Half-demolished Kitchen of the Soul

Winning one battle at the expense of another

I got the lab results back from my annual physical.

The big diabetes-related number is hemoglobin A1C. The target number is 7.0. Many diabetics are higher than that. My A1C is 5.9. Abnormally low. My glucose level, potassuim, electrolytes, kidney function, calcium and liver tests were all normal. I guess that means I'm technically not diabetic—at least while on medication.

But my cholesterol is a little messed up. Though the overall cholesterol and triglyceride levels are below the target of 200, my HDL is low and my LDL is high. Not radically so, but enough for my doctor to warn me.

This is probably a byproduct of eating more meat in order to reduce carbohydrate intake and lessen fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Well, that mission was accomplished (perhaps a little too well). Now it's fiber time. And more exercise.

Friday Photo

In my father's footsteps

My father would wear slippers like these when he'd be in for the evening. It was what a proper gentleman would do. Dad didn't approve of me going about the house barefooted.

During his final years, Dad developed thick callouses on the soles of his feet that hindered his walking. I don't know if the callouses were related to his footwear history.

Now I'm as old as my father was when he complained about my lack of shoes. Decades of barefootedness has had no effect on my soles. They're as soft and callous-free as when I was a teenager. My problem, though, is diabetes-related peripheral neuropathy, which makes my feet very sensative. And cold. So I joined the world of slipper wearers. But mine are of the soft and fuzzy variety, similar to these:

Different generations, different foot problems, different ideas about what a proper slipper should be.

Can't get there from here

I wanted to get from A to B, which is usually a simple matter. Take the first left, follow the street around to the right, take the first left again, and there you go.

However, this morning, there was a city yard waste truck stopped diagonally across the whole street at point 1.

So, I backed up and turned right. On the other side of the rise, at point 2, a contractor unloading an excavator—in the middle of the street, of course. He was about done, so I waited for him and for the car coming the other way.

I wanted to turn left at the end of that street, but there was a garbage truck stopped on one side of the street (point 3) and a car parked on the other, blocking that route.

Head smacking repeatedly on steering wheel. Fine! I turned right and went all the way around the world instead.

Civic participation

The primary election was today, but the big item on the ballot was an amendment to the state constitution making marriage between a man and woman the only legal kind.

The fabric of our lives

As I dressed today, fresh from the shower, I was reminded what a great joy it is to put on clean, comfortable natural-fiber clothing. Aaaaaaaaahhhhh, cotton. I have no idea how people can wear synthetics, even though I used to back in my unenlightened years. Now, the thought of polyester gives me the creeps. Okay, I can deal with synthetic outerwear, but next to my skin? Torture.

Music Video Monday: Phoebe Snow

About face

Have you ever tried to make a U-turn, but the street was too narrow, or your vehicle was too large, or both? You couldn't make it in one clean move, but had to back up a little part way through the turn (figure A), while other drivers make rude remarks about your ineptitude.

Well, there's a better way to do this, one they might not have taught you in driver's ed. Don't try to turn right away. Pull out into the intersection as much as conditions will allow, then use the extra room to make sort of a backward question mark turn (figure B).

It's the same turning radius, only you're not running into the curb. Just be alert about what other traffic is doing—but you do that anyway, right?

Oh, and if this is illegal in your state, then they're idiots.

Friday Photo

Elsewhere

Makes perfect sense

Next week we vote on an amendment to the state constitution declaring marriage to be between only a man and a woman. Among the lame arguments in favor of the amendment is that we aren’t breeding enough.

Huh?

Pretending for a moment we aren’t reproducing sufficient offspring, how, exactly would limiting marriage to heterosexual couples change that? Would gay folks suddenly marry people of the opposite gender and start having a load of kids? Is the hope of someday marrying someone of the same gender the only thing keeping them from breeding?

Or is the amendment supposed to change the minds of heterosexual people like me who never wanted children? (Hint: it ain't gonna work.)

Or is limiting the rights of gay people such a sexual turn-on for conservatives that they won’t be able to stop copulating? That must be it.

May Day 'til you mayday

May Day on May 1 is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday. It is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.

The Mayday callsign originated in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897–1962). A senior radio officer at Crotdon Airport in London, Mockford was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the word "Mayday" from the French m’aider. "Venez m'aider" means "come help me."

Flashback

This cartoon took me back to the early years of my career as an advertising guy in Silicon Valley. We had a bunch of high tech startups for clients, all of them run by engineers.

Music Video Monday: Jimi Hendrix

Shock

I spotted a couple of electric vehicle recharging stations/parking spaces in uptown Charlotte. I don't know if there are more of them. Since these are across the street from the Duke Energy headquarters, I suspect they're mostly a PR ploy.

"We might still be operating coal-fired power plants in the region, with their ash falling all over the place, but, look, we're still good corporate citizens."

Oh, the irony of powering your zero-pollutant electric car with electricity generated by coal—coal that comes from mountain topping.

The chicken or the egg?

Here is one of Charlotte's oddities: Park Road Park, on Park Road. Is the road named after the park, or is the park named after the road? Think about it.

Click to play

The answer is at the very beginning of Park Road, up in an older part of town, where Park Road branches from East Park Avenue, which runs past Latta Park. Ah-ha.

Friday Photo

Secularists do it better

I had read that young Jessica Ahlquist of Cranston, RI, had brought suit against her public school to have a prayer banner removed. The school board argued the banner had been there for generations. Ahlquist noted the banner violated the separation of church and state. The school board lost and must pay $150,000 in legal fees. And remove the banner.

I hadn't known exactly what the banner said. Here it is:

Good thoughts, good values, right? So what's the harm?

Well, if you want students to embrace these values, there's a better way to deliver this message. The way it was written puts the power to make things happen in God's hands. It makes the students passive supplicants rather than active agents.

"We didn't do our best and grow? Oh well, God didn't grant us the desire to do so. We were cruel, dishonest, bad sports? I guess that's what God wanted, otherwise things would be different."

This passive approach is a byproduct of the idea humanity is helplessly sinful, that we have no natural inclination or ability to act morally without God's intervention, or without the fear of God. This is laughable to all the people in the world who don't worship the God of Abraham yet live quite morally.

When one looks only to an external source of authority for moral and ethical guidance and action, one never builds an internal compass. Take away the external authority and they're lost. 

It's much better to empower each person, to make them responsible for making good things happen. Internalize the values. Make them their standards, not just some authority figure's.

To that end, I've rewritten the Cranston High School East prayer. It's much more effective, and 100% in compliance with the law.

OUR PLEDGE

We will work each day to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers, to be honest with ourselves as well as with others. We will be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win. We will learn the value of true friendship. We will always conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to ourselves, our families, and Cranston High School West. Hurray!

Happy Song of the Week

Moon Dance / Van Morrison

Yes, I have been living under a rock or something

Why do you ask?

You're suspended

Newt Gingrich suspended his presidential campaign today. I guess he got a new eyeglass prescription and could finally read the writing that has been on the wall for a couple of months. Or his sugar daddy pulled the plug.

Earlier this month, Rick Santorum suspended his campaign. As did Michelle Bachman, Herman Cain, John Huntsman, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Perry before him. (Have I forgotten anyone?)

Suspended? As in to cause to stop temporarily; to set aside or make temporarily inoperative; to defer to a later time on unspecified conditions; or to hold in an undetermined or undecided state awaiting further information? Does this mean they might resume their campaigns one day?

Uh, no. It means people are being sloppy in their choice of words. Or it means there's just too much ego involved to say simply, "I quit." Or, even worse, "I lost."

I mean, if they are the strong, courageous, leaderly people they claim to be, then they should be able to speak the unpleasant truth, not mask it with implications of it being just a temporary setback.

Oh, but I forgot. We're dealing with politicians here.

That's just mean

It's a sunny day after a string of wet and cloudy ones. It looks like a good day for a bike ride.

But, part way into my loop, a wind started blowing out of the south that felt like it came unimpeded from Antarctica. On one hand, I didn't need to worry about overheating. On the other, it was too damn chilly.

Back at the house, I checked the weather report (which, duh, I should have done first) and learned it was only 57 degrees. I could have worn more clothing, but it wouldn't have kept my nose from running.

Times have changed

From time to time, TV shows will feature couples of mixed ethnicity. I think that's good because it reflects what's becoming more common in the real world.

On the other hand, couples in advertising still don't cross racial lines. Oh, advertisers are careful to present diversity in friendships and on the job, but not when it comes to romance and marriage. That's why a little moment toward the end of this current Dodge commercial caught my attention.

Knowing the torturous approval processes commercials go through, someone (or several people) probably asked, "Um, not to be racist or anything, but should we risk alienating part of our potential customer base by showing even a hint of interracial attraction?"

To the decision makers' credit, they chose the enlightened path. Maybe it has something to do with Chrysler being owned by Italians now.

Music Video Monday: REO Speedwagon

Is anyone neutral about V8 juice?

The eight juices in V8 are tomato, spinach, celery, carrot, beet, lettuce, watercress and parsley.

Hmmm, but what do they picture on the label?