Personal Summary for Summer 2026 So Far. These are also my reflections on change throughout this period.
Changes are upon me and the world at large here in Summer 2026. Definitely middle of summer here in Oklahoma. Really hot days like the last few when it hasn’t cooled off at night make me appreciate the cool of late fall and early spring. We get bad ice storms here in Oklahoma City most winters, which in some ways are worse than snow being on the ground most of the winter when I lived in Nebraska.
Mentally I have stable for months. Haven’t had a breakdown since I think early February. And that was a short lived one because it happened during a time of profound stress when I had a neighbor with really bad dementia. It was sad and scary both.
Haven’t had hallucinations in months. Have been quite calm all spring and summer. Some of the staff had told me I was the easiest resident to work with and the most interesting. I sometimes talk history and current events with the staff. I usually try to avoid politics as that seems to be a good topic to not bring up when meeting someone new.
Haven’t heard much from old friends. One friend is getting ready to take his family camping in the Pacific Northwest sometime soon. Be a good time to avoid the heat going on here in the plains right now. Another friend has resorted to running all errands after dark until the heat breaks.
Current Events, Summer 2026
I feel for the people in European countries who probably didn’t have air conditioning or well-ventilated homes until recently. Never realized how bad the heat was taking a toll on people across the Atlantic until I read that thousands of people have already died from heat related illnesses and it’s not even August yet. I guess bad heat in summers in something I always dealt with and learned how to adapt even as child in 1980s rural Nebraska.
Haven’t heard much on the forest fires up in Canada lately. I don’t know if those have been controlled or if the end of the ceasefires in the Persian Gulf has pushed those out of the newsfeeds. No wonder travel advisories and cancelled airline flights are common these days.
Don’t know what our leaders are thinking. Russia and Ukraine have been at war longer than Russia was at war with Germany in World War 2. The US vs. Iran war was avoidable and unnecessary as far as I’m concerned and is probably going to send the world into an energy crisis, depression, and food shortage all at the same time. Food and fuel prices are probably only going to get worse in the coming months. I haven’t trusted my leaders for a while. Really don’t think that our current leadership groups anywhere in the world care about the consequences of their actions on the vast majority of people. Hate to say this, but we are probably on our own to make our own lives better, leadership or not.
Easier to Be Change than Force Change on Others
I’m not calling for rebellions or riots or anything like that. What I do know is that protesting isn’t working. Writing your congress person or leaders don’t work either. Neither does boycotting big businesses when they already are monopolized. Maybe our only option at this point, and it’s hardly a complete solution or one that will happen quickly, is to get as independent from authority and power and self-sufficient as possible.
Now I know this isn’t really realistic in many places. Many countries without some sort of political and economic freedom probably will seriously crack down on anyone who is trying to grow much of their own food or do their own maintenance on homes and cars. In some places, people already know they can’t rely on a corrupted system to care for them. I think many people here in the US have already figured out that politics can be stagnant when trying to solve problems and have already acted on their own. Heck, Americans never have completely trusted our governments. Most of the first-generation immigrants are here because they trusted their old governments even less.
Advice on Personal Relationships
The biggest bit of advice I can give is get out to know some people. Maybe do some in person meet ups organized within your neighborhood. Perhaps start attending religious services and meeting people there. Do activities outside of home that don’t cost much if you don’t have much money. Maybe use social media to see who shares some of your interests in your area. Or something as simple as meeting and greeting your neighbors across the street or down the hall. Sure, it will be tough at first as some of our social skills have weakened due to mass social media and the pandemic of a few years ago.
I fear that more hard times are ahead in the days and years to come. The world seems to have cycles when more can happen in 30 days than could 10 years in other eras. From the societies that I have read about that have experienced crisis in the last generation or two, whether it’s war or pandemic or economic depression or natural disasters, the people that did the best were usually those who had neighbors, family members, or even friends with a wide variety of skills that were usual to weather the crisis and rebuild once the smoke cleared.
My personal plan
In my personal circumstance, I may not be very mobile or good at growing crops or fixing machines with hand tools. But I do know how to communicate with a wide variety of people, can write well, can type well, know how to manage money and resources, know how to find common ground between different groups of people who may not otherwise work together, and I can be persuasive without having to resort to manipulation or deceit. I also know a little Spanish again and am on good terms with everyone who works at my facility. Maybe I could have been a diplomat or a negotiator for a labor union had I lived in a different era and place.
Both of my parents are retired medical professionals who still have a lot of that knowledge and can teach people. My brother is one of those who can stay calm no matter how bad things get and have learned to DIY home repairs in the years of raising children and being a homeowner. Several of our family’s friends from my parents’ church are farmers and ranchers and fishers and carpenters. Most of my cousins are farmers or ranchers. Those guys and gals can fix just about anything with duct tape, sheet metal, some wire, WD-40, Windex, and a little time and a little profanity.
Summary
In closing, while I do believe that the future can be good and more prosperous for most people, I also believe that we are not done with the hard times by any means. The celebrations of a North America hosting the World Cup in summer 2026 was maybe a preview of what we can be once we solve some of our current problems and peace returns. I’m convinced most of my problems (and most people’s problems) are not foreigners or automation or prices being unpredictable. I think most of our problems are from new systems being born while the old ones are still dying and being replaced. It’s been a rough go for much of the world the last ten to fifteen years or so. We have the potential for prosperity and peace once the transitions are completed. But the troubles haven’t ended and it will still be one hell of a crossing to get to where we can be.
Another World Cup tournament has come and gone. It was fun while it lasted. I think it was the exact worldwide get together and party the world was needing in the current world of the mid 2020s. Reminded the world that, for being a decade that has seen more change and upheaval and chaos than any since the 1940s, there is still a lot of positive change that can and will come from the struggles and tears of our current time. The tournament forced me to remember that many of the world’s problems are not due to ordinary people living their daily lives and just getting buy.
I’m convinced many of the world’s problems could be solved by different leadership than what we currently have. Not just political leaders but also business, media, literature, art, religion, culture, science, etc. Maybe our current time is one of those junctions in history when the old ways are dying off and the new ways haven’t been established just yet.
In time, the new establishment getting started will eventually become the old and decrypted that has served its purpose and will need to be forced out kicking and screaming. Only God knows what that new establishment will look like in 2080 to 2100. I probably won’t be around to witness it. But medical science is doing some really crazy advances these days. If AI and automation become even half as strong as they could potentially become, we are in for some insane changes in the years and decades ahead. Both good and bad and even some interesting and indifferent and trivial.
Here in the US, one of our prominent senators recently died and at least one other that I can think of right here and now is in the hospital. Definitely a sign of the old ways fading in real time. What we are currently reading on our news feeds isn’t merely clickbait, it’s the change of eras. We’re going from the era that started with 24-hour cable news to real time activities happening halfway around the world changing everything from social trends to the fates of billion-dollar businesses.
We are beginning an era when our tools can now problem solve and brainstorm better ways than people can. Humanity’s tools have augmented our muscles for thousands of years. For centuries, our tools have augmented our voices across distance and time. Now, for the first time in our species history, we actually built a tool that can, in some ways, create and collaborate better than most people.
Years ago, a computer scientist named Allan Turing proposed a test to see if a machine really could pass for a human. Now, the computers are not passing that test simply because they have, in many cases, gotten too smart and organized to pass for human. This is happening not even 90 years after this Dr. Turing was during his work. 25 years ago, I would have imagined this possible by the year 2100, not before the year 2030.
Any real wonder why time is seeming like it’s speeding up for even the young? Our worldwide civilization and culture have seen more changes and upheavals since the years I was in college in the early 2000s than most centuries or even previous millenniums. Most previous eras biggest changes would be a new generation of kings and queens and popes and maybe a few relatively minor policies change every few generations or so. Not anymore.
Sure, a lot can still go wrong. But a lot of good can come out of all this upheaval and chaotic creativity. People who can adapt and deal with rapid change can and will thrive in the years to come. Hell, if things do go completely wrong and civilization is thrown back hundreds of years, we at least have enough preserved knowledge to rebuild something more resilient. When the old die and give way, the new are born and grow out of the ashes and the springs that have always followed the death, drear, and chaos of every winter season. Not just in nature, but also human civilizations.
This summer has been passing quickly. Mentally I am the most stable I have ever been. I haven’t been this content and at peace ever. It feels kind of weird not having to deal with drama and hassles every day. It’s a kind of weird I am growing to love.
Been staying up more of the night. Sometimes I’ll just lay in the dark for a couple hours at a time and just allow my mind to wander. I occasionally think about my childhood hometown and the kids I went to school with. I try to remember my teachers, my activities, the school activity trips, and the sleep overs I had with friends from childhood.
I think about my college years during these trips down Memory Lane. I remember my old dorm room, the campus student center, the bookstore, my various classrooms, some of the characters I knew back then, and even the old architecture. Even though I haven’t set foot on the old campus in over 15 years, I still remember vividly where all the academic buildings and dorms were located. I even remember dumpster diving on the last day of school before summer break and occasionally finding cool things like cool clothing and nick knacks. If I owned I pickup truck, I might have taken interesting furniture even. One time someone tried to give me and a few friends an old pool table. We had to turn them down once we realized we had no way to move it to our off-campus house.
My one-year anniversary in my current home will be Labor Day weekend. The two times I volunteer committed to a mental hospital were both on Labor Day weekends, once in 2006 and again in 2013. Late August and Early September have always been eventful for me.
Down to only one blood pressure medication per day now. Been wearing glasses since about last Christmas. The glasses have made an incredible difference in my vision.
It’s Independence Day in my homeland. Currently got a baseball game on the tv and listening to fireworks go off as the sun sets on downtown Oklahoma City.
As part of my celebration, I played Railroad Tycoon and rebuilt the first Transcontinental Railway. Also listened to some old marches and Ray Charles sing ‘America the Beautiful.’ Saw some of the old ‘The Men That Built America’ series from the History Channel.
Had chicken fried steak for dinner tonight. Why not have a dish from the old days during the holiday weekend? Slept most of the morning as I’m trying to be awake mainly during the cooler part of the night until this heatwave lifts.
There are a few things that I’m doing to improve my sleep. I’ll get right into it.
For starters, I turn off all lights in my bedroom. This includes lights of my phone and laptop computer. I close my computer and put my phone face down so the blue light doesn’t disturb me.
Sometimes I will sleep with a fan running in the background. The white noise calms me and muffles the noise outside the window of my apartment.
I don’t usually watch the news at least an hour before bed. It’s too overwhelming to have the world’s problems on my mind when trying to sleep.
I now drink only one cup of coffee after breakfast. Most days I have only two cups of coffee, always one of them before breakfast. Don’t need the caffeine jitters keeping me awake.
I almost never eat anything a few hours before bedtime. Lunch is usually my biggest meal of the day and I usually try to go kind of light during dinner.
I try to keep my bedroom a little cooler than normal. This is tougher during the summer heatwaves. But it is worth it for better sleeping.
If I feel tired during the afternoon, I will nap. I don’t drink much caffeine anymore, especially after lunch. The only times I drink caffeine with dinner are when I want to be up late.
There are times when I want to stay up most of the night. I limit those to no more than once a week. Usually if I want to be up in the middle of the night, I will go to bed early and set an alarm for like 2 or 3 am. I still get decent sleep for a few hours and the quiet solitude of the middle of the night.
Most mornings I’m up by 5am regardless of when I go to bed. But if I am tired in the afternoon, I will nap rather than take caffeine. I think these things have helped me with my sleep routine as much as anything.
