Coincidences on the anniversary of Bill Langbehn's death

My father-in-law, Bill Langbehn, died one year ago yesterday. I surmise when he was little, Bill wanted to be a firefighter. My wife remembers her dad leaving their house to watch the firefighters battle the fire when Sutro Baths burned down in 1966, and his always wanting to chase the fire trucks whenever he heard sirens.

It was as if Bill was making sure we remembered him on this anniversary of his passing. Yesterday afternoon Caitlen smelled gas at our house. We could not find the source, and I called 9-1-1. Three fire trucks and an ambulance were sent. Two of our neighbors to the west also stated they smelled gas. The lead firefighter assumes a valve on the pipeline to our north released some gas. The firefighters gave the all-clear after a thorough search.

My wife, Donna, is in California with her family in remembrance of Bill. Last evening, she answered the telephone and Pacific Gas and Electric told her there was a gas leak in the area. Soon sirens were heard. The all-clear was given, and as far as we know, everyone in the area was safe.

Then Donna's brother called, distraught, saying the Cobb Mountain fire in Lake County has burned the family vacation home. My understanding is no one is allowed in the area yet, but the entire community is likely destroyed. News reports show the fire is still out of control. Maybe Bill did not want to have the vacation home split from the rest of the estate. If so, it is poetic fire would be the reason for the change in plans.

Yes, Bill Langbehn, we remember you.

Is the difference race, media, community?

Rioting occurred in Ferguson, Missouri after Michael Brown was shot by police. Rioting occurred in Baltimore, Maryland after Freddie Gray died in police custody. Yet, when John Paul Quintero was fatally shot allegedly when his hands up were up and his back was towards the Wichita, Kansas police (reference), there was no public outcry. Why?

Reference: Potter, Tim. "Lawyer: Man Had Hands up When Fatally Shot." The Wichita Eagle 30 May 2015: 1A+. Print.

Complexity of Simplicity

In the life cycle of innovation adoption, I have never been an Innovator. The displaced pieces of hardware strewn throughout the house and storage suggests I have experience as an unsuccessful Early Adopter. Contrary to my nature, I forced myself to wait until the second generation of iPads. I no longer immediately jump at any fanciful software that makes claims of organizing my life or making me smarter, faster, or more insightful. For more than a year I have been reading about the amazing, simple yet powerful capabilities of ifttt.com - IF This Then That. After yet again reading about it in another "best tools" article, I finally signed up. Now I have an account and have exactly no idea of how to make it do what it claims it so easily can do.

So far I have written multiple "recipes", all of which I have deleted, except for one. The single remaining "recipe" is to have my Blogger posts be saved on Evernote. It seems simple, but I had to watch multiple YouTube videos to try to figure it out. Each of the videos should have said there are young, technically savvy people in this world, and there is everyone else. I recognize I do not fit in the category of young anymore, but I hoped and considered myself technically savvy. Until now. What should be so hard about having e-mails from a given address be automatically sent to a folder in Evernote? I suspect for that group of people of whom I am not one, there is nothing hard about it. I will continue to plod along trying to simplify, even though it is incredibly complex for me and hopefully this post will show up in my Evernote account in the right folder.

Carry-on v. Checked Luggage and Incentives

Velocity is the key to making money for the airlines. An airplane on the ground does not make money. Turn the airplane around as quickly as possible to make the most amount of money. Yet, by charging for checked bags, airlines have taken away the incentive for checking bags. Thus, many travelers use a carry-on bag, slowing boarding, slowing velocity.

Spirit Airlines now charges for carry-on bags. The charge though, is less than for a checked bag. Passengers on Spirit, then, still do not have an incentive to put up with the inconvenience of checking their bags, walking to baggage claim, waiting, and hoping their bag is not lost.

American Airlines is experimenting with letting passengers without carry-on luggage to board the airplane before those who do. Not having to stand in the aisle as people in front of you try to put their carry-ons in the overhead bins is not much of a benefit, but it is a start.

Reference

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/04/american-airlines

Chicagoans only 6th most miserable in U.S.

I cannot say it is surprising to find Chicago ranked sixth of the most miserable cities in the United States. Weather, commute times, and taxes all contributed to the unfavorable ranking. Unremarkably, residents of Detroit and Flint are even more miserable. I am surprised by the other three cities where residents are more miserable than we Chicagoans: Miami; West Palm Beach; and Sacramento. At least we Chicagoans have legitimate reasons to be miserable. I suspect those of you from Miami, West Palm Beach, and Sacramento simply have miserable dispositions and would no matter where you live. Now admittedly the weather this winter has been mild in Chicago, but I dare you residents of Florida and Northern California to come here where there are reasons for our misery!

Reference

Today's U.S. Economic News from the BLS

I am encouraged by the accelerating pace of new jobs added in January. The 8.3% unemployment rate is artificially low, though, given the labor force participation rate declined to a level unseen since March 1983 (63.7% of the civilian labor force 16 years of age or older) [Note 1)]. People appear to be pulling themselves out of the job market as seen in the participation rate and U-6, the seasonally adjusted underemployment rate [Note 2)]. U-6 remains high, but declined to 15.1% from 15.2% last month (without seasonal adjustments it increased to 16.2% from December's 15.2%, but is 1.1% less than a year ago). I do not know how much we see is simply the result of demographic changes caused by the retirements of increasingly more baby-boomers. We need to be careful how much we read into the numbers. I do not think the health of our economy is as good or bad as painted in this election year.

Notes

1) There had been a relatively steady increase in labor force participation from the Kennedy through Clinton administrations, initially driven by increasing numbers of women joining the formal labor force. The trend reversed by the first term of the George W. Bush administration, stabilized and improved slightly during most of his second administration. Participation has been declining throughout the Obama administration.

2) Defined as the total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.

A lesson from a backhoe operator

She has not specifically told me so, but I have no doubt the woman who sent the following lesson to me is a capable backhoe operator.

I can be clueless. Perhaps she is trying to share something with me other than humor. I think I had better confirm my car is safely in the garage.

Reference:
"Never Irritate A Woman Who Can Operate A Backhoe." Quipster | Musings for the Enlightened. Twisted Humor for the Hearty. 12 May 2010. Web. 27 Dec. 2011. http://quipster.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/never-irritate-a-woman-who-can-operate-a-backhoe/