Jim Baumer's Blog, page 31

12 Things

Americans love their bulleted lists. As if there really are “three steps to success,” or you actually can make $100,000 and never change out of your PJs in the morning.

Yet, there are steps that you can take that may deliver positive impacts on health, offering up benefits now, and as you get older. Eating right has its perks.

Six weeks ago, I decided to see if I could take a sabbatical from meat and dairy. I blogged about this nearly three weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been trying to set a few things straight relative to the depressing election of 2016. A lot of good that did.

So back to health and what we eat. Dr. Michael Greger, along with writer Gene Stone, published How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease. It could also have been subtitled, “The Medical and Scientific Reasons to Adopt a Whole Food, Plant-based Diet.” Both subtitles lend the book sound overly scientific and textbook-ish air. How Not to Die is far from either category. It’s a primer for anyone considering adopting a diet centered on whole foods and plants, with plenty of data, but also many humorous anecdotes from Greger’s own life. I’ve found it invaluable in getting started and immersed in a brand new way of living.

Here’s a funny anecdote from my own life—not funny as in “ha, ha,” but funny, as in “strange.”

Mark Baumer (29 days and counting) sent Greger’s book (along with a signed copy of Rich Roll’s book) for a Christmas gift last year to Mary and I. I’m not proud to admit this, but I was disappointed at the time and even somewhat put off, thinking that he was trying to “convert us” to his way of eating. I have been reminded (convicted?) of this every time lately that I’ve grabbed Greger’s book off the coffee table, and marveled at some new snippet of health-based information.

So here I am, six weeks into this thing that some people call veganism. If you want to label me a vegan, I’m fine with that. I think the label is a loaded one and one that immediately sets some people on edge and puts them on the defensive.

What I’ve enjoyed the most about Greger’s book, is that I can grab it, look something up, or sit down and read whole chapters, like the one entirely devoted to “Cruciferous Vegetables.” That would be arugala, broccoli, bok choy, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale (and a few other amazing veggies) that have the potential to prevent DNA damage and the metastatic cancer spread, not to mention, protect against pathogens and pollutants. Even better, for someone who loves most of these—they are so damn great to eat, too! Ask Mrs. B. just how much Mr. B. loves his broccoli and brussels sprouts!

Health can’t be reduced to one, two, or even three things. However, Greger offers up his own 12-step plan that I’ve been trying to follow every day. Say what you want about veganism (or whole food, plant-based diets)—it ain’t boring that’s for sure.

12 steps towards a healthier life.

Greger’s “daily dozen,” as he calls them offers up beans, berries, other varieties of fruit, cruciferous vegetables (yummy!), and other healthy offerings, with the goal of incorporating one to five servings of each (see beverages). And did I mention the spices (turmeric) and their beneifts?

Don’t think that it’s all about simply eating, either. He mixes in a call for exercise, too. His Rx is 40 minutes of vigorous activity (swimming, running, intensive cycling, basketball), or 90 minutes of moderately-intense activity (walking, leisurely cycling, yoga). Basically, it’s a call to abandon our sedentary ways of living. Get out and get active!

One more personal aside. I’ve been doing triathlons for five years. Running has been a challenge for much of that time. I’ve battled knee and hip issues any time my distance ticked above three miles. Coupled with other activities like umpiring, there were times when my knee pain affected my life.

Last weekend, I ran back-to-back days for the first time in two years. The day after, while a bit sore, I had little of the usual joint swelling and pain. Maybe turmeric really does offer anti-inflammatory support, while adding a little “kick” to various dishes.

What I’m finding is that eating this way agrees with me. Know that this is coming from someone who could eat a block of cheese in one setting, loved his barbecue (pulled pork and brisket), and had eggs for breakfast five days each week.

Plant-based and still scrambling for breakfast.

When I made the decision to get started, I thought I’d end up doing it for a few days, or even a week or two, with the goal of at least reducing the amount of meat and fish I was eating. Instead, I’m six weeks in and not missing all the foods that once were staples of my diet—including a host of overly-processed garbage, like potato chips and fast food.

I’m not planning to live to 100, and I’m not sure I want to, but I’d be happy to age gracefully and maintain certain qualities of life. I’d be happy being able to still remain active as a triathlete into my 70s. I think following Greger’s daily dozen offer’s hope that I’ll be able to do that. I think it will also point you in the right direction and maybe even counter some of the bad habits you’ve been living with for the past 20, 30, or 40 years. It’s up to you.

Elections and Alienation

With the 2016 election clanking to its completion, like a car with a malfunctioning transmission, I’ve taken a different tack the last few weeks—disengagement—imbibing next to nothing from the mainstream. My inner environment has been almost tranquil. Rather than alienation and discouragement, removing myself from the ongoing dysfunctional din of reality has been a positive and necessary corrective.

Just because someone demands that you see the world one, or two ways, doesn’t mean that you have to. Binary thinking leaves you dead-ended, painted into a corner.

If voting mattered…

Over the weekend, I picked up several books that seemed to be waiting for me on my local library shelves. These books provided historical context, as well as reminding me of perspectives I hadn’t considered in quite some time.

What I found fascinating in reading about America’s history of radical politics, was the role of European immigrants in bringing socialist, Marxist, and anarchist perspectives to these shores. What I’ve also been ruminating about is why the town where I grew up—with many immigrants from Europe—was and continues to be a place where conservative values reign supreme. This is a topic that I’m likely to come back to at some point.

As for today’s election, I found a quote (posted at the end of my post) from Patrick Martin’s perspective piece at the World Socialist Website to be as pertinent as any I’ve read over the past several months. It pretty much sums up my thoughts today as I head to the polls to at least vote for a few local issues. I’ll also be refraining from voting for the two corporate candidates, Clinton and Trump.

The ongoing pretzel logic offered by liberals for why all leftists should vote for Clinton is vapid at best. At other times, their moral posturing in supporting Hillary’s been infuriating. Even a publication like Dissent, longtime supporters of democratic socialism, have taken to offering convoluted calls to pull the lever for a neoliberal, warmonger like Clinton. From an older blog I no longer post at, you can see not much has changed in eight years, including my own personal views on “Thing 1,” or “Thing 2.”

I wonder if intelligence and our capacity to stretch our minds is related to physical activity. The more you push your capacity—the more you can accomplish.

Working people must draw the necessary conclusions. It is impossible to fight the capitalist class through the two-party system that it controls. The working class must build its own political party to defend its own class interests. This requires a political break, not only with the Democratic Party, but with all those organizations and political tendencies that defend, apologize for and cover up for the Democratic Party.

Happy Election Day!!

21 Days

There is an oft-quoted time frame that’s become accepted in many self-help circles, and among those coaching others to make changes in their lives. We hear over and over again that for something to take root and become habitual requires a minimum of three weeks, 21 days, or something longer—like a month. Where did this come from?

One never knows for sure, but the interwebs coughed up the name Maxwell Maltz.

In the preface to his 1960 book Pycho-Cybernetics, Maltz (a plastic surgeon turned psychologist) wrote about how “it usually requires a minimum of 21 days to effect any perceptual change in mental image” following plastic surgery to get “used to a new face.” Apparently, when an arm or a leg are amputated, the “phantom limb” can persist for about 21 days, also.

Dr. Maltz highlighted a number of other phenomena that clock-in around 21 days, or three weeks, to take root.

James Last, a writer focused on “behavioral psychology, habit formation, and performance Improvement” mentions that it was Maltz’s book that influenced a host of self-help gurus, from Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins. Last equates it to that game we played when we were kids, “Telephone”—where a story gets started and by the end, Maltz’s “a minimum of 21 days” has now been turned into a gospel aphorism that “it takes 21 days to form a new habit.”

I’m not being dismissive that it takes a certain amount of time to install something new, allowing it to become ingrained. But perhaps it takes somewhat longer than a mere three weeks? But I might be missing some new smartphone app that circumvents this and maybe habit formation has been compressed by a modern day Maltz, and I’m just not aware of him (or her).

Here’s a study that demonstrates that a mean of 66 days was required for habit formation, with ranges from 18 to 254 days before participants became “automatic” in their behaviors. The high-end of that range is considerably longer than the 21 days regularly tossed out.

I don’t want to minimize that changing our behavior takes some effort. However, three weeks might be a baseline goal to shoot for, recognizing that it could take longer. This is more in line with the adage that “nothing happens overnight.”

I’m happy to report that Mark Baumer has been walking barefoot for 21 days in his quest to cross America. Mark is a believer in positive change and modeling behaviors that take time to cultivate.

Mark Baumer, 21 days on his bare feet.

We’ve now been three weeks from when our dug well initially went dry. The well has somewhat recovered and on Wednesday, a new well got drilled. We’re now waiting for it to be hooked up and plumbed-in.

And on a much more positive note, this is week five for me following a whole food, plant-based diet. I had no idea how things would proceed when I first decided to eliminate meat and dairy from my diet. I’ve been pleased by the results. I notice that I’ve had much more energy, rarely crashing mid-afternoon like in the past (when I was always reaching for a coffee). Another bonus has been that my excess flab from eating too much junk and processed food over the summer has been falling away. Plus, I am no longer craving crap like potato chips and other foods that are just empty calories.

I’ll wait a bit longer before rendering my new lifestyle a permanent habit.

Big rigs keep on rollin’.

The God People

We’re getting ready to move. It could be next month, or it might be next spring.

Mary has been going through piles of stuff that’s collected over the last two decades. She’s done a great job of winnowing down the clutter that grows over a lifetime of saving things, thinking that there might be a better use for them.

Some of what she pulled out over the weekend came from that period in our lives when we were God People. That was more than 30 years ago.

We actually moved halfway across the country to congregate with other God People at a place where we were supposed to learn new things about this God. The leader man sold us on his place by telling us one time that he knew more about God than anyone else.

The God place in Indiana

It took me awhile, but I figured out that God People rarely knew anymore about God than I did. When I read the same books they studied, most of the time, I didn’t get the same meaning from the words that they did. When I told them, they said that I wasn’t supposed to talk that way about God. When asked why, they said the leader man wouldn’t like it.

One Sunday, while sitting in the building where the leader man used to yell at us about God, I decided that I was done being part of this group of God People. He wanted more of what little money we had at the time. We moved a few miles away. Mark was actually very young at the time.

Over the past three decades, I’ve reached a verdict that many God People are similar. They believe that God speaks directly to them. When I try to hear His voice, all I end up with is static, or better, silence.

Whenever I’ve asked God People why they aren’t the different and separate people that the Bible seems to intimate that they should be, they tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Or, that they aren’t supposed to be. They can have all the same things that I have, do all the same things that non-God People do, but because they know the right order of words to say, they’re somehow special in God’s eyes. I don’t know about this.

Last week, a group of God People nearby asked one of the people running for president to visit their God building. Lots of people came to hear him speak. Their leader man opened the event with lots of God talk, even praying for his chosen candidate. Funny thing, but he reminded me an awful lot of the leader man that got me to drive a U-Haul across the country back in 1983.

Candidate man at the God building.

I wondered if the possible future president man was going to say something about God. Maybe he knew something about God that I didn’t. I mean, why would he be invited to a God building if he wasn’t going to speak some God talk? He didn’t.

Instead, it was more of the same old lies and half-truths that he’s been peddling for months on the campaign trial. Like that the murder rate is higher than it’s been in 45 years. I guess that God People don’t have any problem with lies when they’re coming from one of their own—a half-baked reality figure that they want to lead them when they’re not at their God building. It will be him, not God, that makes America great again.

Actually, the candidate man did talk about God at the very end. He mentioned that he will bring us together as “one people, under one God, saluting one American flag.” He also used God’s name to “bless Maine.”

The God People cheered very loudly at the end.

Billionaires Like it in Black and White

In a Balkanized place like the U.S., every issue becomes  a reductivist exercise. Too often, discussions devolve into arguments.

Take Black Lives Matter. One side thinks that the aim of this group is to bring attention to blacks being killed by the police. The other side resents the attention placed on blacks and wants “all lives” recognized. The other side says this is “racist”, the counter argument is “no it’s not,” and the two sides stand on opposite sides of a chasm lobbing rocks back and forth at each other—mostly figurative, but there’s some literalism inherent in this, also.

Economic deprivation isn’t a black/white issue.

Except, there’s more to the story than the usual two-pronged understanding, if you dig just a little deeper. You also have to leave behind those sources that profit from their binary issue frames.

Consider another kind of analysis, Marxist in orientation about Black Lives Matter, and their funding. Why would billionaires back the cause of Black Lives Matter? As in funding to the tune of $100 million from the Ford Foundation over a six-year period to several groups and organizations occupying the vanguard in the movement.  So what kind of other associations does the foundation keep? Oh, for years they maintained close ties to US military and intelligence agencies. Frances Stonor Saunders, a historian of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), described the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations in her book The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters as “conscious instruments of covert US policy, with directors and officers who were closely connected to, or even members of American intelligence.”

As always, the simplistic explanation coming from the right end of the political spectrum is that the elites benefit from chaos and that BLM is just another application of the tactics brought to bear on community organizing, most notably by Saul Alinsky.

In this invaluable perspective illustrating how Marxism views societal upheaval and issues of race through a very different lens than both liberals and conservatives, Gabriel Black makes a number of salient points about how so-called “radical” groups like Black Lives Matter only succeed in “dividing the working class and preventing the emergence of an independent and unified working class movement against the capitalist system.”

As Black notes, this continues a strategy first employed in the late 1960s when a section of the ruling class was committed to cultivating support among “the more privileged sections of minorities” who pledged allegiance to maintaining the status quo. Funny how not much has changed in 40+ years. Even more of a concern to me and others not enamored by the usual left/right political dance—there’s an absolute lack of any class consciousness among younger voters, like millennials.

Rather than seeking to build a working-class movement benefiting all of America’s economically oppressed, BLM activists have simply joined in lock-step, seeking to preserve our two-party duopoly, serving as agent provocateurs of division. As such, they are heavily invested in electing a neoliberal like Hillary Clinton.

And so it goes–liberals keep insisting on Hillary and conservatives shout “Trump, Trump, Trump,” from the rooftops (or inside churches)–all the while nothing changes. The status quo is maintained, while most everyone else is handed an even more austere allotment.

Of course that doesn’t stop either side of the same coin from feeling morally superior (or smarter) than the others, while fostering even greater divisions. And the elites keep on laughing, counting their stacks of cash.

Plant Power

When you begin questioning the systems that make up a country whose very foundation is a bedrock of lies and half-truths, the challenge becomes—how far do I go in disavowing falsehood? It’s easy to backtrack on a handful of things, but in a capitalist economy, most people have little choice but to sell their labor to employers and kowtow to the powers that be.

Back in August, we went out to Omaha. I wrote about Mary’s participation in the USA Triathlon National Championships held there. It was a hectic but fun six days.

Mark met us on his way back across the country.

On Saturday night, we decided to go out to dinner as a family like we’ve done countless times before. Mark’s been embracing a plant-based eating program for more than a year. I suppose we could have taken him to a steak restaurant and made him eat salad while we chowed down on top sirloin, but doing that seemed like a shitty thing to do to a son who has consistently shown up in support of his parents and their various endeavors, be it book signings or triathlons, not to mention extended-family gatherings. Plus, I like vegetables, too.

Yelp is an app that’s rarely led me astray. When I checked out vegan restaurants in Omaha, a place called Modern Love sounded pretty funky and cool. I called, made a reservation for three, and plotted the night’s plan.

We loved the restaurant. It was a unique little space that at one time had been a gas station, I think. The real hit, however, was the food, what the restaurant bills as “swanky, vegan comfort food.” That it was.

I had always considered vegan food to be short on flavor and choices. I’m not sure why. Actually, most times I’ve been around a group of vegans, the food’s generally been pretty good. Like when I was part of an anarchist gathering in Boston back in 2006, and the vegan meals supplied by Food Not Bombs were hearty and plenty tasty.

Mary and I have visited another vegan place in Pawtucket with Mark, the Garden Grille Café. They bill themselves as a vegetarian restaurant that serves vegan fare. We’ve had some memorable dishes that didn’t contain meat, and the atmosphere was always festive and fun. On a recent visit, I had a BLT with tempeh (not bacon) that was outstanding!

So, if vegan (or plant-based, as Mark and others call it) food is tasty, and the case can be made that it’s a healthy way to live, then why not consider it? Especially given that I’ve not had much good to say about paleo eating, save for maybe the first few weeks. I know many swear by it, but gouging myself on copious quantities meat, along with developing cravings for a host of crappy processed foods wasn’t helping me maintain a healthy weight. There were other issues that I’ve continued to deal with, like joint inflammation whenever I run longer distances. That wasn’t being helped by meat and the dairy products I found difficult to leave behind.

I’m three weeks into eating a plant-based diet. Rich Roll’s podcast, when he had Neil Barnard as a guest, was really eye-opening for me (thanks for recommending it, Mark). Eating plants and foregoing dairy hasn’t caused me to start wasting away. I’m sure that’s probably just around the corner.

Plant-based food is delicious.

No actually, I’ve been impressed reading about Roll, an amazing athlete—who went from being an overweight father of four, badly out-of-shape and close to a heart attack—who transformed his life through a vegan, or plant-based diet, and now does extreme endurance events.

When I see pictures of Roll, who is nearing 50, I see a guy that I want to be like. Not feeling like I’ve felt lately—an old man who has been struggling with my energy and weight for much of the summer and early fall.

During my investigation of plant-based resources, I’ve gathered some amazing recipes from cookbooks written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. She’s the woman who started Modern Love in Omaha, as well as being a vegan cookbook author and rock star of sorts, at least in vegan/plant-based circles.

Dr. Barnard brought up a host of issues during the aforementioned podcast. He’s been a helpful guide in reminding me that like so many other things inherent in being a citizen of the United States, dietary guidelines regarding meat and protein are misleading if not downright false. You can learn more about some of the dietary and health issues that serve as Barnard’s foundational beliefs about nutrition by visiting the website for The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, or picking up one of several books he’s written.

Oh, and George Monbiot’s piece on how he became a vegan also had an effect on me two months ago, even if  I was initially in denial about what he wrote concerning dairy farms and the environment—that is until recently.

Speaking of Barnard’s books, I found a copy of his book, Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings—And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally.

 Plant-based eating may not be for everyone (less than 3 percent of Americans follow a plant-based diet free of animal products). I’m also a mere three weeks into eliminating meat and dairy from my diet. I could go back to eating bacon and eggs every morning. However, I think Barnard’s points (which echo many of the claims that Dr. Dean Ornish has made about cardiovascular health) are hard to refute.

Given our recent water woes—at least until we get our new well drilled—means no showers at home. I’ve been swimming three times each week just so I can shower at my local Y, as well as starting back running again. This on top of all the things I’ve had to do requiring endurance and strength, in readying to sell our house. I’m happy to report that I’ve not been short of energy.

And then, there’s Mark’s journey across the country—fueled by a plant-based diet. You can color me impressed on that front, too.

The Real Corporate Candidate

A week ago, I received an invitation to attend a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. It came from a relative on my wife’s side of the family. Apparently she figured I’d be an easy target, simply assuming I’d be supporting Clinton because of the alternative, Donald Trump.

This kind of thinking has galled me for months. The idea that we must vote for Hillary because of the specter of a Trump presidency is typical either/or thinking that I’ve been subjected to ever since I first started voting in 1980. It’s also more of the usual reasoning that you get from spineless liberals. More on that further down in the post.

Two pathologically-damaged choices for president.

I don’t run around touting faux socialists for president like some of my friends did prior to Bernie Sanders going in the tank for Mrs. Clinton. I’m also clear on Clinton’s neoliberal policies designed to further dash the hopes of working class people across the U.S., something that so-called working class advocates from Maine that I’ve written about on this blog seem to have missed. Democrats will be Democrats, however.

Oh, and do I need to do the usual kabuki dance and list all the Republican’s political peccadilloes? They should be fairly obvious, but then again, given the drivel I’m reading about “Hillary must win, no matter what,” I’m not so sure.

Hillary Clinton has long been seen as the heir apparent to an ineffective, two-term president. Mr. Hope and Change has delivered little and dashed any hopes thinking people may have had about America. What passed for change was negligible at best.

Trump beat back a host of pathetic white, male politicians (and one woman) that were a combination of “too tired,” “too fat,” or “too stupid” to defeat a two-bit reality TV hustler. To Trump’s credit, he recognized that he could play to the fear of “the other” that’s been just below the surface for decades, if not longer in our country.

Bernie Sanders somehow energized the digitally dumbed-down—better known as our millennials—offering up heavy helpings of anti-corporate rhetoric. This also appealed to graying hippies, and other semi-progressive left-leaners. Then, as soon as Sanders recognized he wasn’t going to be the Democratic nominee, he did an abrupt about face and began supporting and stumping for a candidate joined at the hip to the worst elements of corporate corruption.

I thought Chris Hedges (one of America’s last remaining journalists) nailed liberals’ self-serving need to rally around someone as toxic and corrupt as Hillary Clinton. He wrote these two paragraphs back in August for TruthDig.. They are as good as it gets in framing all those left-of-center “friends” on Facebook, who have been consistent in their moral equivalency dances, about Hillary, why she’ll be so much more remarkable than Trump.

During the presidential election cycle, liberals display their gutlessness. Liberal organizations, such as MoveOn.org, become cloyingly subservient to the Democratic Party. Liberal media, epitomized by MSNBC, ruthlessly purge those who challenge the Democratic Party establishment. Liberal pundits, such as Paul Krugman, lambaste critics of the political theater, charging them with enabling the Republican nominee. Liberals chant, in a disregard for the facts, not to be like Ralph Nader, the “spoiler” who gave us George W. Bush.

The liberal class refuses to fight for the values it purports to care about. It is paralyzed and trapped by the induced panic manufactured by the systems of corporate propaganda. The only pressure within the political system comes from corporate power. With no counterweight, with no will on the part of the liberal class to defy the status quo, we slide deeper and deeper into corporate despotism. The repeated argument of the necessity of supporting the “least worse” makes things worse.

The installation of Hillary Clinton in the White House will simply ensure that the policies representing the elite consensus in America—a more aggressive foreign policy, directed mainly against China and Russia, as well as cracking down on the democratic rights of anti-corporate grassroots organizers (like our son, Mark), while making sure that working class living standards continue to decline.

Clinton will ensure that big business reigns supreme. Her presidency will mean unfettered neoliberal economic policies. But to liberals that’s all well and good because of the two corporate candidates, “theirs” is the best choice.

Here is some telling stuff from In Defense of Marxism, on who Hillary Clinton represents as a candidate. It sure as hell isn’t the working class. It’s also not what America’s corporate water carriers at the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NPR are putting forth.

Voting won’t change anything in America. And short of casting my vote for a fringe candidate like Jerry White, of the Socialist Equality Party (a true socialist, unlike Bernie Sanders), I’m not toeing the corporate line this election.

Weather as Social Commentary

In the Northeast, the sky has forgotten how to cry (aka, rain). This year, our rainfall totals are 9 inches below normal. We’re in the midst of a significant drought in the region.

People like it to be sunny each and every day. However, farmers need rain to water their crops. Municipal water supplies that rely on rain and groundwater (basically, all of them) need rain to recharge aquifers. I’m no geologist, but being as historically dry as it is can’t be good for longterm water needs.

The weather puppets—those Tee Vee people who only want to tell you that it’s going to be sunny, each and every day—have started to hint at some “soaking” rain coming next weekend….maybe.

I shouldn’t blame the weatherman (or weatherwoman) for only wanting to say “sunny,” rather than “rain.” I’m sure they’re perfectly nice people. They’re simply one more subset of America that believes in the myth of unending progress. Why tell people something unpleasant and end up being unpopular. Just like in politics—where each side thinks their pathologically-flawed candidate is the “hope” for our future—it’s better to sugarcoat it and tell people what they want to hear. Or make it about an issue that’s not really what ails us in the moment.

There was a pre-technological time when people understood the duality of life and the need for rain along with the sun. Technological man—with a multiplicity of smartphone apps–believes that he’s transcended such trivial things. He’s now living his life framed by a screen.

When we built our house back in 1989, many builders and contractors in these parts still installed shallow water wells. These are also known as dug wells. I can drive (or bike) and within a 10-mile radius, pass hundreds of these wells in Durham and Pownal.

Dug wells are ubiquitous in Maine.

Our dug well has consistently offered up an ample supply of water, save for a few years—usually in August and September—we had to curtail using the washing machine and other activities that used more than a few gallons at a time. This was due to the water level dropping down close to and then going below the footer valve, which pulls the water from the bottom of our 15-foot well, up to the well pump in our basement.

For a week now, we’ve been dangerously close to falling below the functional level. This has necessitated toting water in 7-gallon camping containers. I even climbed down into the well last Tuesday and managed to straighten the semi-rigid hard rubber tube so that it’s a few inches deeper in the well. As a result, I’m now able to pump enough water into the house to flush our toilets once or twice a day.

In my well, looking towards the sky.

We are on a list to have a well driller come out and drill a well. I called him last week when we ran out of water and he said it would probably be a week longer. The demand for new wells has outstripped his two-man operation, in an industry that’s not seeing an influx of new drilling businesses.

For now, we’re making do. Actually, things haven’t been that bad at all. I swim at the YMCA twice a week. Since I can’t shower at home, I’ve been going an additional day. I’m clean, and I’m also getting additional fitness benefits. We’ve also developed a routine for doing our dishes by hand. My sister (and parents) have allowed us to stop by and fill our jugs when passing by.

All of this has made us appreciative of having water. I think Mary and I are learning that we’re more adaptable and resilient than we thought we were. Resilience is something we all should be cultivating.

Back to the Future

A better time for cars.

I’d like to time-travel back to 1970 (or 1949).

Trash It

I had a political screed ready to publish on Sunday, prior to the freak show that now serves as the template for our presidential debates. After listening incredulously to both candidates, I scheduled it to publish on Columbus Day morning—then I put it in my WordPress trash bin. Later, I pulled it out and set it to publish again, before finally deep-sixing it once and for all.

That trashed post is a product of being sick and tired of all the self-righteous posing that people that I once considered friends (and some, acquaintances) have taken to Facebook to spout about almost every day. Your moral superiority is an ugly look.

Here’s a snippet of what I had planned to post, but finally decided to delete

One thing I am positive about. I’m done reading anyone’s either/or equivocation. We’re as fucked with Hillary at the helm as we will be at with Trump. Both are pathetic excuses for a leader.

Don’t like my opinion. Well to hell with you! I’m still entitled to holding one until that right gets stripped away by whoever we end up with for our next president.

Speaking of opinions, The Baffler isn’t afraid to show you theirs. Whether you are a fan of their far left progressive takes, or not, at least they haven’t resorted to listicles (yet).

The fact that they actually still publish long-form articles by writers trumpeting autodidacticism is reason to at least consider their ideas. Not sure what that is? I touched down on the topic back in 2013. A lot of good self-learning has done me. But that’s a topic for another post I’ll probably write but not publish.

As much as I still want to like The Baffler, however, they lose me with articles like this one. I’m sorry, but promoting the idea that all we need to fix the problems facing America is come to “grips with womb-based womanhood,” as in, “let’s return to the womb,” is politically-correct nonsense.

I doubt anyone tacking an autodidactic route would offer up this kind of poppycock, straight out of woman studies 101.

Can women save us?