Roe Row

Blind Camp

2006-11-08T09:06:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged since August. No one reads this blog, so it isn't like I've been letting anyone down, but I need to put some thoughts on 'paper'.

I went to Blind Rehab through the Veterans Hospital services in September and was there for 7 weeks. I had some reservations about going; they ranged from not wanting to be gone from home that long, to feelings that I would be taking up a space that someone with worse problems should take, to thoughts that I would just be wasting my time.

My wife started calling it Blind Camp because the instructions that came in advance sounded like you were gong to camp. What you should bring, what you could not bring - sharp, pointy objects - were on the list and there was a clear message that someone else was going to be in control of your life for the duration. We were going to be hospital 'patients'.

On the way down we stopped at a service station to get gas and take a 'station break'. The restroom was outside the MiniMart and down a hall. Coming out of the restroom I went from a bright, white, environment to a dark hall way (dark to me, anyway) and I got disoriented. Thinking I had sorted things out I strode out for what I thought was the doorway back and stepped off into space. I ended up on my back at the bottom of a flight of stairs with nothing hurt except a sprained finger and my pride. I knew I was doing the right thing after that. I'm not much for believing that someone is sending me messages in the affairs of my life, but that would have been a strong argument for such.

Camp was structured and divided into Living Skills, Orientation and Mobility, Visual Skills, and Manual Skills. Most of what I learned was not rocket science, but it was the practical information put together through years of working with veterans with visual problems. All of us were classified as legally blind, but about 80% had some usable vision - thus the section called Visual Skills. This was where I spent most of my time. I have a fairly rare problem compounded by the fact that I had a lazy eye as a child with less than 20/20 vision even after correction. That eye is now the eye with the better visual acuity. Neither eye has much of a field of vies - less than 10 degrees in my better eye.

Saying that the process was not rocket science is a little misleading. Some of the gadgets to assist in seeing and organizing are pretty 'gee-whiz'. I have a gadget called a Jordy that works a lot like the air-filter looking contration that Lamar Burton wore in Star Trek. It receives and displays a pictire onto a screen in front of your eyes that can be manipulated in a number of ways through magnification, reversal of field and ground, display as black and white etc. to aid in vision. It is not perfect. It weighs a lot and about 30 minutes is as long as you can stand to wear it. It looks hazy for some reason outside, and the first thing that comes up on the screen is a warning against trying to walk with the gadget on. Some of the other less technically advanced aids actually helped me more in a given situation.

Computer training is a seperate program that I took concurrently with the other training. Having expeience with computers I only needed to learn how to use a program called Zoom Text. It is a wonderful program for those of us who can still see some. I had time to play around with Excel and Mail Merge.

It is good to back home. I decided that I will use a cane. I had tried to avoid using one and look 'normal', but using one gives me a lot of mobility I didn't have before. I can get across and intersection now without being terrified, and better yet, I have a good idea of which intersections are not doable for a visually impaired or blind person.

I can't wait for my new computer to arrive. It is so much more versatile and easy to use than the one I have now which is set up with Microsoft's Accessabilty features. They are much better than nothing, but leave a lot to be desired Viewing PDF documents or any Apple product with the Accessibilty feature is a royal pain.. Some email goes black when I try to reply.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the program was being surrounded by other men and women with many of the same problems dealing with life without good vision that I did. Some had much worse problems, but were able to cope and maintain their dignity. They were a real inspiration.

Apples versus Oranges

2006-08-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

For several decades American politicians have been holding up terms as opposites that do not belong to the same class of things. As an example, consider socialism vs. democracy or communism vs. democracy. These comparisons have been made for so long that it has become accepted as valid if we don't give the terms thought.

Socialism and Communism are economic systems. Dictatorship in its various forms is a political system as is democracy. The word that is not used in any of these comparisons is capitalism. Freedom is a state of being and neither a political nor an economic system. How did this confusion in thinking come about?

The prime consideration of U.S foreign policy is free trade - unfettered capitalism. In the past U.S. corporations have been willing to support any form of government that would support unfettered capitalism. The easiest form of government to insure this economic interest was corrupt dictatorships. Dictators who were willing to insure America's economic interests while having their pockets lined by bribes - usually in the form of foreign aid that could be siphoned off to personal accounts - proved the most lasting form of government to further the needs of business. Democracies proved to be very unstable and difficult to influence so we developed relationships with the various banana republics with their 'president's for life. In the middle east the same approach was tried with some success, but in the process we produced such heads of state as Sadam Hussein. The economic power of oil made these dictators difficult to control, especially during the time that we were competing with the USSR for their allegience.

There may have come a tipping point in the willingness of big business and their cronies in Washington to create these monsters. Our leaders are now talking about making Iraq safe for democracy. Do our leaders now think that messy old democracy is preferable to disobedient dictators? Probably not. It is probable that given the emergence of a a charismatic dictator in Iraq who was in the pocket of american big business our government would embrace him in a heartbeat.

It is useful to remember that "the business of business is business". Compared to profit all other considerations take a distant back seat. Business was smart enough to know that fighting to "make the world safe for capitalism" just wouldn't excite many young men and women to lay down their life.

Shades

2006-06-19T07:17:00.000-04:00

Exchange between United States President George W. Bush and journalist Peter Wallsten at White House Rose Garden, June 14, 2006:

###

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, Peter. You're going to ask that question with those shades on?

PETER WALLSTEN: I can take them off --

BUSH: No, I'm interested in the shade look, seriously here.

WALLSTEN: All right. I'll keep it then.

BUSH: For the viewers there's no sun. (Scattered laughter.)

WALLSTEN: I guess it depends on your perspective.

BUSH: (Laughs, laughter.) Touche. (Laughter.)

###

Peter Wallsten is blind.

Bush is an idiot.

Kajsa's Kidney Update

2006-06-14T10:41:00.000-04:00

This is now the 10th postoperative day since Kajsa's transplant. The course has been storym, perhaps no more than other transplants, but it has included a fever presumably due to urinary tract infection that was treated with antibiotics, difficulties establishing enough blood flow to the transplanted kidney, now apparently satisfactory, and recent recurrence of fever. This time there has been no easily identified cause of the fever and the fear is that acute rejection is taking place.

Today Kajsa will undergo a kidney biopsy looking for evidence of rejection or CMV infection. The donor was CMV (cytomegalovirus) positive so this is a real possibility. CMV is innocuous in healthy people, but in the immunocompromised it can be life threatening. Hopefully the answer will be in the biopsy and Kajsa's doctors will know what to treat.

You can go to Rowan's blog and get this one step less removed from the source, but things have been so hectic that Rowan has not had many chances to sneak away to the hospital library and post.

Red Rain

2006-06-04T19:38:00.000-04:00

This is an interesting bit of news. There has been a theory around for years that life did not originate on earth, but instead came to earth as a stowaway on comets, metiorites or cosmic dust. CNN aired a story about an Indian scientist's claim that he has isolated the cause of red tinged rain that fell on the Indian subcontinent recently.

The 'organism' consists of a structure that does not contain DNA but divides by creating an internal bubble that emerges as another structure. It retains the ability to do this after being subjected to temperatures in excess of 600 degrees. The argument is that this could enable the organisms to survive the heat of entry. The most heat resistant known organism prior to this loses the ability to reproduce at about 250 derees.

Competing theories for the cause of the 'red rain' are:
1. a large flock of bats that were hit by some structure causing red blood cells to rain down!?
2. red algae that got caught up in a typhoon and were then dumped inland.

Algae contain DNA. Red blood cells don't, but can't reproduce.

We may have been colonized at multiple times. All plants and animals survive as the result of photosynthesis. Plants directly, animals, saprophytes and parasites by ingesting plants. There is an exception to this energy source; tube worms that grow at great ocean depths and gain their energy from chemical rich vents along the ocean floor.

Everyone, by now, has heard of 'mad cow diseas'. This disease, scrapie in sheep, kuru in humans and Jacob-Kreutzfeld diseas are all caused by infections agents called prions that replicates without a nucles, DNA or RNA. Sound familiar?

Kajsa's kidney

2006-06-03T20:51:00.000-04:00

For anyone who has kept up with the mamassage blog site our granddaughter, Kajsa, got a new kidney this morning. Patient and kidney are doing well so far.

Hopefully, there will be more details once the computer gets fixed and Kajsa is back home.

The amazing brain

2006-05-15T07:57:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted much about the progress of my visual loss. In part this was due to having other concerns, and, in part, it was just because it seemed uninteresting to others. However, I think, this being a fairly rare condition, it might be useful to keep a journal of the evolution of the injury.

There is a previous blog labeled 'rotten luck' that was entered on the 29th of December, 2005 giving some of my thoughts in the acute injury timeframe. The injury first became apparent December 17. At that time there was a 'smudge' in my lower right nasal field of vision. This was slightly more pronounced on the 19th when I first went to see the opthalmologist. The diagnosis was made then of AION involving the right optic nerve. An MRI done the following evening showed swelling of the right optic nerve and nothing else. I worked on the 20th and then left for Christmas vacation, driving 5 hours on the 21st. There was rapid progression of visual field defects over the next few days and by Christmas day I realized that my left eye was also involved. By that time I was unable to find my way out of the movie theater and could no longer drive. My central vision began to become dark over the next week and by January it seemed like twilight in the middle of the day. I could see color, but the color was not true and the light had to be bright. Purple, for example, looked like electric blue to me in bright light. I seemed to have lost the red spectrum. I lived in theis twilight state through January and February. During that time I had mobility training and used a cane or my wife acted as a 'sighted guide' for me. We walked in the park together with her calling out when I started to stray off the road. During that period I found that the visual field defects, for whatever reason, were worse on the left in both eyes. For that reason I began walking behind and slightly to the left of my wife so that I could see her turn and still have some sense of what was happening in front of me. This was a dreadful time. I think my wife saved my sanity during that period. I would get out of bed and then want to go back to bed, go to sleep, and wake up whole. Lynn insisted that we go exercise and we went in freezing rain to keep moving and get out of the house.

Sometime in March I noticed that the light coming through the louvers in our bedroom shutters seemed brighter. I attributed this, at first, to the days getting longer and the sun coming up a little earlier, but then realized that some recovery was taking place in the portion of my optic nerves that were not dead. I think that the swelling due to the 'stroke' in my nerves compressed the still viable portions to the extent that they barely worked. By the first of April color was beginning to return. There doesn't seem to have been any improvement since the first week or so of April. I have no improvement in my visual acuity and have no useful improvement in my visual fields. I still don't see anything below chest level, and don't see things to my left until they are in my center ov vision. Visual fields measured by some piece of equipment that tests the ability to see pinpoint bursts of light show me to have less than 20 degrees of vision in both eyes which is considered legal blindness in the U.S.

Now, the part about the amazing brain. When I look with either eye closed I realize the extent of my visual loss. However, when I look with both eyes open I have the ILLUSION that I see an entire picture. This is both comforting and treacherous. The problem is that I don't see large parts of what my brain tries to make up. I imagine that I see things to the side, however, when I move my hands in the areas that I imagine I see the rest of the room I don't see my hand. In my central vision I am largely unaware that large parts of the center are missing. Realization comes when I look at people. Not only are their faces fuzzy, their left eyes are all missing. This is due to the fact that when looking at the center of a face the area where I should see the left eye is missing in both eyes.

Another area that demonstrates the illusion is that when I look at a yellow sheet of paper, for instance a page of legal pad paper, the page looks blotchy yellow and white. As it turns out my brain has assigned the areas that it doesn't see white against a yellow background. Curiously,j against red brick or asphalt these areas appear dull green and look like there are grass clippings all over the asphalt or brick pavers. Why did the brain assign these colors instead of the color to either side?

Another curious phenomenon is that from the beginning continuing to the present I see flashes of yellow light throughout my vision, more extreme at some times than others. The effect is similar to that of rubbing your eyes vigorously and then seeing lights against your closed eye lids.

Mid June will be 6 months and I'll try to do an update at that time.

Blogging Doldrums

2006-05-14T14:18:00.000-04:00

I haven't had much interest in blogging recently. Not many people read my blog and the one person who read it regularly has computer hardware problems. Compounding this is a decision I have made to stay away from some topics. No one wants to hear about health issues, and you can only say "Bush is an idiot." so often and have to be willing to put up with reading reponses from those who see things differently.

Today, though, is Mother's Day and I wish I could call and wish mine well. Unfortunately, the connection to heaven seems to be down.

I need to get off of here and call my daughters and grandkids.

Border Bizarre

2006-03-26T10:47:00.000-05:00

We went to see "The three burials of Melquiades Estrada. Tommy Lee Jones was great (he got a Cannes Film Festival award for his role). The acting of everyone else was good to great. It was a wierd film. Tommy Lee Jones character was noble beyond reason which created a bizarre oddysey through starkly beautiful hill country in Texas and Mexico. It ended surreally and when we left the theater we could only remember two burials. Maybe the third was not real? I don't know.

Altered Senses

2006-03-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was watching "Criminal Minds" with my wife. She has a good memory - in fact she was the one with the cum laude standing in our family - but tonight she was amazed that I remembered quotes from Criminal Minds. If you do not watch the show, several times in the show there are quotes from famous people that relate to the story.

Tonight the 'unsub' was a serial killer whose motive seemed to be correcting miscarriages of justice. The quotes were "It is better to commit violence, if violence is in your heart, than to be nonviolent to conceal impotence." Ghandi also said "The good that is done by violence is temporary. The evil is permanent"

So, why am I telling you this? Because a few months ago I sould not have remembered the quote. Now, because I cannot read, and because I listen to books on tape, I remember better what I hear. Is it because Imy hearing has improveed? I don't think so. I think I pay closer attention because I know it is going to be my only chance to learn.

I also must confess that i think Ghandi was one of the greatest minds and one of the most pure people of all time. Rudyard Kipling must surely have known this when he wrote " For there is niether race nor creed, nor border, nor breed, nor birth, when two strong men come face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth."

I read that when I was a boy and it had such an effect that I committed it to memory. Unfortunately, that is about all I can remember.

"Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. 'Til Eearth and Sky meet presently at God's great judgement seat" I know that Kipling is not consedered a great writer, and that he espoused the parochial views of the British toward the 'inferior' races, but I always felt that in his heart he recognized the fallacy of those views, revealed in his Ballad of East and West.

The influence of prevalence

2006-03-17T18:25:00.000-05:00

I first became aware of the influence of prevalence on the selection of tests to diagnose disease about 30 years ago when I took a review course prior to taking my board exams in Pathology. The concept is is explained in the statement that at the height of a flu epidemic asking a patient how they feel is a pretty good test for the flu. For example, if half the patients coming into your office have the flu that single test will detect all of the patients that have the flu (100% sensitivty) and will have 50% specificity since half the folks coming in will feel bad for some other reason. Ror a more erudite explanation requiring only a knowledge of algebra see http://www.cmh.edu/stats/definitions/likelihood.htm.

Last week Dana Reeve died. There was an oncologist on one of the network channels, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and a talking head discussing lung cancer and its lack of funding. As it turns out lung cancer only has 10 % of the funding given breast cancer. Ther reasons are various, but one of the major reasons is that people blame lung cancer victims for their smoking habit. This only applies in about 40% of patients. The rest are long quit smokers or 'never smokers'.

The other big reason has to do with - you guessed it - prevalence. When I was a student in medical school the 5 year expectancy for survival was 12 %. In the last 40 years it has improved to 15 %. So, the effect is that there are no Peter Jennings or Dana Reeves around to be champions for lung cancer research.

If you are a smoker under 30 and you quit your chances of getting lung cancer become the same as the 'never smoked' group in about 10 years. For the older group it will never become baseline, but it will come down significantly and it is certainly worth quitting. Besides, as an oncologist told me 25 years ago, if you keep smoking you probably won't get lung cancer, but you certainly will get emphysema. That is worse. Trust me.

American Royalty

2006-02-06T07:23:00.000-05:00

We went to the movies a few days ago and I have been reflecting on the career and accomplishments of the star of Last Holiday. Queen Latifah has talked about her life and career in a number of settings, but the best was The Actor's Studio which airs on the Bravo channel here.

QL had the same start most rappers had; single mon, life in the projects and poverty. The thing that set QL apart was that her mother was determined to get her family out of that setting and gave her kids a sense of pride in themselves. Oh, and I almost forgot, QL is very talented. When James Lipton, the MC on the actor's studio, asked her about song lyrics, the lines from a movie, or about anything else, it was like her brain did a file search and the tape started playing.My father had this ability and I have always marveled at this sort of auditory memory because I didn't get it when the genes were passed on.

The movie was a feel good movie; the kind referred to as a 'chick flick' now. The plot was predictable, but it didn't matter. The scenes were shot in New Orleans, pre Katrina, and in the Czech Republic( instead of the French Alps). Most of the scenes in NO were familiar to anyone who was ever a tourist there. The scenery in the CR was beautiful. Who knew? QL plays the part of a young department store clerk who thinks she has a month to live and decides to spend her mother's inheritance and her savings at a four star hotel where she can eat all of the wonderful meals she saw prepared on the Food Channel. She has a lasting, and uplifting, impact on everyone she meets. Sorry, I can't tell you more than that without spoiling the movie for you. Other stars are LLCoolJ (I think) who plays her love interest, Gerard Depardeau the French Chef, and there is a guest appearance by Emaril.

Veterans Benefits

2006-01-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

We drove up to Asheville Friday and filled out papers to attempt to get into the V. A. Hospital system. Not everyone who is a veteran is eligible for care, apparently. Being a Viet Nam veteran and possibly being exposed to agent orange I think made me elibible.

It will take about two months, but if everything goes as planned I will be going to Augusta, Ga. where they have a rehab program for those with visual limitations and blindness. I will be there about a month, and according to the social worker at Asheville I will be able to do about anything I could before except drive a car.

Accessibility

2006-01-18T11:28:00.000-05:00

My daughter, who insistes that she is only a pseudotechnogeek, was able to find a fix for my computer that allows me to read and post. People who have the visual disability that I have developed have similar issues with using the computer, and it seems that others with low vision have similar complaints. The problems are mainly fixed by reversing the field and ground so that, for instance, I have a black background with yellow print. The other issue is small print which is solved on my computer by a magnification bar that runs along the top of the screen. At least for now these changes allow me to use the computer. I know that others have sufficient limitation that they require the addition of speech.

Since I last posted I have retired and am headed for the Social Security office this afternoon to apply for disability - a new experience for someone who has worked nearly every day for the last thirty years.

I know that there are others out there that correspond with low vision and I am going to change my settings to reflect a new interest.

I know that there are only two people who read my blog, but it is important to me to keep writing.

Rotten Luck

2005-12-28T15:03:00.000-05:00

I have developed a serious medical conditionand have lost most of my eyesight as a result. This will mean a complete change in my life. As things stand I can not drive or work and there is not a lot of hope that things will improve. There also is no treatment that has been shown to help. I may or may not post any more blogs here depending on what develops. The conditio is known as Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy or Ischemic Optic Neuritis. It may be due to high blood pressure.

Getaway

2005-12-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

I've been away for a week or so. I just have not spent much time at my computer. I have some sort of hacking, aching, tired feeling syndrome and right now I'm planning to go immerse myself in a hot bath for a while.

Fortunately, it didn't really get bad until a day ago and Lynn and I were able to get away to the Red Rocker Inn in Black Mountain, NC. I heartily recommend it. It was voted the best B&B in western NC for 4 or 5 years in a row. They have a web site if you want to check it out. Saturday was Lynn's birthday. I'm not allowed to say how many, but she has held up well and I would be proud to tell everyone if it were me.

We got to stand through the Black Mountain Christmas Parade. It took a few minutes and was cute in the way that small town parades are. It wasn't Macy's. Barney wasn't there. But then no one was hurt by falling street lamps, either. It's funny the things you see. There was a mother and her toddler standing at the curb. As the various floats went by people would throw candy to the crowd. They love throwing candy to little kids. Unfortunately, the little kid was standing in front of the storm drain. She would watch the candy be launched and then watch it go down the drain. Mom never saw it (or maybe she knew exactly what she was doing I don't know).

Hopefully I'll be better in a few days and have time to put something more interesting together.

Big Brother

2005-11-25T21:18:00.000-05:00

This morning I tried to log on to my blog at work. I received a message that "message boards and groups" are blocked by WebSense. I immediately went to Yahoo and found that I can't get to certain functions of interest groups I have joined. For those of you who don't work for large organizations this may sound like Greek. Big organizations with big IT (information technology) departments have an obsession with making sure that you stay focused on your job. In our organization web access is limited to certain people. I have enjoyed access since I was given my first computer, but, increasingly, my enjoyment has dwindled. WebSense is a software program that screens out certain websites. At first I was not happy about not being able to go to any of my shooting organization sites because the were "weapons" related, but could understand not being able to sites that dealt with "sex", "nudity", or "lingerie". Later, I was blocked from going to check out movies because they were related to "entertainment" and finding out how my alma mater's football team was doing because that was related to "sports". Over the last couple of years I have been blocked from going to "cults and the occult", "advocacy groups", and a host of other places that are not considered "essential".

IT departments have a number of nasty traits. These include deciding what computer systems you need, based on - what - a total lack of input from end users. When confronted with their complete lack of insight into your needs they counter with a lot of explanations about why what you ask for is impossible, too expensive, or not what they have determined you really need. (The last is infuriating.) Also, by the time they have researched the available systems, done the beta testing, arranged for the system to be budgeted, and finally implemented installation the year is 2020 and you no longer need the system.

In the meantime when you try to amuse yourself while they go through their machinations, they block you from doing anything related to "entertainment".

Still trying to get a picture posted to profile

2005-11-23T16:28:00.000-05:00

This was taken at our younger daughter's wedding a little over a year ago. That's me in the blue t-shirt, and granddaughters Devon, Kajsa, and Maya, left to right.

Hazards of Shooting

2005-11-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

Two skeet shooters meet at the range. One says to the other "That's a nice watch. What kind is it?." The other replies "A quarter to two."

Hearing loss is a hazard of shooting, and it is probably only partially preventable. Worse, it is completely irreversable.

There are a lot of gadgets to block loud noise that vary a good deal in their effectiveness. One of the best, surprisingly, is the little foam cylinders that you flatten and stick in your ear. They block about 29 decibels of noise. Somehow, though, the damage continues even with something to occlude your external ear canal. One theory is that sound is still transmitted through the bones of your skull around your ear. Wearing ear muffs helps hold that transmission down and a combination of foam and ear muffs works really well. So, why don't all shooters wear both? The ear muffs are very hot in the summer for one thing and the combination blocks too much sound so that you can't hear the trap spring or understand your fellow shooters. Several tricks have been attempted to get around this. There are inserts that have small valves in them that shut with loud noises. It's not clear that that happens in time to protect your inner ear though. The next step up from the mechanical dampers is to electronic cutout circuits. When the sound gets to a certain decibel level there is circuitry to either completely cut out sound or to compress it to that volume. Analog systems are 3-400 dolloars and digital about twice that. Added to that is that fact that you have to be fitted to the device. So most people shoot with some kind of ear plug in place.

When I first started shooting we were all pretty much unaware of the potential damage. I wear rubber ear plugs in the summer and muffs in the winter. The combination of flying in helicoptors, going to rock concerts, driving with the windows down and the radio turned up plus shooting early on without protection has left me with significant hearing loss.

Unbelievably, there are still shooters who use nothing. They're the ones who say "what?"

AAARGH

2005-11-22T15:25:00.000-05:00

For the last half hour I have been trying to figure out how to post a picture of myself to my profile without success. I have Picasa, tried adding Help, tried using BloggerBot without any success. I think I'm an idiot. I think I was trying to download a bitmap image and can't do it. supposedly BloggerBot automatically converts images to a jpg of convenient size, but I can't get that to work. Anyway, I'll keep working at it when I'm not on 'company time'.

Jack Bruce

2005-11-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

Bass players don't usually get top billing. For the most part they are team players; just happy to get to play with the band and make music. Also, as a sometime bass player, I can say that it is hard for most bassists to play and sing, and the things that grab the audience's attention are lead vocals and guitar solos. So, this weekend I picked up a magazine for bass players and there was a picture of Jack Bruce on the cover. For those of you who are under 50 this may not be a name you know. For those of us who are older, Jack Bruce was the bassist with 'Cream', and Cream was the first and, maybe, best power band ever. Along with Eric 'Slow hand' Clapton, and Ginger Baker, Bruce performed such greats as "Sunshine of your love". Classically trained and a student of all music forms, Jack Bruce thought Johann Sebastion Bach to be the best producer of bass lines ever. Bruce wrote bass lines unlike anything you had heard before, and was the lead singer on many songs.

Cream only existed for two years. Bruce and Baker had worked together in the past and broken up because of a notoriously bad working relationship (fist fights on stage kind of bad), but they were able to stick together for the two years that Cream existed. Recently, the group has gotten together for a Cream Reunion. Bruce has mellowed since the late 60's. He has had two wives and two additional livers since then. Eric Clapton says this is the first time that he has had someone else to inspire him musically since the original days of Cream. I'll have to take a listen.

Orlando Update

2005-11-21T06:57:00.000-05:00

What a bizarre weekend. The Disney Contemporary Resort is actually in Lake Buena Vista, FL. It was contemporary at the same time the Jetson's TV program hit the air waves. The gift shops are filled with Disney memorabilia. Period. The employees all have the glued on smiles and too enthusiatic interaction as Wal Mart employees. They all wanted me to have a wonderful time at Disneyworld. TV had every ESPN channel known, five Disney channels, channels in Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese, and Lifetime, and the Lifetime movie channel. I had no trouble finding out whether Arkansas won or lost this weekend (they actually won their second conference game for the season).

The medical meeting was very good. I went to all of the presentations (there was nothing else to do) and would have anyway. Somehow, I've always taken continuing education as a serious responsibility. People always want to know if there are any new breakthroughs in 'cancer'. This was more about fine tuning our pathology reports so that the treating doctors know who needs what kind of treatment based on existing knowledge.

Orlando

2005-11-17T07:07:00.000-05:00

I'm going to a weekend continuing education seminar this weekend in Orlando, FL. I'm not too excited. The topics will be about breast cancer. I'm sure they will be informative. But, I'm not too excited. What, besides Disneyworld, is there to do in Orlando? It has turned off cool here. Temperatures tonight in the 20's. Orlando will be about 20 degrees warmer, but we're not long enough into cold weather for that to be much relief.

I'm wondering if there is a Roger Maris museum there. For those of you too young to remember, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were in a neck to neck race to see who got the most home runs in a season back in (I'm not too good at dates). Roger Maris edged Mickey out by one run. Maris was not the personality that Mantle was and sort of faded from sight and retired from baseball. Following his retirement from baseball he applied for a beer distributorship in Miami. He was turned down, but told he could have one in Orlando. At that time Orlando was just a name on the map. Later Disneyworld settled there and Roger made another fortune. Unfortunately, he contracted malignant lymphoma and died as a result. In an interview shortly before he died he showed no bitterness about dying young. His comment was that life had gone his way in every other aspect, that he had been given gifts, and he could not ask for more. A man with real class.

Adult Education

2005-11-16T12:03:00.000-05:00

Several years ago I started taking an adult ecucation course in making pottery. After a life time of working completely from the left side of my brain; B.S. in Biology minor in Chemistry, M.D., Residency in Pathology, followed by about 25 years of working in a pathology laboratory, I decided to try my hand at art. My wife and I signed up for a print making course at Gaston College. I wanted to learn to make wood cuts. Lynn just wanted us to do something together. She is the artist. Wood cuts were covered in the first week and we went on to etching plates, linoleum cut prints, etc. I sort of liked the process, but Lynn wasn't too enamored of it, so we both signed on for a pottery course at a different community college. We both liked it. As it turned out, Lynn, the artist, focused on hand built sculptural work and I focused on throwing things on the wheel. That tends to be more craft where hand building tends toward art.

After a couple of years of experience I became bored with making bowls, mugs and dinnerware and started to experiment with making things on the wheel and then altering their shape. I really got into the process, but became interested in branching out as far as decoration is concerned. The glazes at the school are limited and, because it is an adult ed. course, there isn't much teaching. So, lately, I've been making traditional mugs as a 'canvas' to try some different finishes. Lynn sees this as regression. I've tried to explain to her what I'm doing, but she thinks I should just make up some tiles for the decoration experiments and get back to making some of the more interesting forms I was working on before. She may be right. The mugs will make nice Christmas presents. Sometime I'm going to figure out how to attach photographs to blogs. I think this will be especially helpful with my Wednesday blogs.

Sporting Clays

2005-11-15T13:44:00.000-05:00

For those not aquainted with sporting clays, it is one of the newer shotgun clay target sports. It involves traveling around a course, shooting targets from varying vantage points at a variey of target presentations. The sport came out of Great Britain and was initially meant to simulate various game presentations such as ducks, quail, pheasant and grouse, as well as, rabbits. As happened with trap and skeet, two older clay target sports, it quickly was taken over by shooters more interested in competing with each other, scores climbed, and course owners started throwing targets that imitated nothing seen in nature in order to prevent perfect scores and to seperate the top shooters from the rest of us wannabes.

Shooting is a very safe sport thanks to a rigidly enforced set of rules of safety. Still, occasional accidents occur and, rarely, people are injured. Two weekends ago I shot in a tournament on a very tough course in South Carolina. A very cautious top notch shooter was conducting business as usual when the side of his barrel blew out. There is no good explanation of what happened. There was no obstruction to the barrel which can certainly cause this sort of accident. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The shooter had a numb hand and forearm, but that cleared up by the next day.

The course was very interesting. It consisted of 12 stations with about half shot over and around an old quarry. This produced the opportunity to shoot at targets that appeared in places that are not usually encountered. I did not excel, but I had a good time, and that's the whole point.

Blog schedules

2005-11-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

Short note. I'm going to try a schedule rotating through my interests. Monday will be Books, Movies and Music. Tuesday will be Shooting. Pottery on Wednesday and Ramblings (personal philosophy) will be on Thursday.

Middle Aged Blogs

2005-11-11T10:08:00.000-05:00

What do middle aged bloggers do? What do they blog about? I guess first I have to define 'middle aged'. I'm middle aged if you think I'll live to be 126. I imagine most will think I'm in the O.F. category.

When I set up this blog it was with the intent of being a sort of hub to talk about family things. As it turned out, there is only one family member who drops by. So, that pretty much didn't work out. Then I started writing down things that I have been ruminating on. This is sort of satisfying. I have to formalize my thoughts when I write rather than engaging in stream - of- conciousness meanderings that don't get anywhere.

The problem with this activity is that there is no cross-fertilization, no idea sharing that may lead to that 'aha' reaction when you see things in a new light.

When I go to the 2o and 30 something blogs I find that there are some really interesting people who I would probably want to know if I was 20-30 something. But, they are, depending on their sex, obsessed with sex or with relationships, (I'll let you figure out which sex is obsessed with which) or, if they are a little older the problems of runny noses, dirty diapers, day care and employment occupy their minds. Exactly the sort of things that occupied my mind then. Some keep a running commentary on music, sports, or other leisure activities.

As I started looking for bloggers of my age I didn't find much. In talking to my older daughter who is a prolific blogger she suggested that there are folks my age who blog, but their blogs tend to be very issue specific. Things like a 'what varnish do you use on western cedar furniture?' One thing I like about 'blogger' is the cross reference for folks with similar interests. It is a handy way to find other folks who like playing blues, shooting sporting clays, or making pottery on the wheel. But it hasn't landed me any hits by people who comment. I think it may be because my interests don't fit into any handy molds.

I'll keep on blogging because it is an outlet, but I'm not totally satisfied with the process.

Random 1

2005-11-11T00:52:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting story about a couple who have made documentaries on their practice of "random acts of kindness" in which they select a street person and offer to help solve some problem that they have. They don't do it out of altruistic motives. They do it because it makes them feel good.

Jury Duty

2005-11-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

For the first time in my 60+ years I got a summons for Jury Duty, or as they prefer to call it Jury Service. Certain that I would be excluded for some reason I was startled when my name was one of the initial 12 names called. I was even more amazed and discomfited when, as the selection process ground on over the following 2 1/2 hours I was the only member of the original 12 potential jurors who had not been challenged and was empaneled as a member of the jury.

I won't go into the specifics of the case, but it was a criminal case in superior court that involved charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit murder, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. As the case proceded into the second day I was dismayed to find that the case rested on an eye-witness, the victim, with a nearly complete abscence of corroborating circumstantial evidence. So, it boiled down to whether or not you believed the victim, who testified, or the accused, who did not.

This was not CSI. The CSI sergeant did a thorough, but not very imaginative, search for evidence. The patrolman who took the victims statement remembered nothing about the case and had to rely on his notes which were apparently difficult to decipher. It was obvious that the district attorney and the defense attorney had made agreements not to present some evidence. I can only guess why. Perhaps it would have been damning to both sides.

Since we were charged with assuming that the victim was innocent and the evidence should be sufficient to convict the accused several of us, myself included, started off by saying I'm not sure the accused's guilt was proved. However, we had 12 intelligent jurors and through a thorough discussion about the various points, and the combined memory of 12 people we were able to come to a verdict of guilty.

There was another issue which I think has to be discussed. The victim and the accused were both black. Two of the jury members were black. One of them was an analyst for some company who was sharp as a tack. It was her logical approach to all of the facts that helped everyone reach a verdict. It helped for someone from the same culture as the victim and accused to be on the jury. They gave us insight into the mannerisms and dress of both parties.

Still, deciding someone's life in this manner is a heavy burden, even if you are only one of twelve. I hope I don't have to do this again.

Big Box Buildings

2005-10-28T12:41:00.000-04:00

As textile mills have closed in this part of the country a number of problems have been produced. Of course, the biggest has been that a large number of mostly poorly educated people have lost employment. Generations of individuals were able to work a lifetime in a setting that required little more than the ability to read and write. Decades ago the mill owners took care of the family in terms of building villages around the mill of small inexpensive homes for the employees. In more modern times these mill houses were put up for sale providing low cost homes for those who could afford them, but generally going to landlords who put nothing into them and allowed them to decay.

The ultimate result is that there are large empty, often unsightly, mills surrounded by parking lots with grass growing up through the cracks, further surrounded by a mix of modest homes with long term tenants and run down shacks that often serve as crack houses or meth labs.

What to do? One solution in cities in the Northeast where this happened a couple of decades ago has been to redo the mills, making condominiums, and if suitable whole shopping villages inside the buildings. This has begun on a limited scale in Charlotte, NC. In cities like Charlotte where there is a vital business community opportunity has presented itself to produce attractive, inner city housing. What has further happened has been that businesses have sprung up around these condominiums that supply the needs of the occupants. Mostly catering to '30 something' singles and couples; the businesses have been minimarts, bars, restaurants and boutiques.

In towns in the more rural areas the unemployment remains high because the displaced workers are largely unemployable due to age and lack of education and skills. An attempt was made to take an abandoned department store in the town where I live and convert it to shops on the ground floor with apartments above. The apartments were initially occupied, but increasing rent drove the tenants, most of whom did not work in town, to move elsewhere. They are now mostly or completely unoccupied. All of the mills, the last of which ceased production in the last 5 years are empty. Without a change in the economy there seems to be no way to pull off the renovation that is taking place in the bigger cities. Walmart is slowly choking out the grocery stores, all of the locally owned drug stores have sold to chains because of competition from Walmart and Drug store chains. There is one locally owned bank left. The rest sold to a larger bank which was bought by a larger bank chain which let most of the employees go or closed the bank altogether. In short, there is no manufacturing business left, service industry jobs are steadily shrinking and no one has any idea what to do to turn the situation around.

There have been ideas for partial solutions. Agritourism (read wineries) is a possibility. A modest startup winery is in operation, but it will take time and more investment for that to have an impact. There is a fairly large number of artists and craftspeople in the area; another tourist draw. What worries me is that what is happening here is happening everywhere and I wonder where the tourists are going to come from if people in other counties are struggling to come up with a way to survive.

Thinking about this for very long gives me a headache and makes me depressed.

LEAF

2005-10-15T21:57:00.000-04:00

Well, I spent the day at the Lake Eden Arts Festival - LEAF. The festival is a 3 day event that is perfect for aging Deadheads. Lots of girls with dreads and old growth stands of arm pit hair. Missing from memories of Grateful Dead concerts, however, was the pungent mix of serious B.O. and patchoulie. Dedicated fans of LEAF come for the whole weekend and camp on the grounds, which is not only allowed, but encouraged.

There was a real mix of entertainment. As one of the on stage entertainers put it "This is a carnival. I love it." There are vendors selling everything from extremely well made musical instruments like drums and flutes to funnel cakes. I sat in on concerts by my two favorite groups; Emilene Michel, a Haitian group, and the Duhks. If you don't know about the Duhks they are an amazing ensemble of wunderkinder from Winipeg who somehow by their teens had developed a mix of styles that incorporates Irish, Blues, and African elements. They have a website that I think is just www.duhks.com. If that doesn't work you can google Duhks. Bougealais was there as well. They've been around awhile and are a solid cajun band. The even had a 'Shout' gospel brass band. I thought I was going to see Jake and Elwood coming down the aisle at any minute.

I kept seeing folks walking up the hill to a building and investigated. They had a band and a caller and about 200 people were contra dancing. Sort of like Square dancing without the hay. It looked like so much fun, but I have two left feet and the caller would just announce what the steps were going to be and then the music would start. Miraculously, only about 1 in 20 people looked hopelessly lost. The bad thing about that was when he was lost (they all seemed to be male) 3 other people couldn't complete the dance and then if the confusion persisted past a certain point another whole group of four who were supposed to switch partners with that group were standing in the middle of the floor. I decided I was not going to be responsible for that.

All in all, it was a really fun day that cost forty dollars plus the cost of food and drink. Advance tickets are cheaper and if you were camping you could have just stayed up 'til you couldn't stay awake any longer and crawl in your sleeping bag. As it was I had an hour and a half drive home so I left in time to get home without falling asleep on the way. I'll go again and next time I'll have a backpack to haul 'stuff' around in, and a gig bag with a guitar or mandolin in it. There was plenty of amateur action that was either sponsored or just spontaneous.

Blog personalities

2005-10-14T10:52:00.000-04:00

I visited my daughters blog site today and got referred to this link. Basically, I'm characterized as thoughtful and considerate. I would like to be thought of that way, but I don't always live up to my ambitions. One of the things it said about my type is that we often blog for causes. That is distinctly unlike me. I have always been offended by people who think they have a strangle hold on the 'truth'. I can usually see at least two sides to an issue and place myself in the shoes of the person on the other side of the debate. This is not always a good thing. Say you are engaged in a firefight as a soldier. This is not a good time to start thinking about how the poor guy shooting at you has a family and is probably just as convinced of his beliefs as you.

Back to the idea of championing a cause. I have usually let someone else go door-to-door asking for money for the cancer society or attend school board meetings fighting for some issue. So, it's unlike me to ask whoever reads this to support a charitable agency of some kind. You see, I have a wonderful granddaughter who was born with kidneys that don't work. She has been on dialysis since she was 8 months old and her parents would have been unable to care for her, but for all the programs that have been put in place to support children with problems like this, both financially and emotionally. There are a lot of different programs for children with serious illnesses. If you have had a personal experience with a child with leukemia, for instance, find a reputable agency that supports care and research for children with leukemia. Just become involved.

Blue Monday

2005-10-10T05:22:00.000-04:00

I woke up early this morning in a brown defunkit. There's no special reason for this that I can see; just Monday morning blues. Thinking back over the nice three day weekend hasn't seemed to help. Thinking of next weekend isn't cheering me up either. There are 5 days to go 'til then that will be busy, stressful, and pretty much out of my control. So, I decided not to blog anything today (smiley face).

My poetry

2005-10-05T07:52:00.000-04:00

Getting poems published is very difficult. Here is a haiku I wrote after I got an "out of office" message stating that the author had gone to the beach and could not be reached.

The Beach

The rush of water.
Slowly eroding sand dunes.
Soft clink of ice cubes.

Would anyone else like to share their poetry?

Seasons

2005-09-30T14:46:00.000-04:00

This has been a long hot summer, and it has been very dry here for the last month. This morning the air was crisp as I left for work and I thought about how this is my favorite time of the year. Fall, in my childhood, was the time when we went back to school. Spending all of my school years at the same address meant I was seeing kids again that I hadn't seen for three months. It was the time for activities like carving pumpkins, cutting out leaves from colored construction paper and taping them to the window, and the time that there began to be cool breezes coming through the windows of the unairconditioned school house that relieved us from the misery of high humidity and heat in the South.

Fall was also the time that I did things with my father. Things like butchering and canning. Things like rounding up the beagles, grabbing our shotguns and the box of shells that we got for Christmas the preceding year, and heading to the river bottoms, hoping to get a shot at a rabbit.

Winter was a time for squirrel hunting and this was a solitary pursuit that was miserably cold and lonely. Sitting down under a tree in the midst of the Ozark National Forest, in the dark, and listening to my dad make his way off to another place to sit was not my idea of fun. Winter was a time for getting up in the dark in an unheated bedroom and making a bee line to the single space heater in the dining room while I scrambled into my clothes - a time for milking with numb ears that only came back to life when the cow swatted you in the side of the head with her tail.

So, in spite of the fact that Winter was coming, or maybe because Winter was coming, Fall was a delicious time to be alive.

Ireland - A Novel

2005-09-19T07:53:00.000-04:00

I just finished, Ireland - A Novel, by Frank DeLaney. I like reading things about Ireland. It's not easy to explain my fascination. It's sort of a small island with topography that's verdant, but not exactly awe inspiring. It's the people and history that make it so interesting. And the fact that a number of my ancestors were Irish expatriots.

The story is told through a clever device. It follows the life of Ronan O'Mara from a child to a young adult and a mysterious itenerant storyteller who appears at the door one blustery cold night and tells stories involving the history of Ireland. What follows is a quest on the part of Ronan for both history and the storyteller, who always seems to have been here yesterday. It is a cleverly written book with a somewhat dark family story that unfolds as Ronan grows to adulthood. I enjoyed it a lot.

In the process of reading the book I found that Ronan means 'seal' in gaelic and O'Mara means 'of the sea'. I should have seen the connection between Mara in Gaelic and Mar and Mer in Spanish and French. I also found the origin of the term 'boycott'. Read the book and find it out.

2005-09-04T11:13:00.000-04:00

The Treasure That Was New Orleans

2005-09-02T16:16:00.000-04:00

Katrina created devastation such as we have not previously known. We have all seen scenes like the ones coming from Biloxi and Waveland, Mississippi before; houses destroyed, large boats in improbable places, debris everywhere. Not to trivialize these tragedies, but the disaster in New Orleans is unprecedented. New Orleans has always been the favorite destination for me and Lynn. How can I explain why. I think the fact that New Orleans had a different history from the rest of the country partly explains it. For reasons too complicated to go into, the relationship between races has always been more tolerant there. The law in New Orleans and consequently Louisiana was Napoleonic in basis rather than derived from English Common Law. The predominant religion was Roman Catholic rather than Protestant. The fact that the port of New Orleans was there brought a real mix of outsiders so that you had an Irish section an Italian section, a German section and so on. The accent is some weird mix of New York dock worker, Cajun and Old South. All of this cross culture was like a yeast producing wonderful food, wonderful music, and an indulgent way of life.

The French Quarter had an atmosphere like no other. Where else could you walk down the street and be assailed by the aroma of Paul Prudhommes kitchen at one pace and be assaulted by the smell of rotting garbage at the next step. Where else could you go into a liquor store, have them make you a gin and tonic for $3.00 that they poured into a plastic cup so you could carry it down the street and have trouble drinking it because it had too much gin.

But the loss in New Orleans that will convince FEMA and the federal government to build it back will not be the cultural treasure. It will be the importance that it has as the 5th largest port in the world. The fact that all of the commerce from the central U.S. leaving by barge has been processed at New Orleans. One person described New Orleans as being in the worst possible place and being in the only place it can be. It is this importance to the business of America that gives my hope that we will once more be able to sit on the veranda and drink chicory coffee with our biegnets at breakfast, and eat supper at KPauls.

I feel so sad for the survivors whose life has been destroyed and worry that they will find work and a home elsewhere, never returning to New Orleans, because the people, not the place, made New Orleans the wonder it was.

Charlotte Drivers a Rant

2005-08-15T10:07:00.000-04:00

This is a spin off from the last entry. I made the statement that Charlotte drivers are the worst in the world and confess that I have not lived everywhere, so that may not be accurate. I have lived all over the US though and I stand by that statement for the US. An article this weekend in the Charlotte Observor gave the results for one year of speeding tickets issued as a result of van mounted cameras at selected locations in Charlotte where there was a high accident rate. In one year 30,000 fifty dollar tickets were mailed along with a picture of the vehicle. There could have easily been another 20,000 but officers gave the speeder the benefit of the doubt if the tag numbers were hard to read. Ten tickets were succesfully appealed. Three because the owners were able to prove that their car had been stolen. One because the family was speeding to the hospital with an injured child.

During the last year my wife was approaching the interstate on an approach ramp, going at the speed limit when a car behind her passed her on the shoulder shot across three lanes of the interstate causing a driver to veer into the concrete median and then back across the lanes of the interstate to the shoulder. A truck driver who witnessed the whole thing got the speeders license number as he flew by. When Lynn called to find out what had happened (she stopped and made a statement to the patrolman) she was told there was no record of the incident. Poor record keeping or a fix are the only things that come to mind.

If you have ever watched a NASCAR race it is obvious where these people get their inspiration. When we lived in Memphis we were struck by drivers who just changed lanes without signaling. They did it very gradually so that you had time to react. It was sort of local custom. There were a lot of things Memphis drivers did that were irritating, but as we grew accustomed to them it became obvious that the driving manual said one thing, but local convention operated by a different set of unwritten rules. They were even courteous in some sort of rural southern way. Not so Charlotteans. They are rude, malicious, scoff laws.

Yesterday was a good day

2005-08-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

We got an invitation recently to a combination barbecue, pottery firing demonstration and pottery sale. We couldn't think how we got the invitation, but thought maybe we had signed someone's guest book at an arts and crafts show.

It could have been a bust, and the location was an hour and a half from here on the other side of Charlotte. If you've never driven in Charlotte, NC don't. I'm not sure why Charlotte has the worst drivers in the world - I blame it on the NASCAR influence, but I'm not sure that's all of it. Charlotte drivers aren't just clueless the way they are in Memphis, TN; they're malicious. Intentionally running redlights is such a problem the city has cameras set up at intersections that photograph license plates of offenders. Those photographed get a $50.00 ticket in the mail - no contest.

Anyway, I digress. We went past Charlotte, past Monroe, past Wingate and turned in the town of Marshville (home of Randy Travis) off onto country roads. We knew we were onto something when we got there. Cars parked up and down the road let us know others had made the trek, too. The house, shop, and raku kiln were all set off in the woods. The barbecue was good, the beer and sodas were cold and the pottery outstanding.

Andy Smith has been making pottery for over 30 years and has found out what does and does not work. He had a lot of sculptural vases with contrasting white and dark colors with a heavy art deco influence. It's hard to explain, but it was nice enough that we wandered away with a piece. The best part is that Andy, who we did remember meeting and talking to at the American Crafts Council show in Charlotte, and his wife are really likable people. So, too, were the other guests. I got a lot of tips during the firing demonstration. Like most potters, Andy is very open about his techniques. I've found that potters are this way for good reason. They got their information the same way, and they know that you will probably never make things that turn out like theirs.

Despite heat, high humidity and no breeze, yesterday was a good day.

Linguistic confusion

2005-08-01T07:22:00.000-04:00

When the Danes invaded the British Isles they spoke a language that differed from Anglo-Saxon by only 10%. You would think that that would make conversation easy, but the confusion that resulted is responsible for shirt and skirt having two different meanings, when originally they both meant the covering for your upper body. It's a little that way reading blogs from Great Britain and Australia. The idiom and slang are different from that in the U.S.

However, what I have been struck with is the number of blogs from Spanish speaking countries. I know just enough Spanish to be totally confused when I try to read the Spanish blogs. I think it is probably worse because the owners tend to write the way they talk instead of a more formal and international Spanish. It makes me wish I understood more Spanish. I'm reminded of a college English professor talking about speed reading. The proponents claimed they could read a gazillion words a minute with 90% comprehension. Dr. Massey's comment was "I submit to you that 90% comprehension is no comprehension at all". Anyway, I'll keep trying to read the Spanish blogs and maybe I'll pick up a little from the context.

Kiln building

2005-07-30T21:49:00.000-04:00

Three of us built kilns today. Mercifully, the temperature was only in the 80's today instead of the 100 degree temperatures that we had earlier in the week and the rain held off. The kilns are two feet in diameter and about two and a half feet tall, made of wire mesh and lined with fiberglass mat and they set on top of brick. It took us about 4 hours including the time to assemble the hoses and blower hardware that goes to the propane tank. Now I have to make some pieces to fire.

Building a kiln

2005-07-26T11:28:00.000-04:00

This Saturday I am going to build a Raku kiln as part of an activity at Isothermal Community College. For those of you who have no involvement with making pottery the kiln is the oven in which your pottery is 'baked'. Raku is a beautiful form of nonfunctional pottery developed in Japan. The technique involves a 'low-fire' to about 1800 degrees, removal of the piece from the kiln, and, while the piece is still glowing, placing it in a combustible material like sawdust, newspaper, shredded computer paper etc., and then covering it with something so that the atmosphere goes from oxidation to reduction.

The effect can be breathtaking - or heartbreaking. All of the "thermal shock" of taking the piece out to a suddenly much cooler air can cause the piece to break. The beauty of the process comes in part from its unpredictability. Using glazes that are different colors in oxidation and reduction can create variation from one area to another depending on the relative amount of oxidation/reduction that occurred. All of the areas that are not glazed turn black from the smoke. Glazing is carried out in anticipation of attempting a particular effect, but serendipity plays a large part.

The kiln will be made from woven wire and fiberglass which will make it light enough to lift off the piece or pieces being fired. Living in town, I am not sure where I will be able to fire. The kiln is fired using propane. The only sticking point will be the open flame and smoke from the oxidation/reduction process which should not be a problem unless the neighbors make it one.

Overload

2005-07-22T10:17:00.000-04:00

This morning I turned the TV on to see an interview with a Londoner who had been on the "tube" this morning when a man ran by him and was shot dead by undercover police. So, then there was an exchange between two talking heads about what this could be about. So, then I showered got dressed and looked at the TV and saw more talking heads saying the same thing. Switched channels and got more "concerned" journalists asking what this could mean.

So, then I drive to work and there is a TV going in the Doctor's Lounge. Christiane Amanpour and some state side journalist are asking the same questions. By this time two hours have elapsed. I switch to the weather channel and there is a forecaster talking about Tropical Storm whoever is next and the implications for Florida residents, exhorting us to stay tuned for projections about the likelihood that it would become a hurricane.

Sheesh! I have enough problems without being bombarded by all of this "information". I wonder what would happen if I had no radio or t.v.? Would I miss something I really wanted to know about? Would I fall victim to a terrorist? Would I be blown away by a tornado? Would I be better off taking the slim chance that this would happen in order to live a calmer life? I don't know, but I'm about ready to go cold turkey.

The Bupps Have Moved Again

2005-07-19T19:41:00.000-04:00

Number one daughter and uberblogger has moved to a new site. The old account at blogger is still open with the new URL posted. I don't know enough about doing cute stuff with HTML to feel limited so I'm gonna stay here.

Last weekend I took a shooting lesson with Dan Carlisle. For those of you who don't shoot clay targets with a shotgun that name may mean nothing. Mr. Carlisle won the bronze medal in one of the Olympics in the early 80s. It was quite an experience. I had a lesson with him 5-6 years ago and had forgotten how intense he is. His style is to give you a little didactic description of what you are going to be taught and then go do it over and over and over again until you get it right. And I mean really right! At the end of two hours my arms were shaking. Fortunately, that came at the very end of the lesson. I have never had an experience like that before, but apparently he has because he made the remark that once your arms go you can relax for five minutes, but within a few shots you're shaking again and that proved to be right. My shoulders are sore even today, two days later.

I shot 275 rounds in 2 hours. For those of you who don't shoot that is a whole lot. I can't wait to get back out and practice what I learned. I had reached a plateau and knew I couldn't go farther without changing my technique and suspected from what others had said about his approach that he taught what I needed. It turned out to be exactly right.

I imagine that I got exhausted due to a combination of recently having surgery, the inactivity following, the intensity of the experience, and 91 degree heat with 90% humidiy.

The one word synopsis

2005-07-13T01:14:00.000-04:00

I found this on the Bupp site.

Word up

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me. It can only be one word. No more. Then copy & paste this in your blog so that I may leave a word about you.

You gotta be brave to do this.

Insomnia

2005-07-12T07:05:00.000-04:00

It's 4:05 a.m. and I have been awake since before 3:00. I worked a New York Times crossword and am still not sleepy. This is a real pain, since I will get drowsy again at about the time I should be getting up. I'm 3 weeks post-op now and only started this again last night. Of course, for the first 4-5 days after surgery I was sleeping all night due to pain medication, but in the week or 10 days following, I slept all night and slept late. I attributed that to some inate process to promote healing. Now I am back in the cycle. I will have a week or so of this kind of sleep and then seem to cycle back into something that passes for normal sleep.

Lynn worries about this. She has read that people who don't sleep well have shorter lives. I hope I am an exception. I have no problems falling asleep, but when I awake in the night I seem to obsess on work, financial problems, etc, etc.

It's 4:17. I'm going to try to get to sleep again.

The President's Speech

2005-06-30T20:48:00.000-04:00

Our neighbor called the other nite and asked us over for a Bush watching party. The rules were that everytime Bush said something stupid, during his speech at Ft. Bragg, you took a drink. Since we all were within walking distance we didn't feel that it would be a hazard to the public when we went home. We had some problems with the rules, though. We couldn't figure out whether you should have a drink if he said the same stupid thing more than once. The way he repeated himself, like with the repeated attempt to link the events of 9-11 with the war in Iraq, we would have been unable to focus by the end of the show, so we ruled that they had to be new stupid statements.

I felt really sorry for the GIs who made up the audience. It is bad enough that the Green Berets had to sit there with Berets made in China, but they were so shamelessly used to ramp up patriotic support Bush's failed military policy.

I highly recommend watching Bush's addresses this way. Once you get past the waves of nausea, it becomes tolerable.

Property non-rights

2005-06-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

Laying around the house the last few days has let me have time to read and keep up with the news. The US Supreme Court this past week made a monumental decision that is monumentally flawed in my opinion. On a 5-4 decision they allowed municipalities to declare imminent domain over private property to be turned over to privated developers for their use, all to increase the tax base of the community. The potential for abuse seems endless.

Used in the best way possible, it would allow cities to sieze the 'big boxes' left behind by the Wal-Marts and Lowes and let developers reuse the property for some other use. The problem is, though, that it is all about money and the large chains who abandoned the buildings have often just moved to another location in the community which looks more attractive from a retail standpoint and intentionally keep the old property and pay taxes on it so that competition will not move in.

As it will work, older housing areas will be condemned, siezed, and developer/desecraters will tear down the low tax base property driving the occupants, many of whom are poor and/or elderly, out and high end homes/condos/apartments will be built in their place.

Interestingly, I went to one of the "bulletin boards" where a lot of conservatives hang out and this was blamed on the 'liberals' on the supreme court. ????

Post-operative day four

2005-06-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

Well, it's p.o. day#4 and I have been doing great. No lifting of anything heavier than a milk jug for another week or two according to my surgeon. I plan to go back to work on Monday and anticipate no problems.

Surgery

2005-06-21T04:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, 6-20-05, I had laparoscopic hernia surgery. I was very apprehensive beforehand, never having had surgery (except removal of my tonsils and adenoids at 18 months). It was much less than I expected. I had been told by various people that it was more painful than childbirth and other comparatives that lead me to believe that I was in for hell. I have found that most of the time I am mildly uncomfortable, and when I cough or laugh, very uncomfortable. This is my first day and maybe things will get worse, but I doubt it.

One of the side effects of the surgery is ileus, a sort of lazy bowel state, where the bowel is in 'shock' from having been moved around during surgery. This is usually very mild in laparoscopic procedures, which is why you can go home the same or next day after surgery. I seem to have a mild case and, consequently, my belly is distended. We'll see how this progresses.

This seems to be another case of things not, usually, being as bad as you expected.

Well, this is a first for me.

2005-06-18T09:16:00.000-04:00

I set up this blog after visiting my daughter, Rowan's, site. I thought this would be a fun place for my family and friends to visit and talk about topics of interest. I have no agenda other than staying in touch and sharing news about events in our lives and airing ideas on such things as why nighthawks need whiskers and bats don't.