tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40699978785751524222024-03-07T13:53:18.768-08:00E B B T I D Eby E D H U N TEd Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-32724681564134844282024-03-07T13:52:00.000-08:002024-03-07T13:52:29.039-08:00An AI Argues Against Artificial Reality <p> <i>As an experiment, I used <a href="http://claude.ai" target="_blank">Claude</a> 3 to write an essay in my voice and style. I fed it five of my newspaper columns and gave it a one sentence thesis to expand upon. It is copied below, unedited: Enjoy! \</i></p><p><b>A Tonic for the Screen-Addled Soul</b></p><p>We spend so much of our lives these days staring at glowing rectangles. Our phones, our tablets, our computer monitors - they've become indispensable portals transporting us everywhere except the present moment. With a few taps, we transcend physical space, our consciousness beamed to any corner of the digital universe.</p><p>And what wonders that universe contains! We can explore ancient civilizations without the hassle of digging up ruins. We can wander virtual forests without getting a speck of dirt on our shoes. If boredom sets in, we're only a click away from any diversion we can imagine - from videogames to viral videos to bottomless social media feeds. </p><p>Reality has been augmented, enhanced, optimized for maximum stimulation with minimal effort. Yet the more I'm seduced by these digital sirens, the more I crave authenticities they can never provide. </p><p>Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the marvels of technology as much as anyone. This screen before me is the magic anvil upon which I craft words into stories, ideas into understanding. But every so often, I need to escape its flattering glow. I need to ground myself in something real - in the thin, piney-scented mountain air, in the cadence of river water passing over rocks, in my own beating heart pumping blood through my veins.</p><p>These transcendent experiences cannot be virtually recreated or machine-rendered. To know them, I must unplug, step outside, and be fully present. Only then can I be bodily re-minded of all that's tangible and tactile. Only then can I recalibrate my senses by imbibing the rich communion of earth, sky, and living creatures coexisting in harmony.</p><p>Such reminders are soul-salving. They provide perspective and humility that hours of doomscrolling through our societal dumpster fire cannot. Out in nature, I'm confronted with grandeurs that dwarf my insignificant human dramas. I gaze upon ancient trees that witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations while standing immortally unperturbed. My worries and wants are put in their properly piccayune place.</p><p>At the same time, being outside reminds me that I'm not just an animated avatar, but one strand in an intricate tapestry of organic life. I'm invigorated by the dance of birds and squirrels, reassured by the turning of seasons, grounded in the cyclical patterns that predate and will outlast my own existence. Catastrophes that loom so large on my device screens become mere blips when viewed through nature's wide-angle lens of cosmic inevitability.</p><p>Spending time outdoors also fosters reconnection - to others, to community, to the enduring and embodied rituals that technology aims to "disrupt." Around the evening campfire, we gather united in the most ancient of human traditions, mesmerized by the primordial heat and light that made civilization possible. We share stories and sustenance, comfortable in the knowledge that we're enjoying the same simple delights as generations before us.</p><p>While our apps and algorithms relentlessly optimize for convenience and hyper-efficiency, nature nudges us to slow down and apply human care to every task. We cannot Instacart our way into a bountiful garden. We cannot Amazon Prime our way out of splitting firewood for winter. These processes require our sweat, our struggle, and our patience - reminding us that life's most visceral rewards come through conscious effort and presence.</p><p>Days spent out in the fresh air, with no concrete plans or digital inputs - these are the times when my truest self has space to breathe and be known. My dreams and doubts, so easily drowned out by the online maelstrom, rise to the surface undistracted. Problems once paralyzingly complex become penetrable when I'm mobile and in touch with the natural cadences around me. </p><p>I often think about what legacies we'll leave for future generations if we remain so disconnected from the roots that nourished our ancestors. Will they be able to navigate by sun and stars, or only by glowing urban grids? Will campfire songs give way to curated streaming playlists? Will they know the peace of kicking through piles of fallen leaves, or just the synthetic crunch of virtual foliage?</p><p>If Richard Louv's warnings about "nature deficit disorder" in youth prove true, we're raising a generation at risk of developing empathy deficits as well. For it's in the great outdoors that we naturally learn compassion - for the small creatures whose lives we briefly join, for the trees providing our shelter and shade, for the interdependency binding all living systems in reciprocal balance. </p><p>In virtual worlds crafted by human hands, we're at the center of our own detached, egocentric narratives. But surrounded by nature's humble truth, we realize we are not consumers to be perpetually entertained, but humble participants in Earth's great orchestral chorus.</p><p>So go ahead, put down the phone. Shut off the screens. Step outside into the dazzling, multi-dimensional theater that's been playing to rave reviews for eons. Out there, the air is crisper, the colors more vivid, the drama more compelling than any pixel portrayal. I promise your soul will thank you for the respite from simulated living. For it's only by unplugging that we can truly feel existence's electric hum charging every blade of grass, every raindrop, every breath we take.</p><p>We are creatures of the natural world, no matter how many technological layers we insulate ourselves with. When we shed those layers, even briefly, the restorative benefits are profound. The noise quiets, the light clears, and we can perceive what's real again – the symphonic unison in which every one of us plays an indispensable part.</p>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-87218949277935142942021-01-25T21:40:00.002-08:002022-08-19T11:42:53.744-07:00Huckleberry in the Time of Covid<p><span style="color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFWMOfIrX53j_RloGGR-fADvcapdpo903CtkGgelUw_0vI3G1feUDTJfI1zTh4foCuhFnvIzltU0qh3y9Oel_0OW61oqQ1xw3Ck_ItNCO8PXEOStfwVvgro-CYjRww373ODjyyFaKXDY/s782/00100dPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200802105632635_COVER+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="586" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFWMOfIrX53j_RloGGR-fADvcapdpo903CtkGgelUw_0vI3G1feUDTJfI1zTh4foCuhFnvIzltU0qh3y9Oel_0OW61oqQ1xw3Ck_ItNCO8PXEOStfwVvgro-CYjRww373ODjyyFaKXDY/s320/00100dPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200802105632635_COVER+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br />We stumbled into our camping trip, a little underprepared.<p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-f88d263f-7fff-b9ee-3329-240e62d49800"><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Up until the moment we left, part of us suspected it wouldn’t happen at all. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We shut down early in this state, we took it seriously when the novel coronavirus hit our shores. First professional sports canceled their multi-billion dollar seasons. Then schools scrapped in person classes and high school sports and then, with reluctance, graduations. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shutting down bought us time to learn, understand and adapt. People in our area look out for one another and made hard choices that likely saved lives. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In our house we were looking forward to a busy March --- spring basketball and the start of track season -- but it all came to a halt. We looked forward to a summer of showing cows and riding horses in the Silver Buckle series, as well as the county fair. Canceled, cancelled and all canceled. The replacements were innovative adaptations, but still poor substitutes for our expectations. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We learned the hazards of looking forward. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Habits and expectations are troublesome things. We humans like patterns to reassure us -- to light the path of our movement through the seasons. We like to look forward to the next, we abhor uncertainty. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year has been nothing but uncertainty. I have no doubt it will scar us thus. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the year that it was canceled. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the shortened season, the asterisk.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The year we couldn’t go. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We do our best to adapt and we are not the first to have done so. I remember the gas shortages of the 1970s. Amy remembers turning around when it was unclear that there would be a gas station open to get home. Parents and grandparents remember blackout curtains and ration cards in WWII. We have sacrificed, adapted and survived in the past and we can do so again. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have been lucky that this challenge comes at a time when the internet is mature enough to allow us to see each other even in quarantine and to have anything delivered to our door. Pixels are poor substitutes for a hug or handshake, but should be appreciated all the same. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still, we long to get away from our screens and go outside.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So we steal a summer day to paddle up Skamokawa creek, finding the moving waters reassuring in the summer sunlight. We busy ourselves with landscape projects and home improvement. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/safe-activities-during-covid19/art-20489385" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mayo Clinic - Safe Outdoor Recreation in Covid19</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This summer has seen an increase in outdoor activities -- hiking, camping and kayaking. We are blessed to live where nature is right outside our door. Meanwhile, less fortunate city folk are launching themselves into the outdoors like coiled springs. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Retailers in the Pacific Northwest have reported increases in people buying outdoor recreation gear that will allow hunker-downers to get out and have fun while staying six feet apart and outside. It is </span><a href="https://www.governor.wa.gov/issues/issues/economy/outdoor-recreation" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">boon for the $21.6 billion recreation economy</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in this asterisk year, and hopefully a salve on our stressed and disrupted lives. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Out on a hiking trail or around a campfire, it is easier to keep your distance. On a hiking trail or on the water you can see a friend and still keep a healthy six feet between you. Outside activities have been shown to be less risky for transmission than indoor spaces. Kayak and bike sales have seen sharp increases as families find ways to enjoy the summer days. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As </span><span style="color: #14171a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marc Berejka, director of Community and Government Affairs at REI</span><a href="https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/outdoor-recreation-boosts-washington-economy-covid-15450094.php" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> told the Seattle PI recently,</span></a><span style="color: #14171a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. "As we all work our way through the pandemic, it’s clear Washington is a state of people who love to spend time outside."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our little family has been getting outside for years. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amy and I camped on our honeymoon. Camping, hiking, kayaking and riding bikes and horses have filled our summers as the girls have grown. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Huckleberry picking on Mount Adams is an annual pilgrimage that marks the turning of summer. It has become something akin to a ritual -- a journey outward and inward -- a late summer renewal in a quiet forest before the start of the school year. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the days leading up to this year’s Huckleberry Haj, I’d been anxious. I found myself clinging to that journey more than I realized. So much has been canceled this year, so many of our family traditions erased. I found myself yearning for it to happen and at the same time secretly telling myself that it too would be canceled somehow, preparing myself for disappointment. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.575; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 2pt 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We started our annual huckleberry trips when Grace was still in diapers. Now she is old enough to drive. Over and over again we have found healing in the silence of the mountain. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bright sunlight, a sun-washed Mount Adams and the snap and skitter sounds as we find ourselves exploring off forest trails in search of the huckleberry. We talk as we pick. We call “Marco - Polo” when we lose sight of each other in the brush. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We find each other as a family. We find each ourselves in the woods. We store up summer to get us through whatever winter holds in the dark days ahead.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This has been a year of disappointments, the year of cancellation. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the most part, we have taken it well, for we have stored up our memories … packed them away like summer gratitudes in the freezer and pantry to be savored on a rainy day. Much needed nourishment for our souls. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, we are human and we know the world around us is fragile and in clumsy hands. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have a plan but the plan can change. We have been lucky and careful and grateful and kind but we know that as the tension turns ever tighter on this string -- it can snap as easily as it can sing.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So we prepared for camping and yet didn’t prepare. A broken trailer jack and a missing tool had us arriving at our campground at the cusp of darkness, undaunted. </span><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We rested our heads on the mountain's shoulders and tried to dream of the time before. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We picked berries in a place where no cell phone has a signal. We dipped our toes in the Klickitat river and took a family photo on our favorite rock - another family tradition unbroken for near 20 years. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjb2FPrZmVZIy1hE3UWXCN50KjA0ZjBHf9glwiVLisKhxenu_CcD1xGg-MObdmTwozGVhmx3AWbiCFOW82G6IRrGP2680jtli5-sjmnYEdAK31iEaQ3PBQGHMOlzWCWjBx8bzheI2Jgc/s4032/IMG_20200801_155217.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjb2FPrZmVZIy1hE3UWXCN50KjA0ZjBHf9glwiVLisKhxenu_CcD1xGg-MObdmTwozGVhmx3AWbiCFOW82G6IRrGP2680jtli5-sjmnYEdAK31iEaQ3PBQGHMOlzWCWjBx8bzheI2Jgc/s320/IMG_20200801_155217.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We climbed Sleeping Beauty Peak - a </span><a href="https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/sleeping-beauty-peak" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #1155cc; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4,900 foot mountain</span></a><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with a four-mountain view overlooking Indian Heaven Wilderness. The trail curls through dark wood until the last, steep hundred foot elevation gain where bright sunlight opens to a view to tomorrow. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No picture does it justice.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have to get outside, to see it for yourself.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After all we’ve been through this year, it is still there waiting. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #14171a; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-30- </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/visitors.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #1155cc; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/visitors.html</span></a></p><br />Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-63911591731261433552021-01-25T21:32:00.001-08:002021-01-25T21:32:39.227-08:00The River, The Road, and the Forest<span id="docs-internal-guid-a7caa44d-7fff-ea7c-77ac-343fb6772dc8"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="475" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ouw8_DlXc8Q3BBU5xwuY32p6_FEkLyp4-ADoHnhui9ll0PegdwmATyL-ueS6hpbFC1tw7eoJPekIr-wNPvXIZdL688wubNZ9uK1v0n0bQ8MCZxH5VYkD1w48FmRRhY_Foa5-DsEV" style="font-size: 14pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I rode my motorcycle around the valley in the days after the storm.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sandbars of brown silt still scarring local roads. Guardrails dented and mangled where trees had fallen across, now cleared away. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One such tree had come down across State Route 4 just a few feet away from the house built by Ole Dosland - a Norwegin immigrant who got a contract to use his team of horses to grade the road that would cut right through his farm. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clouds clung to the treetops along the steep slopes of the Willapa Hills, the field of the green flat land on either side of the Grays River, still obscured by trapped floodwater waiting to either drain down into saturated soils or evaporate into saturated air. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A quarter mile from my house a sign warned of a road closure on KM mountain. A slide of rain-saturated earth liquified and oozed across the road January 23rd, taking dozens of trees with it. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The slide was so great - </span><a href="https://tdn.com/news/local/landslide-cleanup-on-sr-continues-with-re-opening-in-sight/article_de7e6094-3ea4-57de-9c99-72aa97a730ce.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">55,000 cubic yards of earth and rock</span></a><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - stretching so far up the steep hill, that it was quickly determined that the cleanup would stretch weeks and months. Thus a major transportation route toward the outside world cut off for the foreseeable future. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So tenuous are our roads this close to the end of the world that we do well not to take them for granted. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Highways are latecomers to this part of southwest Washington. Roads do not belong here in the rainforest -- the fact that they exist is a mark of human tenacity. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the first 100 years of European settlement the transportation pathways of choice utilized the many rivers to transport goods and people inland from the larger world. Steamers ran regular routes connecting farm communities at riverside landings. Railroads cut deep into woods to haul out lumber, only to dump the logs into the river.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Milk from early 20th century dairies was often taken by skiff to the local creamery. The “school bus” was a boat that delivered students to the steps up the riverbank before the bell rang. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Victorian tourists traveled down from Portland to their Seaview beach houses on the Columbia, meeting up with a clamshell railroad that “ran by the tides” from the Ilwaco docks. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rivers and creeks and bays -- such obvious natural highways predated European settlement. Well established and understood by the Chinook speaking people of the region - sophisticated traders that used the coastal waterways and Columbia River as their economic artery to barter with inland nations. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Early settlers watched the native people navigate the rivers to maximum effect and conceived of </span><a href="https://www.historylink.org/File/9685" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a canal to connect the Puget Sound to the Columbia River</span></a><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -- a wild infrastructure dream that started in the 1860s and kicked around for 100 years. Private surveyors </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">planned a canal route in early 1910. Two canals would cross relatively narrow stretches of land between Baker Bay and Willapa Bay and between Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. </span><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eventually, cranberry and oyster growers in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties put an end to the talk. Cranberry growers feared losing the high water tables needed to produce their crops while the oyster growers knew the freshwater pouring into the bays would change the salinity and ruin their industry. Fishermen worried about losing spawning grounds. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even so, the canal dream persisted until 1977 when lawmakers consolidated the state canal commission with other agencies into the Department of Transportation. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These days the Department of Transportation is busy working to clean up that massive slide on KM -- restoring uninterrupted travel on State Route 4 while trying to repair other storm damage up and down the coast. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We tend to think of these vital roadways as ever-present -- we take them for granted as our commute to and from work depend increasingly on jobs miles away from home. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, State R</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_4" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">oute 4</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is fairly new, and if you think creating a massive canal between Seattle and the Columbia river sounds far fetched, that idea becomes laughable when you realize how difficult it was just to cut a two lane road through the forest from Longview to Long Beach. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the turn of the 20th century regular steamship traffic on the rivers adjacent to the Columbia were kept busy serving the little farm and fishing and communities growing up in the valleys still mostly separated by the steep rain-soaked and forested Willapa Hills. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet in those days, it was easier to go from Deep River to Astoria than travel the four miles as the crow flies over to Grays River. As the communities thrived with new settlers, demand for roads to connect these communities grew. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earliest roads were hand-cut through forest, sometimes with volunteer work crews from local towns taking on the job. These “volunteer roads” slowly connected communities. Bridges -- first of wood -- later of steel and concrete -- forded rivers and plank roads crossed marshy shifting soils. The ingenuity required by logging operations to erect railroad trestles deep into the forest was applied to grading and bridging the “Hungry Highway” from Naselle to Knapton as well as other gravel roads that -- at their best -- were still seasonal and unreliable. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Winter storms brought downed trees, landslides and washouts. Roads here have always been a battle between steep forested grades and flat flood-prone lowlands. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As local roads were puzzle-pieced together through the woods and along the Columbia river -- the road across KM mountain was the missing link connecting the coast to the booming planned city of Longview.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The original State Route 19 wasn’t connected from Longview to Long Beach until 1933 and wasn’t fully paved all the way until 1939. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">State Route 4 hugs the Columbia river until it cuts inland at Skamokawa, choosing to climb up over KM rather than continue along the shoreline. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why this route was chosen dates back to an early Grays River entrepreneur William Meserve. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To say Meserve had a store in Grays River is a bit of an understatement. Built in the 1890s to serve the river traffic on the Grays, Meserves’ store had a theater, bowling alley, barbershop and post office. Daily steamship traffic brought goods to the store and hauled away goods from the surrounding farms. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meserve was a state lawmaker by the time the route for the highway was proposed. Early surveys planned to follow the river between Skamokawa and Megler -- the shortest route -- leaving the farms of the Grays River Valley isolated. As a state senator, Meserve lobbied for a route that would take it inland through the valley past his farm and his store, and continuing through to Deep River and Naselle. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the politics between a river route and KM route tussled in Olympia, early motorists took matters into their own hands with a caravan over KM. Lead by Longview resident Gus Hafenbrack, the August 1924 expedition required the motorists to put their cars on a logging railroad car to cross KM. The next year the logging company had pulled up the rails the expedition had to drive their cars on rail-tie trestles over 200 foot canyons with no guard rails. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet each summer the journey between Longview and Long Beach got a little easier. State contracts and money started flowing. Plank roads gave way to graded rock. Ferries were replaced by swing bridges and finally arcing concrete built high enough to allow commercial river traffic.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story of State Route 4 isn’t of a single road, nor is it a single story, it is a hundred little roads, surveyed and abandoned, cut through forests by ambitious local volunteers and depression era works projects. It was built and moved and built again. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is still being built and rebuilt to this day. Frequent rockslides east of Cathlamet pound pavement into a pockmarked shambles each winter. Slides force commuters back to the ferries or to detours deep in the woods. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All the roads in this temperate rainforest suffer winter’s rage of a thousand cuts. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vital roads seem so much more permanent now that we rely on them for our daily commute. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, that same battle rages on every winter, with state and county road crews fighting skirmishes with every soil-saturating Pineapple Express and tree-toppling windstorm. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Winter rains here are brutal on roads, and the roads and bridges that we take for granted suffer as a result. It is easy for us to become impatient, and to second guess heroic efforts just to keep the way open. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet floods and slides and broken roads are just a price we willingly pay to live where the rivers meet steep-sloped rainforest along an often un-Pacific ocean. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On a summer day --or even a sunny day in February --it is easy to forget what it takes to make a road in the forest. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-30-</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Author’s note: photos and research for this essay are thanks to the amazing Appelo Archives in Naselle, where you can find a wealth of amazing photos and history about our region. </span></p><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-79450944720700941652020-04-18T06:40:00.001-07:002020-04-18T07:33:36.167-07:00Missing the Rain<span id="docs-internal-guid-7dfede16-7fff-0bc3-c5dc-dcf1554f2c33"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPTfVl1r8NYzCjmWaOOAsIoyeIXGV1u4g7BzBFBaxTgyLTIk3n5y3bGplqSRUeYpz3ZtBa2_XBzcwintoX3hGKPs43a5gCxIewq3mw9k8Vp5JqkuHy-B1AAe9rnahpk2uG31dj7eMaUBg/s1600/rain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="484" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPTfVl1r8NYzCjmWaOOAsIoyeIXGV1u4g7BzBFBaxTgyLTIk3n5y3bGplqSRUeYpz3ZtBa2_XBzcwintoX3hGKPs43a5gCxIewq3mw9k8Vp5JqkuHy-B1AAe9rnahpk2uG31dj7eMaUBg/s320/rain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: #efefef; color: #333333; text-align: start; text-indent: -28px;">Guérin, Jules Vallée, Artist. </span><cite style="background-color: #efefef; color: #333333; text-align: start; text-indent: -28px;">Commuters With Umbrellas at Street Car Station</cite><span style="background-color: #efefef; color: #333333; text-align: start; text-indent: -28px;">. , 1906. [?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010716471/</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I was a small boy — the year before we moved out West — I remember a summer when the Californians came to visit.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On a warm summer day, the New Jersey sky opened up in an angry cascade of warm rain. This is a common occurrence back East. The rain would crash down in torrents from the coal-gray skies, pounding the mown lawns and the tidy streets of our neighborhood.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Californians took off their shoes and ran out into the rain, dancing in their T-shirts, shorts and bare feet in the puddles that formed on hot sidewalks and concrete driveways.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was the late 1970s and California had been in the midst of an epic drought.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They had been missing the rain.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1978 we moved with those same Californians to the hills above Lyle, Washington. East side of the Cascades, but where the scrub oak are like pebbles on the shore of the vast desert ocean. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a place where the rain quits us in early may, never to return until late October. If you blink in that early spring, the green will be gone. Cloudless summer skies and blistering heat were the norm. Sun so bright it seemed to leap up from the ground to assault your eyes. Wind was oven-hot and gave no relief. It curled in dust devils a mile away.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember one summer on High Prairie and I had a job pulling up fence posts along a property line with a boom truck. The metal of the barbed wire burned skin. We ate our lunches huddled in a sliver of thin shadow offered under the frying-pan hot truck. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a magical thing then to even see a ghost of a cloud far off a mountain's shoulder, even so, there was no promise of rain in it. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One summer we vacationed on the coast. I walked summer rain-soaked streets of Ilwaco, blue tarps rustling on hulls in the boatyard. Watercolor skies and swirling mists in late June when the grass back home had already dried to brown.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I married a local Grays River girl that I met at college. It was Amy that taught me the rhythms of the rainforest life. Past 30 years now, it has wrapped its ways around me like favored polar fleece and gortex.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my little home among the Willapa Hills, we average more than </span><a href="http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/grays-river/washington/united-states/uswa0174" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">110 inches of rain</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> each year, with 192 days of measurable rainfall. That is 30 inches a year more than the highest rainfall picked up in Portland and many surrounding communities. Indeed, the least amount of rain received at the Grays River hatchery — </span><a href="http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?wagriv" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">75.9 inches in 1985</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> — was still higher than Portland’s average yearly rainfall. (data up to 2006) </span><a href="http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?wagriv" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Astoria</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> averages less than 70 inches a year. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet Astoria has almost the same number of rainy days at 191.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thus the Grays River valley in particular lies in a perfect hydrophilic place for precipitation — inland just enough from the coast, tucked between the first ridges of hills that harvest the fresh clouds with their peaks. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I never tire of it.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It could rain 100 days in a row here — it often does — yet it can be different each day. This is a wild and dynamic meteorologic magic to which we are privileged. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will not go on about its practical benefits, yes it waters our gardens, grows our trees and feeds our river songs. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It washes our streets, greens our fields.’</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It calls our salmon back from the ocean.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It hides our tears. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I write best, and most often in the rain. Sitting in my recliner looking out my window or stomping through the wet fields and forest brings relentless words to mind. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conversely, I have been trained by my time on the wet side of the state to associate a rainless day with outdoor projects and work to be done.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seize the golden day between the storms. Make hay while the sun shines.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comes now a year when a dry summer follows a dry spring, following a winter punctuated by an unusual number of sunny days. Good for motorcycles and horseback rides, for outdoor projects that usually would not even get started until mid-summer. Not so good for quiet contemplation at the keyboard.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So it was this summer that my grass dried to brittle yellow before June had even past. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So it was that the cows and horses huddled in the shade rather than graze on the dwindling grass. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then came a hint of a rainstorm on the weather forecast. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A summer storm at last.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found myself in a state of anticipation, dashing around cleaning up the yard, watching the clouds gather. I could smell the air thickening, I longed for a growl of thunder to herald the coming rain. </span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When at last I awoke to that music on my metal roof I found strange joy in the pre-dawn hours knowing the rain had finally come. Later that morning, I went down and took up my book by the window. I smiled but did not read. I simply looked out at the gray.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wanted to go out then, in the summer storm.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wanted to take off my shoes</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had been missing the rain.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-30-</span></blockquote>
<i><b>(This article was originally published in the Daily Astorian, 2015) </b></i></div>
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</span>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-9370302412073208122019-11-17T09:37:00.006-08:002023-05-04T08:38:36.319-07:00Alma Mater: The Road to WSU for a Father and Daughter<span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-84fa5621-7fff-2512-5007-6b9b6baee75f" style="font-weight: normal;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span></b>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_y90_3omqZCQJ_83rrCTQagJM5IRfrgrh2P5g44ZCSHKSAoKN-JIWKXsoawVe7yTzNd9E7g0OP6fIe05G_2fJIi2pWHGn9Fy5ERK4NriVggkSy1U2suVMl4LcdwFy359Qy6IR2n-hXw4/s1600/IMG_20160712_225110.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_y90_3omqZCQJ_83rrCTQagJM5IRfrgrh2P5g44ZCSHKSAoKN-JIWKXsoawVe7yTzNd9E7g0OP6fIe05G_2fJIi2pWHGn9Fy5ERK4NriVggkSy1U2suVMl4LcdwFy359Qy6IR2n-hXw4/s320/IMG_20160712_225110.jpg" width="318" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: trebuchet; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Approaching from the West</span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">, you emerge from the rock scarred dessert of central Washington and slowly start seeing red-barned postcard farms. Soon you are surrounded by wheat ranches with steep rolling hills of the fertile soil that defines the area known as the Palouse. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Alfalfa green and golden wheat, chickpeas, lentils and barley mark some of the richest farmland to be found anywhere. Invisible settlements like Hooper, LaCrosse, Dusty, Almota, Starbuck and Hay are noted only by green signs pointing out over the hills.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Through it all is an undulating two-lane road that on a day mid-August is alive with a procession of cars. </span></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crawl up the road from Colfax on the final climb to Pullman, and you realize that many in these cars have Washington State University license plates -- alumni like us, I suspect, returning to our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alma Mater</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The term is Latin for “nourishing mother” for this university must have provided each of us with something -- something that causes us to return now with our fresh faced sons and daughters, entrusting them to its care. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_wb6npjz7JefKDfoe8poh5GZuQHzSdPwXlVq0jk7BZ1miyo3YrjzMT-1N6EaVQrQZu1dY3XPfXMAMd24mA3J2hgTBc2MN3pk6oWAaWoONp59SecKSvi3Qz3v4Gbu_BCclNWwl_MKvIY/s1600/IMG_20190620_100807.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_wb6npjz7JefKDfoe8poh5GZuQHzSdPwXlVq0jk7BZ1miyo3YrjzMT-1N6EaVQrQZu1dY3XPfXMAMd24mA3J2hgTBc2MN3pk6oWAaWoONp59SecKSvi3Qz3v4Gbu_BCclNWwl_MKvIY/s320/IMG_20190620_100807.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">My ride at WSU was a bit of a rough one, things weren’t always smooth and perfect, but I met some of the kindest people in my life, some of my best friends.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">It was at WSU that I discovered<span style="background-color: yellow;"> </span>that I could write -- a career that carried me for a dozen successful years. I bought my first motorcycle, made some of my biggest mistakes and learned that I loved learning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">It was at WSU that I met my wife -- which is the best thing that ever happened to me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">People that know me, know I’m a fan of Washington State University. Not just a fan for the football team -- for most of my life they have never been all that good -- and I worked on game days and missed most of the home games while I was up there. I’m a fan of the University and the generous camaraderie that came with attending the cow college on the far side of the state. A university that most Seattle city folks looked down upon. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Things have changed in the past 30 years. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlyit_WJ3_awBRaF1my9L8zIZmSsgA4b4dgV_fcIuc_A5kG5AiW3iWLq1H-h_bkKNkoT5feES5zfvUm8JDhb9zhs79VSpUshqJl4Gz1-gM47DxBhyWj2Bs92mJHw0_46L8B9KdnXWq9Ew/s1600/IMG_4164.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlyit_WJ3_awBRaF1my9L8zIZmSsgA4b4dgV_fcIuc_A5kG5AiW3iWLq1H-h_bkKNkoT5feES5zfvUm8JDhb9zhs79VSpUshqJl4Gz1-gM47DxBhyWj2Bs92mJHw0_46L8B9KdnXWq9Ew/s320/IMG_4164.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">On that long drive up to deliver my daughter to her dorm I wondered if it was the same welcoming place that could be trusted to nourish her mind and allow her to grow into her ambitions. I worried too, that I emphasized WSU too much. I told the girls that even if they decide to go to college someplace else, I wouldn’t mind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Yet, with Lindsay’s interest in agriculture and food science, it was hard to imagine a school better suited for her. She’s visited WSU several summers now for 4H conferences, so she is more familiar with its culture and campus than most Freshman arriving this week.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> I have nothing but confidence in her. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Yet, I’m a dad, so I wonder and worry. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">My ride to WSU was a rough one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Growing up in the tiny town of Lyle, we didn’t have much in the way to help deciding which school to attend. The school guidance counselor was out after a bad car accident, so I took it upon myself to research colleges for my classmates. As a high school senior, I organized tours of the University of Oregon, Western Washington University, University of Puget Sound and the University of Washington. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">I didn’t even know about WSU until the parents of one of my friends -- Bill and Wendy Hamm -- suggested I apply to the school where they had met. It had a good broadcast journalism program, they said. I was already working as a DJ in high school. So without much more research than that, I submitted an application.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Years ago, the old knock against WSU is that you only went there if you couldn’t get into a better school. However, I got accepted to Rutgers, Tulane and the University of Oregon. By then, however, I realized how much private and out-of-state colleges would cost to attend. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">WSU was the least expensive and so I went there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">I knew barely anything about WSU.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSi8CpW0WmGFhZNH-7veTE_QXXvky73diNTJ_ZnoE6JtJicFEBmISz1elK4uU6AWsCQ847-8EpM0o9j2Ki4sM8XQWOy83c2zhKQLukMNVTDfJvuDMiBsxAt6t-N0juqv5N5p2szh2Q0yo/s1600/graduation.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1432" data-original-width="987" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSi8CpW0WmGFhZNH-7veTE_QXXvky73diNTJ_ZnoE6JtJicFEBmISz1elK4uU6AWsCQ847-8EpM0o9j2Ki4sM8XQWOy83c2zhKQLukMNVTDfJvuDMiBsxAt6t-N0juqv5N5p2szh2Q0yo/s400/graduation.jpg" width="275" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">In this age of the internet, it is hard to emphasize how difficult information was to come by 30 years ago. Research amounted to reading the glossy brochures that arrived in the mail. I had to pick out my dorm based on a map and a written description.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">I had never seen the Palouse before that hot summer day when I loaded up my car and drove out of the Gorge into the desert guided only by an atlas and driven by a desire to leave my little town behind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">In the decades since, WSU has doubled in size and gained in academic prestige and subsequently, the costs have gone up exponentially as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">When I attended, however, it seemed like a big small town. Unpretentious and friendly in the that Eastern Washington way. I got lost and found my way. I got embarrassed, and learned that the only cure is to be the first one who laughs. I changed my major and changed it again. I dropped out for a semester and then found myself welcomed back with open arms. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">At 18, you are technically an adult but your head is heavy with unearned confidence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">I worked my way through -- sometimes three or four jobs -- but you could do that back then. One of my side jobs was writing articles about the history of the school for state centennial celebrations. Researching and writing stories of these early days at a tiny agricultural college cemented my appreciation for this school. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">A land grant school built on a cabbage patch, WSU’s earliest years were all plucky perseverance. The writings of the 13 students in that first class are infused with a can-do attitude and a spirit of “we are all in this together.” It was a spirit that still survived a century later when I was there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">These days WSU has campuses all over the state and a brand new medical school that will be turning out its first class of doctors soon. You can be a city Coug and never set foot on the Palouse. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Yet there is something about this landscape, this brick-built underdog campus far away from anything except endless examples of bountiful agriculture, that I love. It is a place that helped me become the person I am today. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Each time I visit, I hate to leave it behind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">It is the nexus point of my adult life. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="background-color: #ffd966; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Alma Mater, I am entrusting you now with my eldest daughter. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Don’t let me down. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">On the ride home, we stop to pick a few sunflowers growing on the side of the road, I ask Grace -- my 15 year old daughter -- if she thinks she’ll go to WSU too. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">“I don’t know Dad!” she said. “I just want someplace I can take my horse!” </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Go Cougs.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-18682423312784710302019-07-20T06:28:00.003-07:002019-07-20T06:28:45.753-07:00WE Came in Peace, for All Mankind <span id="docs-internal-guid-2f5a56b5-7fff-d947-8265-a7b0373e0649"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 644px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="644" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/YK8799wNn8Ssk0rIl8N-zpeYL5uIkC7pkkqKE1p67Oaa9Ba5pEX86h5CzL6xVqx_HGFKxjIAqUf6_oU97A7dxxHuwjGaaxxjlSYFzIDr7XaRIcYfGXJjzJGtFh9p1ISJWjpIHiAU" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We choose to go to the moon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--John F. Kennedy, </span><a href="https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rice University</span></a><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 1962</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We went to the moon 50 year ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I say “we” that doesn’t mean you or I ever set foot on its dusty soil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We as a species harnessed the powers of our minds and our might and spurned gravity’s ever-oppressive grip to leave Earth … to leave footprints on the second-brightest object in our sky.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We did this thing not because it was easy, but because it was hard. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just 35 years before JFK set us on a course for the moon, aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh entitled his autobiographical account of his solo flight across the Atlantic “We.” The title was meant to surprise readers. It had been a solo flight. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, Lindbergh understood the hands and minds of the many people who financed, designed and built it for that purpose. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We</span><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a word you’ll hear often as the world looks back on Apollo 11 this week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The quest to land a man on the moon started with an ambition beyond the reach of the possible technology at the time. We took the impossible and made it possible. It was an accomplishment that required more than 400,000 Americans -- men and women, black and white, immigrants and refugees. It required the sweat and imagination of a nation to reach that far goal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My dad-John Hunt-was one of that army of peace and exploration -- that great mobilization of human resources challenged to design and build a machine that could take mankind to the moon and return them safely to Earth. I grew up with the echo of that accomplishment ringing in my ears, optimistic at what people can do when they come together focused on a single goal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My father first met </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wernher von Braun</span><span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> while tending bar at the officers club in Huntsville, Alabama where the Army Missile Command and the Marshall Space Flight Center are located. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunt -- a whiz kid from South Jersey just out of college -- had already been working for the army in Huntsville testing the Sergeant Missile system when he got drafted under the looming threat of war with the Soviet Union. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The Cuban Missile Crisis ended occupational deferments,” Hunt said. “I had a draft notice in my mailbox by the end of the week.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, after basic training, Hunt found himself called right back down to Huntsville to finish the project he’d been working on. This time in an army uniform and getting paid “a lot less.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So he picked up a side job tending bar at the officers club, where he recalls Von Braun, charming the Congressmen and VIPs sent down to investigate his building program. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It was cigar smoking and hard drinking,” Hunt recalls. “He had them eating out of his hand.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was partly Von Braun’s charm and ambition and his cadre German rocket scientists and engineers that helped turn Huntsville into the of the major centers of the space race. When Navy Vanguard rockets repeatedly failed on the test stand. Von Braun said he could put a man in space with the Army’s Atlas rocket, Hunt explained. When Atlas succeeded, Von Braun proposed a bigger rocket - the Saturn 1B. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The test stand he built for it was massive,” Hunt remembers, “you couldn’t even see the 1B in it and we’d wondered why he built it so big. He was thinking ahead. He’d built it for the Saturn V.” The rocket that would eventually take men to the moon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You know when Kennedy said that we were going to the moon, nobody had a clue as to how we were going to do it,” Hunt says. “The guys at NASA were dumbstruck.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunt was just about to get out of the army when Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I knew it wasn’t the end -- NASA was already ramping up,” Hunt said. “It was a beehive of activity and they were grabbing anybody with any talent or knowledge they could use.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunt found himself as one of hundreds of thousands of contractors working for NASA based on his work at Marshall. This time Hunt was tasked with figuring out safe and effective equipment designs for the Astronauts to use when they had to work outside the spacecraft -- Extra Vehicular Activity. Working in space is difficult and Hunt helped develop the designs for boots and gloves and other equipment, including the lunar module as well as designs for the Apollo Telescope Mount and Skylab that would fly later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunt spent a lot of time monitoring the Astronauts in the giant swimming pools used to simulate weightlessness -- testing critical equipment like boots and gloves, handholds and tools that needed to work in reduced gravity environments. They would also take astronauts up in a KC-135 plane on rollercoaster-like parabolic flights that provided a handfull of seconds of weightlessness at the top and bottom of the arc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“We were kind of figuring things out was we went along because no one had ever attempted, what we were trying to do,” Hunt said. “It was the greatest job in the world.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in his 20s, Hunt remembers working side by side with Astronauts Michael Collins, Deke Slayton, Gordon Cooper, Jim Lovell as well as Skylab pioneer Owen Garriott. Hunt also became friends with future shuttle commander Joe Engle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The thing to remember,” Hunt said. “We were working with these guys -- the astronauts, traveling together, eating with them, we weren’t awestruct -- they were regular people. They were fun loving but very serious. It was life or death and the attitude was, we’ve got to get it right.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is hard looking back to remember how much pressure there was to get it right -- that this was a life or death situation for those Astronauts. It is even harder to recall that half a million contractors from every part of the country had a hand in putting those footprints on the moon with the primitive technology of the day. Seamstresses skilled at sewing girdles and bras were stitching space suits. The computers -- which became overloaded in the last seconds before landing on the moon -- were hard wired -- their connections woven by hand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“We were working with nixie tubes, we weren’t even solid state,” Hunt added. “Your phone has thousands of times more computing power than they had on the flight. It was an amazing feat and nobody … everyone was holding their breath because we knew there were a million things that could have gone wrong. People today, I don’t think they realize what we accomplished.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The effort to put a man on the moon wasn’t without controversy, there were protests at the Kennedy Space Center the day before the launch. There were other demands for the money being spent on this one ambitious goal. Reaching for the moon drove innovation and created a wealth of knowledge far beyond what on the surface appeared to be a narrow competition between Cold War nations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Yet, the race to the moon ended up providing dividends in knowledge and technology still paying off 50 years later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It was the chance of a lifetime, a dream job,” Hunt said. “But once they landed on the moon, you could feel that the public and political support was going to die. I hope we go back, we’ve started to talk about that again,” he added. “We are starting to say hey, we did that.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lesson of Apollo is that we are bound only by our flagging ambitions and petty squabbles. “We can’t” is heard more often today, than “we can.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Yet Apollo gave the lie to illusion that our reach extends no further than the end of our arms. We can accomplish great things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Should you forget, look up tonight and know, on the surface of the moon there is a plaque that says, “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moon, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: Copse, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-30-</span></div>
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</span>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-69091623128494825832019-07-04T09:33:00.000-07:002019-07-04T09:33:35.174-07:00A Meditation on Rivers<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2-Hz6DJM_zlet7SIWXN_xT1waihTKEPpDUzBDmerYnBQXJxBaLsu1SSW9fYLYxOszmRwTwB1SGkRxJmiUcr-3drvkn5zciSghxaDCjhW1nb5SEND-monnaxyf2Qk5m4HKvVZO3WDOmw/s1600/IMG_7057-EFFECTS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2-Hz6DJM_zlet7SIWXN_xT1waihTKEPpDUzBDmerYnBQXJxBaLsu1SSW9fYLYxOszmRwTwB1SGkRxJmiUcr-3drvkn5zciSghxaDCjhW1nb5SEND-monnaxyf2Qk5m4HKvVZO3WDOmw/s400/IMG_7057-EFFECTS.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-78d6da12-7fff-b4af-a328-30244aa7ec5e" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Your dream is a worry that nothing will keep</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But time is a story and there will be more</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Joe Henry, </span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=time+is+a+lion+lyrics&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS836US841&oq=Time+is+a&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l2j69i57j0l2.1657j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time is a Lion</span></a></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love that my daily run takes me across a river. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I find that rivers are a reassuring reminder that change is the one constant we can rely on. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rivers are never the same. The water flowing past is in constant movement. Whether it is the slow waters of the Grays River, or the urgent snowmelt driven rapids of the Klickitat, there is unending movement to the sea. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This first spoke to me paddling the waters of the Brandywine river in Pennsylvania. As my older brother and sister paddled, I was free to gaze over the side of the canoe, it’s rootbeer water toe-dipping cool in the humid summer air, its smooth stones always in clear view, reassuring to a nervous young boy discovering the joys of messing about in boats. Some of my earliest memories are of those canoe trips -- moving over water that was moving through space and time. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A few years and 3000 miles later, I used to watch the mighty The Dalles dam release great torrents of the shackled river as we crossed the salmon pink bridge. Or hold back the river to let the water level drop to expose the broad flat rocks spiked with dipnet platforms seemingly held together with nothing more than frayed rope and hundreds of years of native traditions. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crossing that bridge from Washington to Oregon, the dam on the left, the dipnetters on the right, representing changing permanence of the Big River. The flat rocks of The Dalles and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the drowned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celilo_Falls" target="_blank">falls of </a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #6a6a6a; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celilo_Falls" target="_blank">Celilo</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> area were the site of the largest Indian salmon fishery on the Columbia River prior to the construction of The Dalles Dam in the 1950s -- when the dam flooded <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2016/05/celilo_through_the_years.html" target="_blank">Celilo village</a> - it destroyed the oldest continuously occupied permanent settlement in North America. The fishery and the village had existed for seasons without counting -- on a river that was alive with churning life -- before the falls were flooded and changed forever. </span><img height="419" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/GEWRFut4h9Oj2KXToOPHTCHaR9QlDDExNo-kCdtAA3uRoreMRhBoj93TS9RcMUiw1ft61yx__mLtXTr-Cd6hLnjRIdCt680iHL15FTfLR34T9kxv9n9PClVcZiig_vXUyHPFXkvZ" style="border: none;" width="419" /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rivers are constants of change. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We live our lives on a river of time, only sometimes realizing that the current reduces jagged wounds to smooth stones. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">People ask me if I am bothered by the accumulation of birthdays, the scars of the passage of time. It helps that I have done my best to appreciate the inevitability of the river’s flow, to watch its changes as they come. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Salmon do this thing that has always fascinated me -- they are hatched in smooth stone shady creeks and are nourished by the microlife of that freshwater nursery. At a certain age, they take themselves out into the sea which is much richer in experience and plentiful in nutritional forage. Later when they are fat on the bounty of the ocean, they swim back up the river, returning to the creek that gave them birth. Here they seed the next generation -- eggs buried among the smooth stones.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then they die. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The purpose of their death has become evident to <a href="http://www.bluefish.org/keystone.htm" target="_blank">scientists over the years of research</a>. We have come to understand that the nutrient rich dead salmon carcass becomes food for </span><a href="http://www.salmonnation.org/fish/137species.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">137 species of plants and animals</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as it decomposes -- and those plants and animals create the food, fertility and shelter for the next generation buried amid the smooth river stones.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsuqv-NujCzJ_r4X1VF7gTqmwP5hCrx4zvqQ3lgCKpK8w9t1cXAESVW1u7TunbgqGFDhIjMeJr17ArO3VmmNP63h127VXrrY7GQcho3R4GvXhT_GiSGHvNWJVDTRK3J1OoZzayw3LhJc/s1600/IMG_4596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsuqv-NujCzJ_r4X1VF7gTqmwP5hCrx4zvqQ3lgCKpK8w9t1cXAESVW1u7TunbgqGFDhIjMeJr17ArO3VmmNP63h127VXrrY7GQcho3R4GvXhT_GiSGHvNWJVDTRK3J1OoZzayw3LhJc/s320/IMG_4596.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Salmon have evolved to collect the rich nutrition of the ocean, and transport it up river to fertilize the nursery for a generation of their offspring that they will never lived to see. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Life is not a permanent condition, but it can create the environment of its own perpetuation if we do well in our time here. We can take the richness of our varied experience and <a href="http://www.salmonnation.org/fish/137species.html" target="_blank">create communities that raise heroes we will never meet.</a> </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sometimes the world can seem so short sighted. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Those days, I like to look out on the river and realize that it is not the same as it was the day before, or even the second before I look at it. That it changes and in changing will never be the same. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now I realize that the water is being recycled too. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Water molecules are very hard to destroy -- they may transform their states -- evaporate and fall as snow in mountain range, or rain on green green coast. Eventually, they make their way to the creek, to the river, to the sea and to the sky again. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rain to river to sea and again, ever the same, but each time different nonetheless. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNBS5DZOHpJdrQMYKhvrgiZB9FfYP1ZglIN-Ys6IM6qnaMlnUetW-9s4Yy53YdEyD6LoioG-oPEFDqjMLAin6r4Da3CfXXQNW4CwIh-8RbVifVGBK5M6cLRIvPyOeO3APSNiWelGQNEuE/s1600/IMG_3574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNBS5DZOHpJdrQMYKhvrgiZB9FfYP1ZglIN-Ys6IM6qnaMlnUetW-9s4Yy53YdEyD6LoioG-oPEFDqjMLAin6r4Da3CfXXQNW4CwIh-8RbVifVGBK5M6cLRIvPyOeO3APSNiWelGQNEuE/s200/IMG_3574.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The water we see when we look out on a river is never the same as the day before -- yet perhaps that is a misapprehension -- a trick played on us by the short sight of our human eye</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The water in the river is the same that has been traveling through our atmosphere for our lifetimes and the lifetimes everyone who has come before. So too, the atoms of our bodies spun out from the stars to form minds and hearts and souls that sail about for some fraction of a century thinking they are the center of the universe, only to be smashed to the dust in the end. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A carcass on the river bed, rich lives feeding generations of change. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We can try to stem the tide with formaldehyde, but our destruction and reconstitution is inevitable and on geology’s clock -- but a click of the second hand.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCyQOCzID0QpoSEK8tavBpXAahLOxF11pGvYo86Yh33OGo2v-UiICT4WSJeCdnGjUK8EgKlCu69SoEO6tCPGNmdjfg-cf9ULvUSGf-Q7d08RHmZGBraRlGHUWHfiw_0tTUZ0pa-38cnAA/s1600/IMG_20190115_132335_570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCyQOCzID0QpoSEK8tavBpXAahLOxF11pGvYo86Yh33OGo2v-UiICT4WSJeCdnGjUK8EgKlCu69SoEO6tCPGNmdjfg-cf9ULvUSGf-Q7d08RHmZGBraRlGHUWHfiw_0tTUZ0pa-38cnAA/s200/IMG_20190115_132335_570.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The river’s twin messages of change and permanence remind me that you can get through this, whatever this may be.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rain falls where it will -- without regard to want or worry. It returns from the sea in the form of a storm with a gunmetal gray fist of thunder or an ever-present swirling mist. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nothing is permanent, the river is always moving, and yet always there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a Japanese sentiment </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ichi-go, ichi-e</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -- it means treasuring the unrepeatable nature of the moment. Since each encounter or moment is singular and unrepeatable, it is o</span><a href="https://www.rosettastone.com/blog/words-beyond-translation-ichi-go-ichi-e/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ur duty to give them our full attention.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I look out on a river, I am reminded of this. I know this river, it is the river that I cross every day, yet this river is new today, this river will not be here tomorrow. It waters will be replaced by other waters, its hidden stones turned and smoothed by time. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am not good at it -- this giving my full attention to an unrepeatedable moment -- but I aspire to be better, each day, as I cross the river. </span></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-55684220764566786712019-06-04T17:55:00.003-07:002020-02-24T03:59:06.878-08:00In a Sea of Change, A Constant Blue<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img height="624" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qDoPvmYlBKJ3Aa9x710xCjQl2pwORrvdovMXnmapieEdjJhaSKkvJHsZKiTjvi3syrj8FtgBl7ntCahnKQ7wSyDsq0D5PkgQwNcEtiZ5pNg0QDp52YdYn7VCXAIEfGcdRtGk1fWr" style="border: none;" width="624" /></span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2e3e6c78-7fff-54bc-1ff1-c1de92d351f2" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“...what we’ve done, where we’ve been, the cars that we have had have been the fulcrum of our lives.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-<a href="https://octanepress.com/people/leon-mandel" target="_blank">Leon Mandel</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“What are you going to do,” the mechanic asked. “drive this thing for 500,000 miles?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Probably," I said. “I can’t imagine ever letting it go.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We bought the little blue Honda CRV two months after my oldest daughter Lindsay was born. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Next month, she graduates from high school. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When my wife Amy and I were married, I was driving a Volkswagen van and she had inherited her parents Volvo station wagon. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet, when we got around to having kids, I was driving a two door pickup and she had a Honda Civic coupe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don’t think we are the only parents to have that sudden moment of anxiety, that realization that the nurses were handing us this baby, and expecting us to be responsible enough adults to keep it alive for 18 years. Our perspective of the world and its dangers, the meaning of our lives all changed as we walked out those hospital doors on a blue-sky February morning. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With that hanging over us, driving home in a two door coupe with a three day old baby strapped into her carseat in back, each logging truck and SUV on the road home from Astoria loomed over us and threatened our little Honda civic with its precious cargo. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I poured my nervous energy into researching small SUVs that would be sit up high and be safer on the winter roads when we visited family in the Columbia River Gorge. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We found a used 1997 Honda CRV that already had 80,000 miles on it, but the mechanic said it had been well maintained and we liked sitting up higher, with the good vision of the road it provided. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Moreover, it was much easier getting the baby in and out of the car seat in the back compared with crawling over the seat of the two-door coupe. When she fell asleep in her carseat, I didn’t wake her up trying to extract her.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="468" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/GP5orPhPaINHtn_A0d_sC-jFjVfOBCFrMQLAxSAapHqJQ0mY8PK0A1qgbgWK1Izpk-PY37qM5iFiXI1yXSg-SttGaaQs3fgdSuwpdUTLswaFXHKjPXnkDj9SnK1p0PVijxXbGD8I" style="border: none;" width="624" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was important, because Lindsay didn’t like going to sleep as a baby. There was too much to see and do. You had to keep her moving out in the world so she could experience new things. Movement was relaxing to her, so we would drive the blue CRV around the Grays River Valley with the soundtrack to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh Brother Where Art</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thou</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> playing to send her off to dreamland. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Change is such a overwhelming experience in our lives, the few constants can take on weighted meaning. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So much has changed since 2001. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Lindsay was born I worked at home as a writer, but soon after I went back to school to become a nurse. The blue CRV took me through many a snowstorm to arrive at school and work in Longview and brought me safe at home again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet most of the time it was the family car. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lindsay and her younger sister Grace attended the Astoria School of Ballet for years, and the little blue CRV was my wife’s reliable transport across the river and back late at night. It was in the blue car that we started off on our many family adventures -- sledding on Mt Hood and Huckleberry picking on Mt Adams. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the great Hanukkah Eve Storm of 2006, it got caught in rapidly rising flood waters before I could pull it out of my garage. We dried it out and it was not much worse for wear. It was stolen in 2012 from the street outside the hospital in Longview while I was working. I came out after my night shift to find an empty parking spot where it had been. It was such a humble and unassuming car that I couldn’t believe anyone would steal it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Miraculously, it was recovered by Police in Vancouver just before it got chopped up for parts. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I gave Lindsay her first driving lesson in the Rosburg School parking lot, it was in the CRV that we had bought just after she was born. I sat in the passenger seat giving her instructions, while glancing backward, thinking about the car seat that used to always be strapped in the back. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When she got her license, the blue CRV became “her” car. She put a hula guy on the dashboard and drove off to school with her younger sister and our exchange student riding along. I trusted her with this responsibility somehow. It wasn’t the car -- with its all wheel drive and its airbags and antilock brakes -- but the girl driving it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the start of her senior year, Lindsay came back from one of her many trips across the state as part of her student leadership activities renewed with ambition. She wanted to take jazz band in Ilwaco. Naselle High School didn’t offer jazz band and she was wanting to challenge herself and grow as a saxaphone player, to try something new.</span></span></div>
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<span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><img height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UvLhqy1ikM2oHLyXov1DUyWUSZoWlbOfN7rc0-c5usg9HtLiCFud-dmOGvOrlDPCz5WYsx6HTpbj7hn7Gau1-64B_QFuv_3ikWumDwqZMjvP_ebtZbX1dAtYZI7YQuoPHAIwiSvr" style="border: none;" width="150" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was skeptical. The class started at 7 am, and that meant she’d need to leave the house by 6 am every weekday morning for the long drive. Most teenagers like to sleep in and I didn’t think this adventure would last. Instead, she unerringly wakes before anyone else in the house and gets herself out the door before the sunrise. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The rewards for that effort have been enormous, she’s made new friends, grown as a musician, performs amazing solos during the band’s performances. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">She also takes advantage of the Grays Harbor College facilities in Ilwaco for her running start college classes. Her senior year and she is technically attending classes at two high schools -- Ilwaco and Naselle -- while earning college credits. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The blue CRV has become the symbol of Lindsay’s ambition and independence for me as well as her reliability. She even checks the oil -- because at 313,000 miles, it does burn a little. The back hatch is stuck shut and the air conditioner doesn’t work, but the plucky little thing just keeps on running. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the Fall, Lindsay will be off to Washington State University and will leave the little blue CRV at home -- parking fees on campus are almost as much as tuition. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That will work out fine, because her younger sister starts driving lessons soon. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>UPDATE: After her first semester as a student at WSU, Lindsay missed her car. So when she came home and took it to school, we found a nice used 2007 CRV with 200,000 miles on it because, as my wife says, "we couldn't imagine life without a CRV." </i></span></span></div>
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<br />Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-46264117217608918202019-02-16T12:34:00.001-08:002019-02-16T12:34:48.953-08:00Owned Goals: What We Learn Along the Way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJEATPAJwkhMMguT-tqVxmb4onyN2H1hXtxp7uSe5DBPdykj_7JUTY5eGeMIRKkeZjc5jLJslwQSYmEY2NT2pH3Qp3Lyc6vEzWiS7Qhqe-uD-EEDy6I0-8k39L4O3AEZWo9PFQ-8WA4o/s1600/IMG_20190204_172932.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJEATPAJwkhMMguT-tqVxmb4onyN2H1hXtxp7uSe5DBPdykj_7JUTY5eGeMIRKkeZjc5jLJslwQSYmEY2NT2pH3Qp3Lyc6vEzWiS7Qhqe-uD-EEDy6I0-8k39L4O3AEZWo9PFQ-8WA4o/s320/IMG_20190204_172932.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When I run, the world grows quiet. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Matt Inman, <a href="https://theoatmeal.com/comics/running" target="_blank">The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It must feel good to be so close to achieving your goal,” Amy said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I was wary rather than excited and tired from working the night before. Instead I stared out the window at the storm clouds growing over the Oregon coast as we drove south to Newport.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My goal was as simple as it was arbitrary. (See my <a href="http://theebbtide.blogspot.com/2018/03/on-running-run-on.html" target="_blank">earlier post On Running, Run On</a>) I wanted to run four half marathons in one year before I turned 50. Each half is 13.1 miles, 4x13.1=52.4 - so over 50 miles give or take a stumble. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here we were driving to Newport to run the fourth and final half -- the Newport Resolution Run and Polar Bear Plunge. Out of shape from the sugar season, I wondered if I would even finish the race. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And if I did finish, what would come next? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What comes next after you achieve a goal? </span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I set about this adventure, my plan was that this would be a last big hurrah for running. I love hiking and vowed to do more, perhaps as a substitute for these organized runs which can become expensive. Yet each run introduced us to new places and got us out of our rut of attending only local runs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">May 20th -</span><a href="http://www.astoriaparks.com/Run%20on%20the%20River" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Run on the River</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Astoria’s Run on the River was a great way to start. I signed up as a walker so I wouldn’t get in the way of more experienced runners. The weather was perfect and I love the waterfront. I took off at the start running way too fast, passing most of the slower walkers. When my phone’s app told me my first mile time, I was stunned. I felt good and my pace was eight minutes a mile - I rarely ever run that fast. Nervous energy. Wow, I felt really good -- running without hills is great! In fact the first seven miles or so is absolute flat with great views along the riverfront to enjoy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The flat running ended at the far East end of town, the course turns to the right, in and steeply uphill into the Alderbrook neighborhood. The real runners had flown by me long before I got to the first hill but mine wasn’t the only pace that slowed to crawl. I finished with cramps in my legs and a decent time of two hours 15 minutes. One down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">August 12 -</span><a href="https://bridgeofthegodsrun.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Bridge of the GodS Half Marathon</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Growing up on the Columbia River, I have a strange desire to run or walk across all this magnificent river’s bridges some day. The Great Columbia Crossing is one of my favorite runs each year. The Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks is in the heart of the Columbia Gorge. We took our little camper down and spent the night in field in front of the school with other runners. This time I had Amy with me. In the morning we hopped on the shuttle bus and the driver asked us if we knew how to get across the bridge. The Bridge of the Gods is narrow and 99 years old. I couldn’t imagine driving across it in a school bus full of people. So I sat beside her and guided her across. “Have a blessed day,” the driver said, and we did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We ran first across the metal grate bridge and then up onto forested roadways still charred from the previous summer’s devastating fires. Smoke from this summer’s fires was still in the air, smudging the August sun. It was great to meet Amy at the end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">October 21 -</span><a href="https://www.columbiagorgemarathon.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Gorge Half Marathon</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the muted skies at Cascade Locks, the weather in Hood River was a postcard worthy sunny Autumn day. We took our camper down the night before, had a great visit with my nephew’s family in The Dalles. My mom got meet her new great-grandson. Amy and I curled up to watch another WSU football game on TV. My friend had warned me “the first two miles are all straight up hill, but after that it levels off and is good.” I was glad for the warning, as we climbed up from the river to the old scenic highway, the climb was psychologically defeating. Running with Amy I decided to care less about my time and more about enjoying the run. Fall colors and bright sunlight matched against blue skies. This run follows the old cliffside highway yielding picture-perfect views around every corner. The punishing climb at the start of the race pays off at the end, as the course is down hill or flat in its final miles. I finished with just short of my personal best time but feeling great.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then came the sugar season - that period between October and New Years where one gluttonous and pastry filled holiday follows another. Baked goods, fancy dinners, candy and cookies. Busy days, excuses not to run. I told myself “I’m in shape, I just ran three half marathons!” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was, as cartoonist Matt Inman would say,</span><a href="https://www.kuow.org/stories/why-creator-oatmeal-runs-blerch" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">giving in to the Blerch</span></a><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -- that inner voice that gives you all the great reasons not to exercise, to quit or not even try.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I all but stopped running more than once a week and some weeks I didn’t run at all. I gained eight pounds. I forgot to ask for the right days off from work --so I had three 12 hours night shifts scheduled right before the final run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">January 5 -</span><a href="http://www.ardoradventures.com/resolutionrun/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Newport Resolution Run and Polar Bear Plunge</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had only visited Newport, Oregon a few times and really didn’t know the town. I had no idea where we would be running. Since we started on the jetty, I assumed a nice run along the harbor and maybe across that beautiful bridge. I figured it would be cold and wet, but I was prepared for that. I figured I would be very slow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had no idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just a few miles into the run and the course veers up into the woods, narrow roads and muddy trails used by mountain bikes in better weather. I was still wearing my ultralight distance running shoes - no traction at all. I fell twice on steep and muddy trails and stopped to help other runners. Each run was 13.1 miles, but this one was much longer. The trail was well marked but I grew increasingly concerned that I was lost. My running app failed at the start so I had no idea how far I had run and there were no mile markers. I cursed every skipped training day and every cookie and cinnamon roll indulgence. I felt as fat and slow as the day I first started running. When the trail finally returned to pavement, and headed down out of the hills. I was mentally exhausted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet as I saw the bridge and the waterfront, I knew my goal was in reach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The end the race is 100 yards of sand dunes with a finish line at the beach and dip in the ocean. I fell again trying to get under a cable gate right before the dunes. Something about climbing the first sand dune froze the thigh muscle on my left leg. It wasn’t cramped, but it just wouldn’t work. I hobbled toward the finish line and didn’t stop, I hobbled toward the water. I didn’t jump in the storm-tossed surf -- I was worried that I would not be able to stand up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead I stood waist deep in the water and let the waves crash over me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s next</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ending like that, you would think I’d hang up my shoes for good -- but I like running, not so much for the races - which I’m never competitive - but the way it makes me feel. It is meditation in movement, a time to think and breath and turn off the world for a little while. It makes me feel like I have accomplished something each day I run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pursuing this goal -- running in these races -- was great and got me out of my rut and into the world in a new way, but what I realized is that it is the everyday running and training that I crave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Run Every Day -</span><a href="https://www.runtothefinish.com/should-you-run-everyday/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the streak</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Streaking” in the running world is not what you remember from the 1970s (if you remember the 1970s). Streaking is running every day for a minimum of one mile. Most days you are likely to run more, but depending on time and weather and all the other excuses, someday a mile is all you are going to accomplish. The key is putting on your shoes every single day for at least that one mile. I started the day my new Reeboks arrived and have only missed a day or two. I plan to start my official streak on my 50th birthday next week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My big goal is to run 500 miles - which is easy if I just aim for 10 miles each week. Somewhere along the way I want to get a streak going of 50 days of running or speed walking at least one mile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Copse; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have learned that goals aren’t about finish lines. Goals are about how you change your thinking on the path to achieving them.</span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-90515179423991583092019-01-03T22:38:00.002-08:002019-01-03T22:38:59.153-08:00Why We Must Love Old Dogs<span id="docs-internal-guid-4998d679-7fff-1c05-65ff-5080e3a78f63"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222223; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” – Agnes Sligh Turnbull</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes I worry about Lucky.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He sleeps late. He needs help coming down stairs, he doesn’t eat, spends the day curled up on the couch by the window, only occasionally looking outside at the rain. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet other days he is up early, eats a big breakfast and runs around the house with boundless energy, he goes for long walks out in the fields even in the pouring rain. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why waste a good day if only the weather is bad. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He does well for an old dog. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As far as we can tell, Lucky is 14 years old -- the first few years before we adopted him from </span><a href="https://mustlovedogsnw.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Must Love Dogs NW</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were eventful. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The story we were told was that he was hit by a car and lost an eye. Without the eye, he failed to see a train coming and lost a leg and his tail. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Three legs, one eye and no tail -- I like to say he’s only three-quarters dog. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were also told that he was a street dog in Thailand, brought back to US by a Veterinarian who met him on a medical mission trip. As one of the millions of so-called “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">soi dogs” </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he belonged to no one. This myth of him starting life half a world away is such a bizarre origin story that is must be true. Moreover, it fits with his personality. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like that </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mister-Dog-Belonged-Himself-Little/dp/0307103366" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Margaret Wise Brown </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">book “Mr Dog”</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Lucky doesn’t belong to us. He is the dog that</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> belongs to himself. When he was younger, he would just hop in any car that happened to be passing by. He is happy to follow a stranger home if they smell good and might offer him food. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No, we have never owned Lucky. Yet he has always owned the heart of my younger daughter Grace. Grace was just 4 years old when we got him and she was obsessed with him from the start. Her kindergarten teacher commented that he was all she ever talked about or drew pictures of. Over the years Grace and Lucky have appeared in so many pictures together that the Facebook algorithm automatically tags pictures of Grace as Lucky Hunt. They are, as best we can tell, the same age. Although her 14 years would be 98 years to him. They have spent a decade together. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She growing up, he growing old.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They have grown so close, I fear the day when he is no longer. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet Lucky is a tough one. Untroubled by the injuries early in his life he has always managed to run, jump and play. His left hind leg didn’t heal right and only has two toes. On hard surfaces he just lifts that bad leg and runs on the two right legs. As old as he is, on a good day he can still move pretty fast when he wants to. He still feels it is his job to protect his house.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> When I am 98, I hope I am still able to walk out in the fields on rainy mornings, marking my territory so the coyotes don’t dare come near. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lucky was never much interested in other dogs. He prefers to keep company with cats. We don’t judge. That’s just how God made him. He loves playing with cats -- and would often wrestle with them in his younger days. A few years ago, we picked out two siamese kittens from a neighbor and Lucky promptly adopted them, letting them sleep in his bed and knead his fur. Today the cats are full grown and almost bigger than he his. Yet, he’ll still grooms them when they come in from the rain. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The only dog I’ve ever seen him play with is Wendy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wendy is a yellow lab. She was just a puppy when she was given to my mom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Somehow, she latched on to me and decided that I was her favorite person. When I would come to visit, I’d get her undivided attention. Once the girls went down to The Dalles to visit mom while I was working and Wendy sat staring at the door waiting for me to come in. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When mom retired to the beach, Wendy moved out to the farm to live with us and thrived in her farm-dog years. She sits on the porch and alerts us to anyone who comes down the driveway, and helps me work on the motorcycles by licking my face whenever I get near the ground. She is a great outfielder when we play catch. She loves chasing the dirt bikes out the field and walks by the river.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I assumed that Labs all were born knowing how to swim. One time out on the farm I threw a stick out in the water and Wendy hesitantly jumped in - and sunk like a stone. She didn’t bob up dog paddling either. Instead she thrashed and staggered up on the riverbank, looking back at the water in horrified betrayal. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I had to teach her to swim down at the Covered bridge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lucky can swim -- although with the one front leg he tends to list to the left. While I was giving Wendy lessons, Lucky spotted a critter darting into a hole on the opposite riverbank. He took off across the water after whatever-it-was and clambered up the bank and into the hole.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whatever-it-was apparently wasn’t accepting visitors. Lucky came right back out, stranded crying on the river bank. With one eye, he lacks depth perception--getting down from places is tricky. So, I had to wade across to rescue him. Wendy eagerly thought she’d help, but halfway across panicked and tried to drown me. The girls got a great laugh watching this whole fiasco. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wendy’s getting older now too. She is not much younger than Lucky. She still has that lab-puppy smile but she moves at a walk instead of a run when playing fetch most days.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We all get older. Both humans and dogs are born with expiration dates printed somewhere in the weaving of our fates. As the years pile on, we all have good days and bad.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> It is the tragedy of our existence that dogs get older at a faster pace than we humans. Thus inevitably, the ever-constant love of a dog must one day become a memory. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet the mark they leave in our hearts is indelible all the same. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I struggle to write anything profound about dogs that hasn’t already been written. Dog wisdom has becomes its own literary genre of late. No surprise since we have had dogs at our side since the earliest campfires of our humanity. Scientists believe that </span><a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130302-dog-domestic-evolution-science-wolf-wolves-human/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we co-evolved with dogs</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> starting about 100,000 years ago. A good part of our evolutionary success is due to dogs watching over us at night and helping us on the hunt. Over the eons they have learned to </span><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/200904/why-are-humans-and-dogs-so-good-living-together" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anticipate what we want and need.</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> They have warmed us, warned us and helped us become who we are. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Along the way, dogs have distilled the emotion of </span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/7-reasons-dogs-make-the-best-life-companions_b_8870538" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">love into its purest form. </span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Older dogs like Wendy and Lucky still have much companionship to give. People often look for puppies when they want a dog, but senior dogs can be more social, calm and easier to adapt to your family. They are usually already house trained and less likely to chew up your shoes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet, no matter how old a dog gets, the well of their love never runs dry. </span></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-78529976743539515562018-11-25T20:17:00.002-08:002018-11-25T20:17:52.970-08:00No Camp-parison : How to Be A Happy Camper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“Comparison is the Thief of Joy”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-Theodore Roosevelt </span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-81d14360-7fff-61fa-d1e3-0c2704d1c625" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Expectation is the cruelest demon, able to trick us into missing the good that is all around. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When life fails to live up to our expectations -- to what we think it should be -- we can end up mourning our victories as if they were tragedies. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I thought about this as we pulled our little camp trailer down the highway one last time before the summer sun set. Already October, we had traveled more than 1200 miles dragging this 47 year old trailer behind us to adventures in the Columbia River Gorge and Washington State Fair. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we told the girls that we were getting a camper this year, I think they expected something modern with white fiberglass and slide outs that stretched -- like the accompanying monthly payments -- off into the horizon. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Instead we went frugal and bought something old and dented and small enough to easily park and maneuver in our limited driveway. A 1973 Prowler, it isn’t quite old enough to be “vintage” in the trendy sense of the word. Many of those campers from the 1950s and 60s are being restored by adventurous souls into fine displays of mid-century Americana. The so-called “Glampers” are decked out in retro style with an artist’s attention to detail. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ours is clean and dry and works. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our little Prowler won’t be on anyone’s Pinterest board anytime soon. I don’t think of it so much as a restoration but a resuscitation. When we brought it home it was primer gray on the outside and untouched oil embargo early-malaise 70s on the inside. It came with holes in the sheet metal, a broken water heater and bald tires. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The girls were not impressed. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My older daughter refused to even go in it. My happy camper younger daughter piled up the disappointing comparisons between what we bought and what we “should” have brought home. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Undaunted, I began a long list of repairs starting with the most essential and practical things needed before our first summer adventure. It was a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs -- shelter, warmth, running water, tires and a battery. My wife Amy set about plans to reupholster cushions. I put the girls to work spray painting the exterior in a brilliant blue so that it looked a little less like a forlorn mushroom in our driveway.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In just a few weeks we had it safety-pinned and duct-taped together enough to camp in as the girls got out of school for summer. With each adventure we found some new thing that leaked, or broke or needed to be repaired. Indeed, It felt like a B-17 bomber returning from bombing runs over enemy territory with holes blasted in its side. On one trip, the bumper started falling off. On another, a full quart of milk fell out of the refrigerator and spilled and sloshed over every inch of the floor. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No sense crying. Camp on.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Through it all, we were warm and dry and almost always surrounded by newer nicer RVs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is amazing how content one can be when you refuse to compare yourself to others. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We didn’t expect to have our camper Pinterest-perfect in time for summer. We didn’t </span><a href="https://www.becomingminimalist.com/compare-less/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">compare ours to others</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> except with a laugh and a smile. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Such comparisons are far too easy to come by these days. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We live immersed in a wallow of social media, of Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest boards soaked in filtered photos and plucky performative ambition. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, I am old enough to remember the days before the internet when glossy magazines were just as effective at raising our expectations and lowering our self esteem. I still have well worn Wooden Boat and Flying magazines. I recall the projects of my 24 year old self. My landscaping didn’t look like Sunset Magazine. The Adirondack chairs I built used wood screws a millimeter too long, such that they poked through into your back when you sat on them. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In today's world we share “our story” online each day -- pictures that are the cropped and filtered highlight reels of our life. Now that we don’t have to send film to the photomat to be developed, we are free to take countless photos of every good thing that happens in our life -- sharing only the very best with family and friends around the world. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is not a bad thing unless you look at these photos and adventures and compare your own life unfavorably to those around you. It is when we compare ourselves to others or to our own cursed unrealistic expectations of what “should be” that we get into trouble. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Researchers have found that social media can be harmful accelerant of a common bad habit of mental hygiene -- comparing ourselves to others. AS David Baker a researcher at </span><a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2016.0206" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lancaster University who studied social media use and misuse in 14 countries</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> explained to </span><a href="https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/7xz9ed/comparing-yourself-to-facebook-friends-is-bad-news-for-your-mental-health" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Broadly magazine</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, such comparisons can increase anxiety and feelings of depression and decrease self esteem. Another bad habit is overthinking what you post. "Rumination--meaning you spend a lot of time overthinking your experiences online” also can cause anxiety and increase depression Baker explained.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, social media interactions could also be a force for good when it is used for connecting us with others around the world, sharing positive ideas and </span><a href="https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/12628-the-relationship-between-social-media-and-mental-health" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">celebrating good news. </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Fire can keep you warm or burn your house down. Like any tool, it is neither good or evil. It’s benefit depends on how it is used. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Too often, however, we unfairly compare these highlight reels with ourselves. Or we compare our experience to our unrealistic expectation of that experience. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We can never measure up in our imaginations. This creates resentment toward others as well as toward our own circumstances. These comparisons only serve to distract us from the meaning and experiences in our own lives. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I work in an Emergency Department in a tourist town near the ocean. No one plans a visit to the ER as part of their dream vacation. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, I see many of the moments that don’t make it onto the Instagram feeds. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One summer day years and years ago, a beautiful couple from Korea was married. On the first day of their honeymoon they flew to Portland, rented a car and drove to the Pacific Ocean. They arrived at the jetty and looked out over the crashing waves of the mighty Pacific.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In that picture perfect moment a nearby fisherman arched back his pole to cast and hooked the young bride in her nose. When they arrived in the ER, I was stunned by the beauty of the couple, they looked like supermodels in their tailored clothes. They could have been on the cover of a fashion magazine -- save for the hook in her nose with the bait still attached. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Life is unpredictable.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It almost never matches our expectations or well laid plans. We find ourselves in places we would never have imagined, sometimes, even better than we imagined. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We do well to make the best of what life throws at us, to smile and laugh and remind ourselves to be first and foremost thankful for what we have.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And that it could be worse.</span></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-7911881084158242018-10-23T08:56:00.000-07:002018-10-23T09:00:18.831-07:00Some of My Greatest Memories Are Uphill<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“In the beginning was the foot.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">-Marvin Harris</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of my greatest memories are uphill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Let’s go for a walk,” my dad would say. With the sky turning golden in the late summer sun we would hike up the trails to the top the hill, dad smoking his pipe tobacco as the sound of the diving nighthawks low-whistled in the crisping air. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the hills of the Columbia River Gorge all trails went uphill eventually. Where I lived the scrub oak would thin out toward the top as the trails doubled back and grew steeper. At last the view would open to reveal white-topped mountains and vistas worthy of postcards. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Climbing a trail through a forest, hiking to that payoff at the top is a pleasure I’m continually rediscovering. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">My hiking days started with my dad when I was young. Wherever he lives, he always knows the local trails. We were never formal hikers, with special boots and backpacks and planned excursions. It was always, “let’s take this trail and see where it goes.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walking is older than man. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In the beginning was the foot,” famed anthropologist Marvin Harris wrote. “Four million years ago, before speech or consciousness, our ancestors already walked erect on two feet.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We walked with our hands free to hunt and gather. We walked to follow game and lost the hair from our bodies in the African sun. As we walked, our brains grew bigger. As we walked, we spread across the planet to almost every corner -- on foot. Long before the common modes of horse or cart or car or train, we walked. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We walked to the top of mountains - in the Andes, the Alps and the Himalayas -- and built cities in the clouds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anything which ceases to be necessary, soon becomes either art or recreation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Such was the case with hiking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In rural areas, walking a trail through the woods is still often a necessity - for hunting or fishing, for work in the forest. Walking a trail for the sake of the experience is different, a byproduct of the increasingly urban landscape that developed with the Industrial Revolution. In Europe the Pilgrimage trails and market footpaths that lead from village to village became embraced by pioneers like </span><a href="https://www.schwarzwald-informationen.de/persoenlichkeiten/philipp-bussemer.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Phillip Bussemer</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who </span><a href="https://bnn.de/nachrichten/suedwestecho/westweg-ist-ein-klassiker-dank-philipp-bussemer" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">promoted and published</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> some of the first hiking guides through Germany’s Black Forest at the end of the 19th century. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In some ways, hiking is a true “swords into ploughshares activity.” It this country, it was the </span><a href="https://pmags.com/on-the-trail-a-history-of-american-hiking" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">surplus of sturdy shoes and camping equipment</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> after the Civil War that first lead to a discovery of the outdoor pleasures of hiking in the wilderness to an increasingly urban and affluent America. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The creation of the National Park system and the construction of trails by recreation clubs and later the Civilian Conservation Corps ensured that these vistas were preserved and trails were maintained. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Interest in hiking has increased after each subsequent major conflict with a boom particularly after World War II. Special equipment replaced the surplus gear, guidebooks mapped out trails and advised trekkers. Generations of scouts discovered the joys of walking in nature. Some have argued that the more divorced and urban the lifestyle, the more novel and enriching the experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">These days ,of course, have progressed beyond written hiking guides to internet sites with detailed photos and videos of the hike. Now you know what you are getting into even before you leave the warm comfort of your home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet there are still surprises, still vistas worth ascending to discover. Vistas to which no photo can do justice, because the hike itself is somehow integral to experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walking -- if not hiking -- has always been a part of my life -- even back when I didn’t venture out to explore all these wonderful trails. I have spent many a day walking the fields with dogs. Even in my sedentary desk-job days, when I would spend 60 hours a week on the internet, I made time most days to walk the riverbank near my home rain or shine to clear my head before writing. This last decade my work has been more active - nursing is hours of walking. Amy and I have taken up running, which has improved our stamina and opened our horizons to what we are capable of achieving. True northwesterners, the weather doesn’t discourage us, but we stick to lower elevations when the trails get slick and muddy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Hell is to walk with me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As my wife and daughters can attest, my short legs still somehow stride long and quickly, trudging aggressively when there is a hill to climb. I like hiking, I like climbing a trail that curves through a forest, or under a waterfall. My favorite hikes are those that climb above tree lines at their climax, rewarding tired legs with an endless view. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whenever we go on vacation, we find ourselves hiking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whether it is a </span><a href="http://www.bray.ie/cliff-walk-bray/" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bray Cliff Walk</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on the coast of Ireland, or the</span><a href="https://www.outdooractive.com/en/hiking-trail/black-forest/wasserfallsteig-trail-for-waterfall-lovers-/3589013/#dmdtab=oax-tab2" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Wasserfallstieg</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the Black Forest of Germany to the </span><a href="https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/north-carolina/stone-mountain-loop-trail" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stone Mountain</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> trail of North Carolina, it seems we always find a hike whenever we travel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet Amy and I find we don’t need to travel far to find great hikes. Some of the most amazing trails are right in our backyard. Washington and Oregon parks are filled with paved paths through the dunes and along the coast for those days when we’d rather hike on flat trails with the music of ocean waves crashing in our ears. The paved trails at Ft Stevens are wonderful and take you through all sorts of habitats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As our legs have grown stronger, we have recently become more ambitious, climbing to the top of </span><a href="https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/sleeping-beauty-peak" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sleeping Beauty</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on Mt Adams - where you are so high you can see the wheat fields of Oregon from it’s rocky top. Just a year ago, we were at </span><a href="https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Coldwater_Lake_Loop_Hike" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coldwater Lake on Mt St Helens</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> exploring the fall colors under a bluebird sky. We were unable to hike the whole loop - so that gives us an excuse to go back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This past Spring, Amy and I finally conquered a wildflower-crowned </span><a href="https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/oregon/saddle-mountain" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saddle Mountain</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - the clouds clearing as we ate a lunch of apples at the top of the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have only begun to hike. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have a running list of trails that we want to explore and God willing, years to explore. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Four decades later, my dad is still hiking miles at a time, still climbing mountains when he can. Sitting in a car is harder on him than putting a half-dozen miles under his 80 year old feet. More often he takes the dogs for a hike on the trails behind his house. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is always a bit of magic on a trail through the forest whether it is behind your house of halfway around the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It is always a good day for a hike. </span></div>
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<br />Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-746293960511963302018-10-05T07:14:00.000-07:002020-05-10T05:22:52.285-07:00 Raising Cowgirls - The Real Kind<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are lucky, you will have a moment when you realize that your child is becoming strong and independent and confident in the best possible way. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have that moment captured in a <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/XMG7qwBiHZcXSyyB6" target="_blank">series of pictures.</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taken a few years ago in the haze of 100 degree heat and wildfire smoke mixed with the dust of an eastern Washington show arena, the pictures show my ballerina-slim daughter Lindsay facing off with a 1100 pound show cow that has had </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">enough</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The cow is trying to yank the halter rope out of her hands and run out of the arena, but Lindsay sets the heels of her boots in the dirt and tightens her grip. In one of the photos, you can see Lindsay flying up off the ground while the cow tries to get the better of her, but in the final photo, you see the cow following obediently, while Lindsay wears a big smile. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjX-4CgWJY3deWPu__srHSwHYC1Xd2RikLpxB-cK8ov9goQkIm607AxZQiKCmVpHdBx14GaH1fgU3MHfs1ypr7cg5yrc5kB3PB-K2j7yK8jcFLiE2_52Z5qZNP3Eg31y_RBfx_GVc4DW0/s1600/IMG_5310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjX-4CgWJY3deWPu__srHSwHYC1Xd2RikLpxB-cK8ov9goQkIm607AxZQiKCmVpHdBx14GaH1fgU3MHfs1ypr7cg5yrc5kB3PB-K2j7yK8jcFLiE2_52Z5qZNP3Eg31y_RBfx_GVc4DW0/s400/IMG_5310.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are outweighed by an animal 10 to one, your only advantages are confidence, courage and determination. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have cow shows to thank for that. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Around the country kids are getting their animals ready for fair. 4H and FFA are youth programs that help guide and grow young minds through dedication to community </span><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/complicated-growth-4-h-180964191/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">service and innovation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> through hands-on learning. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More than 100 years ago, </span><a href="https://4-h.org/about/history/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4H started</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as a way to introduce reluctant farmers to new agriculture techniques through youth projects that showed real-world results. For generations, these programs have formed core experiences for not only future farmers but for </span><a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2017/07/a-brief-history-of-4-h-a-visual-timeline/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">future community leaders as well.</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lindsay started at the tiny Wahkiakum county fair when she was 10 with bottle-fed polled hereford bull calf named Bozo. He was a handful, but she learned quickly how to not let him push her around. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Since then she has shown heifers - female cows that haven’t had their first calf. These are older and bigger than that first bull-calf -- usually a little short of two years old, pregnant and over 1000 pounds. Quite a bit bigger than the kids showing them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Since Nelson Polled Herefords is focused on improving the bloodlines of the breed, showing off heifers promotes the health and quality of the animals. Lindsay’s second year showing we were invited over to Eastern Washington to a show called the Summer Sizzle in Connell. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It was a little taste of big time livestock shows where farm kids from around the state compete with their animals to earn money for college. It was hot and dusty, a lot of sitting around in the barn waiting, punctuated by a crescendo of the behind the scenes controlled-chaos leading up to tense moments in the show arena. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Despite the hours of training to get here, you never know if your animal is going to act up in the ring in a way that it never did back home. Nervous trauma-nurse dad paced the ring-side those first few years, picturing worst case scenarios. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">However, the girls - first Lindsay, then younger sister Grace - love it. They loved being in the barn with other farm girls, taking care of their animals’ feed and water as well as washing and blow dry. They love learning from Leslie Bennett - the Connell 4H leader - as well as the older kids who show them what to do and what the judges want to see. Somehow, while this is fierce competition with big money on the line, everyone is helpful, supportive and kind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Leslie Bennett is the granddaughter of the famous Bill Bennett of <a href="http://www.bbcattle.com/" target="_blank">BB Cattle Company </a>which has partnered with <a href="http://www.hanknelsonherefords.com/" target="_blank">Nelson Polled Herefords</a> for the past 30 years. Bennetts have been a part of 4H for a long time. Sitting around their kitchen table eating grapes and watermelon this year, we picked out a young Bill and wife Norma in a photo from 4H conference at Washington State University in 1948. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We don’t win. The style these days is for a different type of animal and the kids we are showing against have mountains more experience under their belt from the summer show circuit. For our heifer, it is often their first chance in a show ring. Yet the girls love it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For both cows and kids it is a good warm-up for the county fair in August. The beef barn was empty that first year we brought little Bozo to fair. In the years since we’ve seen a little resurgence as more kids and cows come in. Lindsay and Grace have been good ambassadors for the 4H and for their cows. The heifers are so gentle and tame by fair time that they lay down and let the girls cuddle with them in the straw. Last year, Lindsay and Grace even took their cows to state fair. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After fair, the bond between the girls and their animals remains such that they can walk up to the old show cows in the field and pet them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Lindsay will be a senior next year. She’s spent the last two years as a statewide 4H Ambassador, traveling all over the Northwest promoting the benefits of 4H and organizing camps and conferences for teenagers like the one Bill and Norma Bennett attended way back in 1948. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you ask her what gave her the confidence to do the things she does, she always points you back to training and showing cows and lessons learned along the way. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-87191093636733809342018-10-05T06:43:00.000-07:002018-10-05T06:48:06.523-07:00Touching Base: Finding Renewal in the Wild of Younger Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBrKMFzzcMviVne4qe-eohpXj8A2evbgqZgjKbwe0ZrIV7xr9OHbv_ksSmgZicIZ1y7CSrpek69yuyF0KtguooCTvEZH-nKrEdZ8X5Z7tldEl-EBFdbLFX3_WfQjaJE4RJ9CX-LqgHfOo/s1600/IMG_20180824_180606_571.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBrKMFzzcMviVne4qe-eohpXj8A2evbgqZgjKbwe0ZrIV7xr9OHbv_ksSmgZicIZ1y7CSrpek69yuyF0KtguooCTvEZH-nKrEdZ8X5Z7tldEl-EBFdbLFX3_WfQjaJE4RJ9CX-LqgHfOo/s400/IMG_20180824_180606_571.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And in my mind I still need a place to go</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">All my changes were there</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Neil Young, Helpless</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sometimes you can be connected to a place and returning to it can renew you. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My family immigrated to Washington state in 1978, packed into a Ford station wagon driving across the country from New Jersey. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I like to joke that my parents saw the movie “The Adventures of the Wilderness Family” one too many times. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The courses of our lives are guided by decisions and events much more complicated than that. Yet it would be futile to gather all the scraps for circumstance that led us from the suburbs of New Jersey -- sight unseen -- to the rugged architecture of the Columbia River Gorge. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To a nine year old boy, our family expedition from “flat land and brown air” in the Spring of that year seemed like an endless summer vacation. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQc1rzDj8qu3eRMRAwOt-_foV9LymhL783MzIBJPIbVTehlGRvFS9Ke9BGqh5makPKcUMkcrNfjVAmPzzHWiFC31XcZgUTHJsAUpVEq8Yfa_meRGzSMSJ8Ta-gCEqMY6_sykvrGw0Jcz4/s1600/farm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="1005" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQc1rzDj8qu3eRMRAwOt-_foV9LymhL783MzIBJPIbVTehlGRvFS9Ke9BGqh5makPKcUMkcrNfjVAmPzzHWiFC31XcZgUTHJsAUpVEq8Yfa_meRGzSMSJ8Ta-gCEqMY6_sykvrGw0Jcz4/s320/farm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our farm in Lyle as it looked when we first moved there in 1978.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Salamanders in the spring house, hidden fields and arrowheads, horseback rides along the windswept bluffs to abandoned farmsteads, evening walks with my father to the top of the hill to count the pink mountains almost close enough to touch. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When you are a child, you experience joy often, and appreciate it only rarely. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Each year I bring my family back to the little town in the Columbia River gorge where I grew from a child to a man. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even though I lived nine years on the East Coast before we moved there, I always say I “grew up” in this place. I only lived there for a dozen years. I have long since grown much deeper roots in the rainshadow green of the Grays River Valley. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yet the rings on my tree are etched deeper and wider in those Gorge years somehow. The decade between nine and 19 is packed with so many changes -- including how we come to understand the world as something greater than our own experience -- we cannot help but be changed by it. As much rambling joy and adventure I had in the hills around Lyle, Washington, I experienced just as much fear, awkwardness and embarrassment and alienation. Yet that has faded over time, wounds have healed and joy remains.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It comes back to me on the August wind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We started a tradition -- I don’t know how it came to be -- of having our picture taken in a certain spot along the Klickitat river. We’ve been coming to this place since Lindsay was in diapers. This year she is a senior in high school.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The waters of the Klickitat are fed from the glaciers of the mountains. Each year I dip my hat in the cold water and place it on my head, rebaptizing myself in the moment of geologic suspension. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I can flip though the old photographs and see our changes. The river is sometimes lower, sometimes higher, forcing us to climb a bit more up onto the rocks. Yet, the hills are ageless against our microscopic timelines. Years are seconds to them, too numerous to bother with counting. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once upon a time I rode my horse through these hills and knew the trails without name. Once upon a time, my sister taught me to drive along these backroads. Here was the old junkyard where my little league baseball coach lived, here the school bus would stop to the let the trains go by. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Gone now gone. Gone to a memory that has to hold on to rails to steady itself until it gets its bearings. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On a basalt plateau above the Columbia River hides a curling trail that dives into the scrub oak and yellow grass and dares the great cliffs that judge the changes in the windswept white-capped waters. Catherine Creek is a little preserve that was first set aside the year I graduated high school. Before that we called this place “rattlesnake flats” or graydigger flats because flattened fauna that littered the asphalt of the long straight of lonely road. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My father moved back to New Jersey after just five years in the Gorge -- in some ways, against his will. Life had other plans for him. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yet each time he comes out to visit, he brings his wife and kids and grandkids to Kathrine Creek, to hike among the wildflowers on the windy cliffs. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Until this year, I had never stopped. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I stopped, I understood. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For in our experience, this place preserves the distilled essence of the Gorge I remember, before the wineries and windsurfers. Yellow grass clings to lichen-pocked basalt, while wildflowers grow in the cracks of the rocks or the shade of huddled scrub oak. Wind on endless warm wind braces you. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When you live in the Gorge, the wind becomes a part of the landscape such that you don’t notice it -- ever present in every August afternoon. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We take our childhoods for granted, they are so often a mix of unmet expectations, underappreciated joys and careless dreams. The summers of our lives can seem so busy that even a lazy day in a hammock can need a week’s worth of planning. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">August - particularly in window of time after the fair and before the start of school -- we try to squeeze a lot of adventures into the little time we have left. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Carpe Summer” I say -- a crude variation of Carpe Diem - latin for seize the day.” </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">September will be no less busy. Yet, it has a different tone and rhythm. The rains will come as early as October, and there is much around the house that needs to be done. I can sense the change each year on the drive back from the Gorge. Sun sets earlier, the mornings have chill. Early fallen leafs swirl along the side of the road. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You can feel the end of summer looming, but still, but still. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Septembers of our lives come with a suddenness that staggers. So much still to be done before winter sets in. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is important to touch base even now and again, to take a quiet moment in a wild place of our younger selves -- to appreciate all the days that have been given to us as well as to marvel at our survival thus far. </span></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-30426144506727520932018-08-10T10:40:00.000-07:002018-08-10T10:40:56.112-07:00One Man's Fight Against Entropy<span id="docs-internal-guid-1f32cc08-7fff-7d21-b80d-3ecf5e4de05e"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m a dented-tank kind of guy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like fixing things, bringing them back from the dead or disrepair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I say dented-tank because when I bought my third motorcycle I had a choice - I could have bought a garage queen - a bike that lived its life under cover, ridden on weekends and never seeing a drop of rain or mud. My other option was a bike that had been ridden hard, that had a lot of miles cross country running up from Texas by way of the California coast. I bought the bike that had survived the miles of life and had stories to tell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I bought the bike with the dented tank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like restoration, even though I’m not much of a details person. I hold no illusion that I’m any good at it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, I love reviving old things that have begun on their path of increasing entropy. It is my way of fighting the deterioration of the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guess I do my best to fix people too in my chosen career. As a nurse in the Emergency Department, people come in sick and I make them better -- or get them to someone else who can. It is the nature of emergency nursing to identify the problem and find a solution. It is the same process as repairing an old motorcycle or fixing plumbing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I call it instant gratification nursing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our house is over a hundred years old. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we bought it 25 years ago, entropy had settled in and made itself at home. Renters had occupied the house for several years, the roof leaked and windows were broken out of their weathered double-hung frames, the plumbing was mostly strung-together hot water heater hoses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet the bones were good. Amy and I -- married only a year at that point -- moved in with the ambitions of nesting newlywed couple. We bought old handyman books from thrift shops -- since newer books really didn’t apply to our lathe and plaster walls. We taught ourselves as we went -- this in the days before Youtube and the Internet. Through years of sweat equity we brought it back to life - saved it from rotting away and being dragged to the ground by blackberry vines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first year was cold and drafty and damp, hard work made the house warm and cozy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taking something broken and fixing it gives an addicting kind of satisfaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the girls were younger, they wanted electronic games that I was just too cheap to buy new. So I bought used ones with broken cases and loose wires, repaired them using videos on Youtube and instructions on <a href="http://ifixit.com/"><b>Ifixit.com</b></a> and <b><a href="https://www.instructables.com/" target="_blank">Instructables</a>.</b> Compared to my old 1960s Handyman books, the internet is a Godsend. Instant access to people who have diagnosed the problem and found a solution -- people with more knowledge and skills than I have. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some early Apple ipods were easy to repair - so I could buy a used one for a couple bucks and have it working like new in a rainy afternoon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, manufacturers have worked to keep repair information secret and limit access to parts in recent years. These companies make more money if you throw away something that is broken and buy a new one. If you simply fix it when it is broken, they don’t profit - unless you pay them to fix it. Increasingly, companies fight green standards that enable the repair, reuse recycling and product life extension of electronics. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Companies like Apple and Microsoft will go out of their way to make sure people can’t re-use or extend the life of their products. </span><a href="https://gizmodo.com/e-waste-innovator-will-go-to-jail-for-selling-windows-r-1825518742" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eric Lundgren</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a California electronic waste recycler has gone to jail for making copies of restore disks that always get lost when you buy a computer. The discs were based on free information online and would only work with valid licenses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, Lundgren made it so people could reuse old computers. So <a href="http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/05/why-is-eric-lundgren-in-prison-for-copying-dell-restore-cds.html" target="_blank">Microsoft went after him in federal court.</a> Lundgren <a href="https://mashable.com/2018/06/07/microsoft-right-to-repair-eric-lundgren-pr-nightmare/" target="_blank">was sent to jail. </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple only made ipod batteries available after losing a class action lawsuit. I’ve been repairing Apple products for decades, but recently Apple customer service told me they wouldn’t help me restore a phone -- even though I was the legal owner and was fully in compliance with their published policies on the matter. It wasn’t stolen or lost, they just wanted me to throw away a perfectly good working phone because they’d rather sell me a new one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I worked on cars when I was younger, but living in this rural area, we were often too dependent on our vehicles to trust my meager knowledge and skills. I mostly leave essential transportation to the professionals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, newer cars are heavily dependent on computers. These computers have on-board diagnostics, but car companies try to limit access to the tools to read the codes as well as access to the tools to repair the cars themselves. They want you to bring your car to the dealer so they can make the money on the repairs -- but you own the car, you should be able to bring it to an independent shop -- or fix it yourself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Right to Repair laws would make it so I can fix the things that I own without begging the manufacturer for permission. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Federal automotive Right to Repair legislation has been languishing under discussion for years. However, Repair.org lists 17 states that have introduced “<a href="https://repair.org/stand-up/" target="_blank">Right to Repair</a>” legislation requiring companies to make parts and manuals available to local shops and product owners. The legislation would also prevent use of software locks to block repairs or from remotely bricking electronics that use aftermarket parts. When it comes to electronics, however, Washington state </span><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/26/washington-state-bill-ban-hard-to-repair-electronics/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">has gone a step further</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with House Bill 2279. That bill would prohibit the sale of electronic products designed “to prevent reasonable diagnostic or repair functions by an independent repair provider," Designing products so they are difficult to repair or reuse "helps accelerate the path of those devices to the waste stream,” explained Washington state Rep Jeff Morris to </span><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zmqa49/washington-right-to-repair-iphone-cpu-throttling" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Motherboard magazine. </span></a><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So we're trying to keep the philosophy our state is behind, which is recycle, repair, reuse." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, I’m taking a break from old motorcycles and electronics. My latest project is a 1972 camper that needs some TLC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, there were a few others out there and for a little more money I could have had something newer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Something that didn’t come with a leaky roof, dents and faded paint. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guess it is a bad habit, but darn it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I buy something, I should be able to fix it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like fighting entropy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.-30-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
</span>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-51748108082705207142018-05-14T20:15:00.000-07:002018-05-14T20:15:07.065-07:00Ships Ashore<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB9-Lv0ufrsWs8QK0PKmzn2MbcE8prLvIErxQjolkTIFfxa2AD-EkzQNyIFGXhMmpfej3oCHD3V-AYnDb14B7NaBH_jQz85H8gapy6KzCiyed4CIPk71Tf4gOcjjas4BGpSgjp4J8-4s4/s1600/IMG_Dallas_20180423_223928_processed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB9-Lv0ufrsWs8QK0PKmzn2MbcE8prLvIErxQjolkTIFfxa2AD-EkzQNyIFGXhMmpfej3oCHD3V-AYnDb14B7NaBH_jQz85H8gapy6KzCiyed4CIPk71Tf4gOcjjas4BGpSgjp4J8-4s4/s320/IMG_Dallas_20180423_223928_processed.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I was growing up 200 miles from the ocean, my strongest memory of the coast <span style="font-weight: 400;">was a rainy spring break when we came down to the beach. I remember walking around the Ilwaco boatyard looking at the old trawlers and dreaming.</span></span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-d697ffa6-61c4-ac60-6a73-c44576dc593f" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Out of the water, ships loom over you, paint maybe chipping and their brightwork weathered, but still they somehow promise adventure. The ragged bones of old ships are like kneeling giants above you. They seem full of stored kinetic energy, balanced as impossibly on wood blocks and spindly jack stands.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I remember dreaming of taking one of these old boats and making it into a home on the water. Such a vagabond life, roving the 70 percent of the earth covered with oceans, was a seductive dream to a small town boy with a river at his front door. My brother and I had dreams of living on Marine Drive houseboats and careers as airline pilots. A gypsy life in a big world. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet, a little taste of experience can snuff out the ambitions of ignorance in a 14 year old boy.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In college I went up to Alaska to earn money. Between herring and salmon, we were shut down and a group of us hounded the foreman for jobs to keep us working. Otherwise, we’d end up deep in debt to the company store by the time salmon season finally arrived. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Naknek Country Club is what we called ourselves. We had occupied a vacant room in the dorm with wool-blanket carpet and blacked out windows. We mixed “punch” with ice from the freezer house walls in a plastic tote. We got a reputation for working hard at any job they would throw at us. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This included painting a boiler while it was still running -- the lead would run out of the paint before it could dry, and cleaning up a mountain of discarded boat batteries that leaked acid onto our raingear. Our biggest job, however, was cleaning up the 82 foot fishing tender </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sable</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sable</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> had gone down with both engines running and filled with a slime of diesel. Hauled up on a beach near the South Naknek cannery, it was our job to get her clean before she could be inspected by the Coast Guard and hopefully refloated. She was an World War II wood hull minesweeper - converted to a fish tender that took salmon from smaller boats on the fishing ground of Bristol Bay. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She was hauled up on the beach and completely out of the water with the low tide. Shipwrights were already working on the hole on the right side of her bow. Someone had taken a Sharpie and changed her name to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dis-Sable-D</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Clothed in an absorbent white bunny suit, we scraped the oil slime off the walls and floors, out of cabinets and every conceivable surface. It had worked its way all over down below. Finally, we drew straws for who would crawl into the bilge. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the Sable, the bilge was a narrow trench on either side of the keel -- the lowest part of the ship where water is collected. The trench ran the length of the ship and was maybe 20 inches deep and two feet wide. Here the slime was thick and a little green, the diesel smell strong. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2nZNgw5KWs9sO-JZALokkfwuodgIXIQShbn3YAh7b6ygxN0aJR1au-XxF_oDh1APxYCTqYygBgN-75XKJv8P901OgQl-oMA1i6DvAYvmF4IgcQ6kBvNuzxSY8sCamCC707DXt69hxFI/s1600/IMG_20180421_180557756_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2nZNgw5KWs9sO-JZALokkfwuodgIXIQShbn3YAh7b6ygxN0aJR1au-XxF_oDh1APxYCTqYygBgN-75XKJv8P901OgQl-oMA1i6DvAYvmF4IgcQ6kBvNuzxSY8sCamCC707DXt69hxFI/s400/IMG_20180421_180557756_HDR.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I drew the short straw. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had to squeeze in on my chest, the space so tight that my shoulders couldn’t move. I used an empty cat food tin to scrape up the slime and dump it into a plastic cottage cheese container. When the container was full, they would pull me out by my ankles, my absorbent coveralls scraping the walls of the bilge clean like a human Q-tip. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Something about that job made me realize that these old boats probably had not only endless stories to tell, but an endless amount of work, as well. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Through our efforts, the Sable was refloated in time for salmon season. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A year later, however, it burned to the water line and sank in Bristol bay. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Sable’s fiery death was at least more dignified than the derelict vessels that die of neglect and sink at their moorings in harbors and rivers along the coast. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Large boats and </span><a href="http://juneauempire.com/state/news/local/2018-04-17/fight-against-derelict-boats-may-cost-boat-owners" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ships have a</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> lifecycle - they are sold from owner to owner and as they age, the sale price drops because they become more expensive to keep afloat. Their cheap price means they often end their lives in the hands of people with not enough financial resources to fix their problems, which leads to abandonment. Coastal states have established derelict vessel </span><a href="http://www.chinookobserver.com/co/local-news/20180307/cost-to-raise-old-tuna-boat-188000" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">removal programs</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but these efforts struggle to keep up with hundreds of ageing, abandoned boats. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Since that time, I still like to drive by the boatyard if I have a few minutes. I’ve talked with people who have brought old boats back to life -- people with more stubbornness and money than I ever possessed. I admire their dedication and I am always gladdened to see an old workboat being restored to functional condition. Best of all is when I boat I’ve watched progressively restored finally disappears from the Boat Yard. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back in the water, I think, where she belongs. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet when I come home, it is to my old house -- 101 years old and still standing strong and bone dry in the winter mist. For an old house is like a ship at anchor, and our ambitions and sweat equity have been converted into restoring this leaking weatherbeaten ship into a warm home that will stay afloat in any storm. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we bought this house 25 years ago, the roof leaked and the windows were broken, the paint was peeling off the cedar shingles. We spent weekends and evenings scraping and painting, repairing and replacing. It is solid now, and I count myself lucky to have been anchored here for so long. This ship has allowed me to raise a family and know they are going to be safe and dry no matter how strong the winds, or how deep the waters. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On a sunny spring day, I drive by the Ilwaco Boatyard to admire the hope and enterprise of the boats blocked up on the dry land. The yard is a hive of activity, repairs are underway, somewhere a Skill saw is screaming. Fresh white paint makes the old boats shine in the sun. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Old boats live to float and will do so if given even half a chance. </span></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-29867812772168280972018-04-07T15:13:00.001-07:002018-04-07T15:13:41.393-07:00New Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxc0RQQdMwg1eLF3a8PYcHtxMIQtDZsB9WdgMrnSfC99o3_yknUb_Yw3pbBTtkFH7Q3jbYY6C-LhoE9lvvR30IfWFQg71FJ9JFNicQofYQRoUww1FEDWULSbYz0h65S_I94kIV5VuCKnA/s1600/IMG_1644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxc0RQQdMwg1eLF3a8PYcHtxMIQtDZsB9WdgMrnSfC99o3_yknUb_Yw3pbBTtkFH7Q3jbYY6C-LhoE9lvvR30IfWFQg71FJ9JFNicQofYQRoUww1FEDWULSbYz0h65S_I94kIV5VuCKnA/s400/IMG_1644.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Daffodils are stubborn optimists.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They thrust their heads toward the sky when it is still frustratingly winter. A glancing sliver of sunlight between gunmetal clouds is enough to fill them with dreams of spring.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Too often their butter-yellow heads are bowed and battered by hail or snow.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Still they promise something in the thin light of winter days. Often they are too early to seem anything more than a cruel joke.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-p1" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When the grass is not yet green, and the trees are still naked skeletons stark against the wool-filtered light, the rain slants sideways and swirls in the wind. From high branches, bald eagles stalk smelt running in the dull waters of Grays River.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="m_2238551122517053025gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For the past 25 years I’ve owned in an old house across the field from my father-in-law, Hank Nelson. Each year I’ve had the opportunity to watch new life amid the green fields of the Grays River Valley. Here, the Nelsons have raised polled Hereford cattle for four decades.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It often feels still winter-gripped when the first calf is born at Nelson Polled Herefords.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The house is 100 years old now, but boasts big windows looking out over the fields. Often the cows will find a little shelter against the blackberry bushes to have their calf, but we keep a keen eye for the bright white of their new faces.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is best to catch a new calf on their first day of life, for they stand quickly after they are born, so their mothers can clean them off and warm them up. Within a day, they will be quick enough that catching them will be tricky without a rope or shepherd’s hook. Each calf is tagged with a bright yellow tag and they are given a number: the year of their birth, and the order of their birth in that year. Thus 1801 is the first calf of 2018 and so on.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The ear tag is like a pierced ear, the daffodil yellow makes it easy to determine if a calf has already been tagged as we walk through the fields.</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Their mothers nose close to you while you are tagging them and giving them a little pro-biotic, but our polled Herefords are naturally hornless and are renowned for their gentle nature. Moreover, many of these cows were 4H show heifers in years past. My daughters still know them and call them by name.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nature’s trick</span></b></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It seems the weather gets better as the calves in the field become more numerous.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In truth, a warm early spring day sends a signal to the mothers that the time is best to bring new life into the world.</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">University of Arkansas researchers found that more spring calves are born when barometric pressure is high. Increasing barometric pressure discourages rain and helps ensure dryer weather. Animals take their cue from these weather changes to give their offspring a better chance at life.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nature’s trick is to be born after the worst storms of winter, but early enough to grow strong and healthy before the next winter comes. The earliest-born calves might come on a dark day, but they may also have much longer to grow and thrive.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It doesn’t take long before the fields are filled with an entertaining herd of spry little calves that run with a gentle rocking motion and seem to weigh nothing in the face of gravity. They run at the slightest excuse and sometimes with no excuse at all. They race each other, they chase each other, they explore the world, pink little nose to pink little nose. They climb dirt piles to get a better look or play king of the mountain. They meet each other hours after birth and make fast friends.</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Calf races are the best to watch, and we often stare captivated as the story plays out in front of us. One calf will get another started, another will nudge a socially awkward friend to join in, soon all of them will be running around the field, fearless, and in no direction at all.</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nearby an old babysitter cow might keep watch as their mothers graze a little further away, finding nutrition in the sugar-rich spring grass.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK0AtMKU4SnOd_QDlrAAKlAoQq22XOMRU40SRY5ay-xjg890cUOL8brU1LTxG3ZMDu_dusVzdMBYuKUoSonBv9JNslsmw9FNjhlqC8KhKcmbxZFq3FiB-iXouO6rG6RceL8MRnaoYw8oU/s1600/IMG_2092.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK0AtMKU4SnOd_QDlrAAKlAoQq22XOMRU40SRY5ay-xjg890cUOL8brU1LTxG3ZMDu_dusVzdMBYuKUoSonBv9JNslsmw9FNjhlqC8KhKcmbxZFq3FiB-iXouO6rG6RceL8MRnaoYw8oU/s320/IMG_2092.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Life is a struggle</span></b></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Spring here is a fickle thing. A cloudless day may be followed by a bone-chilling dark wind and soaking rain. Cold darkness following a glorious early spring day can snuff the feeble light of your hope for outdoor hikes and garden planning. Resigned, you tell yourself, “It is still only March,” and this realization makes summer seem so much further away.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We all have to live through the darkness of winter, and it is still winter yet.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even if a day here or there is sunny.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No matter the buds on the trees and the iridescent clover lighting up the fields, we know well enough that there are months of wet and mud and struggle stretching out ahead.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The promise of new life keeps us going.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is why new life is so prominent a symbol of the Easter season. In high latitudes, where winter is cold and freezing and sunlight a meager ration, most animals try to tie their reproduction to the promise of plenty that comes with the spring. Baby chicks are in the feed stores, new goats and lambs begin to appear in the fields of neighboring farms. New nests appear in the trees. Predator and prey, farm animal and wild — all adjust their evolutionary clocks to chime in the same season.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They do this not in celebration, but in resignation that life is not all sunshine, green grass and cloudless skies.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Life is a struggle. It is not as easy as a loping little calf in the field makes it look.</span></span></div>
<div class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12px;">
<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet maybe we can learn a little from the joy they bring to their first days.</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even in the pouring rain.</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-30-</span></span></div>
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<span class="m_-7390971363216997024m_189259888453734714gmail-s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can follow the all the new calf faces at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/1022131013/nelson-polled-herefords/" target="_blank">@nelson_polledherefords on Instagram</a> or at <a href="http://hanknelsonherefords.com/">HankNelsonHerefords.com</a></span></i></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-71350099773831395062018-03-29T16:53:00.000-07:002018-03-29T16:53:13.717-07:00On Running, Run On<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIsLFG3nAzbmQmFoCoIfJP-JoucAAAjiKhewgChDFLnZfFnvxpejjVVdUMDEAjMuLFn0S8Z5ESxLcVN0lVsq6I2dgtm2bbNKyebPrzBB-qmjcRG6vER65wma5VEqgCcgH49iylUXmd_U/s1600/IMG_6947.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIsLFG3nAzbmQmFoCoIfJP-JoucAAAjiKhewgChDFLnZfFnvxpejjVVdUMDEAjMuLFn0S8Z5ESxLcVN0lVsq6I2dgtm2bbNKyebPrzBB-qmjcRG6vER65wma5VEqgCcgH49iylUXmd_U/s640/IMG_6947.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The First Mile is a Liar</td></tr>
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<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em>I am not fast.</div>
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In high school, I got the nickname “Fast Eddie” because I was a sprinter. Short distances, I guess I was pretty fast. Fast enough to go to state on relay teams and in the 200 meters.</div>
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However, it was well understood that I did not run far.</div>
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Once I was punished for being late to practice. My high school track coach knew the worst thing he could make me do was run long distance, so he signed me up for the 3,200 meters in a meet. So many of the other runners passed me — lapped me — that the officials tried to get me to quit so they could all turn off the lights and go home.</div>
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I kept running.</div>
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My senior year I was faster than ever until a knee injury cut my season short. The only time in four years that I didn’t qualify for state. That was the end of running as far as I was concerned. I rode my bike, went to college and forgot about running.</div>
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When I became a nurse, something changed.</div>
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After years of writing at a desk 60 hours a week, I was fat and out of shape. My biggest challenge was sitting on the couch for three days watching adventure races on TV.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrTfDu4pT91telH6Qh_86CSwVF5aSEGJjzupd3BUznYAsLDK3j5YNGi81xTWI2muaRuBGbiKTzA7nrSxyLZrxmt8UkVStjhPt-NI2u_HblZg1OectOcDPruUvoWBDAhwhZHrROKp3Yfy4/s1600/IMG_6584.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrTfDu4pT91telH6Qh_86CSwVF5aSEGJjzupd3BUznYAsLDK3j5YNGi81xTWI2muaRuBGbiKTzA7nrSxyLZrxmt8UkVStjhPt-NI2u_HblZg1OectOcDPruUvoWBDAhwhZHrROKp3Yfy4/s640/IMG_6584.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This year I got to finally run with my mentor in nursing and running, <br />Col Wayne Van Hamme (ret) at right.</td></tr>
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But nursing is a job where I’m on my feet 12 hours a day. I found myself working in a busy emergency department where many of the nurses around me competed in triathlons, marathons and Iron Man competitions, even though they were a good deal older than me.</div>
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They inspired me to challenge myself.</div>
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Like my father, I was a walker and hiker, a trudger. Even in my desk job days, I’d try to get out and walk around the fields to breathe the fresh air and think.</div>
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Yet I hadn’t run at all in two decades. <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mistrust the first mile</strong></div>
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I set my sights on the Great Columbia Crossing — a 10K run across the Astoria Bridge. It seemed so daunting. I set up a 3-mile course on the backroads near Rosburg, Washington, and started — slowly — training.</div>
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It’s been said that “the first mile is a liar: Don’t trust it.” This runner’s expression means that your body tells you all sorts of things to get you to quit, to turn back. If you can power through all the voices of doubt, you can keep going.</div>
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If you can keep going, you’ll feel better, not worse.</div>
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For the first mile, my feet hurt and my lungs burned, but once the endorphins kicked in, all was forgiven. The first mile of anything is a mountain of doubt you have to climb if you want a better view.</div>
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I found the more I ran, the better I felt. Not just healthier, but better. Exercise is meditation and stress relief. I downloaded audiobooks and podcasts so I’d look forward to running time, so I’d run longer.</div>
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Running in the cold rain is challenging, to say the least. On the other hand, it is good to get outdoors and pound out the miles despite the conditions and darkness and mist. It’s fun to learn to laugh when the rain blows sideways as you near the farthest point from home. You can even pretend you are in a commercial selling expensive athletic gear as you splash through the puddles.</div>
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The first mile will try to seduce you with songs of comfort, but challenging yourself is uncomfortable by its very nature.</div>
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I survived that first Columbia Crossing in 2011, and kept running.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Running for me</strong></div>
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Early on, my wife, Amy, started running with me. We took the girls to run local races, and they have carried on into track and cross country. When we started, Amy and I would have to run slow so the girls could keep up, now they sprint ahead and leave us behind.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBcJGcxxB6S9rmpl8a1WYInddCvhYGsl67bHK4EdNyBhuTHfuVTPTj7fATDPkxjx2iTuFlSMUoTxT9x2PdTlE17_m6vwB1rXK69utdy663Y_1582hPKmQyCQYmPkg3LuU__frn-XXChts/s1600/IMG_1924.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBcJGcxxB6S9rmpl8a1WYInddCvhYGsl67bHK4EdNyBhuTHfuVTPTj7fATDPkxjx2iTuFlSMUoTxT9x2PdTlE17_m6vwB1rXK69utdy663Y_1582hPKmQyCQYmPkg3LuU__frn-XXChts/s640/IMG_1924.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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We especially like running the Shamrock run in Portland as a family, where we find ourselves in a great crowd of people, all shapes and sizes, moving on a chilly spring day. Most are not fast, but they are out there, and they are moving. Sometimes just putting your running shoes on and getting outdoors on a gray day … that can be as challenging as that first mile.</div>
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It was Amy’s idea to run our first half-marathon, something I could never have imagined. Since her instigation, I have completed the Battle to the Pacific half marathon three times. I’ve decided that it is my favorite distance. I’ve discovered that everyone has to find their own pace and their own race. Everyone has to create their own challenges and goals.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxmVtpgrwtAPogzG5i3H-ihKSi5dI6hG7t_YwY3bCIsB4Wbrrzn16pJQAaN5suAJ60nUtFAiN_gyZMOR18BPeTNo1svmEE7wsLD-sZtibVlR7eArgZfdL4NCg5aC3TLAGLimi-hcvhTg/s1600/IMG_4876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxmVtpgrwtAPogzG5i3H-ihKSi5dI6hG7t_YwY3bCIsB4Wbrrzn16pJQAaN5suAJ60nUtFAiN_gyZMOR18BPeTNo1svmEE7wsLD-sZtibVlR7eArgZfdL4NCg5aC3TLAGLimi-hcvhTg/s640/IMG_4876.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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I am not fast.</div>
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My goal is usually to not be dead last in whatever race I run, but I’m getting better.</div>
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“Better” is both a goal and ruler of relative success. It doesn’t matter how or what you’re doing, so long as you feel yourself getting better than before.</div>
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This month is my 49th birthday.</div>
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To celebrate my 50th year on the planet, I’m challenging myself to run four half marathons before my 50th birthday, which will get me a little more than 50 miles (not counting training and hiking). It’s just a little way to remind myself I’m still alive, and in better shape than I was a decade ago.</div>
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It probably doesn’t seem all that impressive a feat. After all, I have friends that run 50 miles in one go.</div>
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But I’m not running for you and I’m not competing with them.</div>
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I’m not competing with anyone.</div>
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I’m only running for me.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlMJA6PfuS_wS4v5v0DWzU3HYDPf6ehy4A0x9AjZbIHjoxWADLieTe4rzJZBk5yoV6ycbSv1yiTBf6Mjcq9g01qFZvL64WVt-gywFhk8ZjTXrB1jlcLdTg31YoZ4PlPKiCP6JT_oKnMCw/s1600/IMG_7088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlMJA6PfuS_wS4v5v0DWzU3HYDPf6ehy4A0x9AjZbIHjoxWADLieTe4rzJZBk5yoV6ycbSv1yiTBf6Mjcq9g01qFZvL64WVt-gywFhk8ZjTXrB1jlcLdTg31YoZ4PlPKiCP6JT_oKnMCw/s640/IMG_7088.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: custom-font, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-84385079115222719342018-01-14T01:47:00.003-08:002018-01-14T01:59:16.594-08:00The Heart At Center Court<span id="docs-internal-guid-a32637da-f41b-058a-e576-bc5a8ea8b192"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPBHPaiA-Tlv22YAgy1bnmgaE-Lon5ghzkJwhyphenhypheno_I7JZFJEK_MzBHbKaI3Rh_fpRfVhTLXTAb584EcUiyg3Po8Tr38EaN-3bx4A6UTtaZ7GAzdxHgzOvA9iQt3L3VDX9J4mT7fYhfa40M/s1600/Astoria+1917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="705" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPBHPaiA-Tlv22YAgy1bnmgaE-Lon5ghzkJwhyphenhypheno_I7JZFJEK_MzBHbKaI3Rh_fpRfVhTLXTAb584EcUiyg3Po8Tr38EaN-3bx4A6UTtaZ7GAzdxHgzOvA9iQt3L3VDX9J4mT7fYhfa40M/s320/Astoria+1917.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is dark and raining sideways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, there is warmth and life inside the gym. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honey colored wood glows and shines under the lights high above. Neighbors align themselves on long wooden benches close enough to visit and catch up, but most eyes are down on the floor where boys and girls run about in summer shorts and high top shoes on cold winter nights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Basketball knits little towns together. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Invented during a snowy Massachusetts December in 1891, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. James Naismith</span><span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s game was a way to keep restless athletes conditioned during the winter months. His superiors at the YMCA International Training School requested a game that was not too rough, would keep track and field athletes in shape without getting injured and could be played within a standard size gym.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The gymnasium came first, believe it or not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s hard to imagine a high school gym without basketball hoops, but I’ve been in some of those old gyms where the out-of-bounds line was just inches from the wall - built in the days before fast breaks and diving saves were likely to take a player careening out of bounds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Originally, things were a little different -- there was no dribbling, only passing. The first game was nine players on each side. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet even the first public game reportedly drew a few hundred people to watch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spread by the promotion of the YMCA, the game took root in the still largely agricultural United States. It spread to high schools outside of cities and found a special place in the hearts of little towns all over the Pacific Northwest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It required only 5 players, so small town schools could easily field a team. The equipment needs were not great - originally two peach baskets and a soccer ball - replaced in 1906 with metal hoops and nets and a “spalding ball.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At a time when the railroad was the fastest way across the country, basketball spread to every tiny town with a gymnasium -- and towns built gyms so they could play it. Girls basketball developed not long after that first YMCA game. The “gentle” wintertime sport being well suited to the farm girls of the Pacific Northwest. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Rachel Bachman wrote for the Oregonian in 2010, when Naismith was still alive and coaching in the 1920 and 1930s -- Oregon girls high school basketball had become so popular that some schools had two teams. In towns with just a few dozens students in the whole school, two-thirds might play the sport. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Louise Leininger, who played for Mosier High near Hood River in the mid-1930s told Bachman, basketball was a natural for the resilient girls of rural Oregon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"We were farm girls," said Leininger. "We were hoisting boxes with fruit in it and things like that." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A backlash against the “unladylike” sport grew in the cities after World War I, but </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">girls basketball hung on longer in rural areas. The traveling basketball teams -- and the fans that followed -- provided a vital social outlet in the 1930s. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was growing up in small town surrounded by other small towns -- we had to combine with neighboring high school just to get enough players for a football team, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet, when basketball season came, each tiny school could find enough boys and girls to put on the court. Rivalries grew up over generations with the next town over. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Often, schools like Wishram or Klickitat might only come up with 5 players -- so that if someone fouled out, they had to play one short. I recall one game in Wishram’s tiny railroad town gym where they played the whole fourth quarter with three against our five -- and nearly won.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I myself never played. Too nearsighted to see the basket, too vain to wear my glasses back then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet in little towns, basketball has its own gravity. For a couple games a week, the gym is the place to be. I was in the pep band, and then the boys team manager just so I could still be a part of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve never thought of myself as a fan of basketball. I’ve never watched a full game on TV. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet there is something different about watching the game in person.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I moved to Naselle during the Lyle Patterson era - a time when the little town was well known on the far side of the state for consistently great basketball. Patterson was hired as a football coach and math teacher at first, then took over basketball duties when the position opened up. Over the next 32 years he took little Naselle to the state so many times that they planned the school calendar around state tournament. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">623-228 record is the fourth best all time in the state of Washington and includes a mountain of district and league titles as well as five appearances in the championship game. After Naselle he helped Knappa win back to back championships in Oregon. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s fascinating about Patterson’s success is that in such a small school, you have to make due with the kids you have from year to year. Short kids, tall kids, fast kids and slow kids -- to consistently come up with 30 years of winning from such uncertain talent speaks volumes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet rural towns where the winters are dark and inhospitable were fertile ground for basketball to take hold and rich soil to cultivate new players year after year. Every kid probably had a hoop up in the hay barn where they could practice their shots and imagine high school glory.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Basketball stars could be discovered in lower grades, their talent followed by a community. Basketball so easily became THE thing with the ability to draw neighbors out from their homes to sit side by side on uncomfortable benches amid the staccato and the shouts, the squeaks of sneakers and the cheers and groans of the crowd. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The amazing journalist David Halberstam probably wrote all this much better years ago. Examining Indiana’s fascination with the sport in a 1985 article for </span><a href="http://classic.esquire.com/the-basket-case-state/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Esquire Magazine</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, he observed:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Small towns, villages often, neither grew nor died; they just stayed there in suspended between life and death. In an atmosphere like that, where so little meant so much, there was only one thing that male and often female children did, and they did it every day and every night, and that was play basketball. It was a sport for the lonely - a kid did not need five or six friends, he did not even need one. There was nothing else to do, and because this was Indiana, there was nothing else anyone even wanted to do.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet if the culture of small town basketball developed because of its accessibility, it became a part of the small town community because adults “needed to see it, needed to get into a car and drive to another place to hear other voices” - rituals essential to fending off the loneliness of long hard winters. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There were few ways for ordinary people to meet one another. Guests and visitors were rare. There was church, and there was basketball, gyms filled with hundreds, indeed thousands of people, all excited, all passionate. In a dark and lonely winter, the gym was a warm, noisy and well-lit place.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I sit in the Lyle Patterson gym and watch my 13 year old daughter who has come to love this sport. I sit with my wife, who like me, never played high school basketball, but still loves to watch the games. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe eventually the rise of TV and the internet will one day starve small town basketball of this community function. After all, participation in all high school team sports is now declining for varied and uncertain reasons. Fewer kids may tolerate getting back late from far-flung towns with schoolwork due the next morning.Ironically, too</span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2014/02/03/as-the-middle-class-fades-the-casual-youth-athlete-dies-out-with-it/#2586c0d1aa05" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">much professionalization</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> may be hurting participation</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -- year ‘round leagues may be making sports less attractive to the casual athlete with no expectation to play beyond the high school level. Other opportunities, rising cost to play and cuts to school sports programs may also erode away at high school sports. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As in all things, the future is uncertain. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the meantime, I sit next to neighbors and strangers. The heat of so many bodies in a wooden box prompts us to strip off winter coats. Between quarters we ask how so-and-so is doing now that she’s out of the hospital, while toddlers climb up and down the bleachers. Generations watch generations of grandkids, nephews and nieces out on the court. Newcomers to town settle in. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gym bleachers are much like church pews, except there is more talking amongst the seated, more cursing under your breath and cheering out loud too. </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a32637da-f41a-9c7e-1969-f5d0c37c3b11"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "Arbutus Slab"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the lights from the rafters shine on the glass like gym-sealed maple below, as the near-freezing rain pours down outside, it is still warm and lively in this echoing wooden box.</span></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-88045379704106167682017-11-14T10:35:00.003-08:002017-11-14T10:35:43.604-08:00Vine Maple in the Autumn Light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyTGy42y0Bl9NN_YPszUvvO2tWj2hchaiQ8rQsBnlhvULGCkagp2y63jgR4wW0_ZnXj33KKGQ5CT9snJqEjQWD8hrfpl7_7-WDCbJOh8G1iZu14o-JR4hyc_lDpPVCi82X7kBwZhkDCs/s1600/IMG_6438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1080" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyTGy42y0Bl9NN_YPszUvvO2tWj2hchaiQ8rQsBnlhvULGCkagp2y63jgR4wW0_ZnXj33KKGQ5CT9snJqEjQWD8hrfpl7_7-WDCbJOh8G1iZu14o-JR4hyc_lDpPVCi82X7kBwZhkDCs/s400/IMG_6438.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Fall is a gamble in this corner of the Pacific Northwest.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">You can find yourself as a punching bag for Pacific storms, one after another battering your ambitions with rain and wind, high water and downed trees.</span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Or you can have the best weather of the entire year: crystal blue skies and t-shirt temperatures among the yellowing golden alder and maple trees. Postcard days.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">We don’t enjoy the New England colors here, but I’ll take our sharp red of vine maple in the autumn light. Watercolor sunsets spiced with the smell of woodsmoke as a hundred cozy fires come alight to fight the chill of the night.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">You can’t take anything for granted. You can only aspire to take it all in.</span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Such bright autumn days are blessings to be sure, appreciated so much more after an “atmospheric river” pounds us for a weekend, reminding us what lies ahead once winter truly comes ashore.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">It seems a crime on these days to be inside. “Productive” is the word in my house. Getting things done that need to be done, battening down the hatches for winter, getting hay in the barn, deck furniture tied down or stored away.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">To-do lists are longer on sunny fall days.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Through all of it, my wife, Amy, and I will stop at moments and look at each other and the cloudless blue above our heads and soak in the sunlight.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">I have learned over the years to carve out time in my so-called “productivity” to appreciate the clear fall days. There is a feeling of guilt, to be sure, when I choose a lazy motorcycle ride through cascading yellow leaves rather than outdoor chores that need to be done. Yet a crisp autumn memory will keep you almost as warm on a dark December day as dry firewood. </span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Almost.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheVig5e67Su6d2u5EWEb7x_lr3tY3wWC8oy8ieDK9xsbI_H_qjMrQS26xzQ4nnyNB-mzrkjTOfigyJAtcex67JFX0T7fQIE01eI-u1QB1VaUfo2FJ0Eb0N-kybyBQk6pR5dGWXFfhGcMo/s1600/IMG_6542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheVig5e67Su6d2u5EWEb7x_lr3tY3wWC8oy8ieDK9xsbI_H_qjMrQS26xzQ4nnyNB-mzrkjTOfigyJAtcex67JFX0T7fQIE01eI-u1QB1VaUfo2FJ0Eb0N-kybyBQk6pR5dGWXFfhGcMo/s1600/IMG_6542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheVig5e67Su6d2u5EWEb7x_lr3tY3wWC8oy8ieDK9xsbI_H_qjMrQS26xzQ4nnyNB-mzrkjTOfigyJAtcex67JFX0T7fQIE01eI-u1QB1VaUfo2FJ0Eb0N-kybyBQk6pR5dGWXFfhGcMo/s320/IMG_6542.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p4" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b>Before the darkness comes</b></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">We are not fools, mind you — more ant than grasshopper after all these years.</span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">We start early now, getting wood pellets and firewood in, filling the barn with hay, shoring up fences and putting things away.</span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">We make hay while the sun shines — not just a maxim but a way of life in these parts — we make firewood, repair gutters, repair the outdoor lights before the darkness comes.</span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Often something will derail our day, our schedule wiped out by an unforeseen event. Equipment breaks down. Animals find a way to get sick or get into where they shouldn’t be. We need to run to town to get this fixed, or to pick up another one of those.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">So it goes.</span><br />
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">“A pretty day for a drive at least,” we say, and roll the windows down to enjoy the fresh air along the way.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">While running errands in Astoria the other day, I met a man who said he’d just moved up from L.A. I smiled and gave the advice I usually dispense to newcomers.</span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">I told him that after 25 years I’ve learned it can rain 100 days in a row here and be somehow different every day. Our coastal clime provides dynamic weather, ever-changing even when locked in shades of gray. There will be plenty enough days when you are soaked to the bone the minute you step outside. There are days when you’d rather just sit by the fire and watch the sheets of rain march across the horizon and cherish shafts of silver light when it slices through the clouds.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">It rains from November to the end of June, but we get a few blue-sky days here and there — maybe a whole week strung together in February.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Through the rain, you’ll learn to appreciate those sunny days all the more.</span><br />
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBp36g_dKS5tnHtA2sVkzwn-7I_Zqq7JSl6DPSpXNvbYzCbDaIj4iFnmVCPP1jzmXyLTU6PyL6WhpO2sxCiRHhlpWTIL4gGL2tiJCBBhdod-hY3vtK1FNgHVI8GPnKUdkTnLu8ziF0HSk/s1600/IMG_6539.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBp36g_dKS5tnHtA2sVkzwn-7I_Zqq7JSl6DPSpXNvbYzCbDaIj4iFnmVCPP1jzmXyLTU6PyL6WhpO2sxCiRHhlpWTIL4gGL2tiJCBBhdod-hY3vtK1FNgHVI8GPnKUdkTnLu8ziF0HSk/s320/IMG_6539.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p4" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<b>The gift of sunny autumn days</b></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span>
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">The first storm of the fall brought inches of rain and a taste of what winter has in store. The freshet brought high water to the fields in front of our house, and we scrambled to move things away should it go much higher. Motorcycles went into the basement, tack up in the barn loft.</span><br />
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">When the storm moved on, we saw the return of brilliant blue, but the water took a while to drain away out of the fields. Amy and the girls tried to paddle out on kayaks in the field and found little current. When I got off work the next day we went out on the water as dusk approached. In stillness, we glided along the mirrored sunset. We wondered why we had never thought of this before.</span><br />
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Along the way, however, we feel the light of the sun that we know won’t be around forever — something that is easy to forget during August. We watch the maple seeds spin around us as we travel down the road. We watch the western sky for dark clouds and smile when we see only blue. We spot the bright yellow turning amid the evergreen, splashed red with vine maple in the autumn light.</span><br />
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-p3" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">Each sunny day in autumn is a gift — a jewel found on a beach of stones.</span></div>
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<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="m_6494408001327252359gmail-s1">-30-</span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-78227762642171046932017-07-15T00:13:00.000-07:002017-07-15T00:13:13.123-07:00The Durable Good<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZfGwA7Jh1nLe0QVd3YFOJfd33ncmhDQR4Ppur3wYq_QAhmj_2qqsMWRFqXaHsMnANXgMrpw_b0eoXTFwPHhHTwmIux1duo1VUZyYTkfzDlDbpRwoNNtoPWlEPKGCP9lN3DxrFRwTOK8/s1600/graduation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1432" data-original-width="987" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZfGwA7Jh1nLe0QVd3YFOJfd33ncmhDQR4Ppur3wYq_QAhmj_2qqsMWRFqXaHsMnANXgMrpw_b0eoXTFwPHhHTwmIux1duo1VUZyYTkfzDlDbpRwoNNtoPWlEPKGCP9lN3DxrFRwTOK8/s320/graduation.jpg" width="220" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - T.S.Eliot</span></blockquote>
<br /><b id="docs-internal-guid-ce24ffdd-4505-4958-8e78-196eb9a59318" style="font-weight: normal;"></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I graduated from High School 30 years ago this year. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don’t much recall what my ambitions were at 18 years other than aspiring to fame and fortune through the wit of my pen or the sound of my voice.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I’m reaching the point where I need to think more about legacy than aspirations.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spend our lives collecting totems and objects that signify our accomplishments, our growing economic independence and success. We build messy fortresses of possessions around us. When we need to move on, these great purchases become anchors, keeping us from sailing on the open ocean of our lives. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When Amy and I were first married -- years before we had children, we’d stop at antique stores and yard sales looking for things cast off by others. We had a big empty house to fill with furniture and art. Twenty-five years and two daughters later, we are tripping over these material ghosts that will not move on to their afterlife. We sell, we donate, we give away things our children have outgrown. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In sorting this flotsam and jetsam of the ebbing tide, we occasionally stumble upon a treasure -- some object heavy with the weight of significance and sentimentality. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet objects only hold this power when they symbolize some accomplishment, or some human interaction that evolved our existence on this earth. Touchstones get their power from a life changing event, a memory of a friend, a loved one lost. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These we tuck away.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Beside the roadways now, yard sale and garage sale signs proliferate. We are starting the season of selling and buying things that will not fade away when their utility to their current owners is exhausted.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the same time we are surrounded by young people graduating from high school, and heading off to attend college, to serve in the military, to start careers and families. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The contrast is stark in my mind. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Too often we have come to emphasize building and buying of things, and disparage the service economy. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet service comes in many forms - including doctors and firefighters, nurses and teachers -- these are all considered part of the service economy - and they create in the world improvements in people’s lives.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet when we measure our economy, our focus is on the manufacturing and purchase of durable goods.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Something about this term bothers me. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After all, what creates more durable good in the world than a teacher? </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Service is not some second class to creation -- of objects, of wealth, of fame. Our politicians wax </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hagiographic about factory jobs. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet service is now the largest part of our economy and it includes people doing much to make the world a better place than they found it. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We all have at least one teacher or coach that touched us and changed our view of the world.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have had the opportunity to get a taste of teaching by mentoring young journalists through an internship program. I precepted new nurses, taught EMTs and CPR and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">crisis intervention. I am gobsmacked when a former student comes to me and tells me that something I taught them helped save a life or prevent and violent injury.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I imagine those lives touching others, saving and creating, rippling across time around the world. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That is a durable good. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I used to think that every man aspired to immortality by creating something that would still exist centuries after he was gone. Whether it be a novel, a work of art, or carving a farm out of wild forest -- some material legacy to pass on.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As if doing so keeps our shadow in the world. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet the truly durable good is in those who spend their lives teaching, healing, saving and protecting our fellow misbegotten humans. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is a reason there are never enough teachers, nurses, doctors and police officers. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dealing with people is very hard -- taxing on the soul. The people we interact with come to us burdened with a lifetime of baggage and we have to fight through to make even a tiny impact on mind or body. It is often difficult to see their quiet everyday impacts on the future.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The coast guardsman who plucks a drowning man from the ocean, the firefighter who cuts a woman out of a wrecked car -- their monetary compensation pales in the light of the number of lives they change in a career. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet their life-changing impacts are by comparison much easier to divine. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is so much easier to undervalue the service of our daily interactions with other human beings, our generosity of time and knowledge. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Patience is the most valuable commodity that no one ever buys. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It changes lives. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Who has more patience than the parent investing a third of their life raising a child -- a child stable and kind and imaginative enough to change the world? </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Should those children be blessed with good teachers and kind mentors, won’t their lives in time echo outwards across the centuries, immortal in a million unseen interactions of kindness, healing and teaching. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Isn’t that a durable good? </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My father and mother taught me the most durable lessons of my life. My father taught me to work hard and never stop learning. My mom taught me that things are just things, not a one half as valuable as a single human being. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is no wonder all three of us kids spent our lives serving others. My brother is a paramedic, my sister spent her life protecting children and the elderly from abuse for the state of Oregon. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My sister passed away after only 49 years. At her memorial, hundreds of people came from all over the country. The gathered faces were not her clients, but rather the friends and coworkers, neighbors and children grown to adults that she had touched in her life as a neighborhood mother with a generous heart. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of all this in this season of caps and gowns and garage sale signs. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our mark on this earth is determined by the lives of others that we make better. No other metric seem lasting. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is a hard measure to use. Helping others is hard. Raising good children is hard. Being kind -- just being kind to people who don’t look like you or think like you or worship like you -- having simple kindness in your heart for those not of your tribe is hard. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Immortality doesn’t come easy. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet, there is only one way to create a truly durable good.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">-30-</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-size: 10.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This and other essays can be found in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/EM-Hunt/e/B073BJ9S9T/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1" target="_blank">my</a> book <a href="http://a.co/2UvubtM" target="_blank">The Huckleberry Hajj</a> - available on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Huckleberry-Hajj-other-stories/dp/1521398321/ref=la_B073BJ9S9T_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500102416&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Amazon in paperback</a> and <a href="http://ebook./">ebook.</a> </span></span></div>
Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-75441833310005656052017-06-29T15:58:00.001-07:002019-11-17T15:11:29.579-08:00Buy my Books! <div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Now you can read the ebbTIDE in print or download to your e-reader. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I have written three books now that are available on Amazon. They are all nicely finished full color paperbacks that make great gifts or an easy read on a rainy afternoon. You can find all three books in print or Kindle format <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B073BJ9S9T?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-pages-popularity-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader" target="_blank">HERE</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B073BJ9S9T?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-pages-popularity-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader" target="_blank">Ed Hunt Amazon Author page</a></span></div>
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Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-48339998388519546042017-06-29T15:47:00.000-07:002017-06-29T15:47:12.427-07:00Nine Bullets | 100 Days Gone. What We Know<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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1) <b>Donald Trump is not ready to be President.</b> Didn't plan on it, doesn't know how the government works and is not a serious enough person to try. He has been weirdly confessional on this point but makes the typical rich idiot mistake of presuming that because he didn't know something, "nobody" could have known it. Presidenting is hard work, and Trump has never had to work hard. So he goes to Florida and plays golf every 5 days.<br />
2) <b>Donald Trump lies a lot -- pathologically so -</b> but it is not clear he knows he is lying. It is more like he just doesn't pay any attention to what he says from one minute to the next. His toadies don't have the courage to tell him the truth. He also just doesn't care. Moreover, much of what the Administration says and does appears designed to troll the nation.<br />
3) <b>His gaps in knowledge and policy are being filled by the Russians, Nazis, and super-fundamentalist Christians.</b> It would be one thing if he was thrust into this job while competent politicians were at his side to educate and guide him. However, he is surrounded by political neophytes and ideologues. No one in the White House knows anything about legislation or policy. He is learning about the world from some of the worst people you could assemble.<br />
4) <b>Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions is an example of competent evil</b> (by comparison). Session's has been waiting his whole life to restore Jim Crow to the South and now he has the power to do it. His goals are to strip citizenship from immigrants to keep them from voting. <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/north_carolina_republicans_are_attacking_the_courts_the_environment_and.html" target="_blank">Strip voting rights from protesters </a>and people of color.<br />
5) <b>The Trump administration doesn't care about increasing his base</b> because Jeff Sessions doesn't plan to let Democrats vote in the next election. Sessions efforts are part of a larger Republican plan fueled by White Nationalist fears of being outnumbered by minorities in the future. Sessions believes that the only way for Republicans to remain in power is to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/us/politics/election-rules-north-carolina.html?_r=1" target="_blank">structure the democratic institutions</a> so that non-Republicans can't vote. See North Carolina for examples of that tactics they plan to use.<br />
6) <b>The Russian thing is big</b>, and Trump's inner circle knows it. Flynn, Manafort, Page, Gorka, Sessions - the list goes on. As the investigations continue, it will eventually be easier to list the people who weren't on the Russian payroll.<br />
7) <b>Trump is a bully, but he backs down easily.</b> China figured out right away that Trump was a "paper tiger." A bully that backs down at the first hint of resistance. Paul Ryan and Congress took a little longer, but they are figuring it out too. He has no core principals, he does not do research and doesn't understand how the US government works. So even if he threatens you, he's got nothing to back it up and so he's an easy mark to roll.<br />
8) <b>Trump loves evil dictators</b>, apparently. In his dreams Trump sees himself as a beloved mob boss or long ruling dictator. No surprise then that he's cuddling up to strong men while denouncing Democracies. This will come in handy when Sessions starts stripping people of their citizenship.<br />
9) <b>Republicans are misreading and misplaying the Trump victory.</b> Most Republicans think that Trump's voters could primary them if they don't fall in line. As we've seen, however, Trump doesn't really have anything he cares about other than Trump. Congressional Republicans can't agree on any legislation to pass that will be popular, so they are going to face a referendum on Trump when they come up for reelection. By that time the Republican brand may be so tarnished by Trump's incompetence and mendacity that we could see a big loss for GOP in the general.<br />
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<br />Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-52183139497251592192017-06-29T15:39:00.002-07:002017-06-29T15:42:52.800-07:00The Hucklberry Hajj and other storiesBuy My Book!<br />
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<a href="http://https//www.amazon.com/dp/1521398321/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1_2fyvzbA9AWYTQ"></a>Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4069997878575152422.post-91946027771548945492017-04-24T09:27:00.001-07:002017-04-24T09:27:40.832-07:00Never Stop Learning: Confessions of a Dilettante <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIr4Y5bTGmMqnb0ulRWjKdJV8wpBQ965ViaUCKpWUkbGIinL-FZTfv7-dAoGdr3iDxu6WlOq7iQwHdAumWTsUfjEKIWv_daNtgRWeclc4lh2Sr4J8_Hcwy0HOFswoOD5GWWO-9-Ivpv0k/s1600/P1010626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIr4Y5bTGmMqnb0ulRWjKdJV8wpBQ965ViaUCKpWUkbGIinL-FZTfv7-dAoGdr3iDxu6WlOq7iQwHdAumWTsUfjEKIWv_daNtgRWeclc4lh2Sr4J8_Hcwy0HOFswoOD5GWWO-9-Ivpv0k/s320/P1010626.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was a kid, I used to read encyclopedias. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had two sets. The World Book 1975 was my favorite. It had a few color photos and it was amazing. Pick a letter off the shelf, open the book up and learn about something. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I loved learning about things. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still do. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My parents set the example. My dad started his career on a slide rule and finally retired just a few years ago using 3D printers and computer modeling. From moon boots, to grocery checkout scanners to actual jetpacks for astronauts, my dad enjoyed a rich and varied career in the world of industrial design. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The trick he always says, is to never stop learning. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a newspaper reporter, learning new things about the world was part of my job -- the absolute best part. As the editor on an online news site during the dot-com boom, I taught myself the nuts and bolts of how to design and publish using HTML code. We were trying to create a model of sustainable success on the web before anyone thought there was a future in online journalism. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dot-com bubble burst, I changed careers. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>A Whole New World</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next came nursing, where I went from an expert in one field to a complete novice in another. I had a whole world of medicine that I had to understand. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Continuing education is required for doctors and nurses because medical science changes rapidly. If you don’t keep learning, you aren’t practicing good medicine. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I try to teach myself how to fix things. Often, doing it yourself is barely worth the time and materials, but learning how to do it is where I find the reward. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The internet, of course, makes all this much easier. When we bought this old house 24 years ago we had to learn restoration and repairs ourselves. I thumbed through old handiman books that I picked up at thrift stores to teach myself the basics getting an old house livable. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My motto is “there is nothing I don’t know how to do, only things I haven’t learned yet.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am a notorious dilettante. I’ve taken flying lessons and classes in wood carving. Sometimes I find a new skill or area is just not for me. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Often I just fail. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A couple years ago, I bought a bass guitar and tried to teach myself how to play. I’d picked bass because I played trombone in school. I figured I’d try bass because I could still sort of read the bass clef. It didn’t work. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Learning from Failure</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most important part of failure is learning, and sometimes the most important part of learning is failing. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year I swallowed that failure and am trying something new -- </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have always been in love with the sound of the banjo. Probably a side effect of watching too much </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hee Haw</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when I was a kid. I knew nothing about it other than I liked the sound. The open backed banjo is a perfect accompaniment to a rainy day. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a Christmas gift card I bought a kit from Backyard Banjos and I’m trying to teach myself to play.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had to start by putting the banjo together myself -- staining the wood and assembling the components to make the musical instrument. Then I had to learn how to string it and tune it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few books from the library and an online video lesson plan and I’m starting to actually make music. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the rain forces us inside, it is a great time to open our minds. We have libraries at our fingertips, experts a few clicks away. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The internet is wonderful, especially if you live in a rural community. It opens up all sorts of opportunities to learn new things. That said, it has its limitations. I’ll try my online lessons but I may need to resort to in person classes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Lifelong Learning</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thankfully lifelong learning opportunities abound in our community. We have two excellent community colleges and amazing libraries as well as a host of opportunities for learning all manner of skills to test and expand our minds and bodies. I’m dying take a class at the Barbey Maritime Center someday where you can learn everything from building boats to basket weaving. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0c3uJlaDJmy8rSOqrienrWc35t1g8zhyphenhyphenOnCIFlf8cpUtC5OJLTSQW0aXSHzvwYRGmzgUXfbTDuHZ8n0dEfacw2zUxS6ArAIO2r2ZjL3DHOtVT95yO0clBpbzGDT2kOGk-YZWGkj472y4/s1600/P1010632.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0c3uJlaDJmy8rSOqrienrWc35t1g8zhyphenhyphenOnCIFlf8cpUtC5OJLTSQW0aXSHzvwYRGmzgUXfbTDuHZ8n0dEfacw2zUxS6ArAIO2r2ZjL3DHOtVT95yO0clBpbzGDT2kOGk-YZWGkj472y4/s320/P1010632.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For now, however, I am focused on my little blue banjo.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it will be good for me. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning to play an musical instrument at any age seems to confirm neurological benefits. Music keeps our brains young, even if we don’t start taking lessons until we are much older. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One researcher studied the impact of piano lessons on adults between the ages of 60 and 85. According to an article in National Geographic, she found that after six months, those who had received the lessons showed gains in memory, verbal fluency, information processing, planning ability and other cognitive functions when compared to a control group. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"People often shy away from learning to play a musical instrument at a later age, but it's definitely possible to learn and play well into late adulthood," University of South Florida researcher</span><a href="http://music.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?a=2928&z=41" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Jennifer Bugos explained</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. "Musical training seems to have a beneficial impact at whatever age you start. It contains all the components of a cognitive training program that sometimes are overlooked, and just as we work out our bodies, we should work out our minds."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Musical training has been shown to </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17260171" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">help improve motor skills</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> recovery after a stroke. Other research is ongoing to see whether choir singing can help stave off the advance of dementia. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can’t,” </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/24/want-to-train-your-brain-forget-apps-learn-a-musical-instrument" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">University of Westminster neuropsychologist</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Catherine Loveday told the Guardian. “It’s a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does, and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So even if I never play a note for anyone other than myself, I’ll still get some benefit from whatever neural connections come together during this learning experience. That will help keep my brain in good shape to learn other new skills in the years to come. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I’m determined to never stop learning. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-30-</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Copse; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>This essay was originally <a href="http://www.dailyastorian.com/life/20170331/writers-notebook-confessions-of-a-notorious-dilettante" target="_blank">published in the Daily Astorian</a>, March 31, 2017.</i></span></div>
Ed Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13782557190034683718noreply@blogger.com0