Buzzard Swamp

  Walked a few miles at Buzzard Swamp today, a preserve about 30 miles from here, which I visit 6 or 7 times a year. I enjoy the open land there and it is a good spot to see wildlife and fish for large mouth bass. Today I saw bald eagles nesting ( that spruce tree in the closeup is the same one that is in the panoramic picture, so I had to zoom in without a tripod...) The beaver pond borders the dirt access road and fortunately did not flood the road. The Allegheny forest that surrounds this open land and is mostly mountainous, which makes the flat, watery refuge all the more rare and valuable. Beavers and bald eagles are relatively common in western PA,   although neither one is a daily sighting unless one knows where to look. Eagles frequent the rivers that flow right though town, but beavers dam the smaller creeks in the valleys further away. Trappers keep the latter population down but not so much that I do not see the animals regularly.
   As in much of the country, winter came fast around here with cold and snow jumping a month ahead of normal...perhaps that is

the new normal.

Reading,Writing and Critical Thought

            Have been reading a book by Maryanne Wolf, professor at Tufts University, titled   “Reader, Come Home- The Reading Brain in a Digital World” in which she analyzes the effects of new technology on the brain. Her fellow professors of literature and social science have noticed two trends at the college level:

            “The first is that students have become increasingly less patient with the time it takes to understand the syntactically demanding sentence structures in denser texts and increasingly adverse to the effort needed to go deeper into their analysis. The second is that student writing is deteriorating”

              Cursive writing is no longer taught in some states and only partially in others, which means that many people will not be able to read the American Declaration of Independence or Constitution as they were originally written. My thirty five years of cursive journals might be incomprehensible to my own granddaughter and other descendants. Maybe translation software will make cursive legible to future generations, just as Latin and other lost languages remain viable, but even when they can be read, intricate works of literature might be incomprehensible to future generations if the lack of attention span and critical analysis continues.           

            As a person who has spent many years walking and thinking in solitude, it is not difficult for me to discern the lack of critical analyisis in otherwise intelligent people. The proliferation of biased news sources and the manipulation of video and print to promote propaganda has made the immersion in self fulfilling ‘group think’ easier than ever. It is impossible to articulate the complexity of a subject in a ‘tweet’, but that seems to be the extent of some peoples critical thinking. If they limit their sources of information to others who think like them, they will never find the truth.

             Fortunately, there are always independent thinkers who challenge the culture. If the digital age lowers peoples ability to think deeply, then I suppose we cannot invent Artificial Intelligence soon enough for it to pick up the slack. I cautiously trust that humanity will adapt as needed to compensate.

  

Misc Babble...

                           This is an 84 year old patient's daily medications schedule. The person suffers from Dyspnea, diabetes, COPD, obesity, sleep apnea, coronary heart disease and was a smoker until 25 years ago. The paper medical records for this person measure 6 inches thick. This is just one of the 40-50% of people most responsible for the high cost of health care. You draw your own conclusions; mine have been articulated in earlier posts.
                            My thoughts on Mr. Trump 2 years on are as follows:
     A master at manipulation and self promotion who will do what it takes to accomplish his agenda regardless of moral or ethical considerations. For that reason he relates well to similar leaders in the world; they understand one another on a visceral level.  There are Trump supporters who believe the entire government is corrupt and that Mr. Trump at least is stirring the pot. His detractors believe he is destroying all civility for decades to come. Unfortunately, support for one side or the other has 'trumped' the search for Truth as an ethical scientist would describe it-with verifiable facts and repeatable experiments. As one recent example, Mr. Trumps rhetoric has stated that "If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat." In truth, Binky Chadha, chief strategist at Deutsche Bank, noted that the three-month period running from a month ahead to two months after the (midterm) election has produced a median 8% gain, (regardless of party affiliation of the winners and losers) And that includes only one decline, a 4% drop in 1978, over that period in the last 21 midterm elections.") Personally, I think Trumps most lasting legacy will be the supreme court nominees; they alone will survive several election cycles. The tax changes, EPA decisions and other policy commitments may or may not survive depending on the choices of voters in the future.
                         Overall, what happens in the back rooms affects the planet as much as what we argue about publicly; there is a big wheel rolling secretly that nothing is going to change.  Do I believe democracy will survive the present commotion? Yes. But the planet and humanity are bigger than democracy and human nature is very messy thing.
                                  
                                           

Humility

     Beth and I have been golfing a lot this year, and it is a wonderful opportunity to walk together and enjoy the day while also engaging in a sport that is relatively cheap.

As beginners we have experienced the frustrations of bad swings and other difficulties of the sport, and sometimes get disproportionately discouraged relative to what should be an enjoyable pastime. On Monday, Oct 1^st, while returning home from the Allentown area, we stopped at a new course to play nine holes and were humbled to see a man on the 3^rd green stumble from his golf cart onto the grass. From a distance his body movements resembled the stick like motions of a marionette figure whose elastic joints were unsupported by the puppeteer and he crumpled to the ground in a heap of human flesh. But that was normal for him and he dragged himself into a position sufficient to push a ball towards the hole with a club. With great effort he dragged himself back into the cart and sped off to the next green where he did it again. He allowed us to “play through” the fifth hole, and politely wished us well as he sat hunched over in his cart. We returned the pleasantries as we inwardly admonished ourselves for the petty troubles that sometimes bothered us.

    Golf is a combination of mental and physical abilities that challenge even the best players, and this humble man shamed both Beth and I with his determination to accomplish the most basic of tasks. We are improving due to help from friends (…thanks Bob) but hopefully we always will remember that it is just a game, and always be thankful for being alive, and outside, and healthy.

Chelsea

   Had to "put down" Chelsea this morning after 5 1/2 months of decline related to old age and kidney failure. She turned 12 on August 23rd and by this morning was unable to keep food in her stomach nor control her bowel movements. Along the way she had slowly been unable to jump, then climb steps and the past week was unable to walk without stumbling and falling. She was mostly deaf and becoming what in humans would be called senile and distracted. A friend allowed me to borrow a rifle with which I put a bullet into the back of her head. Death was quick and humane while she was lying in the grass calmly. The friend helped me bury her in a shallow grave in the woods on his property. The pictures show her living the wonderful, free and loving life she knew for most of her time, and those of us who knew her will remember her as smart, tough, loyal and as patient as a stone. Without doubt she was the best dog  Beth and I have ever been privileged to know. Our faith is certain that she is in a better place happily wagging her tail, just as she deserves.

Kettle Creek Stae Park

     Beth and I have been camping at Kettle Creek Sate Park the last couple weekends, a beautiful isolated lake and mountainous park located in the north central part of PA. The upper campground offers some great views and is nearly empty on Sunday nights.
     On the morning of the 22nd I was fishing at the lake and noticed something odd floating in the water, which after some observation turned out to be two large snapping turtles mating. From a distance they looked alternatively like an otter lounging on its back or something dead floating in the waves. As I descended the bank for a closer look I was stopped short by a buzzing rattle sound which was this timber rattlesnake only a few feet from my legs. Fortunately this species warns intruders so I was able to stop and back away easily. As I bicycled back to camp for my camera I passed the local warden who returned with me to capture and relocate the snake to another area. She told me that the reptiles are very territorial and do not tolerate being moved more than 100 yards or so, so she released it further up the mountain away from human activity. By the time I had returned with the camera the turtles had vanished.
                                                           All in all an interesting morning, for I had never seen a rattle snake nor mating turtles despite thousands of miles and hours in the woods!

Not Progress

Cheap and efficient, yes, but progress? I don't think so! Lehigh County in eastern Pennsylvania is replacing another one of the wonderful old stone bridges with whatever it is you wish to call the new one. The old bridge is a work of art able to be appreciated by anyone; one need not be a stonemason. The new bridge is able to be appreciated by engineers and accountants and metallurgists perhaps, but hardly an historic structure worthy of preserving. A nearby resident thinks the old one will be torn down rather than restored or saved as a walking bridge, and I will check on this when I return to the east.