Monthly Archives: October 2009

Family

New Wedding Ring

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Fall                                       Waning Blood Moon

Got a new wedding ring yesterday.  It came from Everything Jewish and has Hebrew lettering.  Along with the too big for my ring finger ring Kate bought in Jackson Hole this summer, it replaces the original, now awaiting discovery by some lucky person.  I can imagine some kid, years in the future, coming in and saying, “Hey, Mom.  Look what I found!”  A gift to the future from Vega the wonder dog.

This moves me one small step closer to the Jewish community, a place I’ve always felt comfortable.  From what I know of Chinese and Jewish culture I could have been comfortable in either.  Which is not to say that I’m uncomfortable in my American culture.  I’m not.

Aging, Dogs, Family

More Fence.

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Fall                      Waning Blood Moon

Dan the fence guy came out again.  This time we’re fencing in the vegetable garden, a five foot high fence and a taut wire to run along the top of the orchard fence.  Rigel is an expensive dog.  Really expensive.  A sweetheart, yes, but a major league nuisance, too.  The electric fence, I’m proud to say, has done its job.  No more escapes since it went up.

Kate and I reupholstered the couch this afternoon, the seat cushion.  In the process I thought back over growing up and could not remember a single thing Dad ever fixed.  I’m sure he must have fixed something, but I don’t recall what it was.  Anyhow, fixing stuff ratchets up my annoyed level to unpleasant proportions because I always struggle.  The outcome does not match the effort for me.  Kate, when able, has a different ratio of effort to outcome and has a much better time.

A good run with no trips into the city.  That makes getting things done here much easier.

Kate’s in the calm before the storm, but it isn’t very calm, at least from a pain stand point.  This kind of pain, constant and intense, exacts a psychological toll as well as a physical one.  The pain requires, demands attention.  That is, after all, the point of pain.  Hey.  You.  Pay.  Attention. Now.  That attention adds a level of stress to all daily activities.  Also, at 65 any infirmity at all raises questions of mortality, of fitness for life as we’ve known it.

This is the right decision at the right time after two + years of exhausting less drastic and nominally invasive procedures.

Art and Culture, Weather +Climate

Cozy

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Fall                                Waning Blood Moon

As the outside work wanes, the inside work increases.  This and that on the Sierra Club, getting ready for the upcoming legislative session.  Preparing multiple tours at the MIA while reading the fat Louvre catalog.  Keeping up with the blog. Getting ready for Kate’s surgery and recovery.

This all dovetails nicely with the nesting instinct that always strikes when the first snowfall and cold snap hits.  It was a record snowfall for October 12th and the temperature remains low today.  Forecasts portend more snow.

As I sat in my study yesterday working on the Asia tours, it felt snug, cozy.  The study has a small gas stove and I lit it, read object files and watched the snow come down.  A perfect day for a library rat like me.

Politics

Obama’s Prize and Other Thoughts

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Fall                                      Waning Blood Moon

See below for big omission**

So Obama got the Peace Prize.  I happen to agree with those who say he got the, “I’m not George Bush.” prize.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  I also agree with those who say that his accomplishments, re: peace, have been underwhelming. Perhaps the prize is prospective.

I am not among those disappointed by Obama’s performance so far, though my reason is general skepticism about the capacity of Presidents to deliver political realities close to my heart.

Specifically, we need universal health coverage with a single payer.  Why?  Oh, c’mon.  Even if you don’t want it for self-interested reasons,  you know why.  We need to pull back from engagement in counter-insurgency warfare.  We don’t know how to conduct these wars without tripping over ourselves.  See Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan.  Financial services must get regulation of a type we can and will enforce.  Why?  Again, c’mon. Back to Glass-Steagall at least.

We need sustained and increased funding for higher education since the fate of US prominence in world affairs lies in the realm of technological advancement.  See this article if you disagree.  We also must clean up and shore up Medicare and Social Security.  Again, you already know why.

We also need real and dramatic action vis a vis global warming.  The means are not so important to me though the carbon tax seems to make the most sense.  My only thought about those who disagree with this one is that perhaps they should buy up all that beachfront property.  That would put their money where their mouth is and either they would become fabulously rich or very wet.  Guess which one I think is more probable.

I happen to think, though this is debatable (yes, I really believe the others are not), that a large investment in America’s aging infrastructure is a good idea.

Why are all of these ideas so difficult to realize?  Oh, let me count the whys.  Chief among them is a method of selecting political representatives that got broke long, long ago.  Right up there with this one is the impact of money and interest group politics on the political process after elections.  Another has a corollary in the financial markets:  our cycles of accountability in politics:  2 and 6 years are too short for the magnitude of  these problems.  Thus, solutions experience time-shifting rather than resolution.  And so, ad absurdum.

**Good health may have less to do with our health-care system than you think

I neglected to mention poverty.  The class disparity.  My own recipe here is banks and economic development corporations focused on poor neighborhoods and towns, helping to nurture community-based businesses that provide living wage jobs.  An earned income tax credit–proposed by Richard Nixon–would help, too.

US History, Weather +Climate, World History

Vietnam

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Fall?                                       Waning Blood Moon

Woke up again this morning to snow covered trees and lawn.  The snow hasn’t let up since then, but no snow accumulates on the roads and driveways and sidewalks.  We’re still warm at ground level.

The truck had passed the 3,000 mile mark for an oil change a couple of weeks ago, so I got it in to Carlson’s today.

While I was there, a Vietnamese man sat down and we got to talking.  He’s lived here 20 years. “I go back 2-3 years to visit my family.  They live in Saigon City.  No job.  Poor.”  In his opinion Toyota stopped making good vehicles about 8-9 years ago.  Now “they make them all over.   China.  Vietnam.  Korea.  Everywhere.  Quality not as good.”  He’s here primarily to earn money for his family since a job there often pays $40-50 U.S. a month.

We talked about Cambodia for a bit.  “Not safe.  Americans who live there left.  There a lot of Americans in Saigon City.  Looks like a small American city right in Saigon City.”  He went on, “After 1975, American’s left.  Ten years they’re back with their families.”

After he left, I worked on a tour for the MIA.  The subject matter?  Asian art.

Family, Garden, Memories, Sport

The Day So Far

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Fall                                       Waning Blood Moon

Over to Joann Fabrics this morning to pick up some butterfly brocade for a dress Kate will make for Ruth.  As the only guy in line to have fabric cut, I had a chance to observe the female of the species in one of her traditional habitats.  The woman in front of me had on a pink fleece and nice pink bow in her hair.  She also stood about thirty feet behind the cutting counter, making those of us behind her stand right smack in the aisle where people pushed their carts.  I see this same behavior sometimes at traffic lights where someone (gender not at issue) chooses to wait three car lengths behind the next car.  What’s up with that?

When I got home, I plucked the decorative squash from the vine, then went over to the black beans still on the vine and gathered them into one of our large woven harvest baskets.  That’s the end of the harvest.  As the WCCO weather guy put it in the  paper this morning, the growing season is over.

After this I made a sugar cream pie, a Hoosier recipe I learned.  It’s a childhood favorite and it pops up in my need to have box once in a while. It has four ingredients:  flour, sugar, butter and cream.  Easy to make and no nutritional value at all.  But boy is it tasty.

Spent a couple of hours watching the Vikes beat the Rams.  They looked pretty good.  Won 38-10.  Tavaris Jackson passed for a touchdown late in the 4th quarter.  That’s a hopeful sign.

Politics

Bachmann makes ‘Worst Person in the World’ list, again

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Fall                                                     Waning Blood Moon

Isn’t representative democracy wonderful?

By Ken Ronnan | Published Thu, Oct 8 2009 3:25 pm
michele-bachmann-cuhrazy
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tops MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” list again, this time for comments she made on Fox News Radio about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi getting violent.

Art and Culture, Dogs, Faith and Spirituality, Sport

Dogfood, O.D. and Football

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Fall                                                    Waning Blood Moon

He loaded 10 bags of 40 pound dogfood and the straw boss said, well bless my soul.  This is what Tennessee Ernie Ford would have sung if he’d been with me on my trip to Costco this morning.  I like to make fewer trips when I run errands so this time I stocked up on dogfood.

The nice lady that counts the objects against your receipt took a look at my cart and my gray hair, “Do you need some help?”   Nope, I could handle it just fine.  A few years back I used to resent this kind of heavy lifting, in particular rock salt for the water softener and dogfood.  Now I look on it as an opportunity to tone up the muscles.  It’s part of my resistance work out for the day.

I shifted today from the garden to the desk, spending a couple of hours puzzling over how to organize a conversation for a congregation that wants to consider its future.  This is very different work from harvesting potatoes or planting garlic.  Not finished yet.  It has to set a bit.  Percolate, as Kate likes to say.

In addition I have to put together an Asian tour for next Friday.  At the same time I’ll design a Southeast and South Asian tour since I’ll be able to use some similar objects.  That’ll be tomorrow morning.

The Vikes play the Rams  tomorrow.  The Rams now have the longest losing streak of any NFL team.  Detroit won last week and lifted that burden from their franchise.  No team in the NFL is a push over because the NFL has only elite athletes, some a bit more elite than others, some a bit younger, others more experienced.  The combination means that on any given sunday (yes, there was a movie.) any one team can beat another.  I hope the Vikes win convincingly and shore up their pass defense while getting Adrian a 100+ yard day.

After the Rams, the Vikings play the Ravens at home, then go on the road for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers.  That will be a tough stretch.  If they do well in those three games, they will move up in the power rankings.

Weather +Climate

Like A Snowball Rolling Down Hill

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Fall                                       Waning Blood Moon

The change of seasons has picked up some momentum in the past couple of days with two hard freezes in a row, then snow last night.  We’re not in late fall yet, that won’t come until November, so we could still have Indian summer, but for now, we’ve moved into meteorlogical simulacrum of early November.

It changes the feeling here.  Jackets come out, gloves go on, stocking caps replace billed caps.  There is, too, the phenomenon I used to notice most at Macalester College when I  lived in St. Paul.  One day with below freezing temps and certain Mac students would walk the streets in heavy down coats, hoods up, scarfs around the neck and insulated mittens.  Often, they would have special winter boots.  These were the wealthy kids from points south whose parents grew worried when they realized their darling would have to bear a Minnesota winter.   Freshman to a person, I’m a sure.

As for myself, I love to have on warm clothing when it’s cold outside.  The air braces me, kick starts the mental engines.  The combination of a warm torso and a cold face is a pleasure others–those outside the cold belt–would have a hard time understanding.

The snow blower got its mechanical freak on in May so it’s ready.  The furnace went on here today, set at 59.  We’ve had almost three weeks with no heating and no cooling.