Category Archives: 2019

Me and Religion – an essay

Me and Religion

(Most of this was written in mid-2014 – revised a bit in 2019)

When I was perhaps nine years old, sitting in the Congregational church that the family attended (excepting my father who only appeared to hear my mother play the organ), I heard the minister discuss “original sin”. I thought then that I had committed no original sins and couldn’t quite imagine what this had to do with me, a pudgy little boy. This religion thing was a mystery. At age fifteen, while spending a summer at music camp in Maine, I came to a further conclusion, that there was no God; I spent more time worrying about how it could be that the universe started at some point in time (the “big bang”); what existed before the “big bang”? Continue reading →

4/13/2019 – breakfast, DOG sitting, drinks with Ruth and Michael

Saturday

Breakfast at Bob’s with short visit to ShopRite. CVS to pick up Tadalafil. Only took two 20 mg tablets at $106. See if it works. Gallery sitting rest of day. Karen went to her balance class at the library and then to Ctr for Photography at Woodstock for an opening.

Seen at ShopRite. Not sure why “paws” is better than “feet”?

Spent lots of time on 2011 road trip project here. Also a posting on AD of John Oliver’s pieces on the US justice system John Oliver’s pieces on the US justice system.

Emily and Michael Chameides came by the gallery at the end of the day. Left exactly at 5:30. Good talk with Michael about his supervisor role and other local politics and policies. Very smart guy, Low key, pleasant to boot. Since I speak with Emily regularly we barely spoke. They enjoyed the exhibit, LandEscapes.

Michael O’Hara and Ruth Tamaroff came for drinks at 6:30. Lots of talk about Michael’s two week visit to Rome in January. We are planning a visit in May.  He gave us very detailed descriptions of places he visited with suggestions along the way. I took three pages of notes. Very much fun visit with them. Ruth was a bit tippy on leaving. Michael seems impervious to drink.

4/12/2019 – travel project, work….

Friday

Woke up at 4:30 worrying about prostate cancer threat  

Spent lots of time on Feb. 2011 road trip in Projects.

Talked with David Ackerman. He sounds dreadful. Also met with Ole.  Discussed good idea to create an automated confurator to connect RPM with EHR systems. 

Dinner downstairs. Conversation about Karen’s upcoming speech about her book project.

Debby Mayer posted On Facebook about her local library in San Diego  Reminded me that Karen and I had seen the frame of a new central library a couple of years ago  Found these photos of the finished library.

 

 

4/11/2019 – HAL, tennis, TV

Thursday

Met with Emily Chameides at the library. We’re going to make this a regular deal. Complete review of all the issues. Emily is on top in a firmer way than just a few years ago. 

Tried out making a travel book for the 2011 road trip. First on Lightroom. Too much work. Then tried Blurb’s app. Too much work. Told Karen that I wouldn’t be making a book. 

Great tennis lesson. Volleying. Slice serve from new stance. Cross court drill. Move towards ball. Don’t wait for the ball. 

Watched a few minutes of Russian Doll. Remembered that Harvey and Betsy said it picked up. So watched two episodes. Jury is out. Then something else. Then a couple Veeps. 

Black bean gorp. Leftover chicken.

4/10/2019 – doctor, Cameron Melville, work, tennis

Wednesday

Dr. Subudhi, urologist at CMH. Waited a long time. Less than five minutes with the good doctor including prostate exam. He felt something. Wants MRI first.

Cameron Melville was also in the waiting room. Talked about UTMH, then after he returned and I was still waiting we talked about Bob Adam and his history at the private progressive school they went to in Western MA in the late ‘60s. He was born in 1956. Cameron also revealed that he has prostate cancer.

Need to do research on prostate cancer.

Met with Seth. Discussed various changes and improvements to rpm apps. Also what to do about Troy Web and Turnkey. Also talked with David about hospital in Dutchess Cty.

More work on transaction spreadsheet for 2018 taxes. 80% complete.

Tennis doubles at Total Tennis. Got there early. First play with Justin against Joe Dellamorte and Chad Silver. Excellent. Played very well all around. Especially volleying. No double faults in the entire evening

4/9/2019 – doctor visit, work, library, tennis

Tuesday

Saw Marilyn Miller at CMH. Talked about elevated PSA level, Viagra not functioning and hip physical therapy. Made appointment with urologist for tomorrow. Skipped team meeting at UTMH.

Foggy morning.

Attended volunteer lunch at the library. Spent too much time listening to Pamela Badilla. Talked with Shanekia about her performance at the HOH last weekend. Met a couple of other volunteers.

Looked at more pictures from Sicily and Lisbon for Karen’s book projects. Filed Federal tax extension, then worked on the transaction from 2018 from all of the various sources. Three checking accounts, one credit card, and two PayPal accounts. Got all of the data into one spreadsheet. Now to categorize all of the thousands of transactions so I can create P&L statements for DOG, RBC, and Karen’s artist work.

Lunch at Chinese place top of Warren.

Went to Total Tennis for singles night. Started warm up with a very good 40 something guy. Then Vic walked in with Hanna, a roughly 30 yr old woman who is close to 6 ft tall. She is not exactly at my level, but gets the ball back. We rally to good effect for more than 90 minutes. Good fun. I got to practice not hitting the ball so hard. She is an obvious athlete. Good hands and eye coordination. Likes more pace towards the end.

4/8/2019 – work, travel photos,…..

Monday

Talked w Gayle Gendron about implementation and service processes, then drove to Tarrytown to meet with Ray Velez. Excellent meeting. He was impressed with the financial analysis of a doctor’s office using RPM. Very bright, experienced, aggressive guy. He didn’t blink at the commission structure. Got back to Hudson by 3:30pm. Worked more on apps bugs.Reported them to Seth….

Wrote “Recently Noted” entry about Reich’s new video, Socialism for the Rich Capitalism for the Rest.

 

Worked with Karen on photos for books about our Lisbon and Sicily trips. Roast chicken for dinner. Ate more of Dave’s cannellini bean dish.

4/7/2019 – breakfast out, taxes, tennis

Sunday

Bob’s Diner for breakfast. Brief shopping. Spent much of the day working on tax return in the factory. Will end up filling for an extension. We will owe over $12k because we took so much money out of retirement funds last year for the construction of the new room and kitchen renovations. Also continued to work on an essay for AmericanDelusions about Ray Dalio’s critique of capitalism published in LinkedIn.

First tennis of the outdoor season. Ted and I were both very flat. I won a very sluggish set 7-5. Ended with 30 minutes of rallying which was much better.

After returning home heard a jostling of front door. Guy was standing outside. He said he knew one of the artists and missed yesterday’s opening. I invited him in. His name is Ben Schawinsky. Lives in Sheffield MA. His father, Xanti Schawinsky, it turns out is a forgotten artist of the Bauhaus school. Interesting stories of Europe before WWII and later.

4/6/2019 – opening reception DOG

Saturday

Got up right away. Worked on a solution to mounting the video monitor between the windows on the front wall. Small technical troubles with the driver gizmo creating phantom files. Problems solved. Had to move Ruths vertically oriented video to an iPad on a back wall.

Karen went off to exerise class at library. 

Opening from 5 to 7 pm went very well. Lots of people showed up. Ted and Anne came. They know one of the exhibitors, Matt Frieburghaus, a faculty member at Marist. Sarah Sterling, Jude Silver, Michael O’Hara, Ruth ??, Dave Drake, and many others…..

Last year’s sign for the Photobook Show on Winter Walk Saturday. Changed over today.