Lake Effect Snow

Warren had it's first substantial snowfall this week, mostly lake effect accumulation which occurred as Arctic winds blew across Lake Erie and dumped 19 inches in town over the past three days. Some claim two feet fell here but that's not what I measured in my mother's yard.
Lake effect snow differs from normal snow in that it never ends. That is, imagine a steady rainfall for three or four days during which periods of thunderstorm intensity squalls occur every few hours in different locations, the overall effect of which can be up to six feet (!) of snow locally. But walking this morning along roads north west of town I observed more of the former depth than than latter, and felt a welcome sun for the first time since the weekend. My concern is that, because winters in Warren produce seven or eight cloudy days for every two sunny ones, if this lake effect precipitation continues the snow may not melt until spring so will be piled upon until March. If that happens I am not sure where I will put all the shoveled accumulation-which is already above my waist. But I must admit that the exercise is good for me and provides an alternative to walking. As for heading south for the winters?- that is still my preference and hopefully will come to fruition in a few more years....Beth and I are already discussing what type of van to purchase...
POSTSCRIPT: One Week Later- Rain and 35 degrees melted some of the snow then more lake effect piled on this week so we are right about where we started. Ten day forecast is clouds, cold and snow showers...Dismal winters 'round here unless you enjoy such things.
POSTSCRIPT: January 6th- Well, the paper says we've had 54 inches of snow so far, and the bulk of that was before Christmas. There have been snow showers and an inch or two since then but not the steady accumulation. Still no steady sunshine however, and the ten day forecast remains cloudy and mid 20's F every day but one. Sometimes I make the mistake of looking at the forecast back east, where I grew up, and see that it is mostly sunny and mid 30's-and that's the difference I become nostalgic for. I walk where and when I can despite the snow and ice, so my spirits remain positive regardless of my petty whining, but it gets tougher the longer this lasts. Weekends away from here with Beth break the doldrums, and that's all we have for now. Meanwhile I'm still plodding away on the book and counting my blessings, and my mom is mostly healthy and coherent, so life goes on.
POSTSCRIPT: March 7th- About 45* today after literally the worst winter weather wise in my life. There are yet snow piles here and there and several inches to a foot higher up the mountains and more sleet and snow predicted for tonight. I was able to walk on clear sidewalks for the first time in three months on the 4th, then it snowed another couple inches which melted off in the March sun and that's how it will be for a few weeks. Winter simply does not quit in these here parts...On the bright side I saw a crocus on the 3rd and five robins the next day, and yesterday the grackles started to return. Whew. My sanity is in need of some steady sun and warmth. Finally spring is coming-thank God for the laws of physics... The weather service reported that nationally the moisture pack from snow and ice and rain is the highest it's been in six decades, so it's been a tough season everywhere.

THE VOTE

After much thought I've decided that I shall never vote again so long as government and politics persist in business as usual. I cannot with a clear conscience support a system that is as corrupt and wasteful as this one, and I see no difference between the political parties when the truth is exposed. It is all very simple to me really, for there is no justification for any moral nation to spend over two trillion dollars on war, period. Humanitarian foreign aid meanwhile is a fraction of a percent of GDP per year. American priorities are clear despite all the talk, and I will not be complicit to them. In a perverse way I comprehend the 9-11 bombers motives more clearly now in the sense that they were desperately trying to stop the economic abuses and inequalities of Wall Street and Congress long before the rest of us woke up to them. I am not an idealist expecting the rest of the world to lay down their arms, merely stating my abhorrence to human nature as I see it expressed by those in power-in many nations- who absolutely do not represent me. I can only imagine the good that humanity could achieve were we to put our resources into peaceful endeavors, but that will not happen so long as good people make this more complicated than it has do be. It is a fine line between self defense and violence as a way of life. At any rate, factor in the wasteful spending in fraud, bureaucracy and sheer stupidity, and I simply want no part of it. My one vote today would mean that in some small way I am agreeable to the 2 billion dollars politicians and special interest groups have spent on this mid term election...when 50 cents a day could feed a starving child in Bolivia. I think not.

HALLOWEEN

Did the usual paper plate routine again this year, and this is what the kids saw as they approached the house...only had two little girls take a look and say "Nope!-not goin' near that!" But over sixty kids were game and Beth's presence to my left tempered the shock...Trick or Treating is something I remember fondly from my childhood so I feel like it's my obligation to give the kids a good time. According to a poll in the local paper however, less than 50% of people gave out candy this year..'tis a shame me thinks with all the bad news around the world-and I Know it is not because they can't afford it..the bar rooms are still doing a great business.

Well, it's been a busy two months since the last entry...Hardly seems that it's been that long... Two more trips east had us visiting the Martin guitar factory in Nazareth, PA, where Kenny and a friend played the instruments and dreamed...In truth Kenny has improved in less than two years to the point that he played background solo guitar at a wedding a few weeks back and earned $100...Not bad for a fifteen year old kid...Presently he's playing trumpet in the school band and guitar and lead vocals in his own group. He's been writing a lot of songs lately so has a few good ones to play in the local club. Beth, Kenny, his girlfriend Hanna and I also floated canoes down the Allegheny in August, which is the main river flowing through town. It is used every few years for the national canoe races...( yes, there are such things). Beth also participated in the annual river cleanup which, besides the usual tires and refrigerators, pulled a Harley Davidson frame from the water...Surprising what people will throw into the river! In early September we visited friends and attended a Jackson Browne concert in Scranton, then stopped at Penns Cave as tourists on the way home...The cave is water filled, hence the boats, and offered a cool diversion on a hot day....But No doubt the most significant decision Beth and I reached this past month was setting a date for our marriage next.... June?

Mom

I have not written lately about my mother( seen here with one of my brothers in August '09 ), affectionately called "Gram" by friends and co-workers in the office... but she turned 86 in late April, and still works two hours a day or about 10 hours per week, filing charts and similar clerical duties, and can walk without a cane so long as it is not too far, nor uphill, and there is no time limit. I drive her shopping or anywhere else she needs to go, and help her around the house a little, as do Nancy and Beth. Mostly she still functions living alone and is able to dress and bathe and cook and feed herself. Every morning will find her sitting at the table reading the paper and eating her 1/2 banana and piece of toast and sipping orange juice and tea. Lunch is a handful of grapes and chips and whatever is leftover, while dinner is often a TV dinner mixed with vegetables and meat followed by a snack of one or two cookies and a piece or two of her cherished dark chocolate. Sometimes ice cream-coffee or chocolate flavor-finishes the day. That regimen and her cocktail of medicines seems to have led to her long life, in which she stays mentally challenged by doing nightly crossword puzzles.
Having observed her for four years now, there is no doubt that her deterioration has increased in the past six months, particularly in her forgetfulness and loss of hearing. When she sits in on group conversations she is no longer able to hear much of what is said, and much of the rest passes by too fast for her and her hearing aid to process. When we deliberately speak loudly and slowly she may not recall that we had said the same thing only yesterday. Still her sense of social etiquette has not diminished, for she always remembers to send get well cards to sick friends and was recently upset because she blurted out what she thought was an inappropriate comment during a bridge game. The rest of us think the other person probably deserved it, but such is her good heart that it bothered her anyway.
She feels well enough to enjoy life most days, limited as it is, and plans to stay alive until she doesn't feel well. That means not doing anything extraordinary medically but doing what it takes-such as laser eye surgery next month-to make living comfortable. Economically she pays all her bills with social security, medicare and related insurances, and has rarely used personal savings except for major expenses such as a new roof and furnace last year. Probably her generation is the last to enjoy the charity of taxpayers to such an extent, but what is one to say to the elderly who are simply holding on for dear life-as is all of Washington and the rest of America? We love her and to distress her with anything other than patience seems to only belittle ourselves.

Skateboard Park

Last autumn, after a contentious 15 plus years of discussion and money raising attempts, construction was finally begun on a local skateboard park. The woman who had been the heart and soul of it's support, and who had accumulated nearly $200,000 in private contributions for it's construction, resigned from the commission because of disagreements with the city officers over what type and quality of materials should be used. The city-according to her- did not really want the park because of their general apathy and fears that it would attract unsavory types and associated behavior ...which of course do not exist in the rest of the city, particularly in the mayor's office...So she took her money and reported the city to the state, which had given the city a $24,000 grant to be used toward the park but which the city officers had hoped to use for something else. With their cards exposed the city was forced into choosing between a poured concrete park and a cheaper one built using prefabricated pieces. They chose the latter and had the opening ceremony a month ago but because of the recent heat and substandard construction the concrete is beginning to crumble and the grout fall out of the cracks and the steel plates connecting the pieces to the platform loosen. The company responsible is so far backing their products, but the disgruntled woman believes that ultimately the city wants the park to fail so that another tennis court may be added to the rarely used three that are already there. We'll see. She still has over two hundred thousand which she will return to the donors if that happens.
I took the action photos on the 10th, and had a firsthand glimpse of the unsavory characters, who were not the young skaters, rather the rotund woman on the bleachers and her equally challenged sister? cousin? who were permitting a 5 year old barefoot, shirtless and helmet-less son to ride his bicycle while a dozen guys rode back and forth doing tricks and almost colliding with him several times. Her reasoning was that it was a public park and that the rules allowed children so long as they were "supervised". When another mother and myself politely suggested that perhaps it was not in the child's best interests to ride there at that time, the woman let loose with a profanity laced tirade that we should "mind our own f-ing business" and other such niceties. After several more close calls and two more tirades we called the police, which prompted her and her children to leave. Although the officers eventually talked with her, ultimately they were powerless to force her to be a more responsible mother. Similar people have generally been called white trash, although around here I call them-both men and women- troglodytes, and have observed that the gene pool truly is not as diverse as in more populated areas.

East

Just returned from a spur of the moment weekend trip east, where Beth and I hiked to the Pinnacle lookout on the Appalachian trail and visited my son Forrest and his wife Barb. T'was HOT over the holiday in the mid Atlantic states-in the nineties with increasing humidity-but we had a great time hiking and biking and relaxing. Because I have been living in Warren for nearly four years I feel nostalgic about all the old walks I used to do, so everything is new to me again, as of course much of it is to Beth. I miss a few of the people there but not my old life, so visiting is a pleasure now that I have the time to absorb it at my leisure! The landscape is just as beautiful, and in a few years- God willing- we will be able to spend more time traveling and exploring the entire country, and really discover this old planet of ours.

Northwest Bank, Warren, PA

Northwest Bank Inc, (NWBI) headquartered here in Warren and where my fiancee Beth works as an auditor, was voted best bank in customer satisfaction by the JD Powers polling company for the Mid Atlantic region...no small accomplishment, and attributable to both the friendly, small town attitude of the employees and a common sense, "old fashioned" style whereby profits are substantiated by actual money and physical assets. What a concept, huh? Anyway, in addition to last years recognition by Forbes as a top institution, this should bode well for the companies future plans. They held a small celebration in town this morning, with representatives from the 170 branches- Warren to Maryland to Florida-taking part.

Healthcare

While walking today I wondered aloud whether it is a fair trade to exchange a healthy gene pool in the name of compassion, which essentially is what our modern health care system does. I do not advocate eugenics, rather am raising the philosophical question, because keeping woefully sick people alive to reproduce instead of dying of 'natural' causes is inevitably preserving so-called defective genes that otherwise might be evolved away. Many of health care's highest cost dollars go to sustaining people through expensive medicines and procedures, and many of the rest of the dollars go to keeping elderly people alive for a few more years. Working in this medical office and talking to nurses and doctors confirms this. The alternative would be to do nothing or divert those dollars to younger, healthier people-or animals or other purposes- but that is both politically and some would say morally unacceptable. I purposely will not offer my organs after death because of these questions, and my firm belief that death is not the enemy as modern medicine imagines. Much of our convoluted system has arisen from noble, compassionate intentions, but I personally feel that diverting money to sickly American adults rather than to the children suffering worldwide is not the morally responsible thing to do. Perhaps compassion in any form and place is all that matters however, regardless of where or to whom it is directed.

These are the flip flops my youngest son Skylar designed last August that won a company wide contest sponsored by his employer OLD NAVY and were voted as the best male shoe design by fellow employees of OLD NAVY, THE GAP and THE BANANA REPUBLIC. It had been narrowed down to the top ten and his came out on top. They just arrived in stores this past week and are constructed of 100% recycled materials and sell for $5.00 a pair. Congratulations SKY!!! Now if only the company would acknowledge his contribution with an in store promotion or some of the profits or a bonus or a thank you or... ANYTHING! Makes my cynicism about corporations all the more justified when NO ONE in management or the design department or ANYWHERE else even called to tell him they would be arriving...... Pathetic. Am I biased about this? You bet. Too bad it just mirrors all the other impersonal behavior exhibited by too many large companies. Anyhow... if you stop by Old Navy, please pick up a pair for his sake...As for the ladies, a female employee won the female design, so help her out too...thanks

Kenny playing the trumpet in a jazz concert at the high school last week...At fourteen years old he sings,plays the trumpet,guitar,drums,a little piano and probably whatever else he applies himself to. Hendrix to Haydn...he's a natural ham who enjoys being onstage, and as he goes through puberty will likely end up a baritone. The arts scene in Warren is surprisingly rich for a small community, with the theater and some local clubs playing an integral part in promoting talent. If Kenny eventually can make money for doing what he loves (...beyond door receipts he has already earned for playing drums)-all the better. But it's a tough way to make a living anywhere, so at the least his goal is to develop his talents for both pleasure and personal growth.

Suzuki DR70's

Bought his and hers mini trail bikes to play with in the mountains this summer, figuring that there are hundreds if not a thousand miles of old paths and roads to explore. I chose little bikes for their fun, un-threatening character and the ease with which we will be able to fit them into an a van or onto a small hitch carrier when we eventually travel the country. Our mountain bikes will fit onto the same platform, although sometimes distances both here and in the deserts will be too far for bicycles and the dirt bikes will enable us to explore further-at least so long as our backs hold up. At 80-100 mpg and with plenty of power to climb hills, the most essential accessory was higher handlebars to make them more comfortable for our adult proportions. I decided a few years ago that I was finished with road riding due to slowing reaction times, and the manufacturers no longer produce dual purpose motorcycles smaller than 200-250cc- which weigh 260-270 pounds fully gassed. Anything over 220 pounds is too heavy for the dirt in my experience, so these small bikes at 120 pounds seemed like the right compromise between comfort and portability. At any rate, adults race these things so there is a huge market of aftermarket accessories such as stiffer shocks and all that, but I think we'll be fine for slow trail riding.
POSTSCRIPT: 4/9/10 - Had fun riding them over the weekend with no problems. Plenty of power and comfortable enough with the high bars for at least several hours. Stiffer rear shocks/springs would help the bottoming due to our adult weight, but that can wait until the stock shocks wear out. With proper maintenance I expect these machines to last the rest of our lives, because being Japanese they reflect one of the few remaining examples of quality left on the planet. Honda also makes good machines, as does Yamaha, but I noticed that small Kawasakis are now made in Thailand, and the Chinese motorcycles(Pep Boys)are thus far mostly junk, with a terrible parts and service network.

Disney

Beth and I spent ten days in Florida last month, mostly at Disney World but also with a visit to Cape Canaveral, where a scheduled shuttle launch was canceled minutes before liftoff due to weather. Florida was a mixed bag, for although we were happy to be out of the Warren winter gloom and into the warmer and mostly clearer southern air, by weeks end the parks became a 'been there, done that' affair, and we will henceforth visit other places. Generallyit was great simply being away from winter, relaxing on the most comfortable bed we had ever experienced-a Simmons Beauty rest in the Comfort Inn in Lake Buena Vista- and meandering around the area at a personal pace. As tourists we concluded that the food and other essentials-in and out of the park- were too expensive-even in so called supermarkets-and service was fair at best. Florida had been hit hard by the recession so competition for business seemed desperate, but that was not reflected in prices. Our few complaints about Disney World included some rude employees and a monorail that reeked of urine, but two favorites were the Mt. Everest ride in Animal Kingdom and the Mexican restaurant in Epcot. Honestly, the most fun we had was setting up pictures on our camera with the ten second timer and concealing our ( too fat? ) bodies behind objects. Laughter does not describe the craziness... Many of the park visitors were from other countries,so we joked with a Chinese couple that they probably were surprised by how overweight everyone was-regardless of place of origin. Obesity definitely is a world wide pandemic,at least among middle class people who can afford Orlando area vacations. Our rental car was a Hyundai Accent, which seemed to be a decent if not exciting small vehicle, and we flew on Allegiant airlines out of Elmira, NY, which is a regional carrier that provides non stop economical package deals to major tourist attractions. They were on time and friendly coming and going, and the smaller airports were hassle free for both crowds and security wait times.

Politics

My new policy henceforth will be to vote against any incumbent in every election regardless of party...I do not see any other way to break the influence of lobbyists, although if the elections themselves are rigged even that may not help... A second jobless recovery/expansion seems to be occurring, similar to the last ten years... Big business does not care because their money will be made overseas, and politicians do not care because it is all one big happy,exclusive and wealthy club. This accelerating corruption between government and big business makes me thankful that the average person still owns guns-which is an unexpected thing for a pacifist to admit. Not sure where this will all lead, because most of us are still getting fat, but surely the excesses and disparities between the rich and powerful and the average person cannot be healthy for a democracy?