Swimming Thanksgiving weekend

This morning Shirley and I went down to the south pool at the apartment (visible just past the pond in this pic) and had a bit of a wake-up swim. The outdoor air temp is very comfortable (still shorts and t-shirt weather), but I will admit that the first experience of the water was, um, invigorating.

It's nothing like swimming in the Pacific off the Washington or Oregon coast, which causes one to literally go numb even in the middle of summer. And it was not as cold as fresh-water swimming in the Northwest in November (for those from our old town of Vancouver, WA, I've swum at Klineline - now Salmon Creek Park - in November). But it was still a tad chilly for the first few minutes...and then after about 10 or 15 minutes it started feeling a little chilly again.

So I'm glad that we've arranged for a solar heating system for the water in the pool in the new house. We won't go with as many panels as the salesman was suggesting, since we don't want the water to be 90F ... we just want to have it be a little warmer than the natural temperature during the winter months. Our plan is for the fitness routine to include a combo of pool, treadmill (or walks through the neighborhood), and Bowflex. The treadmill and Bowflex have been in storage since we moved here, and we can't wait for the house to be done. That should finally, actually, really happen within the next 2 months :)

Falluja

I just read this eye-witness account of the Falluja battle. Words escape me. Read it.

Is USA becoming Iran?

I just ordered the book Journey from the Land of No : A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran by Roya Hakakian. Ms Hakakian was interviewed this evening on NOW with Bill Moyers.
It struck me that what Iran went through with the revolution in the
late 80's - and then becoming a nation with religion interwoven with
government - has too many parallels with the direction the
neoconservatives are pushing the United States.

While
the phrase "separation of church and state" does not exist in the
Constitution, the First Amendment of the US Constitution (links: Constitution Amendments) begins with the words that clearly define such separation:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

Iran is now experiencing a growing desire of its people to remove
religion from government - to enjoy the religious freedom that we in
the USA have too often taken for granted. I fear that we are seeing the
beginning of the loss of that freedom, and that, ironically, this loss
is in the name of religion and moral values.

Help the earth...a step at a time

It's up to each of us to do what we can, however large or small, to help the planet. It all helps. In regard to plastic grocery bags, it is estimated that somewhere between 500 billion (500,000,000,000) and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year! Well even if you are very careful to "recycle" the bags (and how many of us are that careful?), plastic is very hard to recycle effectively. It must be sorted very carefully, some types can only be recycled once, and the bottom line is that most of these plastic garbage bags end up in the garbage.

So Shirley and I were talking and she decided to experiment with making some durable cloth grocery bags. Our goal is to have 10 of them in each car, so that even if we stop at a store on a whim, we can use our own bags. If she gets it down to enough of a system, who knows? This could even turn into a small business...which beats her current unemployment :-) ...so here are the first 3 bags, each with a slightly different style as the experimentation continues. We've already used these several times and they are far stronger than any paper or plastic bags at the stores! Very cool.

Giving thanks and working on contentment

I was chatting with a friend earlier and we got to briefly
discussing levels of satisfaction (or lack thereof) with things that
work, but don't happen to be cool anymore. Hmmm...This leads to several
thoughts:
It's perhaps overquoted, but not realized enough:
Happiness lies not in having what you want, but rather in wanting what
you have. We need to appreciate all that we are fortunate enough to
have. No need to rush out (especially in this American season of Holiday Shopping Frenzy) and buy the latest junk ...if it's not needed.

That gets me to thinking that the environment - and our pocketbooks
- would be much better off if we would keep our current cars running
well, rather than going into debt to buy a new car. OK, I'll admit I'm
quite fortunate that my car is paid for, is running well, and has only
very minor body scars after 7 years. So it's easy for me to talk. But
I'm thinking I will see how long I can keep this baby humming. It's a
LOT cheaper to pay some bucks every once in a while for maintenance, vs
forking over the monthly payment for a new vehicle. I hereby publicly
pledge that when the day comes that my car dies beyond repair, I will
only buy a hybrid or better....meaning no SUV or other gas-guzzler. The ideal to me would be one of these. Their web site
...we saw a lot of these around Paris a few years ago and they are
awesome ...and quite safe, actually. Why the heck do folks think they
need to drive around in a Hummer? What are they compensating for? :)