Category: 1991-2000

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Men’s Group topic – 10-24-2023 

I, sometimes, get too involved in TV news and I often feel constantly confused and upset about everything. The big question is:  

“How to be generally unaffected by all the bad stuff out there?” 

My simple answer is to focus my hours on activities that I enjoy and leave much of the remaining turmoil to the experts out there. 

Here, below, you will find material for a Men’s Group meeting scheduled to happen soon. Perhaps you, the reader, also resonate with these issues? 
 

Please consider the following entry: It represents my personal approach to staying calm and focused during our usual, mind-altering digital madness.  
 

A New Approach to Life in USA – 10-23-2023  

Goal: Calm Daily Anxieties over World Events 

The schedule includes: 

1. Spend one half-hour per day feeding backyard creatures in my backyard. Included in this menagery are sparrows, doves, mice, squirrels, lizards and an occasional hawk, which usually frightens the others. 

2. Enjoy a few intervals, each day, dedicated to watching their antics 

3. Go to a local gym for a 1/2 hour of exercise & 45 minutes of sauna/hot tub, 3 times per week 

4. Play with Sandy, my favorite canine, at least, twice a day 

5. Try to watch Animal Planet & National Geographic every day 

6. Also, daily enjoy YouTube  for European news and cultural events 

7. Work on the memoir book for 2 hrs per day 

8. Enjoy my niece’s company & observations consistently 

9. Talk about world events with colleagues about 20 minutes each day 

10. Spend about one hour in the middle of the night, quietly alone in my den (without distractions) just contemplating the meaning of life like Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Emerson might have done. Do this twice/week 
     

Serious Avoidance Practices 

1. Spend less than ½ hour per day watching American news programs 

2. Do not try to solve the Israel-Palestine question at 4 A.M.

3. Avoid solving the climate crisis and American political debates  

Hello, fellow human beings,

During these autumn days of my life, I have been investigating new, topics of interest, which might not make me any richer financially, but which might make daily experiences, such as reading and reflecting, more meaningful. 

Viktor Frankl, a Nazi-death-camp survivor, later wrote a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning”, which highlights the satisfaction of living such a life. Was he correct in his observations?

Along this same line of thinking, I have been focusing on little creatures that I find in the scrubs and trees on my property.

There are sparrows, finches, doves, mice, squirrels, lizards, bees, flies and an occasional hawk all gathered there usually looking for food. Since I provide them 20-pound bags of bird seed regularly, they show up regularly. 

At first, I was convinced that they just liked me more than those other neighbors, an uncaring lot, but later a literary friend insisted that these animal affections were conditional and not really heart-felt and spontaneous. 

Naturally, my feelings were hurt, but I still kept on with those engrained Judeo-Christian fantasies from my Lowell upbringing. 

So, there is often a scampering about in a contest for these free grains, which I find keeps my mind away from the cruel realities of the outside world, a world completely removed from my direct influence.

As a result, I am generally much less informed about “world news and events”, which naturally makes me dumber, but I seem to be happier as a person. That is the price you pay for staying mostly in your own backyard.

Also, I am realizing that I know very little about the habits and quirks of these common creatures. Why was I so unaware before?

Are they carefully weighing out every one of their moves, or are they programmed to react on instinct? 

We also, sometimes, react on instinct, but I wonder how much of our own world is also pre-programmed, which would make us more like robots than truth seekers.

Please give your answer in the space below.

Take care, 

Paul

• P.S. Becoming more and more curious about the well-being of other life forms, which cohabitate our Earth, a reader might naturally search the Internet for programs dedicated to this purpose. The first one that came to mind, for me, was Animal Planet where I now often spend my spare time learning about the world of living creatures and not simply digesting another arcane, but interesting bit of knowledge regarding the gradual evolution of our Universe.

Date Today: 9/24/2023

When I retired from active participation in a science carrier in 2000, I sensed a motivation to create a memoir book of experiences, which sons, or daughters of other immigrants to this country might find interesting and, perhaps, useful. These memoirs relate to everyday events, situations, hassles, frustrations, and modest successes that occurred over the years.

These stories simply bear witness to history regarding day-to-day events that I experienced while growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts from 1939 to 1963.  One might call these tales “history in the buff” or “you were there behind the scenes.” The road was a rocky one, but loaded with unexpected joys and satisfactions.

The main theme is a description of quotidian life in the various immigrant ghettos that dotted the town’s physical landscape, which had been constructed in the 1830s to 1890s for the commercial convenience of the textile and leather industries.

In the town’s self-segregated neighborhoods, a visitor could find the ethnic, cultural, religious, and language preferences of a certain immigrant group while only one mile away that same visitor might enter another ghetto where these personal characteristics (attributes) were all uniquely different.

In this fashion, Greeks, Poles, French-Canadians, Irish, Portuguese, Russian-Jews, etc., could all live together in a relatively small geographic space. To make life more interesting, each ethnic group had its own misconstrued, false understanding on how other people lived and believed. We were all different, and that was OK. We simply accepted that fact.

Important to add, however, that the typical visitor of a ghetto area usually was treated kindly and in a friendly manner. Local ethnic restaurant owners offered the potential guest a warm welcome followed by an invitation to sample the menu of delicious, unusual dishes. 

The large industrial corporations worked hand-in-glove with the City Fathers for decades to ensure an efficient and successful delivery of products to the nation-wide market for such goods.

Labor unions and corporation owners did not always see the world on a similar eye-to-eye basis.  Strikes, threats of a strike and general grumblings among the populace often made the local news, either through the Lowell Sun or through a local radio station like WLLH.

It is safe to say that the workers in these many, local corporations, the so called “mill rats”, were usually upset with the low wages, poor benefits (no sick leave or retirement benefits) and unsafe working condition found in these plants.

Grumbling everywhere within the city bounds was an accepted way of life in an often-gritty urban environment in need of urban renewal.

 However, the streets were kept reasonably clean for the most part. This was a blessing!

Memoir Book: “Discoveries and Lessons in a Ghetto Town”

The paper-back book filled with these great personal adventures is presently being composed as you read these lines.

 Estimated date of appearance at your favorite book store is late autumn or min-December.

Even in the life of a dedicated fan of future fusion reactors, other important life issues can cross the path of such an aficionado. The following Internet connectivity issue recently cropped its ugly head.

In going from my former Windows 7 computer setting to Windows 10, my relationship with Xfinity, AKA Comcast, was suddenly challenged. As a result, my usual Internet messaging fell by the wayside. The following apologetic email was then forwarded to friends and relatives:

Hello all,

I am having a minor disagreement with the fine folks at Xfinity, AKA Comcast, regarding the immediate installation of a new Wi-Fi cable on a pole located in my neighbor’s backyard. 

I, personally, do not climb old, 75-foot tall, wooden poles intended for radio, TV and Internet connections. That is a given. 

At the age of 84 years, my physician recommends physical activity, yes, but much closer to the Earth.

However, progress to-date follows.

Two Comcast technicians have already visited my place, but there appears to be a disagreement on how best to physically reach the open co-ax connector dangling high above our heads. 

Backyards, today, are loaded with several, dangerous, technical issues that are, sometimes, fraught with possible, bone-crushing and long-term consequences.

As a boy at Lowell’s 179 Ludlam Street, during my early, Tarzan days, such squeamishness would have been laughable, but age brings on wisdom, or so I am told.

Now, I am considering a cleaner WI-FI solution that T-Mobile offers. Apparently, Deutsche Telekom AG, will also be pleased with my hesitancy.

Please note that any and all face-saving advice from my friends and relatives would be greatly appreciated.

Paul, lost in Albuquerque.

Many Abiword files will be copied from the red zip drive into this temporary WordPress page. Later, selections from this Owner page will become a Chapter in the book.

1,094 records for Illuminating Gas from January 01, 1900 – December 31, 1963, Publication Title: Lowell Sun.

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1,094 records for Illuminating Gas from January 01, 1900 – December 31, 1963, Publication Title: Lowell Sun.

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0 records for Suicide from January 01, 1978 – December 31, 1979, Publication Title is Lowell Sun.

Hello,

I am doing a socio-economic study on my hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts from 1898 to the present through articles appearing in the local newspaper, the Lowell Sun, in that time period regarding the mention of the word “suicide”.

I have successfully obtained data from 1898 to 1978, but, now, for the time period of Jan 01, 1978 to December 31, 1979, I get the following:

0 records for Suicide from January 01, 1978 – December 31, 1979, Publication Title: Lowell Sun.
Note that I was consistently seeing 400 to 600 to 700 positive results in my previous searches, I suspect that the above reading is incorrect.

Please comment.

Thank you,

Paul E Bolduc

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