw you can get something like brain worms. Oh, and there is a forest fire above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. But there are no reports of attacks by raw centipedes.

In my last years of teaching Human Geography the reproductive rate in the US was 2.1 which maintains the current population. It has now dropped to 1.7 which is much better than Germany’s 0.7 and Japan’s 0.8. On KPCC an expert stated that the high cost of housing was a major factor in California. Then I read that a castle in Northern Ireland which was the site of some filming for The Game of Thrones was being sold for less than the average cost of a house in Los Angeles. Maybe a couple could buy the castle rent out rooms and then they could afford 2.1 children. It would be a double bonus if they could get the guests to perform day care.

If we run out of children who will fill the schools and take care of the aging population? We could create robots but after watching Battle Star Galactica that could take a bad turn. I leave this problem to the Boomers and the GenXs. Milinnal s and whoever is next . Speaking of AI, my Nest Thermostat decides my house temperature. I thought I did but no. Anyway have just taken out the trash and will study Spanish. I study but do not learn which allows me to use introduction lessons over and over.

When I was young and scampering at dusk on the High Plains mosquitos were a constant companion. Sometimes I would smash one on my arm and it would be full of my blood. When DDT was sprayed in the alley we would run in the mist. Now I did not and do not like those mosquitoes. It is the new tiny, almost silent, invasive creatures that bring out fear and loathing. When I read about them they carry almost ever disease except Drain the Swamp Fever. But there is good news. Got my hair cut and beard and eye brows trimmed. If I got a ribbon around my neck afterwards it would be much like Manlypoodlekip after a visit to Pat’s Pet Grooming.

It’s another hot and uncomfortable day but one of special meaning. My eldest granddaughter is at this moment having a bridal shower. At the moment my feet are doing a little happy happy dance as I write this. Have the most wonderful Saturday ever.

The answer is “no!”And we have not been asked for a meeting in Moscow. But I have learned that my GPS maps can be upgraded. So much excitement as the hot summer retirement days sizzle by. Am thinking of writing a book for retirees. “There More to Retirement Than Waiting for the MailPerson to Deliver the AARP Magazine.” Wow , just heard that there are multiple suspicious packages found in Trump Tower. Certainly hope all will end safely.

Maybe calmly waiting for the AARP Magazine is not such a bad thing. We will not be able to see the complete lunar eclipse live but can watch it on tv. Maybe I will venture out tonight to see if I can see Mars. Like much of what happens in our lives today the surface of Mars is obscure because of a planet wide sand storm. Will stop now to wish everyone a most happy total lunar eclipse day.

And we can only wonder what the weather is like on the zillions of exoplanet throughout the universe. Will there be high tides on that lake as Mar comes within about thirty five million miles of the Earth? And will the gold and copper mine that is being purposed in Alaska be as big as the lake on Mars? There are many questions but few answers. What if we could build a big pipeline from the east coast and move the surplus flood waters to the Southwest and the West? If that works what about sending our excess CO2 to Mars?

Have time to ponder these questions as I enter the 7th year of retirement. Time has flown by like the spring winds on the high plains of eastern New Mexico. Do I miss turning in grade books, grading a million papers, and getting up early in the morning to drive to work? No. Had some great working companions and many wonderful students. Somewhere on all those planets are there many creatures who had such a rewarding work life? And that brings me to a memory of my first paying job. It was during WWll and the salary was based on the number of flies I swatted at my Aunt and Uncle’s Corner Grocery in Tatum, New Mexico.l

Am sitting here listening to the sound of the 134 Freeway. It’s a bit north and I usually don’t notice it. We sometimes say that it sounds like a river but it really does not. I will take this opportunity to give advice on retirement. But, wait, I cannot really remember working. Ah it is coming back. Up early, far too early, doing the chores and then driving for almost an hour. Then calling roll, grading papers, getting coffee in the teacher’s cafeteria. A flashback to getting grades in on time and turning In grade books and the teacher detention also known as the Tuesday after school meetings.Actually I loved teaching and I love retirement.

There is time to learn that some frog species are rebounding in numbers, In China and India there are 70,000,000 more men than women. That does not bode well for marriage aged men. In China a man needs to own a house in order to impress a future wife. Also read that modern. Humans left Africa some 90,000 years ago. Did you know that twice as many European women are natural blondes than are European men?

Could this be the result of global warming? It was nice to see the picture of this beautiful bird. But is it right? What if we have white blackbirds or a robin blue breast? In these unusual times perhaps anything is possible. What if Republicans decide to make the donkey their symbol or the British make the dragon their symbol? Neanderthals have cave art and my college will surely be in the NCAA Basketball tournament. Then I read that Iceland had a higher temperature than the Mediterranean. Wow!