Murder she wrote (10/31/2024)

The other day, my wife had a phone call from a good friend telling her that someone they knew was killed in a murder/suicide. No indication was given who did who, but it was a married couple and after the fact it came out that she frequently berated him. The guy brought calendars to her office and seemed to talk incessantly with the staff. You could not shut him up. I can just imagine that dynamic at home.

Regardless who might be the victim or the perpetrator, it brought some distant memories back to me. A little more than five years ago now, were we informed of a mass shooting in Virginia Beach. The killer turned out to be an old colleague of mine. We had somehow stayed in touch when we both left our employer in 2004. Moreover, during my stormwater training career, he attended my classes and so did the folks that he killed. At the time it affected me a lot.

The call to my wife and the awakened memories made me more contemplative for a while and I started wondering how many folks actually know a murderer or someone who was murdered. Now my wife and I both know such a person, or one (or more) of each. I absolutely do not live in a hole in the ground, and as I described here, I have had my run-in with death or killings before, but that was when we lived in Uganda more than 40 years ago. However, that does not make any killing or murder less bad; neither makes it me more callous.

In thinking about these things, I had an additional thought that disturbed me: how many white folks know a murderer or someone who was murdered vs. African American folks. I have not done any research on this subject; however, I want to bet that black folks probably on average have disproportionally more killers and deaths by murder in their lives. I am absolutely not saying that African Americans are inherently more violent. No! There are some very clear reasons for this. Let’s call it out the way it is.

Our society is a tale of two economies; it is still racist at its core and that shows up everywhere in society. Words like economic justice, environmental justice and even, and this is my word, educational justice or disparity, aptly describe some of the causes for what is going on here. African American folks get concentrated in certain areas, they have less job opportunities and if they get them, they are lower paying because of the sub-par education they have gotten. Areas with large concentration of African Americans have fewer trees, and research has shown that the average temperatures in these areas are a few degrees warmer, which causes more heat emergencies in summer. It also seems that heavy industry or polluting industry is located or is planned for areas with larger minority populations. I once read somewhere that it is much easier to commit some crime if your outlook for the future is dismal. What is there to hope or plan for? It seems that minorities are for more often put in situations with little hope. When on top of all that you stick a lot of people in one place, violence will increase as well.

I heard that a lot of black mothers worry about their kids when they go out. Whether it is gang related or the white police showing their lingering racial bias or manliness. Although this is somewhat changing with all the recent school shootings. This results in more homeschooling for white kids and that changes the makeup of the schools and the lowers the education level. A vicious circle.

So, what am I trying to say here is my short post? Killing, murder or even suicide is deplorable. This is regardless of race, mental conditions, income, you name it. Violence is still being encouraged in certain political circles, and so is racism. It is not surprising that these circles intersect or even that both exist in same circle, racism and the encouragement for violent acts. We saw that on January 6 almost 4 years ago, during demonstrations in Charlottesville, call to mobilize the Army to take care of the “enemy from within,” and I can go on. Folks, we need to do something about this. We need to vote, reject violence and foster racial equity.

On first look, this picture has nothing to do with this post; however, I am seeing at least 4 different tree species here, which are equally affected by the change of seasons.  This shows that nature treats all the same, unlike what we do as human beings. 

James River State Park Squirrels (10/13/2024)

“Wow, look at those branches swaying around. Oh, it is a squirrel.” We were sitting on the terrace/porch at a cabin in one of Virginia's State Parks. I sat on my rocking chair nurturing my beer, watching a squirrel run to the end of a branch, grabbing what I assume were acorns, scurrying from a branch at perilous heights to the bottom of the oak tree and after a few minutes speed back up to the end of the branch and repeat the process. It is early October and time to prepare for the onslaught of winter and store food.

We were spending a few days at James River State Park. A new one for us. We have really enjoyed every state park we spent time in and this wasn't an exception. Donna told me that this might be her favorite (a five star). I hate to assign favoritism to any state park in Virginia; however, this one definitely ranks up there. I need to update my list of Virginia State Parks one of these days.

Back to the squirrel, the reminded me that fall is rapidly approaching here in Virginia. The temperatures were in the low 70s during the day and low 40s at night. This time last year we already had colors on the leaves when we spent time in Natural Tunnel State Park in the mountains of SW Virginia. Here in the Piedmont we noticed a faint bleaching of some of the leaves, and the dropping of dried out leaves from some of the trees. My ex-colleague Doug who lives nearby in Lynchburg reported that this area was affected by a severe drought this summer, which may be the explanation of the dried out leaves raining down on us during sections of our hikes the past two days.

The squirrels also took me back to some research we did in the mid 1990s. I was working with a group that needed to restore 440 acres of wetlands just outside Indianapolis. The airport was expanding and they needed to mitigate for filling in some wetlands. We were restoring 400 acres of forested wetlands and 40 acres of emergent wetlands (swamps). As part of this effort, we needed to monitor the recruitment (invasion) of plants in our plantations. We planted some 16 different tree species in a random pattern. Recruitment patters we noticed were that species with heavy seeds (i.e. acorns) invaded closer to the boundary with natural woods or hedgerows. We assumed that these seeds either rolled in or were cashes stored (planted) by squirrels. Maybe the previous winter was mild, and the squirrels did not need all the stored food, or maybe they simply forgot where they buried those acorns. Lighter seed, like those from maples, appeared to have flown in and these plants dispersed further into our plots, while plants that were fruit baring were scatters throughout our plots. We noticed that the fruit baring species invaded mostly around the tallest seedlings that we had planted, or at least the ones that were growing the fastest. We surmised that fruit eating bird landed on the tallest plants and used these as lookout posts, in the mean time pooping out seeds from the fruit they consumed. Interesting to see how natural succession takes place.

This all came back to me watching that squirrel doing its job in securing a stash of food for the upcoming winter. Obviously, we had such a relaxing time at James River State Park that it allowed for these memories from long forgotten time flooded back into my head. Those were fine times and so are the present. Guess it is nice to be retired, slow down and remember the yesterdays. Interesting what a visit to a State Park does to you.

James River State Park is a "dark sky park" which means that on a cloudless evening the sky is amazing.  I tool this picture of the Milkyway with my Samsung telephone camera.

Mushrooms

Donna and the dogs at the Tey overlook.  There are some really good hikes in the park.  Day 1 we hiked just over 4 miles and day 2 we hiked more than 5 miles along the James River (picture below).  Evidence abounds that the river just retreated from a major flood stage, probably caused by hurricane Helene.

In a bubble (10/3/2024)

“Bang, bang, bang ...” “What was that, it sounded like machine gun fire.” We were on our regular evening dog walk. The short pee walk before we go to sleep. “Nah, it is a car back firing on the main road” I replied. The next night, around the same time “bang, bang, bang,” etc. “Again, is that the same car? What has the world come to and where is the police?”

If it isn't that, it is a car or motorcycle trying to drag race down the road. They roar on the main highway by our neighborhood. A highway that is mostly empty around 11 at night, the time we typically walk our dogs. We feel sorry for those folks living closer to the highway. It must be really jarring at times; although there is a sound wall between their backyard and the road, it must be pretty loud of we who live a half mile down the road are bothered by it. Drag racing at 11 pm? At least the cops are asleep, so it is a free-for-all.

What is this world coming to? Where is the consideration for our fellow citizens, chivalry, empathy, class, you name it. Everybody is in there for themselves, stroking their narcissistic tendencies, trying to claim the vehicle with the fastest acceleration title, moreover, which vehicle is the loudest, the most souped up? Fuck that gas mileage, I'll just complain that gas prices are too high, and blame some politician, but keep on spewing it out of that enlarged tailpipe that makes a roaring sound of their monster truck. Who is all powerful and more manly. Or are they compensating for something they lack?

The other day I was driving home from having the van worked on and here came a car that was either a Mustang or a Camaro shoot by me with a big roar. I was on a 3-lane road following the sped of traffic. The dude weaves in and out of lanes trying to pass all kinds of seemingly traffic-law obeying citizens. In essence putting all those folks in harm’s way. A few weeks earlier, some lunatic was passing cars on the shoulder of the 4-lane highway I was on. It is not only Yorktown; it is this country. I saw it in Kansas City, Louisville and even in the mountains of Colorado.

I know, here is another old and decrepit guy who should no longer be driving complaining about the youth or fellow pavement users. No that's not it, I am no slough, and this is not only about drivers and their vehicles. As a country we have become a lot less considerate of other people. We grab them by the pussy, we make them look like idiots, and so on. We have become a society of slaves; slaves to society, corporate America, to our politicians and for some this is the only way they can distinguish themselves in this slave society. In their non-slave hours folks are trying to stand out, become individualized, without regards for others. And what is the remedy? I really do not know, maybe a bit more sense of community and responsibility.

Whenever I am outside, walking, working in the front yard, checking the mail or simply sitting on a park bench, I try to be courteous. Oh, I'll give you the middle finger greeting if you, at night, in the dark, come barreling down the road with your bright lights on and don't dim them when I know you can see me, but you insist on blinding me. Remember asshole, I can see you way earlier than you can see me, you don't have to shine those brights right into my face. I broke an ankle in 2001 when I accidentally stepped in a hole on the curb when some lady refused to dim her lights.

So here you see that I can dish it out as well. Use words that may offend some of you folks, and I am sorry, but I just want to make a point. This attitude that I describe in this post is what is hurting this country, our earth and our survival as species. We need to start thinking more collectively, be more aware of our fellow humans and realize what the results of our actions are on other folks and society. We do not live in a vacuum. Speeding up your or this society's demise is not getting you anywhere except that you drag everyone down with you, you damn narcissistic idiot. Everything we do affects others, even if we don't see it.

Yup, me, me, me and fuck the rest of society

Report from the road (9/25/2024)

Although I am home, I want to report a little more about my recent road trip. I was gone for 11 days. I had fun. I did not record the miles I drove, but I think it was over 3000 miles. Flying back was ok. Thank goodness there was a direct flight from Los Angeles to Norfolk and I was able to relax once the airplane tool off. In this blog I want to discuss some of the non-drive experiences, mostly as they relate to people.

My objective of Day 1 was to get away from Virginia as soon as possible. The major thing I experienced that roads were still under construction, very much like what I described here a year ago. I also had trouble with my phone keeping its charge, despite the fact that I plugged it in. Somehow the USB port was not doing its job. I decided to buy a plug-in charger in the town I stopped. Luckily, there was a car parts store near the motel I stayed in. The attendant was very helpful, we had a nice talk about all the complicated plug-in gadgets and different telephone charge ports there were. He was young, but even for him it was somewhat difficult to hunt for the correct gadget on the rack.

I somehow had a hankering for Mexican food and stopped at the restaurant nearby. It had good ratings on Google, and I dare say, the food was good. But don't order the rib-eye fajita. My chin dropped when it was served; it was an actual rib-eye stake with all the fajita makings. I ate all the vegies and half the meat and that was it. The stake was great but I was full and regretted all those chips I ate and washed down with a jumbo margarita. When I mentioned to my server that it was way too much, he just nodded.

As I mentioned in my previous post the next stop included St. Louis and the famous Gateway Arch. You go up in what they call a train; however, to me it feels more like a ferris-wheel. I shared my gondola with two couples. When making small talk they mentioned that they were both from Milwaukie, did not know each other, but lived a mile apart. As a result they started to discuss the latest murder a few blocks down from where they lived. The mother of one of the couples lived a few homes down whre the murder took place. One of the ladies told me that she wanted to take her (now) husband to all the water parks in the country and they had just spent a day at one in St. Louis.

I want to keep this post about some of the people I encountered on the road. I did not get a chance to interact with many, except some servers in restaurants, most of them were very nice and personable, including the server in Warrenton (MO), Pratt (KS), the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Mesquite (NV). The bar lady at the brewery in Alamosa was nice too. The most memorable were the teenage server in Pratt. She was too young to serve beer and the bartender had to bring it over. I should have asked if she was still in school and what she thought her future was in such a small rural Kansas town. Actually, the staff at the Pratt Holiday Inn Express were the friendliest. The wait staff at the North Rim appeared to be mostly Turkish engineering students who were there for the second season. I had fun talking with them. Their season was almost over, after which they played tourist for a few weeks before going back to Ankara. Their plans included a tour of the National Parks in the west. The owner of the Peruvian restaurant was from Nicaragua, but he assured me the cook was Peruvian. The food was outstanding.

The ranger or receptionist at the Prairie Preserve, she was mildly interesting, well trained and thus politically correct. Between the lines, she briefly mentioned something like “the mess” this country was in, but when I tried to draw her out, she refrained. We had a nice talk; she as a wildlife grad and me as a range management dude. However, she had no idea about the less common plants that I observed during my hike on the preserve.

The most interesting discussion I had was with a Navajo sales person at the Four Corners Landmark.  He was manning a booth and we spoke about my previous life and work on and near the Navajo Nation.  He told me that I missed the powwow in Windowrock which was held that weekend.  Again just small talk but very pleasant to be back in the culture I once lived in.

My last real encounter with someone I did not know was at the Hollywood Bowl. I wanted to buy a commemorative sweatshirt. “No, no that one is too small for you,” an African American lady all the sudden started to give me advice, “you need to go a size up.” We ended up in a nice 5-minute small talk, while my daughter and her spouse looked on. Having had a few women trying to take advantage of me on-line, I was a little weary or suspicious but then my family was nearby and we parted on very friendly terms. I may write about these more nefarious encounters some other time.

As you can see, I have nothing serious to report, and never had an in-depth discussion during any of my encounters. In a way I regret that, but is never was my objective during this trip. Hopefully, it provides a very small vignette of the people I saw and met during my trip.

This is a photograph of the small gondola of the train going up the Arch.  It's a four minute ride and as you can see, very intimate.

The Four Corners Landmark

On the road (9/12/2024)

Not a very imaginative or original title, but it is appropriate. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been traveling the famous U.S. highways and some of the byways. This last time, it was a quick trip across, delivering one of our cars to my daughter and her spouse. We had three vehicles and that is more than enough for a retired couple. It was a solo trip this time; my wife stayed home to take care of the dogs and bonsai. In addition, it is hurricane season and it always feels risky leaving home for an extended period. The region was hit by a tropical storm when we took a similar trip last year.

In the past we have taken a few road trips across and I still enjoy it. In 1979 we drove from Delaware to Utah for our graduate studies. We did the opposite trip in 1981 on our way to a new job in Nepal. That was my really first multi day road trip. On the way we visited my wife's friends in Lexington (KY), Louisville (KY) and Columbia (MO). We continued on through Denver to Cheyenne, and ended our trip in northern Utah. We drove an AMC Pacer, which looked like a fishbowl on wheels. On the way back we raced through Nebraska, Iowa and the Midwest; we were in a hurry. We somehow fixed my wife's paintings (she's an artist) to the ceiling of the car, and the gap between the paintings was occupied by our two cats; our two dogs were on the back seat. The other memorable thing that I remember is hearing Barbara Mandrell’s song titled “Crackers” over and over while driving through the prairie states (Nebraska and Iowa). It always amazed me that this song was so popular in the Bible belt since she invites someone back in her bed after a fight and I didn’t think it was her hubby.

Our next trip across the continent was in 1986, but now from Delaware to southern New Mexico. This time in a Honda Civic Wagon, with the same two dogs and only one of the two cats. The most exiting episode was when our cat escaped out of our room of an Indian run motel, in Artesia, NM. We had to stay another night before we found our cat and we could complete the journey. We got to know that town quite intimately that layover day. During those study years we made one more road trip, back and forth for Christmas vacation. Another time we drove to Dallas and flew from there to visit the grandparents of our 1 year-old daughter. In the mean time we made some other trips: to Corpus Christy for one and later on to California (the San Luise Obispo area).

Finally, we did the trip across that I describe in last year's posting: Yorktown to Montana to Long Beach and back home. In addition, my wife drove across one time to take our daughter to Sacramento and now I did this solo trip. I also made a solo trip from Gallup (NM) to Richland (WA) and from Virginia to Maine (I-95). We also have traveled to Charleston (SC) by car. In the past we frequently traveled the Pennsylvania Turnpike when we lived in Cincinnati and visited the (grand) parents in Delaware.

What highways did we take. We lived on Route 66 in Gallup, NM, and we did other Route 66 sections in Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and Missouri. These past two years Interstate 64 was a common route in our trips across the country. We have also traveled Interstates 70, 35, 40, 44, 15, 70, 76, 80, 84, 10, 37, 90, 94 and 95. Highway driving is fair. It is a great way to quickly get from point A to point B; however, the landscape typically flies by. We always joke that the Texas Interstates are the reason we were able to conceive our daughter; all those early arrivals in motel rooms and having time for more time for intimacy (aka wild monkey sex … we were still young … sorry daughter). Naturally, the radar detectors assisted in our speedy arrivals.

Honestly, I like the byways. We have taken large sections of the Lewis and Clark trail through Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, and Montana. We have driven some of the country roads in Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona on some of our other cross-country forays. I like those much better. It allows you to sightsee and just spend time to take it all in.

Things have changed over the years. While in the old days we poured over maps to plan our trips; Google maps is now my go to source. I still plan a trip marking destinations and aiming to keep a day's drive to around 300 miles (480 km). That distance can amount to approximately 6 to 7 hours of driving. Going west is easier because you gain time when crossing into another time zone. Going east you can lose an hour and a 7 hour drive all the sudden results in an 8-hour trip (on the clock) when you cross into the next time zone.

This is just a sampling what we have done. We have spread our wings and shared our exhaust gasses with many places. We still enjoy traveling the highways and byways by car (and now our van).

Bison near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  All the pictures below are from my latest trip.

Me at the North Rim

The Four Corners

Highlands of Colorado

Road Trip (9/6/2024)

In the latest update, I am on a road trip across the country. My wife and I decided to shed one of our vehicles and give it to our daughter. She got a new job that required a long commute on the opposite area of LA. We had three vehicles: our van, the CRV and my Accord. We figured that it would be a lot cheaper if we shed one and expect that our tax and insurance rates would go down. We would probably use the van a little more and put more miles on both remaining vehicles; however, it should be a net win. In conclusion, I decided to hand deliver it to LA and fly back. It is a solo trip, and I just don't have a lot of time to write,

I am currently writing this entry at a microbrewery in Alamosa, Colorado. I am at 7500 feet elevation, and since I crossed into another time zone, I have an extra hour. The trip has been fun and somewhat frustrating. It is nice to be on the road again, that's for sure. I am usually too tired to go crazy after a drive of 6 to 8 hours. As I mentioned before, getting old is no fun; the drive tires me out and the time zone changes are interesting as well. The first day I just drove like crazy, I did not sightsee, and ended up on Mnt. Sterling, KY. I noticed that the charging port in my car did not work and my phone was about to die. So after checking into the motel, I went in search of a charger. After buying one I had a good dinner at the Mexican restaurant next to the motel. The food was crazy, I asked for a steak fajita and was served a full rib-eye steak like a fajita. It was very tasty especially while being fueled by two margaritas

Day two took be to Warrenton, MO via St. Louis. During this leg my trip became fun and very frsutrating at the same time. Start with the fun! I took a side-trip to the Gateway Arch. I had never seen it close by, let alone been to the top, so it was my day! It was fun; however, on the way there I learned about the latest school massacre or as one of the vive presidential candidates called it: an unfortunate incident that is just “a fact of life.” Well, fuck him! In other words, having XM satellite radio in my car, I could not stop listening to the reports on the shooting and the aftermath. I angered me and really bothered me.

Day three took me to a small town in Kansas. I stopped for another side trip at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve where I took a 1.5-mile hike. This was totally up my alley being a range scientist. However, man, it was hot (90) walking there. By the time I got back to the visitor's center I felt like I had heatstroke. This feeling did not leave me and when I I arrived at my motel in Pratt, Kansas, I felt utterly exhausted. Not sure if the drive, the news or heat exhaustion did me in. On top of that, I got a room in the motel where nothing seemed level: I had to walk up slope to get to my bags or out of the bathroom. There was at least two inches difference which made me very unstable during my stay. It exaggerated my concern of my health and general well-being.

Day four brought me here: Alamosa, Colorado. No side trips this time, just a 8 hour drive. Goin through Dodge City I was reminded of my last gripes about the area; but things got better when I entered Colorado. It got drier, I saw prairie dogs, ocotillo, and eventually the Rockies. I was listening to Doctor Radio on XM and I felt good. At time I was still pestered by the news (the shooting and the Cheney news). But life was good again.

I’ll leave it at that, except to tell you about my travels to-date, and my metal state. More to follow, as I am sure you know.

A tall grass prairie picture

Before going up

Wyat Earp and me in Dodge City

At the Spare Kegg in Alamosa

Restaurant view

Creepy and Weird (8/22/2024)

Two new words that entered our political lexicon. As most of you know, I occasionally write about politics, sometimes about what is going on at the local level here in Yorktown. Conversely, I write nationally and internationally. Note that I did not hyperlink the national in this post, but I have 102 posts (not including this one) on the subject in one form or fashion and 15 on racism. You can probably find many more posts where I forgot to add the tag. The words I want to write about are weird and creepy. I have used the word weird a total of six times and actually three of them occurred in posts where I have politics as a keyword. I used creepy once; however, it had to do with aging.

Creepy and aging that is an interesting jump. Do older men get creepier as they age? I would hope not, as I am older. However, I can think of at least one old person who is getting creepier and creepier with age; even weirder. As you know I am a liberal and was happy that at least our side of the presidential race bowed out. This was not because he became creepier, but he was just plainly getting too old. However, the candidate from the other side who is two or three years younger than the guy that was considered too old is staying in the race. You all know I am writing about tRump. That guy was already creepy years ago. He slept around while married, associated himself with abusers of minors, slept with porn stars while his wife was pregnant, and even raped women. He is a convicted felon, a criminal. His followers and he himself consider him the second coming. I learned today that he obsessed with crowd size and claims that one of the pictures of his opponent’s crowd was AI generated. Now that is creepy, and it is definitely plain weird that almost half the country would want him to become the president of this country. It has all the flavors of a cult.

Even weirder is the choice by this candidate in selecting his wing man or candidate for vice president: a self-proclaimed slum dog millionaire who went to Yale, writes a book about his humble upbringing but does not give a crap about the poor and middle class, and rages against the educated elite. He comes from an area where healthcare is lacking, where women’s healthcare and maternity support is poor, but he does not care. He seems to dislike unmarried women and calls them “cat ladies.” In addition, he is against invitro fertilization, but believes that all women should at least have three children, and all women should stay at home. Together they are for installing the government in your bedroom and in your home, but God forbid if the government tells you anything about your right to own a gun. Plain weird, if not creepy.

I was happy when Biden decided not to continue. I am happy and energized by the new candidate, Vice President Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. It was Governor Walz who described some of the actions by the opposition and even the ticket as “Creepy and weird.” I admit, I am not original here, but I would like to enforce the idea. tRump, Vance and their followers are plain weird and a lot of them are creepy as well.

Sorry, no deep message here, except the reinforcement Tim Walz’s observation about the Republican candidates and my commitment never to vote for these creepy weirdos. I hope you do the same!

Embraced (7/18/2024)

In the more recent posts, I have mentioned that we had a contractor install a fence around our backyard. It was finished a little more than a month ago and we are really enjoying it. I have always been somewhat against fencing the backyard; however, now I am a convert. Our dogs Jasper and Radar enjoy the freedom of being able to roam our albeit small back yard chasing squirrels, howling at the trees that the squirrels escape into, as any good treeing coonhound should, and at deer outside the fence. Radar dapperly joins in, although he does not howl. In addition, the dogs have rip-roaring wrestle matches. I think at least three or four per day.

Since part of the backyard is in the shade we had a lovely cover of moss instead of grass. Well, that was completely torn up and destroyed by our canines and their wrestling matches. Oh well, as they say; we all enjoy a good fight. Us watching it and the dogs performing it.

We built an additional fence with sticks that fell out of all the trees in our backyard. It serves somewhat as a divider in the yard and a place for birds to hide and hang out. We planted pollinator plants along a path that I put in along the stick fence in the hope that one day it might resemble something like an English cottage garden. The area is being overtaken by a gourd of some kind. It was in our compost and based on our dietary habit, I expect that it will be acorn squash. Our green tunnel is being colonized by tomatoes and green beans. We have been eating grape tomatoes and snacking on the miscellaneous green been. It is an experiment that we will repeat next year.

I have noticed that we spend a lot more time in our backyard, now that we have a fence. The major reason is that the dogs can be with us. Jasper the hound is a runner and hunter. Radar cannot be completely trusted, and we were afraid that would attack people and other dogs that wander by. Before the fence we would either put them on a running leash or leave them inside when we went out. Inside, they would be barking to let us know that they wanted to join us. Outside on the long leash they would constantly wrap themselves around our seats, shrubs or trees. Now they are free to roam and wrestle.

The other night I had decided to go outside to urinate and was struck by an epiphany. Like every other full-blooded man, there is nothing better than pee against a tree and ruminate at the same time. Yes, I announced recently that we had a powder room again and my forays into the backyard to micturate were over. However, I still enjoy going wee-wee in the natural environs. One evening while taking a leak against a tree I had a flying squirrel scamper down the tree to see what all the rustling noise was all about or maybe it was protesting my use of its tree as a urinal. We met eye-to-eye and after further inspection the squirrel climbed back up the oak.

Back to the subject at hand, the epiphany. So, what was that realization that I had? Sitting on the concrete garden bench in the dark in front of our Buddha statue, for the first time I felt like the garden was embracing me. While I could not even see the statue in the dark, I felt one with nature, the world, with the yard and everything in it. I suddenly realized that without a fence our backyard had no limits; there was no cohesion to it all. Somehow that night, the fence gave me a feeling of a hug, of keeping me in her bosom and not letting my mind and spirit wander all over the place.

Now you all know that I am a strong believer in and practitioner of “Forest Bathing.” I have given a sermon on the practice and written 54 posts on the subject. I love wandering in the woods behind our home and absorbing nature. In other words, this feeling of being embraced by the fence came as a surprise and I have not been able to shake it. Three of four times per day I enjoy walking a circle through the yard, inspecting things; pulling a weed or just sit on a bench or a chair to take it all in, fantasizing bout what to do next in the yard or just meditating. It is an amazing feeling and I guess it is still forest bathing since the yard has many trees and we still border the woods. I am enjoying it; let’s hope those feeling does not go away.

Our volunteer gourds

Night in the yard, it was at that time I had the feeling of being embraced!

Black-eyed suzan and the stick fence on the left.

Bonsai update (7/8/2024)

I realize that I have been teasing a lot of you about my hobby of growing bonsai trees; at least that is what I try to do. Most of my trees are in the pre-bonsai stage, but that is the fun of it. Recently, I had to move things around a bit because of the fence we put in, I briefly mentioned it <here>. In this post I want to discuss my hobby a little more by answering some basic questions.

How long have you been doing this?

I fell in love with bonsai the first time I saw them. This was in Longwood Gardens (PA) in 1977. I was fascinated by them ever since; however, because of our travel I was unable to pursue the hobby. A few years later we visited the National Arboretum in Washington DC where I saw some more examples of the art of miniaturizing trees. Finally, in the late 1980s when studying in New Mexico could I start playing with them. Our friend and colleague Daniel owned a plant nursery and at one time he gave me at least 7 seedings for me to work on. Later I bought another tree, and when we moved to the Four Corners region, I took a class by John Naka and purchased two more trees for his course. So, you could say that I have been doing something with bonsai for 36 years or so.

That long! Do you have any of your starter trees?

All seven trees that I got from Daniel are still alive. This includes three Siberian elms, three New Mexico privets (aka NM olive) and a Japanese black pine. The hackberry that I bought died some 20 years ago. I did not do much with the trees for a period of 10 years (1994 to 2004) they were terribly pot bound and barely hanging on. The two Naka trees also survived. One of them (an azalea) died two years ago.

What are some of your strangest or more interesting trees?

It seems that a lot of people who are into bonsai concentrate on one type: junipers, pines, maples, or deciduous trees. I never had that luxury and tried the techniques on anything I could get my hands on. The craziest tree that I have is a mimosa. It is what is called a yamadori or a plant collected in the wild. I collected in my yard, so technically they call it a gardendori. I had cut the darn mimosa and it kept growing back. Eventually I had enough of it, and I stuck a shovel into the soil and yanked out a foot and a half (40 cm) of root. Thinking what the heck, I stuck it in a pot with soil and that spring it started growing. The root was too long, so I planted it sideways in a pot and it is thriving (five or six years later).

The general answer to the question would be that I like them all. As any proud parent should, I have no particular favorites. I have over 100 trees in various stages of development, and I need to slow down and reduce the numbers a little. It is a lot of work, and I am sure that this is why none of my trees are show worthy. I once heard that having 25 trees or so is a comfortable number.

Do you have any mentors of people who you learn from?

I have always felt terribly inadequate in my bonsai knowledge. I have a lot of books and I used to prescribe to the magazine. Again, I really did not know what I was doing, even after an afternoon of Naka. It really was YouTube where I eventually gained the confidence to experiment and have some fun with my trees. I became a member of our local club three years ago and I became a member of Mirai, a training school. This finally gave me some more design prowess.

I have a few favorites on YouTube. These include Mirai, the Bonsai Zone by Nigel, Dave’s Bonsai, Bonsai Heirloom, Bonsaify, and Growing Bonsai by Jelle. I watch others as well, but these are my go-to at the moment. I think I now feel much more comfortable growing bonsai, shaping them and even advising on the craft, thanks to these channels.

If you have more questions for me about bonsai feel free to contact me and I will address them somehow. Also look in the label section on the right side of my post. With this post it seems I have 64 posts with the keyword bonsai, or posts where I at least mention the art of bonsai. Good luck browsing through them.

Photos from the top to bottom.  My crazy mimosa, the back of my table, the new layout, the cherry and privet, one of the benches in a new location.

In the Zone and other Mediations (06/24/2024)

The fence is in; while I have no illusion that it will keep the deer out of our yard, it should keep the dogs in. Now, a few days later I already notice that we spend more time outside than before. Part of the reason is that the dogs can finally spend more time with us in the yard. Before fence we felt guilty being out there without them, the dogs were either whining at the door wanting to join us, or we had them out with us on the long leash and then they would wrap themselves around out seats, our legs or a plant, prompting us to get up and save them. Now they can just roam and play. They play like crazy and pass out in the evenings.

My time outside is divided between working on my bonsai (looking, watering, and shaping), weeding, odds and ends, and just sitting. First, I needed to reorganize my bonsai area or what we call our Bonsai Zone, a term that I stole from Nigel, who has a YouTube channel called the Bonsai Zone. It appeared that part of my “Zone” was actually going to be located outside the fence. I had temporarily moved my tables and now it was time for the final layout trying to maximize sun exposure on my benches.

It was never productive to put plants in our yard. Deer would go for them as soon as they were planted. We finally felt adventurous enough to do some landscaping now we have a fence. I have already shared some of the work we have done in a previous post. We have been trying to add native plants to our landscape, plant that usually get hit hard by deer. The fence may hopefully discourage them from entering and be somewhat protective. However, because of the past, non-maintenance, the garden is overrun with invasive plants. It is now my daily chore to pull out Japanese stilt grass, and ground ivy.

My favorite activity is just sitting somewhere in the yard and observing. As I mentioned earlier, the fence made it much easier since the dogs have free reign now. I already just sat on my behind with friends, with my wife and just alone. We have a screened-in gazebo, and even sitting in it has been great especially in the evenings when the mosquitoes are out. It is better now because the dogs can just roam.

But I enjoy just being on my own, observing and listening to the world around me. I look at the birds, skinks, and just the landscape around me. It seems that every time I sit out and just meditate, I discover something new or different. We just heard the call of the yellow-billed cuckoo. Going back in time we determined that we have at least seen or heard 53 different bird species in or near our yard. Our property is slightly less than half an acre (2000 square meter), and the back yard is half of that. But we try to leave it natural and do not use chemicals there. The rich birdlife is our reward. We want to keep it chemically free as much as possible.

All things considered, we are very happy with the fence and so are our dogs Japer and Radar. It is wrestling mania at least three times a day. They greatly enjoy being out, and so do we. Temperatures are going to approach 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius for the rest of the world) this weekend and we’ll haven’t see how it goes. The yard is shady; maybe it will be bearable, but only time will tell; I hope I can still sit out there, meditate and enjoy our garden.

One of the two Buddha statues we have in our yard

Sassafras in the sun

No more ambition? (6/14/2024)

Ambition is a curious word to me. The Oxford Dictionary gives the following definition: “a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.” Now that I am retired, I have put ambition to the wayside and just want to experience and hopefully enjoy life, however much of it that I have remaining. I am still reasonably healthy, at least I have not been told something different.

I am not sure if I had a lot of ambition when I was working. Maybe not like others, but I did have a desire to achieve things. I always believed in down time, to relax and recharge. My brother, who I have not interacted with for at least 10 or so years had an amazing drive or ambition. He wanted to become a pilot, and that is what he eventually achieved. He tried to instill the same ambition in his two kids. I know that he looked down on me for what and who I am. So much so that every time we visited with him, I had the hear him tell us how successful and rich he was, compared to me. My brother told me that when I visited and they invite guest over, that they told the other guest to dress down, because I was only a jeans guy, had no class, and would feel out of place when they would come dressed the way they regularly do when socializing. While the saying tells us that the clothes make the man, comfort and my disdain of status permitted me to dress as comfortable as possible and while we may not be able to match them and their rich friends, we are pretty darn well of. Moreover, my international work taught me that we all put on our pants one leg at the time, and fuck status, I often had to communicate with the folks in the village and could not dress like a fashion model, that would hurt my credibility. While visits to my brother upset me at times, it was really upsetting to my wife. I was able to accept him who he pretended to be. But when you treat my wife like shit and every time we visited she left crying because of their treatment of us, I hope you can imagine what led the eventual split between me and my brother.

I may have had very few true ambitions during my entire life, unless enjoying life and learning from it can be called an ambition. If so, I am one of the best. When we were working and living in Yemen, our work days were from 7 am. to 2 pm. Lunch was a 2 and then I usually took a nap. We would then often work in the yard around our home for the rest of the afternoon, or I would work on my 1964 Land Rover. But, we probably had the best landscaped area of the three homes on the compound. My colleagues had drive and would go back to the now empty office or work at home on project related items after hours. They resented me for keeping to the official work hours. I needed to recharge and spend time with my wife who wasn't working.

No, I am not perfectly balanced even after all the self-care I just detailed. I have had my depressive moods, but I have come out of those. I sometimes wonder if minor depressions were seasonal or tied to other life stages (I have been unemployed a few times in the past).

I think that I have been happier these past few years than any other time of my life. It has been nature, forest bathing, biking, being outside in the yard, with my bonsai, or on the water where my spirits were lifted. I just needed to fully experience life around me. I can really just sit around and stare into infinity and not do anything but think. It is my form of meditating. Do I feel guilty doing that? Not one bit, well maybe after ten or so minutes it sometimes feels like I need to do something. But my motto now is: No more ambition but experience and love life to the fullest since I have no idea how much of it is left!

A photograph I took sitting in the backyard doing nothing.  Just enjoying nature and our almost completed fence (it is done now and a report will follow soon).  I often site in the Adirondack chairs and either just stare at the trees or work on my bonsai.  Very relaxing! 

Optimist to a fault (6/3/2024)

Soon we will be having a contractor put in a fence around our back yard. We signed the contract 6 weeks ago and they are finally coming to install it this week. We have lived here without a fence almost 24 years, so the delay is no big deal. We wanted the best fence that will be put in by the best contractor. The fence will be around 5 feet tall, and it is meant to give the dogs more room to play; allow us to train our dogs; and to serve as a deterrent to the deer in the woods behind our home. I understand that deer can easily jump over a 6-foot-high fence, in other words, I do not expect them to totally stay out of our yard, but I hope it will serve as a deterrent or discouragement for them to enter our garden. We fully expect our dog Radar to patrol the fence and bark his head off.

You can see a lot of deer behind our back yard; the other day I counted about a dozen walking behind our home around dusk. Kim, the lady next door, gave one of them a name (Daisy). She calls her and feeds her peanuts by hand. Last night I could approach a herd within 6 feet when they entered the back yard. In the past, I have complaint about the over-browsing or over-grazing in the woods and in our home landscapes. In addition, I have written about the impact this has on the ecology of the area and on the deer themselves. I realize that discouraging the deer from entering our yard makes their habitat even more limited, but that would only reduce their habitat by a quarter acre. We are stealing their habitat for our use and enjoyment, and they are not giving up, they are adapting to live among us.

Being the eternal optimist, I have started planning the hopefully deer free landscape that we could finally be able to establish back there. I am hoping for a few display stands for some of my more prized bonsai; a vegetable patch that may receive more direct sun; some fruit trees and bushes; and a pollinator garden. I have already planted tomatoes and they have started to flower. I have not seen one insect on these flowers and most plants need pollinators to maximize their yield, even tomatoes. We used to have a bee hive or two in our back yard, but colony collapse got them. The other day, Bob our neighbor asked about them. He had trouble with his cucumbers not want to fruit because of the lack of pollinators. This is why I planted a pollinator garden: to attract them.

At the moment I am trying to keep the deer away from it all untill we have that fence. I am fanatically spraying a deterrent called “Liquid Fence.” We have had some success with that and I really hope the deer will leave the plants alone for the next few weeks untill the fence is in. However, we will keep spraying the Liquid Fence realizing deer can jump. Subsequently, we need to start worrying about the dogs not tearing through the planted areas. They are wild and crazy players, so we will find out. As you can see, I am planning for it all to go right, but I am prepared to embrace failure.

Here you have it, an explanation for the title of this short post. Will my yard work be a success? Only time will tell. At least now I have more time to dedicate to landscaping since I am retired.

We constructed a "decorative" stick fence and put in a wood chip path between it and the old vegetable garden.  I have planted pollinators plants, an elderberry and strawberries.  There was already a spindly blue berry along the fence.  Hopefully it will all spill over into the path.  

On the side (in an north to south direction, I created hoops for a green tunnel.  Currently I have tomatoes, green beans, Achorn squash and snap peas (a failure) growing in them.  I planted some basil between the tomatoes and some marigolds. 

Looking back up to where the first two pictures were taken.

Roosters Unite (5/26/2024)

People finally moved into the house two doors down from us, and they have a rooster. While our county allows you to have chickens, roosters are not allowed. They also have ducks, which seems to be illegal as well by our county's ordinance. I do not understand the logic behind all these rules, but why question the wisdom of our county's leadership since they clearly exhibit that they have very little. They spend millions on building a new “law enforcement” building or palace, but do not seem to care one bit about education here in York County, Virginia.

I realize now that this is not what I intended to write about in this essay, but it must be said. My wife and I have been following the saga of our local school board. It seems that members were elected to the board under falls pretexts of being apolitical. However, that changed the minute they were elected, and they started to push an ultra conservative agenda which in the long run would hurt our children. One member used to be a substitute teacher in our school system but was fired for incompetence. Now she knows how to run the entire public school system (or take political revenge?).

Let's get back to the subject at hand: the rooster. It crows or cockle-doddle-does incessantly. This reminds me of the rooster we had in Uganda, we called him “Turkey” or "Turk."  I realize that the name exposes my inert cynicism or playfulness, but our rooster was something else. Being in Uganda my wife had no full-time job to do; we were in our mid-twenties and so we amassed a menagerie of animals. We eventually had two dogs, at least seven chickens, our rooster, at least three goats, and an East African crested crane. We also took care or two horses. Later in Nepal we had a load of chickens, our two dogs and a cat we had brought from Utah. The dogs and cat traveled the world with us and after returning to Europe and the U.S.A., they ended up going to Yemen with us for our next assignment. I do not remember having chickens in Yemen. I guess you could say that we scaled down with age.

But more about Turk, our rooster. Turkey ruled the roost. We relented when some locals wanted to sell us a baby crane. We really did not believe in taming local wildlife, but otherwise it might have become a crane stew or a hyena snack. So, we bought it and raised it. Turk was the boss and quickly established a pecking order with our crane who was at least five time larger than our dominant rooster. The crane and the rooster also had fun with our dogs. The crane easily jumped over our German Sheppard when he charged them, and this became a game. Turk would chase the dogs all over the yard.

The funniest thing with the rooster was his love of opera. You need to know that my wife is a huge opera fan and was, even at the ripe old age of 23. We had a stereo with us, with records and Donna would often put on an opera record. Turkey would run in the house, the minute that the music started playing, and he just stood there still, did not move and listened. When the music was over, he would shake and ruffle his feathers like any good rooster would do and walk out. We always had our home wide open and at times, the horses would come in to beg for a banana, or the kid goats would jump all over the furniture. Uganda wasn't that buggy, although we both got malaria and Donna became quite ill. But I hope you can imagine why the crowing of a rooster two houses from here would take me back to a time almost 46 years ago.

Ladies and Cranes, here is Turkey, our rooster from Uganda

One of my favorite pictures of the time, Donna and Buddha our German Shepard pup.

Save the environment (05/18/2024)

We were informed in one of the recent issues of the Washington Post that the sea level is rising faster than predicted all along the Atlantic and Mexican Gulf coasts. There are regions where the level has gone up 6 or more inches, or for my metric fans, 15 cm. Amazing to think that this occurred during the past 15 years, or less than a generation.

You probably know (from reading some of my past writings) that I have been very concerned about our global environment and argued that we are stealing from the future of our next of kin. In my posts of the past 11 years, I have 5 posts with the key word environment, 52 with environmental, 5 with environmental justice, 60 with global warming, and 39 with climate change. Some of the posts will have multiple keywords, and there will be some overlap. For example, I am sure that I will be using all these keywords for this post. I probably have missed using these keywords in some of my posts. But so be it. I have now published 545 or more posts in this blog, since 2013. This means that more than 10% of my posts somehow deal with environmental issues including global warning, or at least use one of these keywords associated with them.

Why do I harp so much on this issue? I am 70 years old, and I have no idea how much longer I will live. I will be long dead, by the time the shit hits the fan, so to speak. Our financial advisor makes me live till 94 in her calculations. May I only be so lucky or maybe unlucky. It would be fine with me if I could live till that ripe-old age and maintain some mobility and not suffer much mental decline. It would be nice to see any potential future grandchildren. Living till 94 would make the oldest grandchild a maximum of 23 when I die. Boy my daughter better hurry up. No pressure though. I am a strong believer that families should have no more than two children and admire those who stay childless by choice. One of the causes of the environmental decline is the overpopulation of this earth or exceedance of the earth’s carrying capacity as first proposed by Malthus. Malthus determined that the earth could only handle a certain number of people. If he was correct, it means that we need to reduce the overall birthrate on earth. I wrote about this <here>. However, on the other hand, I also read that we need more young folks if I want to keep enjoying my social security. We are in a pickle, aren’t we?

So, what small things am I doing to protect the environment?

1. 1. We bought a hybrid vehicle. Our car does not have the best gas mileage, but it makes us feel good. Our other car has better highway mileage, and we can now be selective about which vehicle we use for a certain trip. Yes, we have the van, which is a gas guzzler, but I wonder what was better for the environment, flying across the country for two or driving? If you read this and know the answer, leave me a comment.
2. We pick up our dog poop when we take them for a walk. This helps in keeping the nutrients out of the Chesapeake Bay, and hopefully helps the environment.
3. In addition, we tend not to fertilize our yard, except my bonsai trees. However, that should not cause a lot of runoff. Fertilizers I have includes some powdered Miracle Growth for my trees and bonemeal. We use compost, both stuff we produce ourselves and some storebought compost. Pesticides and herbicides are not available at our home. I even chase off any lawn maintenance or bug control salesperson from our property.
4. Our yard has a lot of trees, and we call people that cut the trees in their yard: tree murderers. I call it tree genocide.
5. In retirement, I am starting to grow our own food again, and I have just seeded a pollinator garden.
6. We are slowly weaning ourselves from the use of plastics. The most recent thing we did was to trash our plastic cutting boards and some of the plastic storage containers.
7. I am involved in the environmental committee of our UU church, or what is called the “Green Sanctuary” committee. We donate a lot to environmental groups as well.
8. Lastly, and I am sure I can think of more items, we try to eat organic and semi-healthy. We are not vegetarians, but we are aware of the food additives and the danger of highly processed foods. When I have time, I try to bake our own bread, which has much less unpronounceable additive in it than storebought bread.

No, we are not perfect, but at least we try to leave something for future generations to enjoy. Where can we improve what we currently do to preserve the earth for future generations? Let me know!

This cartoon shows what I am afraid of (so I stole it).  Conservatives seem to harp about deficit and money but appear not to give a damn about the environment!