Missive #220

“In this semi-autobiographical novel, an American named Roland Lancaster has a doomed affair with a younger woman, Elsa, in Cuba during World War II. The love story, in its happiest moments, parallels the idyllic life that author John Dos Passos had with his first wife, Katy.

I didn’t dislike this book but think that Dos Passo’s nonfiction is better than his fiction. A semi-autobiographical book is only half way between.The Great Days plots a key concern of the author’s in the 1950s—America’s rise to global prominence during World War II, and its loss of power in the years following the peace. In preparing the novel, Dos Passos studied James V. Forrestal, Secretary of Defense from 1947 to 1949. In his notes on the novel, he quotes Forrestal: “to achieve accommodation between the power we now possess, our reluctance to use it positively, the realistic necessity for such use, and our national ideals.”” — Book promo @ goodreads.com

I got my Polar Pacer smartwatch on Monday around 11:30. The two preferred methods to set up the watch are to use Polar Flow which I can not sign into or use a computer with a USB cable. The second alternative requires FlowSync; however you need a computer with Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac operating system. I’m running Linux. So I used the third alternative which was set up the watch on the watch which took me maybe an hour.

After getting it set up I noticed that the time and date were wrong so I wanted to correct that which required me to go to Settings → General Settings → Time and the Date. I messed with the watch for 1-2 hours and never could find Settings; sent another message to Polar. Then tried some more after eating my ‘linner’ and finally found Settings and got the time and date right. Since I was on a roll by then I also set up the Continuous Heart Rate feature so now the watch face shows Time, Date & Current Heart Rate. By pressing one of the 5 buttons I can bring up the Max and Min Heart Rate so far also.

To have a fully operational watch I need to have Polar Flow working and perhaps synced to Strava. During the past week I have sent repeated messages to Polar Support(sic) and have not received a reply other than a receipt from their robot. I’m not a very happy camper.