View From Here

  Blog draft june 17b 26 New Computer In a flash computer apps spring to life. I touch one key and the computer screens come alive after a night of sleep. No booting or re-booting. Just action. Screens with options to choose. Screen shots alive with detail and color and selection. Amazing. My IT engineer told me so. All I had to do was dump the Lenovo and buy a new computer. I did. A Dell all-in-one. 27-inch screen. Drives my curved 24-inch screen next to it. Two screens large enough to see. Both touch controlled. A table top filled with computer equipment that works. How about that? Of course, people ask why. At 83, why would I replace my computer? What do I have to do or say that warrants such an expense? Why indeed. With a new machine capable of much, I now have the tool to create something more than I have already done. What will that be? I have often advised family and friends that retirement must be to something, not just idleness. You know the stories of those wh...

  Blog draft june 17 26 Five and a Half Weeks April 29 th was the day I entered ER in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They kept me overnight and discharged me around 2 pm the next day. We got three canisters of oxygen and started our way back to Chicago. Altitude sickness was the final diagnosis, and it would be fixed by taking oxygen until we got back to lower elevations. That took a day, but we did it in Amarillo, Texas, which sits at 3600 feet. The oxygen lasted until Chicago and home. Five and a half weeks later this has occurred: one visit to the cardiologist who said I was fine; three tests by the pulmonologist team and a session with the pulmonologist who declared me OK as long as my travel concentrator was replaced and I had oxygen tanks in the meantime; and at long last, Linmark came and took away the failed concentrator and replaced it temporarily with six tanks of oxygen. He reported the replacement machine will take five to 12 weeks to receive. Swell. Just swell. Meanw...

  Blog draft june 15 26 Speaking Up From time to time people ask me why I write a blog. It started simply enough. I was then a managing editor of a local newspaper serving a population of 14,000 residents with a business community with about 20,000 employees. Then we adopted another town next door with a population of 9,000. We added a non-participating community of 26,000   people soon after. That’s a combined resident population of 50,000 plus an employee base of 25.000 or more. Managing that publication focused on local issues and people. My interests ranged farther than that but is knew those needed to be kept out of the local newspaper. So, I began the blog so I could ventilate my mind without involving the local paper. See how simple that was? It took nearly three years to reach 100,000 contacts, but that number rose 100,000 each of the next two years. Then something happened with Google Blogspot and now I distribute the blog via Facebook only. My numbers are q...

  Blog draft june 12 26 CBS News? Well, news by CBS’ own definition must not include truth. They take the bend depending on what it is worth to its organization. 60 Minutes has been the model of fact and news for generations. It has earned its top rating through hard work and discipline. Not anymore. Sad but true. They have taken millions of dollars from sponsors motivated by political viewpoint. They have cancelled shows will longstanding success and ratings. They have slotted replacement shows without either star power or rating attraction. They are now losing operating profits. Will they go down the slippery slope of bankruptcy? Will they even remain in business? Hard to know any of that at this early stage. But the sense of justice hopes for that conclusion. Just because a proliferation of newscasters has weakened news revenues and profits, doesn’t mean truth and fact have to be sacrificed. Just think of the years each broadcaster invested to build what they later bec...

  Blog draft june 10 26 Getting By Renewed my driver's license a few days ago. Everything was going fine until they asked me for proof of insurance. My computer printer hasn’t worked since I moved into my new apartment 15 months ago, so I saved my insurance documents to my phone. I called up the docs in front of the DMV staff but couldn’t get the images to appear. So, I asked them for help. Bless them, they jumped right in. First one staffer stepped up, then a second, finally a third. I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t do this. A few years ago I told my son I had a phone tech problem while waiting in a doctor’s office. He suggested in the future I just ask for help from the youngest person in the room. I did this time. The young fellow was most cooperative but he was stumped by my situation. Finally, DMV staff came up with the solution. They looked up Progressive Insurance’s national help phone number. They suggested I call the number and ask them to send my proof of insura...