Signals stored at a train station in Williston, Florida
Over the last year or so, Kathy & I have come to understand the impact of food choice on nutrition and overall health. One of the arguments I hear a lot as to why people make poor choices regarding food is that not everyone has access to quality food. My opinion is that people don’t know how to make good choices regarding food, because they don’t know what good food is, let alone what it tastes like. Why? Because the marketing messages we receive aren’t pushing healthy foods. They’re too often promoting foods which are actually bad for us but are sold to an unsuspecting public as being good for us. As I like to say, there is little profit in selling (for example) broccoli.
One of the food blogs I follow is Marion Nestle’s “Food Politics.” A recent post titled “Feed The Truth: Draining The Swamp” outlines a study and paper by an organization called Feed The Truth titled “Draining The Big Food Swamp.” This paper outlines the influence that “Big Food” has on national politics, which in turn affects the information people receive to make decisions about food. I highly recommend reading Nestle’s post and then following the link to at least the Executive Summary of the report.
This is important stuff. And this report only covers part of the problem, as it does not address the influence of pharmaceutical companies on the health care profession. Drug companies don’t make money off of healthy people any more than food companies make money selling healthy foods. We could solve a lot of the country’s health problems with a focus on quality food as an alternative to drugs and miracle cures.
I mentioned in an earlier post how we had recently had our bathrooms and bedrooms repainted, and that I had been given the “assignment” of providing prints for the walls. I’ve been thinking for a few months about the proper theme and color palette for each room. I’m still cogitating on the bedroom and master bath, – actually waiting for a new chair and draperies to arrive – but I finally settled on a scheme for the hall bathroom.
Grid of 8-inch Squares on a 10×28 Gallery Wrap
I’ve always tried to stay away from using other photographer’s work in my bathrooms, not being sure how that would come across. 😉 I’ll admit to previously having a John Shaw print and a Les Saucier print in our master bath, but neither of those two gentlemen are ever likely to set foot in our house, let alone the bathroom.
20×30 Canvas Float Wrap
In general, Kathy & I are going for images that capture our sense of travel, showing a sense of the places we have visited without being “literal.” When we decorated our sunroom with prints from a St. Martin artist, we wanted it to “feel” tropical without sea shells and palm trees. The colors and fabrics express that well. For our bathroom we wanted a splash of color – ideally Caribbean-inspired. I think we got there with these three selections. We’ll then get to hunt for accessories to go with what we have and these prints. Another reason to get back on the road again soon!
For now these are just files – my print lab starts their “sample sales” soon and I’m hoping to save a little $$$ by waiting a few weeks! 🙂
Side view of my computer. The big blue fan is a cooling fan while the small fan (currently red) changes colors. Ooooooh!
My computer brain, that is. 🙂 My trusty machine was getting a little long in the tooth, having begun life as a pseudo-Mac about 7 years ago, then was transformed to a Windows machine about 4 years ago. The hardware was good, but the choices were made primarily because they were compatible with the Mac OS. It still made for a decent Windows machine but was not ideal.
Fortunately, I have in-house tech support who is willing to work for food and drink. My son Kevin helped me pick out new hardware, and I ended up keeping the case, power supply and video card. I (actually he – I just stayed out of the way and tried not to break things) replaced the motherboard, processor and memory plus a new SSD. I already had upgraded my photo drives from 2TB to 4TB, so they stayed intact. Not replacing everything saved me a bit of money, and that made the CFO pretty happy since it gives her more to spend on decorating. 😉
For those who care (and know what it means!), here is a summary of my upgraded hardware:
GeForceGTX760 Video Card
ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING 4 ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD RYZEN 7 3700X 8-Core 3.6 GHz Processor
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 SDRAM
WD BLACK SN750 NVMe M.2 500GB Hard Drive
SanDisk X210SD 512GB SATA Hard Drive (Currently unused)
WD 4TB Desktop Performance 7200 rpm SATA III 3.5″ Internal HDD (X2)
CORSAIR TX650M Case with 650W power supply
It’s a pretty sweet setup. Getting everything back up and running took a little time, but at least that was something I know how to do! 😉
Moonrise the night before the official full moon, October 2020. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Like many people, I am astonished and embarrassed by the behavior of my fellow humans, especially over the last 24 hours but indeed over the last what? 24-48-60+ months? The extent to which people can be deceived, incited and provoked to extremes is frightening.
It’s very popular right now to talk of impeachment, imprisonment and removal from office those who have corrupted and vandalized our democracy. Whether it happens or not remains to be seen, and I don’t necessarily disagree with that approach. In fact, in many ways I welcome it as a lesson to those responsible and as a deterrence against continuing such behavior. What I ultimately hope, however, is that once all the angry words settle down and people go back to their lives, cooler heads can take a look at the problems in our country today and try to come up with meaningful solutions.
The question I keep coming back to is this: How desperate are the people who are attracted to false hope, lies, deceit and corruption that they so fervently believe in it to the extent that they can be moved to such atrocious actions? This is more than racial, religious, ideological or political difference. This more than an undercurrent. It is a raging river.
Whether by chance or by choice we as a society tend to be attracted to turmoil like moths to a flame. Thankfully, I spend most of my time doing things that I find calming and rewarding, and don’t get myself too riled up over all of the negativity that has swirled around us for far too long. I don’t ignore the media, in my opinion that would be irresponsible. But I have managed to insulate myself and – for the most part my opinions and attitudes – from most of the mayhem so that I’m not living with the anger and angst that many people feel and that I might otherwise be dealing with. Not everyone is able to do that and I feel fortunate that I can.
I don’t have the answers. I can only hope that the changes coming over the next few weeks, the next few months and the next few years, can head us in a more positive direction. One where we can disagree peacefully, work together for the common good to find equitable solutions to problems and to live in peace within our own country and in our world. Let’s hope for that, and where we personally are able, live that.
When I was growing up, my family would regularly attend stock car races at a couple of local race tracks. A few times a year the tracks would have events called Demolition Derbies, where a bunch of stripped-down cars would start out running around the track and purposely wreck each other, with the last car running declared the winner. I’m recalling this through 50+ years of possibly (likely!) faulty memory, but as I recall, somewhere near the end when there were only 2 or 3 cars running, the announcer providing the blow-by-blow commentary would say something like “CAR 83 IS SMOKING BADLY, HAS A COUPLE OF FLAT TIRES BUT IT’S STIIIIIILLLLL RUNNING.” I have to say that after the demolition derby that was 2020, we’re badly damaged but STILL RUNNING. And hopefully running well enough to hang on through 2021.
Tom and Katy at the beach!
Somewhat counter to the rest of society (contrarians? us?) and despite the various impacts of the virus, Kathy & I look back on 2020 as overall a very good year. We made some important changes that we possibly would/should have made anyway, but the arrival of Covid made them imperative. It worked out, and WE”RE STILL RUNNING! Believe me though, I am quite sensitive to the fact that not everyone can say the same about 2020. For way too many folks, 2020 was a very ugly year. A disastrous year. A demolition derby with not everyone escaping unscathed. From where I sit, however, life has been pretty darned good and I am thankful for that.
Yellowtail Dam area in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in southern Montana near Fort Smith
But we traveled. We traveled a bit differently than in past years, with a little more attention paid to places and conditions, avoiding the famous places with big crowds, carrying more of our food and water than we might have taken otherwise, but the country was open and we went. In fact, we traveled more in 2020 than we ever have. We spent 90+ days away from home, crossed off 5 new states and visited friends and family in locations far & wide. Despite only driving 426 miles in March, April & May, we’ve put over 18,000 miles on the Subie since 12/31/19, mostly in the second half of the year and including our 8,000-mile road trip to the Oregon coast and back in September. And we did it safely, staying away from popular places like National Parks and sticking mostly to sparsely-visited National Monuments, National Historic Parks, State Parks and Wildlife Refuges. A number of places were not open so we made do by seeing just the outside. Yes, we traveled!
“Wheel Fence” at the Dahmen Barn along US-195 in Uniontown, Washington
With exceptional (in hindsight) timing we took three cruises in January-February before the virus hit but have stuck to car travel since then. Staying off airplanes and cruise ships has saved us a bunch of money and allowed us to see parts of the country we might have put off if we had continued to fly places. It looks like that trend will continue in 2021, since the question of when we might expect to receive a vaccine remains a bit of a mystery. That assumes that the vaccines are actually effective, that we can eventually actually get one and that the virus begins to subside. Cruises and air travel will likely need to wait until 2022 for us, but there is still a lot of this country to see and we’re ready to go.
Haystack Rock at sunset over the Pacific Ocean from Cannon Beach, Oregon
Staying out of restaurants has been very good for our waistlines and for our budget. Kathy & I have never been and will never be skinny, but there is a lot less of each of us to haul around these days. We’ve been making regular donations of too-large clothes to our local Goodwill. Even now when restaurants have mostly re-opened, we’re finding that we like our own cooking just fine and we continue to lose weight at a reasonable and sustainable pace without “dieting.” Interestingly, our reaction to a lot of restaurant food now is that it is over-seasoned, over-portioned, overly meat-centric and over-priced. We’ve got a great source for fresh fish, a nice selection of our own wine, and find that we can dine in for a fraction of the cost of a fancy meal out. We love our restaurant people and have many friends in the business, but it is an estranged relationship these days. We weaned ourselves off of junk food years ago and didn’t succumb to the temptation of “comfort food” during the pandemic.
Lunch stop during our tour of Roatan, Honduras during our February 2020 cruise aboard Norwegian Dawn
I took nearly 17,000 photos this year. Not as many as 2019 when I took over 21,000, but still a lot! Why so many? I take a lot of our grandson Edison, and he moves so fast most of them are blurry! The number of photos that are actually worth keeping will be far less but remains to be seen as I’m still working on them. I did get a new camera this year, which was fun, and I have enjoyed working with it and the constantly updated software to process the files.
Perrine Memorial Bridge over the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho
We have a lot to be thankful for from 2020 despite all of the negative happenings, and we have plenty of reason to look forward to 2021. I don’t know how it will all shake out, but the best we can hope for is to get to 12/31/21 in at least as good a shape as we got to the finish line of 12/31/20. My primary goal is to keep a positive outlook, to find the silver lining in every situation and seek out the positive wherever I need to go to find it!
Shoshone Falls on the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho
The photos here are just a selection from the friends and family we were able to visit with this past year and who we look forward to seeing again this coming year!
Boat cruise on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with Jeff and Mary PatJeff Curto and Mary Pat Larue during our cruise on Lake Geneva, WisconsinJim & Lisa at Seneca Point in Cook Forest State Park in PennsylvaniaCastillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto RicoBill & Cathy aboard Carnival BreezeBill & Cathy, Tom & Kathy in the dining room aboard Carnival BreezeJim & Tom atop the Historic Fire Tower #9 in Cook Forest State Park in PennsylvaniaBreakfast with Monte at The Chicken Coop Restaurant in Fort Collins, ColoradoEdison loves Grandma!Pine cone inspectionWorld’s Largest Barber Pole in Casey, IllinoisWorld’s Largest Mailbox in Casey, IllinoisGrandma & Edison reading Cars & Trucks & Things That GoLamoille Canyon Scenic Byway, part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in eastern Nevada near ElkoBonneville Salt Flats, UtahRoatan Rum Shop in Roatan, HondurasRoatan Rum Shop in Roatan, Honduras during our February 2020 cruise aboard Norwegian DawnScott and Edison on Mother’s Day 2020Quarry Exhibit Hall and the wall of dinosaur bones at Dinosaur National Monument near Jensen, UtahMonte taking Kathy’s picture sitting on “his” rock along the Foothills Trail at the Reservoir Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins, ColoradoNorth Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North CarolinaFall along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Licklog Ridge Overlook MP 349Capella on 9 rooftop bar and tapas restaurant at the AC Hotel by Marriott Hotel in downtown Asheville, North CarolinaNike Missile Base Historic Area in Everglades National Park, FloridaWine tasting at Ken Wright Cellars tasting room in Carlton, Oregon
Late fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North Carolina
Kirk Tuck recently posted about how (paraphrasing) walking around town with a camera taking random pictures of interesting things is “almost like playing scales on the piano.” As a reformed musician that’s a reference I understand. Practicing technique is what allows us to nail the performance.
Late fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North CarolinaLate fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North CarolinaLate fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North Carolina
One of my recurring dreams involves being invited – and accepting – to perform some kind of solo concert. I haven’t touched my trombones – although I still have them – in nearly 30 years but when the day comes for me to play the dream ends. There’s probably some important symbolism there but I won’t try to analyze.
Late fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North CarolinaLate fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North Carolina
“Winter” or what we know as winter took this past weekend off, so Kathy & I took advantage of the 70 degree temperatures to enjoy the day at Latta Nature Preserve. I took my camera, of course, and took a few photos. To make it a little harder I took only my widest prime lens – the 14mm f2.8 (21mm full-frame equivalent). I don’t shoot a lot with wide angle lenses and it tends to show. While I didn’t come back with anything truly exceptional the idea of practice was my intention. Kathy helps me by seeing things she sees and giving me an “assignment” like the photos of purple leaves and the fallen branches with pine cones below. Now I have a name for the concept – practicing my scales.
Late fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North CarolinaLate fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North CarolinaLate fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North CarolinaLate fall afternoon at Latta Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North Carolina
I was originally planning to title this post “There Is No Vaccine.” But I decided that would be uncharacteristically (and unnecessarily) pessimistic. Why was I thinking that way?
Remember when we used to be able to go to concerts? We would get in line at 6am or earlier for tickets to see Elvis, Springsteen or Taylor Swift (not me!) that went on sale at 10am, only to find out at 10:01 that they sold out online? I’m afraid the vaccine is going to be something like that. Oh, we’ll probably be able to get it eventually, but in the meantime, we can listen to our favorite music on Spotify. In other words, it’s going to be a long wait.
The New York Times has a tool on their website that allows us to estimate when we might have a chance to get the vaccine. Based on my age, location and lack of underlying conditions, my estimated place in line is 268.7 million out of 331 million in the country, 8.5 million out of 10.5 million in the state, and 885,900 out of 1,127,080 in the county.
There are plenty of people out there that need it more than me, and I’m happy for them to have priority. Truthfully, I don’t like to be an “early adopter” on anything for pretty obvious reasons. It’s just frustrating that it is going to be such a slow process for everyone.
I don’t have a lot of faith in our ability to distribute a vaccine efficiently anyway, and since the Powers That Be apparently forfeited a chance to order enough for everyone in the first installment, it sounds like it’s gonna be a while. Since each person has to get 2 doses the initial 100 million doses will only vaccinate 50 million people. Out of 330 million! At this point the Pfizer vaccine is the only hope, and while the Moderna vaccine is evidently in the approval pipeline, no one seems to be saying when that will be approved. The downside of having a surplus of vaccine is what? We get to give it to countries that need it?
While we’re all waiting anxiously to be “saved” by a vaccine, for now I’m just telling myself that there isn’t one. That way, when we finally do get one we can be pleasantly surprised.
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve near Arco, Idaho
Evening on the beach, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
I thought we retired….
In the last few weeks, we’ve taken advantage of a “break in the action” to meet up with a few of our key professional people – medical, legal and financial stuff that we need to address on occasion. On top of that we’ve been working on a few home improvement projects. As a result, the calendar has been “full” of stuff. An appointment on Monday, an in-person meeting yesterday, conference call today, more stuff next week. Aye-yi-yi…feels like we’ve gone back to work! 😉 I realize that it’s nothing compared to the schedules we kept when we were actually working for a living, but it feels….busy! 😉
Sunset colors looking toward Tybee Island, Georgia from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
But once we get through next week we’re hopefully pretty much clear sailing through the holidays. Should be more time for important stuff like processing photographs and making blog posts. 🙂
Fall in the “Pixie Forest” on the Blue Ridge ParkwayFall along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Licklog Ridge Overlook MP 349
