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Mar and Gar's Adventures

Just another weblog

Closer To Home

I am writing this at Crescent City on the northern California coast….very close to the Oregon border.   A slighly humerous note about finding an RV Park here… we drove around and around looking for the one we both remembered from the last time we spent a night here and then found out later at dinner that the tsunami that hit in 2011 took it out.  No wonder we couldn’t find it!

Back to our journeys.  I didn’t give a lot of details about our boat ride on the lake and then up river to see the Bryants.  It was great being on a boat on a perfect day.  Even when in the lake you had better know where you are going or follow your charts carefully as there are areas of very shallow water that sneak up on you.   Bill had done the trip before but with the owner of the boat so we probably were a bit more cautious.   The scenery was amazing.  We really enjoyed the ride.

I mentioned last time that we were going to go stay in an RV park where the Bryants were staying which was about 25 minutes from Lake Havasu.  (Well, it was 2 hours by boat!)  They had discovered Moabi Regional Park by Pirates Cove.  I believe it was technically in California but it gets really confusing.  Just ask our cell phones.  The time zone would change if you moved a few feet one way or the other.

Anyway, the park has peninsulas that anywhere from 2 to 8 rvs can park with full hook-up.  We got a spot at a peninsula next to Bryants.  We ended up staying two nights.   What we learned was if you want peaceful, stay during the week.  If you want partying, be there on a weekend.  We did a bit of both and enjoyed it all.  We plan on coming back to this park next year for sure.

Garry took me for a ride in the dunes on Bill Bryant’s side by side otherwise known as an off road vehicle.  I don’t remember the make.  All I know is I did not like it, will never do it again… scared the you know what out of me.  Zooming up and down scary hills just is not going to be my thing!

We borrowed Bill Bryant’s truck one day and drove about 45 miles to Bullhead City to check on our property.  We are thinking of putting it officially on the market.  Prices are starting to rebound there so we are doing homework on real estate agencies, etc.

We left Moabi at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday because we wanted to be somewhere to watch the Daytona 500 which started at 1:00 east coast time.  So, we drove 4 hours to Pahrump, Nevada.  Gotta say, driving through Las Vegas at 8:00 a.m. is the time to do it!   No traffic so smooth sailing.

Weather started changing near Pahrump… temperatures dropped, rain started.   We watched the race (well, OK, I slept through a lot of it) and had pizza that night and watched the Oscars (OK, Gar slept throught most of that!)   We woke to hear that it had snowed in Vegas and surrounding areas.  We had no snow but all the mountains had a fresh coat.  It was 18 degrees out when we woke up!   What happened to our 80 degree Arizona weather.

After Pahrump it was trying to figure out where to be for my birthday.  We ended up at a great RV park in Sparks and walked to a nearby casino.  We had a wonderful dinner in their steakhouse, drank too much champagne and gambled a bit too much too.  But isn’t that what birthdays are for?

The next day, after a little later start than normal, we fueld up and headed toward Susanville and then over to Yreka.

Speaking of fuel… dummy me.  I had forgotten all about the app Gas Buddy until just before Pahrump.  I downloaded it and it was wonderful.  Just a little click has now found us the cheapest gas in town and surrounding areas.   So far it has proven very accurate and helpful!

After a nice quiet night in Yreka, yesterday we headed to the California coast on one of our favorite routes, the Old Redwoods Highway, Hwy 96.  The trip distance to Arcata on the coast is about the same miles as the newer highway but takes more than twice as long due to twisty turns and slower speeds and lots of stops to take pictures.  That sad part of this drive and the one from Susanville to Yreka was seeing all of the damage down by recent forest fires.

So last night we ended up in Crescent City and went out to a nice seafood dinner and a quiet night back in the RV.  Today we will cross into Oregon with no destination yet in mind.  I guess wherever the road takes us.   The weather this morning is sunny with some clouds and no wind so a great day to be driving the coast.

We will be home some time this weekend.  What a great trip it has been!

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The Week After Mexico

We left Mexico and drove all of about 40 miles to a little spot in the road called Why. Two miles east is a little (and I mean really little) casino with an RV park behind it. We spent a quiet night there while I got our laundry caught up. The next day’s was all of 10 miles or so back to Ajo where we had another peaceful night. The next day we headed to Yuma. First we had to fuel up in Gila Bend and I saw the funniest thing. Gila Bend is pretty much a hot and dusty crossroads for I-8 and I-95, so fuel, fast food and a couple motels and restaurants and that is pretty much it. While we were fueling I looked over at the Carl’s Jr burger place and spotted 4 Tesla charging stations. Maybe it is me, but it really seemed a pretty funny place for that!

We spent a few days in Yuma and got to catch up with our McQuade friends who are spending several months this winter at their home there. It is their first year with both Tim and Glenda being retired and they are really enjoying it. We were also able to spend some time with Bette McQuade and her friend Buzz.

We left Yuma and spent a couple nights in Parker, Arizona. The first night we dry camped in the parking lot of the Blue Water Casino. Free, right? Not so much when you add up what we lost playing blackjack that night!!! The next night we moved all of about 1/2 mile to the Blue Water RV park. We got a great spot very close to the river and found out that they were setting up for some drag boat racing in the upcoming days. Gar was bummed that we would be gone by then.

Whew! The days are speeding along. After Parker we headed to Lake Havasu City to spend a few days with Des Moines friends, Jan and Bill Lande. They had just arrived a couple days earlier and will be staying for about 6 weeks in a house they rented. Day one with them was pretty relaxing with dinner in. Jan has been without a voice for a month despite lots of medicines and visits to doctors. So when she whispers we all kinda start talking super soft, too. She is seeing a specialist here to try to figure things out.

We are almost caught up. Today is Friday the 20th. Yesterday we took the boat that Landes are allowed to use when here and we headed up the lake and then up the Colorado River to Pirates Cove and met up with Bill and Judy Bryant who are camped there on the river. We missed seeing other yacht club friends by a few days. Anyway, it was getting late in the day so we moored the boat there at a marina, had dinner, the used Bryant’s truck to drive back to Havasu. Today Gar and I will take the RV to the park where the Bryants are and we will get their truck back to them. Jan and Bill will drive up with their SUVS and the boat trailer and tow it back to Havasu. Complicated? Kind of. But it all made sense last night.

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More Mexico Adventures

Days two and three of our Mexico adventure started out pretty good. Gar had some issues with the Honda Trail 90 – a dirty carburetor – but he soon fixed it and rode it around and it seemed fine. So I got up my courage to ride on the back and we headed down to a little town a few miles away that he had found the the day before. Many of you know that riding on any kind of motorcycle – even the Trail 90 – is not my favorite thing to do. But the little town was on a well packed dirt road and we couldn’t go very fast so I did really good.

We went to a place called JJ’s that Gar had seen before and down on the beach were some vendors selling all sorts of things. NFL is big down there and so there were ceramic crafts such as plates, platters, cups, etc. with different NFL team logos. I spotted a Seahawk backpack like we saw someone wear when we were back during our Super Bowl fun times in Phoenix so I had to have it!

When we got back on the bike it would not start. Nothing would work. Garry and a local guy pushed it up a hill 3 times and he tried to compression start it but no luck. Luckily I had spotted a family in JJs that were staying in our RV park. They had 3 off road vehicles and a truck, so they loaded the bike and Gar and me in the truck and took us back. After much work and a few calls to motor guy Brian back at home we determined that the coil had probably bit the dust. So that meant no more bike the rest of the trip. A coil for a 1970 Honda Trail Bike is not so easy to come by.

At the RV park there were some vendors that walked by each day trying to sell their stuff. While we were there we bought fresh prawns from Manuel several times. The prawns are absolutely delicious. It is weird – their shells are much softer and easier to peel than ours but the meat is sweeter and firmer. What we call XL size prawns in Canada they call medium. Their large ones are like huge scampi or small lobster! And they taste a lot like lobster. Saturday night I cooked some panko breaded prawns and fixed a salad and we called it good!

Sunday we had to unhook the motorhome and drive it into town since the bike was toast. There is a large free parking area just past the marina and at the beginning of the malecon so we parked and walked through a bunch of shops. We ended up in a bar (surprise!) and had a few margaritas and a huge plate of nachos. We really didn’t buy anything this day at the malecon but we did drive more into Puerto Penasco proper and hit a grocery store and Sam’s Club just to look around.

Everyone we met at our RV park was really nice and lots of fun to talk to. Surprisingly, there were few Canadians at this park but people from Washington, California, Alaska, Oregon, Kentucky, Utah…. We picked their brains on traveling deeper into Mexico because that is what we are thinking of doing next year.

Monday we went back down to the marina area and Garry decided to hire a boat to take him fishing. It was afternoon so not the best time to fish but it was a great looking day for it. So he packed some beverages and he and the captain headed out for about 4 hours of fishing. I parked the Rv back in the big public parking area and did some shopping and then waited for his return. They were back earlier than expected because they were catching so many fish Gar said STOP! They had not gone out to big fish fishing areas but instead stayed closer in so the caught lots of sea bass and flounder, etc. We split the fish with the captain and had fresh fish for dinner that night.

Tuesday Garry had hired a guy comes around and washes and waxes your RV for $1.50 a foot so we had that done. Of course several days later of some dusty roads it didn’t look quite that good but it sure did that day. Then I got very brave and went up for a flight on an ultra light. It was really fun and I took lots of pictures but hanging on and taking pictures didn’t always work so great. I have a few of just sky or just water. I would do it again in a flash.

Tuesday night we went back to Mare Blu for dinner. Our waiter from Friday, Gilbert, was happy to see us and played a huge joke on us. The first night we were there they were out of the inexpensive champagne that we wanted and he had promised he would have it if we came back. He was so sad because he had looked everywhere in town – even Sam’s Club – and couldn’t find any. So while we were deciding what to order he disappeared and then magically appeared with the champagne and an ice bucket. Too funny. Then instead of trying to decide what to order we told him that he and the chef can pick out anything they want for us – with two rules. 1. I don’t eat raw, so it had to be cooked and 2. bring us separate things so we can taste each others food. It was a great dinner and lots of fun.

We also went back to Wrecked at the Reef one day for lunch. They remembered us from Friday night – especially Garry’s dancing skills. At least he didn’t dance on a table and get us kicked out on Friday!

Wednesday we headed back to Arizona – very happy that we went to Mexico and are already planning our trip for next year.

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Mexico – Day 1

Ever since we decided to go south this winter with the motorhome, Garry has wanted to go into Mexico.  We did some research at home before we left and asked around a lot.  It was decided for a first time we would go to Puerto Penasco (aka Rocky Point).   It is about 80 miles or so south on the mainland side of the Baja.  From Ajo it was only a few hours.   We had been given the name of a reputable RV park and when we called they said they had some vacancies but none right on the ocean so off we went.

We crossed the border at Lukeville, Arizona into Sononyta, Mexico.  Lukeville is just a blip.  The Mexico customs was easy.  They just waved us through.  But we were prepared in case they chose to stop us and go through the RV.   We were totally legal with absolutely everything.  It would be stupid to take chances.   We also had purchased the almost mandatory Mexican car insurance before we crossed the border.  It was almost disappointing that we weren’t questioned about anything.   It took a few minutes to drive through the bustling little town, then off we went on the nice highway to Puerto Penasco.   We got there with no problems but my cell phone didn’t immediately lock into signals and neither did our gps in the rv so we got into town and didn’t know where to go.  In addition, the main street into town was all torn up so we had to navigate around – still not knowing where we were going.   We found the marina and the malecon but found out that we needed to head north to where the RV parks and resorts are so fortunatley the signs started to make sense and we got to Playa Bonita RV Park.   It is a large (300 stall) RV park and many people come year after year to it and stay for months.  Because it is an older RV park, the stalls are small and the large rigs these days make it very cramped quarters.   We paid for 2 mights ($24 per night) and decided that would give us time to look around and see if there was any other place we wanted to go.    I got us settled in and Gar took the Honda Trial 90 off the back of the motorhome and took off to explore.   He came back a couple hours later and said he had found “The Place For US!!!”  It was further north but not full and we could be on the beach.   We decided to lose a days payment and leave the next day, but after about 5 minutes I said – NO, let’s go now!   So we packed up and left.

The new place is the Reef Rv Park.  I don’t know how he found it because it is off on a dirt road but it was perfect for us.  Larger spaces and we were right on the beach with not neighbors on either side.  The park was about  1/3 full.  The spaces were full hook-up, meaning sewer, water and power.  The manager, Gus, didn’t charge us for our first night because we didn’t get a refund at Playa Bonita.  We said we would stay at least 3 days, maybe longer but he only made us pay for two.  The waterfront lots were $35 a night.  There was a nice little mini market there (we bought ice daily) and a fabulous restaurant next door, the Mare Blu.  It is considered one of the best if not the best in Puerto Penasco.  Next to the restaurant was a great (large) bar called Wrecked at the Reef.  Since we arrived on Friday that means date night so we had a great dinner at Mare Blu then went dancing at Wrecked at the Reef.  They have live music on Fridays and Saturdays and the band was pretty good.   The drinks were better.

We walked back to our motorhome around 11:30 under a gorgeous sky filled with stars like we see when we are in Canada on the boat in the summer.

To be continued.


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The Last Policeman

The Last Policeman

Book - 2012
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When the Earth is doomed by an imminent and unavoidable asteroid collision, New Hampshire homicide detective Hank Palace considers the worth of his job in a world destined to end in six months and investigates a suspicious suicide that nobody else cares about
Publisher: Philadelphia : Quirk Books, c2012
ISBN: 9781594745768
Characteristics: 316 p. ; 21 cm

From Library Staff

Underground Airlines led me to plunge into Winters' cleverly plotted pre-apocalyptic police procedural trilogy. ---Mark, reference

From the critics

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Sep 09, 2017

This book is incredibly depressing. The concept is interesting: How would you live your life if you knew a giant asteroid would hit earth in six months? Because the entire world knows this will happen, civilization is falling apart long before the asteroid hits. The protagonist of the book is a young police detective, still on the job, who is determined to solve a crime and bring the person responsible to justice. (Though everyone else in the book seems to think it hardly matters, as everyone is going to die anyway.)

I really did not care about any of the characters, and the hopelessness that people experienced facing the end of the world was really draining. Personally, our current times provide more than enough depressing news without looking for more in fiction. I am not going to read the rest of this trilogy and I am going to avoid apocalyptic fiction, at least until our real news cheers up (which does not look likely any time soon).

Sep 06, 2017

Would you try to solve a murder if you knew the planet was going to be destroyed in a few short months?

I liked this not for the characters, but for the whole psychological aspect of how one would live one's life knowing that the Earth will most definitely be destroyed. Puts faith to the test! Fascinating way to shake up a straightforward mystery novel.

SCL_Justin Jul 28, 2017

It's fairly rare for me to read a straight-up mystery (and not some sort of science fiction noir type thing) but that’s exactly what Ben Winters’ The Last Policeman is. A man died in the bathroom of a McDonald’s. The newly-minted detective is the only person who doesn’t think it was a suicide. Investigation ensues.

The only complication is that in just over 6 months the world as we know it will end when Earth is hit by a huge asteroid.

So the book is a twisty little mystery involving insurance fraud and drugs and bad coffee in police briefing rooms, but also a look at why even do police-work when the world will soon be ending. Who really cares how one person ended up dead when six months from now everyone will be.

Now that little complication might, in your mind, vault the book into the science fiction category, but it really isn’t. The asteroid is affecting people because they’re all aware of their mortality, but it’s not causing tidal waves or changing the weather or making people flee to the Himalayas or shooting Bruce Willis off into space. It’s something that’s happening, just like war is something that happens in other stories.

I really liked the book even though it’s not my usual science fiction and in spite of the fact it’s the first in a trilogy. (SPOILER: The case is resolved and the book ends still many months before the asteroid hits, leaving room for the next books to remain pre-apocalyptic).

Jan 24, 2017

Kansas City Public Library- former leader of "Best Sellers" Book Club, found this book cover and title interesting didn't think too much about it, but WOW, a mystery murder case while the world is ending and nobody is don't their job anymore except this dedicated police officer who unravels a conspiracy! This accidental joy created such a stir with the group, that we immediately request other Ben Winter titles. Another unanimous agreement from the diverse Best Sellers Book Club! We highly recommend this title! Enjoy!

Feb 16, 2016

This was a refreshing change from the usual murder mystery (or science fiction) novel. A huge asteroid is hurtling towards earth and will hit in about six months time. Civilized behavior is starting to unravel; the economy is also in disarray. Detective Hank Palace continues working in the adult crimes division as he tries to determine if a "hanger" was actually murdered. A "hanger" is a person who had committed suicide by hanging - a popular form of death in this particular town. Perhaps Palace is just putting his head in the sand by continuing to live life just as he did before the news of the asteroid collision, or maybe he is the only one handling the crisis in a positive way.
I am interested in reading the next two books in this series: Countdown City and World of Trouble. There is also talk of the novels becoming a television series. Ben Winters also wrote "Bedbugs".

Nov 07, 2015

One of the best detective novels I have read.

KateHillier Oct 01, 2015

This one that kept popping up for me and something that I always ended up putting up on the back burner. I am very, very pleased that I finally read the thing. At first glance it's a standard sounding police procedural mystery. There's a suicide that Detective Hank Palace is convinced is actually a murder and his superiors are not supportive of him at all. It's one man standing for truth and justice against the odds. Sounds very generic except for one big thing: in the world of this novel there is an asteroid that is for sure going to hit the Earth and kill everyone in six months. People are running off to do what they always wanted to do, society is basically crumbling in this knowledge, and so everyone doesn't bother investigating suicides anymore since everyone really does it.

Palace's commitment to truth seeking and justice is especially admirable and special here in a world where the unspoken question is "why bother when we're all going to be dead soon anyway?" Palace treats this fact as more of an inconvenience and not as any sort of excuse not to do his job. A job that is in fact what he has always wanted to do.

It's a gripping novel and I am thrilled to see that it is a trilogy. Sign me up for the next two please!

Aug 31, 2015

This was a slow read. Interesting concept but writing style was hard to follow. I plan on reading the two other books.

Aug 03, 2015

Much better than I expected. The story is engrossing and well-written.

Mar 17, 2015

This book isn't going anywhere but for the end which is a bit muddled. The comet intrigue isn't any part of the story either. Kind of a very unsteady balance between boring, very boring and not very exiting.

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Aug 12, 2014

mrjmoskau thinks this title is suitable for 16 years and over

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weather at Vauvert, France

Translate- it works!

Like to follow this blog...? After a few 'unwanted' e-mails I'm afraid you will have to become a fo

For your information.

After a few 'unwanted and unnecessary e-mails I'm sorry, but to place a comment you will now have to become a 'FOLLOWER" - People can be and are nasty creatures.
At the bottom of this Blog I've put 4 links - on the right hand side - They will take you to various news sites from various countries. Keep up to date.....! The same links are just below.
Due to poor health, I have decided to use this site mainly, and the site below for some of my postings....just click on it and choose the article to read from the list!
I'm to be found on 'Facebook' as 'Ian Mitchell' and......
I've started using "Twitter" (mr le Marquis) much more, and you can be a part of it. On all my Websites you'll find, somewhere (generally at the top of the page) "Twitter Updates"- This gives you links to click on which will take you to interesting things....Try it!
This site is OPTIMIZED for use with Google Chrome. It may be that users of Internet Explorer will have difficulties to read the text - change to Chrome or Firefox - they're better and safer anyway.
All photos and articles are available as free downloads for individuals. Commercial users please contact:
To view/download a photo in original size, click on the photo and the page should open- This does NOT always apply to the photos in the side bar, with the exception of the Slideshow.
To make it easier for you (you may have to go to 'listen live' etc):
A General link - choose from various radio news stations in English....
Or in French:
Or in German.....

A little trip through life

Come and take a little trip with me - through my life and with a few other people as well.....You can listen to the music if you don't like the photos....!
Jan/ian (Mr le Marquis - Iwmpop ) Personal Slideshow: Ian’s trip from Le Creusot, Burgundy, France to Nîmes was created by TripAdvisor. See another Nîmes slideshow. Create your own stunning slideshow with our free photo slideshow maker.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Estimate Details - Language Translation Services - Online Translations - Translation Site - Click2Translate

Estimate Details - Language Translation Services - Online Translations - Translation Site - Click2Translate
Jeeeeeez! Look at this- and I got paid 150 Euros - All for my damned Passport!
NOTED LATER: The translation estimate was 1632 Euros, for French to English (didn't mention the French to German), in Excel Format!
I was asked to inform them if I wanted to proceed, or if I had had enough! Of course, as soon as I clicked "had enough" the page was no longer available - nowhere! I suppose I could have printed it out, if I had any printer ink left, but I used it all up printing out my Translations for 150 euros!
Never mind - you'll have to take my word for it! Now, all Translations I do will be Copyright protected!!

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The truth in love

Ephesians 4:15
We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ.

Don’t waste your time giving subtle hints that he won’t understand: Speak plainly to him. Be honest about your feelings, and don’t bottle things up until you burst. If he asks you what’s wrong, don’t respond with “nothing” and then expect him to read your mind and emotions. Be open about how you really feel.
Katelyn Carmen

We don’t always find it easy to be assertive and share our true feeling with our spouses.  Openness and honesty always pays off when practiced in love.  Start practicing this by sharing your feelings about the little things.  Before you know it you will be comfortable tackling the big issues with the one you love.

Recommended resource: 5 ways you are unknowingly destroying your husband and killing your marriage by Katelyn Carmen

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Travel through time with TIME FRAME, my Debut Science Fiction Novel

time frame cover

If you like time travel stories and exciting science fiction adventures, you might enjoy my novel TIME FRAME.

It’s my debut science fiction novel and it’s still available both as an EBook from NeconEbooks at, and as a print paperback edition at, or at

I wrote TIME FRAME with the spirit of time travel movies and TV shows in mind, films like THE TIME MACHINE (1960), TIME AFTER TIME (1979), and any number of STAR TREK episodes.  If you enjoy time travel adventures, chance are you’ll enjoy TIME FRAME.

Writing TIME FRAME was a challenge because it’s a story with multiple timelines and I had to make sure that by the story’s end that they all made sense.  I think they do.  I also wanted to take things as far as possible, to write a story where I took those traditional time travel tropes and blew them out of the water.  Not sure if I succeeded, but the story does include a large explosion on the high seas.

I also didn’t want my science fiction tale to be cold and stoic.  I wanted heated and emotional, which is why I wrote as my main characters a close family, with the thought in mind:  how far would you go to protect your family?  Would you break the rules of time travel to save your loved ones?

This one also started with a single idea. I had recently lost my own grandfather, who I was very close to, and I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I just wanted to see him one more time.  And so I came up with the single scene of a young man opening his front door and finding his grandfather standing there looking perfectly normal, which the man knew had to be impossible because his grandfather was dead.  This scene was the genesis for TIME FRAME, and I built the story around that, as I thought about possible scenarios that could make this scene true.  What could account for a man who had been dead for several years returning to his loved ones looking happy and healthy again?  The answer became the novel TIME FRAME.

TIME FRAME remains available as an Ebook and can be ordered for $2.99 at

You can also order a print paperback edition for $14.99 at, or at, or you can order it directly through me by sending me an email at

Thanks for reading!

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The Razor

The sun sits in the high sky heavily, baring its molten lead glory upon the earth. The cold piercing light, simmering heat radiates, and the merciless blue of a clear day serve as a backdrop to his blighted conscience, putting it in a stark contrast only he can see. It is harder to lie when it is bright. The night has become his refuge, hiding his sins in its comforting darkness, enfolding his tortured mind in its warm unjudging embrace.

Asleep all morning, it is well past midday, he notices the razor. His eyes for some unarticulated yet fathomable reason travel to his left and to the low bedside table. He sees its precise edges and feels its stare travelling on his bare skin. Its swift kisses on the pulsing parts of his arms would lay his turmoil to rest.

He wonders why he has it. He remembers, the flower of his sadness-addled memory blossoming slowly. He had bought a cigarette, just one, with a ten-shilling coin, and the shopkeeper did not have the five bob change, nor chewing gum or Tropical. In his nicotine-deprivation agitation, he took the razor. As these events come back to him, he cannot help but think he saw a slash of a smile on the shopkeeper’s face. But, not a smile, a mixture of a sneer and something else, some emotion, the name of which escapes him.

His body is slowly waking up and he wonders why he did not just get two cigarettes, one for supper and one for breakfast. Because he would have smoked them both and he relishes the single slowly-smoked cigarette (you see if you have only one cigarette, you will savour every lungful) and the long walk to the shop every morning (the physical moving gets his mental moving). But, only in the morning. It is anything but morning. He can almost hear the sun breathing out fire and the subdued land twisting and whispering for help in agony.

His thoughts grow louder and fatter the more alert he becomes as if feeding on his wakefulness. Sleep is one of the few places he can run to. Sleep runs away from him, going faster and further as time unspools. He takes longer and longer to catch up to it, weighed down by the heavy mind he has to carry.

He thinks back to an innocent time. Tears choke him as he remembers. It was only two weeks ago. Time is an illusion. It feels like it was a time before time. Two-three drops come loose. In the blur, the razor again, its outline gentler. Why was it out of its packet? He removed it. It called out to him to undress it and set it free. It is not completely free. Some minor business remains. He lets his mind drift there. How simple, how so so simple it is.

Sitting up, he reaches out and picks it up. He smells the cold tang of metal as he brings it to his nose. Metal heated, shaped, then cooled, unrecognizable from its former form. He wishes he were so easily forgeable and malleable, taking his direction from great machinery beyond his comprehension and control.

Being what he is and from where he is, only choice is available to him. Many many choices. Every waking moment is a fight, a struggle within himself to constantly shake off the lethargy of molasses days. Time crawls, one moment becoming another becoming a same other. Indifferent and undifferent. He has to pick a few from the plethora. It occurs to him how lucky he is. He has enough choices to overwhelm him. Such are his troubles.

Was it worth it? Everything and everyone around him say yes. The lady at the car showroom now looks him in the eye. His old university crush calls to find out how his days are going. His old colleague who went into “business” and has the low-down on an opportunity. The mortgage agent who never used to look at him is now chipper when he walks into the bank.

Everyone except the ones he was doing it for. His world shattered when his parents found out. People tend to find these things out eventually. His eventually was too short. Information is a chained wolf. It always breaks free. He is caught in its inexorable jaws. Mum was gentle, but their relationship has become strained. Papa has refused to talk to him. The consultancy gig paid really really well, Papa. Mum, now I can get you the new fridge you wanted. Thanksgiving Sunday is coming. The church at home needs windows. No.

At least she expressed her disapproval aloud. In one succinct word. Silence kills him slowly, the uncertainty after the fact. He will take a clamouring, a moral tongue-lashing like the ones that defined his teenage-hood. Any noise from them to quell the creeping hollowness. His emotions ricochet off the walls built by his misguided dreams, further swallowing him in the mounting black echo his inner world has become.

The small piece of metal provides a way out. He has lost them. He cackles at the irony. Disgust. The thing dancing in the shadows of the shopkeeper’s face. It comes to him as he caresses the inner patterns of the razor. She is an old neighbour from his parents’ home if he can still call the place he was crystallized home. He is sure she knows. She knows. She is routinely friendly. Yesterday she was icy. Can he live with the vision of her face and its creases constantly reminding him of himself?

Lost in himself, he cuts his index finger. Deeply. Feeling something drip down his hand, he snaps to and notices the crimson spring on his hand. Acid pain follows. He did not feel the metal’s deep kiss. A few quick flicks here and there and the sleep he has been chasing will come to him. Sleep and eternity. Any way out. He does not know how to go back. Not now. He welcomes any way out.

One thought on “The Razor

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One Plus Two = Jellybeans!

Non sequitur (Latin for “it does not follow”), in formal logic, is an argument in which its conclusion does not follow from its premises. In a non sequitur, the conclusion could be either true or false, but the argument is fallacious because there is a disconnection between the premise and the conclusion.  (Wikipedia).

We are still basking in the glory of Moving Maryland Forward.  It is now teetering precariously on the edge of the cliff of our Progressive black hole.  One little push and over they go, and we will be in control forever!

Sorry Sheeple.  We cut back on parachutes due to the evil Republican sequester.

MOM is masterful at “disconnecting the premise from the conclusion,” and he non-sequitured all over the place to justify making Maryland one of the top liberal states in the country.

Here are a few examples:

Crazy person goes on shooting spree in another state = oppressive gun legislation levied on law-abiding citizens to prevent it from happening here.  If we have your guns, the crazies won’t be able to steal any and shoot people.

Hurricaine Sandy hits the East Coast = assessment of Storm Water fees on every single working person and business (which could cost them tens of thousands of dollars).  We are now taxing rain!

Unemployment is up, cost of living is up, Maryland is one of the highest tax states in the country = raising gas and other taxes to build rozenbrigez for you to travel on, if you still have a job and can afford the gas. LOL

Death Penalty does not work because we never use it = Repeal the Death Penalty because we never use it so it does not work.

Sophisticated technology called fracking can inexpensively and safely create fossil fuels to reduce gas and energy costs = set up a wind farm in OC.

And the Sheeple just love our  “logic,”  especially when we sweeten it with simple sound bites like it will create jobs, lower taxes, care for the elderly/poor/children/environment/animals, cure cancer, bring peace on earth, and clear up acne.  They buy it all.

I’m here to vote for all the democrats.  Um, maybe you can do it for me?   I just can’t miss The View.

We have even trained them to viscerally despise Republicans.  (Hat Tip – Saul Alinsky)

I hate you, you haters!  I hate you R things so much that I even hate the letter R.

We have brainwashed taught them to believe that Republicans:

Love:  money, status, golf and tennis, boating, nice cars and houses, money, themselves, Nordstroms, war, white men and blond hair, Wall Street, money

Hate:  poor people, old people, young people, women, babies, undocumented workers, clean air, animals, mother nature, gays, muslims, and everything that we believe in

So, our goal is to get all of the Rs out of Maryland.  We have basically made that happen electionwise with our clever gerrymandering.  But that still didn’t stop their smelly little protests and endless whiney speeches.  Maybe just a few more years of putting up with them and they will all finally go!

Just leave, elephants, you are messing up our Utopia.

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Maryland Matters

The premier site for news about Maryland government and politics

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Morning Mashup 09/14

Don’t Let the Media Control Your Experience of Election 2016 – Trevin Wax: “When Christians fall captive to clickbait and jump from candidate to candidate depending on the polls, we abandon our responsibility as thoughtful and convictional people.”

5 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Dating Relationship – Tim Challies: “Dating has become the most difficult thing in the world, probably because they’ve got a million books and web pages telling them how. They can’t just do it—they’ve got to do it by the book. And along the way they are ruining their dating relationships.”

Greetings from Heaven – A very helpful infographic detailing the recent phenomena of near-death experiences.

5 Ways to Talk to Your Children about Death – As a children’s pastor, I’m always looking for helpful advice in speaking to children about difficult issues. This is great.

On the Viral Rise of Divorce Selfies – Tragic.

Planned Failure – Jim DeMint: “The fight to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood will be just that: a fight. And like all the struggles to return sanity and respect for human life and decency to our government, it will be a tough one.  But conservatives should fight to win, not plan to fail.”

Keeping the Spotlight on Planned Parenthood – Stephen Heaney: “Do not be distracted by misdirection. Do not let the horror of abortion be the main issue. Stick to the pertinent facts: Planned Parenthood is profiting from the sale of fetal parts. Planned Parenthood is routinely violating federal law. Planned Parenthood does not care about women.”

A Calvinist Evangelist? – Keith Mathison: “The fact of the matter is that Calvinism is not inconsistent with evangelism; it is only inconsistent with certain evangelistic methods.”

Djokovic Clinches 2nd US Open Title – This was a great match for a couple sets. Federer lost momentum. A thing you just can’t lose against Djokovic.

NFL Scores (Week 1) – Scores from Week 1 NFL action.

Before the throne absolved we stand / Your love has met your law’s demands –Edith Margaret Clarkson

One thought on “Morning Mashup 09/14

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On The Road Again

Well it was a very emotional morning for me and I’m really not sure why I bothered putting on mascara because the tears washed it all away! We watched our last view of the hot air balloons flying by our bedroom window, tucked in Maxx’s slides and headed into our daughter’s house.

2016-07-29 -001- Hot Air Balloon

We said our goodbyes to our daughter, son-in-law and four of our grandchildren and are now heading to Abbotsford, BC to spend a few days at hubby’s sister’s place. Tomorrow we will enjoy an afternoon and evening with hubby’s mom, siblings, niece’s and nephews and all their significant others … a great way to start our trip.

Until next time …

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Some Day! One Day!

I am left with nothing to say;

Rejection has injected me in some way.

Maybe, I am thinking wrong;

But my heart is no more strong.

I am expecting so much these days;

But my situation has made me a slave.

Think of me once a day;

I’d be glad if you may.

Calling me will not be so unfair;

If you could do me something fair.

Change your mind one day;

And rest everything will fall back in its place.

Time will manage itself and stay;

Our love will blossom unlike yesterday.

It was a miracle I thought for a day;

But then it suddenly started to fade away.

I saw myself in the mirror that day;

And tried to picturise you in my pretty face.

Memories that you’ve built will always remain though you’ve walked away.

Still, I’ll wait if your heart called for me;

Some Day, One Day..!

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Posted by: mckenzie68 | August 31, 2011

Day 14 – WPFG Adventure – NYC to Chambersburg

WOW, another short night and I needed a Timmies bad, but I wanted to get on the road before NYC traffic got crazy.  So I was packed and ready to go by 05:30am!  I decided to take the Holland Tunnel off Manhattan Island and then head west to check out the Gettysburg Battleground which is in Pennsylvania.

I had studied the map, knew the highways to take, and had the Garmin GPS set up, no problems right?  LOL  For some reason my Garmin took me on a tour of New Jersey, and then back to Manhattan!  Although it took me through some interesting areas, the increase in traffic had me wanting the fastest way out of the mess I got myself in!  =D

I eventually found my way to Hwy 78 and took it westbound to Harrisburg and then south to Gettysburg.  I even found a fake of a German WWII Tiger1 tank!  I took a turn to get close to it, and ended up on a gravel road which eventually took me to the tank.  I knew that it was mocked up on a Russian T-34 tank (also WWII vintage) but it was cool to see that they got the turret pretty close, as well as the other details.  I was also aware that there were fake Tiger tanks used in Kelly’s Heros (old Clint Eastwood movie) as well as Saving Private Ryan, so I knew that this might be one of those knock offs!  Sure enough it was one of the ones built just for Saving Private Ryan!  Cool!!!  In the movie you can clearly see the plate in the front which is now missing and the number on the turret.  It is now part of a re-enactment society!

I continued on to the Gettysburg Battlefield Visitors Center & Museum.   I was met by a very knowledgeable park ranger as I walked the path from the parking lot to visitors center.  He was so interesting, and was able to provide me with a relatively brief outline of the battle, in one attack (Pickett’s charge) the Confederate Army lost 5,000 men in just over an hour.  The area where it took place during the civil war is massive and almost surrounds the entire town of Gettysburg!  There is about 1500 memorials/monuments and it is where Abraham Lincoln made his Gettysburg Address.  I thanked the ranger for his help and had a brief look inside the center, then made the decision to drive around checking out the battlefield.  I drove around for an hour and the ranger was right, it is an absolutely massive area where the battle (actually multiple battles) took place.  The pictures I took do not do it justice, suffice to say if your ever in the area, it is definitely a must see!

I was so tired that I needed to find a place to stay, the ride had been pleasant, but I was quickly losing concentration, so much so that it was not safe to be on the road.  I found a hotel in nearby Chambersburg, and booked myself in…first task, unpack, second task…HOT TUB!!!!  Oh yeah, I LOVE it!  It helped sooth my muscles and I had a little nap afterward.

I am not sure where I am going tomorrow, but I do know I will enjoy the adventure!

  1. It was great to read your blog, especially the section about the Catskills, which I know and love. It is hard knowing that the areas you saw may have now been devastated, and may well be under water. My friends who live up there are battling the conditions now.
    Unfortunately, the disorganization you experienced in the pistol events was even worse for the cyclists, as far as I know. And it wasn’t because of the hurricane.
    I am glad you had a good experience in NYC, even though the Bronx was a bit hairy.

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Media Theory for the 21st Century

January 26, 2008

week 4: code websites

Filed under: Discussion — johnbcarpenter @ 9:27 pm
Tags: , , , ,

hi all,
i’ll be discussing processing ( in class on tuesday. i chose processing because it’s an incredibly fast and flexible software tool for visual designers + one of it’s creators (casey reas) is the head of the design | media arts program here at UCLA.

“processing relates software concepts to principles of visual form, motion, and interaction. it integrates a programming language, development environment, and teaching methodology into a unified system” (reas and fry, “processing”, 1). processing is an open source software / programming language that is based on java.

the websites i’ll be discussing on tuesday:

website 1

valence by ben fry

“the image on this page is taken from a visualization of the contents of the book “the innocents abroad” by mark twain. the program reads the book in a linear fashion, dynamically adding each word into three-dimensional space.”
more at…

website 2

process 6 by reas, 2005

“text that defines a process”…
more at…

Create a free website or blog at


text:
* * *

aor·to·plas·ty (a-orґto-plas″te) [aorta + -plasty] surgical repair of the aorta; see also aortic reconstruction. aortoplastic adj

Medical dictionary. 2011.

Look at other dictionaries:

  • aortic reconstruction — restoration of function to a damaged aorta, as by bypass or aortoplasty …   Medical dictionary

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and select “Copy Link”


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Pinterest: Essentially Necessary

When I design for presentations, I sometimes, if not most of the time, run out of color ideas.  I tend to stick to one color scheme for two different clients but have this fear of having them meet up and compare notes, saying, “Hey, you used the same designer!”

Continue reading


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Farm Decor

I love this farm fresh eggs sign and vintage egg carrier that my boyfriend’s sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. I mixed it in with some other items and my stag-horn fern for this cute little display.

IMG_7945 IMG_7946 IMG_7949 IMG_7951

I also got my new Bath & Body Works candle going so my house smells amazing!

West End Architectural Salvage

West End Architectural Salvage has gotten a lot of attention lately with their new show on DIY network. It’s a great place to visit in Des Moines when you want to walk around and look at historic parts and pieces from old houses, vintage finds and re-imagined antiques. These are some images from my visit a few years ago. I’ll have to stop by the next time I’m in Des Moines to get some updated pic’s!

IMG_0765 IMG_0743 IMG_0728 IMG_0726  IMG_0718  IMG_0712  IMG_0707 IMG_0706 IMG_0704 IMG_0698 IMG_0696 IMG_0692 IMG_0682

Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.


text:
mobility in action

Last week I was highly amused to learn that a virtual friend who is actually a IRL friend of my good friend Neen (still following?!) was shocked to learn I work in ICT (Information & Communications Technology basically the updated acronym for IT). She thought I was a Curator at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum!

While that is a very cool & specific career imagined for me, alas, I am a geek by proxy. I’ve worked in ICT for 16 years now and almost 12 of those years have been at Dimension Data.

Obviously all my opinions are my own and not on behalf of the company, but I really wanted to share with you some of the cool stuff we get to design, implement and support.

This video is of Rob Allman, the Australian General Manager of Customer Interactive Solutions which is a department within DD.

To find out more about Dimension Data, their global footprint & kick arse technology offerings visit [here].

5 thoughts on “mobility in action

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Monthly Archives: November, 2010

Like, Who Cares?

I see that the ubiquitous Like button now appears on my posts. I see that having it appear on the posts is the default. I see that I can uncheck the option to have it there.

I DISLIKE the Like button. I hate the Like button. I will never click on a Like button. Why is there no Dislike button next to the Like button? WTF.

The keeper of the Like button is starting to get on my nerves.

Dislike. Be the first to Dislike this.

I think one of the things we mourn when people we care about die is that we will never be able to create new memories with them again.

Life seems to be about the memories we can make and the memories we can keep. Memory makes us human. I can’t see it working any other way.


text:
Create With EA

Create logoIf you and your family are creative, then you might just like Create from EA and it doesn’t matter what computer and/or console you own due to it being scheduled for release on Wii, PlayStation 3 featuring PlayStation Move compatibility, Xbox 360, PC, and MAC.

“Create uses families’ imaginations to develop new ways to play together that are both fun and challenging,”

said Harvey Elliott, VP and General Manager at EA Bright Light.

“We wanted to design a game where the entire family can explore, decorate, and solve challenges where no solution is wrong and the only limit is the imagination.”

The more players explore the game, solve level-based challenges, and customize their world, the more rewards will be unlocked. Creativity will be unleashed as players design environments with easy-to-use brushes and tools, including textures, props and animating objects that bring the scene to life. On the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and MAC players can share any of their creations, solutions or challenges with the community through the console and also via the official Create website at Friends can download and remix solutions and set challenges for other players to download and complete. Imaginations will run wild this holiday!

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Neither male nor female

A little Greek…

Πάντες γὰρ υἱοὶ Θεοῦ ἐστε διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ·  ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε, Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε. οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἕλλην, οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ἐλεύθερος, οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ· πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

My translation: “For you are all now SONS of God because of faith in Christ Jesus. After all, everyone baptized into Christ has put on Christ like a garment. There is no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female — for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

This passage is often used to deconstruct masculinity and femininity, but look what it says. We are all SONS. People who translate this “children of God” are missing the point. The Son was made complete/perfect through what he suffered. Just so, when we put on Christ, we are completed and brought to maturity only when we lay down our lives. This is something that we do AS Jew or Greek, slave or free, woman or man — but the fundamental reality behind it is the reality of SONSHIP.

We botch this in English, because “son”, for us, means merely “male child”. For the Greeks, though, “son” strongly implied “heir”. The Greeks would never call a “child” an heir, only a son. When people mistake this passage as a deconstruction of gender, they miss the radical nature of the passage: that women, slaves, and Greeks were invited to inherit the kingdom.  There isn’t the slightest notion that, once a slave has been baptized into Christ, they can abandon their master, or that, once a Greek is baptized into Christ, they equivalent to a Jew.

There is, however, a sense that these sub-identities (like male or female) are subsumed to our central New Covenant identity: the identity of a son.  My daughter is a daughter of Eve, but a “son” — which is to say, an heir — of the living God.  The power of this language is phenomenal, and yet it has become ordinary and casual in our ears, especially when we water it down and say that we are all “children” of God.

Children, schmildren.  We are sons.

So what is a son — aside from someone who receives the inheritance?  I’ll leave that question for my next post…

6 thoughts on “Neither male nor female

  1. Zack says:

    I have come to hold a similar view as well. In my old family, I had an uncle whose lifelong theological concern was God’s gender. He had written reams and reams of stuff concerning and using Scripture to prove that God was, in fact, male. One of the prime arguments he had was “It is God the Father, not God the Mother”.

    It wasn’t until I was sent away and free to read into it myself that I looked into the Hebrew stuff and realized that Father is another word for Originator. Of course, in hindsight, it is obvious. Abraham is the Father of the Jews – not because he birthed all of them himself but because he is the Origin. The first one God contacted in the history since Noah and kin.

    I myself have a mix of some male traits but many more female traits in the way I think too. Oftentimes, I wonder if I am more female than male (though not transgender, it is almost enough to have me not even identify as male). Horrible spacial awareness, can’t read a map, no sense of direction, etc.

    I reckon God doesn’t see gender. Recall the guy who trips Jesus up (or tries) with the hypothetical of a lady who marries a bunch of guys who all die, one after the other. Who is she married to in heaven? Jesus hints at the genderlessness of the next life. And it does make a lot of sense, really.

    I strongly believe that gender and all related features are profanity. That is, aspects of the dust we were fabricated from. The idea of becoming beings of pure Godstuff and freed of these crude animal forms is something to look forward to if it pans out. I have been in a gross anatomy lab and there is little sacred in fallow flesh, filth, pus, and rot of the dust that makes us.

    The evidence I have witnessed just goes back to confirm Scripture: nothing good comes from the heart and flesh is forever at war with God and His Spirit within us.

    • I feel like you’re too hard on the body, here. Bodies are good. The intricacy of the body is profoundly awesome, and the way it serves its function deeply inspiring.

      As for gender, I’ve found the homilies of John Paul II helpful in thinking about gender. JPII wouldn’t agree with you that gender is unimportant, but he would perhaps say that the primordial reality of humanity is not dependent on our being “sexed” — broken up into genders. Thus he says:

      “Corporality and sexuality are not completely identified. Although the human body in its normal constitution, bears within it the signs of sex and is by its nature male or female, the fact, however, that man is a ‘body’ belongs to the structure of the personal subject more deeply than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female.”

  2. Zack says:

    Perhaps. One thing I never lost was a belief in Absolute Depravity. While I carry it far beyond the realm of where my family might have taken it, it makes sense to me still. Every good comes from God and His spirit. Without that we would be like animals – psychopathic be any clinical measure.

    Perhaps I am too hard on the flesh. Perhaps you aren’t hard enough.

    • My view: all good comes from God, yes, but our physical natures come from God too. So they are good.

      Bodies — human and animal — are made in the image of God. Male bodies express God’s power and fearlessness; female bodies express God’s nurturing and compassionate nature. My body can participate in all the virtues of God; but the masculine virtues are native to this body in a way that the feminine virtues are not.

  3. Zack says:

    I think I see your point. I suppose it comes down to a question of what came from God and what has been profaned by the world. I suspect our inherent masculinity and feminity is schismed by depravity but I maybe wrong. Seperating wheat from chaff is beyond us or any philosopher, unfortunately. Perhaps we can never know the truth of this till the end.

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Following and Leading with Family and Fish

Monday Morning Musings:

“Where you lead, I will follow

Anywhere that you tell me to

If you need, you need me to be with you

I will follow where you lead.”

–Carole King, “Where You Lead “(Gilmore Girls Theme Song)

“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

–The final message of dolphins to humans, as they leave Earth before it’s destroyed. Also, the title of the fourth book of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.

“I sustain myself with the love of family.”

–Maya Angelou (Tweet, on 23 May 2013)

After a long, long week,

a very long week

when we are in shock over the leader

many of our fellow citizens want to follow,

my younger daughter suggests we watch The Gilmore Girls*

while we eat Chinese food and chocolate,

so we sit, comfy in PJs and sweatshirts

while my husband goes for the Chinese food

(General Tso’s chicken for him,

the mock version for us)–

followed by chocolate.

Of course.

No one can eat like the Gilmore Girls,

but we try to get in the spirit,

choosing an episode from Season Two,

we hear this:

Paris: “That’s crazy. People would rather vote for a moronic twink who they liked over someone who could actually do the job?”

“We can’t get away from it,” sighs my daughter.

“Oy with the poodles already,” I reply.

The next day we go to my sister’s house.

meant to be a combination birthday-victory celebration

with a fish tray and bagels.

It is instead, a much needed gathering of family,

the love of family to sustain us.

Son-in-law has never eaten lox–or any of the fish on the platter,

he is forced to try them all.

(“It’s my heritage,” his wife says, though she is a vegetarian who doesn’t eat fish.)

He thinks the whitefish is too oily,

the lox too salty,

but the kippered salmon is tolerable—with lots of onion.

Daughter says, “He would have gotten along well with Grandpop.”

We remember my dad’s love of onions–

onion sandwiches

onion and sardine sandwiches

onion and sardine sandwiches on onion rolls

( with extra onions).

Did I mention he liked onions?

My father liked food,

and gatherings,

and gathering over food.

We sustain ourselves with family and family memories.

My mother wants coffee,

demands coffee

I want it now she says

with my meal.

She would fit right in with the Gilmore Girls.

You don’t argue with a 94-year old woman who wants coffee.

My sister gets her some coffee.

Remembering how we are sustained by family, love, and annoyance.

We discuss the current political situation,

daughter worried about how her students will react.

(She has not seen them since the election.)

I say I think she is a good leader,

and hope they will follow her lead.

Her husband, a veteran, deployed three times,

and not happy with the elected leader,

talks to my sister about getting involved in politics.

Sustained, and upheld by family.

My mom says she’s lived through many scary times.

I say I remember being terrified during the Cold War–

duck and cover drills and the Cuban Missile Crisis–

“But there were more sane people in control then,” my niece says.

Oy with the poodles already.

Sustained by love of family.

My sister and niece say, if we’re going to discuss this

we need to drink–and chocolate.

drink, drink, drink

In truth, we really do not drink,

and then my niece accidentally knocks coffee onto my mom’s lap.

We’re clumsy, but lovable.

And sustained by the love of family.

Time for dessert!

The cake is placed strategically in front of my daughter, so she can pick at it,

and “clean up” the icing.

(Love of family and food sustains us.)

My niece, who lives in a divided household

(in a red part of the state)

says she has needed this gathering,

though we’re not celebrating the election,

we are celebrating family.

We’re sustained by family—

and food.

We move to other subjects—

Thanksgiving (and food).

I have safely delivered the squirrel mold

(encased in bubble wrap)

to my niece,

the Thanksgiving cranberry sauce tradition

can continue.

We talk of social media

and kids,

and gender identity

and sex education,

a teenage boy taking lotion,

“I don’t understand—why does he want lotion?”

asks my mom.

(She’s so innocent.)

We hear cheers from the next room,

my sister-in-law and husband are watching football.

It is time to go.

We leave, sustained by family,

full from all the food we’ve eaten,

carrying packages of fish and bagels,

bits of love,

like life, delicious and a bit smelly,

So long, and thanks for all the fish,

and all the memories, too.

And though wishing my other daughter was also with us,

I am sustained by love of family,

as we head off into the darkness

where a super moon is rising.

We need light in the darkness

and love always.

*Gilmore Girls was a TV series about single mother Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory. The series opened as Rory was in high school and ended when she graduated from Yale. In between, mother and daughter had many adventures, drank millions of cups of coffee, and eat enormous amounts of take-out food in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. A four-episode follow-up will be on Netflix in about two weeks.

30 thoughts on “Following and Leading with Family and Fish

  1. The interweaving of food and family is so refreshing this Monday morning. I had Chinese food twice while Cliff was out of town – and chocolate. Jenna provided more chocolate by baking chocolate-chip cookies.

    Your family photos warm the cockles of my heart this cool November morning in Jacksonville. I also like the architectural detail in the rooms I see here – maybe yours.

    Yes, the sun still rises in the sky. Maybe this new leader will confound us (again!) and tone down his frightful rhetoric and moderate his actions. One can only hope.

  2. Hmmm, I’m surprised you weren’t sustained more by family and food….maybe there wasn’t enough chocolate involved.
    It’s lovely to see families can still come together in this way to talk and laugh and recharge.
    Lovely pictures.
    xxx Massive Hugs xxx

  3. How wonderful to have such a gathering. 🙂 I think that if anything will sustain us, it will be love and maybe the realization that in some ways, we are all family. I am going to have to put the Gilmore Girls on my Netflix queue. You are the third or fourth person to mention it recently. I’ve never seen it.

    • Thank you, Robin. It was good to get together.

      I hope you enjoy the Gilmore Girls. I think it’s 7 seasons, and then the new 4 episodes coming up. The dialogue is very fast and witty, and the mother-daughter bond is special. And there are all sorts of quirky town characters.

  4. Monday Evening Musings:

    Today was Chinese food for lunch with chocolate for dessert, in BrynMawr, with three of my longtime and retired friends from “the Company”-one male, two female. We were seated at the table as though we were two couples-may as well have been, we’ve known each other that long. We get together four times a year, usually around each of our birthdays. Today happened to coincide with, shall we say, some “unsettling” domestic developments of recent vintage.

    It was a good gathering. We spent the first 15 minutes talking about the “current events”. It was a mixed political group, split evenly between “Republicans” and “Democrats”, but no one very far away from the great fence marking “moderation”; Beitbart or OccupyAmerica would not have felt at home. None of the four voted for the winner, but only two voted for Mrs. Clinton. An odd group nowadays, for sure! The ladies were properly horrified at the persona and demeanor of Mr. Trump, and gave voice to the physical revulsion they felt on election night. The men, although equally repulsed, were confined by manly qualities of stoicism, and brought out the fact that the world had not ended yet, and in fact there were maybe one or two things that gave some small hope for optimism. All grudgingly agreed that it is what it is.

    Then, as if by magic, the Hot&Sour Soup arrived with the SpringRolls! The atmosphere immediately changed. Politics evaporated, carried away in the vapors of sesame and chili oil! “Meaningful” things between old friends were discussed! Why won’t my grandson do his homework? Why won’t Priscilla’s husband get some expert advice on building his landscape wall, which recently collapsed? What to say to Ralph’s son, an electrical engineer who is unhappy that the electrician he hired for his house makes a lot more than he does? Is Hye-Ja’s daughter overextending herself by keeping both a dog and a free loading significant other? Who’s cooking what for whom on Thanksgiving? Etc., etc……..Weighty topics, worthy of two hours of discussion-and, we solved nothing (!) but we had a good time-and ate an obscene amount of YangMing delicacies!

    Dessert came, ChocolateMousse and MudPie. The world had still not ended. The domestic issues remained unsolved. But, we made sure to put the date on our calendars for the next birthday, for more Chinese food, chocolate, and good friends. It was a good gathering; we’re sustained by good friends—and food.

  5. I’m laughing as I read Laurie’s comment, above. Your post here was just wonderful. We all struggle to keep on keeping on, despite our fears and anger and confusion about what just happened in our country. Food, Family, Love, Traditions, Coffee and Chocolate ‘ground’ us for sure. My dad was like yours – the more sardines and liverwurst, the better. UGH, but so much fun watching him enjoy. Oh, and cheap baloney. He couldn’t get enough of cheap baloney. That was his ‘comfort’ food. My mom, at 92 – is like yours. “Give me the cup of coffee —- NOW.” Fun to compare our families, our traditions and memories, and to realize that we all are, really, one big family. Let’s hope our new elected officials realize that.

    • Thank you, Pam. I share your wish about our new elected officials. I wish more people could see that we are all much the same. We will see.
      That is funny about your dad, and your mom, too. 🙂

  6. I think I’ve also gained a kilo on reading this Merril 🙂 … and a dribble on my t-shirt. Lovely post, heart-warming. There is NOTHING to beat a family gathering where there is food, coffee and chocolate!

  7. Just so you know: my Felicia went off to college the same year Rory did! I cried buckets and we all agree, my Mom made it to 88 and didn’t like drinking water, instead it was always coffee, black and no sugar. (I take off after my Dad who liked flavors, cream and sugar!)
    Being a single mom over many years, the kids make jokes about all of my “choices” in men. Lorelei was not too much more wild than I was, although I married 3 times. At least I made them “legit,” laugh out loud! 😀

  8. Oh, I should have said, “so far Mom has made it to 88 and still makes a face when given her meds with water by the visiting nurse!”
    She will always choose at bedtime, Sangria in a juice glass, too.
    My Dad liked his Christmas stocking full of peanuts in the shell, a couple of herring or sardines in sauces in cans. 🙂 He also loved garlic and onions.

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Getty Images

To mark his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump released a glowing review of himself in the form of an op-ed published by the Washington Post.

"One hundred days ago, I took the oath of office and made a pledge: We are not merely going to transfer political power from one party to another, but instead are going to transfer that power from Washington, D.C., and give it back to the people," Trump's op-ed began. "In the past 100 days, I have kept that promise — and more."

The Washington Post's editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, told Mic via email the newspaper solicited the piece from the White House.

"We asked for the piece and were happy to get it," Hiatt said.

In his op-ed, Trump touted his "success" at giving the country back to the American people — and above all else, bringing jobs back to the United States.

"The change began with the termination of the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a 12-nation pact that would have shipped millions more jobs to other countries," Trump wrote, adding that ending the partnership was only the beginning.

Trump said government agencies would continue to enforce the new "buy American" rules, which provide preferential treatment to U.S. companies that hire American workers. However, as Mic previously reported, the president doesn't appear to abide by his own rules. Trump's own line of shirts are made in China, Bangladesh, Honduras and Vietnam; Trump's eyeglasses, made in China; and Trump's home goods, made in Turkey, Germany, China, India and Slovenia.

In the op-ed, Trump also reiterated his strong desire to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, an agreement he called "the worst trade deal ever" during his presidential campaign. "We've lost nearly a third of our manufacturing jobs in the 23 years since that terrible deal was approved," he wrote.

However, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, NAFTA was a contributing factor in the tripling of North American regional trade from $290 billion in 1993 to more than $1.1 trillion in 2016.

With rather interesting timing — given thousands of people marched outside the White House on Saturday for the People's Climate March — Trump gloated, "We've canceled restrictions on the production of oil, natural gas and clean coal."

Trump also bragged about his role in ending sanctuary cities, fighting drug cartels and bombing Syria. He boasted about being the first president in 136 years to confirm a new Supreme Court justice in the first 100 days of an administration, but that was more a timing coincidence than an accomplishment. As Politifact reported, "The reality is that very few presidents are presented with the opportunity to appoint and confirm a new Supreme Court justice within their first 100 days. Other than Trump, just four presidents since 1900 have had that chance: Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman and William Harding."

And, in perhaps the op-ed's oddest paragraph — published on the website of one of the nation's most-read newspapers — Trump blasted the mainstream media for allegedly "concealing" America's issues.

"The same establishment media that concealed these problems — and profited from them — is obviously not going to tell this story. That is why we are taking our message directly to America," Trump wrote in the opinion pages of the very definition of establishment media. "We have opened the White House doors to listen, engage and act. We've invited in labor leaders, factory owners, police officers, farmers, veterans and Democrats, Republicans and independents."

Hiatt, the Post editorial page editor, did not respond to Mic's second question about Trump's use of the paper's opinion page to attack the "establishment media."


text:
War with Iran won't be stopped by Barack Obama's new set of sanctions

Friday, the Obama administration announced the implementation of new sanctions on Iran; these sanctions will target foreign banks that continue to purchase oil from Iran. Washington is attempting to cut off Iran from its oil revenue, further tightening the increasingly suffocating net of economic pressure. The administration hopes that cutting off Iran’s oil exports will force the nation to abandon its nuclear program out of economic necessity. This new set of sanctions are, proverbially speaking, unlikely to be the "straw that breaks the camel’s back"; they are but another set of restrictions in a long line of similar sanctions that will ultimately have little effect on Iranian resolve.

In fact, by continuing to unilaterally push for increasingly tough sanctions, Washington is slowly maneuvering itself into a corner, where its only option will become war with Iran. Sanctions are a failed approach to foreign policy, and their support in the U.S. is largely based on fear, misinformation, and ideological pride. It was not always this way; in fact many can still remember a time when negotiations with our country’s enemies brought the world back from the brink of nuclear war. If the U.S. and Israel do not change their approach soon, it is likely the Middle East will soon be subjected to another destructive conflict.

Nothing illustrates the “no negotiations” approach to foreign relations with Iran better than the proposed “Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011,” which proposes sanctions on individuals and groups having almost any type of interactions with Iranian government officials, effectively banning negotiation. America’s relationship with Iran and its refusal to negotiate goes all the way back to the Carter administration – and seems to have been becoming ever more stringent since. It retains massive public support, achieved through lobbying, fear mongering and war hawking, tied neatly together with a healthy dose of “Tough on Terrorism!” style politics. It is an approach that appeals to our sense of national pride and our religious politics in a relatively simple way; it feels good to say that we are stalwart in our strong stance against evil and terrorism, and don’t negotiate with the bad guys. In reality, this feel-good approach is actually hurting our cause. Economic sanctions do not do most of their damage to the governments of these nations; in fact the civilian population feels most of the pain and the stress. Since U.S. sanctions against Iran have been ongoing since 1980, U.S. policy has effectively created an Iranian generation that blames economic and social woes directly on the United States. So, from the beginning they have limited our capacity to deal with Iran in a bilaterally rational way, because we are seen as untrustworthy. Not only have we set the population against us, making a “regime building” military approach immediately unviable, but we have also denied ourselves the opportunity to do anything other than to further alienate them.

Negotiating with Iran is not a “giving in” approach to foreign policy. In fact, it is the only way we can still have a hope of preventing war. Obama’s further sanctions will do nothing more than to further isolate and alienate Iran, which will likely, and ironically, have the counterproductive effect of further solidifying Iran’s resolve to develop a nuclear weapon in the hopes of having a nuclear deterrent to what they see as U.S. aggression. If we would instead negotiate with Iran on monitoring their facilities, and perhaps even consider the impossible – allowing Iran to maintain a domestic nuclear program for energy purposes. No one could possibly say what the outcome of negotiations with Iran would be; that is not the point.

The point is that we have not even tried. In order to work with Iran and to avoid a catastrophic and costly war that would lively set Middle Eastern democracy back several years and devastate the U.S. economy, we must be willing to negotiate. If negotiations fail, then that is the time for a discussion about more severe actions. Obama’s Friday announcement is sadly indicative of the fact that foreign policy continues to believe in sanctions and aggressive tactics, even when such approaches have done nothing but bring the world closer to another war. As Israel prepares for war and the U.S. stands ready to back them, it seems we have learned nothing from our Cold War lessons about when it is necessary to engage in dialogue with the enemy. In the recent wake of two long wars in the region, I can only hope it will not require another war for us to remember that lesson.


text:
Tennessee Senator Worried By Common Sense

Bob Corker, United States Senator from Tennessee.

Image via Wikipedia

So President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani  President Asif Ali Zardari met with members of our esteemed Senate yesterday for lunch, and proceded to get “grilled,” according to this account in the WaPo. The topic: more American bucks and aid($7.5 billion for Pakistan; 21,000 troops to Afghanistan.)It was also a chance for our Senate folks to do a bit of posturing, and ask “very pointed and very direct questions.”

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennesse, wasn’t impressed with K&Z from Af/Pakland. He said their answers were “vague” and that they probably now had “less support.”

Corker described one particularly annoying exchange with Zardari. When  Zaradari was “asked about Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan, which allows Taliban fighters to easily pass through, Zardari pushed back, Corker said, noting that the United States was unable to control its border with Mexico.”

Wow. Hey. Hold on a second there, Ali.

Prez Zardari just broke one of the main rules of the American foreign policy game. He made an obvious, common sense, totally appropriate point. He also sort of called us hypocrites for giving him such a hard time about his border while ours is such a mess.(You aren’t supposed to say that we’re hypocrites, Prez.) Zardari took an example of the United States own border control problems to illustrate the point that the demands to close down or stop the “porous” border with Afghanistan were highly unrealistic.

The kind of common sense point Zadari made usually doesn’t make it into foreign policy debates. For example, if someone says, “We need to send 50,000 troops to Afghanistan,” and you answer, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, I mean, would Americans in Montana or Texas like it if 50,000 Afghans set up bases and patrolled their streets and accidentally dropped bombs on the Holiday Inn wedding parties and everything?” Ask that question, and you’re considered a Ron Paul fringe type. Or with Iraq:”We need to go reshape the Iraqi government to become a democracy so the athletes foot of freedom can leave its imprint on other Middle Eastern countries.” And you say, “But common sense wise, do you think anybody in America would like it if some foreign power changed our gov’t? Haven’t you seen Red Dawn? And if some foreign power did change our government, do you think then the Mexican and Canadian governments would topple like dominoes too?”

There are probably better examples, but it’s Friday.

Anyway, those kind of statements are considered taboo. They’re almost too obvious, so much so that they’re on some level  insulting to the intelligence of our foreign policy thinkers.

And Zardari has been doing a good “you Americans don’t know jack about Pakistan” routine lately.  He even had the gall to tell Der Spiegelthat, “we understand our country better than outsiders,” (another shockingly obvious notion) that Pakistanis know how to fight Pakistanis better than Americans do, and that “nuclear weapons aren’t Kalashinkovs.” This last point also falls under the blindingly obvious, a way to get at the fact that the scenario of the Taliban “seizing” Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal borders on a Jack-Bauer like fantasy.

(Update: In my early excitment to post and gently mock Sen. Corker, I incorrectly called Zardari prime minister. He’s the president. Corrected thru-out. )

About michaelhastings

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2 Responses to Tennessee Senator Worried By Common Sense

  1. Marc Herman says:

    Finally an example of Zardari presented as something other than a coward, dilettante or rube. And maybe he actually is one or all of those things. But it can’t be simple to run Pakistan. At least, I’d love to see maybe half the people in the Senate try.

  2. Brian In NYC says:

    Corker is an idiot, and there is no good reason to “gently mock” the man. He should be gone after with vigor and passion!

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Goals: What are they good for? Absolutely Everything. Say It Again

We hear about them all the time in various parts of our lives.  Go on an interview or a job evaluation and you’ll get the thought-provoking question: “Where do you see yourself in a year? 5 years?”  Maybe we can even think back (some us longer than others) to a school essay, provoking us to examine – “What do you want to become or be?” Despite these queries happening over and over throughout our trek through life, we all seem to have some difficulty articulating, developing, and ultimately performing the self-assessment required to create something to plan our lives around.

A PT’s Quick View on Goals.

As a PT, I deal with the idea of goals (and writing them) daily. Goals are everywhere at work.  Every new patient I see has their own personal goals to reach (lower pain, get back to work, sport, etc).  As part of examination and evaluation, I look for individual parts and pieces that may have impairment, which creates those limitations that people seek help to fix.  Weekly assessment of progress towards goals is an emphasis of every treatment plan. Goals in PT (and in life) have to be achievable, measurable, time-sensitive.

Goals and Running

So how do goals factor into running and training?  I’m so glad you asked.  The first marathon that I ever did (11.2011), I only had one goal: Finish. That day. On two feet.  It was achievable, technically measurable, and time specific.  It was, however, not very helpful in planning.  I knew I had a distance to reach – 26.2 miles, and a time – course limit of 6 hours, but I did not plan anything else out.  At the time, I knew very little about training plans so I googled it.  I found a generic plan of distances for long runs each week and ran with it (pun intended).  I ended up increasing distance too quickly, knee pain ensued, and 5.5 hours of marathon struggle later – I finished my first marathon.  Did I technically reach my goal? Yes.  Did I feel accomplished?  Not that much, I felt hurt.  More about that in a few weeks.

Since that first marathon, I have completed DPT school, worked for 3 years, ran additional races, and got plugged into an awesome training plan/group through RunnerDude’s Fitness.  All of that experience has changed how I look at setting goals for running, and therefore, enhanced my training.  Remember the PT goal rules? Achievable, measurable, and time-sensitive?

Like many who run, I have a lofty goal of qualifying to run in the Boston Marathon in my lifetime.  For my current age group, I would have to run a 3 hour and 5 min marathon to qualify.  My last marathon in 2013 was 4 hrs and 30 mins.  I just had 2-3 months of minimal running due to a newborn. Expecting me to be able to reach that goal at this point in my life would be akin to expecting my golden retriever Tessie to wake up one morning and know how to fix me breakfast, or use the toilet – you get the point.  It would be awesome for Tessie to learn how to use the toilet for those rainy days.  She gets soaked so quickly – anyway I digress. Those goals are not achievable at this time.  This is where having a good coach like Thad comes into play.  Give him some recent shorter run race paces, with some background on weekly running habits, throw in a bit of pizzazz and boom: achievable marathon pace pops out (he might say it takes a bit more work than that).  Mine for this marathon at this time: 4 hours.  There is your measurable part.  Of course, the time-sensitive part is a given in this case: Nov 4.

The “Take Home and Write on Your Mirror” Part

Long term goals are great and they help give you an end result to shoot for but perhaps the biggest part of using goals is developing the strategy of how you are going to get there.  A vivid goal of a marathon time, becoming a regional manager (or assistant to the regional manager for you Office fans), or returning back to work or play after an injury is relatively impractical without an action plan.  Good training programs are composed of workouts geared to improving endurance and speed to reach the desired end goal, while being reflected in a week by week basis.  This “short term goals to long-term goal” approach is key because it allow us to take gratification in success along the way, building in self-encouragement to continue towards our end goal that we have set.  So if you have some goals out there, whether its running, physical therapy, work, or home related, write them down, talk with someone who can help/support you, and come up with a route for how to get there.  We’re all headed somewhere, why not make it a carpool with some directions.

A peak of what week 2 training looked like:

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Bad Engagement on Health Care Reform

November 9, 2009

I’m laying around the house with a fever today listening to two self described “moderate conservatives” on the Shanin and Parks radio program.  One topic of discussion is government health care.   Conservatives, these two included, are really, really bad at engaging in this discussion.  Really bad.  Not once did I hear them say something that made an opposing caller reconsider their position.

Here are a couple examples:

Caller 1 said insurance companies have messed up health care, paid 100s of millions of dollars of bonuses to their executives and denied people needed care which is the same as murder.

Their response – the government isn’t going to do any better.  And then it spiraled into discussion of whether they support murder or not.

A better response:

I’d ask if he thought there would be treatments denied under a government insurance program or if the government process for deciding on which treatments are effective and covered and who gets coverage would be subject to some politics.  For example, do certain treatments from companies that are “in” with the politicians and bureaucrats get preferential treatment?  What about the politics of who gets treatment?  No favors there, right?  All the decision makers involved will be altruistic and apply standards consistently.

Then I might fact check the person has done their homework.  Ask which executives, how much were their bonuses and how many claims were denied?  I might also ask how that comp compares with executives of companies of similar size and performance and how the denial rate would compare under government medicine.

Example 2:  Caller #2 told the story of a white collar, 51 year old friend who came down with bronchhitus and shortness of breath and went to the emergency room for treatment and racked up $3,900 in services and tests.  He can’t afford this.  He got scared.  Can’t we do better?

Their response – “Didn’t the guy have COBRA?”

My response:  A 51 year old white collar worker doesn’t have a regular doctor he could call for advice in an emergency?  I’ll assume he does and that his doctor recommended a trip to emergency or urgent care facility.

Next, does a 51 year old, white collar worker not have $3,900 in savings for a rainy day and emergencies?  Why not?

Has he not shopped a high deductible policy on the open market?  I have, they run about $200 per month for a family and they give you access to the insurance company’s discount on the expenses that you cover on the deductible.  My guess is that his $3,900 bill would have been reduce to about $1,800 – $2,300 based on the size of the discounts I receive on my insurance company’s discount.

An $1,800 emergency room visit this past summer cost me $900 after my high deductible insurance company applied their discount.

Next, has this guy tried talking to the finance department at the hospital to see if he can get a cash discount.  Often those are in line with the same discounts they give to insurance companies.

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