How I See It: Reflections on spirituality, technology, and the art of everyday life

This week's Weekly Update covers a few observations about President Trump's latest renaming and remodeling efforts, the surprising number of rabbits I've been seeing on my morning walks, a major change in how I'm using AI at work, and continuing progress on my office remodel. I have been racking my brain for what to say in this week's Weekly Update, and I don't have anything major to report, so just a couple of observations will have to do.

This week's Weekly Update covers six new puppies, lunch with some old friends from DM2 Software, a frightening fall that sent Dawn to the hospital, my disappointment in discovering that there is now a Hathaway in space (and it's not me), and continued progress on my office remodel. Well, while I was working on my Weekly Update last week, Maggie May, one of Dawn's breeding dachshunds, was busy having babies. Maggie had six wonderful little puppies. Each is doing well, and we are looking forward to the next eight weeks as they age and get ready to find their forever homes. As far as Storm is concerned, the puppy with the heart defect, she is recovering wonderfully and has an appointment back in Corvallis next week to see how she's doing. We are looking forward to her and her mother moving to Canada, where they will have their forever home. Dawn feels that little Carolyn, the mother, did not do well with her pregnancy and should no longer be used for breeding. Also,...

This week has been one of endings and beginnings. Little Storm is finally home after surgery, I learned that my childhood home has been reduced to bare earth, and I found myself reflecting on memories stretching back more than fifty years. Along the way, I also share a unique Christmas in July tradition from Bryce Canyon National Park, an update on my office remodel, and what's happening at work.

Weekly Update 07/11/26 – 07/17/26 (Apollo 11 Memories, Technical Leadership, Office Remodel) This week's update continues my ongoing Weekly Update series. It includes an unexpected encounter with a summer thunderstorm, memories of Apollo 11, progress at work, developments in my office remodel, and some difficult news involving one of Dawn's puppies. Thursday morning started like most mornings. I got up, took my meds, and went for a walk. I did not get very far when I heard something strange. At first I thought it was the sound of a jet airplane taking off. I live only 4.5 miles from the runway at PDX, so we sometimes hear the planes, although not very often because they normally take off and land on a path parallel to my house and do not fly over it. But I noticed that the sound level was increasing and decreasing, so it was not a plane. The next possibility, of course, was thunder. I was not overly concerned. I did notice that there were occasional raindrops falli...

This has been one of those weeks where several different parts of my life seemed to come together. I found myself learning new ways to work with Artificial Intelligence, making plans for a complete redesign of my office, improving my writing, and reflecting on America's Bicentennial and the lessons history still has to teach us. Looking back over the week, I realized that each of these experiences had something in common: they were all about learning, building, and looking back. This has been a week about growth and improving my skills. I have grown professionally, financially, in my skills with AI, as a writer, as a person, and in learning the skill of asking good questions. One of the biggest areas in which I have grown is in the work I'm doing with AI and ChatGPT, or Astra as she likes to be called. I have spent a lot of time working with Astra on developing new testing systems for the work I'm doing at work. These systems allow me to take the changes I'm makin...