Quote of the Day - 2/8/2012

Over the course of the next few years the house changed into a ruin. No one tended the garden, either to water it or to weed it, until it was swallowed up into oblivion, birds, and wild grasses. The blind statues and the singing fountains filled with dry leaves, bird droppings and moss. - Isabel Allende in The House of the Spirits: A Novel

~~~~~

In the early years of my daughter’s life there was a house we noticed on the way to her favorite park. It was a two story white farm house that seemed misplaced near a heavily traveled road. There as a large oak tree shading it, tended flower beds and a neatly mowed lawn with a grassy field behind. Over the course of the next few years, it became abandoned…was boarded up to keep vandals out…and decayed enough that it was finally torn down - well before my daughter went off to college. The big tree that shaded it was cut down and the grassy field became a staging area for highway construction.

It wasn’t as grand as the house and garden with ‘blind statues and the singing fountains’ but it had the same sort of feel about it. I often find myself wondering about the story behind that house. Was it as simple as the state claiming the property well in advance of the highway construction or a more complex story about the decline and death of an older person that has started out as a farmer, living in the house for years and years on the proceeds of selling parcels for the housing developments that had grown up around it?

It often seems to me that there is a story in every abandoned house. Allende told us about one of them in her book.

Quote of the Day - 2/6/2012

Mothered by the same earth, dust and dirt have different fathers.  Dust – finer and more discrete – belongs as much to air as to earth. Dirt – bigger and clumsier – is identified with soil. - Joseph A. Amato in Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible

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I like Amato’s distinction between dust and dirt. In addition, they both can be transformed by human activity; we may still categorize them as dust or dirt but they are potentially quite different. Will the new nanotechnologies produce a new kind of dust? Is an oil puddle leaked from a car in a parking lot a kind of dirt?

In our homes, the battle with dust is constant although there have only been gradual improvements over the past 50 years. Filters on heating/cooling, vacuums, and dust clothes are still our primary tools. There are many more kinds of filters now and vacuums come in all shapes and sizes. Dust clothes can be rags or coated fiber fluffs (like Swiffers). Endust and Pledge products have come and gone over the years. Our houses are sealed from the outdoor air more frequently now than ever before. The battle continues. Maybe I’m noticing it more at the moment because I am cleaning out boxes that are almost 30 years old and the cardboard is breaking down; it is producing and holding dust at the same time.

There are very few times that I actually have dirt in the house. Occasionally we track it in from outside or a potted plant gets spilled. Doormats and leaving shoes at the door reduces the first type. The second is just part of having plants indoors.

What are your dusty challenges today?

February Sunrise

I’ve been watching all week for a great sunrise…and it happened yesterday. The clouds were just right to reflect the colors. The pictures below were taken from the front of my house in Howard County Maryland. This is about as easy as it gets for a sunrise photography project: simply walking out the front door at about 7 in the morning, taking pictures from two vantage points with a hand held camera. The first series was taken over a 3 minute period; the second over 4 minutes. Catching a great sunrise does not take a lot of time; being in the right place for those few short minutes is the challenge. Next time I’ll add a bit more location/setting control (i.e. use a tripod and just take one vantage point).

Trees still in silhouette

The red - pink - orange light

Reflected on the clouds

Begins a new day

The color sequence always the same

Red - pink - orange until

It all washes into yellow light

That bleaches away

To the dazzling brightness

Of a sunny day.

Quote of the Day - 2/2/2012

The nation at war had formed the habit of summary action, and it was not soon unlearned. - Frederick Lewis Allen in Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s

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Wars result in more than just winners and losers…changes in country boundaries. They are disruptions that often change life in fundamental ways. The quote today is about the impact of World War I on the US - pointing out that the pace of life had changed significantly. The faster pace of the 20s must have seemed quiet alien and not even the depression damped it back to the pre-World War I level.  It was a step increase rather than a more gradual trend that has happened since.

World War II set the stage for college education being opened to a much larger portion of the population. Prior to that time, the people that went to college were mostly from elite families that could afford to subsidize their children into adulthood. The GI Bill meant that almost all men could earn the opportunity to go to college. It took a while for the trend to spread to women but it did. Again - it was a step increase initiated by the war and then a gradual increase in availability and accessibility of college education after that.

Think back on your family history and talk to family members that remember the time before World War II if you are fortunate enough to have them with you. How did the war change the lives of your family?

• Did fewer of them remain farmers?
• Did they migrate from wherever they were before? How many ended up on a ‘suburb’?
• Where were babies born (hospital or at home)?
• What kind of school did the children go to (building, size of classes, type of teacher, school sponsored activities)?

Did the Korean, Vietnam, and 1st Iraq Wars have an impact that was significant? Perhaps these conflicts should have taught us more than they did.

It is probably too early to determine the most significant change the Afghanistan/Iraq war has had on our nation. Based on the amount of time and the lives lost, we should expect that there is something.

Perhaps it will be our acceptance of a dramatic reduction in personal privacy initiated by the increased surveillance in our lives (for example, airport security checkpoints). Of course, the advent of social media and data mining on the internet has happened concurrently and that did not happened because of the war. Taken together the ‘step’ erosion of privacy is probably already a reality.

Perhaps it will be our use of surrogates - drones flown by remote pilots or computer controlled vehicles - that will change things over the long haul. It depends on how the technology is translated from the military world into the day to day lives of people. Certainly driverless cars on our streets and highways would change our day to day lives.

What else might be the most significant change from the Afghanistan/Iraq war?

February Celebrations

February starts tomorrow. What do you celebrate in February? Here are some ideas:

1. Valentine’s Day. This is a holiday to celebrate as a twosome rather than with a larger group. Think about something that you would both enjoy…good food, warmth, favorite music. Savor how fabulous it is to be a couple. Alternatively - celebrate as a family and articulate the love you share. Chocolates and flowers are the tradition but they are just the glitz; think deeper and you may realize it is more about spending time together than purchasing a gift. Note: If you are planning an ‘out to eat’ be aware that many restaurants are crowded on the 14th. Consider designating another day (such as the monthly anniversary of your wedding or meeting) as your day to celebrate.
2. Winter. February may be winter’s last hurrah so celebrate it.  If you ski - February is a good time. If a snow storm is forecast, have the makings for snow ice cream on hand and wood by the door for the fireplace; make sure you know where the coats, boots, and sleds are.
3. Harbinger’s of Spring. Celebrate the crocus and hyacinths peeking through the garden soil. They may even bloom in February if the winter has been particularly mild where you live. 

January Extremes in Howard County, Maryland

Within less than a week, we’ve had the extremes of weather for January. The first was a few days in the 20s with wintery mix on the ground. As it started to slowly warm up there was lots of fog in the neighborhood and back into the forest. The deer were in the yards noshing on the grass and anything else that wasn’t covered by the ice.

The warming trend culminated in a day that was more like March than January; the temperature actually reached 60 degrees F and the flags were fluttering wildly in the wind as I walked into my local library. There is a new-to-me mural on the side of the building near the athletic fields. Looks like spring…but it’s not quite that time yet.

A Surprise in Every Day

The old proverb for physical health

'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'

has a parallel saying for creative/mental health which goes

'a surprise a day makes for an interesting life.'

What I mean by that is that if your life has a few things that are unexpected you will never be bored for long.  Make an effort to notice anything that is different than you expect. It will 

• Increase your focus on the present
• Prompt associations which lead to
  • Creative bursts - sometimes extreme
  • Memories of similar situations
  • Linkages that are new to you
• Open another path into the future 

Here are a few of my recent 'surprises' - 

• I discovered that the panel below the sink in my bathroom actually opens up and there is a bin there for toothpaste and other sundries. I’ve lived in the house for over 15 years and had never used it! I promptly put some things that had been on the counter into the new found space.
• Chia seeds. I remembered the chia pets from years ago but was surprised when I read a about the seeds being edible and highly nutritious. I’m now trying a tablespoon a day for a month. The second surprise was how good they taste even just rehydrated in water. Will they work as a substitute for poppy seeds in muffins? Hmm…an experiment for another day.
• At the grocery store I noticed that there were only 2 types of people shopping at mid-morning on a Friday: the group about my age that was leisurely shopping and parents with children that had come in for a single purpose. There were several surprises in that observation:
  • Why weren’t the children in school? (I found out later that it was a day off between quarters for some schools)
  • Are there more people like me (happily and newly free of the M-F work week) than I realized?
• As I drove through the light rain this morning, I thought about how much like dusk is looked with the thick clouds and the trees in silhouette. The surprise as I scanned the scene was a hawk in the top of a tall tree. I’m happy that hawks are around in the area where I live; I enjoy having the rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks too; it’s good to have the balance. 

Have your enjoyed your moments of serendipity today?

Personal Rhythms - Weekly

This blog item is the second in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is weekly rhythms.

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There are activities that are generally done on a weekly basis…almost always associated with a particular day of the week. They serve as infrastructure to other activities so must be done sometime during the week although they can be moved to other days if necessary occasionally. The three that are nearly constant for me are:  

• House cleaning on Wednesdays
• Groceries shopping on Fridays
• Laundry on Saturdays 

If I make a batch of muffins, it is generally on Sunday. Visits to museums, galleries, or gardens are most often on Sunday afternoon.

For young children, it is worthwhile considering a weekly cycle to provide a bit of structure for activities that would become boring or overwhelming if they happened every day. The idea is to have a theme for the day that can be repeated in subsequent weeks. For example: 

• Family activity on Sundays
• Seasonal craft on Mondays
• Baking/cooking on Tuesday
• Painting/drawing on Wednesday
• Farm or other extended outdoor activity on Thursday
• Grocery shopping on Friday
• Music on Saturdays 

Think about the weekly rhythms most important to enable your life to move along the way you want. Are they firmly in place or ad hoc? Could they be honed to better meet your needs?

~~~~~

Last week, the post was about daily rhythms. I’ll post an item about annual rhythms next week and there will be a final post for rhythms that don’t quite fit into daily/weekly/monthly/annual cycles or the rhythm is set by a metric other than time.

Quote of the Day - 1/26/2012

WHEN all the panes are hung with frost,
Wild wizard-work of silver lace,

I draw my sofa on the rug
Before the ancient chimney-place.

(Poems Of Thomas Bailey Aldrich)

~~~~~

When Aldrich published these lines in the 1880s, fireplaces were a major source of heat in the home. Now our houses are heated in other ways primarily but the majority of houses are still built with fireplaces. Maybe the rationale is articulated by this poem. When we visualize a ‘cozy place’ on a cold winter’s day/night, there is almost always a fireplace in the picture. Maybe the sofa is replaced by a wing back chair or a rocking chair. Maybe there is a footstool or a cuddly quilt. Is there a cat or dog with you? What about a good book/eReader….or is the television on? Next time there is frost…’wild wizard-work of silver lace’… make your ‘cozy place’ a reality and then enjoy.

The book is also available to read online at American Verse Project at the University of Michigan http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/.

The Year of Little Snow (so far)

Here we are past mid-January and we have gotten almost no snow in Maryland so far. On Friday night it was forecast. I woke up at 2 AM and I got up like a child wondering if Santa had indeed arrived; yes - indeed - the skylight was covered. I crept back to bed.

I was up a little before my alarm and dressed for the day quickly so I could see more of the snow. I was taking pictures on the deck in the darkness a bit after 6! The snow had already turned to ‘wintery mix’ as forecast so the icy top crunched underneath my feet. 

And then the dawn came. It was a gradual increase in light without the sun actually making its appearance through the gray clouds. There was no color associated with the sunrise but it did make the crystals of ice easier to see. These were on the front step.

Once the trees got a bit of flocking, is stayed in place the rest of the day with the temperature only getting up to freezing and the stillness of the day doing nothing to dislodge the accumulation. The tulip polars and cherry tree (below) seemed to catch the most; the maples have more verticle branches.

What's in your trash?

My household is down to one, not full, trash bag per week. We’ve done the easy recycling of plastics, cans, glass, and paper; it’s easy because our community has wheeled recycle bins, unlimited amounts, and trucks that come once a week - as often as the trash pickup. Over the years the items handled by our community recycling program has enlarged from newspaper/cardboard to all paper, from limited plastics to many more plastics (and more plastics are labeled clearly now so we know they are recyclable; much of the grocery packaging that used to be styrofoam is now recyclable plastic) and we no longer have to separate by type at all…it all goes into the rolling bin.  We still have to take the plastic shopping bags back to the store for recycling but we are getting fewer of them now that most of our purchases are carried home in reusable bags. So - what is still going in the trash? Here’s an inventory for this week:

• Milk carton, other food cartons
• Plastic wrap
• Used tissues/paper towels/cotton balls
• Broken strand of Christmas lights
• Styrofoam
• Used up ink pen
• Dried up marker
• Orange and banana peel, plate scrapings, vegetable trimmings (peelings, bad places, inedible parts)
• Old sock
• Small bags (shopping and food wrapping)
• Chunks of cat litter

Our household has a goal to reduce our food waste this year both because we want to maximize the nutrition we get from the food we buy; reducing our trash is a side-effect. Our primary strategies are:

• Pay more attention to our handling of left overs
  • not lose them in the refrigerator
  • freeze them for later if we are tired of the entrée already
• Make orange zest from every orange eaten so the peeling is reduced somewhat (and there is a flavorful addition available for other cooking)
• Instead of throwing away bread that has gotten a little stale, make bread crumbs (toasting or drying in the oven in a 200 degree F oven makes them crispy) to use instead of crackers with soups or croutons in salads.
• Collect tea and coffee grounds for immediate use as a soil addition or get a mushroom starter kit to grow your own crop of mushrooms.

There is a part of the trash that is potentially compostable but I’m not quite ready to do it…so it stays a part of the trash. I have started putting food scraps into the trash rather than down the garbage disposal these days (less water pollution) so the potentially compostable part of the trash has increased slightly.

It’s harder to image how the rest goes somewhere else than the trash. For bigger electronics like computers or cell phones, there are places to take them for recycling (Best Buy, for example). For things like a broken strand of Christmas lights, it takes too much effort to figure out what to do with them other than put them in the trash.

That’s a quick ‘state of the trash’ at the beginning of 2012 in my household. What’s in your trash?

Quote of the Day - 1/19/2012

I live in the tame and visit the wild and never forget the difference between the two. - Janice Emily Bowers (books)

~~~~~

What an elegant way of articulating what is true for the relationship most of us have with wild environments. It is our preference to feel safe from the wild world where we live while appreciating that the wild still thrives. We want to tame - to control - so that we feel safe and secure. Our control of the wild is minimal; we are less confident that we will always survive or even understand what it contains.

Still - there are occasions where the wild world can be viewed from the security of our tame life:

• Deer coming into the backyard, seen from a window 3 stories above
• A woodpecker in the top of a tree with dead branches on a walk through a formal garden
• Jack-in-the-Pulpits beside a boardwalk through a scrap of woods
• The rosy light of dawn on the winter trees seen from the kitchen window

And those add a blessing to the day.

Personal Rhythms - Daily

This blog item is the first in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is daily rhythms. In upcoming weeks I’ll post items about weekly, monthly, and annual rhythms. There will be a final post for rhythms that don’t quite fit into a daily/weekly/monthly/annual cycles or the rhythm is set by a metric other than time.

~~~~~

For most people, consistent and healthy daily rhythms for sleeping and eating optimize how we feel about everything else. 

• Being asleep for about the same length of time each day and starting/stopping the sleep period at about the same time is a key to feeling rested and alert during the waking hours. Generally 7 to 8 hours of sleep is required. Try this experiment for a week:
  
  • Set a timer for a bit longer than you think you need to sleep.
  • Go to bed at the same time each evening.If you wake up before your timer goes off and after you have been in bed for at least 7 hours (you can make this shorter if you think you need less) - get up. Many people will feel warm at this time because their metabolic rate has already increased to the ‘awake’ state.
  • Otherwise - get up when the timer goes off…no snoozing.
  • Make some notes about how rested - or not - your feel during the day and make adjustments to the timer if you need to. 
  • At the end of the week, make some decisions about the optimal sleep duration for you and set your alarm clock accordingly or continue the timer technique. Many people are surprised to find that they almost always get up before the timer goes off. The benefit to waking up on your own is never being jolted awake by an alarm.
• Three meals a day work for most people but not for everyone. If you have times during the day that you feel sleepy, start keeping a record of what and when you eat; make adjustments. I am an extremely early morning person and I find a small meal (2 squares of dark chocolate and vitamins/mineral supplements) first thing in the morning followed by another small meal (a piece of fruit or small muffin) is better for me than combining everything into one breakfast. I eat lunch and dinner at about the same time each day and frequently try to have the largest meal of the day be at lunch. 

 There are hygiene related daily rhythms that are good habits. There are some examples below. Think aboutyour daily habits. If changes need to be made commit to making the change for at least 3 weeks before re-evaluating since habits take time to establish (or break). In either situation - it takes conscious effort to make the change. 

• Brushing teeth
• Showering
• Clean socks

 And there are metrics that you make check daily to provide the feedback loop for your health related goals - things like:

•  Weight
• Blood pressure
• How many steps you took 

Again - evaluate the metrics you are checking. Remember that metrics can warp your actions to make sure that warp is in a direction you intend.

Annie Dillard is right: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

Rhythms that build your appreciation of the day for yourself and for others are the most important rhythms of all - intentionally look for those pleasant surprises - the serendipity - that makes life interesting. All the rest of the rhythms discussed above are the administration behind the scenes so that we are primed to live the day.

Do you Trust your Doctor?

If the answer is not ‘yes,’ you should be searching for a new doctor ---- but it is always wise to ‘trust but verify.’ Trust without verification is something only children can afford; their parents or guardians take on the responsibility for them. As an adult, you need to have a strategy that includes probing to substantiate the trust you have in your doctor. Here are some reasons the ‘trust by verify’ approach is particularly important:

• Doctors are people too. They see many patients and must rely on records rather than memory for your history. Not all of your previous interactions are quantifiable and in the records. And they are sometimes rushed. Don’t assume they have everything correct in your history.
• You know more about your history. You know more about your medical history (and the medical history of your family) than the standard forms request. You don’t have to share everything at once; however, if you have some anomalous tests that are similar to others in your family or consistent over a long period of time (before the records your doctor has on file)….you need to share and partner with your doctor to understand the best path forward for you.
• Your preferences. The tendency in the US is to medicate immediately. Sometimes this means that the root cause of a problem is never addressed. This is not necessary always bad; medicines like Tylenol, ibuprofen, or aspirin treat the symptom of fever helping us feel better while our own immune system gets to work on the cause of the fever. Pills are an easy out….with associated side effects. If you are a patient that would prefer to avoid medication unless absolutely necessary, you need to be clear with your doctor about the preference and be ready to do most of the ‘getting well’ work on your own. For example, blood pressure medication is frequently prescribed when life style change/weight reduction would be better for the patient in the long run (having more benefits than lowering blood pressure). The doctor can provide references to help with the life style change/weight reduction but this leaves hard work for the patient.
• Side effects. You are an individual and respond in your own way to medication. Know the potential side effects for any medication you are taking and contact your doctor for any that are intolerable. Changing dosage level or to another medication may be warranted. Always ask how long medication will be needed and how often need/dosage level will be checked for medications taken long term.
• Red flags - you need to ask questions. If your doctor recommends a new medication to address a side effect to a medication you are already taking, ask a lot of questions about alternative approaches. Careful review of all the medications with your primary doctor (even those prescribed by another doctor) periodically is a good idea; make sure you understand the details of how the medicines should be taken and undesirable interactions that can occur.

In the end, you are the one responsible for your health. Your doctor is a secondary partner. Their advice and assistance is important - sometimes crucially so. Make the effort to find a doctor you can trust.

Shopping Thrift Stores - Rules of Thumb

The offerings of thrift stores range from trash to fabulous bargains; I’ve been in several recently where the range was toward the ‘fabulous bargains’ end of the spectrum so I am offering some rules of thumb for getting the most from thrift store shopping.

• Find a thrift store that is near middle to upper income bracket neighborhoods. If the store has a donation center, the quality of the offerings will reflect what has been donated. Some stores are focused almost exclusively on clothes; some or more toward the antique furniture end of the spectrum; others seem to have only very worn out clothes (this is a store that should be marked off your list unless you are looking for clothes for painting!).
• Know the general price range of new items so you’ll recognize a bargain - or something overpriced.
• Some thrift stores have half-price or sale days. Try to go on those days but realize it will likely be more crowded.
• Clothes
  • Be prepared to go several times if you are building up your wardrobe. Offerings in thrift stores usually turn over pretty rapidly. Sometimes you may find nothing at all.
  • Be able to decide quickly what is truly useful to you. A bargain on a formal gown is wonderful only if it is something you will actually wear. A basic wardrobe strategy makes it easier to make quick decisions (like - black is my basic color, red and turquoise are my highlight colors, everything needs to match into this scheme)
  • Check for care labels on clothes. Many times a new looking item is ‘dry clean only’ and that will add to its cost to you over the long haul.
  • Check buttons, zippers, seams. Hold it up and look for stains or snags. You don’t want to get home and discover the garment is not wearable because of a flaw you didn’t notice.
  • Try on clothes if there is a dressing room. Remember that sizes vary widely and clothes do stretch if they have been hanging in a closet for a long time.
  • Launder all clothes purchased before you wear them.
• Jewelry
  • Clean/soak in alcohol any jewelry you buy at a thrift store.
• Household items
  • Wash dishes, glasses, or pans in hot soapy water before using.
  • Be open to re-purpose items. You may buy a bargain picture in a large frame for the frame alone. An old beat up pan may turn into a pot for seedlings.
  • Transporting furniture or exercise equipment may be a challenge so plan ahead if you are buying. It may take ongoing trips to the thrift store to find an acceptable piece or it may be serendipity.

Feel good about shopping at a thrift store. You are usually 1) contributing to a good cause, 2) reusing (rather than buying something new) is a good thing for the environment, and 3) you get something you need for a bargain price.

Favorite Things to do on a Lazy Winter's Day at Home

It's a January afternoon. The Christmas decorations are put away, the kitchen is cleaned up from lunch, and the laundry for the week is almost done. This is a lull after the flurry of winter holiday activities....what would you do with 4 hours available? My list is below (not in priority order):

1. Take a nap....for about 30 minutes.
2. Get outdoors. The day was unseasonably warm but even had it been snowing, getting outdoors would have been on the list.
3. Read a good book by a window. Natural light always seems better...and I enjoy the view from the window too.
4. Cook. There has been a tremendous amount of good food recently so I'm enjoying getting back to the more normal foods like a wedge of pomegranate while I let soup simmer.
5. Plan the spring garden. I am not real serious about this yet...for now I'm just looking at catalogs that came in the mail and browsing web sites.