I hate naps. Actually, I don’t hate napping, I just dislike how I feel afterward. Although it’s hard to describe, the general feeling I experience is one of my entire body acting drugged or asleep, as if I’m trying to wade through a swamp of molasses while carrying an unconscious cow. Scientists call it sleep inertia, and it makes me feel like a limp, overcooked noodle. Even worse, napping in the afternoon makes it hard for me to fall asleep at night, which usually tempts me to stay up late and disrupt my usual sleep cycle.

One common challenge I run into while taking notes during regular Bible reading is writing down the text of a verse or short passage that was meaningful to me. I usually like to jot down the actual text in Day One and write a few notes about what “stood out” during my reading - but because I prefer to read from a physical Bible, the tedious part is typing out the words.

Now that we’re into July, it’s time for a brief garden update! Today, we’re focusing on the green bean patch. This was my first year for growing beans, and I planted in an area that has only grown weeds in past years. I planted a stringless variety from Burpee and applied a legume inoculant with each seed. Based on advice from other gardeners online, I decided to plant lots of beans close together to shade out the weeds that inevitably would crop up.

While reading Bodyguard of Lies over the last few months, I came across a few interesting quotes that I wrote down. This one came from a chapter titled “The Breakout” from Volume 2:

. . . the deep distrust (Hitler) already felt for mankind in general, and for General Staff Corps officers and generals in particular, now became profound hatred. A by-product of the sickness from which he suffered is that it imperceptibly destroys the powers of moral judgment; in his case what had been hardness became cruelty, while a tendency to bluff became plain dishonesty. He often lied without hesitation and assumed that others lied to him. He believed no one any more. It had already been difficult enough dealing with him; it now became a torture that grew steadily worse from month to month. He frequently lost all self-control and his language grew increasingly violent.

About 6 months ago, I decided to “dumb down” my iPhone to remove distractions and get some of my focus back. As a result, I removed most apps that had “feeds”, including the excellent Reeder app, and the Safari browser. I’ve since resorted to using Reeder on my MacBook or our home iMac, but I still wanted some way to read selected articles on my Phone. Not the full-on feed of every single article; just the articles that I had sorted through that I wanted to read.

For more than a year now, I’ve been riding my bike to work as an alternate means of transportation, with the express purpose of doing my workout and my commute at the same time. Early on in my bicycle commuting journey, I picked up a bike mount for my iPhone, since I like to track my rides on Strava. Usually, there’s not much on my phone to look at, but the bike mount helps me to quickly see a text message that comes up, or check my pace in Strava.