Some random thoughts...

Isn’t it annoying how many sites are re-named after recent politicians by their friends in the legislature or Congress? Reagan National Airport. Kennedy Airport. New Jersey used to have Brendan Byrne Arena and now has Brendan Byrne State Forest. I would like to see a moratorium on naming anything after a politician until he or she has been dead at least twenty-five years. I would much rather visit Benjamin Franklin State Forest than one named after a mediocre governor with powerful friends.

We made reservations for camping this weekend two months ago when we knew we would be getting our new camper early in July. Then the factory making the camper decided to shut down for a week’s vacation, so we will be rushing to pick up our camper the same day we will be heading out to the campground. And the closer we get to the day of leaving for camping, the higher the predicted temperatures for the weekend become. The latest prediction I saw was for 101 degrees Friday. What the heck?!?

I remember the old days when going on vacation meant falling totally out of contact with friends and family, plus any writing I did, including my regular journal, had to be on a notepad. How did we ever live without laptops, smartphones, and the internet? My Ipod died recently, but even that is ancient technology now, since I’ll simply stream music online instead. In the 1980s, there were many science fiction stories predicting near-future advances in technology which seemed outrageous at the time. In hindsight, those writers badly underestimated the speed of increasing technology (and, to some extent, everybody underestimated the genius of Steve Jobs).