Monthly Archives: April 2008

Great Work, Politics, Weather +Climate

Megafarm Hydroponics

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54 bar steep fall 30.20 0mph SSE  dewpoint 18  Spring

               First Quarter Moon of Growing

A 28 degree spread between 8:00 AM and right now.  We still have patches of snow, but they lie now mostly in the shade or north facing slopes.  The tulips, daffodils and iris should continue their growth.  The magnolia buds look pregnant.  Some of the garlic has broken the surface, about 7 bulbs.  It’s starting.

The generator now sits on its little pad on the west wall of our garage.  The electrician has been here all day.  He cut into the garage wall with a reciprocating saw to splice the transfer switch into our electrical panel.  This transfer switch plus a sensing device discovers a power outage, waits a beat or two to be sure the electricity is really off, then turns the generator on and transfers itself as the power source for the house.  When the power comes back on, it senses that, too, then transfers the generator off-line and runs it a bit longer to cool it down and allow it to shut down smoothly. 

It’s not ready to go, yet, however.  The next step is to run the gas line from the new gas meter (not installed yet) up through the garage ceiling and down to the generator’s fuel intake.  The next step after that is–pay for it.

The Megafarm hydroponics (the second and larger plastic tub) has begun to function, too.  I filled the reservoir with seven gallons of nutrient solution, smoothed out a kink in the tubing connecting the pump.  It needs to get set on a two hour cycle soon, but right now, I’m filling the growing bed and shutting the pump off by hand.  It has a few lettuce plants and three tomato plants.  This is all still experimental, but it feels like we’re headed in the right direction with it.

Kate has prepared snacks and drinks for the meeting tonight.  All I have to do is meet and greet.  Should be fun.

Great Work, Politics, Weather +Climate

Oh, How the Activist Has Fallen

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30  bar steady  30.31 0mph N dewpoint 21 Spring

                      First Quarter Moon of Growing

A crisp morning, 26 as I went out for the paper, and, if we can believe the meteorologist, the day will end with the temperature in the high 50’s, headed toward 70 or close to it in the remainder of the week.  This spring has been so reticent, almost shy, that it may once again run from its aging parent, winter.  I hope not.  I’m ready for the joys and tasks, often the same at this time of year, of the growing season.

This evening I have a Sierra Club gathering at the house, a brief one hour meeting to hear about the legislative agenda and an opportunity to sign a petition.  Oh, how the activist has fallen.  In my former life I sneered at petitions and resolutions, both tools of liberals to give the appearance of doing something while risking nothing.  Now I host gatherings for signing one.  My hope is that it will lead to more direct political engagement further on down the line.

An electrician is here, prepping our electrical service for installation of our Kohler 12W generator.  It will run off the natural gas piped to our house by Centerpoint, eliminating the gasoline conundrums (going bad and service stations not working in a power outage) and the necessity of a propane tank.  I’m still not sure this is not a sledge hammer for a mosquito, but the first significant outage we have will prove me wrong.  Since that could happen any time, I guess the pro-argument is sound, especially since Kate has started making lots of money in her new work at Urgent Care. 

Art and Culture, Garden, Great Work, Weather +Climate

The Hydroponics Are On

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34  bar rises 29.50 3mph NNW dewpoint 31  Spring

               First Quarter Moon of Growing

The calendar says spring; the snow says not yet.  It’s all moisture, though, and if it doesn’t run away to rivers and streams, some of this goes to recharge ground water and aquifers.  A good thing whether it comes chilled or just wet.

Last night it looked the drive in to the MIA this morning would be a nightmare.  Predictions of 1 foot snow depths and high winds could have lead to blizzard conditions.  The temperatures never dropped far enough.  So, instead of a foot of snow we got about 3 inches of slush, suitable for snow cones if not so oil impregnated.  The drive in was uneventful.

Sachei Makabe brought her kids from Robbinsdale.  Marilyn Smith and I divided them up and took them through Weber.  Each one of the Japanese language classes I’ve taken through have been attentive, observant and interested.  Can’t ask for more than that.  The diversity in the classes surprise me.  There seem to be far more Asian, Latino and African American students than Caucasian.  This speaks well for the schools and the students but only reinforces the dismal record us white folks have with learning a second language.  I’m one of those who never learned.  Shame on me.

Came home.  Kate had a great lunch made with fish, green beans and acorn squash.  I added a salad. 

After the nap I got out the books and handouts for the hydroponics and got started.  The meter I got a couple of weeks ago I handed over to Kate because it required precision and a chemistry background, neither one of which characterizes me.  It will help us quickly diagnose problems and repair them.  It measures ph, temperature and conductivity.  All of these measures have to do with the uptake of nutrients, though I don’t understand the relationships by any means at this point.

The lettuce seedlings that I started a few weeks ago have started to push roots through the rock wool medium.  This signals the time to transplant them to the hydroponics.  Each planter in the smaller hydroponic system (We have two.) has round lava rocks which hold moisture, but do not interfere with the plants root system reaching the nutrient bath in the reservoir below the planters.  It took 3 gallons of nutrient solution to fill the reservoir to the 2 1/2″ depth recommended.

The nutrient goes into the reservoir through the planters.  This charges the lava rocks.  Then I got a pair of forceps (Adson’s, Kate says.) and plucked the rock well medium out of the seedling beds one at a time.  With a soup ladel I scooped lava rocks out and let them sit in the left over nutrient solution while I positioned the small cube of rock wool and its single lettuce plant.  When I had it where I wanted, one per planter, I scooped the lava rocks around the cube.  Planted.  It’s a strange process compared to gardening directly in mother earth, but it’s fun, too.

After the nutrient solution was in the reservoir, a plastic tub in essence, I plugged the pump into the black tubing that leads inside the reservoir to a plastic tube with two airstones.  Airstones are permeable and the bubbling of oxygen through them creates a nutrient rich mist that reaches the bottom of the planters.  The roots of the lettuce seedlings will head down, through the lava rock to the mist.

With the small pump sighing the only thing left was to switch on the Halide light.  It’s a big thing, 250 watts, with a ballast that feels like a large rock  in weight.  It now glows about 22 inches above the seedlings.   The distance is necessary while the seedlings are still  young and fragile.  After they become well rooted and mature, I’ll move the lamp down to 6 to 12 inches above them.  It will be on roughly 16 hours a day.

We’ve begun.

Family, Travel, Weather +Climate

Air Conditioning

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33 bar steep fall 29.69  7 mph NE dewpoint 32  Spring

                Waxing Crescent Moon of Growing

Just got a call from the Sierra Club inviting me to my own party.  I said, “OK.”

The rain turned to part snow around 4:50PM and looks like it’s mostly snow now.  As soon as the temps drop, it will transition to full snow and if it comes up this rate, it will accumulate.

Checked out airfare to Dallas/Ft. Worth in July.  Only for family would I go to Dallas/Ft. Worth and only for a family reunion would I go in July.  Once, long ago, I took the train from Indiana to Ft. Worth where my Dad’s brother, Charles, lived.  On the way I got molested while taking pictures with my Brownie camera, but I said, “Don’t do that.” to the guy who put his hand between my legs and he went away.  It was not a big deal then or now.

I hit Ft. Worth just as the temperature racked up 107.  I didn’t know the temperatures in the world really got that hot.  I knew it theoretically, but empirically?  No way.   This would have 1956/7 and I’d only experienced air conditioning on rare occasions.  I remember repeating after I got back:  I went from an air-conditioned train, to an air-conditioned car, to an air-conditioned house.  This was remarkable.

What the temps will be like this time I have no idea, but air-conditioning has gone from a comment-worthy rarity to a personal necessity.  I have no doubt we’ll be well cooled. 

That weather seems a long way from the winds today, which hit 34 at 2:10pm, and the driving snow that builds up on our lawn as I write this.

Family, Weather +Climate

Hairdo By Tesla

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38  bar falls 30.02  7 mph N dewpoint 31 Spring?

              Waxing Crescent Moon of Winds

Snow.  Lotsa snow.  An inch an hour possible.  Winds gusting this morning up to 13 mph.  That ol’ Hawthorn giant has his sinewy grip on us  and won’t let go.  My hope is that it winds down before Saturday, since I’ve got to travel about 200 miles north to Bemidji.  When I signed up to speak there last September, I didn’t imagine I might face blizzard conditions on the 13th of April.  Northern living.

Just looked over pictures from Kate’s trip.  Here’s Ruth at her #2 birthday party.  Hairdo by Tesla.

                           ruth-and-hair330.jpg

Our family is complete again.  Kate’s home. The dogs are home. I’m home.  Feels good.    

Faith and Spirituality, Family, General

Masters of the Universe

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42  bar falls 30.14 6mph NNE dewpoint 31 Spring

               Waxing Crescent Moon of Growing

Some of this, some of that.  Reorganized a few books in the study.  Called the folks at NOW fitness to get a repair for the treadmill.  Surprise! It has a lifetime warranty.  Can you beat that?  I bought it 12 years ago and have used it 5-6 times a week since then.  Finished Spiderman III.  It got better at the end, but it was too adolsecent for my tastes in the middle, felt long.  Read about Cristina Sanchez, a late 1990’s matadora.  Looked her up on the Web.  She quit because of the sexism.  Can you imagine sexism in a bull-fighting culture?

Talked to Kate.  Talked to Vanguard folks who won’t accept my lawyers letter with a medallion signature.  They need yet more paper.  Geez.  Sorted through several tour related snafus.  A nap.  Now a workout.

Kate comes home tonight.  She went to the Asia Museum in San Francisco and on the way back (today) she encountered the heavily guarded Olympic torch and had to walk a whole block square to get back to her hotel.

Oh, I also took the treadmill controls apart myself and cleaned them, looked for jammed parts.  The rest of the assembly is electronics and didn’t look accessible to my limited knowledge.  That’s when I called the shop.

Tom Crane has the Woolly meeting in May.  He has asked us to think about mastery.  In particular he wondered if there was any special meaning behind references to Jesus as master.  I looked that up today and found, to my surprise, that each time you read master in the new testament, the word translated is the Greek word for teacher.  There’s a reason for this, but the dogs want to go out now.  Maybe I’ll get back to it later.

Faith and Spirituality, Garden, Great Work

Where Is The Life We Have Lost In The Living?

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34  bar rises 30.15 0mpn NNE dewpoint 28  Spring

            Waxing Crescent Moon of Growing

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – T. S. Eliot

Eliot is fussy, conservative and pedantic; yet, he is also a beautiful poet and a trenchant critic.  I often wonder about the last two of his questions.  As an obsessive gatherer of knowledge and information, it often seems that knowledge gets swamped by information and facts. 

In case you wondered, like I just did, what knowledge means, I found this helpful:  “Knowledge is part of the hierarchy made up of data, information and knowledge. Data are raw facts. Information is data with context and perspective. Knowledge is information with guidance for action based upon insight and experience.”   And this, too, a pragmatic (philosophical) definition:  “the human capacity (both potential and actual) to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations.”  This, too:  “Knowledge is an appreciation of the possession of interconnected details which, in isolation, are of lesser value.”

As long we’re on this track, here are a few definitions of wisdom:  “is the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships; it is synonymous with insight, good sense, and sound judgment. It means to have “deep understanding”, “to have keen discernment”  I like this one, too:  “Knowledge with information so thoroughly assimilated as to have produced sagacity, judgment, and insight.”

The first one of his three questions is tougher.  The nesting nature of the wisdom/knowledge/information trio suggests that Eliot also sees this:  Life/living/wisdom/knowledge/information.   My impression, though, is that he sees Life/living as almost apposite and separate from the other two questions.  So, it might be that he suggests an analogous relationship, i.e. Life gets swallowed by the details of living in the same way wisdom can be consumed by knowledge and knowledge in turn overwhelmed by information. 

It is so often true.  The mundane, even profane (as opposed to sacred, not as in obscenity) aspects of our daily life can so focus our attention that we lose the joy, the delight afforded by this rare and precious gift of Life.  Let me give you an example.  On some days I go into the garden and my intent is to weed.  Or to prune. Or to plant or transplant.  If my task obscures the joy the garden itself brings into my life, if I find myself mumbling about the difficulty of getting rid of this particular kind of weed or the physical challenge of a difficult pruning, then I have lost the Life the garden can bring me in the details of gardening. 

So often delight gets pushed away by duty, joy by drudgery.  The invitation to be in the Eternal Now is the antidote.  If, in my weeding, I can appreciate the tenacity and strength of the weed, if I can experience just a tinge of regret for having to remove it, then I am in the moment, aware of the wonder of plant life rather than disgusted by the invader.  If pruning allows me a chance to notice the growth pattern of the shrub or tree, to wonder at the delicate reaching for air and light that branches are, then I can settle into the truth of the garden itself, become a part of its work.

Faith and Spirituality, General

A Normal Cataract For a 60 Year Old

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37  bar falls 30.08 3mph dewpoint 29  Spring

              Waxing Crescent Moon of Growing

It happens to each of us from time to time.  A slap in the face, either gentle or harsh, that says you’re getting old.  Jane West, my opthamologist, whom I consider a friend, gave me one today. 

“You have a slight cataract.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, I’ve been drawing it for several visits.  It’s not significant.  It’s a normal 60 years old cataract.”

“Oh.”  Not knowing there was such a thing.  And I had one.

“Will it progress?”

“Yes.  But how fast depends on so many things.   General health. (good)  Diet, especially anti-oxidants. (I start my day with at least 3/4 cup of blueberries in my oatmeal.)  Diabetes. (nope) Family propensity. (Don’t think so.)  So, it’s nothing to worry about.”

I believe her.  She’s always been straight with me, a quality I prefer.  Still, a normal 60 year olds cataract?  I’ve never wanted to be normal and definitely not in age-related phenomena.  I want to be age-defying, younger than my years, in really good shape for a guy…with the usual cataracts.  Sigh.  I know these are forlorn and at one level even harmful hopes.  In these matters I prefer a large dose of contradiction.  I wish to be younger than my years, yet aging gracefully.

Family, Great Work, Woolly Mammoths

My Y Chromosome

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32  bar steep rise 30.08 1mh NNW dewpoint 27 Spring

              Waxing Crescent Moon of Growing

This  invitation is also for any of you read this blog and would like to come.   I’d love to see you.

Sierra Club Power 2 Change House Party Monday, April 14th 

 7:00-8:00PM

Hosted by Charles Buckman-Ellis 3122 153rd Ave. NW. Andover.Learn about the Power 2 Change campaign, an effort to educate the public about what is at stake in the 2008 elections. High gas prices and America‘s dependence on foreign oil have made energy one of the most pressing and important issues of this political season.  We face a crossroads, and we need to challenge all of our elected officials, including the next President, to provide the leadership we need to move America in a new direction on energy.  Between now and Earth Day on April 22nd, the Sierra Club is working to get the word out that we need leadership who will make the right choices.  Join us for refreshments, meet your neighbors and learn how you can take action.  RSVP to Margaret at 612-659-9124 ext. 306 or Margaret.levin@sierraclub.org Visit the web site to learn more about this important effort: http://www.sierraclub.org/power2change/minnesota/ 

Note: This is NOT a fundraiser.

 Come to the event if you can.  I’d love to see you.  (Anybody who reads this is welcome.)

Whenever Kate comes home and I’m watching a football game or a basketball game, she’ll say, “Aha. Caught you with your Y chromosome in action.”  Doesn’t happen often, but had she not been in San Francisco, she could have found me watching the last half and the overtime of the Kansas/Memphis game of the NCAA finals. Whoa.  What a game! Kansas, down by 9 with 2:12 left to play and down by 3 with less 2.0 seconds left to play. Chalmers hits the three.  Tie.  In overtime Kansas takes advantage of a missing big man (Dorsey) and goes on to win pulling away.   

That wasn’t all though.  Tonight was also Woolly night at the Istanbul.  This is a y-chromosome only club.  We talked about Rome, about China-Tibet, Danish desserts and Pawlenty’s veto of the Central Corridor light rail.  Stefan and Bill celebrated birthdays.  A guy’s night out. 

Talked to Kate when I got home.  She’d called the home phone, left a message and said she forgot I was the Woolly’s and that she’d call tomorrow.  I picked up the cell phone, called her cell phone.  She answered.  I said, “I just called to tell you we’re old farts.”  “Why?”  “Because I could have had my phone turned on and you could have called me at the Istanbul.”  “You called me on the cell phone just to see if I’d answer?”  “Yeah.  If you hadn’t, that would have meant we were O.F.’s for sure.” 

Mailed another package to the serviceman in my life.  Still strange.

.

Art and Culture

Deepening

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37  bar steep rise 29.91 4mph N dewpont 30 Spring

                   New Moon (Growing)

Amanda (MIA staff) interviewed me today for a promotional video for the museum.  In the process I met a videographer who has full time employment the museum doing “random assignments” that museum staff create.  Amanda asked for a one-word summary of my experience with the museum.  Took me a while, but I came up with deepening.  She also asked me to reflect on how the guide and docent program had changed my perspective on the museum.  “I’ve gone from voyeur to participant.” 

How had my view of art changed?  “I see art on two levels (at least):  spiritual and historical.  The spiritual aspect involves responding to the aesthetic choices made by the artist.  One of the fun things about the MIA is that as an encyclopedic museum, I get an opportunity to experience aesthetic choices from a vast range of human history.  That aspect remains much the same, though I’ve had more time with the objects which does deepen the experience.”

“I’ve always loved history, but now I can add the aesthetic dimension to my historical knowledge.  In this sense my view has changed quite a bit as I’ve added in art historical approaches.”

“The biggest impact overall, though, has been an opportunity to deepen my knowledge of Asian art.  This opportunity has, in turn, led to an outside the museum reading in more and more Asian history.  I’ve gotten more interested in Taoism, Confucianism and Shintoism.”

Interesting session.  Don’t know whether they’ll use much of mine or not.  Several people agreed to the interviews.