All posts by David Todd

Health

The Best Laid Plans

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Oh hail!

Friday was to have been a celebration, of sorts. That was my last day of cardio rehab. 35 sessions from Nov 20th± to March 14, with interruptions for Thanksgiving, Christmas, my seizure, and two trips to Massachusetts. I did not see an improvement on my weight or waistline, which I attribute to two weeks of restaurant food in Massachusetts, but the muscle tone in my legs sure is better. Since Dec. 22, Lynda’s had to do all the driving (20 miles each way) for all these, since I’m not allowed to drive due to the seizure.

Friday was a windy day. We were southbound on Interstate 49, Lynda constantly fighting the wind. At one point, she was driving in the left lane on a 3-lane stretch when a box blew out of a flatbed truck just ahead of us and a lane over. The box bounced in our path, and it seemed we could not miss hitting it. But the wind blew the box across the lane in front of us, with debris spilling out on the pavement. We missed the box but ran over the debris, whatever it was.

By the time we got to the rehab place, the low-pressure light was on. By the time I got out of rehab an hour later, the tire was flat. I called AAA. They sent a truck, but I had trouble using their online locator guide and had him going to the wrong place. We were in a huge parking lot for the hospital/dr offices building. The guy found us, actually fairly quickly, aired up the tire, and it wouldn’t hold air. So AAA sent a tow truck, which also came fairly quickly. I had them tow us to the Dodge dealership we use, which was only 3 or 4 miles away. In the process, we learned that our minivan did not have a spare tire in the place allotted for it.

The dealership mounted a new tire and had us on our way in an hour and a half, me downing two cups of coffee and one package of peanut butter crackers during the wait. Just before we pulled out of the service garage, it started raining—pouring, actually. At times, Lynda couldn’t really see the road. Then came the hail, really hard and probably grape size. We passed several churches with drive-unders, but other cars had already parked under them before us, so we kept going. By the time we got to the main road through Bentonville, the hail had stopped, and the rain tapered off to a fine mist. By the time we got back onto the Interstate, all rain had stopped. Our neighborhood was dry, as it was west of the storm line. We drove right through that line.

By this time, neither of us felt like celebrating the end of rehab. But it was 5 p.m. and we also knew neither of us would feel like preparing supper. So, as planned, we stopped at our nearest Mexican restaurant and got take-out fajitas.

As a result, I lost the entire afternoon for work, and two items on my 4-item Friday to-do list didn’t get done—still aren’t done. And neither of us even want to look at what damage we might have to the car from the hail.

Bible study, miscellaneous, Writing

Progress As Hoped For

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Back when I was a working man—that is, working for a company—making to-do lists was both a blessing and a curse. The tendency for me was to make a comprehensive list of daily tasks, around 10 to 20 items. These often became a distraction. Which should I do next out of the twenty on the list? Most of the time I would tackle the easier, less important item just to cross something off the list, rather than the harder but most important task.

At some point I learned a trick from some efficiency expert. Your daily to-do list should have only four items on it. They should be the most important ones. Do them, cross them off your list, and then, if you have time, move on to other things. I adopted this practice with one modification: I put the four most important tasks above a line and four other tasks below the line. This gave me more of a plan to make the day really full of accomplishment.

I’ve never adopted that practice for the many things I have to get done in retirement. But since my health problems of last year, with the Dec. 22 seizure being the concluding event, severely interrupted my work, I’ve had trouble getting back to it. As I posted before, I began writing again not so long ago. I’m still working on decumulation. And our stock trading partnership taxes are due March 17. It was all becoming overwhelming. When I made a to do list, it didn’t help.

Then I remembered the four-task rule. About three weeks ago I started to begin each day making a four-task to-do list. The things I thought most important to that day went on the list. While I had big, on-going tasks, each day’s four were different. Partnership taxes were on it every day after about 3 March. But on 1 March, the first item was “Call Ezra”, #2 grandson on his birthday. I put one writing/publishing task on the list each day, and one decumulation task.

Yesterday’s four were:

  1. finish partnership taxes
  2. AWTHW V2 cover
  3. transcribe journal sheets
  4. storeroom organization

Alas, due to most of the morning being taken up with five errands, I didn’t have the full day to complete them all, and I did only 1 and 3.

Today, my four tasks are:

  1. AWTHW V2 cover
  2. mail partnership taxes
  3. mark boxes in storeroom
  4. Cheney fam photos

We’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I have found a use for all these pads that accumulate from unsolicited give aways. The one I’m currently using, with enough space for six days on a sheet, was given to us by the realtor who sold us our house before this one in 1991. I found it in the desk in The Dungeon a couple of months ago, and decided it was high time to use it. From the size of the pad still left, it will probably last for 3 or 4 months.

Bible study, Health, Writing

Writing Again

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Soon, Volume 1 of AWTHW will not be an orphan.

Last Saturday (3/1, that is), for only the second time since my seizure on Dec 22, I wrote. Wrote on one of my books, that is. I’ve been doing a little journaling in Jan and Feb, but no real writing. A Walk Through Holy Week, Volume 3, lacked only one chapter and the Introduction of being done. Even earlier parts of the book had been through one edit.

But I just wasn’t feeling up to writing. I would go downstairs to The Dungeon each morning, feel overwhelmed at decumulation and decluttering tasks, feel my slowness at the keyboard, and do other things than writing. Any other things. The last time I had written was around Jan 22, and I added very few words that day.

But that Saturday, it felt good. I wrote the first section of the last chapter. It took less than an hour, and it felt good. That day I had already spent an hour transcribing entries from an old field book into my e-journal. That felt good, and so did the writing. I took Sunday off, but then wrote each weekday last week. That brought me to Saturday with one section and the Introduction to do. I got the one section, for which I had not done any planning, done in 45 minutes or so, and decided to shift over to the Introduction. In another 45 minutes, I had that done as well. An hour and a half was probably the most writing I had done in one session since my stroke on Sept 3.

So, AWTHW V3 is now ready for finishing round 1 of edits and moving quickly into rounds 2 and 3. AWTHW V2 is ready for typing of final edits, and the input of beta readers, if I can find any. The later volumes scream at me, asking me to please get to editing them and move on to publishing. I have to keep shushing them, saying, “All in good time, all in good time.”

Meanwhile, brainstorming is in progress about what comes next. I know what the next three, or possibly four, books will be, but not after that. I just can’t help thinking and planning ahead.

What about it, friends? Anyone want to be a beta reader for Volumes 2 and/or 3? Just let me know with a comment and I’ll be in touch. Or reach me through Facebook.

Bible study, Health, self-publishing, Writing

A More Normal Schedule

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As I write this on Wednesday, March 5 evening, a feeling of normalcy has descended on the Todd household. Not completely, for we still have health issues we’re dealing with. Lynda has headaches almost daily; our son is, tonight, dealing with a possible break-through seizure; and I’m getting ready to start physical therapy for my right knee. But yesterday I saw my hematologist. My iron deficiency is corrected, and I don’t have to go back to him unless my regular blood work shows my iron dropping. And my cardio rehab will end next week. That is going well, and I’ve increased my workload most days as I’ve been through it. My weight is either steady or inching downward, and my blood sugars are mostly within goal.

But normalcy is close. Saturday, I returned to writing. As of today, I’ve written on four days, with the ideas and words coming easily. I have only three days of writing left on this volume—well, four including the introduction. Then, of course, the editing starts. Meanwhile, I continue to edit Volume 2 of the series. I should finish that on Friday, the day this post goes live. Typing will take less than a day, then publication tasks start.

I’m finding time to do some typing of things that go into my journal—loose papers that will later be discarded. Meanwhile the storeroom is better arranged so that I know where things are and will be able to find them again for decumulation consideration. My work table is marginally cleaner after I went through a desk-top box of hanging files and got rid of a bunch. Some were left for scanning or transcribing, work that is in progress. And speaking of decumulation, every couple of days something sells based on Facebook Marketplace ads.

But the thing that makes me feel most normal is beginning the process of closing out finances for 2024 and beginning to track them for 2025. Today, Wednesday, I did this for book sales, which is a business for me. I was up-to-date with my sales and finances spreadsheet when I had my seizure on Dec 22, so I didn’t lack much to catch up. I finally did that today, reconciled everything, created the new spreadsheet for 2025, and recorded my sales to date. I’m running a little ahead of 2024, which was a record year for me. On Thursday I plan to do this for our stock trading business, allowing me to start on our partnership taxes, which are due to be filed by March 15.

This all feels good, working on familiar things and seeing things getting done. I’m not ready to resume regular yardwork, but will slip some in once in a while. Going up and downstairs to The Dungeon is still painful, but I am able to do it several time a day.

Oh, and Tuesday I took down the string of Christmas card we received this year. A little late, but another part of the house is back to normal.

Bible study, home improvements, Writing

Closer To Normal

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Dateline: Sunday, 2 March 2025

This may not be a terribly long post—we’ll see how it goes.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve felt a little more like my normal self, settling into my normal routines, getting normal things done. When I wrote on Friday, I felt overwhelmed by the things I had to do. But by the time Saturday wound down, and I looked back on the day (and on Friday), I realized I had accomplished things close to normal, as well as having completed a couple of special projects that would allow for doing normal things. Here’s what I got done,

  • Worked 15 minutes out in the yard. That may not sound like much, but that’s the first outdoor work I’ve one since Thanksgiving.
  • Did the final edits on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vo. 2.  I did that over Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Since I’ve done writing only one day since before Christmas, I can’t tell you how good this felt. I figured, If I can’t wrap my mind around writing, I have much editing to do. Perhaps that will be a stimulant toward writing.
  • Finished transcribing some journal sheets from 2014-15 that I found in an old file cabinet. This took a lot of effort. But getting it done was a huge relief. I have a couple of small journal books still to transcribe, but somehow these don’t seem as daunting.
  • Got a smallish batch of family photos (21, I think) sorted, saved electronically, and agreement reached on how to dispose of them.
  • Completed some major reorganization of the storeroom. We have sold off enough things that we have a little extra shelf space available. This allowed me to fairly easy to move things around, getting like things together, exposing some things I hadn’t seemed for years. We still have a long way to go at decumulation, But it’s looking a fair amount better.

Despite doing all this, and working my hardest at a cardio rehab session on Friday, I felt good. My energy level remained good. I took sitting breaks when I needed to, as well as a reading break at midday.

This week I plan on getting AWTHW-V2 ready for publication and actually publish it, maybe by Wednesday. After that, I hope to get a start on the last week of writing to go on the next volume followed by editing and publishing tasks.

And tomorrow morning a woman is coming by to pick up some surplus office supplies for her non-profit. It will be nice to have some surplus materials gone and space recovered.

Well, it’s one to finishing a good Lord’s Day with reading. Nothing better.

 

goals, home improvements, miscellaneous

So Busy, So Tired

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Tonight is the alignment/parade of the planets. Just after sunset, we are supposed to be able to see seven planets, a highly unusual event. Except, if you read the fine print, Saturn will be so close to the setting sun you really won’t be able to see it. The one further out from Saturn (Neptune or Uranus, I forget which), will only be visible by telescope. You need to have a cloudless sky to see it, and a rural area not beset by light pollution will help quite a bit.

I don’t know what our cloud cover will be tonight, but all the other conditions are right for viewing in my area. The light pollution is to the east of us, and the viewing will be in the western sky. But we have one pesky problem: trees. We live in a forest. Mercury and Saturn will likely be below the tree line. I’m not sure about Venus, Mercury, and Saturn.  So for us to see the planetary parade, we need to go somewhere that gives us a vista to see the four, or maybe five, planets.

But the bigger problem for me is the busyness and tiredness of the last few day, which will continue today. By the time sunset arrives, I will certainly be too tired to drive the three miles to the best venue close to me.

What’s making me so busy. In a word, decumulation. In another word, decluttering. In a third word, cleaning and organization. The last three days I’ve been working hot and heavy at these three thing, and will continue today. I’ve been purging business records, and stacking the paper for shredding. Other papers go straight into the recycling pile. I’ve also been transcribing old handwritten journal sheets into my electronic journal, and checking the odd genealogy paper against my electronic files.

I could write pages and pages about this, but I need to get to decumulation and decluttering work. I’ll let these few words speak for themselves.

Oh, by the way, yesterday I got back to writing. Editing old stuff instead of writing new stuff, but it’s part of the writing process—the first I’ve done in over a month.

Health, travel

Waiting on Normal to Return

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Hi folks. The last two week my wife and I were in Massachusetts (Worcester and Boston) for our son’s surgery. I only planned for a week, but the surgery was delayed, then a snowstorm at our home airport delayed us further. Thus, I didn’t plan ahead for blog posts for that long of a trip.

I’m also having difficulty getting back to normal. Hopefully, by Friday I’ll be back with a meaningful post.

America, Politics

End Birthright Citizenship

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For a long time I’ve been an opponent of birthright citizenship. In most countries of the world, a newborn’s citizenship is based on that of the child’s parents, not where they happen to be living when they are born. In the entire world, only about 33 countries have birthright citizenship. Some have it conditionally, but most of the world’s almost 200 countries don’t have it at all.

So why does the USA have it? Because of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This was the amendment the made it clear that freed slaves were citizens. But the wording applies to anyone born within our borders. Is that what we meant to do, or is it the result of a poorly worded amendment? I don’t know.

But this can only be changed by a Constitutional amendment that supersedes any other related provisions of the Constitution, as previously amended, the establishes:

Citizenship of anyone born in the USA is based on the citizenship of the child’s parents.

It wouldn’t be quite that simple, but that’s the basis of the amendment. I believe President Trump is wrong to think this can be done by an executive order. Even an act of Congress would not be enough.

Could such an amendment pass and become part of the constitution? Maybe. I’m not as sure of this one as I am about the last one I posted on.

America, Politics

Re-Configure the Supreme Court

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When the Constitution was written, the framers wanted a way to distribute power away from any one person or group, and to have a means of checks and balances so that no part of the government could become a bludgeon someone would wield.  So one thing they wanted to do was make the courts as independent of the Executive and Legislative branch as possible.

Hence, the Constitution provides that judges are nominated by the president (executive branch), approved by Congress (legislative branch), and serve for life (or, as the Constitution says, under good behavior). Removal of a judge could be only by impeachment by Congress for violation of the Constitution. The thought was that so long as judges didn’t have to worry about fixed terms and being subject to reappointment, they would be independent of both the executive and legislative branches. One other thought that went into that was that once a judge retired, rather than serve into their dotage, they would have no means of support, what with pensions being unknown.

But times have changed. The lifespan of judicial nominees is much longer than it was in 1787. Rather than the likelihood of serving ten or a dozen years, the norm is now 20 or 30. Judged now get good pensions, so if they decide to retire, their support is firm and generous. And Supreme Court justices are in great demand as speakers and command hefty speaker fees. So at least two of the thoughts about what would make judges independent have disappeared. Maybe it’s time to remake the court.

The financial need for lifetime appointments has disappeared. Now, the only reason for lifetime appointments is keeping S.C. justices independent is to not subject them to limited terms and reappointment. My thoughts are: change lifetime appointments to fixed terms, and do not allow for reappointment. That keeps them independent, and the lack of support being a reason for lifetime appointments is gone. So appoint justices for fixed terms, require them to retire, and keep the court rotating.

How would this work? Change the Constitution to fix the number of associate justices at eight (thus getting rid of the idea of court packing that rears up every decade or so). Have the justices serve for sixteen years, then retire. The rotation should occur in odd numbered years, so that the selection process doesn’t happen in an election year. Make the chief justice still a lifetime appointment.

Thus, in each presidential term, two justices would be appointed. The entire supreme court, not including the chief justice, would turn over every sixteen years. There would have to be a transition period from lifetime to fixed terms, but this could be done based on longest serving associate justice to newest. The transition would start beginning with the odd numbered year after a ratification of an amendment to make this happen.

What about a vacancy due to a death or early retirement? You either make the new appointee be a justice only until that term is over, or you leave the seat vacant, or perhaps you make the new appointment for the remainder of the term plus 16 years. Each of those keeps the judges independent, as they would not be subject to reappointment.

All of this would have to happen by an amendment to the Constitution. Could such an amendment be passed? I believe it could. Most Americans would welcome a more frequent turnover of justices, independence of justices is preserved, the specter of court packing is forever gone, and you get a balance of appointees among all the presidents.

Any thoughts?

America, book reviews, History, memories

Book Review: The Yellowstone Story

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Volume 1 went from boring to overbearing, but managed to get the story across.

It was probably in 2008, during our last trip to Yellowstone National Park, that I dropped in a bookstore outside the park and bought two books, The Yellowstone Story, Volumes 1 and 2. I read the first chapter of Volume 1 right away, got busy with other things, and set it aside. When we got home I picked it up again, read the next four chapters, and laid it aside, wondering if I’d wasted my money.

You see, the first five chapters were, to the best of my recollection, boring. They were about the years before the creation of the park, and were essentially: This party came to Yellowstone from this direction, saw this and that, and left by that direction. Chapter after chapter. No wonder I put it down.

But several months ago, I was in The Dungeon, looking for things to get rid of, and my eyes landed on a short stack of books that had been damaged by water maybe fifteen years ago. I figured I would read these (if the water hadn’t rendered them unreadable), then sell or donate them. One was The Potter’s Wheel—it was very readable. Another was Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints—it was more badly damaged and deteriorated by age, and unreadable. Two others were the two volumes of The Yellowstone Story.

Volume 1 is lightly damaged, whereas Vol 2 severely damaged. Remembering how boring Vol 1 was at the start, I still decided to read it so that I could discard it. So after finishing What If Jesus Was Serious, I opened Vol 1 to chapter 6, about 1/3 into the 326 page book, and began reading. It was the story of the formation of the park. And the story was quite interesting—for a while.

As the story of the early years of the park unfolded, the book bombards the reader with names of people and places. I found keeping them straight was impossible. Buckskin Jim, Yellowstone John. Bill the Hunter. Whatever they were, they all ran together very quickly.

If you could get through the names, the story was good enough. This was the USA’s first national park, and no one really knew how it should be run. Local folks from nearby Montana and Wyoming began poaching game and stealing timber. The railroads fought over which one could run a spur into the park. Visitors had poor accommodations and brought bad reports home. But somehow, the park survived the encroachments and ineffective leaders.

Volume 1 ended with the ending of civilian leadership, around 1885, thirteen years after the park was formed. Volume 2 must start with the first government leaders. I finished Vol 1 yesterday, but will hold off on Vol 2 (if it is sufficiently readable) a couple of weeks while family things are front and center. Vol 1 was extremely well researched, with numerous endnotes making reference to park records, letters, newspapers, Congressional and Territorial records. I started reading them but quickly gave up as being too time consuming. The book is truly written on a scholarly level. It is far from the typical souvenir book you buy at tourist sites.

So how do I rate this book, will I ever read it again, and what do I do with it? Despite the boredom of the early chapters and name bombardment from cover to cover, I give it 4-stars. I don’t think I will ever read it again, unless I read some in the early chapters to see if my seventeen-year-old judgement is the same. I’ll hang on to it until I get past however much of Vol 2 I can read, then I will dispose of them in whatever way seems best.