A Second Thought During Hurricane Harvey; Making a Difference is Making a Difference Whether Big or Small.

I have been told I do nothing. That while on Facebook I talk about changes and issues facing our nation, that all I do about them is blog. I write the write but don’t do the walk. Usually this is when someone is in heated disagreement with me on an issue and are looking for a way to put me down, and minimize what I do.  Which, along with my experiences during Hurricane Harvey, got me thinking, and so this blog.

For myself, my critic is partially right. I don’t do any big earth shaking , country roiling , state rattling deeds. My words and actions are not going to inspire any great movements, or even any memories that will outlast me by much.  Which makes me just like most people.

However, that does not mean that what we do does not make a difference, or that the difference we make is unimportant.  In fact, one way of viewing this makes what we are doing the most important thing possible.

I know that when I view the actions and policies and statements of those who can influence and change the state, the country, the world, the bottom line of my evaluation is how will it affect people. Not people as a massive group, not people as an idea, but people as individuals. As persons.

And it is at that level that everyday people can and do make a difference.

Stopping to help a person with a flat. Seeing a person struggling with a load and offering to help carry some of it. Pausing to let another driver in during heavy traffic.

Small things, everyday things, but they make a difference to that person at that time. They set a tone for our neighborhood, our town and help create our society.  Some examples that I personally know about during our time in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

A neighbor with a well has run a hose from her house for everyone to use since our city water is currently contaminated.

When out scouting for food and water, and too often standing in long lines, people share information and suggestions. There is water to be found there, that street is flooded, avoid it, this store is open until then, that one is not, etc.

People using grocery carts to take their water and food to their car returning that cart to those waiting in line instead of putting them in the parking lot cart corrals since there are no carts at the doors.

A co-worker with a swimming pool letting people know if they need water they can come get some from his pool – this was when we had no water, contaminated or clean.

On the neighborhood website, people in our addition offering help- from going to help clear the fallen tree, to passing on info about where to get water. One guy’s house flooded and another neighbor went right over with heavy duty vacuums to help clean the mess.

One woman got caught away from home when her street flooded and she couldn’t get back in. There was a litter of puppies trapped in her yard.Another woman managed to get through the water to the pups and rescue them.

And of course, this does not include the many people with boats and jet skis who rescued people from flooded homes.

Small things really, overall. Things that will be not only be soon forgotten, but are often not even covered to begin with. But, they helped someone, and made a difference for individual people.  Such actions not only create the bonds of a society, bonds which are essential for the survival of any society,  but are also the result of those bonds.

And this happens everyday everywhere in the US (and the world). It is not limited to times of disaster. Other examples from my life, my wife’s life, and from friends.

Having a stranger stop to help fix a flat on a rental car during a wet night in the middle of nowhere.

Providing a place to stay not just once, but twice to those displaced by tragedy .

Providing first aid to those injured by a tornado that was still there.

When seeing a man who had enough money for a gallon of gas but not enough to pay for the gas can the gas station insisted he had to buy instead of borrow – buying the gas can and the gas.

Paying the difference for a person in the grocery costs at the store when they were short of money.

Helping a neighbor look for a lost pet.

Along with other drivers who stopped, pulling a young man out of a car that had flipped just before it caught on fire.

And the list goes on. Nothing that by itself will change a nation. But done by the tens and hundreds of millions each day, they help cement the bonds of society. In all of the above, there was no concern about the person’s race, religion, gender, employment, or politics. Just a person in need.  And a person willing to help.

So, while it is well worth the time and effort to try to influence the ones who can shape and shift the country, to join together with other like thinking people to advocate and to press for needed changes, you and I can still make a difference on that most fundamental level, the person.

And as for my blog.  Well, even if I can just influence a couple of people with one or two of my blogs, cause a couple of people to think, or maybe even act, that would be enough. Especially since from small beginnings such as this, things can grow and grow large enough to make the bigger differences that so impresses people. But, probably not. And if it does wind up making a larger difference through a chain of hundreds of people, I will probably never know. And that’s OK.   I am fine with the small.

So, no, no earth shaking differences. Just small ones. And usually not original either. In fact, the ideas embedded within my words here are not new, and have been expressed many millions of times by others.  But, then, perhaps they need to be. Just as a reminder.

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CRT’s or Let’s End the Year on a Mishmash

Since I come up with lots of ideas and have lots of thoughts, and since many of them are not posted as a blog due to not being very long and/or not very profound and/or just running out of time, I thought it would be fun to assemble a Completely Random Thought Blog to end 2013 using some of these unused thoughts and ideas.   Brushing out the old before ringing in the new, so to speak.  So, in no particular order:

1.      Housework

We (my wife and I) do not keep as clean a house as our parents did.  It is basically clean, most of the time.  No large mud puddles in front of the doors, carpets a uniform dirty off white color, no piles of dishes in the sinks, no age old crud sticking to the counter and bath tiles.   However, two or even three weeks can go by without me vacuuming (unless tortured I will not admit to any longer period of time).   Mopping happens maybe two or three times a year.   Not too worried about dusting until I can clearly see my name when writing on it on the piano with my finger.

And we (my wife and I) are good with this.

Our parents on the other hand, believed that a clean house was one of those things of supreme importance.  Even today, my over 80 mother who is living in a community home that has someone come by once a week to clean their apartment,  cleans.   Especially just before this person comes in to clean.

Way we figure it, there are only so many hours and minutes in our lives.   While I know that on my deathbed  I will have many regrets for things undone (even were I to live another 200 years I would have regrets for things undone), but cleaning will not be one of them.  So, why do more than necessary for something I will not regret?  Instead spend time trying to whittle down the regrets a bit.

2.      Our (the U.S.) Founders’ Intent

There is no such thing as our founders’ intent.  Instead it should be founders’ intents – plural on the intent as well as the founder.   There were very few intents agreed upon by all of our founders.  Instead there were a diversity of usually conflicting intents.  The ink had barely dried on the Constitution before those who had a hand in writing it started to disagree on what they wrote actually meant. It is why, if you look a bit, you can find a founding father who supports whatever it is you want them to support.    This is why those saying we need to get back to what our founders intended should be asked, “Which founder?”.

3.      Jokes

Have you ever been watching a movie or TV show, or reading a book, magazine, newspaper, or in my case the comics, and when you get to the twist or joke at the end realize that you saw it coming even though you didn’t.   Seeing something coming after the fact is rather a strange feeling.  Or am I just being strange?

4.      Digital View of the World

During my debates and discussion, both with those whose views I agree with and those whose views I disagree with, I have noticed that we are definitely more comfortable with creating a digital view of how the world works.  In fact, that is often the source of our disagreements.  To take this flaw from an opposing view as an example:

Those on the abortion side wish to see the states of a fetus as either entirely human or not.  They do not wish to take into account all of the differences that exist between the born and the unborn.  They prefer the nice and simple digital view.

To be fair, as an example from a side I usually support – atheists often wish to see religion as evil.   Period.  Digital view.  However it is not and has done a great deal of good.  But, a simpler, digital view of things is easier to deal with and simplifies decisions and thinking enormously, but usually at the cost of accuracy.

5.      Worldviews

While the concept of worldviews is a useful one, too often too many people treat this as if each worldview were totally separate.  A thing like this

OK – small problem here.  I created a wonderful venn diagramm for this part – but now can’t get it to copy.    So, plan B – the power of your imagination.   In this part imagine two circles – nice, crisp, clean of line and perfectly circular – which are totally separate.  Not touching and not overlapping.  

when in actuality it is more like this.

Again, same problem.   So, plan B again.  In this part imagine five ovals (the lines are crisp and clean, the shapes very ovally), most of them overlapping with just a partial section of each sticking out on its lonesome.  

The differences in worldviews are important.   But the commonalities of worldviews are of equal and ofttime more importance.

6.      The Deficiencies of the Printed Word

Consider the power of the brow in communication – the raised brow, the wrinkled brow, the arched brow, the knitted brow.   Consider the power of the mouth in communication – puckered, twisted, laughing,  opened, straight line.   Consider the power of tone in communication– inflected, deflected, hint of laugh, hard.   Consider the power of the body in communication – crossed arms, shrugged shoulders, relaxed, tight, too close.    Consider the power of the eyes in communication – crinkled, piercing, puzzled, laughing, eye contact, eye avoidance, eyes on boobs (very common in men when communicating with women).

Many seem to forget that the printed word has limitations that words spoken face to face do not.  When typed, people usually hear the words as if spoken and put their own inflection and meanings into them.    And when read, people usually hear the words as if spoken and put their own inflection and meaning on them.   The problem is that the inflections heard by the one writing and the inflections heard by the one reading are frequently not the same.   In fact, they can often be very, very different – and given the more and more prominent role that the written word has taken on since the advent of the internet, this causes problems.

Now, the above is something that I know many people already know.  However, some of the sentence construction struck me as fun to write, and so I wrote.   And now you have read and this one is done.

7.      An Aphorism of my Making

While there are usually many ways to do something right, there are always a great many more ways to do the same thing wrong.

And now to end this – just long enough to provide something of interest (I hope) but short enough where you won’t miss your New Years’ Festivities.                       

“ Live long, have fun, and prosper” – Reformed Church of Vulcan. 

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Random Thoughts

I don’t have anything to blog about.

Well, not quite true.  I do, but they are going to take time to develop and currently for my classes for the month of April I have three research papers to write, three tests to take, a timeline, and a final to take.   For some reason this is slowing me down when it comes to doing substantive posts.

So, since I am trying to do at least two blogs a week I thought I would do some free association and just post a bunch of random thoughts on random subjects.   Hey, it may not be my best blog, but I least I attained my goals – climb every mountain and so on.

Anyway, first random thought – how about them Republicans?!  Just when it seems as if their election season multiple foot in mouths moments forgotten they come along and provide new ones.

First, from the state that brought us such statesidiots as Sarah Palin comes Congressman Don Young and his use of “wetbacks” when describing how things used to be in the days of his youth on his father’s farm.

Yep, that will bring in the Hispanic vote for the Republicans.

And then there is Republican National Committee Dave Agema’s  facebook posting in which, based on an on line article (which we all know is totally reliable) “Everyone Should Know These Statistics on Homosexuals,” by Frank Joseph, M.D, posted that gays were responsible for “half the murders in large cities”, were sexually promiscuous, and were riddled with sexually transmitted diseases.  Oh, let’s not forget the child molestation and their being responsible for the high costs of our healthcare.

Way to stay on the wrong side of history Dave!

Oh, should also mention that today is not only Good Friday, but more importantly, Dindy and mine’s 33^rd anniversary.  Not only have we added on a few years and a few pounds since we were married but we have also added on a lot more love during those years.   Didn’t think it was possible to do that.   Looking forwards to another 33 years, and then another, and another.

Guess I could give a preview on some the blogs that I am not working on right now due to school.

One is a blog about Paul Copan’s book “Is God a Moral Monster?” in which he defends God’s morality against the attacks of the new atheists such as Richard Dawkins.  This one is actually a critique of the book and will consist of multiple blogs.   I already have the rough draft for the first three chapters (this only takes two blogs and that because I spend most of the first one explaining what I am about to do and why).

I suppose I could go ahead with that, but then there is a good chance that there would be a long gap between parts of the critique, so I prefer to wait and finish off the book.

Spoiler alert – so far Mr. Copan does not succeed in defending the literal reading of the Old Testament’s God’s morality.

Now, my other two blog ideas are just some random notes right now.  What is fun is they grew out of the research paper I am writing for my “Bible in Historical Context Class”.   This paper is about the use of the Bible to support both the abolitionist arguments against slavery and the slave owner’s arguments for slavery prior to the Civil War.

The first blog is comparing how the Bible is used and interpreted in relation to slavery, gay rights, and abortion.   There is a relationship between how the Bible is used and viewed by the abolitionists and Christians today in regards to slavery and to how those Christians in favor of gay rights are viewing the Bible.   Conversely for the slave owners of the 17^th – 19^th centuries, those few Christians who are OK with slavery, and those, more common, Christians who are against gay rights all share a similar view of the Bible.

However, the same is not happening in regards to abortion even though of the three issues it is the one that has the least Biblical support for being anti-choice and the most Biblical support for being pro-choice.

The other blog arising from my research is how the Bible and Christianity was used by the blacks in pre-Civil War America to resist the oppression of the whites – whether the whites were slave owners, fellow citizens, or abolitionists.   It is not something I had ever considered or known about until I started reading the poems of Jupiter Hammon and followed that up with some readings about blacks during that time and followed that up with an interesting discussion with Professor Day of the University of Texas at Arlington about this.

Not only is this going to make for a better paper (although I am going to be bumping up against the length requirements, probably) but provide material for an interesting blog about how religion can and does help a people and society   Atheists are all too aware of the drawbacks and harms but too many refuse to consider the good and positive aspects that can come from religious beliefs.   Hopefully this will stir up some good discussions when I get around to writing and posting it.

OK, lets see, what else.  Sun is out and shining.  Really wonderful day out.

I have come up with some more aphorisms, but not enough to update that blog yet.

Hmmm, didlle day do re doso,  ahhh,

Ah, I see I am at 932 words and going.  Nice respectable length for a blog.  Hopefully next week someone will say something that will spark a blog that I can write fairly quickly.  Otherwise I may have to do Random Thoughts 2 and I am not sure if I have that many thoughts.

Enjoy!

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Addendum to Bill’s Aphorisms

In a previous blog in July I gave free reign to my ego and let it proudly proclaim that I have a way with words such that I can pithily and succinctly capture some of the great truths about the world we live in and in how we live in the world.

In other words I shared some witty and relevant aphorisms that I thought very much worth sharing for the purpose of improving my reader’s insights into life and living.  There were only four at that time, but I at that time reserved the right to add to these at any time.  Since I have not died between then and now I find that I have indeed created six more witty aphorisms well worth sharing and most definitely worth your time in reading and cognizing upon.  I believe that before I die I will have created even more, several of which will be as eternal as the English language (I did warn you I was letting my ego run unchecked).

Please feel free to use either the new ones of the original ones that I am reprinting in your conversations, at the appropriate moments of course.

NEW WITTY APHORISMS

Marriage

My wife sometimes has to tell me to do something four or five times before I don’t do it. 

Religion

Good or evil, moral or immoral, rational or irrational; a religion is what its followers make of it. 

Ignorance

Never bet on there being a limit to human ignorance.  You’ll lose. 

Perfection

To expect perfection from yourself in all your endeavors it to set yourself up for a lifetime of frustration, anxiety, and pain.  After all, human is not even close to being synonymous with perfection.

Genius

Genius shared is not genius halved but rather genius squared.

Genius is not defined by length and even the shortest of sayings, even if of only one word, can contain all the wisdom of the world.

 

 

ORIGINAL WITTY APHORISMS.

Shopping for a Grandchild:

It is not a success until done to excess.

 

Vacations:

The worth of a vacation is not determined by how many building and mountains were seen, nor in how many events attended and experienced.  Instead the worth of a vacation is determined by how much joy you experienced in those you did see – even if it is only one.  

 

Dignity:

Humans are not lifted up to dignity by God but rather lift themselves to dignity on the basis of their own efforts.  

 

Communication:

Miscommunications occur when two or more people think they have communicated effectively and successfully and then refuse to believe otherwise.

 

As I said in my original blog, this list is short (especially for me) but then genius is not defined by length and even the shortest of sayings, even if of only one word, can contain all  the wisdom of the world.

Also, if anyone has an aphorism, pithy and witty saying, or cleverly expressed short insights that they have said in the past and would like to share please feel free to do so.   I do not mind sharing other people’s insights, as long as they meet my high and demanding standards.

After all genius shared is not genius halved but rather genius squared.

 

 

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How the Baptists Have Falle…. Um, Wait – How Some Baptists Have Fallen But Others Have Not: Or a Lesson in the Importance of Fact Checking Before Writing the Blog

Let me preface this by saying that my initial, very short post had an important message.  However another two other important lessons were also learned by yours truly (ones I already knew but did not follow this time) so that I urge anyone reading this to read the “Important Addendum” at the end of this blog too.    

From  http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/jacquielynn-floyd/20120920-gov.-rick-perry-vs.-satan-secular-humanists-and-american-constitutional-history.ece?action=reregister

“While chatting with members of Vision America, which is calling for 40 days of pre-election prayer and fasting “to save America,” Gov. Rick Perry described the doctrine of church-state separation as a “myth” devised by Satan to drive Christians from public life.

He additionally warned that American families are “under siege,” that “Christian warriors” must defend the nation against secular attack, and that the president “and his cronies” are trying to scrub every trace of religion from American life.

Get thee behind Rick Perry, Beelzebub!

“This separation of church and state, which has been driven by the secularlists [sic] to remove those people of faith from the public arena, there is nothing further from the truth,” he said, stumbling a little over that tricky word “secularist.”

“Satan runs across the world with his doubt and with his untruths and what have you.”

There’s more — lots more — about the Founding Fathers and Judeo-Christian values and rescuing the nation from secularism and atheism.”

 

I was reading the above column about some remarks made by the wonderfully unenlightened governor of my home state of Texas, Rick Perry, and it got me thinking about church state separation.  I don’t know if Rick Perry is a Baptist or not, but this made me think of the Baptists and of how far they have fallen in regards to church/state separation.

 

The founder of the Baptists in America, Roger Williams, was a strong believer in the strict separation of the church and the state.  The early Baptist churches, when they were a minority religion and concerned about their rights being trampled by the larger and more established churches, were strong believers in the separation of church and state, as witnessed by the Dansbury letter and other writings of the time.

But today, now that they are no longer a minority religion and are instead an established and more powerful religious group, they wish to pretend that the separation of church and state does not exist and does not need to exist.

 

Oh yes indeed, power does indeed corrupt.

 

 

Important Addendum – well dang, I hate doing things ass backwards which I did by writing this blog, almost one click away posting it and then fact checking it.  I have seen so many Southern and other sorts of Baptists speaking out against church/state separation that I just assumed that it was a policy of the Baptist church in general.   Just before I was about to post this I decided that I needed a copy of the policy stating the Baptist position and went looking for it.  Instead I found this, from the American Baptists Churches USA    

http://www.abc-usa.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Pm1kkXvrrqM%3d&tabid=199

AMERICAN BAPTIST

 

RESOLUTION ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

 

“We proclaim that separation of church and state is central to our American heritage; that

it has made possible a measure of freedom not previously achieved under any other

system; that it is indispensable to our national policy of equal rights for all religions and

special privileges for no religion.

 

Church and state are separate not only in their functions, but also in the source of their

financing. Government being under public control is properly financed by taxation.

Membership in religious institutions and organizations is voluntary, and therefore should

be supported by voluntary contributions. We believe that the use of tax money for

support of religious groups is in opposition to the spirit and letter of the Constitution.

 

We declare that this principle does not mean that the state is indifferent to the church, nor that the church is unconcerned for the state. It means rather that church and state are separate in their institutional life and that neither controls the other.

……..

We object strenuously, therefore, to any proposal that authorizes taxes or borrowing

power be used to make grants or loans to sectarian or church related schools. We

emphasize that the use of government finances in support of any sectarian purpose is a violation of basic religious liberties for it coerces citizens to support religious objectives which many of them cannot conscientiously approve.

 

Adopted by the American Baptist Convention 1961

 

Affirmed as an American Baptist Churches Resolution by the Executive Committee

of the General Board September 1983

 

Revised by the Executive Committee of the General Board – March 1993

 

Modified by the Executive Committee of the General Board – March 2001

 

Modified by the Executive Committee of the General Board – March 2005”

 

And this from the Baptist Joint Committee

http://www.bjconline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=129

“The separation of church and state, or the “wall of separation” talked about by Colonial Baptist Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Supreme Court, is simply a shorthand metaphor for expressing a deeper truth that religious liberty is best protected when church and state are institutionally separated and neither tries to perform or interfere with the essential mission and work of the other.

While the phrase “separation of church and state” technically is not in the First Amendment, and although there is no evidence that either Thomas Jefferson or James Madison used the word “separation” until the 19^th century, the principles those words represent are there. Who would deny that federalism, the separation of powers and the right to a fair trial are constitutional principles? But those phrases do not appear in the Constitution either. And how could anyone read Jefferson’s “Bill Establishing Religious Freedom” in Virginia and Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” without concluding that they unequivocally supported the concept?

Baptists often hold up Roger Williams’ “hedge or wall of separation” and point to Jefferson’s 1802 Letter to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association where he talked about his “sovereign reverence” for the wall of separation. But we often forget about the writings of the father of our Constitution, Madison, who, in a letter to Robert Walsh in 1819, observed that “the number, the industry and the morality of the priesthood and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of church and state.”

Of Course then I also come across such Baptist sites as this one

http://www.allaboutbaptists.com/distinctives_Church_and_State.html

“Does the Bill of Rights really call for the separation of church and state?

There are actually those who would have all Americans believe that anytime a Christian exercises his freedom (I did not say “right”) to influence government based on his Biblical convictions, he/she is violating the Bill of Rights.  Furthermore, that same believer is infringing upon the rights of others.
This is indeed ignorance in it’s saddest form, for the Bill of Rights does not state what rights we have but, rather, what restrictions are placed upon government so that it cannot infringe upon our God-given freedoms.  It is much less a document stating what citizens can do but much more one that clearly states what government cannot do.

The ongoing argument still being put forth by those who resent Christians (including us Baptists) is that our wanting to keep such things as prayer and the Ten Commandments in our public school systems smacks of violating the human rights of those who do not accept such things.”

 

 

OK, two lessons re-learned. 

Lesson one:  Always fact check before you write, always fact check before you write, always fact check before you write. 

Lesson two:  All large organizations consist of a variety of groups and people with a variety of different opinions on any one subject.  All large organizations consist of a variety of groups and people with a variety of different opinions on any one subject.  All large organizations consist of a variety of groups and people with a variety of different opinions on any one subject.

 

 

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A Short and Succinct Blog Break – and Right in Every Respect

 

In looking over my posts I notice that I have a tendency to write rather long ones.  This supports the charge leveled by numerous people over the years that I am somewhat…. detailed in what I write.  This is especially evident when I do a series of blogs on a subject such as the current series on Morality. 

Now, I can be succinct and brief and thought it would be fun to break into this series, briefly, to prove it. 

I’m right. 

About everything. 

If you disagree, you’re wrong.  Period.  Get over it. 

This short argument inspired by many conversations I have had with people on the internet and in life. 

Only 125 words.

Next blog will return to the series on Atheism and Morality.  Damn, now I’m up to 137 word.   Shoot, 144 words, no 146 wor……….

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Bill’s Aphorisms

With this blog I thought I would give free reign to my ego and let it proudly proclaim that I have a way with words such that I can pithily and succinctly capture some of the great truths about the world we live in and in how we live in the world.

In other words I am going to share some aphorisms that I have thought of the last couple of weeks.  There are only four so far, but I reserve the right to add to these at any time.  I believe that I will have created many more before I die, several of which will be as eternal as the English language (I  did warn you I was letting my ego run unchecked).

Think of these as a starter set of Bill’s aphorisms or sayings.  Please feel free to  use them in your conversations at the appropriate moments.

Shopping for a Grandchild:

It is not a success until done to excess.

 

Vacations:

The worth of a vacation is  not determined by how many building and mountains were seen, nor in how many events attended and experienced.  Instead the worth of a vacation is determined by how much joy you experienced in those you did see – even if it is only one.  

 

Dignity:

Humanity is  not lifted up to dignity by God but rather lifts himself to dignity on the basis of his own efforts.  

 

Communication:

Miscommunications occur when  two or more people think they have communicated effectively and successfully and then refuse to believe otherwise.

 

As I said, this list is short (especially for me) but then genius is not defined by length and even the shortest of sayings, even if of only one word, can contain all  the wisdom of the world.

Also, if anyone has an aphorism, pithy and witty saying, or cleverly expressed short insights that they have said in the past and would like to share please feel free to do so.   I do not mind sharing other people’s insights, as long as they meet my high and demanding standards.

After all genius shared is not genius halved but rather genius squared.

 

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An Atheist’s Vacation or I Wonder If There Really Is A God And He Is Out To Get Me?

Currently my wife – the beautiful and wondrous Dindy – are on vacation.  I had posted some updates on our vacation on facebook for family and friends.  Dindy rather liked them and thought that they approached being humorous, more so than most of my attempts at humor, and suggested that I post them as a blog too.

I thought that over for three or four seconds and decided that, as usual, she was write.  I had spent a considerable amount of time writing these and  thought them rather interesting.  I also thought  it would be a nice change of pace from what I have been posting lately.

So here it is, notes from my vacation – unedited.

 

Umm,  normally I  would be posting a picture here, but being on vacation and working off a netbook I have not figured out how to accomplish this.  Might I suggest you use your imagination to supply the appropriate imagery.

 

 

Thought it might be time to update this page with details of Dindy’s and mine vacation so far. It covers only our first three days, but it has been an interesting three days, partly in the sense of the Chinese curse – “May you live in interesting times”.

What I am trying to let you know is that this will be a bit long. In fact I will be breaking this down into four or five parts. And eventhen most of those parts, especially at the beginning will be long.

So man or woman up, make sure that you are sitting in your most comfortable chairs and your favorite jammies, have your favorite beverage in hand and have just returned from a productive trip to the bathroom, because here we go.

Part 1 – Getting There Is So Much Fun

As you may or may not know, Dindy and I are on an eight day vacation to visit Yellowstone Park, the next door Grand Tetons (both of which are in Wyoming) and then travelling north and west to visit Glacier National Park in Montana. Our flight to start and end this vacation is at Great Falls Montana. We chose this due to a great deal Dindy got on the airline tickets. Yellowstone and the Great Tetons are about seven hours southeast and the Glacier National Park about four hours northwest of Great Falls.

Our first interesting event of the Chinese variety occurred way, way too early on a Saturday morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 am. However when we woke up at 3:45 am (or rather when I woke up since Dindy never made it to bed having to do some work plus trying to do some last minute trip related items – although she did take several short naps using her computer keyboard as a pillow) we discovered that our flight had been delayed until 7:18 am.

Normally this 48 minute delay would not be a major problem. However, we had to catch a connecting flight in Denver at 8:10 am. Our flight was originally scheduled to touch down at Denver at 7:29 am. A quick check of the math showed us that we were indeed facing a CCIM (Chinese Curse Interesting Moment).

Fortunately this was of the relatively minor variety. Once at the airport we were told that they would hold the plane until we arrived and had boarded it.

Due to Dindy’s knee injury she is walking around with a cane and has only one speed – slow. When told this the airline people told us that there would be a person with a wheelchair awaiting us at Denver to whisk Dindy away to our connecting flight. Little did I realize that I soon would wish I had a wheelchair waiting for me.

The pilot must have pushed the throttle to the metal because we arrived at Denver airport only about 20 minutes late instead of 48 minutes. And sure enough there was a short, thin older gentleman there at our arriving gate for Dindy. Or course our connecting flight was at the other end of the terminal.

The older, thin gentleman started pushing Dindy’s wheelchair and told her not to worry, that he was a marathon runner and would get us there in good time. And with that he was off and marathoning.

When he said us I assume he must have meant just him and Dindy because there was no way in hell that this 56 year old, overweight, out of shape man with a gimpy left knee was going to keep up with him. I was doing damned good to keep him and Dindy in sight and only managed that because they arrived at the gate before they disappeared from my sight.

That CCIM moment was mine and mine alone. I arrived at the gate – my body producing rivers of sweat, my face a red beacon, and huffing and puffing enough to make the big bad wolf proud. Dindy on the other hand, was getting out of her wheelchair and was thanking the old marathoner for such a nice ride.

By the time our flight landed in Great Falls Montana at 10:10 am (only ten minutes late) I had finally found my lost breath, dammed up my flowing river, and regained my normal color again.

                                         Of Pace Cars – Part 2 of our Great Vacation

Everything initially went well after arriving at Great Falls, Montana. We got our rental car without issues. We found the highway out of town without a problem and stated south to our lodgings in Wyoming on the other side of Yellowstone National Park. There were only two seemingly minor problems.

The first was Dindy’s nausea and tiredness. While for much of the drive she slept she was awake during much of it too, enough to enjoy the scenery we were passing through. And after having no sleep the night before tiredness it to be expected. I figure she should have spend more time napping with her computers.

The nausea though – Dindy is prone to mild motion sickness. She also had just started some new pain medication for her knee, medication which had nausea as one of its side effects. Also, since both Dindy and I experienced some rather severe altitude sickness in Denver last year we had gotten some medicine to counter this and had started taking it on Thursday.

What puzzles me is that one of the symptoms of altitude sickness is nausea. One of the side effects of this medication against altitude sickness is nausea. Nausea + nausea = no nausea???

Fortunately I was not experiencing any nausea, but I was experiencing another concerning side effect of this medication, as was Dindy. Namely that it makes soda taste flat and out right nasty. Damn.

Anyway, the other minor problem was my inability to find and purchase a map of Wyoming. We had directions from Google on how to get to our lodging and also had a GPS with us. But I always enjoy having a paper map too. Without it I never feel like I have a firm grasp of the bigger picture of the area I am heading into – what roads intersect which highways which pierce which towns and so forth.

Now, I found a map for Montana at the airport. However we stopped twice in Montana in our trip towards Wyoming – once for a potty break and another for a lunch break – and at both stops I found maps for Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, and Washington. But none for their southern neighbor, Wyoming. I figure it must be a jealousy thing.

I finally gave up and went on. After all, I had a GPS with the jeep and my detailed travel directions from Google – what could go wrong? Right?

At first driving through Montana was boring – relatively flat with scrub plants dotting the flatness. Whilst driving this part of Montana we encountered another CCIM (Chinese Curse Interesting Moment for those who may have forgotten) – rural highway construction.

Now all of us have driven through rural highway construction before and are familiar with its slow traffic, narrow lanes, and its dust, dirt, and gravel. However the state of Montana, and as we discovered its sister state of Wyoming, had added something that vastly increased the irritation factor.

We were approaching a road that was intersecting our rural highway. Just a few moments before we had passed a sign warning us of “Construction Ahead”. Sure enough, at this intersection there were three highway construction workers, one on every arm of the road and highway except for the other side of the road on the highway – the part we were wanting to get to.

The highway worker on our part of the highway had stopped traffic, as had the other two on the road intersecting the highway. We had six cars ahead of us. There were no cars coming from the other way of the highway. At first Dindy and I thought that they were waiting for some huge monster of a construction machine to pass through.

At the five minute mark Dindy and I were wondering if our initial thought might have been wrong.

At the ten minute mark I was wondering why the other drivers had not gotten out of their cars and trucks to ask the highwayman what was going on.

At the 15 minute mark I was wondering why I wasn’t getting out of my car to ask this question of the highwayman. No sooner had I wondered this than I translated wondering into action.

I hopped out of my car, walked the six cars up to the highwayman and had a conversation with him. The conversation with something (but not exactly) like this:

Me: “Hi, hows it going?”

CW (Construction Worker): “All right.”

Me: I was just wondering, what are we waiting for?”

CW: “Oh,the pace car. It should be here soon.”

Me: A blank look, a moment of silence and then “Pace car?”

CW: “Yeah.”

Me: “Ummm, we’re not in a race are we?”

CW: Smiling, “Naw. We use a pace car to keep everybody at 20 mph so that they don’t throw rocks and gravel. We just laid down some sealer and want to make sure that it does not get damaged.:

Me: “Oh. OK. Thanks.”

I then walk back to our car and relate the conversation to Dindy. We had a calm and reasoned discussion of this idea of a pace car and considered all its ramifications in a calm and reasoned manner.

We came to the conclusion that were this to be tried in the great state of Texas that the construction worker would have been shot and killed on the spot. Afterwards his dead body would have been run over by every driver going through that construction site until it was as flat as the road. Governor Rick Perry would then have declared this practice of using pace cars as an unconstitutional federal intrusion into matters best left to states and declared the construction workers death as fully and wholeheartedly justified. He might even be able to get re-elected again on the basis of this.

Anyway, after waiting for another ten minutes we finally saw the pacer car approaching us from the opposite direction, turtling along at a fierce 20 mph and with a long tail of cars and trucks behind him.

When the pacer car reached the intersection, slowly it turned, step by step, inch by inch (anybody get that obscure reference) and finally fronted our parade of vehicles and off we went – a 15 minute thrill ride at 20 mph. The O. J. Simpson car chase went faster than that for goodness sake!

                    Road Trip Continues, Darkness Falls, and Tools Fail – Part 3 of our                                                                    Great Vacation

After we left the pace car and the construction behind us things started to look much better. The terrain became more varied with gorges, mountains, and valleys; rivers lined with trees, brush and various grasses. It was beautiful, nature at its finest.

So far the GPS had worked well for us, as had my google directions (taking into account the fact that we decided to vary our route through Montana a bit at the last minute). However all of that changed at Yellowstone National Park.

Upon entering the North Gate of Yellowstone I asked the ranger at the gate about our route. I wanted to double check my google directions and so asked him from which gate should we exit the park to get to our lodgings. He confirmed google beautifully, telling us that we needed to exit the southern gate of the park. He also gave us a map of the park. Feeling pretty good about everything (although I still would have liked to have had a paper map of Wyoming) we entered Yellowstone National Park.

One of the first things I noticed was that the names of park map did not match the names of my google directions. This was the start of our biggest CCIM yet.

Soon afterwards we noticed that the GPS was giving us strange directions – trying to make us turn west instead of continuing south to the southern exit (if I had been able to get a paper map of Wyoming I could have checked to see if this actually made any sense or not – but alas I had no map). It also started telling us to turn into campgrounds and parking lots.

This is the point at which I upgraded my worry status from mildly to hugely. We had lost an hour due to construction and had lost another hour due to me pulling over to take a nap (while Dindy had had no sleep the previous night I had done only marginally better having gotten only 3 1/2 hours sleep). Because of that it was 7 pm when we entered Yellowstone.

We had planned to be at our lodgings around 8 or 8:30. This would have allowed about an hour for stopping to look at some of the views and sights. However now it was 7 pm and we had 62 miles of road to drive in order to reach the southern gate of
Yellowstone (I had decided to follow the park map instead of either GPS or the google directions) with the speed limit in the park ranging form 25 to 45 mph. I was also concerned about finding our lodgings in an unfamiliar boondocks at night with few if any lights.

As I followed the map I quickly discovered that all of the roads in the park apparently have no names. Or at least no signs letting us know what road we were on. I figure the roads must be very shy.

The only way I could be sure I was on the correct road was by looking at the very occasional wooden sign giving how many miles it was to the next tourist attraction – Mammoth, Norris, Old Faithful, etc. I’ll agree that there were very few roads in that part of the country, however few is not the same as none. It would have been very comforting if I could have been sure I was on the correct on of these few roads and had not taken a wrong turning. This did nothing to help my rapidly fraying nerves.

Finally though we made it to the Southern Gate and exited Yellowstone National Park. As we exited I finally saw a sign giving us he name of the road we were on – joy of joys, its name matched that of my google directions! Our troubles were over. Or at least that is what I so naively thought at the time.

It was 8:50 pm by the time we left the park and the night had gone beyond dusk to dark and was rapidly working its way to pitch dark. From the time we saw that one sign telling us what road we were on until we finally arrived at our lodging at 10:50 pm (it should have taken us only 40 minutes to arrive there from the southern gate instead of the actual 120 minutes it did take us) we never saw even one, not even one freaking sign informing us of what road we were on. I have never seen such shy … or perhaps paranoid roads in my life!

After about 30 minutes of driving I knew something was very wrong… again. By now we should have hit a turn. In fact, by my figuring we should have hit a turning around the 20 minute mark. Also by now we had achieved pitch darkness with the only lights visible anywhere being my own headlights.

So, to summarize, at this point we were on a nameless road, had passed no towns, and seen no signs for upcoming towns. It was at this point that Dindy suggested that we call our lodging and ask for directions. I calmly (that is my story and I am sticking to it) told her that the first thing they were going to ask is where were we? And what were we going to tell them? That we’re stuck in the pitch black night without a town anywhere near us and on a road that has a case of BLOODY AMNESIA?????

We drove in silence for awhile.

Then a moment of decision descended upon us. Our amnesiac road ended at an intersection and we had to decide either to turn left unto a road that was in the witness protection program and not allowed to give out its name or turn right onto a road that was a silently gibbering idiot that had never learned its name. And apparently they did not believe in building towns in Wyoming since there was also no sign pointing out there direction.

At this point we decided to try the GPS again. We were already lost, so what did we have to lose?

It told us to turn right and id’d the road with a name I recognized from my google printed directions. Hallelujah! We had finally found the right road again.

That feeling lasted for about five minutes. At five minutes I happened to glance into my rear view mirror compass (and thank goodness that Dindy shelled out for a version of a jeep with a compass in the rear view mirror) and saw that we were heading south. Even though we were lost I was pretty sure that we wanted to be traveling north.

Since we had a tentative ID on the road (if our GPS was correct, but it had failed geography after all) and also had come across the name of a tourist turnabout we decided to call our hopefully near future lodgings and ask for help. Sure enough the front desk clerk confirmed that we needed to turn around. She also told us that once had hit the Moran junction (and there would be a sign) to turn left and they would be 16 miles down on the left. So around we turned, keeping a sharp eye out for a sign that we were indeed on the straight and narrow road.

Finally we came upon that sign. Keep in mind that 99% of all signs we had seen in Wyoming so far had been made in dark wood. We had seen no signs strung over any roads. More importantly, we had not seen any signs that were lighted.

What this meant was that we saw the sign at the same time that we were passing by it. Fortunately I have mastered the art of the U turn and turned that jeep around and turned down what had been a left turn but was now a right turn for us. I also noticed something that, at first, did not make much sense to me – namely that it stated that Moran CO was what would have been straight ahead had we not turned.

But despite that discordant note we kept on that road for almost 1/2 mile when we came across the entrance to the Teton National Park.

During my conversation with the front desk clerk she had asked me if I had exited the park. I told her yes because we had exited a second park about 30 minutes after leaving Yellowstone National Park.

Being the great intellect that I am I quickly put together the anomaly of the sign and the gate we were just passing through and realized that this was the gate the front desk clerk was referring to!

I quickly u turned the car again and went back to Moran’s junction and made a left. At the three mile mark our CPS told us to make a left turn unto a dirt road. My printed google directions were totally lost and starving. I continued on, trusting in the young, sweet sounding voice of the women had talked to at the lodge.

At the16 mile point there was no lodge on the left, only forest. We persevered on.

at 16 1/2 miles we saw the lights of a sign on the left side of the road n the distance.

At 17 miles we turned into what would now be our home until Wednesday. A nice, two room connected by a kitchenette cabin.

                                          The Day Upchucks – Part 4

This will be a very short post.

We both slept late, tired out by the many travels or our trip.

I woke up short of breath, very little energy, and slightly nauseous.

Dindy started her morning out in a spectacular fashion – two upchucks in a row. Worn out by this tremendous display of gastric pyrotechnics she slept the rest of the day.

I napped. I read. I watched movies and CNN on TV.

It seemed that despite our medication we were again afflicted with altitude sickness – Dindy more so than me.

A Good Day Arises – Part 5 – Monday

Today both Dindy and I woke up.

After waking up we discovered that we were in better shape than we were yesterday. Which, come to think of it would not be that hard to do.

Dindy had some soup and ice cream and kept it down.

We walked down a short a beautiful trail that starts just outside of our cabin door. The woods are beautiful. Not far off there is a majestically craggy mountain. The trail ended at a sewage treatment pond. Despite the boat laying nearby we easily resisted the urge to go boating. Or swimming.

We even drove to the Grand Teton National Park where we walked a couple of short trials, stopped an looked a few overviews, and even had lunch in a nice restaurant with a nice view of a lake and mountains.

We took enough pictures of the magnificent scenery here to bore even both of our dads.

The altitude sickness pills seem to be working. During the whole week Dindy was in Denver she was very very sick. During my three days there I was also very sick, although not quite a bad off as Dindy.

Anyway, although both of us were still short of breath and of energy and Dindy is still mildly nauseous there is a great improvement from Denver… and from yesterday.

Tomorrow we go to see the sights of Yellowstone instead of just driving through as we were on Saturday.

Have I mentioned that Dindy is totally intent on seeing a live and open range bear. She badly wants to see one… even if it costs me my life.

Needless to say, I am not as wild on the idea.

Just a quick update on our vacation and to let you know that there will be no more updates, especially the long ones I posted yesterday, until we get back.

Both Dindy and I are doing much better – Dindy’s nausea is still with her but is much more manageable and she is eating better. Both of us are still short of breath and not up for any long hikes but are up for short ones. Which we have taken.

Today we went to Yellowstone National Park and thoroughly enjoyed it. Until doing research for this trip I had not realized that Yellowstone had a canyon. While not to the scale of the Grand Canyon it was still impressive and wonderful to behold. I think the fact that it was an unexpected find made it even more impressive.

Of course we watched Old Faithful erupt surrounded by a family from France, a large group of Amish, a German, and a large variety of Americans. It was great.

Tomorrow we leave for Glacier National Park, about a 10 1/2 hour drive. We are getting up earlier than we have been in order to get there in good time.

Anyway – Dindy and I are having a blast and thoroughly enjoying ourselves (with the possible exceptions of part of Saturday and most of Sunday).

Enjoy!

Oh, a last update to our last update. I am very grateful for that and Dindy is very disappointed at not seeing a bear. This despite having me stand in the woods just outside our cabin holding raw bacon in one hand and a newly microwaved meat lovers pizza in the other and calling “Here bearie, bearie, bearier. Din din is ready!”

I also finally found a map of Wyoming. I mentioned earlier that I could not find such a map in its northern neighbor Montana even though it had maps of every other state bordering them. What I did not expect was that I would also have problems in Wyoming finding a map of Wyoming.

I guess that they are just like their road signs – very, very shy.

Finally found one though after going to three different convenience stores and even more souvenir shops.

Anyway, thats it for now and probably until we return. We hope that you are enjoying your lives as much as we are enjoying ours!

 

 

And thats it for now.

Have you ever noticed that writings about bad things happening are more interesting than when good things happen?  It is why Dante’s Inferno sells more than  his Paradisio.

So, since Dindy and I seem to have the worst of our trip well behind us I won’t bore you with the more fun parts.  Instead I’ll  just wish everyone a good and enjoyable life.

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Why I Still Value Being Published in Print

No doubt about it, posting on the web has the potential, oft-times actualized, of reaching more people than print does.  Yet despite the fact that I greatly desire for my ideas, thoughts, and words to be read, considered, and enjoyed by as many of my fellow humans as possible, I still greatly value seeing my words in print:  newspaper, magazine, and/or book. 

 

The question then becomes – why?  If my goal is to have my words noticed and considered by as many people as possible, why waste time and effort in trying to get those words in print instead of electron format? 

 

Partly, the answer is that there are still many people not hooked up to the web and who would have no chance of reading my sparkling words, follow my keen wit, and be informed by my thoughtful and complete analysis of different issues. 

 

Partly, it is that all too often web sites cater to groups of like minded individuals so that they become all too insular and limited.  Print can do a better job of crossing those boundaries. 

 

However, my primary reason for trying to get my writing published – whether letter, essay, poem, story, or book – is because it provides me a sense of validation that what I have written is good, that the words are well chosen, the sentences well constructed,  and my ideas well presented:  that, in short, what I have written is good, or at least better than most. 

 

Now, let me quickly say that a lot, in fact probably most, of what gets published is trash and poorly written – just like the internet.  However on the web an even greater percentage of what is written is trash, and poorly written trash at that. 

 

On the web anyone can post anything.  You do not have to meet anyone’s standards or qualifications.    Should I wish I could write and post:

                XO%$zAbtome   11 sdoy?? Aodjen;ndfnoforeveryoung am I to be or not aldlee,soodeoudoen

                Douelodjfojdojfenoeldiofoeofnoellllllll lonely boy longly girl X)(*& in the glory of the night

There is no one to tell me not to.  There is no one to tell me that is gibberish if I think it a great commentary on today’s culture.  No one to satisfy with my writings other than my own ego. 

 

With print though, even though you are satisfying that same ego, you now have to be conscious of others people’s opinions in a way that you do not have to be on line.  People are going to look at what you have written and judge them and their judgment will decide whether your words will be read by anyone else besides them.    Their judgment may be faulty, their judgment may be biased; nonetheless the fact that my words, my writing, is being judged makes me write with more care and discipline. 

 

And when that letter, that poem, that essay, that short story, that novel is selected to be printed I derive a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure for having passed through that judgment; at having passed through a quality filter if you will.

 

Let me state again that most of what is printed is junk.  Let me also state that there is also much gold to be found amid the trash in the web.  I will further state that were my blogs to start receiving 1,000 or 10,000 or even 100,000 hits a day my sense of accomplishment would be tremendous.  In fact, I would be strutting around the house and making myself insufferable to my friends and family.  I already get a sense of satisfaction when I see people have read my blogs and, even more, responded or subscribed to my site. 

 

However, while there is trash and gold both in print and on the web, the ration of trash to gold for print is lower than that for the web.  All because on the web you do not have to meet anyone’s standards, because there are no quality filters at all, either poor or good. 

 

It is because of that challenge and the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that I get from passing through that filter that I will continue to occasionally try to  freeze the electrons of my words into ink. 

 

 

 

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