Happy New Year from BG&E. That is our local power utility. And here you thought I might be talking about power of spirit. I’ll get to that later because I woke this morning to no power. It was a fairly short outage, just over an hour. But it reminded me to go look at last years record now that I receive text when my power goes out and comes back on. In 2018 we had only 7 incidents. Notice I didn’t CAPITALIZE the word ONLY because restraint keeps me from biting the hand that feeds me power. But I will nibble at it once in a while.

Some were just an hour. Some were several hours. We did have one 3 day outage from 5:50am on March 2nd that lasted to 9:39am March 5th. Really I’m not going to complain about last year. With the trouble other parts of this country had this was minor in inconvenience. I have had years with weeks without power so its been worse. It has improved over time with fewer outages. I think it’s still the number of lines and trees in this area.

In my mind these guys working the lines are almost like our first responders. Dangerous and difficult working environment and conditions. Much respect to their hard work. And as always my thanks for restoring my power this morning. If I were to give them a suggestion on the longer outages it would be more helpful to provide estimates of restored service.

But my point here is to be more self-sufficient. We never know when a natural disaster can hit. We never know if someone or people are going to disrupt the flow of goods or energy. I’m not a survivalist or anything close, but this year I’m taking more steps. I think we might keep a little more food on hand. And I’m going to put that oil I got last month and fire up that new generator and figure what I can power off it. My next project will be getting a safe but larger fuel supply so I could go a few weeks without power.

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Of course I’ve made a lot of stupid choices in my life. But as I get control over the ones I make, the happier I become. I’ve so often forgot I’m in charge. Yeah I know, that might be a delusional thought but really we are in charge of a lot of things. And those were not in charge of we can change if the desire and mindset is there.

But my thoughts are in the simple things I used to get wound up about and do sometimes now till I remember I’m in charge. Like the final round of leaves that fell in my pool area. They are still laying there and that would have drove me nuts and I would have spent lots of time and effort doing that and some other outdoor chores. Hell, I got the best looking yard in the neighborhood most of the year so a few weeks in an area nobody but us can see isn’t of concern any longer.

The battle with Mother Nature is over. I don’t try to win anymore. I just adapt and respond when I can and I’m happy with that. My battle with my job is over. They are going to do what they do and I’ll adapt and respond as best possible and I’m happy with that. I’ve already adapted to the health issues and I respond to overcome them when they pop up and I’m happy with that.

The battle with self-doubt and fear of producing garbage is over. Yeah I might produce some crap, but I hope to produce something special once in a while. And unless I try to free myself from the lack of confidence, something special might not happen. And even if it doesn’t the journey will still be something that I can reflect on and say I gave it a shot. And you never know when you might hit the eye of the storm.

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Random Thoughts of the Day

Sometimes the more you do, the easier it gets to do.

I like a change in tempo in both my music and my life.

Strength is keeping focus through pain.

The more I accomplish in some areas, the more some areas that used to be bothersome fade away.

This whole problem of the wall being paid for would be over if Trump were President of Mexico.