Morning in Grand Forks

Just a quick picture of the sunrise this morning to prove to you non-North Dakotans that this is indeed a pretty place.

It may not be a sunset at the beach (I grew tired of those anyways), but it's still fairly pretty.

I'm trying to get better at taking pictures, and haven't forgotten my camera as often as I did before. Previously it seemed that everywhere I went there would be some picture worthy event that I would curse myself for not having my camera. My commitment to show all the picture worthy events that occur back here and bring it to all of you out there, well that commitment remains strong.

It's another windy day today, gusts up to 30mph, leaves are blowing around like, well like leaves on a fall day. At least it's not too cold, mid-40's, otherwise it would be pretty unpleasant outside.

Quitting the Paint Factory

I read a fabulous essay this morning, it's actually a reprint from 2004, from Harper's magazine by Mark Slouka, and thought I'd pass it along for everyone to enjoy. Here's the link. I always enjoy cerebral justifications for my semi-retired lifestyle, and pieces like this really resonate with me, not because it justifies laziness, but because it validates my urgent need for regular time for quiet introspection.

There's also some interesting dicsussion of the perceived differences between leisure and idleness. Leisure being activity which is directed in pursuit of a goal - fishing, golfing, sailing, and idleness is directed in pursuit of doing nothing - resting, reading, thinking, or just sitting there doing nothing. Naturally you can guess which of these society deems morally good, and which is morally bad. "Idles hands are ___ (fill in the blank on this one, but it won't be a positive reference)".

Here's a quick passage from the piece that I'll leave you with:

Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, req­uisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idle­ness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy."

Starry Starry Morning

It was chilly this morning, low 20's, the coldest so far this year. Saying that it was the coldest night of the year in mid-October is like watching a basketball game and stating after the first basket "I don't think the final score will stay at 2-0". What is John trying to say with this odd analogy? That it will most likely get colder as the days and weeks creep towards actual winter.

We're up early these days, and not because of cold puppy noses poking over the edge of the bed. Nope, we're actually slaves to the alarm, set for 6:00 am. We've got many tasks to accomplish- dog walk, dog breakfast, people breakfast, coffee brewing (this step is VERY, VERY important), and getting Alycia ready for her school day. The dogs would actually allow us to sleep in later if we didn't need to get up. It's a small measure or revenge to have to rouse Shaak Ti out of bed instead of the other way around, which happens 97% of the time. That small measure of revenge though does nothing to mitigate the unparalleled horror of having to be up that early.

So needless to say our morning dog walks are done while it is very much dark, and this morning was dark and cold and clear. Without the fluffy layer of cloud insulation to ward it off, the cold really sets in. Even in my sleepy state I appreciate the fact that we're the only ones out and about, parading our furry companions through the dark, and crunching the frost covered fallen leaves with slippered feet.

As I stumbled around in my multiple layers of clothing and fuzzy slippers, I looked up at the night, soon to be dawn sky, and marveled at all the stars. These stargazing moments were brief, as my shuffling demanded as much attention I could generate so early in the morning, lest it lead to me performing the popular "shuffle-shuffle-stumble-faceplant" maneuver.

There were more stars than I ever remember seeing in the light polluted lands of Southern California. And most folk around here will tell you that you can't see stars at all in "the city" (that would be Grand Forks that they're referring to) and that you need to get out into the country to really see some stars. I look forward to it.

A New Harness

The littlest sled dog (aka Shaak Ti) got herself a brand new blue harness today. The old one finally collapsed, much like the Bluesmobile at the end of The Blues Brothers (see it in the first 15 seconds of this clip), it just completely fell apart this morning. The buckle had slipped and became unbuckled a few times over the past week or so, giving the indication that total failure was imminent.

This morning as we put Shaak Ti in her harness, the buckle snapped completely. Upon closer inspection I also realized that a few of the seams were also almost completely torn off as well. It was a good thing because soon enough the whole thing probably would have failed, and Shaak Ti would have torn through it like Bruce Banner changing into the Hulk, shed her restraints, and raced freely after some poor squirrel or chipmunk.

The harness lasted for quite a while, more than two years, through hundreds of miles of walks and another few hundred miles of runs, through rain and snow and sand from so many beach trips. We humbly salute you, oh noble harness, you have served your purpose well.

New Poll

I posted a new poll, so check it out and cast your vote. It's very important that you do, if not, I may not have my finger on the pulse of what Halloween candy is popular this year, and I'll hand out something that kids hate, thus turning me into a social pariah. So please vote.....

Wallyball Results

You'll be proud to know your wallyball team was victorious in its athletic debut last night. We met our first foe and soundly, yet honorably, defeated them in our first athletic conquest. Our new comrades Chris and Kaitlan integrated well into the team and were fun teammates to play with, which bodes well for a successful and enjoyable season.

You may be surprised to know that I wasn't confident of victory and had set my expectation level at "I just want to make sure no one gets hurt this evening". Lo and behold what a pleasant surprise it was when not only were there no injuries, collisions, or mishaps, but everyone played well, had a pleasant time. AND we won. Expectations were exceeded at every level.

Though there were no injuries, there was some aftermath. Alycia, still sore from our wallyball outing on Sunday, reported post-game soreness in her quads, hamstrings, and every other leg muscle she owns (and even a few I think she made up). She's on heavy doses of Ibuprofen right now, and we're hopeful that her condition will slowly improve. Don't tell her (it's a surprise), but we're going to try to use homemade chili and gluten free cornbread to nurse her back to health this evening. She's due lots of slack though since this is her first real exercise in 7 months since her broken ankle diagnosis, so it may take some time to get her back up to speed.

I do have a few photographs of the event, but they are currently unavailable as they were requested for display from the Grand Forks Athletic Hall of Fame. The organization promised they would provide duplicate pictures, as the originals will be proudly displayed in a traveling exhibition throughout North Dakota over the next several months. If you're in the area, I would highly recommend a visit.

All joking aside, they do publish the local league results in the Grand Forks Herald on Mondays, though I'm not sure if that section is also available online. If it is, I'll include so you can also savor our standing in the league.

Wallyball League

Alycia and I joined the gym last week and indicated that we were interested in playing in some organized leagues, and the sports league coordinator not only called me the very next day, but also chatted with me and arranged an informal wallyball get together on Sunday evening.

For those unfamiliar with wallyball, it's essentially volleyball played on an racquetball court with a more rubberized version of a volleyball. The net bisects the court in half and you can bounce the ball off all the walls except for your opponents back wall. It's fast, dizzying at times, and bears some resemblance to actual volleyball. More than anything it's an opportunity for me to play. Which is all I really want to do, run around and have adult recess. Plus this way, Alycia gets to play too, which is a super bonus.

I played wallyball a few times before when I lived in Connecticut, but Alycia had never played before. Our purpose Sunday night was thus two-fold, make sure Alycia enjoyed the game enough to commit to a two month league, and also to test out her ankle to make sure it has healed adequately, or at least sufficiently well to scamper around on a racquetball court hitting a rubbery volleyball.

We played for a couple of hours, had a good time hitting the bouncing ball, and avoided any injuries and wall collisions. We also met Chris and Kaitlan who will join us for the next couple of months on our wallyball squad. The standings for the sports leagues at the gym are listed in the Monday morning Grand Forks Herald. This could perhaps be my first opportunity to have my victorious sports achievements listed in the local paper, something that was previously impossible, considering my lack of involvement with organized sports in high school and college. More stories as the season develops.

Enough Already!!!

Sometimes this blog ain't gonna be funny, and instead serves as a soapbox for some rant of mine. This is one such entry, so if you don't want to hang with me on my soapbox, or were looking for some humor, I won't blame ya' if you don't read on.

Another caveat. Even though I'm pretty sure I'll get pilloried on this one, I just have to say something. But please, before you throw out expletives or call me names, read the whole thing, and some of the attached links as well, then make up your own mind.

This idea has been percolating in my mind for months now, but finally came to a head when I went to the grocery store this morning. I was picking up a few things and wanted to get some mushrooms for pizza we're going to have for dinner tonight, but I couldn't find the mushrooms in their normal blue container. It took me a minute to see that they were specially packaged in a pink container as part of raising money for Breast Cancer Month. That put me over the edge. What do mushrooms have to do with breast cancer?

My main issues towards this Breast Cancerization of America movement are that 1) the money raised for breast cancer would save more lives if it was directed toward the main killer of women in the US (heart disease) and 2) the Breast Cancer phenomenon has become a vehicle for corporate exploitation, greed, hypocrisy, and shameless advertisement.

Let me first say unequivocally that breast cancer is a terrible disease. Any cancer is terrible, and a cancer that results in having part of your body amputated (especially a part of your body that defines your self image and femininity) is unspeakably horrible. The people who have gone through this and had family members or loved ones die have suffered loss and pain from breast cancer, and my heart goes out to you. This is not to be minimized.

CDC statistics show that breast cancer killed 41,000 American women in 2005 (the most recent year statistics were available). Again this is 41,000 too many, but is slightly less than die by "accidents" and 10,000 fewer than die annually from Alzheimer's. Breast cancer is only the seventh leading killer of women in the United States, and isn't even the most deadly cancer, that dubious honor goes to lung cancer.

What if we reduced the number of breast cancer deaths by half, 50%? That would be a laudable, honorable goal, and would prevent the death of 20,000 American women. Anyone would be overjoyed with such an unbridled success. But what if we decided to reduce by half, 50%, the number of heart disease deaths of American women? We could prevent the death of 165,000 American women per year.

So what if we took some of the estimated tens of millions of dollars (no one knows how much is actually raised every year) raised for breast cancer and use it to reduce the number of American women who die from heart disease every year? Wouldn't that be a more effective use of money to save the lives of women in the US? Such a program would involve nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle change programs, especially for urban and poor women, who are disproportionately affected by heart disease. The problem with such a program? It's not so easy to raise money, and it's not so easy to make additional profits from such a program. It's just not as glamorous.

As far as my second criticism, that corporate America is using breast cancer as a vehicle for corporate exploitation, greed, hypocrisy, and advertisement - please check out this article - Pink Ribbon Overkill: Are companies exploiting breast cancer campaigns? This goes a long way in describing the current state of various corporate manipulation surrounding the pink ribbon campaign and the current practice of "pinkwashing" by nefarious companies.

The mushrooms that I purchased are a great example of these corporate shenanigans. The company that is selling me the mushrooms didn't even give any money to any charity related to breast cancer. In a tiny stamp on the label there's a statement that says "The Mushroom Council donated $50,000 to the City of Hope to fight breast cancer". The Mushroom Councils own figures state that mushroom producers (farmers?) sold 14 million pounds of mushrooms over the last MONTH and 188 million pounds over the last year, (and you know how much mushrooms cost per pound), and yet the mushroom producing contingent in the US could only come up with $50,000 to donate to such an allegedly important cause? I call BS on that.

The truth is the folks I bought these mushrooms from know that they don't have to contribute a penny of their own money to charity (though surely they pay dues of some kind to the mighty Mushroom Council), but all they have to do is slap their product in a pink box for a few months, add some vague promises about "fighting for the cure" and know that people will buy it. Again, I vehemently call BS on that.

Could future breast cancer cases be reduced or eliminated if instead of donating a pittance of a few dollars, companies stopped using known carcinogens in producing their products? Studies have shown a link between breast cancer and environmental pollution, and more research is needed on this topic, but couldn't companies be proactive and eliminate the KNOWN carcinogens from common use. Wouldn't that be a heck of a gift?

Did you know that AstraZeneca, the producer of breast cancer fighting drugs Arimidex and Faslodex, is also related to a giant international manufacturer of industrial chemicals and carcinogenic pesticides? Their former parent company (they spun off Astra in 1993) Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) manufactures the plastic ingredient polyvinyl chloride, that has been linked to breast cancer, as well as the pesticide acetochlor, classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a “probably human carcinogen.”

ICI also makes pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. ICI releases potential cancer-causing pollution into the environment on a daily basis from its global manufacturing facilities. Does that make sense to you? Wouldn't a better contribution from AstraZeneca towards eliminating breast cancer be to lobby their former parent company, ICI, to stop releasing all these toxins and selling all these toxic products into the world?

So that's my rant. Again, please don't misinterpret this as a lack of respect for those who've lost friends and loved ones to breast cancer, or a lack of reverence towards survivors of breast cancer. I just feel that a greater degree of death prevention could be gained if we focused more attention and money on heart disease in American women, and I wanted a chance to vent my anger at companies who have hopped on the breast cancer bandwagon in order to boost their sales. That is despicable, and unfortunately, quite widespread.