in so many words

Last Saturday (June 21) we had some big thunderstorms that came through our area, and the lightning strikes from the storms started fires in the wooded hills and mountains surrounding our town. In fact, lots of fires started - over 100 different fires in our county, and over 600 in this part of the state. By the middle of the week we felt like we were surrounded by fires, and the air had gotten so smoky that our air quality was considered hazardous. By Thursday the wind had started to pick up, but that was a mixed blessing… while the wind cleared out a lot of smoke and improved our air quality, it hampered the firefighters’ efforts to contain the fires. There have been a few homes lost on our area, with thousands of acres of forest burned. In some remote forest areas where there are no structures threatened the fire authorities are letting the fires burn because fire departments are spread thin and don’t have the resources to fight all of the fires. As of today most of the fires are not contained, and smoke continues to surround us… my son took the above photo from his front yard last night.

And our weather forecast for this weekend - thunderstorms.

‘Cause I’m smokin’, baby, baby

Last night Emily and I watched a movie that was recommended by a friend - The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally-ill cancer patients who decide to create a list of activities that they want to accomplish before they “kick the bucket”… a list that includes skydiving and a world-wide jaunt, among other things. Directed by Rob Reiner, it’s a thought-provoking movie that was done well, and I especially enjoyed the combination of Nicholson and Freeman. I’ve always enjoyed Morgan Freeman’s performances, and Jack Nicholson is… well, he’s Jack Nicholson, and although this is not the Jack Nicholson of A Few Good Men or The Shining, it’s an interesting and entertaining character and Nicholson does a fine job. In fact, both of these guys do a good job and are what I call “real actors”, unlike so many of the current-day pretty boys that Hollywood tries to sell us. The movie was a box office success but received mixed critical reviews, with some people including film critic Roger Ebert complaining that the film trivializes the seriousness of living with cancer. But the point of the movie is about living life to it’s fullest since few of us know when our time will be up. I liked this movie and, even though she’s not a big Jack Nicholson fan, so did Emily.

I’m just glad to be here, happy to be alive

After keeping his mom and the rest of us waiting for almost two weeks past his due date, baby Elliott decided it was time to meet the family, and he made his appearance at 6:29 this morning, weighing in at 10 lbs. 15 oz. (Yes ladies, I said 10 pounds and 15 ounces!). Mom did great, and she and baby were home from the hospital the same day - by 7:30 PM Elliott was resting quietly on the couch with Dad and Mom was eating Chicken Nachos from Dos Coyotes.

June is becoming quite a birthday month in our family - in addition to Elliott’s birthday, there is JoAnn’s (Emily’s mom), Cyndi’s (Elliott’s mom) and mine.

Elliott is grandchild # 5 and grandson #3 - his mom says that she will not be adding any more to our grand-totals.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful… beautiful boy.

We were in Sacramento last weekend, waiting for baby Elliott, and I had a craving for a Krispy Kreme donut. Unfortunately, and this is old news to Sacramento residents, there are no longer any Krispy Kreme donut shops in Sacramento. There used to be several stores, but apparently the Krispy Kreme company expanded too quickly and encountered some financial difficulties, and now all of the Sacramento stores have closed. Now some of you may think that this is not a bad thing, since eating a Krispy Kreme donut is a lot like eating raw heated sugar, and certainly would not help at all for someone like me who is trying to lose weight. But I thoroughly enjoy Krispy Kreme donuts, especially when they are fresh and warm right off the conveyor line… it’s one of my “guilty pleasures”. Well, honestly I really don’t feel very guilty at all when I eat them, so I guess it’s just a really nice pleasure. So last weekend I experienced some slight withdrawal symptoms… maybe this is some sort of divine intervention to help me lose weight.

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Coincidentally, back at home I recently was in the mood for a Strawberry and Banana Frozen Yogurt Shiver from TCBY. But there are no longer any TBCY stores in our town. There were two stores here for years, but within the last year both of them closed and were converted to locally-owned yogurt shops. The good news is that one of the new local shops makes Shivers that taste pretty close to the TCBY versions so I’m not doing totally without, unlike Krispy Kreme donuts. And it’s healthier, too.

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Oh, and one more thing… Happy 66th Birthday, Paul!

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m…

My daughter Cyndi is pregnant. Very pregnant. Possibly 10 months pregnant. OK, maybe not 10 months, but pretty close. And she is quite ready to give birth. She was ready back at the beginning of June, and she really did not want to still be pregnant in the middle of June. But apparently her baby Elliott has different plans, because he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry. Saturday morning Cyndi called us and thought she may be starting labor. So Emily and I drove down to Cyndi and Lunar’s house and waited most of the weekend, but Elliott was content to stay put. So we are now back at home waiting to see when Elliott will have his birthday. Cyndi hopes that it’s soon.

Although we didn’t get a new grandbaby during the weekend, we did find a car for our daughter Rachel - a 97 Honda Civic that Rachel thinks is very cute. Now Rachel is happy to have her own car, and Emily is happy to have her own car back.

The waiting is the hardest part

Back in the middle of May, I caught a head cold. No big deal, I thought, it’ll be over in a few days. But it wasn’t… a week later I was still blowing my nose and coughing. That’s OK, I thought, I usually get over these things quickly…just a few days more and I’ll feel fine. Another week goes by… still blowing my nose and coughing. But I’m thinking that it’s just a little bit of a tough cold, and I’ll be OK in another few days. Now, in the midst of my illness, Emily and I hosted a family reunion with all our kids and her parents and sister, and that kept me busy and preoccupied for the Memorial Day weekend - in fact I took extra days off work, so I had a nice little mini-vacation, and I thought it would be good for me to be off work and rest. Well, I was off work, but with 14 extra people in our home, there wasn’t much rest for anybody. By the time that weekend was over I wasn’t feeling any better and had been sick for over two weeks. So I started back to work - I had been working while I was sick - and I began to think that I really needed some rest to help me feel better. So I worked a couple of half-days, going home early to an afternoon nap, but I was starting to feel even more tired, and I was amazed at the amount of “fluid” constantly being produced by my sinuses that needed to be blown out of my nostrils. But now whenever I blew my nose, in addition to the rivers of viscous mucus flowing out, I was also starting to feel pain behind my eyes, and that pain developed into a headache that felt like it was pounding the inside of my forehead every time I coughed or blew my nose. By now I had had this cold for over three weeks, which is not a good thing, and Emily was starting to suspect something more than a cold. It was time to visit my doctor, and he confirmed Emily’s suspicions: I had a sinus infection. He prescribed a 5-day dose of Levaquin which, although it is a bit expensive, is a very effective antibiotic. I just finished my treatment and I’m still a little tired, but my head is all cleared up and the coughing has finally stopped. And best of all, my mucous membranes have cut back on their production of extraneous amounts of nasal secretions.

And I didn’t even say “snot”.

This November, America will elect a new president. And most voters will go to the polls and cast their vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama. And on the evening of November 4th, the major news networks (and CBS) will be competing to be the first network to declare one of these men the winner. Most Americans will vote for one of these men. But some voters will vote for someone else. Some will cast their vote for Ralph Nader. Some will try to draft Ron Paul. Some will vote for Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr. Some will vote for the Green Party candidate, whoever that is. Some will even cast their vote for a candidate even more unknown than the Green Party candidate. Now I want to make this clear before I proceed - I understand the concept of standing by one’s principles. I understand wanting to make a political statement. I understand being angry at the current political process. I understand the desire to boot out entrenched career politicians and get fresh blood into Congress. I understand the frustration with leaders who exempt themselves from the very laws and taxes that they impose on their constituency. I feel strongly about these and other political issues in the United States. But come November, there is one reality that we all should face: only John McCain or Barack Obama will be elected president. Barring some unexpected event, only those two men have the chance to be elected president this year, and only one of these two will be sworn-in next January. Ralph Nader will not be elected - that is a political and mathematical certainty and reality in the current makeup of candidates. He will not be elected president, and neither will Bob Barr. It is not possible for either of these men, or anyone except McCain and Obama, to be elected president this November. That is reality. And all of the political idealism and electorate dissatisfaction and heart-felt revolutionism you can muster up will not change that reality. And this has nothing to do with the kind of people Nader/Barr/whoever are - it’s not about whether or not they are the best candidate for the job. It’s not even about whether McCain or Obama are the best men for the job. It’s about the reality that only McCain and Obama - only these two guy - will receive enough votes to possibly be elected president. The way things stand now, no one else will come close. No one else has a chance.

Yes, it’s probably true that if everyone who didn’t vote in 2004 suddenly went out and voted for Ron Paul, he would win, and that is a great testimony to what could be accomplished if people would stand together on an issue. But that is not going to happen - many of those non-voters who have stayed home year after year will again stay at home, and the election will be decided by the usual percentage of the U.S. population that does vote. But if you are usually in that voting populace and you don’t vote for either McCain or Obama, your vote could be ineffective. I’m not talking about wasting your vote - I think that term is a poor way to describe people who cannot in good conscience vote for the major political party candidates. The way I see it, if you take the time to vote, it’s not a waste. But I believe that you can vote ineffectively, and voting in this November’s presidential election for anyone besides McCain or Obama would make your vote ineffective because you would be voting for someone who is guaranteed to lose. You can either vote for McCain or Obama, or you can vote against one of them by voting for the other, but voting for anyone else besides these two will not get anyone else elected, and it just might do harm to the candidate that could best represent you.

If you want Mr. Barr to be president because you oppose an increase in government programs and taxes and you feel that this is what Mr. Obama would bring, yet you feel that you cannot vote for Mr. McCain, your vote in November for Mr. Barr would take a vote away from Mr. McCain, and could allow Mr. Obama to receive more votes than Mr. McCain. By voting for Mr. Barr, you could help elect Mr. Obama.

Or perhaps you are sick of corporate greed and the self-serving big business executives who don’t pay taxes and who contribute to world environmental problems, and you feel that Mr. McCain would enable these people to continue in their destructive ways. And you think that Mr. Obama is just another part of the whole political system that is corrupt and will not do enough to curb these excesses, so you vote for Mr. Nader or perhaps the Green Party candidate. But your vote for Nader might keep Mr. Obama from getting the votes he needs to overcome Mr. McCain - by voting for Nader, you could help elect McCain.

Are you tired of 8 years of a Republican administration? Neither Ralph Nader or the Green Party candidate, or any other third-party liberal candidate, will collect enough votes to overcome McCain. Your best chance to stop McCain is to vote for Obama. Or do you think that liberal politics is what’s ruining our government? OK, maybe John McCain isn’t conservative enough for you. But he’s certainly more conservative than Obama, and he’s the only other candidate that has a chance of beating Obama and preventing a liberal-Democrat administration.

In this election season, there were many people who used their votes in their states’ primaries to make political statements and take stands on principles. But now it’s time for something more …it’s time to choose between two men to select our president. Perhaps you need to look at this as picking the lesser of two evils, but however you look at it, there are only two viable choices. So, in the end, are you going to drop your vote into the “Guaranteed to Lose” category? Or are you going to make a vote that could help define the political landscape of the United States for the next four years?

Your choice.

Another science fiction movie I’ve always enjoyed is Silent Running, which stars Bruce Dern and three small robots called “Drones” that pre-date R2D2 by several years. The premise of the story is that, because the Earth of the future has been developed to the point that there are no longer any forest areas, all of the forests have been relocated into giant domes attached to cargo space ships that are floating around the solar system. When budget cuts force the cargo ships back into commercial service and trigger the destruction of all of the forest domes, crew member and botanist Freeman Lowell (Dern) decides to take matters into his own hands, killing his crew mates and taking over the ship for the sake of saving the forests. With the three drones - which he names Huey, Duey, and Louie - Lowell pilots the ship into deep space and maintains the ship and forests for months, until he is located by a rescue party. Fearful of what the rescue party will do, Lowell fires the last remaining dome into space, sending one of the drones along to care for the forest. It’s an interesting movie with good special effects, especially for 1972, and it’s become a sci-fi cult classic, in spite of the incredibly dated soundtrack that includes a song sung by Joan Baez. But still a movie worth seeing for sci-fi buffs.