Old Habits Die Hard

The post-election finger pointing is in full swing over at the GOP circus. They haven't figured it out yet. The circus turned into a freak show and most voters knew it. The GOP spent the last four years saying "no". They decided that the best plan was to play to their extreme base by trying to humiliate and degrade President Obama. The birther claims, the socialist/communist claims, the Muslim claims all were intended to degrade and dehumanize Obama. They only served to bolster the extreme elements who feed on that stuff and the party leaders did nothing to stop it. They claim to be righteous and God fearing but there is something about bearing false witness that they missed. This was finally manifest in the bizarre performance by Clint Eastwood and his empty chair. Obama had diminished in their eyes to a nonperson. They ate it up. But that didn't translate into votes -- it only made them feel good.  So now they wonder how on earth they could have lost the election... 

 

But after all of this, they are still at it. Old habits die hard. I've actually heard people saying that they lost because of Acorn.  Acorn went out of business in 2010. It's pretty sad if Karl Rove and the other fund raisers collected several hundred million dollars for Romney and were beaten by an organization that doesn't exist. Rove claims that the Democrats were engaged in vote suppression. How much longer until they figure it out?

In the end, Obama was not an empty chair. While they chose pandering and self-defeat, Obama and the Democrats worked to win. The GOP defeat was decisive. Not only the presidency but they lost ground in the senate. There are more elections in two years and they will lose more seats if they don't clean house and decide to work more productively with Obama.

The Meaning of Life

I assume that almost everyone has one or two memorable cemetery experiences. When we are little we get taken to cemeteries at times of sadness or solemnity and, while it looks like a park it obviously isn’t a fun place. I recall going to a cemetery as a child for the burial of one of my dad’s uncles – somebody I never knew existed until we got that late night phone call from Ste. Genevieve. We very rarely got a happy phone call from Ste. Genevieve. She was usually the bearer of bad news.

Cemeteries are places where people create monuments or markers representing how they want to be remembered after they are gone or, more often, how others want them to be remembered. This is an intentional relic of a person’s existence. The ruins at Pompeii or Tikal or Mesa Verde are unintentional relics of someone’s existence. I find them both to be interesting. But what about those folks in unmarked graves? My Irish immigrant ancestors are buried two to a hole in unmarked graves in the same cemetery that holds Tennessee Williams, William Tecumseh Sherman, Dred Scott, Kate Chopin and Father De Smet.  My ancestors left behind lots of grieving relatives but none of them had the resources to mark the graves.

I went to college in a very old town with a very old cemetery on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River. There were French folks buried there – the ones that settled the place. There were rows of unmarked graves identifiable only as a faint dimple in the grass. I recall one section of about forty unmarked graves that were known to be the victims of a horrific steamboat wreck. Only their date of death was known.

As college students with time on our hands and looking for something to do we would make our way to the cemetery and just ponder the meaning of life. We usually did this at night and with a few six-packs. One can come close to discovering the meaning of life at night in a spooky cemetery with a few six-packs. We were not disrespectful or up to mischief, we were just under age. We had to be careful where we stepped. The cemetery was riddled with large holes where the earth had subsided or local ground hogs had burrowed into some of the graves. The tree roots would reach out and grab your feet if you weren’t careful.

On one of these excursions we came across a woman’s headstone that made us stop in our tracks. The stone was by itself – not in a family group. It gave her name followed by the word “Spinster” and her date of birth: October 31, 1815 (yes, Halloween), and her date of death: December 31, 1899. The poor woman lived 85 years and almost made it to 1900 but instead, somebody decided to label her as “Spinster” and leave her there by herself. That's how they wanted her to be remembered.  She was certainly on our minds when we pondered the meaning of life that night. The next day, probably a Saturday or Sunday, we went back and made a charcoal rubbing of her headstone and another headstone we found of a Revolutionary War soldier. We taped the headstone rubbings up on the dorm room wall…for some reason. Not as a trophy but sort of a remembrance.

After a while, things started happening (of course). One of the guys was awakened during the night when he felt someone sit on his bed…there was no one there. Things moved around from place to place when no one was in the room. Other things that were hanging on the wall fell on the floor but not the headstone rubbings. Finally somebody saw the figure of a young woman come out of the dorm room closet and walk across the room and disappear. That was enough. She came down off the wall and the old soldier did too, just to be on the safe side. Was it just the power of suggestion? Once one odd thing happened, did we imagine the other occurrences? When the old woman’s headstone rubbing came down the strange occurrences stopped. This was followed by a self-imposed silence on the entire topic. I don’t recall it being discussed or mutually agreed to…just that none of us felt comfortable talking about it. We stopped going to the cemetery after that. We found other ways to explore the meaning of life

Experiment with sound

hmmm. didn't get close enough to pick up the sound -- whoosh...whoosh...whoosh
The sound is my shoes on the gravel but it came through loud and clear.

An Odd Post About Faith

Sometimes events or discussions take place that cause me to re-examine my beliefs and how I live my faith -- or what passes for my faith. Sometimes I'll find myself in a casual discussion on religion and realize that I hold more traditional Christian beliefs than many of my peers. I find this odd because I don't consider myself to be deeply religious. I do consider myself to be part of an organized religious church body...although I do not support or proclaim all that this church body adheres to. I go to church very rarely but primarily due to inertia and that I don't like going alone, not because I've fallen away or reject religion.

The news for today includes a headline that there is a rapid decline in the number of Americans who count themselves as "Protestant" Christians. I'm not at all surprised. The actual story is that Protestants no longer are in the majority. The news outlets are getting it confused either due to ignorance of intentionally to stir up controversy. This is really more about statistics than about religion. What is a Protestant? Perhaps the statisticians have a working definition but the respondents probably are not so sure. Some Baptists do not consider themselves to be Protestants. Are Mormons Protestants? How about self-proclaimed "Evangelicals"? If respondents are self defining their religious status, my guess is that there are not sufficient categories on a survey form to capture a meaningful aggregate response. The survey definitions are very likely out of date.

There is also the issue of non-Christians living permanently or temporarily residing in the US. There have been increases in Bosnians, South Asians, Muslims, Chinese, or other ethnic groups who would not consider themselves to be Protestants. Mexican or other Central American or Caribbean immigrants would probably consider themselves to be Roman Catholic rather than Protestant.  I'm not too worried about the survey headlines.

I am regularly asked to fill out survey for a national polling organization because I signed up to be part of their polling universe when they pulled a survey sample. All of these surveys have various political questions or policy questions (Who did you vote for? Are you a Liberal? What do you think about __whatever__ policy?). They frequently have questions about commercial products...like those pod coffee makers or some other product. They always ask about religious affiliation, whether I consider myself to be an "Evangelical", and how often I attend church. They ask other questions about income and location. These are used to sub-analyze the responses. Are Evangelicals more likely to be gun owners than Muslims? Are low income people more likely to want coffee pod machines?

I must admit that the whole label of "Evangelicals" irritates me and I never consider myself to be an Evangelical. My perception of Evangelicals is negative on several levels even though my church could be considered to be Evangelical. Evangelicals -- as popularly and commonly defined and recognized -- can't keep their nose out of other people's business or private life or personal decisions. I'm sure there is a spectrum or degree of Evangelical-ness and not all Evangelicals behave the same way but those who act out or profess the loudest seem to be the most extreme and most obnoxious.

I tend to favor tolerance and inclusivity more than one would think considering my church's position on some issues. I noticed an article in my monthly church magazine that cautioned against attending church services in other denominations or going to Bible study groups outside of our church. Our church practices "closed communion" meaning that only church members, or members of a very few other churches who meet certain criteria of belief or practices, may take communion in our church services. There are more conservative churches than mine but we are pretty far away from most Christian denominations. I can remember when women were first given the right to vote in church affairs.

Instead of being an Evangelical, I like the idea of being a "carrier for Christ". I use the term "carrier" almost the same way as if someone was a carrier of typhoid or polio but in a positive rather than a negative way. I think it is better, generally, to profess your faith in the way you live, act, behave, carry on business, raise your children and love your spouse and family. If Christians would be "carriers for Christ" we wouldn't need Evangelicals poking around in other peoples' lives. We would also be in conflict with others less often. The "Culture Wars" that Evangelicals seem eager to wage are often conflicts of their own making.

When you look at the basics, Jesus says we should love God and love our neighbor. The Ten Commandments say we should love and honor God, watch what we say and keep our hands to ourselves.  I don't see anything there that says we should maim, murder, persecute or hate people who have different beliefs, look different or live different lives. I don't see any admonition or encouragement for us to righteously poke our nose into other peoples' lives. Do you?

Officially, It's Fall

Nothing profound...I just feel like chatting tonight. We officially crossed over that celestial line and entered fall...or autumn, if you prefer (being in the northern hemisphere). Why does this season have two names??? Other seasons seem more steadfast in their identification. I'll check it out and get back to you on that later.   Anyway...we are about to close the book on September and go into October. This is one of my favorite times of the year.

 

 

Major league baseball is entering that frantic period where every team with a pulse is trying hard to make it into the playoffs and maybe get into more post-season play and, perhaps, win the whole thing. The St. Louis Cardinals surprised everyone, including themselves, last year by staggering into the playoffs and then winning it all. They are trying again this year as defending champs...I wish them well but it's not the same team. Looks like they might get in as a wild card team.

NFL football has been a comedy of errors...literally, but no one is laughing. The referees were locked out by the owners due to a labor dispute so NFL hired substitute refs. I don't thing you can call them "scabs" since there wasn't a strike but they were truly unqualified to officiate a professional football game. It was awful and it went on far too long. Finally, the NFL owners relented and negotiated with the "real" refs and they are now back on the job this weekend. The substitutes get to slink back to wherever they came from...


Missouri University couldn't wait to join the SEC (Southeast Conference) and leave the Big 12 in their dust...but they haven't made a good first impression. They can manage to put up a fight but have been steamrolled  in the later part of the game. They played South Carolina last week and it was bad but they managed to get a touchdown in the closing minutes so that the game doesn't look that bad on paper. I don't give a diddly-squat but I think the SEC is a class act when compared to the Big 12 and hope MU can salvage a few games. People tell me we will blow them out of the water in basketball.  Okiedoke.

Of course, the presidential election is going on...almost in the last few weeks. Also congressional elections. President Obama is a consistent leader in the polls and it looks like he has the electoral votes to win. Mitt Romney looks dumber and dumber as time goes on. He picked Paul Ryan as his VP running mate but Ryan decided to still also run for his congress seat...how's that for confidence? I'm an Obama man so I'm biased but Romney is really making a fool of himself. Either he has no decent advisers or he ignores his advisers and just runs his mouth.

 

 

Missouri has a senate race that is getting lots of attention because Todd Akin, GOP candidate, is a buffoon. Senator McCaskill is nothing special but Akin is sub-human in comparison. Akin has run out of appendages to stick in his mouth and it is hard anyway because his head is so far up his ass. Even Romney asked him to drop out of the race. But, he has support in rural Missouri and could even win if the city voters stay at home.  I admit that I crossed over and voted for Akin in the primary because I figured he would be so bad that sane people wouldn't vote for him. I knew he would self-destruct but not as soon as he did. Now, in the late weeks before the election, some Republicans are slinking back to give him support...Newt Gingrich, Huckabee and Santorum, three GOP guys not running for anything, have soiled themselves by coming to support Akin. Today Akin complained that Claire McCaskill was not "Ladylike" in her behavior during their recent debate...Ladylike?

Missouri voters are an odd group and hard to predict how they will go. We elected Mel Carnahan to the senate even though he was dead in order to keep John Ashcroft from retaining his senate seat....that's right, we elected a dead guy to keep Ashcroft out. So what happens?  Dubya appointed Ashcroft as Attorney General...where he makes a fool of himself.  Ashcroft was my boss for a while so I speak with some knowledge...he is a bible-thumping, gospel-singing, two-faced, ill-informed, self-righteous idiot. But I digress. Missouri used to be known as a bellwether state, one that could be relied upon to vote as the nation would vote as a whole. Not so anymore. We have cornered the market on wingnuts and religious bigots so anything is possible.


The drought is over but Mother Nature is very confused. My lilacs are blooming. They went dormant during the drought and now think it's spring. I suppose they won't bloom next year. Much of my grass is dead. I thought it was only dormant but it is still brown in spite of the several rainy days we've had. The trees began to turn colors way back in early August but there are more now that are showing fall colors even though it is early. There were some major forest fires in the Ozarks...worse than what we have seen in the past. Apparently, the forest ids trying to recover and some plants have sprung up that we have never seen in Missouri. They were just laying dormant in the soil waiting for a forest fire. Some of them are native to the Gulf Coast while others live in Arkansas or in pine forests in other states. 

Hello...Hello?

I was informed that I was entitled to a phone upgrade on my cell phone contract. My old phone is overdue for an upgrade...it could be an antique in the cell phone world. It runs on coal. I don't want or need all the bells and whistles they stick on cell phones. I don't even want a camera...who needs it? I have plenty of cameras. My phone has a camera and I have over 200 photos of the inside of my back pocket.

Anyway, my phone signal has been breaking up and deteriorating in reception quality. So, I decided to go check out what was available. I am on the low end of the phone spectrum so the options were limited to a flip-phone very similar to what I have and two models that offer more options (like a calendar and alarm) and have a little drawer that comes out with a tiny keyboard. These two models differ only in the quality of the camera and the size of the screen. Since both models had screens larger than what I had I decided on the lesser of the two...with the "inferior" camera.  My phone guy, Ben, was new so it took a while for him to get things worked out. I think all cell phone guys are new because they seem not to know what is going on with their own products.

After it was all over and things were signed and fees recorded, I headed for home. I spent much of the afternoon squinting at the little manual (just the English language part) and trying to figure out the phone. When I did actually get a call, I couldn't figure out how to answer it. 

I suppose that I'll get it figured out in a couple days. This is an improvement, I guess, over my old steam-driven cell phone.


Update - 9/15....Screw it. I took it back and got a phone I can use. I never actually was able to answer a call on that phone.  And the reception wasn't any better than my old phone. I got one I can use and it works fine.  Plus I get some money back.  End of story.


Well, not quite. Further Update (September 22 - the Autumnal Equinox) Why is this so tough? The new phone seems to work fine. Only problem is that I read the user guide which told me I'm supposed to hit the 'send' button when I answer a phone call. That seemed odd to me...this is a flip phone and just opening it up when it rings should be sufficient. So, I ended up disconnecting a few calls before I decided that the user guide was full of crap. I was right all along. So I got that figured out....but now I'm getting weird phone calls from numbers in my area code but there is no one on the line and when I try to call back the phone number is out of service. These calls are originating in Puxico, Jackson ans Ewing, Missouri. No one in those places should even have my cell number. This is political campaign season and I'm guessing that these are robo-calls that can't figure out my cell connection (??). Maybe this will end after the election.

Drought

We've been complaining about the weather for months. You have probably heard...there has been  a serious drought spreading through the Midwest. While serious, we are not talking "dust bowl" or Horn of Africa devastation. But the drought is ruining some farm operations and people will be forced off their land. In my 60-plus years I've not seen it this bad. I live in a mostly rural community within a few miles of the lower Missouri River and there are sand bars stretching most of the way across the river in some places. We have been living with water conservation restrictions almost all summer. I think most farmers got one cutting of hay but, based on the field near my house, that was probably it. The corn crop is pretty much gone. Soybeans look better, especially in the river bottoms, but they are still in trouble. Cattle farmers are struggling and some farm families I know are cutting down trees so the cattle can eat the few leaves that are left. Apparently, cattle don't always eat trees but when they do, they prefer Honey Locust trees. Here's a tip if you are ever in this situation...don't give them the Honey Locust trees first because they get picky and don't like eating the other trees.


Many of our trees have already turned brown and lost their leaves. That normally happens in late October or early November. I have a big Hickory tree in my front yard that seems to be holding its own. The Cedars are managing okay. Maples and Poplars are mostly bare. I have a Shortleaf Pine out back that is surviving but I've seen some in the area that have turned brown and are probably dead. Dogwood trees are struggling. Landscape plantings are looking terrible. I grow a few hop plants but they failed to produce flowers this year.  The local vineyards are faced with a small grape harvest but they say it will be very high quality. I guess I'll be drinking wine instead of home brew.


Finally things have started to turn around. The remnants of Hurricane Isaac came through on Labor Day weekend and I didn't hear a single complaint. We only managed to get about two inches of rain but it helped. Since then we have had more rainy days and the grass seems to be coming back. Some of the trees look better but it's too late for many of them. Some will come back next year if the winter isn't too harsh and we get more rain. Temperatures have really cooled off. We had weeks of 100 degree days but we are in the mid 70s the last two days. It will get hot again but most of it is over.


I haven't cut my grass since June but I'll probably have to find my lawnmower in about two weeks if we can get some more rain. We usually have a very pretty fall but this year it will be subdued.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!!

The Republicans have been holding their convention this week in Tampa. The Democrats are next. The lies spewing forth from the speakers on the podium are absolutely amazing. It is breathtaking. Paul Ryan actually accused Obama of being responsible for closing down an auto factory before he was even President...and he just kept right on going. It doesn't matter that it's a lie, the important thing is to get it out there so the pea-brains who are sucking this up can get energized.

I managed not to watch any of the convention but I'm following it on the news because you just can't escape it. My main news interest is in Hurricane Isaac, otherwise I probably wouldn't even have the news on. I probably won't watch much, if any, of the Democrats' convention.  Why bother?

We have our own little side show going on locally with Todd Akin, the GOP's senatorial candidate. And what a show it is. Missouri seems to collect wingnuts. I have a friend (sort of) who comes from his district who keeps me informed on all of the crazy and outlandish conspiracy theories that the local Republicans dream up. She makes the "Birthers" look normal. She threatened and chased the census bureau guy off her property because he worked for Acorn. She says Acorn is in charge of the Department of Commerce and is sending out the census people to get information on her. She, of course, is a Todd Akin supporter and thinks that that flurry of excitement about "legitimate rape" and the amazing capacity of a woman's body to shut down a potential rape pregnancy is just the "Godless Liberals" plotting against her hero, Todd Akin.

I admit that I voted for Todd Akin in the primary election. I voted Republican just so I could vote against a few people and I voted for Akin because I knew he would self-destruct. I thought he would last at least until Labor Day but I don't think he made it a week. I'm not a big supporter of Claire McCaskill. I've met her a couple times and was in meetings with her when she was the Jackson County prosecutor. I don't particularly like her but she is serious, smart and businesslike. She is 100 times better than Akin. She is up something like nine points in the polls now but come November, anything can happen. Remember, Missouri elected a dead guy to the Senate rather than select the other choice...John Ashcroft.

My impression of Mitt Romney is that he is a guy with limited values and convictions. Only things related to his immediate family, church or wealth have any weight in his life. Everything else is merely a business decision. He can easily promote one idea or value and then promote the exact opposite based on what he sees as the business climate. He seems to have no lasting commitments to ideas or values. He also has the corporate model approach to things...the same way Bush Jr. did.  He is not a details sort of guy. That's why he chose Paul Ryan as his VP --- someone to be involved in the details. I think we tried that with Dick Cheney and it didn't work.

Obama is a details guy, maybe to a fault. He is also a person with life-long values and convictions. He is more likely to stay on the same course in a second term. It has taken so long to dig out of the hole left by the previous administration that people are impatient. I'm convinced that the economy was worse than we think and it will take a while longer to get back on track. The obstructionist approach taken by the GOP is slowing things down. Now they want to go back to the policies that put us in a near-depression.

I'm something of a supporter of Obama-Care. I think he managed to get the cat out of the bag, so to speak, and we will see improved health care in the future. There is a lot in Obama-Care that is positive and worthwhile and supported by most Americans. I am concerned about the GOP's plans for a voucher-based medicare system. Medicare needs help but not that kind. They would turn the focus of the system away from Doctors and hospitals to a group that they know and trust...insurance companies...with deep pockets.

I fully expect the Democratic convention to be one more non-event with lots of speakers tossing around lots of false information. It will probably be dull. I don't think there's a hurricane coming. 

Farewell Neil Armstrong

August 25th...Farewell Neil Armstrong. There are only eight Apollo Astronauts left who walked on the moon and the youngest is in his mid 70s. Armstrong was the first.  Will we miss them when they are gone?

We ended the Space Shuttle program a little over a year ago. We still have space ambitions but most of the interesting and newsworthy stuff is done by robots of one sort or another. We have just landed on Mars with the Curiosity rover. It will be in the news for a long time.

We have the International Space Station, packed with real live humans, orbiting 250 miles up above the earth. The ISS has grown to a size somewhat larger than a football field and is resupplied periodically by unmanned supply rockets. The Russians run a taxi service for moving people out to the ISS and back home again. The ISS is one of the brightest things in the sky when it flies over. It can be much brighter than the moon if the sun hits it right...but it seems that few people bother to look up.  I'm a sky watcher so I've seen it and it is an impressive sight...but it is over in about four or five minutes.

I guess we've reached the point where most of the pioneering work is over...at least close to our home planet. Much of the equipment and artifacts from this time are showing up in museums. There was a news item last week about Los Angeles having to cut down 400 trees along a roadway so that the space shuttle can be towed to the local museum.

The Chinese are talking about sending humans on a mission to the moon. That would be goos, I think, but I can't imagine what the cost would be. I wonder if unmanned space exploration is much less expensive than sending humans. The focus would be on robotics and other types of technology rather than life support.

I wonder if any of those space monkeys are still alive. If J. Fred Muggs is still alive at 60 then maybe there are still a couple space monkeys around.  We still send animals into space. In February 2010 the Iranians sent a mouse, two turtles and some worms into space on one of their rockets. They survived the trip.

What I'll Remember About the 2012 London Olympics

The final javelin has been thrown, the final weight lifted, the final diver plunged into the pool, and the last marathoner crossed the line. The London Olympics are over. I enjoyed the Olympics. The USA's athletes did a great job individually and in team competitions. They all were great no matter what country they came from. I have some great memories...but let me get this off my chest first.

NBC's coverage of the Olympics was horrendous. They should be ashamed of the lousy way that they handled this global event. I really can't think of any instance where they excelled. When they could have made a good decision on how to cover the games they always...always chose the wrong option. I was beginning to think that Hallmark Cards was in charge of the broadcasts. We don't need Tom Brokaw telling us the heartwarming story of how the Brits struggled in WW-II...and taking nearly an hour to do it in prime time. War is hell, no matter what side you are on. We should have learned by now not to have wars but we haven't. There was no end to the sappy stories of how this athlete or that coach had to endure tremendous hardship to finally compete in the Olympics. Then, of course, there are the NBA players and the various other standouts (Phelps, Bolt, etc.) that they just had to squeeze on to the telecast one or two more times. And quite frankly, I have seen enough volleyball to last me a lifetime.

But I did enjoy the games in spite of the botched coverage. Here are ten things that I really enjoyed.

1. The opening and closing ceremonies were great. I had to reflect a little on the opening before I decided I liked it because it was a little odd.
2. I am glad Michael Phelps won his medals and is now the most decorated Olympic athlete. There were a lot of titles thrown about as cliches on TV but he has won a ton of medals. Is he the greatest athlete? No. He has duplicate event medals from several different Olympic games so he is very good at what he does...which is a narrow range of athletic performance. But I still think it's great.
3. I love soccer or futbol or football...whatever. I was excited to see South Korea win the bronze medal by defeating Japan. I was furious with NBC for not carrying the Mexico - Brazil final game on a major network that we could have watched. I'm very happy that Mexico won the gold medal. 
4. I enjoyed seeing the Jamaican runners perform. Usain Bolt is the fastest man alive...OK. (Now I'd like him to sit down and shut up). There are other runners from Jamaica. There were two or three Jamaican runners who went to Lincoln University...yes...right here in Jefferson City. I enjoyed seeing them run too. Jefferson City will, of course, ignore their very existence. 
5. I liked seeing some different sports. These may be the national sport somewhere but to me they are a novelty because I've never actually seen them. Field hockey was one that I enjoyed. I was completely confused about handball, which I thought was like racquetball but it isn't. Handball is more like water polo without the water. The rowing events were cool. I liked the cycling in the velodrome. The BMX cycling was interesting.
6. I found it interesting to see the ethnic diversity of the various teams. You can't look at a team and tell where they are from by the makeup of the members. In the olden days you could look at a French team and say "Yep, those are Frenchmen" but now you can't. There has been so much movement of people over the last few decades and generations that there can be a great deal of diversity where one would not expect it. It used to be that the USA team was the most diverse team but I don't think that can be said any longer. I think that's good.
7. I loved seeing Oscar Pistorius run on his artificial legs. He is called "the fastest man on no legs" and he made a good showing in his events. He didn't win a medal and I don't think people expected him to win a medal but he proved that he could compete with the best.
8. I enjoyed seeing some of Great Britain's athletes win medals just to hear the crowds roar. They had a good Olympics.
9. I have to hold my breath sometimes when I'm watching platform diving. The divers come too close to hitting their heads on the platform. Even so, they do some amazing dives. I like that the US diver won gold. I enjoyed the Mexican divers and the way they were pushing the envelope on the dives.
10. I was happy to see Spain make the USA team work for the gold medal in basketball. I am not happy with having NBA players represent the various countries (mostly but not only the USA). I think that there should be an age limit on basketball thee same way there is on soccer. Players should be limited to under age 23.

So now we wait two years for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Sochi might be interesting since it is a Black Sea resort and port city next to Georgia. The climate is subtropical which may make winter sports something of a challenge. The city is close to the Caucasus Mountains where they do have snow.

Do you remember when we used to hear frogs?

I watched a PBS NOVA special on the plight of frogs. We are losing frogs - they are in danger of mass extinction. There seems to be a worldwide infestation of a fungus that lives on the skin of frogs and slowly kills them by blocking oxygen. Frogs breathe through their skin, at least in part, and the fungus causes them to suffocate. Except for a small part of Panama, the fungus exists all over the planet and will probably invade this last safe area soon. This is very sad. Scientists are capturing the endangered frogs and keeping them in captivity in special breeding programs in the hope of finding fungus resistant strains of the different frog varieties. There have been some successes but the picture is bleak in most cases.

As a kid, frogs were one of the most common wild animals we encountered. The local ponds were full of tadpoles. We would collect frog eggs and keep them in a jar just to watch the tadpoles hatch out. I used to capture frogs and toads and baptize them when I was in a particularly religious mood. Maybe there will be a few frogs in heaven.  I remember the childhood debates we had about toads and whether we would get warts if we touched them. It never kept us from touching them. Toads would almost always pee on you when you picked them up. We figured that the pee was what made the warts.

Frogs ruled the night. The sound of frogs at night was ever-present. This was really true in a rainy springtime and early summer. Bull Frogs were the Potentates of the frog world. They were huge and very loud with a low booming voice. Tree frogs were peepers up in the trees. They were a background chorus for the mighty Bull Frogs.


When I was ten I had two pet salamanders that lived in a washtub in the back yard. Salamanders are similar to frogs and are now facing the same hazards. Mine seemed quite happy in their washtub world but salamanders apparently like to migrate. They must recognize some cosmic message that tells them that it is time to move on. One night my salamanders got the call and were off on an adventure. I know that one was eaten by a garter snake before he got very far. I won't go into how I know that. I just hope the other one made it to the local salamander rendezvous unscathed.


I remember seeing flattened frog and toad corpses on the road when I walked to school. They were probably on their way to an important gathering of amphibians when they met their Maker crossing the road. There were so many frogs and toads that it seemed like nothing would ever make a dent in the population. Frogs and toads were everywhere.


We would go spend a couple weeks at my uncle's cabin on the Big Piney River and at least once he would fix up "a mess of frog legs". These were usually Bull Frogs whose legs ended up on the plate. They looked like little peoples' legs. You would go out at night in a boat and paddle quietly waiting for a Bull Frog to sing out and then you would sneak up on him and blind him with a flashlight while the other person gigged him with a nine foot harpoon. The "Gig" had three points so you were pretty much bound to get him if you were any good at all. The impaled frogs were sort of stunned but seemed almost not to notice that they had been run through. Of course the points were barbed so he couldn't get off the gig and he soon ended up in a burlap bag on the bottom of the boat. It takes quite a few frogs to equal a "mess".


Not too many years ago we had a small tree frog who came to our screen door at night to eat the moths and bugs that were attracted by the light. We named him Edgar after one of our favorite baseball players, Edgar Renteria. Edgar was a hit with both my daughter and the family cat. Jill delighted in his nightly arrivals and would look for him and be disappointed if he didn't show up. Purro, our cat, was also delighted to see him but for other reasons. Purro would sit or lay quietly by the screen door and watch Edgar until he couldn't stand it any longer and he would swat the screen and Edgar would jump. One night Edgar got inside somehow and Purro pounced while three humans squealed and dove for the cat. We saved Edgar and put him back outside much to Purro's aggravation. Edgar, or maybe Edgar's kids, came back every year for a while but eventually disappeared. Even Edgar Renteria was eventually traded to Boston.

We have a little frog pond about 400 feet away back in the woods. We used to hear frogs at night but not anymore. Occasionally we will hear a peeper up in the trees or even close by on the deck (Edgar? Is that you?) but not very often. I will occasionally see a toad in the yard. Toads are more adaptable to dry conditions and sometimes would venture into the garden. I haven't seen a salamander in decades.

I hope that someday our kids' grandkids will still get to discover and enjoy frogs.

July 30th = Memories

The end of July brings back the same old memories: hospitals, doctors, EMTs, waiting, worrying, praying...funeral directors.  Wow, it's been five years.

I try not to think about it. I have so many good memories that I can fall back on. This picture is of Joie and me at the Carlson Winery near Grand Junction, Colorado.We spent a week there looking at property and trying to decide if we really wanted to move there. Turns out that we didn't, but we had a good time.

One of my favorite pictures of Joanne. She is sitting in a meadow high up in the Big Horn Mountains...late July, 1975.Wildflowers (mountain lupines) were blooming all through the meadow. We were on a backpacking trip...much to the amazement of her friends and family. That trip pretty much sealed our fate. Anyone who would follow me through the wilderness wasn't going to give up easy and we were together for the next thirty-two years.



This year I'm a little distracted by my aching knee. Somehow I'm managed to get arthritis in my left knee that demands attention. I found Joie's cane and I'm hobbling around with a lot of pain. The doctor told me to wear a knee brace and take a anti inflamatory prescription. That was ten days ago and it is worse now. I go back to the doctor in a couple days. The xrays show 'bone spurs' and the space where my ligaments and cartlage should be has narrowed...hence the excruciating pain.


The Summer Olympic games are going on in London. I was looking forward to it but the news/sports coverage is so bad that I've pretty much given up on it. I watch some of the novelty sports. I watched field hockey...played indoors...and that was interesting. Rowing was interesting. Basketball is mostly NBA players. If I wanted to watch NBA I'd watch NBA. They should do the same thing with basketball as they do with soccer -- limit the teams to certain age groups. I'm tired of gymnastics and swimming.  Track and field will start in a few days.


If I seem a little grumpy I have good reason.

The Dog Days

The Dog Days are upon us. Sirius, the "Dog Star" must be working overtime although I can't see Sirius or the constellation Canis Major from my usual vantage point. The Romans blamed Sirius for the hottest days of summer. Then there is that other dog reference regarding the heat of the day..."mad dogs and Englishmen...."   I don't blame the dogs, they are miserable, too. It has been so hot and humid here in the middle of the continent that things seem to be grinding to a halt. Human activity is curtailed as much as possible during the day. After a while your brain fries or just starts to dry out. I stopped for gas the other day and it took me three tries to get the car turned so the gas pump was on the same side as the gas cap. The old fried brain couldn't figure it out. I'm guessing that the economic statistics for this summer will reflect a lack of commercial activity just due to the heat. It's not likely to get better any time soon. They forecast four of the next five days will be over 100 degrees here. We've already had about twenty 100+ degree days in the last month and almost no rain. We had rain on July 8th and on June 11th...that's it. We have the humidity as well as the heat but no rain.

I stay holed up inside as much as possible during the day but after dark it gets almost tolerable so I venture outside. I'm a sky watcher. Sirius and Canis Major are on the other side of the house and concealed behind some trees so I can't shake my fist in their direction. That's fine because I have plenty to watch. The night sky is busy if you happen to live in a place with little or no light pollution. Planes flying coast to coast pass overhead. There is an old Trivial Pursuit question asking where Richard Nixon was when Gerald Ford was sworn in as President.  He was almost directly over my head fleeing to San Clemente. I try to guess where the planes are going with a rough map stored in my head. Perhaps Dallas to Chicago? Denver to Cincinnati? There are some that come from the west and then turn 90-degrees to the right and head south directly over my head. I live about an hour east of an Air Force base so some of those planes are military flights. On weekends they fly east and then make a big U-turn and head back to their base. I guess those are training flights. We used to see Stealth Bombers but they are pretty rare these days. You could hear them before you saw them so I'm not sure how stealthy they are.

Meteor showers are always interesting. I was born during the Perseid meteor shower, one of the best of the year, so I have a long-standing birthday ritual of going out and watching for meteors on my birthday. I've seen a bunch. They come in colors occasionally. Sometimes come in in pairs, side-by-side. Sometimes they break up and pieces go off in different angles. Sometimes they leave a glowing trail. Experts say they are only the size of a grain of sand. I find that very hard to believe.

Last night I caught sight of an Iridium Flare, which is caused by sunlight reflected off of a satellite. There are a bunch of Iridium communication satellites with large reflective panels that catch the sunlight and cast a beam of light out of the pitch black sky back down to Earth. The flare lasts only a second or two but it is extremely bright -- maybe -8 in magnitude. Sirius, that "Dog Star", is the brightest star in the sky with a magnitude of -1.4 so an Iridium Flare can be several times brighter than Sirius. The full moon is magnitude -6 and the Sun is -13 so a bright flare can fall in between the moon and the Sun in brightness. Iridium Flares look like someone turned on a flashlight and then turned it off again. Actually there is so much stuff orbiting the Earth now that it can be confusing and dangerous.  A Russian satellite collided with an Iridium satellite at 22,000 mph and left a bunch of orbiting debris that is something of a hazard to astronauts.  Some of these things are predictable...you can go to web sites and check out when the International Space Station will fly over your house or track other highly visible objects.

For right now I'm hoping to see some thunderstorm lightening on the horizon heading this way. It could not arrive too soon.

Fiat 500 -- Just a Whim

I got a post card in the mail that invited me to come to Columbia to test drive a Fiat 500. Thats about 35 miles just to test drive a car...but they offered me a $25 Visa debit card as an incentive. Since I was going to Columbia anyway I decided to maybe take them up on it.

I picked up Donna (we were heading to Boonville for lunch and a winery visit) and we decided to try driving the Fiat. This turned out to be more interesting than I thought.

Let me begin by saying that I once owned a Fiat that was a horrible car. There is no end to the horror stories I could tell. When it rained the ash trays filled with water and water came out of the radio speaker.  No kidding. Also, the car wouldn't start if the temperature was under 30 degrees. It developed a habit of refusing to turn off...it kept running even when I had the ignition turned off and the key in my pocket. Maintenance was a chore and the local mechanics had no idea how to fix it. The wiring chart was in Italian. But...it was a fun car to drive.




So, I was skeptical that anything with the Fiat name on it would be worth looking at.

After seeing it I would say that I was cautiously impressed with it. It is the 2nd smallest car on the market in the US. Smart car has one slightly smaller.




It looks kind of retro and that was apparently intentional. You can see some of the old-time Fiat DNA in it's design. This was a two-door hatchback. I didn't take a good look at the back seat. The hatchback opens to a space big enough for maybe two suitcases behind the back seat. Rear seats fold down and make a lot more cargo space but they don't fold flat so it is still sort of a balancing act.







I can recall riding around in a little Renault
and several old VW Beetles when in high school and this was sort of reminescent of that...which is the retro idea kicking in. The salesman said they thought young people would be the market for them but they are selling to baby boomers instead.





It was surprisingly roomy inside. Donna and I are not petite people and the saleman was normal size...not a dwarf...and we all climbed in and were comfortable. The seats are like sitting in a chair...you sit up, not on the floor.

Seats are adjustable and the steering wheel is adjustable so it is easy to get comfortable. There isn't a "chicken bar" handle on the passenger side, which would be useful. Headroom was OK. Leg room was OK.



The dash board and steering wheel look like something out of the 1950s but the instruments are up to date. Some of the controls are on the steering wheel. It has "bluetooth" voice recognition technology for some stuff...which I know nothing about.








There is a lot of digital information staring you in the face but the speedometer is the traditional analog needle pointing to your mph speed. The steering wheel is small but it can get in the way of seeing the digital display.

Somewhere in here there is a four cylinder motor. It is front wheel drive. You can't really see the front hood - or much of it - when driving or sitting in the front seat. We drove the automatic 6-speed. We had three people in the car and had the AC blasting at full power and the car took off like a shot. We had no problem on the highway. At slower speeds it seemed like it had to labor a little to go up hill in residential neighborhoods. Steering was super responsive and caught me off guard the first few turns until I got used to it. It "turns on a dime with nine cents change". Apparently it can get up to 38 mpg which is good but not great considering the size and the competition. Fiat bought a big chunk of Chrysler and this seems to be their re-entry into the US market. They were offering 60 months zero interest and the base price was somewhere around $16,000. They want to get some of these on the road. You would need to add some options. The tiny spare tire is an option...a tire patch kit is standard.

While I liked it and it was fun to drive and I was impressed I'm still a skeptic. My prior experience was so bad that I'd want to see some performance info and maintenance data before I got one. Donna drove it and she liked it as well but she drives a Honda and is very happy with her experience and maintenance that she was also reluctant to say she would want one without more of a track record.

*   *   *

Mr. A. L. Bennett on the Occasion of his First Birthday

I am not around babies much these days so excuse me for being a proud great uncle of Austin. He turned one and there was a family picnic birthday party on his behalf. He is a little charmer.

Shannon and Austin

Let's get the show on the road

Fire!!  Fire!!

How did that get there?

Blue tastes pretty good

Get the hose

There are supposed to be presents.

The evidence



Austin & Eva

Mary & Eva

Walnut Grove Pavillion - Babler

Journey to Peru 2012

I just got back from a week in Peru. I'm not going to post a long travel account....not here anyway. I just have to say that this was one of the most enjoyable trips I've taken. The people of Peru are happy to share their country with visitors and the entire experience was extremely positive. Much of the trip is, of course, focused on the Inca Empire and what they were able to accomplish and their downfall under the invading Spaniards. We were on "the beaten path" to Machu Picchu...it was more like a pilgrimage than a vacation but since there was just two of us we had ample opportunities to observe and reflect on the country, people and whole experience.

 I have to say that the trip was more than a change of scene or a chance to see one of the wonders of the world. It was also a mental trip -- an attempt to see into the consciousness of the Incas. They left no written records and the Spanish tried to destroy as much of the tangible elements of the empire as possible, but there is still a lot of Inca left in Peru. We went with our own "baggage" made up of preconceived notions, experiences and attitudes and found things to be very different. We came home with an expanded view of human consciousness, abilities and existence. 

 Our own idea of human existence was constrained and defined by our own experiences and Peru and the Incas cause us to call these perceptions into question. They looked at problems differently and found solutions that we probably would not have considered. Where we look at the stars we see mythological or animal constellations tied to the stars, they concentrated on the blank spaces -- the voids -- where there were no stars and created their own culture's constellations from the voids. They were a very symbolic people and were tied to images and symbolism. The original city of Cusco was laid out in the shape of a Puma...not that you would know it from the street level but it would have been more apparent only from above or in the mind's eye of the engineers and planners who laid it out. The Incas had a notion that everything had a spirit or a life force, including the mountains, and at Machu Picchu they used the contours of the mountain to shape the city. They didn't destroy the underlying mountain, like we would, but built on top of it or incorporated it into their plan. There is a rock outcrop at Machu Picchu that they could see clearly as the outstretched wings of a condor and they elaborated on that particular site and created a more apparent image and then used it as a specialized funerary site where VIPs were laid to rest after their death. To us it would look like a couple of chunks of bedrock that were in the way but to them the condor was one of their symbols for heaven. 

 I'm still pondering some of this and recommend the trip to people who haven't been there.  It was not just a trip to a different geographic area...we found it to be a journey that expanded our way of thinking in some ways.

There goes one of my favorites - tooth, that is

A sad day as I bid farewell to one of my favorite teeth. It has been with me a long time... almost 60 years...but today we parted ways. Apparently, back around Christmas time, I chomped down on something and broke off part of the root. That means that it couldn't be repaired and then, eventually, a toothache set in and the visit to my Dentist told the tale.

Dentistry is an odd thing. My Dentist can't - or won't - pull teeth so I have to go to the special dentist office where that's what they do all day. The tooth didn't want to go so it turned into a big deal and I am waiting for the onslaught of excruciating pain. A tiny part of the root was so twisted and embedded that it was left behind and will eventually become part of the bone...so they say.  I don't like the sound of that but they would have had to blast or do something radical to get it out.

This is yet another nasty experience in my adventures in dentistry. Mayne writing about it will serve as therapy.

Goodbye 2011 -- Uh-oh, here comes 2012

We have had worse years than 2011. Everyone seems to be really glad it is over, but, although it wasn't great, it was OK.  Cardinals won the World Series. Two evil guys - Osama and  Muammar - went off to their great reward. We got our troops out of Iraq. There were a few good things that happened.
There were a few really bad things, too. Earthquakes, tornados, floods...we had a record number of official disasters. The government seems to be dysfunctional at the top levels while the lower levels stagger on as usual.

Our family fared pretty well...in balance. Jill totalled her car but got a new one. She had to say goodbye to her cat, Iris, but got a new one...Beatrix. She also finished her Masters and got a "real" job.

2011 was the year I decided to say "Yes" instead of "No". That's a little hard to explain except to say that I made a conscious effort to look at things more positively and be willing to try new things. As a result I have about a dozen new friends and have some weekly activities that get me out of the house. I hope to keep that same attitude in 2012.

The new year has started out with mixed reviews and this is just the first week of January. Our warm weather seems to have fled. Monday's bocce was very cold and windy...but we won all three games. My effort to join the HealthPlex finally worked out and my health assessment went pretty good. On the down side (really down) I got a traffic ticket  for bumping into another car at an intersection...probably going to be expensive in several ways...but I was at fault. We have our trip to Peru to look forward to and leave in just over a week.

I hope that 2012 is better than 2011 -- this is an election year so things will be very crazy. We may look back at 2011 and think that it wasn't so bad after all.

-- Late update (Jan. 4th) Had to visit the dentist because my tooth started giving my trouble a few days ago. I broke off a root and now I ned to have the tooth pulled. This is 1 week before the Peru trip.  Might have to wait.