100daystooffload

A week of good habits

Good Habits

Old guys have old habits. And as an old guy I do have mine. Reviewing my recorded activities on a nightly, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis is one of my better habits.

Doing my weekly review tonight of those activities I record on my HabitShare app, my daily prayers and my exercising, I find another pretty ordinary week completed.

The prayers and Bible reading are very important to me and, given my station in life – being fully retired, are things I can easily incorporate into my daily schedule. And though it would be nice if I could exercise more often, given my age, I don't feel bad at all about having a rest day (or two) after every day of exercise.

All things considered, I'm satisfied with this ordinary week.

And the adventure continues.

Published on 11 July 2020, ~21:00 CDT, this is my post number 44/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #habits

by Roscoe

It took me two months and a day, but...

Rook Rook pawn Mate

... I finally caught the White King in a Rook-Rook-pawn combination checkmate on my 36th black move of this server-based correspondence chess game.

The picture above shows our board as seen from my Black side of the (virtual) table after the final move. And the full game record is below:

1. e4 d6 2. Bc4 e6 3. Bf1 Nf6 4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. d3 Ng5 6. Qg4 Be7 7. Qe2 O-O 8. Qe3 d5 9. Qd2 dxc4 10. dxc4 Bc5 11. h4 Ne4 12. Qe2 Bxf2+ 13. Kf1 Ng3+ 14. Kxf2 Nxh1+ 15. Ke3 Ng3 16. Qg4 Nf5+ 17. Kf4 g6 18. h5 Nh6 19. Qe2 Qd4+ 20. Qe4 Qxe4+ 21. Kxe4 c5 22. Bxh6 Rd8 23. Bg5 Rd4+ 24. Ke3 Rg4 25. Nf3 Nd7 26. h6 Rxg2 27. Nbd2 b6 28. b3 e5 29. Ne4 Ba6 30. Nf6+ Nxf6 31. Bxf6 Re8 32. Nxe5 Rh2 33. Ke4 Bb7+ 34. Kf4 Rxh6 35. Ng4 Re4+ 36. Kg5 Rh5# 0-1

We were playing with a five-days-per move clock (I DO like that time control) and neither one of us were ever in any kind of time trouble.

And the adventure continues.

Published on 08 July 2020, this is my post number 43/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #chess

by Roscoe

A New Prayer Project

PrayerProject

Given my advanced age and my health conditions, I am obliged to hold myself under strict self-quarantine until a safe and effective vaccine against the current Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Flu is available. Now if I was younger and healthier I'd be out and about and active as all younger, healthy folks should be. But since I fall within that tiny segment of the population to which the CCP Flu is particularly fatal, I choose to remain hunkered down.

That being the case, I welcome the Let Freedom Ring prayer project that begins today. I've participated in long novenas promoted by Fr. Heilman in the past and have found them to be beneficial and VERY time consuming. Since I have a lot of free time these days, I welcome this new 40-day project. It will help fill the hours of the days from now through mid-August.

And the adventure continues.

Published on 07 July 2020, this is my post number 42/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #Catholic #Prayer #Project

by Roscoe

Happy Birthday, USA!

Independence Day 2020

From my front porch to where ever you are, I wish you a safe and happy American Independence Day.

The adventure continues.

Published on 04 July 2020, this is my post number 41/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #SevenTwoProject #photograph #flag #holiday #IndependenceDay

by Roscoe

Hey, Dummy! Lose the stupid hat and put on a shirt!

StupidHat

Reaching back into the archive of old photos recently provided by my sister, I find... me. Very long ago and far away.

I'm guessing this picture was taken in 1965, more or less. Sometime in the mid 60s anyway, when I was in high school. I can vaguely remember making that hat by taking an old felt fedora, wetting it repeatedly, and slowly stretching it over... a big bottle of some kind, I think. Have no idea about the pins, buttons, or doodads decorating it.

The photo was taken of me standing in the front yard of the big family house in the small town neighborhood where I grew up.

And now the adventure continues.

Published on 02 July 2020, this is my post number 40/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #SevenTwoProject #photograph #ThrowbackThursday

by Roscoe

Flag Corner

NewFlag

Many of us are conducting more of our business online these days, and that sometimes involves participating in online webinars or meetings with our presence shared via webcams. The webcam in my home office is situated so that this corner of the room shows as the background.

This morning I hung another flag to make the corner more appropriately express my loyalty and attitude.

And the adventure continues.

Published on 29 June 2020, this is my post number 39/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #flags #photograph #SevenTwoProject

by Roscoe

Very good advice, this.

AirQuality

And I intend to follow it.

The National Weather Service warns me through a widget on my phone that the air quality is “Low” here in San Antonio, and I am advised to stay inside under air conditioning from 11:00 this morning until Noon tomorrow.

Luckily for me, I finished my yardwork (trimming bushes and soaking up healthy vitamin D) this morning and the only planned foray out my front door before Noon tomorrow will be to check the mailbox in a few hours.

So don't yell at me for spending so much time stretched out in my recliner. I'm only following orders, avoiding the dust blown over from Africa, and trying to stay healthy.

The adventure continues.

Published on 27 June 2020, this is my post number 38/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #SeniorLiving #health #weather

by Roscoe

And the take-away lesson from that dream...

...must be that I need to invest in new luggage.

Last night's dream was very vivid and realistic. Sometimes the Melatonin brings dreams like that, and lately I've been eating the Melatonin like candy before putting head to pillow in order to safely fall asleep. It works.

The dream found me packing up my gear in a non-descript hotel room. I was getting ready to leave. The gear I was packing was just vacation clothing that I was tying into bundles and some miscellaneous “stuff” that I'd loaded into a cardboard box. I put the cardboard box onto a two-wheeled cart and piled the two or three bundles of clothes on top of the box, and wheeled my gear out of the room, down a hallway, then down an elevator to the hotel lobby.

In the lobby I stopped at the checkout desk to take care of that chore then wheeled my stuff over to a guarded metal detector set by the exit door. Apparently it was necessary to scan my box and bundles and myself before leaving the hotel.

An old bus about 75% full of other passengers was waiting for me at the curb. Hauling my bundles and box with me, I climbed into the bus and found myself a double seat. After piling my stuff into the window seat, I sat in the aisle seat and thought to myself, “Man! This would be SO much easier if I just a good suitcase!” And then I woke up.

Now, before the world went into its current CCP-flu lockdown earlier this year, I HAD been planning to take a major trip this summer. But, given the state of that lockdown, those plans have been put on hold for another year at least, maybe two or three more years. We'll just have to wait and see how long it takes for international flights to safely and practically return. And given my advanced age, I'm holding myself under a very strict self-quarantine until either an effective vaccine against the CCP-flu is developed, or until I'm proven immune to it, or until that scourge is somehow removed from the land.

So there are no trips of any kind planned for this old boy. Not now. But hopefully... in the future? And was my dream telling me that I should start checking my luggage? Hmm...

The adventure continues.

Published on 26 June 2020, this is my post number 37/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #dreams

by Roscoe

Summer of '66?

MeSummer66

Or maybe it was the summer of 1965, I don't remember. But that skinny boy in the picture above was me standing in front of the family house over a half-century ago when I was a Junior or Senior in High School.

My sister has taken upon herself a project of digitizing some old photographs and slides that our parents had collected when they were alive. And she's emailing the image files to me and our remaining siblings. How nice of her! She tells me there are approximately 400 pictures all together.

Earlier this year I “sort of” committed myself to a #SevenTwo photo sharing project. With my January birthday placing me well within the ranks of septuagenarians, I decided to post two photos every every week for the remainder of the year. But that was before the CCP-flu pandemic put the world on lockdown and me under strict self-quarantine. Not being able to leave the house with my camera I quickly ran out of current images to post and that project fell by the wayside.

Maybe with these old pictures my sister is sending I'll be able to do a #ThrowbackThursday for awhile, satisfying one picture to post per week of the #SevenTwoProject. And if I stretch my imagination a bit, maybe I'll be able to scrounge up something else for the other picture. Hmm...

The adventure continues.

Published on 25 June 2020, this is my post number 36/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #ThrowbackThursday #SevenTwoProject #photograph

by Roscoe

His name is Leo and ...

Leo

... he is on the wrong side of the fence. And he knows he is in trouble.

Leo is a young adult male Husky who thinks he is still a puppy. He is a barker (though not as much now as when he was younger), playful and, obviously, a jumper. He's still on his leash, the other end of which is still fastened to something over in my next door neighbor's back yard where he should be. But he's jumped over the fence and is now humbly hunkered down behind my sheds in my back yard and wanting some attention.

Oh Leo, whatever are we going to do with you?

And so the adventure continues.

Published on 22 June 2020, this is my post number 35/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #dog

by Roscoe