Category Archives: Life and Meaning

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Economics, Exercise, Fort Collins, Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, Life and Meaning, Minimalism, Pandemics, Psychology, Science, Space, Trail Running

MUSING FOR FRIDAY 31ST, DECEMBER 2021

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

Lord Byron

The above image is a picture of what is called the Flame Nebula or NGC 2024. A nebula is a distinct body of interstellar gas and dust. At one point before telescopes became much bigger and refined, the term was used to describe any diffused astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way. A good example of this is the Andromeda galaxy. It was known as the Andromeda Nebula until the early 20th century when Edwin Hubble discovered that the Andromeda “nebula” was outside of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Up until this point, nebulae were thought to all be in the Milky Way. And that the MW was the only galaxy in the Universe. Hubble discovered that Andromeda was millions of light years from the MW and a galaxy in its own right containing billions of stars. In a sense, Hubble discovered the Universe for humanity. Image credit:  NASA, ESA, and N. Da Rio (University of Virginia); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) If you would like to learn more about the Flame Nebula, and Edwin Hubble please check out these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-spots-swirls-of-dust-in-the-flame-nebula and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_Nebula and https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_history/Edwin_Hubble_The_man_who_discovered_the_Cosmos

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

William Blake

This is an image from the Hubble Space telescope. It is what is known as a planetary nebula. The name is a misnomer because they are unrelated to planets. It is thought the usage of the term originated in the 1700s with William Herschel and others. They described these types of nebulae as resembling planets due to their shapes. In reality, they are known as emission nebulae consisting of expanding ionized shells of gas that are ejected from older red giant stars as they become white dwarf’s. A white dwarf is the exposed, naked core of a former red giant star. The above is a picture is NGC 6891 and is located in the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Hajian (University of Waterloo), H. Bond (Pennsylvania State University), and B. Balick (University of Washington); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) To learn more about NGC 6891 and planetary nebula, please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-s-view-of-planetary-nebula-reveals-complex-structure and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Lewis Carroll

This is an image of four different Nebula. The Eagle Nebula, the Omega Nebula, Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula. In the 1950s, astronomers were able to use the distances of some of the stars in these nebulae to infer the existence of the Sagittarius Arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. At the time, scientist were trying to figure out what kind of galaxy the Milky Way was – i.e. was it a spiral galaxy like Andromeda or something different. This was and still is to some degree a big deal because we are embedded in the Milky Way, so it is hard to know our position and the shape of the galaxy. Plus the fact that the Milky Way is really big, anywhere from 100,000 to 120,000 light years across, 1000 light years thick and containing 400 billion stars. As big as it is, it is only considered a middle weight when compared to other galaxies. New studies have shown that the above Nebulae are part of a substructure in the arm that is angled differently from the rest of the arm. These substructures have been called spurs or feathers and can be found on the arms of other spiral galaxies. Our solar system (including earth) is located about 25,000 light-years from the galactic center and 25,000 light years away from the rim. So if you use the analogy of a vinyl record, we are about half way between the center and the edge of the Milky Way and the MW itself is a barred spiral galaxy with two spiral arms. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. If you want to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/eagle-omega-nebula-trifid-and-lagoon-four-famous-nebulae and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carina%E2%80%93Sagittarius_Arm and https://phys.org/news/2016-07-earth-milky.html

“Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.”

Thomas Hardy

The above picture is from Hubble. It shows a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 3568. It lies 57 million light years away in the constellation of Centaurus. It’s first recorded discovery was on April 21st, 1835 by the English astronomer John Herschel. It is more recently famous for a supernova discovery in 2014 by amateur astronomers from the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search in New Zealand. While most astronomical discoveries are the work of professionals, the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search or BOSS is an amateur collaboration of 6 friends from Australia and New Zealand. They are a dedicated amateur astronomy group that have been searching for new supernovae sightings since 2008. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun. If you would like learn more please visit these web sites: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-views-a-galaxy-with-an-explosive-past and http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/hubble-image-ngc-3568-10358.html and https://www.bosssupernova.com/

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!”

Rudyard Kipling

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!!

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19 so far and so have I!! And that my friends is a very, very, good thing. I am still hoping that I can keep saying this for all of next year. I really mean that, especially if you have not gotten your vaccine yet.

Looking at the numbers on December 6th it appears that we have added another 36,000 deaths in the last 30 days for a total of 811, 000 individuals just in this country alone. And as big as that number is, it is actually down for the second month in a row. So yes it is terrible, but for the moment, we are heading in the right direction. Over 80 percent of those deaths have been the unvaccinated. What a needless and tragic loss of life. So senseless.

I thought for sure that Texas would surge ahead of California but it is still neck and neck, with Cali pulling ahead by a few hundred more deaths over the last month than Texas. The above picture has not changed. It represents the top 10 states with the most deaths. California is at 1st spot with 75,000 and Michigan is at the 10th spot with 26,000 thousand. Florida is not reporting as much and I wonder if they are actually much higher than 61,000 they say? This has been a pandemic of misinformation besides one caused by a virus. The economic powers that be are in the process of trying to stay afloat and recoup losses sustained since 2020, so it behooves them to make things sound better than they are to bring in those consumer dollars. Of course the virus does not care what you say or do and will go right on causing mayhem, death and disability.

The big news is the new variant called “Omicron.” So far at the middle of the month the mortality and morbidity did not appear as severe as Delta, but the transmissibility was significantly higher. At the middle of the month, the number of new cases per day was in the 150 thousand plus range but by December 22nd and 23rd the forecasted increase with Omicron started to skyrocket as it became the dominate strain in the country. On December 22nd the new positive cases were 236 thousand and on the 23rd it had jumped to 267 thousand. On Friday the 24th, there were 200,000 new case reported but from only 20 states due to the holiday. My guess, the number was closer to 400,000 new infections for Friday. At the end of the day Wednesday, December 30th, the new infections for the day were 572 thousand! Wow!

By the end of the month, we had added another 36,000 deaths for a total of about 847,000 fatalities in the United States. Another 36,000 lives lost in less than 30 days. Most of these were an unnecessary, tragic loss of life due to the unvaccinated. Thousands of individuals that thought it “won’t happen to me” or that it was a big lie. Oh well, what is the saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” I am thinking that the number of deaths for next month are going to be dramatically higher due to the Omicron variant, especially for the unvaccinated. Hopefully that will not be the case, but I guess time will tell. If you interested in the numbers please see this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

If you interested in getting a good understanding of what is going on with Covid each week without having to watch the news, check out this link for the Osterholm Update on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FC1G09xkOFc and if you don’t want to listen on YouTube you can check out Apple Pod cast. Dr. Michael Osterholm is an American epidemiologist, Regents Professor, and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Osterholm gives an update each week on where we are with the virus.

Well again, enough about Covid!! Let’s move on to something much better to talk about!! And that was the month of November for being outdoors. The weather was simply beautiful here in Colorado with an exceptionally mild month.

The above picture was taken on November 3rd, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. This is looking South East from Horsetooth Mountain Park. It is one of my favorite views in the park. Here I was looking out over the Front Range of Colorado, down towards Denver. The air quality was great and the temps were in the 60 to 70 range. A little too warm for November but nice never the less.

The above picture was also taken on November 3rd, 2021 at about 5pm in the afternoon. After finishing up a little trail running, Marvin and I did a short walk with Janet. We got in the habit of walking two times per day back in the summer when it was abnormally hot for Colorado and there were significant air quality issues from the fires out in California. Even though conditions have gotten a lot better, we decided to continue the practice into the fall. This way I get to go for a run with dog boy and a walk with Janet later in the afternoon after she gets home from work.

The above picture was taken November 5th, 2021 at about 12noon. Here Marvin and I were doing a little in town trail running at the back of Spring Canyon Park, in the Pineridge Open Space. Another beautiful fall day.

The above picture was taken on November 13th, 2021 at about 1pm in the afternoon. Here we are just walking in our Neighborhood. Our youngest daughter was house sitting and decided to walk the owners dog with us – Haley Jo. Marvin always seems happy to have another dog walking with him.

The above picture was taken November 17th, 2021 at about 1pm. Another beautiful trail run in Horsetooth Mountain Park. Here I am looking East across Horsetooth Reservoir and across Fort Collins. I did not have Marvin with me this day. It was way too warm for him and there is very little water access up on the mountain, so he got to stay home with his dog buddy Cash.

The above picture was taken on November 18th, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. It is from the Hewlett Gulch Trail that is just west of Fort Collins off of Highway 14. It is part of the Canyon Lakes Ranger District in the Roosevelt National Forest. I really like this one for the dog due to the water access along most of the trail. Especially with the abnormally higher temperatures that were the norm this year. If your interested in more information about this trail check out this link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recreation/recarea/?recid=36779&actid=50

The above picture was taken on November 20th, 2021 at about 3pm in the afternoon. Janet and I were out for our usual daily walk and exploring a downed cottonwood tree when Marvin jumped up on it unexpectedly. Which was a surprise to both of us. With his heavier bone structure, he is not a dog know for his jumping abilities. Lol.

The above image was taken on November 25th, 2021 at about 3pm in the afternoon. Marvin and I were doing a run along the Poudre River Bike trail. It was another warm day for November, so I stopped to let him get a drink out of the river.

This last picture was taken on November 30th, 2021 at about 3pm in the afternoon. Here I was looking Southwest across Horsetooth reservoir from the Fort Collins side. The sun seemed to be at a perfect angle with the clouds for what I think turned out to be a great photo. It was more of a typical fall day in Colorado, with temps in the mid 40s, so Marvin and I got in a long trail run along the lake.

While the month was unseasonably warm and dry for us in November it did make for some great days of running, walking, biking and just being outdoors. We did miss the early season snow a little bit but not too much. Lol

Like October, I did get a few more books and “lecture courses” finished up during the month. The first one I would like to talk about is a lecture course from the Great Courses website called “Years that Changed History: 1215” taught by Professor Dorsey Armstrong, PhD. She is an Associate Professor of English and medieval Literature at Purdue University. I watched this lecture series in video format but it would work as well in audio only. (It is a lot cheaper in the audio only version).

I got this course out of curiosity when I was reading about the importance of the Magna Carta and how it is consider the basis for the creation of the US Constitution. In the process of looking up more information on it, I came across this course. To my surprise, there were many different events that happen in and around the year 1215, not just the signing of the Magna Carta by King John. This year and the years around it, turned out to have pivotal turning points in world history.

Without giving too much away, the course covers the signing of the Magna Carta, the meeting of the Church’s Forth Lateran Council, the crusades, and the rise of Genghis Khan, to just name a few. Not only do you get a look into what was going on in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, but Dr. Armstrong also gives a look at what was also happening in the rest of the world (Japan, Africa, and Mesoamerica) at the same time. I had no “idea” is to put it mildly. This is one of those lecture series that I will listen to a second time. The course is divided up into 24-thirty minute lectures for a total of about 12.5 hours of listening. Another bonus is that Dr. Armstrong has a good sense of humor when presenting the material and makes what could be a dry subject very entertaining. You can find the audio version on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3qk82WC and if you prefer the video version, you can find it here at the Great Courses: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/years-that-changed-history-1215

If you want to learn more about Professor Armstrong please see this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorsey_Armstrong

The next book I would like to give a recommendation on is called “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari. Let me start off saying that this is a great book. It is one of those that I will listen to a second time or reference back to. It is that good. The book was published in 2015 and is just as relevant today as it was when it was first published. The book is what the title says it is. It is a brief history of humankind from about 100,000 years ago to the present. In the process of presenting the story, Dr. Harari integrates history and science in a way that makes you ponder the currently accepted narratives found in society today. It is one of those books that give a fascinating look at how humanity became what it is – the dominate species on the planet. This should be required reading in all colleges. Heck, it should be required reading for High School Seniors before they graduate.

This book was very easy to listen to. Dr. Harari’s prose was smooth and concise. It made for a very enjoyable experience. I listened to the book as an audio book, but it would probably work even better in traditional format so that you can reference previous material much easier. There is a lot of information presented and I found myself re-listening to sections to help with digestion.

If you would like to learn more about this amazing author, Yuval Noah Harari, please check out this link: Yuval Noah Harari – Wikipedia

Of course you can find this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/32tfaHR

The next book I would like to talk about is called: “80/20 Running, by Matt Fitzgerald.” Since I run a lot, I am always looking for books on running and especially audio books that I can listen to while running.

This is a great book to get you started in the principles (the whys and how’s) of doing most of your runs at lower intensity and only 20 percent at the at higher intensity levels. I have been seriously running now for about 9 years and I had been exposed to this idea before from Joe Friel’s book “Fast after 50.” (another great book). What I liked best about the 80/20 book is that it explained, in easy to understand detail, the importance of slowing down a bit in training to help improve overall performance. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but it does work. Now don’t get me wrong, you still have to do a fair amount of the much harder intensity part, but not all the time. When you are training with out a coach to watch your progress, there is a tendency to get in a rut with moderate effort being the main workout all the time. And this just wears you down. Or you put in too much high intensity training and get injured. Either way this is counter productive.

I listened to this book as an audio book but it would probably work better in traditional format, especially if you are new to running or a seasoned runner but want to take it up a notch or two.

Of course you can find this on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3moFvOu

I also recommend Joe Friel’s book “Fast after 50” – especially if you are over 50 like me! Lol. You can find it on Amazon too: https://amzn.to/3Hfu03S

Last but not least, I would like to showcase a new piece of art work before I go. I started a “Sun Face” series in October and this is the first one of the series that I have finished. It is constructed of 3/4 inch plywood and painted with high quality latex paint. Then sealed with a clear latex primer. The sculpture measures about 28 inches by 28 inches by 3 inches deep. Its weight is about 25 lbs. This one is rated for interior or exterior placement, but if you are putting it outside, I would suggest a protected location. The latex paint, while durable, will gradually fade over time if placed in a location with strong sunlight. And like all paint, it is susceptible to the whims of harsh weather. I call this one “Squished Lego Sun Face.”

SQUISHED LEGO SUN FACE

These piece and other types of art work are for sale and can be found on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strugglingprotoplasm/edit?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Wow! I have come to the end of another blog post! Yea! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Before I go, I would like to touch again on the idea of becoming minimalist. This past month I was reminded of the importance of this idea when I came across an art installation post on FB that I had forgotten about called “Can’t Help Myself.” The piece was done by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. It was first seen at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016.

You can see it at work in this YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/ZS4Bpr2BgnE If you want to learn more about the artists check out their inks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yuan_&_Peng_Yu and http://www.artnet.com/artists/sun-yuan-and-peng-yu/

It is of a large robotic arm that is constantly trying to save it’s hydraulic fluid that is colored red like blood. The arm makes other movements that give it anthropomorphic (human like) characteristics. The robot is in a losing battle trying to contain the very fluid that allows it to move and hence live. It is designed to lose a little more each day than it can recollect and so eventually it will cease movement and die (it bleeds out). I believe the robot finally came to rest in 2019. There are several interpretations of what the artists meant with the work, but the one that resonated with me the most is that it is a metaphor on modern life. On how we kill ourselves and others in the pursuit of money and profit in an effort to just keep living. And that the system is set up by others to keep us enslaved to the system so that the majority of profit goes to the wealthiest of the wealthy.

Here we are working and working, spending the best years of our lives, playing the game that the richest people in the world have designed. Trapped and slowly drowning with a growing list of responsibilities, debt, and expectations – combined with decreasing pay in relation to inflation and free time for exploration. And where does it all end? In death… It all ends in death. So you might find that interpretation depressing and I do too, but relevant and fitting.

So how do we combat such an overwhelming and fixed system? Well, if you have read my previous blog posts, you know what I am going to say, become “Minimalist.” It is really the only way on a personal and individual scale to combat a rigged consumeristic system. It is something that we can all do to fight back against the current order. When I first heard about the idea of minimalism I thought of a monk living in a monastery, bare walls, owning nothing, eating the same gruel each and everyday, etc.… But in reality this is not the case, though I guess if you wanted to do this you could. Lol.

Minimalism is different for each individual. You choose how much “minimalism” you want in your life and how much you don’t want. It is about understanding what matters most in life and removing the things that do not support the “what matters most part.” It is a way to break free of a rigged system. A way to start on the path of bringing back the happiness and joy we all want and need in our lives.

Ok, ok enough of the soapbox, but if your interested and want to learn more about sustainability, minimalism and the steady state economy, please see these sites: https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/what-is-sustainability/ and https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/ and https://steadystate.org/

So take care my friends and if you have not gotten vaccinated, then get it done. We all want this “Groundhog Day – Covid – Marry – Go – Round” to end. Until next time Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous…, leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Air Quality, Cameron Peak Fire, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, East Troublesome Fire, Exercise, Fort Collins, Life and Meaning, Pandemics, Psychology, PurpleAir, Space, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 30th, OCTOBER 2020

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“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”
― Seth Godin

This is an image that was taken by the Hubble Space telescope and is known as a star-forming nursery called “Free floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules.” It is created when a massive new star starts to shine while still within the cool molecular gas cloud. It’s energetic radiation can ionize the cloud’s hydrogen and create a large, hot bubble of ionized gas. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & Nasa, R. Sahai. To learn more about this image visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-snaps-a-special-stellar-nursery/

“Art is what we call… the thing an artist does. It’s not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human. Art is not in the … eye of the beholder. It’s in the soul of the artist.”
― Seth Godin

This is an image from the International Space Station that was taken back in July 2020. The Nasa space walkers giving a “thumbs up” are Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy. They were the astronauts on the first manned mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to fly to the ISS. Image credit: NASA. To learn more about this image visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/thumbs-up-from-out-of-this-world

“An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.”
― Seth Godin

This is a picture of Buzz Aldrin carrying two components of the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package on the surface of the moon. This was the Apollo 11 mission, 1969. These components were part of a plan to install a small array of mirrors on the moon so that scientists back on earth could use lasers to get a more accurate measurement of the moons shape and the effects of earth’s gravitational pull. Image credit: NASA. To learn more about his image visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/retroreflectors-from-apollo-to-mars

“The secret to being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.”
― Seth Godin

This is another picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is of the globular cluster NGC 1805. This is an image of 1000s of stars located near the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. A satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. Image Credit: ESA (European Space Agency) To learn more about this image visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-stows-a-pocketful-of-stars

“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
― Carl Sagan

This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed ‘Pale Blue Dot’, is a part of the first ever ‘portrait’ of the solar system taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft, February 14th, 1990. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system from a distance of more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. To learn more about this image visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/multimedia/pia00452.html

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

If you are reading this then you have survived Covid -19 so far!! And so have I!! That is a very, very, very good thing for both of us. Therefore life continues to be good and I cannot complain too much at the moment. Looking at the numbers during the first week of October, the USA was still adding 30 to over 40 thousand new cases each day. Total deaths were 215,000 with Texas, Florida, and California leading the way. Texas had moved into second place, right above New Jersey, for the highest number of deaths – so far. Just around 16,500. Texas was also right behind California for the most number of cases too. But by the middle of October the numbers had changed and Texas is now leading the nation in total number of cases.

National new case count for October 16th was 71,000 cases in a single day. And this was just the start, by the end of the month we were putting in 60 to over 80 thousand new cases each day. My guess is, this is the start of the third wave. Or maybe, we really have not gone down to zero so is it the third peak? Either way…WOW but not in a good way.

The numbers as of October 29th, 2020, we were over 9 million known cases of Covid, with 234,000 deaths. Unreal! In less than 30 days we have added almost 20,000 new deaths again?! This has been the tally for several months in a row now… Crazy. I am wondering where we will be on December 31st? Oh well, we are in the “churn” now…

If you want to see the numbers yourself check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

When I started writing this post the Cameron Peak Fire was at 125,000 acres. Unfortunately it has continued to burn off and on during the month. We did get a little rain and snow in the mountains around the middle of October which helped. But it was not enough. The winds picked up again and the fire exploded on it Southern Border. Burning to within 5 to 10 miles of Loveland and Fort Collins. In an abundance of caution, and rightly so, the powers that be closed all of the National Forests from the Wyoming border to basically Denver.

This is a picture of a large air tanker dropping fire retardant behind the buildings at the Colorado State University Mountain Campus on October 10th, 2020. By this date the Cameron Peak Fire was just shy of 135,000 acres. Photo credit: NM Engine 964 Crew

The fire is now the largest in state history at 208,000 acres. Even though where I live in Fort Collins was not burning, the air quality has been terrible at times due to the smoke. I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated the use of the real time air quality map provided by Purple Air. If you have not gone to this web site you need to, especially if you play a lot in the outdoors. I do not have my own sensor to monitor air quality yet, but I do plan to buy one later this year. Check out their web site: https://www2.purpleair.com/

This is a picture of the East Troublesome Fire from Oct 16th, 2020. At this point it was only about 11,000 to 12, 000 acres. Image Credit: Unknown

As if the Cameron Peak Fire was not enough, the East Troublesome Fire, which started on October 14th, blew up so to speak on October 22nd and has now burned 192,000 acres West of Rocky Mountain National park. Unfortunately this includes homes that were part of the town of Grand Lake. Both of these fires are the largest in Colorado state history. How crazy is that??

This is a picture of the East Troublesome Fire on Oct 21st, 2020. It is looking North from Cottonwood Pass. At this point the fire was about 20,000 acres. By the end of the next day, things had drastically changed and the fire had jumped to 125,000 acres. Unreal. Image Credit: Andrew Lussie

Oh well what are you going to do? At this point I am not sure what the plan will be for me this winter as far as outdoor activity. I want to take the dog and do some back country skiing but Cameron Pass was my place to go. At least for now it has not burned on the West side of the pass and there are ski trails there too. So as soon as the road reopens later this year that may be my best option without having to drive the I25 / I70 corridor. Or maybe it will be time to head North again, into Wyoming. Of course this is after the Mullen Fire dies back with the arrival of snow. Time will tell. I am hoping that once the smoke clears, the trail running closer to Fort Collins will be doable again by the end of October.

Cameron Peak Fire. This picture was taken on Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 from Boyd Lake between Fort Collins and Loveland. The huge smoke column was created that morning by very high winds in the mountains. I believe the photographer was looking West by North West. Image credit: Unknown

At least we got a great shot of snow and rain over the weekend of the 24th and 25th of October. This did not put the fires out but it did put a significant damper on them. Even if it is only temporary. Mother nature is going to have her way. And with our continued short sighed “nonbelief” in “global warming,” my guess is this is just the tip of the iceberg of what awaits us in the future. I find it incredibly ironic that we have an immense “fusion reactor” in our solar system called the “sun” and we do not make the most of it. Oh but the hubris of humankind.

Cameron Peak Fire. This picture was taken 3 miles east of the Glen Haven Fire Department Friday 16th, October 2020. Image Credit: Unknown

I know that after the fires are put out and the damage assessed there will be a lot of finger pointing and discussion around why this occurred in the first place. In my humble opinion and others, there were a few things that helped to make this fire season a very destructive one. The first thing I think you have to understand is that Colorado had a unpresented infestation of Pine Bark Beetles that started in the mid 1990s. That was caused by 25 years of gradual warming and drought in the mountains. Each year being a little above average in temperature with a gradual decrease in overall moisture. This significantly stressed the trees causing them to become very vulnerable to the beetles. It left millions and millions of dead trees before it ran its course. Fast forward to this year, you have unusually dry conditions along with gusty winds and the dead trees. Voila -there you have it. A recipe for disaster… A good link to read more about this: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/21fd50c4ef904bb0a6ad7d1c514417c5?item=1 It is a very good article helping to explain why Colorado “burned.”

On a positive note, this is a picture from the Roaring Creek trail area, in the Poudre Canyon. It is showing new growth since burning in the Cameron Peak fire about one and a half months ago. Incredible to think the fire has been burning now for almost three months. Image Credit : Evan Burks

The thing to remember is that this is not just a Colorado problem but a North American problem due to a warming and dryer environment in the Western US. The second part of the fire issue for Colorado and other parts of the country is that you have a lot more people moving into areas that did not have permanent human habitation until recently. Think last 30 years. And some of these areas burn ever so often as part of the natural ecology of the forest. Even without the global warming and drought.

Of course there are others reasons, but I think these two are the big ones. Neither one has an easy solution. My guess is if you are going to continue to live in these areas, especially now that CO2 levels have skyrocketed, you might as well expect it and plan for it.

If you want to learn more about the Cameron Peak fire and the East Troublesome Fire check out this web site: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/

Well on to other things. Enough of Covid and Forest fires. Time for something better. Besides writing a blog, I have been writing a personal journal consistently now for almost 9 years. November 1st, 2020 will be that anniversary and what an inner journey it has been. By consistently I mean “every day” without fail. Some days it is only half of a page, on other days it is more than three pages. I used to think that I would run out of stuff to write about, but that has not been the case. If anything the list of topics has become more diverse. I found, I had to get “through” some of the superficial stuff, before I could get to the deeper substance. My journal is one that will never be read except by me so all the topics are fair game. Nothing is held sacred. Nothing is held back. It is a writing that is an exploration of the “self.” Good things as well as all the bad. Especially all the bad, everything the lizard brain has to say, but does not want to say it. And some days it scares me.

This picture was taken Sunday 13th, September 2020, at 8pm. A lot of exercise for Janet and I in September was walking in the neighborhood during the late afternoon and evening. This night the air quality was good enough to not have to wear a mask. Our usual plan was to not wear an N-95 mask as long as the AQI (Air Quality Index) was below 100.

In keeping the journal, I have learned more about myself than I knew was possible. Some topics were incredibly difficult to write about. Even though I knew no one would read it. Other times it was just the surface stuff for the coming day at hand. Things that I wanted to remind myself of needing to get done but were not all that pressing. One of the surprising realizations that became apparent over the years were “subjects” that I thought I had covered ad nauseam, would suddenly pop back up without warning showing even deeper layers of meaning. Like fractal geometry the patterns just continued to repeat. Out of all of this, there were a few truths that I have learned. And I would like to share a few with you.

This picture was taken Monday 14th, September 2020, at 7pm. Marvin with a stick on the Poudre River. Here I am looking West by North West. The AQI was down in the 50 range, so no mask was required. You can see the haze from the fire in background. There were a lot of days in the month of September that looked just like this and worse.

Number one: Anger. We have all experienced it in the present, but some of us have a lot of it “stored” from our past. Matter of fact if you are someone that gets angry very easily, then I would hazard a guess to say that you probably have some repressed anger. That was my experience and until I faced issues from the past, it drove my life at times. It was miserable for me and those around me. It is a wonder that more of us do not have criminal records because of an anger issue. Lol. When I started to journal I would not have thought that anger would keep coming up like it did. Over and over again and again. It got so bad at times I would have to stop writing, take a break, and come back to it. Or I would finish a section of writing and reread it and think “where the hell did that come from?” Lol. It can even be a little scary, but no worries, that is why the “journal no one reads but you” is such a great tool. It allows the exploration of deep seated anger without the fear that people will just not understand your feelings. And your right, they would not understand because it is personnel to you. Henceforth the “journal that no one reads” but you. I found that my anger had become like supple leather gloves or a cloak, so smooth, so soft that I did not know I had them on. It was the journaling that helped me to peal layer, after layer, after layer off. Sometimes it was very painful, like pealing off an old scab, but so freeing once it was gone. The journaling can provide a safe but extremely powerful catharsis when dealing with repressed emotions like anger.

This picture was taken September 23rd, 2020 at about 7:30pm. Marvin had just gotten back from a long walk and the cat was in the mood to play. I find it amazing that he is so gentle with the cat and the cat does not appear to be afraid in the least.

Number two: “You have all that you need.” When you get right down to it most of us have all that we need. Let me say that again. We have all that we need. Especially in a first world country like the USA. I have found that I have to remind myself of this everyday. Especially with all the adds from TV, the internet, magazines, newspaper, catalogs, etc… We live in a very consumeristic society. There is always someone out there that is trying to get you to buy “more” stuff. The adds are selling “dissatisfaction” and “desire” at the same time. If you have never been to a large active landfill it is worth a trip to see the mounds and mounds of “stuff” that was once some ones desire and now their dissatisfaction. I could make this one truth the topic of several blog post, but I will leave it for now with one quote and a link to the Minimalist web site: https://www.theminimalists.com/

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” – Will Rogers

This picture was taken September 26th, 2020 at about 1am. It was a beautiful early morning with the moon dropping over the western horizon. This is Lake Sherwood in my neighborhood.

Number Three: “The things that we fear the most are the things that we most need to do.” Be honest with yourself, how many times have you not tried something because you fear it, for whatever reason. The fear of failure, the fear of not being able to handle it, the fear of loss, the fear of losing control, the fear of rejection, the fear of death, etc… All the “what ifs” that your mind can come up with. While journaling I was able to explore my fears and why I had them. It is not a quick fix, but over time I found, just like with anger, there were layers. The writing let me explore and peal off those layers one at a time.

“Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain.” – Mark Twain

During this process of writing I came to the realization that the essential cause of our suffering, anxiety and fear is ignorance of the nature of reality, and our need for craving and clinging to illusion.

The reality is we are all going to die at some point. The illusion is that it will never happen to me. Death is an inevitable outcome. It will not matter what clothing you wear. Who your parents were. What car you drive. What schools you attended. How much money you made. What mythology you worshiped. We are going to lose every thing that we have ever loved, hated, owned or desired. Nothing is here to stay, not even the earth beneath your feet. And once you understand this realization fully, at your core, the illusion is shattered and your perception changes.

This picture was taken September 27th, 2020 at about 8pm. It was starting to get a little colder…

I would like to think that I have conquered all my fears but that would be telling myself and you dear reader a lie. After all, we are all here, on this earth, at this time, because our ancestors going back a few million years were very good at survival. And they were very good at survival because of their lizard brain. I work with my lizard brain on this subject every single day. Lol.

This realization on death and fear felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Or that is how it was with me and writing helped me to come to this realization. Let me be clear, danger is very, very real. But the fear is a choice, consciously or unconsciously. It is all in our minds based on our thoughts and feelings about events that may or may not ever happen. The lizard brain trying to keep you safe anyway it can.

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” – Charles Bukowski

All right, that is about it for me on this Blog Post. I have more “truths” that have come out of the journaling but I will save them for another day. On the next blog I will try to have a few more book reviews and such.

One last thing before I go about fear. I am not talking about true phobias, but ordinary fears. If you have a true phobia, journaling can help but it is not a substitute for professional guidance.

So take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds or indoors and practice physical distancing. AND VOTE like your life depends on it. Because it probably does… Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous…, leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Fort Collins, genetics, Life and Meaning, Longivity, Pandemics, Psychology, Sociology, Space

MUSING FOR FRIDAY 24TH, APRIL 2020

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“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exist.” – Eric Hoffer

The Witch’s Broom – Located in the Veil Nebula, is part of the remnants of a star 20 times the size of our sun that went supernova, exploding roughly 8,000 years ago. The long, slender filaments of the Witch’s Broom are part of an expanding blast wave from the supernova – shocking, heating, and transforming interstellar gasses as it goes. The bright spot at the nebula’s upper edge is the giant star 52 Cygni in the constellation Cygnus.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan W. Watts

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured its highest-resolution panorama yet of the Martian surface between Nov. 24th and Dec. 1st, 2019. This version with the rover contains nearly 650 million pixels and is composed of more than 1000 images. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates the Mastcam. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington and built the Curiosity rover.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Barack Obama

This 2010 image is from the Herschel Space Observatory and shows dust clouds associated with the Rosette Nebula. It is a stellar nursery that is somewhere around 5,000 light years from Earth. The Observatory collected infrared light radiated out by the dust. The bright spots are cocoons containing embryonic stars. They will eventually grow up to 10 times the mass of our sun.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer

Apollo 17 (December 1972) was the last crewed lunar landing. It hosted the first scientist-astronaut to land on the Moon, Harrison Schmitt, a geologist. The lunar module was distinguished by extended hardware capability, larger scientific payload capacity and the use of the battery-powered Lunar Rover. The rover vehicle traversed a total of 30.5 kilometers. The crew “stay time” on the moon was 75 hours and approximately 243 pounds of material was brought back to earth.

“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?” Carl Sagan

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

Well if you are reading this… then you have survived Covid – 19 so far and I have too!! That is a very good thing. This virus has turned out, as most of the experts predicted, to be much worse than the flu. It was interesting to me that even after the first week of April or so, when the death toll continued to climb each day, there were some individuals that thought it was still being over blown. I mean I get it. It is hard to believe that something like this could occur in our modern day and age. Especially if you have no science and or medical training. And of course after hearing the “Orange DT” expound over and over, again and again, upon the idea that all the media is “fake news” for the last four years – I am guessing this affected some individuals in that they did not know what to believe. I have to ask myself how much needless suffering and death was inflicted upon the public due to this conman’s irresponsible rhetoric? Oh well, its all water under the bridge, not much we can do about it. The issue now is all about mitigation and recovery at some point. And I am wondering if “opening back up” at the end of April is the best move? Maybe putting it off another month might be better? Time will tell. And the question to ask is what will be our new normal?

This picture was taken March 3rd, 2020 at about 4 pm. Here I am looking South from the top sections of Horsetooth Mountain Park, due West of Fort Collins. It was a beautiful spring afternoon in Colorado. My elevation at this point was just over 7,000 feet.

On a more positive note it sounds like there are several different companies around the world, working on a vaccine for this virus. From the United States to Australia. I know that one company was given the green light to skip animal trials and go straight to human testing. That is pretty amazing because it has never been done before. Think about that, straight to human testing?! If you ever needed another reason to take this viral illness seriously, then this would be it. The company’s name is Moderna. Based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. You should check out their web site. It looks like they have a list of vaccines they are working on using mRNA. Or messenger RNA. Every thing from infectious diseases, like Zika and Covid 19 to Cancer Vaccines. Also it looks like they have an area of research called Regenerative Therapeutics – meaning they are developing gene therapy to treat injured or diseased tissue. That is pretty cool. Here is the link: https://www.modernatx.com/

This picture was taken March 11th, 2020 at about 5:30 pm. It was another beautiful spring like day in Colorado.

If there is only one silver lining to come out of the pandemic, it will be the advancement of knowledge in working with genetics, viruses and vaccines. And this includes dealing with mass causality situations due to an infectious agent, on a scale that has not been seen since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Hopefully when the next one occurs we will have a much more robust capability and knowledge base to deal with it.

This picture was taken March 19th, 2020 at about 7 pm. It is from one of the parks in Fort Collins. Wow what a difference a week makes in the weather. From 50 to 60 degree days last week to cold and snow a week later. Oh well it is spring time in Colorado and there is an old joke that you can experience all four season in a single day living here. Lol

What does the future hold? What will be our new normal? Truthfully, I have no idea. But I am guessing that as we do try to unlock the economy, I feel that there will be a “blitzkrieg” in advertising. All of it, trying to help you feel “comfortable” again. And we all want to feel that way. I have been lucky so far. My “day job” so to speak, is medical and for now it has escaped budget cuts. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be worried about paying rent and bills, not to mention just affording food. Our need for comfort and safety will be genuine. The advertising agencies and corporations know this. I am guessing that there have been countless teleconferenced meetings around the world on the best strategy on how to sell you the old normal. But do we want the old normal back, as it was? Like an economy that is based on debt and over-consumption to the point that it collapses when people start to buy only their essentials. How strong could it have actually been? Or a health care system that does not work for everyone or charges you so much money that you have to the sell the farm to pay the medical bills. Or a degraded social safety net that relies in part on the capricious generosity of others. I could go on and on with this. But I think you get the picture. Maybe a modified version might be better?

This picture was taken March 22nd, 2020 at about 7 pm. Only three days later and temps back in the 50s. Beautiful evening. Marvin was keeping a close eye on the geese. Lol

As I write and research this, I find a lot of other authors talking about “time.” How in the old system, we just did not have enough time to care. In the previous economy, no matter who we were as Americans, we all shared one thing in common, we were busy. Working, paying bills, taking kids to school, answering e-mail, phone calls, attending meetings, and the list goes on and on and on. So, how can you worry or much less logically think about an existential issue or problem when you barley have enough time for eating and sleeping, before you have to do it all over again the next day. Truly – you had no time. This really hit home with me. Not because I was feeling stressed about time, but because I wasn’t. I have been in health care for about 40 years and for the majority of it I have worked 12 hours shifts. Three per week, sometimes more but recently a lot less – my choice for the last few years. Now I only work two 12 hours shifts per week or less. Having time to read more, to exercise more, to eat better, to work on my mental health, etc… has been liberating to say the least. If I would have been more self-disciplined when I was a younger man, I would have gone to this part-time way of existence much sooner. Yes I had to make sacrifices in what I spend and buy. But that was more of a mental issue than a true physical one. My wife used to ask the kids when they were younger, “Is it a want or a need.” And she was right in more ways than one. Our needs are few but our wants are endless. The advertising agencies and big business know this.

This picture was taken March 23rd, 2020 at about 7:35pm. Looking West along the Poudre trail in Fort Collins. A lot of the open space areas that the trail transects were old farmsteads in the past. Looking at this tree, I wonder who in the past might have looked the same direction? What thoughts they might have had, their worries, their concerns, their loves, their likes and dislikes, etc… What would they think of the world today?

Big government, big business and advertising are all teaming up. They are going to want to make you feel comfortable again. They will be there to indoctrinate you into the old ways of doing things. To make you think that it was not as bad as what it was. Like a Jedi mind trick. You didn’t see those body bags in Italy and New York, you didn’t see the death count, you didn’t see the doctors and nurses on the front line describing hospitals as war zones, you didn’t see the food lines, you didn’t see that the air was much cleaner, you didn’t see those headlines and if you did they were all fake. You did not see or hear the leader of the free world reference the virus as a new hoax, or take too long to declare a national emergency. In order to be good children, you will be told over and over again and again through advertising to drink the proverbial Kool-aide. So I ask you, is this what you want? To go back? This crisis has given us a chance to see ourselves and our world from a very different view point. It has hit the pause button on the human-ant like madness that was taking place on the planet. To see it in a better light. To give you the “time” to wake up and take a much closer look at the issues and problems that we all face at some point in our lives. So ask yourself, what is it that you want to put back into in your life? How do you want to spend your time?

This picture was taken March 25th, 2020 at about 7:30 pm. I was looking West along the Poudre River and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Another beautiful Colorado sunset. They never get old.

A few book reviews before I go. There are several that I have finished over the last year and I would like to give a recommendation on them.

One of the fist ones I would like to talk about is an old one but just as relevant today as it was when published in 1996. The book is written by Carl Sagan and is called “The Demon-Haunted World.” This is one of those books that you need to savor. Take a chapter at at time, read it, think about it and maybe even reread the same chapter. Or better yet look up some of the ideas put forth. He talks in detail about many myths and pseudoscience concepts (ghosts, aliens, crop circles, spirits, etc..) that we have heard about over time and why people seem to have this incredible need to believe in them. And why education in science is an answer to dispelling them. This is my second time to read the book, but I felt like he had just written it yesterday due to current events in the world. If anything this book is prophetic. A lot of what Carl talks about in the book, to take as a warning for the future, has unfortunately come to pass. This should be one of the books that is mandatory reading for all High School Seniors before graduating. This book works great in traditional format and as an audio book. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark

The next one I want to talk about is called Lifespan and is written by David A. Sinclair, PhD. I have worked in health care for almost 40 years now and have seen all the usual diseases associated with getting old, heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, arthritis, neuro-degenerative, etc… and how we approach each disease in a singular fashion. With each disease having it own specialist. David puts forth that all of these diseases with some exceptions can be linked to aging. And if we treat the cause of aging, then we also will be treating the diseases that are related to getting old at the same time. His theory on why we age is also something that was a surprise to me. But once it was explained, made perfect sense. Like an Ah Ha moment. The book does require a small amount of prior knowledge of cell biology, genetics and physics to truly be appreciated. But it is really just a small amount and no math! Lol. If your willing to look up a unfamiliar term or concept, the book is well worth the read. It is not just about living longer but also about living healthier. The book is better if you read it in traditional format. I bought it as an audio book the first time. But I am now going back through it in the paperback form. You can find the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Why-Age-Dont-Have

The next one I want to talk about is a Science Fiction Series that has been made into a TV series. It is called “The Expanse.” There are 8 main books in the series so far. They are by James S.A. Corey, which is a joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Wow is the least that I can say about the books. The TV series is good but not at the level of the books. The setting is Earth, Mars, the moons of Jupiter, assorted asteroids, and eventually alien worlds. It takes place a couple of hundred years into the future. Humanity has moved out into the solar system and taken our same societal issues with us. Some good and some bad. A great Space Opera. Well worth the read while you are stuck at home. You can find the books here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes

Well that is about it for me on this Blog post. Another somewhat long one but again due to the crisis in the world today there is a lot to think about and in turn write about. As the Pandemic drags on, ask yourself what do you want your “new normal” to be. We have a great opportunity to create something different. Just remember a lot of the old guard will not like what you have in mind and will try to divert your attention by selling you things that help you to feel normal. And if that is what you need then by all means take it. But if you want something different…resistance is not futile. So take care my friends and remember social distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Fort Collins, Life and Meaning, Pandemics, Politics, Science, Sociology

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 27TH, MARCH 2020

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“We all too often have Socialism for the rich… and rugged Free Market Capitalism for the poor.” – Martin Luther King

“A disregard for human suffering in the pursuit of profit.”

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1996

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

Well if you are reading this blog post it means that you are still alive, for now. And it means that I am too!! Yea for both of us!! Amazing what a tiny pathogen can do to an entire world and it’s economy. I hope that none of you have lost any loved ones to this virus. “Jobs”, “businesses”, “material things”, can all be replaced, but those that we hold dear cannot. This pandemic has made me realize again how much we are all linked globally. In a bygone era this would not have been the case. But now due to air travel and supply chains we are all connected. How much better a world it would be if we cared for each other on a global scale. Time to get rid of the old models of Nationalism and Isolation. Time to accept Globalization as a real path to the future. I believe that our very survival depends on it.

This picture was taken February 1st, 2020 – looking West at about 5:30 pm. It is in my neighborhood. Unreal the colors that evening. I was at the right place at the right time. This is one of my favorite pictures so far this year.

Another thing this Pandemic has laid bare is the pitfalls of “Free Market Capitalism” or what might be better known as Neoliberalism. What I call our current economic system in the US. I could not believe or I guess I could due the craziness of the last four years with the Trump administration and their laissez faire attitude, that there might be a charge for a potentially life saving vaccine for Covid-19. Of course we have seen this with rising medication cost already. Especially where some medications that have been around for a very long time and were relatively cheap have now skyrocketed in price. Thank you “Free Market Capitalism” for making life hell for millions of Americans. Some might disagree that I use Free Market and Capitalism in the same quote. I don’t see anything wrong with Capitalism as Capitalism. But I do see a problem with a form of Capitalism called Free Market / Neoliberalism.

This picture was taken February 5th, 2020 – looking West at about 5:25pm. A beautiful and cold afternoon. Just after taking this picture the high school cross country ski team came whizzing by. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Neoliberalism has given unheard of powers to multinational corporations and banks. To the degree that they are for the most part unaccountable to the public. Some have seen that giving all this power and wealth to a small elite, is one of the greatest threats to democracy. And I have to agree. This type of economy does not work for the majority of Americans that are living from paycheck to paycheck and have no health insurance, no savings, no back up. I am talking about the low-wage and gig-economy workers, the poor, the elderly, the immigrants and the care workers. Especially when you have something that is a Pandemic. How can you stop the spread of something like this that threatens all of us, when people have no sick days, no health insurance to go to a doctor and not the emergency room. Not to mention that they have no income unless they are working. Two weeks to a month of self – quarantine might not sound like a lot to some of us. But if you have no money to buy food or pay rent… Well I think you could imagine the picture. Leaving stuff like this to our current system of “Free Market,” and the “Capricious Generosity” of others is not going to work. The idea of having a entry level minimum wage job that does not have paid sick days or health insurance is or should be over… forever.

This picture was taken February 18th, 2020 at about 6pm. It was taken looking West along the Poudre River. Colorado has had some beautiful sunsets this winter!!

So it will be interesting to see how our current economic system and government holds up under the pressure of Covid -19. So many policies that our elected officials have long told us were impossible and impractical are now, due to the crisis, eminently possible and practical all long. All the things like forced evictions, continued homelessness, skyrocketing interest on student loans, crushing medical debt, etc…, were issues that we were all told there was no money to fix or reform. I bet in the coming months all these issues due to the crisis will magically be fixed, at least temporarily. I find it ironic, that in a crisis, the rules don’t apply therefore it makes me wonder why they were rules in the first place. If there is any silver lining to this world debacle, it is that we now have an opportunity to change things so that millions and millions of people are not so vulnerable to begin with.

This picture was taken February 26th, 2020 at 6:45 pm. It is looking West at the Moon and Venus. Earlier in the year they were quit close to each other right after sunset.

Well in last month’s blog post I wrote something to the fact that technology had become the big driver of change in society and how something like disease had become less of an issue. OH HOW I WAS WRONG. And I want to admit that fact. But I have to give myself a little credit at the same time. If I had known that the Trump administration had cut the CDC’s epidemic prevention programs back by 80 percent in 2018, I would have written a much different blog post. Not only did they do that but they eliminated at the same time, a National Security Council directorate that was charged with preparing for when, not if the next Pandemic hit. Don’t believe me. Check out the two articles below. One from Futurism and one from the Washington Post. Both from 2018. Of course fast forward to the present and the excuse they give is that it was a “streamlining effect to make it all more efficient” or some such bullshit like that. No mater what you believe, I think that we can all agree that their handling of it has been a debacle to say the least. When South Korea was taking action on February 23rd, what the hell was the Trump administration doing? And when the WHO raised the treat level from high to very high on February 28th, a warning to every government on the planet, what was the Trump administration doing? It was not until March 13th that Trump and his administration declared a State of Emergency. Twenty days after South Korea. WTF is all I can say.

The crazy part is that none of this is rocket science. It was been written about, movies made, studies done, scenarios worked up, etc… for at least the last 50 years. Even the dumbness dumb person, in the administration should have had some clue that something was afloat by the middle of January… Oh well it is all water under the bridge for now and the best we can do is to hope that we survive.

Futurism: https://futurism.com/neoscope/officially-path-global-pandemic

Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/

Those two articles well help to put it into perspective. No one was driving the bus and we ran off the road into a pandemic so to speak.

This picture was taken February 29th, 2020 at 6pm. It is looking West along the Poudre River. Another beautiful Colorado sunset.

Change is coming folks. For better or worse. The question we need to ask is how do we want the changes to occur. Some that came to my mind are: Who will get the lion’s share of relief money? Will it go to more Corporate Socialism? How will the health care system change? Will there be a renewed push so that all have health insurance regardless of their ability to pay? What new / old ideas on social nets for the poor and elderly will be seriously looked at again. Will there be something called family care? Better family medical leave? What will happen to the pharmaceutical corporations? Will government take a more active role so that profitability is not the main driving factor? Will Science come back into vogue with the general public? We can only hope. There is a lot of potential for change after this crisis has passed and it is up to all of us in how we want that change to occur. There is a good article from POLITICO on this very topic. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579

It looks at a lot of different possible “change scenarios” that might occur when this is over. Well worth the read.

This picture was also taken on February 29th, 2020. Post walk / run with Marvin. Here he is enjoying the comforts of his dog bed. Of course he enjoys the comforts of the futons too. Lol.

In this blog post I want to give a few book reviews. There are several that I have finished over the last couple of months and I would like to give a recommendation on them.

One of the first ones I would like to start with is called the “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace-Wells. Now I have to warn you this book is not for the faint of heart. It paints a much bleaker picture of what our future holds as the earth continues to warm. Think food shortages, refugee emergencies, famine, disease and economic collapse. Some have likened it to Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring.” David does not sugar coat anything in my opinion. It is a call to action in a changing world of climate change. I read it this past year and it was the emphasis for me to put solar cells on our house to help decrease CO2 admission. Some may find that the author is a little alarmist but that is the point of the book. It is a call to action.

You can find it at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Uninhabitable-Earth-Life-After-Warming

The next one I would like to give a recommendation on is called “The Case For Mars”, by Robert Zubrin. It is a little bit of an older book but still makes a very strong case for getting to the Red Planet. The original publish date is 1996, but it has been updated and is as relevant today as it was back then. When you realize that we could have started the colonization of Mars two decades ago with the technology at the time, it makes you wonder why we have not done it already. Zubrin addresses not only how we get there but he also gives us the why. He does goes into some detail on specifics but not so deep that the average person can’t understand. For me this really hit home with the current Covid 19 crisis. We do need to have a second planet as a fall back. I got this book as an audio book but I think it would work in any format.

You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet

The next one to give a recommendation to is actually two books in Science Fiction that are part of a series. They are both by Travis J.I. Corcoran. The first one is called “The Powers of Earth” and the second is called “Causes of Separation.” I loved both of them. The time is in the near future, about 40 or so years from now, and earth has become more politically corrupt and over populated. Because of this, there is a kind of quasi world government and military force that is made up of all the countries on earth. Think of it as a NATO on steroids. Now add some technology, and a few disgruntled individuals that don’t like the way things are run on earth. Which causes them to decide to move to the moon and in the process become very successful. Mean while the economy on earth is in a continued downward spiral called the long depression. The conflict arises when the US government decides they want to take some of the moon’s wealth. I like both of these books because it is dealing with issues that we currently see in the world today. Just not on that big of scale yet. The other part I love is how a single piece of technology can totally change everything. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the moon was accessible to all of us, without having to ride a “roman candle” into space. It opens up a whole world of possibilities. Both books work great as audio books or other formats.

You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Powers-Earth-Aristillus-Book
You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K37YHD9?pLink=31a14b22-48ed-4b&ref=adblp13nvvxx_0_0_im

The last one I want to give a recommendation to is called “Figuring” by Maria Popova. I like this book a lot because it gave me deeper insights into multiple historical figures of the past. Like Johannes Kepler, Rachel Carson, Maria Mitchell, Harriet Hosmer, Margaret Fuller and Emily Dickinson, to just name a few. In truth I had to look up several individuals to refresh my memory of them. She goes in-depth about their personnel lives and struggles. How it all affected who they loved or were allowed to love. And how it all influenced their work and careers. She covers almost four centuries in doing this. I listened to this book as an audio book but it would have been much better to read it in a traditional format due to the amount of information. I found myself stopping several times to re-listen to a section to get a better understanding. A very good book that I feel I will read a second time.

You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Figuring

Well that is about it for me on this Blog post. This one was a rather long one but due to the crisis in the world today, there seemed to be much more to write about. I hope that all of you are able to stay well. And if you get Covid – 19, may your illness be short and you recover completely. Remember social distancing and when change comes think about the outcomes. What might be a better fit for all of us and not just a select few. Take care my friends!! Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Life and Meaning, Trail Running

MUSING FOR SUNDAY 16TH, JUNE 2019

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“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all this to happen: Room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” Pema Chodron

“…anyone who stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without a reference point, experiences groundlessness. That’s when our understanding goes deeper, when we find the present moment is a pretty vulnerable place… completely unnerving and completely tender at the same time.” Pema Chodron

“To be fully alive, fully human and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no man’s land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” Pema Chodron

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there!! Damn it has been a good couple of weeks. Great running in FoCo and the weather here on the Front Range has finally decided to stay warm for a bit . A plus to all this is I have had the luxury of staying part of this last week in Summit County. While some of the really high trails are not clear yet for hiking or running due to snow, the rest of the terrain around Breckenridge has been fantastic. I really, really should not complain!! Life is good!! Lol

Marvin’s first RV trip. This picture was taken the first night of our “camping out” and I am not sure if he is down with it yet?! This dog always seems to have a serious look on his face! Lol

In this blog I thought I would include a few quotes from Pema Chodron. They are from her book called “When Things Fall Apart.” I believe that these are timeless truths that echo a lot of what the Author Brene Brown talks about when she speaks of the power of vulnerability. I read the book from Pema a few years ago when it first came out, once as an audio book and once as an e-book. I felt that strongly about it. The thing that I have found interesting about the book is how the messages she lays out keep coming up over and over again and again. Or at least they do for me. Especially the first quote about how things come together and then fall apart. Nothing is truly “fixed” in life and for those of us that have a little trouble with change this can be very hard. It has helped me to see that there are no absolutes in life. That there are many, many shades of black and white. And that it is OK.

This picture was taken on Thursday 13th, June 2019. It is of Janet and Marvin on a section of the Colorado Trail that goes into Breckinridge. Beautiful evening of hiking with Marvin. Again what is it with the serious face?! Lol

Things come together and they fall apart and come together again and fall apart again. Whether it be families or vacations, jobs, buying a house or not buying a house, births, deaths, events, parties, the list could just go on and on and on. In my opinion that is just the way life works. One of the tricks to working with this fact, I think, is to just show up. Put the fear aside of what might or might not happen and just show up. Sometimes things will work out and sometimes they don’t but you will never know if you don’t show up. Just that simple. You have to show up. And I remind myself of this as I write. Part of the plan for being up in Summit county this weekend was to run the Leadville Trail Marathon. That was the plan. And I did NOT show up. Talked myself right out of it… Now I have to ask myself. What was that about?? Was it the weather forecast? It was suppose to rain and be cold all day. Was it the fear of not finishing? I had trained quit a bit this year and put in more running miles than I did by this time last year. Was it just fear in general? I always have a little underlying anxiety anytime I plan to run a race. This is nothing new.

This picture was taken at the Starbucks in Breckenridge on Saturday 15th, 2019. They usually do not allow dogs in the building but because Marvin was being so nice they made an exception for us. Lol. He seemed to enjoy it.

Or was it just a combination of all the above? I don’t know for sure but I have been in this situation before and I do know the solution no matter what the reason is. You just have to SHOW UP. Just that simple but OH so hard at times. All I needed to do was just show up and it would have all worked out.

It turned out the weather was fantastic, at least on the Breckinridge side. A few afternoon showers but very nice otherwise. Sure it is never easy running 26 miles at elevation but I had trained for it. You just have to see past the anxiety and fear and just show up. For whatever reason, this year I did not do that. And it is hard to admit this, but the “what ifs” got the better of me. Oh well you live and learn. On the plus side I did get to spend a fantastic day with Janet and Marvin. Things come together and they fall apart but not always as you might expect……

Hiking with Janet and “Serious” Marvin on Sunday 16th, June 2019. What a great day!!

Well that is going to be about it for me on this blog post. I hope everyone had a great two weeks and I hope to see you out there on the trails, whether it be biking, hiking, running, or just plain walking!! Adios amigos!!

Colorado, Exercise, Existentialism, Fort Collins, Life and Meaning, Meditations, Psychology, Quad Rock 50, Truth and Perception

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 5TH, MAY 2019

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“Relax enough, and your body becomes so familiar with the cradle rocking rhythm that you almost forget you’re moving. And once you break through to that soft, half levitating flow, that’s when the mooonlight and champagne show up.” Ann Trason (From the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall)

“I thought, man, if you could run 100 miles, you’d be in this Zen state. You’d be the f**king Buddha. Bringing peace and a smile to the world. In my case, it didn’t work. I’m the same old punk ass as ever. But there’s always this hope that it’ll turn you into the person you want to be. You know, like a better, more peaceful person. And when I’m out on a long run, the only thing in life that matters is finishing the run. For once, my brain isn’t going ‘bleh bleh bleh bleh.’ Everything just quiets down, and the only thing going on is the pure flow.” Jenn Shelton

“But the longer and further I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind – a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus.” Scott Jurek

Wow another great two weeks. Marvin is getting a lot bigger!! When we first got him at 8 weeks he was 19lbs. This past Wednesday he was around 30.4lbs. We figured that he would grow but dang, always amazed at how fast it occurs. The socialization is continuing. He has probably surpassed the magical number of 100 different humans that he has met and countless numbers of other dogs. So I am hoping that this really pays off in the long run. It is interesting in that the fear factor seems to ebb and flow. One day he is fearful of the trash truck, or the Geese. Then the next day, they are not a problem. And vise versa? If Janet and I are both out walking him things are a little better. Not sure what that is about?

This photo was taken on Wednesday 1st, May 2019. Now 11 weeks old and 30.4lbs. I think that he has the sitting thing down for the moment. Lol. They say repetition and consistency are the key!

Finishing up some training ,in preparation for the Quad Rock 50. If I can do this it will be earliest in the year that I have run a 50 miler and that would be pretty cool. The last couple of weeks have been a slow taper so that I am fully rested and ready to go on May 11th. I have been fortunate to experience some wonderful afternoon weather the last 2 weeks. Just beautiful. Of course each week is different and it is Spring time in Colorado, so you still have to throw a little snow into the mix. Lol

This picture was taken Thursday 25th, April 2019. What an afternoon. Warm but not too warm. Clean air from a little bit of wind. Beautiful!

Watching the news over the last couple of weeks. There were two events that got me to thinking about the meaninglessness of life in general. One involved a person going to work on his motorcycle, just the average guy on his way to work, enjoying the beautiful morning, and bam, hit by a car and killed. Game over. The second one involved a wreck down by Denver on I-70 eastbound, coming out of the mountains. Guy driving a semi loses his breaks and plows into multi other cars, killing four people. Again, these were people on their way home, from work, from the store, from whatever. But again, bam! Game over. Both events awful. No meaning, no redeeming quality what so ever. A senseless loss of life in every respect.

This picture was also taken Thursday 25th, April 2019. It is looking West at the Prospect Ponds open space in Fort Collins.

At first I got depressed just thinking about them. And while this would not be unusual for anybody to feel this way. I started to obsesses about them a little bit. I think it had to do with the fact that both of these hit close to home for me. I have been that guy on the motorcycle, riding to work, enjoying the morning, but did not get hit by the car. And I have been that guy driving down I-70, coming back from a wonderful day of skiing, looking and seeing the semi’s in the rear view mirror and wondering if their breaks would hold? And they did.

This picture was taken Friday 26th, April 2019. It is from an open space called Pineridge. It is just west of town but still in town. I think that it gives a beautiful view of Fort Collins.

I know that there are those that would say it was some “supreme beings will” that it was not my time to go. But I don’t believe that. I believe it really is just a matter of chance and luck. A quote that sticks in my head from when I first moved to Colorado and took my first Avalanche class was by the director at the time, Knox Williams. And it goes something like this. “Remember the mountains are full of dead experts. You read about it all the time, he or she was an expert skier, hiker, biker, snowshoer, etc… and they are all dead. The mountain does not care.” To extrapolate this further. I would say that the “Universe does not care.”

This picture was taken on Tuesday 30th, April 2019. Hate to use an old cliche’ but dang, “What a difference a day makes!”

Some might find this really depressing, and I did for a very short period of time. But it soon gave way to a kind of liberation. To realize that all our worrying, our anxieties, our fretting in whatever we are doing to get all the “details” just right. Does not really matter in the end. You could have been the model employee for the corporation, the faultless parent, the ultimate spouse, the quintessential neighbor, etc…. And bam! Game over. None of it mattered, your dead. Wow! That does sound depressing, but is it?

This picture was also taken Tuesday 30th, April 2019, but in the afternoon. And that is what I love about Colorado. Most of the snow had moved out. The bike trail was clear and it was another beautiful Colorado afternoon.

I for one don’t think that it is. I put forth that it is liberating. There is no deity, no person, no organization that you are beholding to. No provisos, no dogma, no limitations that are written in stone. You are free to determine your own destiny. For good or bad there is no “big eye” in the sky watching you. At least not a made up “magical one.” At some point technology will allow this to occur but that discussion is for another story. Of course what I am describing here is Existentialism. And some may say that I am having an “Existential Crisis.” Lol. And I guess that could be the case. But I don’t believe so. I think last weeks events were just a reminder of how I have felt for a long time, down deep. This coming May I will have been in the health care field for 40 years with the majority of that time spent in Emergency Medicine. And it has shaped my perspective on life to say the least. I truly believe that there is no meaning to life. It is just a jumble of random events that happen to us. If you want meaning you have to bring it. You have to create your own story. Not the other way around. And with this comes freedom but at the same time a considerable responsibility. Some can handle this responsibility and some can’t.

This picture was taken Wednesday 1st, May 2019. What a beautiful evening. Had no idea that the sun and clouds were going to give such a beautiful sunset. This picture was taken from the Powerline Trail in Fort Collins and usually does not have such fantastic views. Being in the right place at the right time can make all the difference.

Finding our own meaning takes some significant digging. It is not for the faint of heart. The first step is taking the time to find out “who you are” and this takes a lot of inner work. But one place to start this process is with meditation. I know, I know. I can hear it now. “I am not going to do that new age bulls**t.” But in reality, this tool, and that is all it is, goes back 1000s and 1000s of years. You don’t have to become Buddhist, or sit for hours chanting “OM”. You can start the process in as little as 5 minutes per day and build up from there. I keep track of my time spent meditating with a phone app. Somedays it is a long one, depending on the time I have available and others it is just 5 minutes. Meditation helps to open a door or window into who your “real self” might be. And that my friends is powerful.

This picture was also taken Wednesday 1st, May 2019, but just a few minutes later from the one above. Unreal that the colors could change so dramatically.

Well I think that is going to be about it for me on this blog post. Time to move forward off of the soapbox and on to other things. Existentialism Crisis solved?! Lololololol. No, I don’t think so and that is part of the “struggle” in being human. Let me know if you have had these same feelings? And what your solutions might have been. I would love to hear from you.

I hope everyone has had a great two weeks and I am looking forward to the next two. I will let you know how the Quad Rock goes. Take care and I hope to see you out there! Where ever “out there” may be. Adios amigos!!

This picture and the one below was taken on Friday 3rd, May 2019. What a beautiful afternoon here in Colorado. A good breeze in the right direction so the air was clean. This picture was taken looking southeast from Horsetooth Mountain Park.
Again, same day as the one above, but looking West towards Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Beautiful!!

Book Review, Exercise, Life and Meaning, Skiing, Space, Truth and Perception

MUSINGS FOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH, 2018

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“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturing’s, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”  – Carl Sagan

 

Damn what can I say…  It has been a really good week!!  Ski season has started and life is good!!  Got a chance to go up to Loveland Ski area on Thursday, November 1st and the snow was great.  I am hoping this winter will deliver a ton of snow.  The last couple of years have been on the wimpier side or I have just gotten used to a more abundant snowfall when my kids were little.  Not really sure.  I have not had a chance to really look at the records myself, but I do know that the “water guys” that keep track of this said that the last couple of years were not good for moisture in the mountains.  So maybe we are due?  That would be fantastic.  I used to get upset if we did not get our usual 50 inches of snow here in Fort Collins, but after living here for 30 plus years I am OK with it not snowing!  I guess I have gotten old!?  What is that about?  Where does the time go?  Lol.  Anyways – all kidding aside, if it would just dump in the mountains so to speak, then most of the state’s water woes would take care of themselves.

I have been watching a course called “The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know” and I have to say it is pretty amazing.  I did not know that the first serious science proposals of what might be out there in the rest of the Universe started in the 1940s.  I was thinking that it was much more recent.  But it truly started in the 1940s – at that time the technology of astrometry became good enough to detect planets.  Astrometry is the measurement of the position of a star on the sky, and if the star has planets, its position will wobble back and forth.  Because the technology was crude in today terms, there was conflicting evidence reported back then, so it did not get a lot of attention.  Fast forward to the late 1980s and early nineties, add in a few more techniques for detection and things start to get really serious.  In 1995 and on, the discover of exoplanets began to grow exponentially, and scientist from around the world were able to corroborate each other’s results.  This made a huge difference with the acceptance and birth of “Exoplanetary Science.”  What was once Science Fiction has now become accepted scientific fact.  It is well worth the money for the course.  It is about 12 hours of lecture divided up into 24 mini-lectures.  You can find it at the Great Courses:  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-search-for-exoplanets-what-astronomers-know.html and you can find used editions on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Search-Exoplanets-What-Astronomers-Know/dp/1629972037/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1541360656&sr=8-4&keywords=the+search+for+exoplanets+what+astronomers+know, you can do this course as a audio book or as DVD or Online streaming.

I wanted to post the above quote by Carl Sagan.  I think it really hit home with me after finishing the course.  We truly are just a speck of dust in a sunbeam.  And my guess, is that as we look for more exoplanets, we will find that we are not that special or unique.  Very, very sobering indeed.

An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. Over 2000 exoplanets have been discovered since 1988. Specifically, 2098 planets in 1342 planetary systems including 509 multiple planetary systems as of 24 March 2016.

Well that is about it for me on this post.  I think that the Ultra season for me this year has come to an end.  Even though I did not successfully finish the Run Rabbit Run 100.  I still feel pretty good, after all it was 50 miles when I timed out and as someone much wiser than I am at times said, 50 miles is still 50 miles.  So, time to get ski season on and enjoy the snow while it is there.  I do plan on racing some shorter runs for the remainder of the year and the start of next year, mainly to work on speed.  I will let you know how it goes!

A late evening Fall afternoon in Fort Collins.

Take care my friends and maybe I will see you out there on the trails or at the ski slope!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dogs, Grieving, Life and Meaning

MUSINGS FOR SATURDAY 1st, SEPTEMBER 2018

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KNOWING
 If I had known that on that day our time was near the end
I would have done things differently, my forever friend.
I would have stayed right next to you deep into the night
but I thought I’d see you in the early morning light.
And so, I said “Good night” to you as I walked in through the door
never thinking of the time when I’d see you no more.
But if I had known that on that day our time was at the end
I would have done things so differently, my forever friend.
 Sally Evans (written for Shoo-Fly)

 

I usually start off a blog with this has been a good week.  After all we really don’t have much control whether the week is good or bad.  Just how we respond to it.  But this week has been especially bad.  We lost our best buddy for the last 12 years.  Our beloved white German Sheppard, Neige (French for snow) had to be put down on Tuesday.  And I am telling you, that was hard.  She had developed a condition known as Canine Degenerative Myelopathy.  I guess in some ways it is similar to MS or ALS in humans.  There is no cure for it.  Since her diagnosis in May she had become a “housebound dog.”  Prior to that point she had been taking her usual 5 to 6 mile walk several days each week.  So, we had a little bit of time to realize and to come to grips with, the fact that the inevitable was coming.

But your never ready for that moment.  Janet and I were not ready.  How do you accept and express overwhelming grief when it comes?  Neige was our forth Sheppard in the last 35 years.  She was our touchstone.  No mater what kind of day it had been, you could always depend on “dog-girl” being there to give unconditional love and affection.  To say that she had become a part of the family was an understatement.  Even when she became house bound, she was always there wagging her tail, happy to see you,  giving you the thumbs up in “dog speak” when you got home.

A true snuggle hound at times.

A hiking buddy.

A skiing companion.

The listener.

 

Her passing has left a large gap in our lives.  Right now, I am not sure if it will ever heal, and that is OK.  She will always be a part of us.

I have heard that the emotional wounds that are the deepest, are reminders that you need to take a moment to slow down.  To not be in a big hurry.  To be mindful of what is going on around you.  I find myself thinking back about all the “Neige Moments” that I would like to relive with a new appreciation.  But I can’t…  I can only go forward.

Good by Neigie, you were much, much more than a loyal and faithful companion.  If I had known that our last time together was near.  I would have done things so differently……

 

Damn this has been a tough week.  I know things will get better.  And I need to give myself time.  Maybe a little more running on the trails this next week well help to lessen the grief.  Take care my friends, slow down and savor the moments.  Until next time, adios.

 

 

 

Life and Meaning, Night Shift Work, Psychology

MUSING FOR FRIDAY 24TH, AUGUST 2018

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“The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go.” – John Burdett (Novelist)

 

Well it has been another good week!! Finished working a stretch of four-night shifts and I have come to the conclusion that they really mess with your system.  Not sure why it took me that long to get it through my head that it really does muddle with your body’s clock.

Yep, screw with the body’s clock or circadian rhythms and you really do mess with everything else.  I used to pick up a lot of extra night shifts.  In fact, there was a time that I would work as many night shifts as physically possible to make extra money. These were 12 hours shifts.  The most that I did in a row was nine.  Nine night shifts, each 12 hours long.  Now that was the maximum but not the usual.  The usual was worse in some respects.  It consisted of about 5 to 6 per week with a day off so I would not get in trouble by management and then another 5 to 6.  Now I look back at that and think what the hell was I thinking??  And was it worth it in the cost it did to my body?  Probably not.  Oh well it did pay the bills.  Nice to have that extra cash.

But you come to a point that the extra cash does not really mean that much when it comes to your health.  So now, I still work the night shift but I don’t pick up any extra.  The problem I run into a lot is: “If you don’t have the money then you can’t buy it.”  Lol.  That is something that I still have trouble remembering.  But I am getting better at doing it.

I keep coming back to the above quote about letting go.  And I have come to the realization that there is much, much more meaning to it than just the statement of letting go.  Think about how many times you feel that you have to do something.  And ask yourself do you really have to do it today or tonight or even at all?  There are so many things that we do in our lives because of misconceptions of what success means, misconceptions about how to reach a goal (sometimes less is more), misconceptions about what people will think, misconceptions about what is necessary today and what has become nothing more than routine ritual.  Now don’t get me wrong… There are some situations that the answer will always be YES you have to do that now.  But I bet if you are like me, there would be a lot of situations in which the answer is no.  You don’t have to do it.  You can let it go.  Let the stress go, let that need for control go, let go of your attachment to being right, let the fear of loss go, etc.…

Let go and:  “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” – Joseph Campbell

Now I would like to say that I have mastered the art of letting go but that would be way, way, way far from the truth.  But I am working at it.  And that in the end is all that we can do.

Looking west towards the foothills in Fort Collins on Thursday, the readings were in the moderate range and climbing.

Well that is about all for me this week.  The only “fly in the ointment” so to speak has been the smoke layer here on the Front Range.  The last two weeks the air quality has been in the moderate range with a few days being in the really unhealthy range.  This does put a damper on outdoor activity that involves running, biking, etc…  I guess it could always be worse, at least our homes are not threatened directly by wildfire.  So, have a good weekend and maybe if the smoke clears I will see you somewhere out there on the trails.

 

Life and Meaning, Meditations, Psychology, Sociology, Truth and Perception

MUSING FOR FRIDAY 17TH, AUGUST 2018

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“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life.  It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”   Joseph Campbell
“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”   Nisargadatta
“The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go.”    John Burdett, Novelist

Damn it has been a good week.  I just have to say, “Life is good and I really cannot complain too much.”  Yep, I know, there is still death and destruction in the world, that is the nature of our species and our existence since time immortal but there is hope too.  Nothing stays the same, everything changes, and there is hope that as the human species evolves that we will change in a way for the better….  And for some that is really hard to accept.  THE IDEA THAT THINGS CHANGE?!  Religion changes, science changes, societal norms change, all of life changes.  To believe there are things written in stone.  Too funny.  Someone that believes that, I mean truly believes that…. Well I think that they do not know their history all that well.  The one constant through all of antiquity, is change.  Nothing is permanent.  Absolutely nothing except “change” itself.

RIVER BEND PONDS OPEN SPACE

RIVER BEND PONDS OPEN SPACE

Thinking about change and how it is always happening can leave you feeling rudderless.  Like a boat on the water going in circles, or at the whims of the current.  How do you steer, what’s the goal, what’s the reason for life?  And if you find a reason how do you get there?  Some find a rudder in religion, some find a rudder with a specific cause, some never find the rudder and are the happier for it.  Joseph Campbell said it best.

“Life has no meaning.  Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life.  It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”

POUDRE RIVER FROM LEMAY BRIDGE LOOKING EAST

NORTH END OF THE POWERLINE TRAIL LOOKING SOUTH, POSSIBLE JUVENILE OSPREY?

Or maybe it is something from the Indian Guru of nondualism, Nisargadatta.  Maybe he had the right idea about the meaning of life??

“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”

 

I could just go on and on, quotes by Mooji, Osho, Buddha, Mohammad, Jesus, etc.…  They are all trying to tell you how to get to a metaphorical Disney Land.  The question I have, were they ever there themselves?  Did they actually make the trip so to speak or was it just pretending and made-up?  I don’t really believe that anyone has ever had a full explanation for how to get there AND what it actually means to be “there.”  What is that?  What works for one person and culture, may not work for another.  As soon as you think that you know “what is the “RIGHT” way – then you might as well be lost.  We each have to find our own way and defiantly not expect others to follow the same path.  What hubris.

TRAIL APPLES ON THE POWERLINE TRAIL – GETTING RIPE!!

My path took a turn for the better back in 2008.  I did not see it as such but looking back now I realize how important that year was because of what I started doing.  The only thing that I wish I could do differently is go back in time, way, way back in time and start what I call the “practice” much sooner.  In 2008 I started to do “meditation” and now looking back I cannot believe that it has been 10 years!  Unreal.   The practice started slowly but has gradually built over time to the point that I try and do meditation each and every day.  Some days it is only 5 minutes and some I get close to an hour.  I believe that I am a much more relaxed and focused because of the meditation.  It has opened me up to new thoughts and ideas, exposed some of my more hubris inspired ideas and I like to believe made me a much more caring and compassionate person.  I really like reading about Buddhism but I do not consider myself Buddhist.  I look at it as a philosophy that has lasted the test of time.  And it does not require you to believe in “magical beings.”  This has been my path for the last 10 years and for me it has been a good path.   But at the same time, I realize it is just a tool, like a boat, to get across a metaphorical river and once you are across, then you may not need it anymore.  And that is OK too.

SUNSET FROM THE POWERLINE TRAIL

I have just been rambling on and on and on.  But I guess that happens sometimes.  Oh well, one last thing before going.  I have learned and am still learning the benefit of “letting go” and how hard it can be to do this sort of thing.  Especially letting go of the control.  Letting go of the anger, letting go of fear, letting go of old hurts, letting go of anything that is not really a benefit anymore, mental or material.  So hard to do.  I came across a quote by the Novelist John Burdett that speaks to this very well.

“The fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of the fear of letting go.”

Let that sink in for a bit.  And if you are like me, it really hits home.  I started to laugh after pondering this quote for a while – so true of us all.  And in a roundabout way a good reminder that “Nothing is Permanent”, all things CHANGE.

Well until next time.  Have a great weekend and hopefully I will see you out there!!