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Starting Again

For quite a while I was regular in my posts to my blog. Recently I decided to start on this journey again. Why? Not because I think anyone reads it or I give two-shits about what people think. No, I have found myself referring back to the blog as a diary: photos, events, things I did. The advantage of having this blog is so I can look back at events in my life and maybe share those with my kids.

Today it is September 4, 2021. I am at a Hilton timeshare in Orlando with Mandy, James, Ty, and Everly to spend the weekend. I have a 100km bike ride in two weeks, I have a 200-mile bike ride in 8 weeks. My dog Rabbit passed away one year ago this upcoming week. Yesterday I had news at work (law) blindside me. Today I am relaxed.

My Dad is doing well, at 82. He is living with a woman (not happy about it), but he seems happy. I have two dogs, Sadie and Chopper. I have a gorgeous house, a pool, extra cars that I do not need, a motorcycle, a storage unit, a law practice, and a software company. I am constantly going, going, and going. Kids are in school (Ty in 4th grade, James in 8th grade, Jack a junior at UF, Marcella just graduated, and Haley is working).

My life at 54 – good. My life at 54 – hard. My life at 54 – stressful and taking care of others. My life at 54 – I struggle to find time for me. My life at 54 – doing things for others all the time. My life at 54 – worried about 64.

Six weeks ago today I was in bed with Covid. Six weeks later I am fine, but for a nagging cough. Six weeks later I am riding my bike and playing with my kids. Six weeks later I am glad I had the health and stamina to fight the Covid battle and win. But, six weeks later I realize I need to do more about insurance and planning for my future and my kids future.

Recently someone mentioned – we are “just 9 meals away from anarchy” to me (a nice summary here: https://internationalman.com/articles/nine-meals-from-anarchy/).

Just like my older posts, I continue to be concerned: concerns over disasters (hurricanes, EMPs, solar flares, social unrest), I watch in dismay at the hypocrisy of a media supporting a president who is obviously lacking capacity and a vice president in the wings who her own party resoundingly rejected during the campaign, I see a scared population wanting everyone to wear masks but refusing to acknowledge the deaths that have occurred are in those with obesity (78%) or other underlying health issues, questions regarding science cannot be asked without being called a deplorable or denier, and values that built our country are cast aside as we cannot hurt anyone’s feelings.

It has been a while since I have written. It seemed safer to say nothing and keep my thoughts to myself. This may be my only rant, or there may be more. My goal in starting again though is to take a snapshot of what was, what is, and what might be.

September 4, 2021 by Big Government General Rant

The Law Office of John R. Nelson, P.A.

In 2013 had a dream of attending law school. More importantly, I wanted to be a lawyer by the time I turned 50 – August 12, 2017. I applied to a number of schools and was accepted at all but one. However, my applications were driven by my ability to commute, work, and manage my family.

Finally, I finished law school, right near the top of my class. And, I passed the Bar exam.

At first, I did not practice law. However, in the spring of 2018, I went to work with a law school friend and found myself learning estates, trusts, and probate. I also started studying for the patent bar.

Today, I own my law firm and practice as “Of Counsel” in New Smyrna Beach. I handle patents, copyrights, trademarks, bankruptcy, estates, wills, and probate. I can be found at 418 Canal Street, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168. I can be reached via phone at 386-256-8537.

April 5, 2021 by Law School Uncategorized

Remove DRM from Kindle Books

I recently found myself in a bind for law school – I have to read 150 pages by Monday of a novel for a class.  I was driving to Georgia over the weekend and realized 8 hours in the car would be perfect.  However, I struggled to get the book I needed downloaded and converted.  I have a Windows machine but am a Linux user.  I needed to get the Kindle de-DRM functions working in Linux so I could listen to the book I purchased.  By the way – I now own the paperback ($14), the Barnes and Noble version ($12.99) and the Kinde version ($12.99).  I have $42 invested and feel ensuring I can listen to this book is well justified.

The following instructions are for Calibre and Linux.

Linux.
1) Install Calibre.  Choose software updater in Linux and install Calibre.
a) Open Calibre and ensure all looks OK.
2)  Go to Alf’s Apprentice Blog and download the latest DRM tools
a) Download the zip file and unzip it.
3) Install Wine on the Linux machine —https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu
a) If your system is 64 bit, enable 32 bit architecture (if you haven’t already):
sudo dpkg –add-architecture i386
a) add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
b) apt-get update
c) apt-get install wine1.7
d) Launch Wine Configuration
e) Follow the prompts: Wine configuration setup will ask to install the missing Wine dependencies in order to complete its setup to configure wine on the system. Most probably it requires wine Gecko installer and wine Mono installer.
f) Run “Configure Wine”, which will set up the default ‘wineprefix’
5) Run winetricks, select the default wineprefix and install component vcrun2008
6) Follow the following Linux instructions below:
——————————————————————————————–
Download all of the following to a folder
a) Download Kindle for PC
b) Adobe Digital Editions 1.7.x from http://helpx.adobe.com/digital-editions/kb/cant-install-digital-editions.html.  (Adobe Digital Editions 2.x doesn’t work with Wine.)
c) ActivePython 2.7.X for Windows (x86) from http://www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads
d) PyCrypto 2.1 for 32bit Windows and Python 2.7 from http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto (PyCrypto downloads as a zip file. You will need to unzip it.)
7) Run the mis-named “Uninstall Wine Software”, which also allows installation of software.
 a) Install Kindle for PC. Accept all defaults and register with your Amazon Account.
 b) Install Adobe Digital Editions. Accept all defaults and register with your Adobe ID.
 c) Install ActiveState Python 2.7.x. Accept all defaults.
 d) Install PyCrypto 2.1. Accept all defaults.
8) Don’t do anything yet — we did the easy part.  Now we need to run the script to get the Kindle Key
Hidden away in the Help button of the keys under customize plug is this information.
a) Open Calibre
b) ChoosevPreference
c) Choose Plugins
d) Choose File Type Plugins
e) Choose DRM —
f) Click Customize Plugins and click help to see this text:
First, choose Preferences, then plugins.  Click File Input,
Linux Systems Only
Generating decryption keys for Adobe Digital Editions and Kindle for PC. If you install Kindle for PC and/or Adobe Digital Editions in Wine, you will be able to download DRMed ebooks to them under Wine. To be able to remove the DRM, you will need to generate key files and add them in the plugin’s customisation dialogs.
To generate the key files you will need to install Python and PyCrypto under the same Wine setup as your Kindle for PC and/or Adobe Digital Editions installations. (Kindle for PC, Python and Pycrypto installation instructions in the ReadMe.)Once everything’s installed under Wine, you’ll need to run the adobekey.pyw script (for Adobe Digital Editions) and kindlekey.pyw (For Kindle for PC) using the python installation in your Wine system. The scripts can be found in Other_Tools/Key_Retrieval_Scripts.Each script will create a key file in the same folder as the script. Copy the key files to your Linux system and then load the key files using the Adobe Digital Editions ebooks dialog and the Kindle for Mac/PC ebooks dialog.

9) So….easiest thing to do is go to the folder within your DRM zip folder and copy the kindlekey.pyw script over to your Wine Python folder.  Home/your name/.wine/drive_c/Python27/
a) Drop the kindle key in that folder
b) Choose “Open Folder in terminal”
c) Type wine python kindlekey.pyw
d) Take the key file that is generated and copy it back to your DRM folder.
10) Open Calibre, if closed from above, and go to plugin customization, choose Kindle for PC and Import Data Key.  Choose the key.
11) Close Calibre
12) Go to Kindle for PC – log in and sync your books.  You will see the .azw files under My Documents\My Kindle Content
13) Open Calibre
14) Choose Add Books and browse to the kindle folder to import the books.  Next, choose Convert Books and convert to epub format.
15) I then open the calibre path and cut and paste the converted books to my dropbox.  Now, they are available on my android and I can pull them into Moonreader.
August 19, 2016 by Android Law School Linux

Logitech H820e Wireless Headset and Linux Mint

I recently got a new Logitech Wireless Headset so I could use a soft phone (Bria), Google Hangouts, and Skype more effectively at work.  Out of the box there was nothing to do other than plug the headset into the USB and immediately I had audio.  Of course, not everything worked.

Working:

  1. Volume up and down worked no problem

  2. Audio and Sound working

Not Working:

  1. Phone call pick up button
  2. Microphone mute — disables the mouse and takes control of the mouse event handler
  3. And…a lot of white noise.

The fixes:

White Noise

The first issue reported today was I had much white noise. I opened the sound settings in Linux and saw that I have three microphones and three speakers. On the input side I clicked on the built in microphone and turned it off. Second, I click on the Analog microphone and muted it.  Finally, I clicked on the headset microphone and change the gain with a colleague listening in and letting me know when it sounded correct.

Mouse Handler

This issue was more problematic for me as I could not mute the microphone at first, then that started working. However, once muted  the mouse on the machine would no longer work. After some research I found these links that gave some insights. My fix is at the end.

Unity looses mouse click handler when using enabling USB headset

[SOLVED] No mouse left-click with USB headset GN9350e

I am running Linux Mint 17.3.  Thus, from the instructions above I have no /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d folder.  But, combining the information from the first support thread I made a file in the /usr/share/X11 folder.  Instructions are as follows:

  1. Open a terminal window
  2. type “lsusb” and press enter
  3. Locate the device in question…for me it is the logitech.  The line looks like this:
  4. Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:0a49 Logitech, Inc.
    1. NOTE the ID: 046d:0a49
  5. Browse to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d folder
  6. Right click and choose “Open as Root”
  7. Right click and choose “Create new Document”
  8. Choose “Empty Document”
  9. name the document something like “50-LogitechInc.conf”
  10. Paste the contents below into the file and then SAVE the file.  Make sure to name the Identifier to match your hardware (I used the Logitech definition) and paste in your USB ID properly.  My file looks like this:

Section “InputClass”

Identifier “Logitech, Inc.”

MatchUSBID “046d:0a49”

Option “Ignore” “on”

EndSection

May 17, 2016 by Linux

Converting an ACER C720 to full Linux Mint

Previously I wrote about using Crouton with your Chromebook to run Linux.  This tutorial will walk you through the original process Build a Rockin $100 laptop.

My needs changed though, I needed far more hard disk space than the original 16 GB that came with the Acer Chromebook.  The process below is basically a $40 upgrade and about three hours of work.

Linux Mint on a Chromebook (acer C720)

this blog covers several topics:
1. Making a recovery boot disk
2. Installing a new SSD in an ACER C720
3. Installing Linux Mint and getting the machine back to a “zero state” for use
4. finally installing any extra tools

1) There are plenty of sites that detail making a recovery disk in Chrome. This is the first step before doing anything!! You must have made a recovery disk so you can restore Chrome to the new hard disk. And if all goes bad so you have a place to return to.

2) Installing the new SSD
I purchased a 128 GB SSD for my Chromebook. The key is to ensure it is 42mm and the format is NGFF. Approximate cost in January 2016 $52 from Amazon. I used the instructions found here to change out the SSD. In short follow these steps (http://www.androidcentral.com/how-upgrade-ssd-your-acer-c720-chromebook?pg=5#content)
1. Sync drop box and anything else that may be on your Linux Chroot
2. Make sure you left nothing!
3. Make a recovery disk
4. Shut down the computer
5. Remove the 13 screws and back
6. Swap out the drive
7. Reassemble the computer

I turned on my computer and came back to the developer (red explamation mark) screen. I returned the laptop to normal recovery mode (yellow explanation mark). However I hit my first SNAFU when the SanDisk 8gb recovery disk would not read. I have a 16gb USB I am going to use instead. I am on a separate Linux Mint machine following the google instructions in a Linux console terminal.

Just in case you need a USB Drive from terminal:
1. Find what the drive is called. You’ll need to know what the drive is called to mount it. To do that fire off:
1. sudo fdisk -l (L not one)
2. You’re looking for a partition that should look something like: /dev/sdb1. Remember what it’s called.
2. Create a mount point
1. Create a new directory in /media so you can mount the drive onto the filesystem:
2. sudo mkdir /media/usb
3. Mount!
1. sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usb
2. When you’re done, just fire off:
3. sudo umount /media/usb

Finally! It took several tries to make a working recovery disk. Once I had it installed and Chrome recovered I was able to log into my chromebook with a 128GB SSD! It works…

Now it is time to customize and turn it into a Linux Mint box.

3) Installing Linux Mint.
1. Setup the system for developer mode using google’s documentation
1. Boot into Developer mode#
1. Make sure the Chromebook is turned off
2. Hold Escape and Refresh and tap the Power button
3. When the device reaches the recover screen, press Ctrl+d and then (after releasing Ctrl+d) press Enter
4. The system will reboot (this will take some time)
5. Press Ctrl+d again.
6. Once you reach the Google login screen, do NOT log in
7. Press Ctrl+alt+ → (not the right cursor key, but the key where the standard F2 key would be)
2. Setup SeaBios
1. Get to a shell by pressing CTRL-ALT-RightArrow (basically the former F2 key)
2. Login with root (use root as the password)
3. Type in crossystem dev_boot_usb=1 dev_boot_legacy=1
4. Type in reboot (system will reboot)
3. Create a Linux Mint bootable USB (see other details)
4. Once it comes to life, you’ll see the regular “Yellow Exclamation” screen, during which you can press CTRL-L
5. You’ll get a prompt asking you to press ESC to change boot sequence, go ahead
1. At this point you should see the Linux Mint boot screen, press TAB
2. replace — with mem=1G
6. Now you are in!! Click on the installlation disk to install Linux Mint.

Setting up the machine for use….I copied and pasted some of this from a prior blog. It is exciting to have a new, clean machine. This is how I configured for my requirements.

1. First things first the machine rebooted and I connected to wifi. Remember hit ctrl+L at the main screen to get started.
2. I checked my file system and noted I have 107 GB of free space.
3. Turn the firewall on
1. You can either go looking for “gufw” in the Software Manager, or alternatively, paste this into your terminal:
1. sudo apt-get install gufw
2. To turn your firewall on, search in your Whisker Menu for “firewall” or “gufw”. Firewall Configuration will                 come up. Click on that, turn it on, and you’re away.
4. Basic updates
1. Next, I clicked the update manager and pulled all Mint related updates and installed. This was nearly 500MB of        updates.
2. http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_cinnamon_whatsnew.php
1. Change the software sources
1. This should be done next. Simply go to the Menu, run your mouse up to Administration and select ‘Software Sources’
2. Update Manager – update all files
1. sudo apt-get update

3. Driver Manager – update all files

4. Ubuntu Restricted
1. go to software manager
2. type ubuntu restricted and install
3. Turn on the firewall
1. sudo apt-get install gufw
2. Open firewall and set information

4. VLC Media Player – from software center

5. Keyboard shortcuts
1. System Settings from start menu
2. Keyboard
3. https://sites.google.com/site/installationubuntu/chromebook-acer-720p/acer-c720-keyboard-mapping

6. Get Some Wallpaper
1. Setup the desktop changer to work

7. Get Flashplayer

8. sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

9. My personal list
1. Install the printer driver and test
2. Install Google Chrome and log
3. Install Dropbox
4. Install Everpad or Nixnote
5. Install skype

6. install unetbootin
1. if you get the extlinux error then run this command:
1. sudo apt-get install extlinux

7. Install Okular for reading PDF Files

8. Power Management for Laptop
1. sudo apt-add-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install tlp

9. Libre Office came installed….configure
1. Spelling and Grammar
1. http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/languagetool

2. Configure Fonts
1. Go to your Software manager and search for ttf-mscore
2. Reboot your PC or restart Libreoffice (including the Quickstarter if you are using that)

3. Then you can set the Times font and any point size you need.

10. Install Wine
11. Install Calibre
10. Programming
1. Install MariaDB
1. Start the database the first time
1. mysql -u root -p
2. Install ProgresSQL (ugh)
3. Install MySQLWorkbench
1. Download and install from the web site to get the latest version
4. Install monodevelopment
1. Download and install from the software manager
1. monodevelopment complete
2. monodevelopment developer
3. monodevelopment xsp4
5. Install php
1. http://www.it-iss.com/mysql/phpcrud-for-mysql/
2. Install the phpCrud script

April 12, 2016 by Linux

2015 is behind me. Finally.

2015….it’s behind me in just a few hours. Honestly, the year started with a great degree of optimism but that quickly faded as the mundane ruled my life. About halfway through the year I was confronted with unexpected adversity, but a renewed faith in God brought me to the other side. As the year closes it feels there is order and most importantly, confidence. Turmoil has been replaced by calm, unknown by hope, and anger by love.

I do not have a “list” I made in 2014 of 2015 goals/wishes, but I know there were certain guideposts. I see guideposts as those things we will ensure happen whereas most of life just takes place in the daily realm. I marked the “planned” guideposts with an asterisk. For my own benefit, to look back in 10 years, I blog my reflections and here is the best of 2015 was (in no particular order):

  1. ** Riding the Cross Florida (175 mile) bike ride. Even though I did the two-day, not the one-day, I rode it
  2. Going Skydiving with my oldest daughter, Haley
  3. Starting my Certified Flight Instructor Rating (CFI)
  4. ** Taking my oldest son, Jack, to Oshkosh, WI for his week at aviation academy and camping with my younger boys, James and Ty, at the Wisconsin Dells
  5. ** Going to Guadeloupe for a week with LeeAnn
  6. Booking (highest grade) my Evidence class
  7. Going to Ribfest in St. Petersburg, FL
  8. Buying a surfboard
  9. Jumping of Stratospheres in Las Vegas
  10. Seeing “Love” at Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas
  11. Taking James and Ty to Disney and Animal Kingdom for their birthdays

What is most enlightening about the above is for all the work we do making resolutions, planning, and trying to predict our future it is really life in the moment that seems to drive daily activities.  My friend Ken just alerted me to a book via this narrative (The Wisdom of Insecurity) which focuses on less self-improvement and resolutions in the future and instead living in the “now”.

Looking into 2016 my wife spoke words of wisdom last week I plan to use as my theme and teach to my kids – “kindness and careness.” When our boys argue we want to remind them to be kind and caring. The same is true for every personal encounter in our lives whether with a customer or colleague at work, spouse, son or daughter, or a stranger. If we first offer “kindness and careness” all should resolve itself. Second, I have a plethora of milestones to reach in 2016 but I am more focused on what I discovered in 2015: the unexpected can bring the most joy.

For 2016 I have a few guideposts planned:

  1. Riding the Cross Florida again
  2. Taking and passing the MPRE (must do, but could delay)
  3. Finishing my CFI
  4. A Tradewinds catamaran trip with LeeAnn
  5. Week long live aboard diving trip with Jack

2016 is a clean slate.   I

December 31, 2015 by Uncategorized

The Several Things I did This Weekend (03/16/15)

The Several Things I did This Weekend

SxSW

Unlike most weekends, I only did one major thing this past weekend – I went to South by Southwest (SxSW). I had no idea what to expect, it was overwhelming, I saw cool stuff, and I can’t wait to go again.

I left early Friday morning out of Orlando to Austin, Texas. South by Southwest is nine day event that features film, music and technology. I had an “Interactive” badge which focused on technology. I had no instructions from work as to what to do, how to tackle the show, or any goals. So, I made it up.

Friday I managed to register and work my way around some of the basic areas. My biggest breakthrough was attending my first session, “How to take your gap year.” This session focused on the idea that anyone can, and everyone should, take a long trip. The goal of the session was to help turn the dream of an one year trip abroad into reality. Kristin Zibell led the group and the session was based on her personal experiences and the workshops she now does as part of her web site, TakeYourBigTrip.com. The process, maybe obvious in hindsight but useful in a workshop is to: (1) Write down what your trip looks like, (2) write a mock postcard to a friend from your trip, (3) Identify each place/activity and write it on an index card, (4) add days to the cards, (5) and build an expense worksheet from the concept. What struck me most was her capturing the need to consider left behind expenses – mortgage, power, cell phones, etc.

Next, with the trip coming to reality through a budget there was another exercise on how to move from where we are today to the departure day.

The entire workshop made sense and I would strongly suggest to anyone with a desire to travel checking out Kristin’s web site.

At the workshop I learned a little more, from others, about things to do. It was near the end of the day though and I went back to the hotel to rest up for Saturday.

Saturday was different. I hit the Samsung studio and made a t-shirt. I went to Google Fiber and experienced Google Cardboard. This is the coolest thing ever for Android users. I strongly suggest checking it out. You cannot imagine what virtual reality is like without trying it. I felt it was easy to dismiss, but after the experience I feel differently. The rest of Saturday was spent exploring and finally making it to some of the SxSW parties – yes – free food and drink.

Sunday started with packing and heading into downtown. I had a 10:00am breakfast with a prospect and then went to the SxSW Tradeshow. The show is very much B2C, not B2B. However, I was able to make some contacts with prospects. What was more interesting was to see the range of technology offered, definitely my thing.

I finished the afternoon seeing some highlights that stuck with me. First, I attended an innovation accelerator finalist presentation. Three presenters highlighted different wearable technologies. Think “shark tank” meets “wearable.” The three companies were: (1) Feetz, (2) SoleEnergy and (3) Tinitell. Check them out. They are cool. I also stopped by the Garmin booth and think a new Garmin Fenix 3 needs to be in my future. It combines all of my sport watch, fitness monitor, and smartwatch needs. Hmm.

Lyft

Do you use ride sharing? I have used Uber in the past and of course we rent our cabin on AirBNB. This was my first weekend as a regular Lyft user though and it worked great. Rides always came within 2-3 minutes, the cars were clean and the people were great. My first ride was with a man named Augustine, from Nigeria. He was driving a brand new Toyota FJ that he hopes to send to his family in Nigeria. I asked how many Lyft rides he had give, about 700!!

Americans love big empty cars. I suspect if gasoline goes back to $5 per gallon everyone might get on the ride-sharing bandwagon.

My Screenplay

I talk about my screenplay because it keeps it in front of me. I have two actually. The first I have written 30 pages of script. The second is being developed differently as I am writing the synopsis first and then will work on the script. Last weekend Noel and I worked on storyline ideas and I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon and evening working on the story since my flight on SWA was delayed. It felt good to make progress and it is more interesting to see something in my head coming to fruition on paper.

It will be hard to keep up the momentum this week as I jump right back into work tomorrow after a, now, late arrival home. But, I want to keep working it as the screenplay is taking on personality.

Jim Gaffigan

The final thing I did this weekend was remind LeeAnn that Jim Gaffigan is coming to concert in Atlanta. I had no idea when, but it turns out August 16. Since we own a cabin in the woods near Atlanta I said we have to go – and we are!!

March 20, 2015 by Weekends

The Several Things I did This Weekend (3/9/2015)

The Several Things I did This Weekend

A trip to the Cabin

On Thursday I made a trip to the cabin. Unlike prior trips I did not take the boys, this time it was just me. I had planned to go to work on my screenplay drafts, focus on work, and spend time with my parents. I left the house at 4:15am Thursday morning, worked on the way up on the phone, and managed to arrive just after 1:00pm. The drive took longer than expected because I pulled off the road to handle some calls.

The weather was cold, but a nice change from Florida. I was able to quickly settle in and enjoyed my weekend. This was also my last trip prior to starting AirBNB rentals again so I had to do some work around the house. Thursday worked out to be a relaxing evening.

Friday was spent working, with a fire burning most of the day. My buddy Noel came to visit. Saturday we did some hiking after a great breakfast and then Noel headed out. I grabbed a nap and shower before dinner at my parents. I finished the evening buying supplies for the cabin.

Sunday was about getting ready to head home. I had high hopes of studying, riding my bike and doing several other “things” but managed none. I hate leaving the cabin and could have stayed for a week. But…

Spent time with Noel

My friend Noel came to visit. Noel is a former colleague and a good friend who lives in Atlanta. He arrived just prior to dinner and we headed into Helen to track down food. Over dinner I started sharing with Noel my screenplay idea. We worked our way through the storyline over the next several hours. With a 1L of beer drank and then hitting Tito’s and tonic our creative thoughts started to flow. Noel’s help was invaluable. His experience in the movie industry due to his Dad’s writing went a long way to helping me.

On Saturday we hiked to the top of Mt. Yonah. Along the way we talked about a lot of issues that guys our age face. There is a conflict between finding satisfaction, having been robbed of success in the Great Recession, fear over the next stages of our careers, and just being happy. Happiness was once defined by our jobs and our success at work. However, happiness seems to be more about family, hobbies, and time.

We shared thoughts of what-ifs. What if you found out tomorrow you had a year to live. And, every time I offer that experiment to someone work is never a consideration. Instead, time with family is the priority. Asking Noel what his bucket list would look like was interesting. I then shared my concept of PRA (Projected Retrospective Analysis) with Noel as we continued exploring what lay ahead in our lives. I rephrased the question to Noel with PRA in mind, “ten years from now we are hiking like this. What will you be glad you accomplished in the last ten years?”

I personally had one huge takeaway from my time with Noel. I need to live in the moment.

?  — what — ?

While we sat on Mt. Yonah, 1500 feet about the surrounding land, seeing Atlanta 90 miles away and watching nearly a dozen hawks fly I forced myself to enjoy the moment and disregard the “Agenda” I carry in my head. For instance, I knew once Noel left I needed to study and wanted to ride my bike. I am a believer that my success in life has come from constantly allowing an agenda to drive everything. But, at 47 years old maybe it just doesn’t matter. I am wondering what harm might come?

Spent time with my Parents

After Noel left I went to spend time with my Mom and Dad and have dinner. Our visit was much shorter than I had planned, but that was o. We were able to just sit and talk. My Mom and Dad are facing decisions regarding whether to move and we are trying to get them to move to Florida. I am hopeful family will prevail and they will choose the road closer to us.

March 9, 2015 by Weekends