January | 2014 | Steve Tilford

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh computer. It was back in January of 1984 that it originated. Man, how time flies and things change.

I’d say the biggest change in my lifetime is how small the world seems now because of computers, the internet and smart phones. I couldn’t have imagined the direction of it all back during the Olympic games in LA, in 1984.

The information that we have at our finger tips, at all times, is unlimited pretty much. Anytime I need an answer to virtually any question (a question that has a definite answer), I have it. Much of this is because of Apple and its products.

I’ve been an Apple fan for a long time. I don’t come close to using their products as they should be used. I barely tap the fringe. Each one of my Apple products have the ability to do 10,000 X as much as I use them for. That is the beauty of their products, they are very user friendly for pions like me and also for researchers, designers and artists that are on the cutting edge.

I couldn’t even have imagined 10 years ago that any of us could be sitting at home, eating breakfast, watching World Cup Cyclocross from Europe, live on our laptops. Or virtually any other event in the world that has video coverage. It is truly amazing. We can even watch on our phones while on the move. Unbelievable.

I started buying Apple stock a long time ago. I made the decision by making observations during travelling to races. Years ago, when I went into a coffeeshop before a race, there would be maybe one Mac laptop to 10 windows computers. I noticed a very slow, but definite increase of little Apple symbols on the laptops, month by month. I realized that way more students were then using Apple computers than previously. So I bought some stock. This was way before the iPhone.

The iPhone was obviously a game changer for Apple, the company. Nearly all their profits are derived from this one product. It is what defines the company now, the Mac took a back seat to them.

Monday, Apple is going to announce its 4th quarter earnings. They are going to be record earnings most likely. Maybe not record enough to make the institutional investors happy. Apple is not a loved stock by many right at this moment. But, they are hoarding an enormous amount of cash. I saw an article last February that said Apple had enough cash in the bank they could acquire Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pandora, Research In Motion (Blackberry), Yahoo, Yelp, Zillow and Zynga —and have more than $2 billion left to spare. Of course the dynamics of all those companies have changed in a year, but they are still sitting on a huge stockpile of money.

Anyway, it has been an interesting journey for Apple. We’ve all benefited from their innovations and focus. Hopefully they will continue with these things into the future. I can’t come close to imagine what they’ll be doing 30 years from now.

The original Macintosh from 1984.

A rendition of Apple’s futuristic campus.

When they named the mountains around here, the Rocky Mountains, they were right on the mark. There are a ton a rock around here. At least a ton where I’ve been trying to dig a few holes for fence posts. Yesterday we got 8 holes dug. I didn’t even rent an auger. There would be no point. The rock can be up to 8 inches across, which would make the auger very unhappy. Instead, I’m very unhappy.

It wasn’t all horrible. One hole only took maybe 10 minutes. That was the hole up next to the house, which was most likely in back filled dirt. The last hole took both Bill and I over an hour to dig. That is two man hours for one hole. We were probably working half speed by then, so it really was one man hour.

The cedar has to all be stained. I hate putting stain on such nice wood. It looks worse and is a hassle down the road trying to keep looking just okay. But, the neighborhood has some rule that all the fences look the same, so stain it is.

So, the winter is going to catch up with us. It is supposed to be nice the next two days, then snow and a high of the teens. That will put a damper on this project.

The upside to all this is that I don’t have to do any gym work now. Moving concrete and rock all day pretty much replaces that. I haven’t really been too sore, other than my one hand with blisters.

I haven’t noticed the altitude too much. But, I haven’t been walking up or down stairs or ride yet. I’ve received a few invitations to go out on group rides this weekend. Normally I would love to go out on new rides, but the weather has put a time deadline and riding is secondary. Hopefully I’ll get out on my bike one of these days. It is only the 3rd week of January.

Alright, have to get going. This 12 hour days turn this into Ground Hog Day.

Bill looking at his pile of rocks from his hole.

The cedar being delivered.

I blew the yard with an electric blower and the snow melted pretty good yesterday. The posts for the gate we tried to get as deep as possible. These are maybe 3 feet in.