April 03, 2021

Yesterday was a Friday, the sun was shining, and the temperature rose into the mid 60’sF.  That made for a great day to go outside and get things done.  I mentioned that I had gotten my second vaccine shot earlier in the week, and on Friday Melissa got her first.  That means in about three weeks we will both be in the new “low risk” category if we decide to travel.  As the news on travel was announced the accompanying backdrop of the airport showed long lines of people crowded together or milling together in close proximity.  I was glad that at least as a federal travel location they were still mandated to wear their masks.  Still, the thought of jumping into this unknown mix of people overwhelmed me.  If we travel, we will probably decide to drive.

I followed through on getting new seed for my feeders that I mentioned yesterday.  While I have a variety of places where I buy seed, I wanted to get the weed and feed for the lawn and mulch for the flower beds, so I decided to go to the hardware store.  The governor has lifted the mandatory mask requirement as of Thursday, so I was not surprised to see only half of the customers or staff were wearing one.  This is despite the CDC, Fauchi, and Biden saying if we would keep wearing the masks, we could have the spread under control for a proper Independence Day.  Instead, after falling for more than two straight months the tide was overwhelmed by the recent openings.  The average number of daily covid-19 cases across the US has begun to rise again.  The group who seems hardest hit are aged 25 to 50.  That may be as few have been vaccinated, or perhaps because many of this age refuse to mask or social distance.

After getting the seed and lawn care products I needed I went home and put them to use.  The feeders were still filled so I just put the seed on the back porch.  Then I decided to tackle the weed beds out front that I had been avoiding.  As suspected when I took off the ground cover the succulent bed was overwhelmed by weeds.  Melissa came out and we got to work clearing the weeds from both beds along the front of the house.  Then I laid down three bags of mulch on the flower bed.  I had an extra bag of rock pebbles that we use on the succulent beds and I put that on the two beds along the driveway.  That gave me just enough time to do a quick mow of the weeds thrown in the yard from the beds we weeded.  While the jobs were not complete, I felt good about what we had accomplished.      

Thoughts:  As the day started yesterday, I was feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work I needed to do.  After my noon broadcast, we went to Fort Smith for Melissa, picked up supplies at the hardware, and began to tackle the yard.  I was surprised how easily the day went after I had planned it out and began mentally checking off the items being completed.  While I did not get everything done, I got enough finished that I felt good about what I did.  I have been participating in several studies on anti-racism over the last year and have found a consistent message, you need to start.  While the amount of work makes me feel overwhelmed, nothing will change if I do not start the work.  While I do not expect this to be easy, doing the work of making changes in me may help others also see the need to change.  We are all in this together.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 02, 2021

The birds have been tearing through the feeders as they prepare for spring nesting.  I have been needing to fill my feeders on an almost daily basis.  I say almost because I admit there are days when I just do not go out and check to see if they have food.  The three seed feeders are flat and placed high so the only way I see if they have seed is when the squirrels (yes, we now have three) jump to the fence and make the feeder swing.  Instead, I gauge activity on the thistle feeder and the corn level in the squirrel feeder (which the squirrels rarely use).  Since the corn level was low, I decided I needed to refill the feeders.

When I got outside, I made two discoveries.  The first was that the reason the corn level was low was because the birds (got to be the jays, right?) had picked all the larger pieces of corn out of the feeder and thrown it on the ground, which I find aggravating.  When I looked up online to see why they do this I found the likely reason is because they are rejecting poor quality food in search of something better (size, difficulty to crack?).  The other reason mentioned was that I might be using the wrong type of food in my feeder.  While that may be the case, the feeder is not designed for birds.  It is made for squirrels and I use a prescribed squirrel mix of corn, sunflower seed, and peanuts.  Maybe I should post a sign explaining this to the birds.   

The other discovery was that I found my sunglasses.  I had lost my glasses several weeks ago and looked for all over the house and car for several days.  I lose my sunglasses on a regular basis.   That is why I tend to buy $5 pairs at the grocery.  I had this pair for a while and really liked them.  I had to break out an expensive pair of fishing glasses Melissa purchased as a gift a year ago.  When I went out this morning, I found my cheap pair laying under one of my feeders.  While this was an area that had other implements around it on the ground, the glasses were lying in plain sight.  Perhaps I did not see them because of their camouflage design.  I doubt it however, because it is hard to match camo cement.

Thoughts:  I have decided to move the squirrel feeder to a location further away from the bird feeders and place a tray underneath it to catch the corn that is thrown out.  I am also going to look for another mix of squirrel food.  Hopefully one of these three measures will help.  I find it interesting that while I used to spend hours trying to keep squirrels out of my feeders, I now spend the same time finding ways to feed them.  The squirrels and their behavior did not change, but my attitude about them did.  We can choose to make conscious choices about actions that were previously done subconsciously.  We can choose to associate with people different than ourselves.  We can choose to see people as individuals rather than groups.  We can choose to acknowledge that even though looks or actions may be different, that does not mean bad.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

April 01, 2021

I grew up in an era when you either won or lost.  Trophies were awarded to first or second place and medals tended to be given to the top three finishers.  That began to slip after I got out of competition and stretched out to the top six finishers in running and similar competitions.  Now it has become the norm to provide participation trophies to everyone who competes, win, or lose.  While I do think it is important to acknowledge everyone who succeeded in completing a race or completion, I believe it is just as important to recognize the effort it takes for those who win.  That is why they call it competition.

I remember during the late 1970’s and 1980’s when they started breaking runners into age groups to award medals.  My dad once raced in a local competition when he finished second in his age class behind the track great Jim Ryun.  Ryun is an American Olympic track and field athlete, who at his peak was widely considered the world’s top middle-distance runner.  He won a silver medal in the 1500 m at the 1968 Summer Olympics and was the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes.  He is the last American to hold the world record in the mile run.  My dad received the second-place medal in the 60+ division.  He always admitted as impressive as this sounds, there were only two entrants in that age group.

Psychologists say the biggest argument against participation trophies is that they are a form of protection.  We hand out trophies to kids, no matter how poorly they perform, so they do not feel bad about losing.  That means they never get the chance to experience failure, or to learn from it.  They grow up feeling entitled to rewards for simply showing up.  The best defense of participation trophies is the evidence in child psychology reveals the overwhelming benefits of positive reinforcement in young children.  Giving children a reward for their efforts is great because it shows them the value of being present, working hard, and contributing to a team.  They are shown how good it is to be reliable, and how important the effort of every person is, no matter if it leads to a victory or a loss.  Personally, I am disappointed when someone calls my effort a moral victory when I came in second.

Thoughts:  Despite my feelings about being second, I admit that I was happy to receive my second shot of the vaccine this week.  I had heard the symptoms would magnify with the second shot, but they did not with me.  I had less side effects with the second shot than I did with the first.  Perhaps what we need to emphasize is that regardless of whether you win or lose by getting the shot, you are being rewarded for participating.  Your participation also protects those around you.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 31, 2021

The Mockingbird and the Cardinals have been fighting over the snowball bush in our front yard for the last two months.  The Mockingbird had claimed the bush for a nest last year, but several male Cardinals have been trying to take over this spring whenever he is not on the bush.  Now the bush has begun to leaf out and the Mockingbird has decided to force his claim.  I would rather the Cardinals took the bush as last year the Mockingbird mercilessly dive-bombed Bella whenever she went out to the front year.  It would also attack Melissa and me, often coming from out of nowhere and making several quick passes before it flew off to the roof.  I had removed the nest during the winter but to no avail.

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine (perching or songbird) birds from the family Mimidae.  They are best known for the habit of mimicking the songs of other birds, as well as sounds of insects and amphibians.  There are a total of 17 species in two genera, although three species of mockingbird from the Galapagos Islands were formerly separated into a third genus, Nesomimus.  The only mockingbird commonly found in North America is the Northern Mockingbird.  I guess I should be glad there is only one species to take over my yard.

The other problem I had with the Mockingbird was it would steal nesting material from the flowers we hung from the hooks in the porch overhang.  We also came out the front door several times and the bird would scare out of the cactus containers Melissa placed outside for air and sun.  Apparently, these offered enough protection to shield the young birds.  I guess at least the cactus kept the cats from climbing up the racks.  Now that it is warmer the racks and containers are once more out on the porch (hopefully they will make it during the cold this week).  Since the Mockingbird seems to have won the nesting battle, I have more dive bombing to look forward to this year.

Thoughts:  The Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) derives its name from the Greek word polyglottos which means ‘multiple languages’.  Mockingbirds are known for singing late at night, even past midnight, and they do this loudly and in rapid succession.  I have found it interesting that I have never heard the birds in my yard sing, despite the bluebird and mockingbird pairs that have nested the last three years.  Melissa tells me she does her their songs.  Maybe I just do not pay attention.  I am not the only one not paying attention.  Our elected officials have not paid attention to the voters following the last election.  Our authorities have not paid attention to the pain being felt by BIPOC.  The states do not pay attention as cases rise and businesses open.  Paying attention is important.  Otherwise, a Mockingbird might dive-bomb you.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 30, 2021

I held off long as I could but finally broke down and mowed today.  There are several reasons why I am the last yard in the cul-de-sac to mow.  First, I need to finish weeding the other beds out front.  Melissa has decided to keep the garden cloth on the big front bed because there is one more night predicted to drop into the low 30F’s this week.  Once I get the cloth off, I will need to weed.  I also have the two beds under the bushes and the long flower bed that need to be weeded out front.  That does not even address the side bed and the garden/flower beds in the back.  When I weed, I always toss the clippings in the yard and mow over them.  This saves me from having to pick them up.  I finally admitted I needed to mow and then re-mow once I get the beds weeded.

The other reason I have not mowed is because I need to get my mower checked before I mow too much.  I like to have the blades sharpened and the belt guards have shaken loose again.  I do not know if this is just a bad design or if the blades are out of balance, but the bolts keep coming loose.  When it was repaired last year, the man drilled in a second set of bolts for both guards.  He commented about the quality of the design, as at that time the bolts had sheared off rather than just come loose.  I should have done this last year, but like so many things, I blamed not calling him on “the covid.”  Rather than being lax, I was protecting us both from possible spread (ha ha).

I set the blades high for my first mow knowing I will have to mow again as soon as I finish weeding.  If I mow the grass short, I am not able to tell where I have been.  That is a frustration I can do without.  This first mow knocks down the weeds but does not give the clean appearance I get with a shorter cut.  This does allow me to see the general shape of my lawn after the cold and freeze of the winter.  I was happy to hear my mole guards buss when I checked them.  I was afraid the batteries had either died or been ruined by the cold.  I should have taken them out but forgot and then put the garden cloth over the top.  I guess the cloth saved them as well.

Thoughts:  Now that the grass is mowed, I need to get to the store to pick up the “weed and feed” to spread over the yard.  Like so many things, everything is contingent on something else.  I need to get the weed killer spread on the yard but needed to mow before I did.  I need to mow but needed to weed the succulent beds before I did.  I need to remove the ground cloth to weed the bed, but Melissa needed me to wait before I did.  Biden told us we could have small gathering and neighborhood picnics for Fourth of July, but we needed to continue to follow guidelines and wear masks before we did.  Most states have responded by lifting protocols and Spring Break was celebrated by crowds of unmasked revelers.  When you are almost to the corner you have two choices.  We have chosen to turn around before we got there.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 29, 2021

Opening arguments began this morning in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd.  Chauvin is white and Floyd was black.  Floyd’s death sparked a summer of global protests.  Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.  The most serious charge of second-degree murder has sentencing guidelines that call for 11 to 15 years in prison.  The maximum penalty is up to 40 years.  Chauvin agreed to plead guilty to third-degree murder before he was even arrested last fall.  The plea bargain fell apart when attorney general William Barr and the Department of Justice rejected the deal.

The encounter began on May 25, 2020 around 8 pm when an employee at the Cup Foods convenience store called police to say that a customer later identified as George Floyd had tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes.  According to video evidence, Floyd was questioned and handcuffed and taken across the street and sat on the curb.  While the cause of what happened next is on trial, video evidence from several sources show Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 28 seconds.  According to firsthand accounts, this was not the first time Chauvin had used similar tactics.  During Chauvin’s 19 years on the force, he had shot one suspect, been involved with the fatal shooting of another, and received 17 complaints, 16 had been closed without disciplinary action.  Chauvin and Floyd had both worked security at El Nuevo Rodeo, a Latin night club, until Chauvin was hired by the police in 2001.

Much has happened in the 10 months since George Floyd’s death.  Floyd’s family recently settled a lawsuit against Minneapolis over his death for $27 million.  The Justice Department has revived its civil rights investigation into Floyd’s killing with a new grand jury.  Minneapolis residents remain at war over policing and allegations of excessive force.   The site of Floyd’s death has been transformed into a community gathering space where the authorities are not welcome.  The intersection has been the location of many protest, rallies, and demonstrations.  It also served as a backdrop to media coverage on the protest movement sparked by Floyd’s death and prompted multi-part series on PBS News Hour (“George Floyd Square:”) Minnesota Public Radio (“Making George Floyd’s Square:”).   The square has been declared by the people to be the “THE FREE STATE OF GEORGE FLOYD”.  

Thoughts:  I encountered another “free space” when I lived in Berkeley, California.  Sitting on the Quad in front of Sproul Hall is a round cement stone set flat into the walkway in 1989.  Another statement is carved around its perimeter, “This soil and the air space extending above it shall not be a part of any nation and shall not be subject to any entity’s jurisdiction.”  In the center of the stone disc is a small hole that holds a patch of soil about the size of a half-dollar.  It is the invisible space directly above the hole that is the actual monument.  This tiny tube of unregulated space is meant to be a place where protesters and free thinkers can say whatever they like, without regulation.  While individual events can be discarded or forgotten, the symbolism represented by free spaces help keep the focus on the lessons of the past.  We need to pay attention.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 27, 2021

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With all the crazy weather we have had this year we decided to hold our annual Easter Egg Hunt a week early.  The thought was that if it rained or was too cold, we could postpone and still hold the egg hunt next weekend.  When I checked the forecast earlier in the week it said it was supposed to be nice, but the rain would start moving in by 3:00 pm.  Of course, the event was scheduled for three.  When I woke up this morning, I checked the Facebook page I found a post declaring the weather was great and the hunt was on!  I hoped this was not just wishful thinking. 

I took my son Alex to his first city-wide Egg Hunt when he was five years old.  The eggs were all spread in the open outfield of a city baseball diamond.  We arrived early and Alex joined the hoard of children lining the right field line.  While he was intent on the hunt, he made the mistake of turning around to wave at me, just as the gun went off.  The children took off across the field like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up everything in their path.  Even though he took off atter the others, the eggs were gone before he had a chance.  I felt so bad for Alex that I took him to another egg hunt in the next town.  While he did get some eggs there, it did not diminish the previous defeat.  It was not his hometown.

I showed up early to see if I could be of help with today’s egg hunt, but it was well in control.  There were three areas where the eggs were hiding.  The fenced playground was reserved for the youngest children to insure they got some eggs.  The field behind the building was recently mowed and the eggs here were spaced out but still visible.  The grass in the back half of the field was left higher and the eggs were only visible when you got close enough to look down on them.  After the children listened to a story about Easter, they walked in an orderly fashion to the field and began to spread out scanning for eggs.  I could not help but think of the difference between this egg hunt and the one Alex attended.

Thoughts:  As bad as I felt that first year, Alex’s second attempt was worse.  This time he was determined and fully concentrated on the job at hand.  As the gun sounded, he sprinted to the head of the group, scooping up eggs like a madman.  Then it happened, he tripped.  The eggs in his basket went flying and were scooped up by the same vacuum cleaner that got them the year before.  By the time he got up the eggs were all gone.  Once more we ended up at the secondary egg hunt.  I have watched as similar approaches have been taken to receive the vaccine.  Some states initially opened the shots first-come, first-served.  This caused long lines and survival of the fittest vaccine sessions.  Other states only allowed on-line registration knowing there were segments of society who did not have access.  As doses have increased, so have shots, and now more of these are being distributed to underserved populations.  We had a plan to distribute the vaccine to the states, just not a plan to provide the shot.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 26, 2021

One of the news stories that has filled the airwaves concerns the massive container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal two days ago.  The canal is one of the world’s busiest waterways, with nearly 19,000 ships passing through the canal during 2020, for an average of 51.5 per day, according to the Suez Canal Authority.  The ship, called the Ever Given, became horizontally wedged in the waterway following heavy winds.  Multiple tugboats were sent to the scene to assist in the re-float operation and a team of experts from Smit Salvage have been called in to assist with the operation.  Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis who is helping in the efforts said, “We can’t exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation.”

The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia.  Original construction began in 1859 by the Suez Canal Company and officially opened on 17 November 1869.  Going through the isthmus can reduce the distance between the North Atlantic and northern Indian Ocean by approximately 5,500 miles (8,900 km).   The canal extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez for a length of just over 120 miles (193.30 km).  In the summer of 2014, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered the expansion of the Ballah Bypass from 200 feet (61 meters) to 1,024 feet (312 meters) wide for 22 miles (35 km) of the canal.  This allows ships to transit the canal in both directions simultaneously.  The one-year project cost more than US$9bn.

The cargo ship that is lodged in the canal is more than 1,300 feet long and 193 feet wide, weighing more than 200,000 tons.  One end of the ship is wedged into one side of the canal and the other stretches horizontally to nearly the other bank.  So far crews have tried moving the ship sideways using tugboats and dredging around the bow which is stuck in the bank, but to no avail.  There were no injuries to the 25 crew members and no cargo has been damaged.  It is still unclear what caused the ship to move drastically off course in the high winds.  This might be one of those incidents where someone gets fired.

Thoughts:  As several companies and countries try desperately to fee the ship and get traffic moving it reminded me of a story I heard long ago.  An oversized semi-trailer truck had attempted to navigate an underpass and became hopelessly stuck in the bridge.  The police brought in tow trucks to pull the trailer out, but it would not move.  Next, they brought in engineers who made calculations and discussed the dilemma.  No one had an answer.  Finally, a young boy who had been suggested, “Why don’t you let the air out of the tires.”  They did, and the truck drove itself out.  There are times when we try to find complex answers to simple problems.  One definition of genius is the ability to see a problem from a different perspective.  What we need now is the willingness to look at our problems from a new perspective, and then be willing to act.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 25, 2021

When we turned on the local news last night the first segment rolled through five straight stories of two murders, a kidnapping, a high-speed chase that ended in mistreatment of the driver, and a house explosion.  That was when Melissa turned to me and said, “Isn’t there any good news anymore.”  Granted, the national outlets have been trying to focus a one-minute positive response to the pandemic at the end of the broadcast, but I need to sit through 29 minutes (interspersed with five commercial breaks) to get there.  This is shared by the print media and the commentators on the “24-hour News” channels.  This seems true regardless of the political bias of the station.

When I looked online, I found Marc Trussler and Stuart Soroka set up an experiment at McGill University in Canada.  They examined how people relate to the news and found humans have a “negativity bias,” because of how we evolved to react to threats.  Negativity bias is the tendency to give far more attention to negative details than positive ones.  The associated “confirmation bias” then, is our tendency to selectively look at or see information that confirms our preexisting ideas.  The news is presented negatively by the media because negativity bias is leveraged to increase profits.  Bad news gets more attention, or more clicks, and leads to more revenue for the publication or news agency.  That means we get more bad news.  

There is also evidence that people respond quicker to negative words.  Lab experiments indicate we can recognize negative words faster than positive words and can even tell a word is going to be unpleasant before we can tell exactly what the word is.  There is another interpretation Trussler and Soroka put on their evidence: we pay attention to bad news, because of our bias to think the world is rosier than it is.  We subconsciously believe our own lives are better than most and expect things will be all right in the end.  This view of the world makes the bad news we hear and see more surprising and salient, and we watch.  Our bias makes the ratings go up and the ad times increase.

Thoughts:  I came across another phenomenon for online news called clickbait.  These are headlines that are psychologically geared to make people click on them.  They offer unanswered questions, shock, or “must know” information in the headline to get you to click.  I do not know how many times I have fallen through the 30 click tell-all that never answers the question that caused me to click in the first place.  I have done it enough to realize what is happening and now rarely make it more than 3-4 clicks into the expose.   The headline that took me down the rabbit hole is rarely something I care about, but my bias and my inquiring mind just needs to know.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

March 24, 2021

I have been itching to get under the garden mesh and reveal what has happened to the succulents we planted in the front beds.  While I did not have a lot of time last night, I was able to clear the mesh off the driveway beds.  We had a wicked cold winter that included a night drop to -20F.  Since they had been covered, I hoped the mesh (and often blankets) we had placed over the beds had protected the succulents.  I mentioned previously that I had laid back a portion of the mess in the front house bed to allow the daffodils to bask in the sun.  We ended up with three sets of 2-3 plants that came up along the sidewalk.  They flourished for several days and the leaves are still healthy, but the flowers have all faded.  Soon they will also die back and give way to whatever succulents survived.

Removing the rest of the mesh from the front bed would have taken more time than I was willing to spend last night.  I decided instead to take on the smaller beds on either side of the garage and the bed under the front pear tree.  When I removed the mesh the first thing it revealed was the weeds that were flourishing in their protected environment.  As I weeded all three beds the same pattern was reveled in each.  All the small ground hugging varieties had not only survived but sprouted shoots with new babies on the ends.  The Agave had not fared so well.  These were taller to begin with and generally had the mesh resting on the plant.  Most had succumbed to the cold and the plants had turned mushy.  When Melissa saw them, she removed them immediately so they would not attract disease and infect the other plants.

When I looked online, I found all 120 species of Agave are cold tolerant and can survive temperatures down to 30F.  Thirteen can survive temperatures down to 0F and six of these will survive below 0F (-5F to -10F).  However, only one can take the plant freezing blast of -20F we experienced, the Parry’s agave (Agave parryi) or mescal agave.  This slow-growing perennial succulent is native to Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.  It is hardy to roughly −5F, though there are reports of specimens surviving temperatures at −20.  Cold hardiness depends on more than just temperature.  The most crucial factor is how wet or dry the soil is during the cold spell.  Completely dry soil allows agaves to withstand colder temperatures than they would be able to tolerate if the soil is wet. The worst-case scenario would be a deep freeze following rain.  Guess what we had.

Thoughts:  While most of the Agave succumbed, examination revealed the “Hens and chicks” varieties all survived and even flourished.  Hens and chicks are the common name for a group of small succulents belonging to the family Crassulaceae and include the ground hugging Sempervivum species.  These grow close to the ground and the leaves form a tight rosette.  The “chicks” start as tiny buds on the main plant and then sprout their own roots, taking up residence close to the mother plant.  Just as the harsh winter effected Melissa’s succulents differently, the last year had different effects on our country.  Some businesses adapted to online access and provided drive through pickup.  Some jobs lost will never be replaced as business finds different ways to provide goods and services.  As we begin to reopen, the “new normal” is new and will eventually become normal.  We need to learn from the errors that resulted in the unrest and loss of life of the last year.  We do not have the luxury to just wait and see what is revealed.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.