Dribs and Drabs

 APRIL 6, 2018

A new study reported by Quartz claims that “washing dishes is the worst. Among domestic tasks, researchers suggest the division of labor in doing the dishes leads to the most relationship conflict. ”  After 36 years of marriage, we sorta have it figured out.  She loads up the dishwasher and/or the drainer, I empty them.  Mostly works……

So I’m not much into the current music scene.  My wife says I’m stuck 50 years ago.  I have no patience for rap. Hip-hop is for bunnies or kangaroos. As for Ed Sheeran,  Justin Timberlake, et al, they can join Bruno on Mars.  That being said, I did just download the new album from Danielle Nichole “Cry No More.”  Some good bluesy soul heart-felt performances.  I really think music has taken a turn to women artists dominating the scene–in blues, there’s Danielle, Ana Popovic, Samantha Fish, Low Society.  The only “pop” album I’ve downloaded recently was last year’s “Joann” by Lady Gaga.  Just don’t understand with all the technology available that the current crop can’t improve on the sound of the Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Traffic.  Why, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac from 1978 just cracked the Billboard charts at #16!!!!

Then there’s the Mexican border.  The National Guard is being mobilized to defend it, according to presidential declaration.  I’ve mentioned the absurd reactions of people who don’t have first-hand experience of the border.  https://www.npr.org/player/embed/599707052/599707053“>This link is to an NPR interview with Mayor Dee Margo (R) of El Paso.  Take a listen–as Kirjsten Nielsen, DHS secretary, says, it’s a non-partisan issue, although his read differs from hers.  As Quartz notes, Trump officially ordered National Guard troops to the US border with Mexico. He said they’ll help stem illegal crossings and that the situation had reached a “point of crisis,” even though border apprehensions are at historically low levels.

Quartz also reports Walden Pond is being ruined by human urine. The phosphorus in the urine of Henry David Thoreau fans is causing harmful algae overgrowth.

Finally, the last drib, getting old.  It sucks.  I keep wishing old friends and classmates “Happy Birthday” on Facebook.  Most turn 70 this year, as I will.  Fortunately, that’s not until right before Christmas.  I tease about 60 being the new 40 and stuff.  I try to stay in shape, biking or going to the gym.  Well, this past winter did for me.  I started feeling a twinge behind my right shoulder-blade when I did some bench presses.  It just got worse.  By March when I had my annual physical, the pain was so bad I could barely drive.  My GP referred me to an orthopedic specialist.  Turns out I have something called “shoulder impingement syndrome,” sort of a combination muscle/arthritis/bursitis thing.  Got a cortisone shot and a prescription for muscle relaxers also used to treat fibromyalgia.  I guess time will tell—-there’s so many trails I want to ride around here and another trip to Moab would be cool………….And I love that my spell checker tried to replace bursitis with burritos.  I much prefer the latter!1

The Difference Between 16-17 and 69-70

 MAY 4, 2018

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People who follow this blog or read my posts on Facebook are aware that I’ve espoused positions like “65 is the new 45” and “you’re only as old as you feel.”  Well, as Rubeus Hagrid would say, “Codswallop!”

When I was in high school. especially junior and senior years, I ran cross-country and track.  Junior year I ran the mile and two-mile just about every race.  We ran year round, as long as the roads were passable, in southern CT.  Must have run hundreds of miles, never an issue with my feet, other than the occasional blister on the ankle breaking in a new pair of shoes.  Ahhh, the Glory Days!!!

About 8 months ago, I contracted an infection in my foot.  Pretty much grounded me from my beloved Marin East Peak (my mountain bike).  Then about 6 months ago, right around my 69th b-day and Christmas, I felt a twinge behind my right shoulder while lifting weights at the gym.  This grew worse and now I’m under an ortho’s care for a possible light tear in the rotator cuff,  Start physical therapy next week.  And as long as I was there, he drained my left elbow where bursitis (gotta love spell-check.  Must know I live in New Mexico because it wants to replace this with “burritos”) had developed. This is on top of my developing painful callouses on the balls of both feet, making walking and riding an extremely unenjoyable proposition!  No, I’m certainly not feeling like 70 is the new fifty!!!

Now I know many of you readers, as well as other friends who might not see this, have had it far worse in the health department.  And I’m sure I sound like I’m whining over relatively trivial ailments.  But watching my body lose muscle tone because I have to limit my activity because of these malfunctions is frustrating and aggravating.  Worse is the realization that the final chapter is now more imminent than the first one.  Pretty telling when the app that sends me the most notifications on the iPhone is called “We Croak.”  And the newest fiction I’m reading is Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones, both by Jesmyn Ward.  Yeah, ghosts and the Reaper…..

Finally, I just gotta cast aspersions on the clown train in DC.  “Fearless Leader” (apologies to Boris and Natasha) has gone through experienced advisors faster than Wal-Mart does greeters.  Not good for either them or our nation. The latest fracas is with his confidant/mentor/friend Rudy Giuliani.“He is a great guy,” Mr. Trump said. “He’ll get his facts straight.”   Hello, Donny-J, how many can you throw under the bus?!?!?!  I think this administration is gonna flop not because of TheRump but because anyone with brains enough to do some good would rather work for Voldemort!!!!

A Little Bike Ride

 MAY 26, 2018 BY BILLZARGES

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Okay, so my last post was whiney and some people asked if I was depressed.  Not me–everyone has a right to a degree of self-pity once every decade or so and I just had mine.  I will say today that my thighs really hurt but that’s a result of 1) the physical therapy helping my shoulder so I could 2) get back on the bike and 3) getting back to the gym and overdoing it (my curse) on the stationary bike and the leg press plate machine. Done.

So, why engage in this sort of fitness activity?  A challenge– I want to bike (as in bicycle, not motorcycle) the Great Divide Trail.  Doing the whole thing would take a few months but, hey, I’m retired.  The scenery along the Divide is Mother Nature at her very best.  So who’s game for a little bike touring?

The entire trail runs from Banff, Alberta, Canada to Antelope Wells, NM on the Mexican border.  There’s a lot of Forest Service type roads so it’s not all gnarly single track.  I know many of you couldn’t commit the time to ride the whole thing but the route can be broken into segments if one wanted to do a part over a weekend or a week,,,,Last time we were in Pietown we met a woman riding the trail from Gallup NM to Antelope Wells.  She was with a group of four but the others were slower, I guess.  It is a bonus that the route intersects US Hwy. 60 right at the Pie-O-Neer restaurant…….

For more information on the trip and a video of highlights from the Great Divide route, click here.  Adventure Cycling offers supported tours but they are pricey.  I have their full set of maps.  They also offer a book, Cycling the Great Divide by Michael McCoy, to stoke your interest.  For whoever might be interested, I plan on leaving Banff towards the end of April; hopefully, the snow will be gone up in the Northern tier.  With luck, we’ll only hit a minimum of monsoon season toward the end of the route in NM.  Monsoon season usually runs July through September.

So I hope some of you will consider joining me.  I know one thing on bucket lists is renting a motor home and touring the US.  Maybe someone would do that and also support the ride, killing two birds with one stone?  You’re never too old for a new adventure in life. And the Great Divide Trail promises to be one.

Sunday Morning Opening

So we performed our Sunday morning ritual-----open the pill box, you know, the one branded with the days of the week on the cover of the little compartments; get out the various drugs, supplements, vitamins that prolong our lives; and load up the box for the week.  Every so often, of course, one of the bottles of prescription drug or fish oil needs to be opened.  That’s when thoughts of the Tylenol poisoner come to mind.

Back in 1982, some bozo, to this day unknown, laced bottles of Tylenol sold in the Chicago area with poison.  Seven people died.  The result was a recall of the product and the familiar safeguards applied to packaging today.  Which of us hasn’t struggled with opening a bottle of vitamins or a prescription drug?  First, cut off the plastic that is shrink-wrapped around the exterior of the cap.  Then push down and turn to open (hopefully) the cap----best not try this if your arthritis is kicking up.  Now, the third layer of protection, the aluminum foil paper stuck to the top of the bottle----puncture it, peel it, scream at it....

I have but one wish for the perpetrator of this incident. The individual who caused all the rest of us law-abiding citizens to suffer and plan when opening our meds:  I sincerely hope he develops such crippling arthritis that he cannot open his pain killers or other treatments, that it hurts so bad when he battles the protective packaging he caused, that he surrenders himself to the authorities so he can be jailed-----and his sentence can be to discover a more humane replacement for the methods used to preserve product integrity than those with which we presently struggle.

Feelings of Inadequacy

It's only Tuesday.  The Army has found left-over nuclear waste in a bunker at Biggs airfield, next to Fort Bliss in El Paso.  Not to worry, it's only alpha and beta particles buried a foot and a half or so deep but fortunately higher than the water table.  This information was revealed by a retired serviceman who was there when they buried the stuff in the 50s.

The Florida court system worked, given their laws and rules of evidence, and George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting of Trayon Martin.  'Nuff said-----you can find any opinion you want on the 'Net.

Almost forgot---the Senate reached a deal to confirm a handful of people to positions in the executive branch without filibustering.  Considering that the vote to move forward with the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was 71-29 one wonders why it was held up (filibustered) at all.  Ah, the mysteries of sausage-making, sorry, the machinations of politics in our Congress.  Cordray was confirmed 66-34.

God told a little girl in Santa Fe to go to the bathroom, saving her life as a bullet plowed into her bedroom wall.  Good thing he's around---could this be our long sought-after solution to gun violence??

The capper to my feeling inadequate, though, is my abysmal failure last Friday to navigate a single track mountain bike trail in the Organ Mountains.  I would remind readers of this blog that I used to mountain bike frequently back in New Hampshire.  Together with some friends, we completed a 50 mile loop through southern NH, mostly rail bed and sand churned up by ATVs and dirt bikes.  For a solid year, I rode my bike down the rail bed 11 miles each way from home to work to build up my legs for a pending knee operation.  So traversing the Sierra Vista North section, 2.8 miles of relatively stable single track with no major climbs, should be child's play.  I made it about 1/2 a mile into the ride and my thighs felt like they would burst and my lungs screamed for air!!!  Inadequate me----and stupid, too.  There's a huge difference riding the ditches, flat and graded, at 3900 feet and tackling a mountain trail starting at 5100 feet elevation.  Obviously I need to ride more and for longer distances, and on terrain other than the ditches and bike paths.  I will complete this ride, and others, because the ultimate goal is to ride down the mountain at Angel Fire, starting at the summit which is only 10,650 feet high.

Strange Week

I have to admit it's been a strange week since our return to our Chihuahuan desert haunts after a couple weeks on the road.

First, the US Supreme Court rejected a major part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The section dealt with Federal review of localities with prior segregationary tactics in voter registration should such locales seek to redistrict or in other substantive ways change their voter registration requirements.  I suppose the argument in favor of eliminating the review could be how far we've progressed in race relations since 1965 and that such a review is no longer necessary.  Considering the birther deluge and other attacks on the president, as well as the recent issues with the word choices of Paula Deen,  I wonder if the Court wasn't being a little ahead of the curve in considering the US to be a post-racial society.

Then SCOTUS pleased the believers in equality with the striking of a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act and its punt back to the 9th District Court of the overturning of California's Prop. 8 banning same sex marriage.  These decisions have been celebrated by many and condemned by many as well.  While the consensus seems to be that defining what constitutes a marriage is the dominion of the states, this is an issue that will be playing out for several more years.

Then there's the story about Wendy Davis, Texas state senator, who filibustered the latest attempt to restrict abortion in her home state.  Texas governor Rick Perry immediately attacked Ms. Davis, who was an unwed mother who attended college and graduated from Harvard Law School, in a speech to the National Right to Life convention.  Mr Perry, famous for his inability to articulate his ideas in English during the 2012 presidential campaigns, then tried to spin his attack as "praising" the senator's accomplishments.  I realize that supporters on either side can make a case for their viewpoint, but it does seem odd that Mr. Perry used a rather disparaging tone in front of the right-to-lifers then became so conciliatory a couple days later after the storm had broken.  And then there's the special session of the legislature convening Monday July 1 to again attempt to pass the extremely restrictive abortion measure.  Sometimes actions speak louder than "spin."  Or to quote Mr. Perry, "Oops."

And the capper of the week:  Today I took my recycling to the drop station.  While driving home I watched a rather non-descript white van pull into the right turn lane next to me.  It paused but a moment, just long enough for me to read the legend printed on its side:" Southwest Paranormal Investigations."  Here's the link: http://www.southwestparanormalinvestigations.com/index.html . Use your own discretion.  

I'll admit to being open minded about a lot of things we humans don't understand, like dark matter; the inability of physics to reconcile relativity, gravity, and quantum mechanics; brane worlds; and multiple universes.  But the sheer weight of the events this past week have just got me dithering..........

Just Musing

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

This is one of my favorite quotes.  And to illustrate its veracity, I posit the ridiculous legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act by the House of Representatives.  They spent in excess of $3 million which might have been used to mitigate some of the evil effects of the sequester this august body also imposed on "we, the people..."  I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record (remember them??) accusing Congress of malfeasance but I can't help it when my representative certainly does not represent me and my beliefs but rather those of the ultra-Christian and ultra-conservative oil patch.

Speaking of the environment, my wife and I just completed a long road trip.  We left our beloved Las Cruces (and its triple digit temperatures---June is the hottest month here in the high desert) for the Puget Sound area to visit family and old friends.  We traveled through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington state.  Such a journey in many vehicles would have left a large carbon footprint, let alone being a catastrophe for the wallet, gas averaging over $3.60 in most of the area.  However, about a year and a half ago, we made the decision to purchase a Toyota Prius.  I'm well aware that the sticker shows higher EPA rating for gas mileage in the city than on the highway.  We are extremely pleased with the car's performance on this trip: 3,882.7 miles averaging 58MPH (this included some city driving as well as high altitude driving, over 10,500FT) and  getting 47.7MPG.  Crossing Snoqualmie Summit in WA, we hit some rain---first extended usage of the windshield wipers since we bought the car in Dec. 2011.  Not only did the cabin heat come on, but we were treated to the action of the wipers,  The passenger side unit is anchored in the middle of the windshield and has an odd eccentric motion as it sweeps away the precipitation. Now if only there were an affordable electric that would get about 500 miles to a charge........

One negative about the trip was the plume from the Silver fire in New Mexico.  Rising to almost 30,000 feet, it is visible for hundreds of miles.  And today, apparently the winds have shifted and are carrying this smoke into our region.  The Organ Mountains are not visible and one can smell the smoke in the hazy air.

But the air was not hazy for the days we were in Tacoma.  Majestic Mount Rainier came out and as always was a thrilling sight, seemingly suspended in the sky.

And, of course, to desert rats like us, Puget Sound and Commencement Bay demanded our attention.  Why?  Just look at that expanse of water!!!

And, finally, one of the sublime geological formations that seem strewn about the Western U S.  This particular one is called Wright's Arch in Southeastern Utah.

As much as we Americans may disagree about our ridiculously ineffective politics and policies and as much as we may embody the quotes of Albert Einstein referenced above, any of us who have traveled in this country, especially west of the Mississippi river, can not but appreciate its beauty.