On January 16, 2023 I had knee surgery to address some pain I had been feeling. Apparently I had Medial and Lateral Meniscus tears, basically on the left and right side of my knee.
Knowing that my Mom loves this type stuff, I thought I would post the pictures taken during the procedure. Knew is doing well !
Surgeon said that the #2 images on the pictures above show the before and after. I also apparently have arthritis, shown in the third image. The pink area of the trochlear groove, where the knee cap slides when you bend your knee, shows bone on bone contact. Strange enough, that has not bothered me at all!
For my son’s birthday this year, I decided that “stuff” would just not get it as a gift. I wanted to gift him an experience.
I have always thought my son has a brilliant intellect and is more than just a little adventuresome. I had spoken with him before about possible different careers, one of which was a pilot. But how to get him started?
We live close to an airfield, so doing some research I found some private instructors willing to take him up for an introductory flight. Even though it was a very early morning (I woke him at 5:15am), he had a great time and says enjoyed it! He is interested in doing more and getting at least his private pilots license! As a bonus, I was invited to come along and sit rear seat! So Doug, if your reading this, we will be in touch soon!
Below are some pictures and videos of the morning. I hope you enjoy!
Nathan’s Flight – PicturesPreflightPriming, starting and taxiing….More taxiing…Waiting for traffic….Take off!
On December 6th, a bunch of thugs broke into some of our United States capital buildings while thousands of other patriots were protesting an election that they believe was stolen. I do not support or condone the violence that took place, but am with those Patriots.
Political violence is wrong for any reason. President Trump put out a statement against the violence and telling those people to go home. He did not incite violence and has never done so.
There have been almost 4 years (it seems) of violence from Antifa, BLM and related groups. Burning cities for weeks on end, occupying parts of others, attacking federal buildings and much much more. Instead of putting statements out against that violence, Kamala Harris made supportive statements and helped to bail those people out of jail. Joe Biden hid in his bunker. The main stream media called them “mostly peaceful protests” with pictures of burning cities behind them.
But Trump is to blame? That isn’t logical.
And now, for the first time, a sitting President is being censored by technology companies, while Iranian dictators and Chinese Communist Party leaders are welcomed on those same platforms. Other tech companies are now also complicit by taking steps to censor his supporters. Google and then Apple removed Parler from their app stores and Amazon cancelled Parler servers and web services.
We no longer have a main stream media that can be trusted. All they do is project.
We no longer have free and fair elections that can be trusted. Our political system is at risk because of fringe groups on both ends of the political spectrums.
This is no longer about Republicans vs Democrats, Conservatives vs Progressives or even Trump vs Biden; this is now good vs evil. And there is evil on both sides. This fight has been going on for some time and we have seen glimpses. It is now in the open.
I will not give those companies any further money. I have cancelled my Amazon Prime membership and will not shop with them, listen to Amazon Music, etc. I am cancelling all Apple services, including Apple music and any of their streaming services. I will stop using Google services and will be moving my email to a paid service soon.
I will reduce and minimize to the point of not using any technology from Google, Apple and Amazon. As my devices that I do have become unusable, I will select devices that are not from these companies. I will never purchase another iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV or Apple Whatever.
Given recent events, it is time to make some changes in our digital lives to protect ourselves, our families and our nation.
We have been lulled into digital complacency by free digital services on overly expensive devices which we can purchase at home while still in our PJ’s and we expect them to be delivered the same day. And now censorship has begun. We can fight back and have an impact.
Change requires choices and actions. I have chosen to limit or remove any digital service or device that allows “big tech” to thrive with my help. The actions I am taking are below. I recommend that you consider them. I have included some references at the bottom of this post with more details. This post will be updated as I update plans and make progress.
When choosing a service, I will try to find those that are not using any hosting services of the big three, Apple, Google or Amazon. Most people outside of technology do not understand that most of the internet and the digital services you use run on servers controlled by these companies. That means they can shut them down if they so choose, ie look at what is happening to parler.com.
The instructions below are for Mac and iPhone but the same is possible on Android/Google devices.
1 Switch from Google to DuckDuckGo. DDG has a web based search engine which I have been using for a while. They also have a secure browser you can use on your phone.
Make DDG your default browser on your iPhone: Settings – DuckDuckGo – Default Browser App – DuckDuckGo
Use DDG as default search engine in Safari on iPhone (but don’t actually use Safari, this is just in case): Settings – Safari – Search Engine – DuckDuckGo.
2 Switch to a browser with privacy, use Dissenter on your Mac. The Dissenter web browser is built for The People, not advertisers. Block Big Tech ads and trackers by default. Discover a comment section on every URL online. Welcome to the free speech internet. Get it here: https://dissenter.com
3 Stop using Twitter and move to Gab. They banned a sitting United States President while still allowing the Iranian leaders and others spew hate on their platform. The steps below will deactivate your account so that Twitter knows you have left.
Open the Twitter app
Settings and privacy – Account – Deactivate your account at the bottom of the page.
Read the account deactivation information, then click “Deactivate @username.”
Enter your password when prompted and click the “Deactivate account” button to confirm that you want to deactivate your account.
Read more online: https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/how-to-deactivate-twitter-account
4 Stop using Facebook and switch to Parler. Yes, stop using the digital drug called Facebook.
Open Facebook app
Click on the drop-down arrow in the top right corner of Facebook
Select Settings and Privacy – Settings – Your Facebook Information – Deactivation and Deletion – Permanently Delete Account – Continue to Account Deletion
Click “Delete Account” and enter your password. Then click “Continue.”
You will be able to recover your Facebook account if you log in within 30 days of beginning the process to permanently delete your account.
5 Start using Signal. Signal is a replacement for iMessage. Every blue text message you send goes through Apple servers. Sign up and install the app on your phone and computer.
6 Start using Gab. Gab is a good replacement for Twitter and is hosted on Cloudfair not Amazon. Sign up for the service and install their apps on your device.
9 Photos and iCloud Drive. I have purchased an Amber X which is a home based file server. It will replace iPhoto and iCloud drive. I may replace this with Helm when it becomes available but we will see.
10 Mapping – I am looking for a replacement for Apple and Google Maps. Waze is a subsidiary of Google so I wont use it. I am leaning towards Magic Earth.
This morning, I realized that everything is about to change. No matter how I vote, no matter what I say, some lives are never going to be the same.
I have been confused by the hostility of family and friends. I look at people I have known all my life—so hate-filled that they agree with opinions they would never express as their own. I think that I may well have entered the Twilight Zone. You can’t justify this insanity. We have become a nation that has lost its collective mind!
We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to some.
Somehow it’s un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America.
People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.
Universities that advocate equality, discriminate against Asian-Americans in favor of African-Americans.
Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.
Criminals are caught-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it’s a violation of THEIR rights.
People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.
If a dude pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him.
It was cool for Joe Biden to “blackmail” the President of Ukraine, but it’s an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquiries about it.
People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees.
Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.
Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate to the US must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome.
$5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for “free” health care is not.
If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.
And, pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us “racists”?!
Nothing makes sense anymore, no values, no morals, no civility and people are dying of a Chinese virus, but it is racist to refer to it as Chinese even though it began in China.
We are clearly living in an upside down world where right is wrong and wrong is right, where moral is immoral and immoral is moral, where good is evil and evil is good, where killing murderers is wrong, but killing innocent babies is right.
Wake up America, the great unsinkable ship Titanic America has hit an iceberg, is taking on water, and is sinking fast.
The choice is yours to make. What will it be? Time is short, make your choice wisely!
I flew to Charlotte to surprise my father for his 75th Birthday. My brother and his family picked me up at the airport and I stayed the first night with my sister and her family.
The next morning, they had my father come to my sisters house to pick up something. I had locked the door and was there with iPhone at the ready to the the video. Boy, was he surprised!!!
This is an excellent good article by a close friend of my father’s and an acquaintance of mine. In this article, Father Dave puts the BLM movement into what I think is the correct perspective in a very caring way. Black Lives do matter, “However, we cannot say that any one life matters more…“
This is one of the best videos I have seen in a while. Worth the time to watch and what great marketing! A lot of this hit home, reminding me of my 20+ years working at home! Only thing they didn’t capture was the conference call toilet flush…
