Category Archives: Covid 19

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

Air Quality, Book Review, Cameron Peak Fire, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 25TH, SEPTEMBER 2020

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“One of the most freeing insights of meditation practice is realizing that the only power thoughts have is the power that we give them.” Joseph Goldstein

The science fiction show Star Trek debuted 54 years ago on September 8, 1966. This image is of the 1976 roll out of the Space Shuttle enterprise, the Star Trek TV crew, Gene Roddenberry and NASA Administrator at the time James Fletcher. How cool is that!? When you think about the technology that was available in 1976 and fast forward to now – the idea of going to Mars does not seem so far fetched. Image Credit: NASA. To learn more about the above picture go to this link: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/star-trek-and-nasa-54-years-and-counting

“Every time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind.” Joseph Goldstein

This is a picture of Eugene Kranz. He was the flight director that saved the Apollo 13 mission from disaster. The flight directors are responsible for the teams of flight controllers, research and engineering experts, and other support and logistics people around the globe that can make or break a successful space launch. To learn more about Eugene or this picture please follow this link: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/be-a-nasa-flight-director

“Thoughts should not be treated as obstacles or hindrances. They are just another object of mindfulness, another object of meditation. Don’t let the mind become lazy and drift along. Make the effort for a great deal of clarity with respect to what’s happening in this moment.” Joseph Goldstein

This picture shows what is called the Twin Peaks on Mars. They are modest size hills to the southwest of where the Mars Pathfinder landed in July of 1997. Of interesting note, when the Pathfinder spacecraft approached Mars, no NASA mission had successfully reached Mars in more than 20 years. Pathfinder is considered the first ever robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. It landed on July 4th, 1997. Image credit: NASA/JPL. To learn more about his picture please visit the site: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/marss-twin-peaks

“The light of a single candle can dispel the darkness of a thousand years.” Joseph Goldstein

This is a picture of Kate Rubins on the International Space Station in 2016. She was the first person to sequence DNA in space and the 60th woman to fly in space. She is schedule to go back to the ISS on October 14th aboard the Soyuz MS-17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This time around she is going to work on a cardiovascular experiment that builds on previous work from her first space mission. Also she will celebrate with her crew-mates the 20th anniversary of continuous human habitation of the space station. Where has the time gone? It has already been two decades of science and technology research on the ISS. Image Credit: NASA. For more information and reading about Kate Rubins and the above picture please check out the link: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/shes-back-kate-rubins-set-to-return-to-space-station

“If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.” Carl Sagan

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

If your reading this then you have continued to survive Covid – 19. And so have I!! Damn, that is a 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 September, the good old USA had decreased in the number of positive cases added each day. Back during the first week of August we were adding 40 to 50 thousand new patients each day and now we are down to about 30 thousand new cases per day. That is an improvement. Florida, California and Texas were leading the way again with said new case totals. The total death count at the first of September for all of the USA was 188,000. By the time this was published the count was at 207,000. Hard to believe that the first known death was at the first of February this year and at the end of September we are at 207,000 fatalities! Just unreal when you think about it. In just 8 months. Wow in a bad way. I am wonder where we will be in a years’ time?? If you want to see the numbers for yourself check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

This was Trump speaking to Bob Woodward – Feb 7th, 2020?!

March 19th, 2020 vs September 15th, 2020?!!

Well I hate to say that I told you so but, I told you so. Or at least that is what I told some supporters of the ODT. Back about 7 months ago I told several friends, that myself and several others in the medical community were very concerned about the response and down playing of Covid from the ODT and his administration. And low and behold, not only did the ODT confirm that he knew all about the seriousness of it, that he actually down played it to the American People. Lied to people. And people have died. The crazy part of all of this is the ODT actually told on tape, to Bob Woodward, how dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and more deadly than even your strenuous flus, in his own words!? This was on February 7th. Which probably means the ODT knew about it weeks before back in January. I bring this up because most of the stuff between the Reps and Dems is just politics. Both wanting to fix a problem, but going about it in different ways. And that is “just politics” and human nature. BUT this, this is something on the scale of mass murder. It is not even involuntary manslaughter because he knew. It is not about politics. The ODT knew how deadly the virus was and he let people die. I have to ask myself if I was running for president would I even want the job after the “mess” it has become? No matter who gets elected, the house is going to come crashing down sooner or later without a lot of repair. Oh well, enough said for now.

Well due to the continued lack of rain, the Cameron Peak fire has continued to burn in my area of Colorado. We did get a little relief the first week of September with Snow in the high country and on the front range. By the time of publishing the fire was at 105,000 acres. On the last blog post (August 28th) the fire was at 23,000 acres so you can do the math yourself and see how large it has grown. I believe that the only part of the landscape left that I photographed over the preceding weeks and months is the very highest peaks and passes. Not much tree cover there and what did burn should come back quickly as opposed to the lush meadows, pine and spruce forest. It will be interesting to see what is left next summer. Hopefully there will be some terrain that has not burned and can be skied later this winter. That is assuming the fire goes out and highway 14 opens back up. If you want to learn more about the fire visit: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964/

I believe this picture was taken on Tuesday morning, September 8th, before the snow had moved in to the high country. I am assuming the photographer is looking West by North West. The fire was around 100,000 acres at this point. Then the snow moved in. I am hoping that we get more rain and snow in the coming weeks. Image credit: Unknown. If you want to see more images like this visit Cameron Peak Fire on Facebook. Link as follows: https://www.facebook.com/CameronPeakFire/

While the fire was burning with the heat and lack of rain in August, I did find another fairly close place to do a little trail running. This is an often over looked area by Colorado residents and it is located in Wyoming. Specifically I did a little exploration in the Snowy Range area West of Laramie in the Medicine Bow National Forest. Marvin and I were able to get in a few runs in this area. Unfortunately by September the smoke in the Northern half of Colorado and Southern Wyoming had gotten bad enough that it was not worth the risk. And this brings up another topic, “Air Quality.”

This is a screen shot of the PurpleAir map of Fort Collins air quality on Monday 21st, September 2020 at 12:44am. These are real time air quality monitors owned by the public. They measure particulates. The lower the number the better the quality of air. For more information check out their web site: https://www2.purpleair.com/

I did see a lot of friends on Strava that were exercising in really low quality air. This is something that I am not willing to do and I have to wonder what this will mean for them further down the road? PM 2.5 or particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller can really play havoc on all the bodies systems over time. It is a misconception that it just stays in the lungs. Recent research in the last few years has shown that it can cause or make worse, lung cancer, heart attacks, asthma attacks, and other cardiovascular / respiratory diseases. One study showed that it can affect pregnant mothers and the unborn.

This picture was taken on August 20th, 2020 at 5pm. Marvin and I had just finished running the North Fork Trail #304 in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in Wyoming. This was our turn around point at Brooklyn Lake.

There is a great web site that can help you decided if you need to mask up (think N95) for air quality or just stay in doors and use the treadmill or exercise bike. It is called “Purple Air.” They do “real time” monitoring of air quality by selling monitors to the general public and linking them all over the world. This is a fantastic idea because you are no longer dependent on the federal or state government to tell you when the quality of the air is bad. And it helps to bring attention to an often over looked aspect of our environment that affects us all. AND that knowledge is powerful. Check out their map at this link: https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/mAQI/a10/cC0#11/40.5506/-105.0492

This picture was taken August 28th, 2020 at about 5pm. Marvin and I were at a turn around point on Sheep Lake Trail #389 in the Medicine-Bow Routt National Forest in Wyoming. This picture is of Mutt Lake and not Sheep Lake. And I believe that is Browns Peak in the back ground. A very beautiful day. I think a lot of other people from Colorado had the same idea because the parking lot was full of Colorado plates! Lol.

My personnel opinion is that if you don’t have an N95 mask or are unwilling to mask up on the bad air quality days then say inside. What is the point of staying healthy with exercise, diet, sleep, etc… if you are going to wreck your body by running /biking in poor quality air? Here is a short article about this topic from Trail Runner Mag: https://trailrunnermag.com/training/should-you-run-in-smoky-air-probably-not.html

This picture was taken September 8th, 2020 at about 7pm. It is on the Powerline Trail in Fort Collins. What a difference a few days can make or can you say “Global Warming”? Lol. The recent early snow in Colorado is thought to have occurred because of a Typhoon that tracked further North in China (much further north than they have been previously recorded), which in turn caused a bump in the Jet Stream, leading to a burst of cold air down from Canada. Since this picture, we have again had temperatures in the high 80s with some 90 degree days AND no rain or snow to speak of.

Due to the smoke issues and fires, my trail days were very limited in September. I have gotten in the habit of looking at the air quality and deciding how much running and/or lower intensity walking I do. Somedays it is just better to use the trainer in doors. Also I take into account the dog. Unfortunately it is very difficult to make a N95 mask for a dog that works with running, even walking. Oh well this is just a blip in the general order of things? Or that is what I hope! Lol.

A couple of book reviews before wrapping up. There are several that I have finished in the last month or two and I would like to give recommendations on them.

The first book I would like to take about is called “Driving While Black” by Gretchen Sorin. This is an informative and interesting read if you want to learn about how the automobile changed African American reality. And in a good way. The author weaves together the history of how transportation and the Jim Crow laws interacted with each other. Remember that the Jim Crow Laws were a way to enforce racial segregation in the United States, mainly in the Southern States. I had to look it up again to refamiliarize myself with what they were and I did not realized that they were enforced officially until 1965. I am guessing that unofficially these practices went on for much, much longer. As a white person there are so many freedoms that I take for granted and Gretchen opened my eyes to this. Especially with travel in the good old USA. In the book, she gives an easy to follow narrative of why cars came to hold an importance for black families that white people would not even think twice about due to fact that their white. For African Americans, the automobile opened up a whole new way of circumventing the entrenched racial hatred in society. The book reminded me of a scene from the movie “Forest Gump” in which he is in Washington and meets up with his Jenny and her boyfriend in a building with a couple of very loud and very angry Black Panther members. And I always thought “why are these guys being portrayed as so angry.” Gretchen’s book has helped me to see why. And if the roles were reversed I would be very angry too. I listened to this book as an audio book but it would work in any format.

You can find the book on Amazon at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Driving-While-Black-African-American/dp/

The next book I would like to talk about is called “Scale” and is written by Geoffrey West. It is defiantly one for the math and science nerds out there. You know who you are. The book was written a few years ago but the laws of physics have not changed in that time. Lol. All kidding aside. This is an great book in which Geoffrey, a theoretical physicist, shows how scale plays a role in all of nature. Some of it is very intuitive but a lot of it is not. And that is where it becomes interesting. It does make you stop and think. I listened to this book as an audio book but I am thinking it might have been better to read it in traditional format so that you can easily come back to sections and reread again. This is not an easy book to get through. It is one to take your time with and it might mean that you have to go back and look up some topics before moving forward. The book covers a very large section of topics and how scale and complexity play a role in it all.

You can find this book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Scale-Geoffrey-West-audiobook/dp/B071YNQM2T/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=scale+the+book&qid=1600975612&sr=8-1

The last book I would like to talk about is what I call a “Brain Bubble Gum” book. One to just enjoy for the story it tells and maybe ponder the “What if’s” that are always present in science. Of course it is a Science Fiction Book and goes by the title called “We Are Legion (We Are Bob).” Written by Dennis E. Taylor. It is the first part of a series of books. The book is about 4 or 5 years old but tells a good story. I got this book as an audio book and I have not been disappointed. The amazon description does a good job of introducing the story: “Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself. Bob and his clones are on a mission to find new homes for humanity and boldly go where no Bob has gone before.”

Think “Futurama” with this book, except Bob wakes up in which religion has not died out, but has proliferated across the globe. Even though it is what I call “Brain Bubble Gum” I had to ask myself is this what is in store for humanity? Interesting to say the least! I believe the book would work great in any format.

You can find this book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-We-Are-Bob-audiobook/dp/B01L082SCI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FRNUMZ4VBJXY&dchild=1&keywords=we+are+legion+we+are+bob&qid=1600975667&s=audible&sprefix=we+are+l%2Caudible%2C212&sr=1-1

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. Even though I have said this before, I am going to say it again, I hope you have given more thought to minimalism and how it could make a positive change in your life and in the world. If you want to be part of that change, to make the world a much better place – I firmly believe that minimalism is one path to that ultimate goal. If you want to learn more please visit the web site: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

So take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds or indoors and practice physical distancing. Adios!!

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

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Pandemics, Politics, Religion, Space, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 31ST, JULY 2020

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Religion easily has to be the greatest bullshit story every told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of ever day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever til the end of time! BUT he loves you… He loves you, and HE needs money!! George Carlin

NASA astronaut Robert Behnken is pictured here on the ISS – International Space Station, replacing an old nickel-hydrogen battery with a new lithium-ion one. This was a six hour space walk and was done on July 1st, 2020. Image Credit: NASA. To learn more about this picture visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/upgrading-the-space-station-is-all-in-a-days-work

“There are 200 countries in the world now. Do these people honestly think that God is sitting around picking out his favorites? Why would he do that? Why would God have a favorite country? And why would it be America out of all the countries? Because you have the most money? Because he likes our National Anthem? Maybe it’s because he heard we have 18 delicious flavors of Classic Rice-A-Roni! It’s delusional thinking! And America is not alone with this sort of delusions. Military cemeteries around the world are packed with brainwashed dead soldiers who were convinced God was on their side. America prays for God to destroy our enemies. Our enemies pray for God to destroy us. Somebody’s gonna be disappointed. Somebody’s wasting their fucking time. Could it be everyone?” George Carlin

This is the space shuttle Atlantis. It was the last launch of a Space Shuttle to the ISS – International Space Station and occurred on July 8th, 2011. There were 135 missions accomplished by the American Space Shuttle program. It was the orbiter’s final flight and what some call the end of an era. There were four crew members on the flight: Chris Ferguson-commander, Doug Hurley-pilot, and two specialist-Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus. Image Credit: NASA. To learn more about his picture visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sts-135-shuttles-final-launch-and-the-beginning-of-a-new-era

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” Richard Dawkins

On July 16th, 1969 , the Apollo 11 mission launched on a Saturn V rocket with Neil Armstrong as the commander from Launch Complex Pad 39A. This was the mission that completed the goal set by President John F. Kennedy, eight years prior, to put a man on the moon. The command module pilot was Michael Collins and the lunar module pilot was Buzz Aldrin. Image Credit: NASA To learn more about his picture and Apollo 11 visit this site: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/apollo-11-launches-into-history/

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” Richard Dawkins

This is a picture of the NASA’s first chief Astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman (1925 to 2018). She was at NASA during a time in which women were generally discouraged from studying math and science. Nancy was instrumental in taking the Hubble Space Telescope from an idea to reality. Hence she is known as the ‘Mother of Hubble. Image Credit: NASA. If you want to learn more about his picture and Nancy visit this site: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nancy-grace-roman-the-mother-of-hubble-2/

“When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise. We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe, and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization; There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.” Stephen Hawking

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid -19. And so have I!! That is a very good thing for both of us!! Therefore life is good and I cannot complain too much at the moment. Looking at the numbers during the first week of July, the good old USA was adding 50 to almost 60 thousand new cases each day. With Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, and Arizona leading the way. Total deaths were just breaking 130,000. I remember when the initial projections for morbidity and mortality were forecast back in April and this number was not supposed to happen until September?! Wow! I guess we are over achievers. Are we winning yet??

Right at the time of this publishing, 25 days from when I started writing the blog post we were greater than 150,000 dead. That is 20,000 more individuals. Think about that, 20,000 more have died because of the virus in the month of July. And the number of positive cases per day is still in the 50 to 60 thousand plus range. Another one of those numbers that just seems unreal to me – 60 thousand plus per day?! Wow!!

This picture was taken June 3rd, 2020 at about 7:30pm. Marvin is stretched out after doing a long walk. By June the temperatures in Fort Collins were getting much warmer and in order to escape the heat, we were walking later in the evening.

To think that most of these deaths could have been avoided in the United States. When you needed someone with strong leadership, where were they?? When you needed someone to take the “bull by the horns” so to speak and protect their fellow Americans above their own interest, where were they?? When you needed someone to listen to the experts and make wise decisions, where were they?? When you needed someone to decisively act and not give placating platitudes… When you needed… Oh well you get the picture. We are in the “churn” now, so to speak. And your only hope is to try and survive. As the Buddhist like to say, life is what it is at the moment. And the moment is all that we have. I take this to heart and try my best to learn from it. It reminds me of a Joan Tollifson quote: “Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor or employee, every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the Guru.” Not really sure what I can F**king learn from this debacle but I thought I would put it out there anyway…

Oh well, if you are interested to see the numbers for yourself, check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

This picture was taken June 8th, 2020 at about 3pm. The picture is of Joe Wright Creek in full Spring runoff. Marvin and I were doing a little trail running on Blue Lake Trail in the Roosevelt National Forest. We could not get to the lake due to snow above 10,500 feet.

I am amazed and sadden that there are so many individuals that still refuse to wear a mask in public venues where social distancing is not possible. The number of “anti – mask” post and comments on social media in the month of June and July were staggering. You would have thought that someone was trying to take away their guns, their freedom, their first born child, their right to (put your own word in), etc… Just because they were asked to wear a mask. I am not sure where this comes from. It was and is, just unreal. As someone who works with the public at the worst of times, and has to wear a mask while at work, I find this behavior discouraging. But what are you going to do? There is so much misinformation put out by entertainment news organizations like Fox, it is very difficult for the truth to be heard. I have tried to argue this point and put forth real science to friends on social media that have this misguided view point. Of course most of this has fallen on deaf ears. Some have been openly hostile even. My thought from now on is that I should just let the numbers fall where they may. Kind of like the scene from Jaws where Hooper tells the individuals in the obviously over-loaded boat that it is over-loaded. They all mumble back at him to mind his own business. Of course we all know where it leads. If you don’t remember the scene check it out below.

I have found that there is just not much you can do with this type of behavior and you have to let the “ignorance” play out so to speak. My only wish is that the individuals that do not take it seriously, will not spread the disease to others. I do believe in the next few years that we will all have friends or family members that will have had the disease or have died from it. It is inevitable. Our only hope for the future is the development of a vaccine. If you wanted to understand how serious the threat of Covid is in terms of physical health and economic stability, then you only need to look at the speed of the vaccine development race. Vaccines usually take years to bring to the market. A lot of regulatory hurdles have to be jumped through to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective. With Covid we are talking a year or less if all works out. And that my friends says a lot. This is a “Hail Mary” pass.

One advantage in the development race is that researchers are not working from scratch. They are using previous research done on SARS and MERS. So this may have shortened the time line a bit. Realistically I am guessing that it is probably closer to 18 months before we have a safe and effective vaccine. There is some thought that the push to have one before this November, even if it is not that effective or safe, could potentially sway election results in favor of the Orange DT. I hope that is not the case. Again time will tell.

Wow where has the time gone?! This picture was taken on Wednesday 17th, June 2020 at about 8:30pm. Janet and I were celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary!! Here we are doing our part at social distancing and “eating out” so to speak on our garage deck with take out. Lol

On a different note, Marvin and I have been doing a trail run in the high country each week. Usually running the same trail each time to see the changes that have occurred as the spring/summer season has progressed. At the first of June we had trouble getting up to a place called Blue Lake due to snow. It sits just below 11,000 feet and it takes a little time to melt out or so I thought.

This picture was taken June 23rd, 2020 at about 5pm. What a beautiful day. Marvin and I hung out in the meadow for a little while to absorb some sunshine. This picture is looking North West toward Clark Peak.

By the end of June things were a much different story. I had no idea that the snow would melt out so quickly. I am guessing that this is variable from year to year, but this year I found it pretty amazing. Of course this has left me wondering, is this an average year? I don’t know. By the end of June not only could Marvin and I get to Blue lake we were able to access the pass above the lake.

This picture was taken on June 29th, 2020 at about 4:30pm. This is Clark Peak and Marvin and I are on top of Blue Lake Pass. At the first of June this would not have been possible without crossing several snow fields, but by the end of June we only had to cross a very small one to get to this point. No snow on top of the pass.

I plan to continue running this same trail each week through out the season to see how the changes progress over time. I know this might sound a little boring to some but I am actually looking forward to it. It will be interesting to see what changes fall brings and when winter makes an appearance again. I have even thought that I might continue to do this one all year, switching to snow shoes and eventually skis as the snow permits. Oh well that is the plan for now, but we will see how it goes. Lol.

A couple of book reviews before wrapping up. There are several I have finished in the last month or two and I would like to give recommendations on them.

The first one I would like to talk about is an Audio Book written by Charlotte Joko Beck. It is called “Living Everyday Zen.” I really liked this book because it has helped me take my practice to a more everyday, tangible level. Or this is what I have experienced after listening to the book twice. I will probably listen to it a third time in the next month or two. If you practice zazen everyday then you know what I mean when I say it can be kind of abstract even though you are keeping your mind in the present while sitting. How do you relate this to everyday life? For me that was always the question after sitting. A lot of benefits of zazen go unnoticed because it creates a change that gradually takes place over time. A long, long time. Her book helps you to see the process in a more concrete way. I would not expect for individuals that are new to zen to get as much out of the audio book as someone that has been doing it for a much longer period of time. This is not to say that someone that is just curious about zen would get nothing out of it, they would, just not as much. Either way it is defiantly a book for the “experienced” practitioner and one for the library of a newcomer.

You can find the audio book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Living-Everyday-Zen-audiobook/

The next one I would like to talk about is an audio book (s) by Joseph Goldstein called “Abiding in Mindfulness.” There are actually three volumes to this series but I have only pictured the first one. This is a series of lectures given by Joseph in what Buddhism is for the Western audience. If you are interested in Buddhism, even from a different religious background, these books are well worth it. I have listened to this series a number of times over the years and each time I learn something new or are reminded of a lesson forgotten. The newcomer to Buddhism will not get as much out of this series initially as someone who has already been practicing. But that is not to say it would be by any means a waste of time. This series is not about how to meditate, it does not provide techniques on posture, mindfulness or breathing, etc… The purpose is how to connect your own meditation experiences with some of the deeper meanings of Buddhism as explained by Joseph. An excellent resource.

You can find the audio book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Abiding-in-Mindfulness-Volume-1-audiobook/

The next one is for the beginner foremost but even the experienced practitioner will get something out of it! Lol. It is called “Mindfulness in Plain English” by Bhante Gunaratana. Probably should have listed this one at the top. Oh well. I have read this book multi times over the last 10 years. If you are interested in being more “mindful” but don’t want to study Buddhism or you are of a different religious faith then this is the book for you. I am firmly convinced that if more of the worlds population did meditation everyday, we would be a much more kinder and gentler society. This book was written in 1984 and is considered one of the most influential books in the field of mindfulness. The author takes you step by step through the realities and benefits of meditation and more importantly he tells you what meditation is not. Dispelling a lot of myths about meditation. I have read this book several times and it seems I get something out of it each time or relearn something that I have forgotten. Defiantly one for the library. This book is only available in traditional format or Kindle. My opinion is that this needs to be taught in public school at a very young age and continued through college.

You can find this book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-English-Bhante-Henepola-Gunaratana/

The last one I want to give a review on is another one for the newcomer or just plain curious, to Zen. It is called “Wherever You Go There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This is not a book that is going to give you the down and dirty on meditation and Zen. It is a collection of stories, thoughts and recommendations by the author as seen from a Zen perspective. It will give you a taste of various meditation and mindfulness concepts. It is a good one for your exploration into what meditation, mindfulness and zen are about. This book is offered in all formats but works best in my opinion in traditional format or kindle. I do not recommend the audio version because it has been abridged and leaves too much out.

You can find this book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-There-Are-Mindfulness/

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. If you read the last one I hope you gave a little more thought to minimalism and how it could make a positive change in your life and the world. The “buying and consuming” will come back to pre-Covid levels eventually. The Corporations and Advertisers are depending on it. Of course the problem is that it is not sustainable for our planet. Minimalism is a great way to make a difference at the individual level. Just think, if you became a minimalist you would be buying future generations a little more time to figure things out. Maybe to even become a space-faring species. How cool would that be?!

Take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds and physical distancing. Adios!!

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

Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Minimalism, Pandemics, Science, Space, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 26TH, JUNE 2020

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“This is very important – to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you’re gonna lose everything…. just to do nothing at all, very, very, important. And how many do this in modern society? Very few. That’s why they’re all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful.” -Charles Bukowski

This is a picture of the globular cluster NGC 6441. A globular cluster is spherical collection of stars. It is about 13,000 light-years from the Milky Way’s galactic center. There are so many stars in this image, the ESA or European Space Agency has likened it to snowflakes. There are 150 known globular clusters just in the Milky Way. And to think that each of these stars may have planets, some like earth in what humans call the habitual zone. Mind boggling when you think about it. To learn more about this image go to: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-catches-cosmic-snowflakes Image credit: NASA/Hubble, G. Piotto

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” -Charles Bukowski

This cluster of stars is called Westerlund 2. It is located about 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina. This Hubble photo was done in near-infrared light, which allowed the camera to see through the dusty veil of the stellar nursery. This cluster of stars measures from 6 to 13 light years across. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of stars. To learn more about this image go to: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/hubble-sees-brilliant-tapestry-of-stars Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI) and the Westerlund 2 Science Team

How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? -Charles Bukowski

On Saturday, May 30th, 2020, a Space X Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the ISS (International Space Station). This was SpaceX’s first launch with astronauts to the ISS. How cool is that? It has marked in what some are calling a new era of spaceflight. The first private American rocket with American Astronauts. The last time an American rocket, not to mention a “private one”, did this was in 2011 at the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program.

“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

This is the photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14th, 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe from a distance of about 6 billion kilometres or 3.7 billion miles. In this photo the earth appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space. Carl Sagan coined the term “Pale Blue Dot” in his reflections on the photograph’s significance.

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. -Carl Sagan

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

If you are reading this then you are continuing to survive Covid 19!! Yea!! And so have I!! That is a very good thing!! As I started writing this blog post in the first week of June, the United States was just under 2 million known cases and 110,000 deaths. By the time I was getting ready to publish this post we were at 2.5 million+ cases and 127,000 deaths. Wow! Each day as I checked the stats, the numbers continued to go up as expected, especially in the states of Texas and Florida. I think that Texas and Florida lifted most of their stay at home orders April 30th. On June 10th, Texas was at 80,000 cases with 1,900 deaths and Florida was at 67,000 cases and 2,800 deaths. By June 24th, two weeks later, Texas was at 137,000 cases / 2,300 deaths and Florida was 114,000 cases / 3,300 deaths. Of course there were other states that had a similar increase in cases and deaths, but I just picked Texas (my home state) and Florida to use as examples. During the fist week or two of June the United States was adding 15,000 to more than 40,000+ new cases each day by June 26th. Some of this can be attributed to the increase in testing but the rest were a result of easing lock down restrictions or not having them at all. A rise in hospitalizations are not a result of increased testing, but an increase in virus activity within the community affected.

This picture was taken May 2nd, 2020 at about 5:30 in the afternoon. It was Janet’s birthday and we were doing our usual dog walk with Marvin. Cathryn the youngest daughter was also along. We choose to walk the bike path that day due to the rain. It had kept most people indoors and there was a minimal number of individual on the path. It was very nice to not have to wear a mask and physical distancing was a lot easier. The double rainbow was icing on the cake so to speak.

Of course there were concerns over increased infection risk when the nationwide protests over the George Floyd killing broke out. From what I have read, I have come to believe that the risk was low if you were outdoors protesting, and practiced physical distancing. But this would not be the case for individuals that were in very large crowds all packed together or if you were arrested and placed in lockup with multiple other individuals for an extended period. It now seems that the highest risk of getting the virus is anything that requires you to “breath the air of others.” Which means any type of indoor physical gathering like concerts, rallies, weddings, parties, sporting events, meetings, movie theaters, restaurants, air travel, etc…. But if you can participate outdoors with physical distancing and a mask, the risk drops significantly from what I understand. It even seems that the risk of getting the virus from physical surfaces is lower than expected. So that is some clarity and good news in how the virus proliferates within a population. Janet and I have tried to do most things online since the end of February. We have found that the ordering of groceries still leaves something to be desired. Especially when it comes to ordering greens and fresh vegetables. What you think looks good is not the same sometimes in what your buyer thinks looks good. And don’t get Janet started on expiration dates. Lol. Oh well, I am just glad that we have the ability to order online.

This picture was taken May 5th at about 8pm in the evening. Our usual route has been neighborhood streets and very little use of the bike path just due to the volume of people on it. There is a lot less of a risk in getting the virus when outdoors, but due to the continued lock down restrictions, the path was a very crowded place at times in May. And not everyone was practicing physical distancing and wearing a mask.

Looking at global picture I believe the numbers are much higher than what is being reported, especially in third world countries that do not have access to adequate testing and/or reporting mechanisms in place. And some countries are just not reporting or minimally reporting, like Russia and Brazil. At the first of June, Brazil’s president, Mr Bolsonaro, decided that it was best to not report cumulative data, in an attempt to hide the rising numbers. He had been previously criticized for rejecting lock-down measures recommended by the WHO (world health organization) that would have helped to stop the spread of the disease. By the end of June, Brazil had the second highest case/death count in the world (1.2 million cases/55,000 + deaths), only the United States was higher. All I can say to this madness Mr Bolsonaro, a majority of those deaths as with Orange DT, are on your hands… If you interested in seeing the numbers yourself, check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

This picture was taken May 10th, 2020 at about 7pm. It was a cool spring day for Mother’s Day.

As the pandemic has smoldered on, it has become readily clear that the Orange DT is much more concerned about getting reelected than the health of the countries citizens. In February it was all about how it was going to disappear and that it was under control. By first of March the verbiage was all about downplaying the risk and that it would still just go away. By the middle of March the tone had changed due to rising numbers and multiple experts calling for the government to do more. Of course this oratory did not last long. Too much “I told you so.” In April when things had gotten pretty bad in parts of the country, the rhetoric was about how hospitals were inflating the need for equipment and masks. They weren’t, I was there working. Much of April saw the Orange DT blaming the debacle he helped to create on others. Everyone from China to the WHO to Nancy Pelosi. In May, the Orange DT was crying about how it was all unfair to him and the need to open the economy back up quickly. Of course the experts in Epidemiology were warning it might be too soon. It was. Now that we are in June, the talk from his pie hole is how the pandemic is ending – its not. We are back to blaming China again, and in an audacious act of stupidity and selfishness the Orange DT has created potential “Super Spreader” events in Tulsa, Arizona and soon to be Wisconsin. All in the hope of getting reelected. I think that individuals who attend these events should all get potential “Darwin Awards.” If you are not sure what they are check out this link: https://darwinawards.com/

This photo was taken May 17th, 2020 at about 8pm. Here I am looking Northwest from the Pine Ridge Open space on the West side of Fort Collins. It was the first trail run in a long time. This area has some wide trails that allow for easy physical distancing and by going in the evening there were minimal encounters with other individuals. I believe Marvin enjoyed the change of scenery. I know that I did! Lol

On a different note Janet and I have been trying to put more of the principles of being “minimalist” into play during the Covid debacle. We first got interested in the idea when we saw the documentary by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus called “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things.” You can find the trailer and how to watch here: https://minimalismfilm.com/

We had always talked about “cleaning out the junk” we accumulated over the last few years but did not get too serious about it until now. The pandemic has given us some time to revisit this idea. Plus as I have gotten older, I realized I did not need most of the stuff that I have acquired in the past. It is just amazing how much you can amass over the years. It is still taking me a little time to get my head wrapped around it. The idea is not just about getting rid of the “old stuff,” but changing your patterns in how you consume. Just throwing out the old and then turning around and buying new is not going to fix the issue. Minimalism is much, much more than just getting rid of stuff. Some would call it a better philosophy for modern living. And in order to help myself get started I recently downloaded one of their publications: Minimalist Rulebook: 16 Rules for Living with Less. By Joshua Fields Millburn. You can find it here: https://www.theminimalists.com/rulebook/

This picture was taken May 19th, 2020, at about 3pm in the afternoon. It was my first trail run above 9,000 feet for the season. Here I am looking North, by North West at Clark Peak and the Rawah Wilderness. I am on Long Draw Reservoir road. It had been plowed a few times and melted out quickly this spring. It was a nice run because the road was only open to public foot traffic at the time. No trucks or cars to deal with. Very nice indeed.

One of the things I like in the publication is the 90/90 rule. In a nut shell this is what it is: “Have you used an item in the last 90 days? If you haven’t, will you use it in the next 90? If not, it’s okay to let it go.” Another one I like, but find it very hard to do, is the “one-in, ten-out rule.” If you buy one thing for the kitchen as an example then 10 other things have to leave the kitchen. The area that I am starting to use this rule is on books. I have been a hoarder of books for a long time. And unless my reading speed accelerates significantly, I will need two life times to read or reread them all. So this summer my plan is that any new or used books I purchase or acquire as a gift then 10 have to go out. Rule 6 in the publication is one of my favorites and I am so guilty of not doing it. I hold onto things “just in case.” It goes something like this: “You better pack it, you better keep it, you never know… “just in case.” I don’t know how many times I have said this very thing to myself or others. The reality is that you rarely need that “just in case” item. These are just a few examples from the book. Even if you are not sure about the minimalist idea it is still a good read and best of all it is free. And if you want to go even deeper check out “the Minimalists” web site: https://www.theminimalists.com/

This picture was taken May 26th, 2020 at about 6pm. It is looking West toward Cameron Pass. The trail that I was running was called Roaring Creek. It starts at about 8,000 feet and ends at 10,000. It was a weekday and I only saw one other individual on the entire trail. This was great for Marvin, he got to practice a lot of off lead running and training.

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. Sorry, no book reviews on this one but I promise to have a few on the next one. Keep thinking about how things are in the process of changing due to Covid. If you want something different than what was offered before the pandemic, minimalism is one way to start the process on a personnel level. Our current practices of buying and consuming are not sustainable for our planet. And until we become a true space-faring species this is a great alternative in purchasing humanity some time, so to speak. In my opinion what better a way to start a grass roots process of change by becoming minimalist. You will be happier and from an environmental perspective the earth will thank you for it.

Take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds and physical distancing. Adios!!

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

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Economics, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, Psychology, Religion, Science, Science Fiction, Sociology, Space, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 29TH, MAY 2020

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“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 Maharaj

On April 25th, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. This year it turned 30 years old. It is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and remains in operation. At some point it will be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope which is scheduled to be launched next year in March 2021. Image Credit: NASA
Check out this montage of images taken from Hubble over the years: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/1273-Video

“All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are longing for happiness. Basically, you wish yourself well…desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience. It is the choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing – food, sex, power, fame – will make you happy is to deceive oneself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

This photo of earth from space was taken by the Apollo 17 crew on December 7th, 1972. I am using it here to call attention to Earth Day that is now 50 years old. The first one was celebrated April 22nd, 1970. With so much of the world focused on Covid issues, I felt it was appropriate to remind us all of the incredible beauty of our home world and the need to always be vigilant in taking care of it. Image Credit: NASA

“Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor, every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the Guru.” Joan Tollifson

This picture taken by Hubble is call the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation. Here the pillars are seen in infrared light, which helps to see through obscuring dust and gas. The pillars are pretty cool, but to me it is the incredible amount of stars seen in the rest of the image. Imagine, this is just one part of space and the sheer number of other stars is mind blowing. Just unreal…. Image Credit: NASA
To see the original better-known image of the pillars of creation in visible light, check out this link: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1501a/

“The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought. That’s what we’re going to discover again and again and again. Nothing is what we thought. I can say that with great confidence. Emptiness is not what we thought. Neither is mindfulness or fear. Compassion—not what we thought. Love. Buddha nature. Courage. These are code words for things we don’t know in our minds, but any of us could experience them. These are words that point to what life really is when we let things fall apart and let ourselves be nailed to the present moment.” Pema Chodron

A team of transatlantic scientist reanalyzing data from NASA’s Kepler Space telescope discovered an earth-sized exoplanet that is in the habitable zone of it’s solar system. Named Kepler – 1649c. It is orbiting an M-Type red dwarf star named Kepler – 1649. The above image is an artist’s illustration so it might look a lot different than pictured. The important part is that it could support liquid water. How cool is that?! Of course it is a bit of a distance away – about 300 light-years. So for now, until we get the warp engines up and running, we will have to use our imagination.

“In Science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” Carl Sagan

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19!! Yea!! And so have I!! That is a very good thing indeed. Life is changing and this kind of forced, rapid change is hard. You can see it, feel it and hear it, especially on social media. There are those that it is not going to make much difference but for a majority of us there will be changes. I don’t think the virus is going to go away anytime soon. It is creating a new normal and we are living through that creation right now. Where are things going to end up? That is the billion dollar question. Will we get back to the old way of doing things or will it be a version of the past with a few modifications? And how long will all this last? Another 6 months, a year or until a vaccine becomes available? I don’t really know but I think I am going to hedge my bets on the vaccine scenario. Herd immunity will not occur without significant loss of life, unless you have a vaccine. And that my friends is a hard pill to swallow.

This picture was taken April 3rd, about 7:30pm in the evening. I was looking West just as the sun was going down in our neighborhood.

For me, the lock down has not made too many changes… yet. Being somewhat an introvert has helped a lot. Lol. My wife and I were not big concert participants and we did not frequently eat out much except for special events. Most of our recent vacations have been “stay-at-home” types except for visiting the mountains in the RV. While most of my purchases have been online even before the outbreak, my wife’s were not. So that has been modified, especially with the grocery store. As far as work, there have been changes, but the key point is that we are both still working. I am lucky that my job has been spared budget cuts so far. Therefore the only thing that has significantly changed beside social distancing and wearing a mask outside of work, is the way I enjoy the outdoors in Colorado.

This picture was taken April 5th, 2020 at about 6:40pm. We have been doing a lot of neighborhood walking. We are lucky to live in an area that does not have a lot of neighborhood traffic. So walking in the streets is somewhat safe and easy to do. It was a nice spring day in Colorado with temps in the 60s.

By this time last year, I would have already run a couple of races, but they have all been canceled or rescheduled until later in the year. Also by this time, I would have been out in the foothills and the lower mountains for trail running with Marvin, but due to the shear volume of people out and about now, that had to change. I did not want to be a part of the problem. Even the bike trails in the middle of the day are like grand central station, compared to what it was back in April and May 2019. So you adapt and make changes. I have used the indoor bike trainer a lot the past few months. More than I have in the previous two years. If I go for an actual ride, then it has been late at night, with the fewest people on the bike trail as possible. Besides the obvious downside of this, there was an unexpected upside as well. I have walked a lot in the neighborhood the last couple of months, especially with Janet and my youngest daughter Cathryn. They are not runners, especially not trail runners, and the forced isolation has given me a chance to spend more time with them. We walk the neighborhood streets which allows plenty of social distancing.

This picture was taken April 16th, 2020 at about 5pm. What a difference a week or so makes here in Colorado. Wow!! Marvin was enjoying it a lot.

I think that 2020 is “over” for trail race events, fun runs, marathons, etc… I cannot imagine there would be anyway to arrange aid stations so that people would not cross contaminate each other. Even with people being very conscious of social distancing, it would be very hard to do. It is hard enough to get individuals to wear a mask at the grocery store. What would it take to get them to put one on during a steep trail climb with multiple bunched up runners. All it takes is one individual to start the process of infecting others. I have to ask myself, do I want to be exposed to that possibility. And since I work in what is considered a high risk environment, would I want to potentially expose others if I was infected? That is an unfortunate aspect of this virus. You can be shedding viral particles before you get sick. Some reports are up to three days before you get sick. In comparison, we got lucky with Ebola. For one, you did not become an infection risk until you were sick. Actually sick with a fever or other symptoms. So if you got it you were easy to screen. The other part is that the mortality was high, 60 to 90% high. While this is bad if you get the disease, you usually were not out and about, running around infecting others, so it became self limiting. Not so with Covid. You can be running your merry way around, not feeling or showing any symptoms, but still infecting others. A “perfect storm” of a virus…

This picture was also taken on April 16th, 2020 at about 7:30pm. It is looking West along the Poudre River.

And thinking about this brings me back to change. What is the old saying, “Change, the only constant in life is change.” I know, we have all heard this expression in one form or another. And if you are like me, you are tired of hearing it. But hear it we must, because an event like this is going to be made more difficult if we are not willing to change the way we do things. I would have to say that all the “old rules” are being challenged. It will force all of us across the spectrum of modern life, to look at things in a different way. Especially if you want to keep things running. One of the first ones I think about is schools. Closing of schools exposed the lack of access many homes have to the internet. How can kids learn remotely if they can’t get access to their teachers and learning material online? And what if you need a laptop or a desk top computer? Of course, just having internet access is a luxury for some families. Maybe the internet should be made available to all, free of charge, country wide? Schools may open in the fall and they may not. It might be next year? How can you keep things running if you can’t send kids back to school – safely??

This picture was taken April 23rd, 2020 at about 7:30pm. What a difference in just 7 days from the above pictures. All the snow is gone. A week ago the snow in this spot was about 12 inches deep.

The school situation is part of a much broader picture of what happens when groups of people are not allowed to meet in person, whether it be for business or pleasure. All the things that we take for granted are now being challenged by a massive scaling back of productivity in all sectors of life. And this is not a bad thing in the short term. More and more people are being asked to work from home. With some companies thinking about making the four day work week a permanent part of life. How cool would that be to have a three day weekend – every weekend? Of course it is definitely not good for a majority of people that are still out of work like those in the restaurant industry. I have no doubt that it will come back, but the question will be in what capacity. How do you keep people safe? Especially with a virus that can spread from an individual that has no symptoms? If you greatly decrease the number of people that can eat at any give time, will the profit margins be high enough for you to stay in business? I don’t have the answers to these questions and I really don’t think that any one does. Colorado is opening back up as I write this, including restaurants and it will be interesting to see what the case count will be by the middle of June.

This picture was taken April 27th, 2020 at about 4:30pm in the afternoon. It is a close up shot of the inside of a Tulip flower.

One thing that has really caught my attention in May, especially on social media is all the fake news out there. I mean there is usually a lot of it anyways but the Pandemic has really stepped on the accelerator. Especially the reopen America type stories. Even thought all of these stories are fake, I think that it strikes a cord with people that have been out of work for a while. And it makes it easier for them to not question the source of the message and they retweet it or share it on FB. It is not too unexpected to see how hunger and fear help to drive these pseudo stories.

Another one that I find fascinating is the conspiracy theory people. I think the individuals that create this content do it for money and some kind of morbid creative enjoyment. My opinion is that they don’t really care who it hurts. The people that buy into it are probably scared. They want answers and meaning for this terrible event that has interrupted their lives and killed family and friends. Unfortunately there is no “deep meaning” other than just what it is. A respiratory virus, ten times deadlier than the flu, that crossed over, likely from bats to humans, in which we have no immunity to. Given our ability to travel the globe, it has infected millions around the world and will continue to do so. Until an effective vaccine is developed, all the precautions we are doing now will become our new normal.

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

The first one I would like to talk about is one that might upset a few people depending on your religious or non-religious views but I feel is worth reading. Maybe more than once, no matter if you are an atheist or religious. “Religion” so to speak has been around for a very long time and over this period it has learned a lot about what makes humanity tic. This information has taken thousands of years of unofficial research and observation to obtain. And it has been incorporated into all religious texts to some degree. If you ask an atheist about whether religion should even exist, most likely the answer will be no. But in the authors opinion and mine that would be a huge waste of hard earned information about what makes us human. The book is about how we can make the world a better place by using this information. The author explains how the “tools of religion” can build a better sense of community, better relationships, better appreciation of art and other cultures, better techniques for learning, etc… This is not about trying to convert anyone to a particular religion. But a look at what it means to not have the “god figure” involved at all. This book works great in traditional format and as an audio book. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Religion-for-Atheists

The next one I want to talk about also has a religious theme but not how you would expect. The author looks at how religion has been incorporated by different Science Fiction writers over the last 50 years or so. He uses examples from literature as expected but also from television and films. The part that I really liked is how some stories have religious overtones that when I read or viewed them initially, I did not really comprehend it. But after reading the book, it makes much more sense now. I have always felt that our future has already been written in a SiFi book or more likely several books, just by accident. And that our reality is defined by the tools that we have at the moment. As your tools change so does your reality. Reading the book, one of the conclusions I came to was that this also applies to religion. From the book: “A church that dwells in the past is certain to lose touch with the world in which its believers live, and if religion is to meet the spiritual needs of coming generations, it must be willing to face the future with an open mind.” How powerful a statement. This book is only available as Paperback and Kindle. I wish that it was on audio book because it would be worth a second listen on a long car trip. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-according-Science-Fiction-Twilight

The last one I would like to recommend is another science fiction selection that has 6 books so far. It is called the Red Rising Series. Written by Pierce Brown. It borrows from the Roman past to tell a dystopian future. If you liked the “Hunger Games” you will probably like this series as well. It is the classic story about the “haves” and the “have nots.” A human conflict that is as old as humanity is itself. This series is available in all formats. I thoroughly enjoyed it as an audio book. You can find it on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Pierce-Brown

Well that is about it for me on this Blog post. As the Pandemic continues to drag on, I want to ask you this question again. What do you want “your new normal” to be. This is a great opportunity to create something different. Remember the old guard may not like what you have in mind and will try to divert your attention by selling and telling you things that help you to feel normal. And if that is what you need at this moment, then by all means take it. But if you want something different…resistance is not futile. If you are wondering and want to take a deeper plunge into something different than the current economic system, there is a YouTube channel called Democracy at Work and is hosted by Richard D Wolff – a Harvard Educated Professor of Economics. Check out some of the videos and I will let you be the judge. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-6FjMu9OI8i0Fo6bkW0VA

Take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds and 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, 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