The Christmas shopping is done. Some of the gifts have already arrived. Wrapping paper is purchased. Let the holidays begin.

We attended an interesting presentation at the Walter’s Art Museum last Sunday. Eric Cline talked about the collapse of bronze age civilizations In 1177 B.C. He has some interesting ideas. His book on the subject is available, but I think we got the general idea.

Tuesday evening I attended our security committee’s presentation about camera doorbells such as the Ring doorbell. Our large clubhouse room can seat about 130 or so. We had a standing room only turnout. The presentation presented a lot of enthusiasm. I think I may be the only person who attended and won’t be buying a camera doorbell. I’m thinking about Orwell’s “1984”. In the novel. citizens were spied on by the Big Brother government. One of Orwell;s genius ideas is that the government got people to pay for and install the spy devices, by including them in things people wanted. Do you want a wall-size TV? It’s expensive, but you can have it. It comes complete with cameras and microphones. We’ve outdone Orwell by quite a bit. We carry cell phones with microphones and GPS. If we leave home without our phone, it’s no problem. Fitbits record our location and heart rate. We have smart speakers that listen to what we say. The Ring doorbells automatically make their video available to the police. Now I can’t walk down the street without multiple cameras recording me. I admit the government might not be using this stuff to spy on us. But it wouldn’t be very hard.

I bought an advance copy of Turbo Tax. There are significant changes this year. I am not sure I understand all of them. An advance copy should let me estimate 2018 taxes and help me decide what to do to optimize myself for 2019. Unfortunately, the interesting part of Turbo Tax is not available. They warn that because of the massive changes, it is not likely to be available before mid-January. At least I don’t feel so bad about being confused about some of the tax changes this year.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.