Hello, World

 What a hoot. The nation has been getting its fill of Bernie Sanders photographed at the inauguration arms folded wearing hand-made mittens with a look of near obliviousness on his face. This image has been transported and photoshopped into a variety of famous photos with ridiculous circumstances. Ha Ha Ha.  Considering the time people have on their hands given the pandemic's hold on people's activities, it's not surprising the creative juices have exploded. No good honest opportunity to promote irrelevant fun should be missed.  Fortunately, Sanders handled it with uncharacteristic mirth and turned this moment into a beneficial opportunity - not to enrich himself, but rather someone else that could use the help. The Bernie camp quickly produced sweatshirts with the photo likeness and sold them to raise money for the Vermont Meals-on-Wheels program.  While some of these photos are produced with the intent of giving Bernie a not-so-gentle jab at the personality he has become,

 Jan 11 -15 Six months ago, Cathy and I drove to Newport, OR where we intended on staying three nights before driving to Bend, OR, a drive of about two and a half hours. Newport is on the coast; Bend is inland on the lee side of the Cascades known for its sunny warm days and fantastic beer. We arrived just as an onslaught of fowl winds filled with smoke invaded Newport during the night. We woke up to a red ball sun and unhealthy air conditions. We departed and went home, which was a trick in itself as we dodged the fire ridden hills. Another 2020 delight. Despite still threatened by Covid, we traveled to the Oregon coast again. Some may consider this foolish. After all, the post Christmas surge in cases is evident and vaccinations are dragging. That said, we aren't going to beach parties and bars. Oregon is doing pretty well in containing virus spread and has a good culture of distancing and masking.  For those unfortunate enough not to experience the Oregon coast, it's hard to

 Today, Cathy and I went to Seattle to get the Saab worked on. While we waited for the car service to be completed, we walked to a T-mobile phone store, had lunch from (not at) Kona Kitchen, and generally mulled around a northern Seattle neighborhood. Today I learned - The new litter of 2020 is:  Old Saabs are still expensive to repair. Still, better than buying another car. T-Mobile has really friendly service people. I bought a new phone from Amazon, a Motorola Moto G8. Going for the really expensive Samsungs and Apple phones was never my style and most of the lessor brands work fine for me. Funny thing about this purchase which was bought through Amazon, all the system instructional information that pop up are in Spanish! Now, all the menus and labeling for the utilities and programs on the unit are in English. But, what the hell? Did I buy a phone meant for the Mexican (or other Spanish speaking country)?  Anyway, the phone wouldn't activate using the SIM from the old phone.

  January 6, 2021 Well, it started off okay. I found the election results in Georgia a pleasant surprise. It seems important that a new government leadership should have an opportunity to enact their approach without the huge stop sign in the form of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to navigate. There are times a split government can serve a purpose, but the prevailing plague requires a freer hand to correct the course after almost a year of mismanagement. It appears the Majority Leader now becomes the Minority Leader and the committees will have new leadership in the Senate. Hopefully, it means a prompt response toward a better plan to combat the virus. This morning started well. It's weigh-in Wednesday, so it was nice to see my weight is down to a new low (below 219) which is a weight I haven't seen for about 20 years. To those that don't know, getting my weight down so the BMI is under 30 and no longer in the "obese" category was a priority since April. Now I