DoctorD's Observations

Subaru playing in the snow

This is an ad that has been running on tv lately.  I am very interested in seeing how accurate, how representative, it is.  We can get pretty significant snow around here, and our street is completely open to the winds from the west.

Also, I got the impression at the dealer that Subaru is a relatively small auto company, and doesn't advertise much.  But it seems to me I have seen quite a few television ads lately.  Or am I just noticing them more?

Is winter here?

We had ice on the little pond behind our house this morning.  For the second time this year.  Guess it got pretty cold overnight.  

Wonder if the iPod in my car could freeze up?  (It is a "classic," with a hard drive.  I also have a Touch, but it is kept indoors).

They put tall little flags into the ground at many key points, to try to keep the snowplows from crossing lawns and knocking over mailboxes.  

End of November, start of December--it does seem like about the time for a first snow.  We will see.

Summing up 2009 for me

We have started working on our annual "Christmas letter," which is a way to keep in touch with, and keep informed, friends and relatives that we are not in communication with very often.  And it also is a kind of "diary entry," as I have kept the letters from past years, so together they offer a chronological summary of our lives.

Quite a bit of the letter has been drafted now; perhaps I will post the final version here on Vox later.  But, at the moment, what I am most aware of is how boring and unsatisfactory the year 2009, in sum total, has seemed, from my personal perspective.

Mostly we haven't had enough "adventures."  I had especially hoped we might be able to return to the red rock country of the southwest for an after-Labor-Day trip--we were out that way last year, but saw only a few of the major sights.  Normally we are on the road at that time for year for about three weeks, and I wanted to go back.  Actually, at the very start of the year, I had hoped that we might be able to be home for three or four months, and then travel for a month, alternately.  (That doesn't really seem unreasonable, when you realize that many who live "up north" here go to Florida for nearly half a year).

But, for one reason and other, it didn't work out.  We did have three trips in 2009, but they were shorter, less ambitious, less fun.  We do expect to return to Florida in January 2010, too, but that is partly for a cruise (my first) and I find that I am less excited about that than I would be for a longer trip out west.

Anyhow, on reflection, I really missed it--the more extensive travel.  Before I retired, I was very involved when working in government, I enjoyed that greatly (and had few opportunities for vacations).  Since then I have greatly enjoyed our longer driving trips, seeing the countryside, seeing the country, how people live, the varied sorts of places that they live, learning a little history, now that my "serious" work has ceased.

What to do now, in this segment of life?  Some retirees play golf:  I think that is a common passion.  I have one friend who carves wooden ducks.  Different strokes for different folks!

What I like myself, and what I think I have always liked, ever since I was a child, is the exploratory travel.  Finding one's way down the road, down the track, down the river, along the path, or (as I did when I was a teenager) through the sky.  I have always liked those things; missed the opportunities throughout most of my working life, and this past year I greatly missed it that we didn't have the chance to do more.

Given my generally poor health, I am not counting on having very many more chances, really, either.  Bad ticker.

Politically, economically, financially, 2009 has been disappointing, too.  I am not disappointed in Obama, who I think is the best president we could possibly hope for.  But I am disappointed in how he has been received by Democrats and Republicans in Congress, neither of whom seem seriously interested in addressing the nation's ills.  (Yes, there are a few exceptions).

But that is of course a whole 'nuther issue--although an important one from an historical perspective, and really a much more important one than my own small personal troubles and complaints.  Still, as 2009 comes to a close, I find that I feel frustrated, bored, disappointed:  sorry not to have seen more new things, and not to have been to more new places.

How has 2009 been for you?  For me, right now at least, it feels kind of sad.  But--I do have a new car, a good road car, and am hoping very much for chances to use it!  That is my hope for 2010.

The Black Friday lineups

We saw, at 6:00 pm on the evening of Thanksgiving, lines already formed outside of two different Best Buy stores.  Some of the shoppers had camping tents, and some appeared to only have blankets and chairs.  I find it hard to believe that the wait is worth it, but my son says that some very good prices were being advertised.  It is cold out there, though, just a degree or two above freezing.  Many chains are opening early, at either 4:00 or 5:00 am.

The Mayflower Compact

The greatest American inventions are governmental.  The Mayflower Compact of 1620 was the governing document of the Plymouth Colony, which is of course where the holiday of Thanksgiving originated in 1621.  It said:

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."

I think the mixture of the religious and the civil is very interesting.  

One of my relatives was among the 41 signers.

Thanksgiving at the Plymouth Colony, by Brownscombe

Some of the things I am thankful for today

These are some things I am feeling Thankful for this morning, in no particular order.  Just thoughts:

--That my son is here to visit.  We don't get to see each other very often.

--for a new car, which I hope will take me on a number of additional adventures, probably starting with a January trip to Florida, but perhaps going again up to Door County, Wisconsin, over New Year's (as we did last year).  

--Shelter from the storm in a house that keeps out the wind and wet and cold.  Actually, a new and very nice house.

--That someone with the intelligence and patience of Barack Obama is willing to take on the almost entirely thankless and possibly hopeless job of being the President of the U.S. in these very difficult times.

--That George W. Bush is no longer President (and not Hillary Clinton either); boy, then we really wouldn't have a chance!

--three kinds of pie, our traditional holiday dessert:  dutch apple, pumpkin, and crocodile (a variation on pecan).

--baby Cole, who will come to visit, and is walking very well now, and is well.

--Thomas Jefferson.  Abe Lincoln.  Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt.  JFK.  James Madison, don't want to forget him.

--Amy, with whom we have often exchanged food items, and who was the first person to offer assistance to me after my wife Barbara passed away in early 2003.

--being able to walk (which, for a time, I could not).  Breathe, too.  Breathing is nice.

--the Dalai Lama, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Clint Eastwood, and Steve Jobs.

--The Sunday Morning TV show on CBS--what a human, humane program.  

--The Grand Canyon, and the Chico Hot Springs Lodge, in Pray, Montana.

South Kaibab trail, GCNP

--that Connie was here to give me a hug first thing this morning.

Also, I am thankful for you, my Vox neighbors and friends.  Contacts here have added significantly to my sometimes-boring life!  I appreciate you!  Thanks much!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin harvest

Come, O thankful people come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in as the winter storms begin;
God our Maker does provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the blessings of the field,
All the stores the gardens yield,
All the fruits in full supply,
Ripened ‘neath the summer sky,
All that spring with bounteous hand
Scatters o’er the smiling land,
All that liberal autumn pours
From its rich o’er-flowing stores.

These to you, our God, we owe,
Source from whom all blessings flow;
And for these our songs we raise,
Grateful vows and solemn praise.
Come, then, thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.

Eating local for Thanksgiving?

The American Farmland Trust is running a "growing local" campaign, to encourage the consumption of fresh foods, locally grown, from grocery stores, farmers markets, and farm stands.  Which has made me think about how much of our Thanksgiving dinner is coming from such local sources.

The answer, I think, is not much.  

However, I am purchasing pies from two local bakeries, both family-owned.  One, Sweety Pies, has higher prices certainly that pies from the supermarket, but also I am assuming that they will be a lot better.  Probably a whole lot. The other, Maier's, has more modest prices, but also is the real thing.  They have been baking for four generations.

So our meal is adding at least a bit to the truly local economy.

Plus, my son is bringing over some white wine from a regional winery in Michigan.  There are quite a few over there.

The turkey itself appears to have come from Minnesota, which is too far away to be really "local."  (Wouldn't a one hundred mile radius be "local?")  But at least it didn't come from China, like practically everything else we purchase.

Are you eating local, too?

Medicare for all!

I find I am getting a little tired of the health care debate, which has been not very informative.  (Actually, it has been almost entirely misleading).  So now I would be happy to just start over with a simple approach--expanding the Medicare program from everyone over age 65, to everyone at all--or at least, everyone who wants to take part.

That, apparently is what Senator Ted Kennedy had proposed--although I didn't realize it.

Medicare works, it has very low administrative costs, it is familiar to most people.  It is good enough for 150 or so members of Congress, so why not for everybody else?

A further delay in enacting some "reform" would of course cause many more people to die for lack of medical attention.  But, to view the matter cold-bloodedly, I'm not sure that isn't a "good" thing, in political terms.  Things aren't bad enough that the public is unified in demanding action!  Not enough people have lost their jobs, their houses, their savings, their investments, their health insurance.  This hasn't been a Great Depression, folks; it has been bad, and terrible actually, but it hasn't been sufficiently severe to get the public to rise up in a single voice and demand, simply demand, governmental action--no matter what it does to the profits of financiers, of private, for-profit "health insurance" companies.

I'm not sure why their hasn't been more talk about this.  There are references to a "single-payer" system (deemed off the table); to a "public option" which, while a good idea, is still relatively weak tea; and of course much discussion of the bugaboos of socialized medicine, death panels, abortion, and governmental control of doctors.  Almost no one knows what any of these things are all about; not really.

But Medicare is very familiar, it has been around since 1965--more than 40 years.  Very likely almost no one over the age of 65 would have any health insurance if the program didn't exist.  No one wants to be rid of it; even the most "conservative" critics of health insurance reform generally claim that they want to protect and preserve Medicare.

So let's go back to the drawing boards, and start again with a cleaner, simpler, more easily understood, less costly and better solution:  Medicare for all.

There are even bumper stickers:

Medicare bumper sticker

I am for it.

Subaru's "Boxer" engine

Boxer engine

This is what the "boxer engine" in my Subaru looks like.  First time I have opened the hood.  Kind of a nice layout, I think.  The pistons are horizontally opposed.  They claim that is a good way to go.  Anyhow, it isn't a V-8 or a flathead 6.  Something different!

One blessing is that the hood stays up when you lift it--no need to find a sort of prop for the bonnet!  And the fluids are clearly marked.  Clever, those Japanese!