Don’s Thoughts II

This last couple of days I’ve spent a lot of time in a library, researching a couple of projects I’m working on, looking for a couple of old books that I had read before, and checking out their DVDs. (Did you know that in many libraries, you can check out a DVD to watch, and not pay for it? (Provided you bring it back of course!!))

Things sure have changed since I was last in a library for any amount of time. It is NOISY now! People all over talking on their cell phones, people asking other people questions in an “outdoor voice”, and just plain people talking! What happened to the “sanctity” of a library where everyone was quiet, and if you made a sound, everyone HUSHED you. (Often louder than the sound you made, but it got you quiet pretty quickly!)

I’m telling you the world is changing, and not all for the good. I see deterioration EVERYWHERE.

Come on folks, give others in the library a chance to study, ready, do their thing in peace and quiet!

Well today started off rather bad. As Kodi and I headed out to go to breakfast, I ran over a screw that took out my right front tire. I stop to change out the tire, and there was NOTHING I could do to losen up the lug nuts. I called AAA and they came out about an hour later. Took the power gun to get three off, and he had to use a break bar for the last two. Dang those things were on tight!

So, I head to Sears to get the tire patched up, and RUN OVER ANOTHER NAIL, this time in my left front tire. I limp into the Sears station, and they proceed to tell me that both tires were not repairable because they were too thread bear. sigh. $230 later, I head out for Ft. Myers Florida to watch and hear a friend sing, now an hour and a half late leaving!

So, for the past few months I have driving back and forth to Naples or Ft. Myers via “Alligator Alley”. I have seen TONS of alligators on the side of the road (with a fence between us), but have always forgotten my camera, so I could capture the great site on “film”. Well, today I remember it finally and take it. I saw TWO dang alligators, where the last time I saw probably close to 75. The first one jumped into the water and swam off as I was starting to stop. The second one was so buried in brush the picture would not have been good, so I didn’t even try to stop. Now this is both bad and good. Bad, I didn’t get to get a picture or ten of the wild alligators on the side of the road. Good, because I was already running late to my friends concert, and stopping would have really made me late.

After driving kinda fast, but still safe, I make up the lost time some how and get to the concert pretty much when I had intended to. The very pretty and VERY talented Deborah sang three songs.

(More pictures of today can be found here.)

I had the pleasure of meeting Ron Miller, the Author of a few weeks ago. During that meeting, we talked a bit, but not a whole lot. At the end of our time together, he gave me an autographed copy of his book.

I will be honest, I took it with some apprehension, as I’m not strong on history or religion and felt this book was a lot of both subjects.
Ron did such a GREAT job putting this book together, that neither of those topics were an issue for me!! I literally did not want to put this book down. (I had to several times, for the finishing of and defense of my Dissertation, travel for meetings, and work in general.) I finally finished it on my trip to Seattle this past weekend, and enjoyed it immensely!

Ron has a great writing style, and is able to tell a great story of his adventures and search for his inner meaning!

The story line is about his travels around the world, looking for the meaning of life as it pretains to him. He recounts his adventures, scary times, fun times, and the meeting of “long lost” family members. During his adventures he found that other countries, while harsh in many cases, are as harsh as he thought they would be, which kinda mimics my findings.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to on and all!!