But had Robert Moog not received a $16,000 grant from a state funded program in 1963 he would have not been able to develop the Moog synthetizer and there would be no Switched on Bach, which incidentally is the most popular classical music album of all time.
You know I was thinking a bit about what I really crave — that small town feeling, the kind you get when you are in “deep rural” beyond the commuting distance of the nearest big city. Isolated, away from the problems of the big urban city. It’s possible to get “out in the country” and live in a rural area but until your past that 30 mile mark from downtown, it really doesn’t feel particularly special or unique.
The problem with the Albany metropolitan area is it’s an area of 1.1 million people. You have to get pretty far out before you’re not essentially in the suburb of Albany. While you have rural land not too far from the south-east or west, a lot of it is residential commuters back to city until you get pretty far out. It’s suburban housing between the farms and houses for much of the rural areas not far from the city.
I can travel to many of those small towns, and it’s fun to vacation there, but I do wish I could live in a place like one of those little towns. I just need to figure out how to get from where I am now to there, so I can have feeling every day.
But alas it turned to all day rain. I am getting tired of these rainy Saturdays not that much is expected to change before next weekend, which is calling for more rain. I’m spending it at home, in some ways I wish I had brought my laptop home but I didn’t want necessarily want to walk in rain down to the library.
Truth is this day is for recovery, Friday was a tough day. I still can’t believe I crashed my bike on the way to work, dozing off or otherwise not paying attention, hitting that curb, throwing myself off the bike, hitting my head and shoulder and banging up my knee. Now since I mention I was thrown by the bike, my social media feeds are full of advertising for traumatic brain injury lawyers and articles about recovering from concussions. But I was wearing a helmet, and I wasn’t that sore – I mean I rode the rest of way to work and then home in evening, though I wasn’t in a rush either way. That and at Friday 4:30 PM at work we got this brain twizzler selection request, which I couldn’t figure out but if I don’t master it first thing on Monday I’ll talk to the programmers.
I just have no where to go to today. It’s good in the sense I don’t have to get changed or dressed up or shower, and I have spent a lot of day cooking – first breakfast then cooking down a big pan of beans and now some rice. I never got bananas or baking powder at the store this week, I might get some tomorrow, ride down to Hannaford in the morning or maybe the evening, or maybe on morning commute on Monday. I don’t know if I will shop on Monday or wait until Tuesday. I kind of would like more certainty for the forecast on Good Friday and whether or not it will be a holiday for me, but so much of that is tied up in state budget, not that data department gets involved in that unless members want to do communications on it.
Spent much of the morning hiding under the covers, as it’s warm there, and it’s not like I’m willing to turn on the heat at this point – it’s mid April. I guess if it’s cold enough it will turn itself on but it’s not that cold and the thermostat is turned all the way down until November or so is plan. I keep hoping to get back to the woods, but wasn’t happen this weekend. I’ve been reading and maybe watching more Youtube then I should be. I’m a bit sore, and truth is I just need to recover after the week that was. Nothing real bad happened, it was a very quiet week at work but Thursday was a terrible night for sleeping. I fell asleep early – with the rain coming down – but woke up and kept listening to podcasts.
Besides the crash the worse thing that happened this week, was I decided I wasn’t going to get my state tax refund in time to pay my federal taxes, so I transfered $1,000 out of savings to cover it. And the same day the transfer came through, the state tax refund appeared in my account. Literally, two weeks after filing. It’s good to know that transfers only take 1 day with my saving account now, so I could have in theory waited until Monday, though that was risky. Now to figure out what to do with that money, at one level I want to buy more bonds but I’m watching at interest rates are going back up and underlying bond prices fall. Not great for bond funds, and they don’t preform all that well. On the other hand, savings account rates are really good but it’s also generating so much interest that I’m ending up having to pay taxes on now. I could buy stock, but then you know Trump and his tarrifs. God I don’t know.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans! Doesn’t have to taste bad – you just need to experiment with spices and cooking it appropriately. After a few months, eating things without much fiber becomes so bland and uninteresting as you grow to love food with texture and structure! Chewing is good.
The other day I had a piece of white bread – yuck when you’re not used to eating things like that. I want my food to have flavor and texture!
People talk about smoothies with all that added sugar being good. I guess in fifty years when I’m in the nursing home in my last few hours on a feeding tube they’ll be good but I’ll have an apple or carrot today while I still have teeth.
Friday was a tough day. I still can’t believe I crashed my bike on the way to work, dozing off or otherwise not paying attention, hitting that curb, throwing myself off the bike, hitting my head and shoulder and banging up my knee. 
Now since I mention I was thrown by the bike, my social media feeds are full of advertising for traumatic brain injury lawyers and articles about recovering from concussions. But I was wearing a helmet, and I wasn’t that sore – I mean I rode the rest of way to work and then home in evening, though I wasn’t in a rush either way. That and at Friday 4:30 PM at work we got this brain twizzler selection request, which I couldn’t figure out but if I don’t master it first thing on Monday I’ll talk to the programmers. 
It’s good in the sense I don’t have to get changed or dressed up or shower, and I have spent a lot of day cooking – first breakfast then cooking down a big pan of beans and now some rice. 
I never got bananas or baking powder at the store this week, I might get some tomorrow, ride down to Hannaford in the morning or maybe the evening, or maybe on morning commute on Monday. I don’t know if I will shop on Monday or wait until Tuesday. I kind of would like more certainty for the forecast on Good Friday 
and whether or not it will be a holiday for me, but so much of that is tied up in state budget, not that data department gets involved in that unless members want to do communications on it. 
as it’s warm there, and it’s not like I’m willing to turn on the heat at this point – it’s mid April. I guess if it’s cold enough it will turn itself on but it’s not that cold and the thermostat is turned all the way down until November or so is plan. 
I keep hoping to get back to the woods, but wasn’t happen this weekend. I’ve been reading 
and maybe watching more Youtube then I should be. I’m a bit sore, and truth is I just need to recover after the week that was. Nothing real bad happened, it was a very quiet week at work but Thursday was a terrible night for sleeping. I fell asleep early – with the rain coming down – but woke up and kept listening to podcasts.
the worse thing that happened this week, was I decided I wasn’t going to get my state tax refund in time to pay my federal taxes, so I transfered $1,000 out of savings to cover it. And the same day the transfer came through, the state tax refund appeared in my account. 
Literally, two weeks after filing. It’s good to know that transfers only take 1 day with my saving account now, so I could have in theory waited until Monday, though that was risky. Now to figure out what to do with that money, at one level I want to buy more bonds but I’m watching at interest rates are going back up and underlying bond prices fall. Not great for bond funds, and they don’t preform all that well. On the other hand, savings account rates are really good but it’s also generating so much interest that I’m ending up having to pay taxes on now. I could buy stock, but then you know Trump and his tarrifs. God I don’t know. 
