Financial mess

The financial mess the world is in is getting scarier by the day. The graph on the left compares today's stock market with that of three previous recessions, including the Great Depression. It looks like today's S&P 500 is right on track with the DOW of the 30's. The scariest thing is that there is no consensus as to what to do. Nobel laureate economists can't agree on what caused and ended the Great Depression, even 80 years after the fact, so of course they're calling each other names over proposed solutions to today's situation. No wonder economics is called the 'dismal science.'

I myself am very skeptical about borrowing and spending trillions of dollars to cure a problem caused by borrowing and spending trillions. The only ways to deal with that debt is to default or inflate it away. But at the same time, I support Obama's plan. In the early 30's, Hoover didn't do a whole lot and let banks fail and let people default on their mortgages. Fat lot of good that did for the economy. So Obama has to do something, and what he's doing is likely the least-bad solution out there.

The Hut

We had a wonderful Valentines's Day weekend at a place, that until last week, I didn't even know existed. The MTTA (Mount Tahoma Trails Association) maintains a network of cross-country ski trails and "huts" south of Mt. Rainier, near Ashford, WA. One of Megan's friends is a member of the ski patrol for the association, and every year, he books the entire hut for a weekend, hires a gourmet cook, and invites 14 or 15 people to join him for a great back country party. We were lucky enough to be part of the fun this year.

This is a picture of the Copper Creek Hut, at the end of a 4.3 mile trail in.


It was the first time that I had used my new randonee ski gear, and I soon discovered that they are not a very suitable replacement for more traditional cross-country skis. The trail in was not terribly steep (about 700-800' over the 4.3 miles), but it was steep enough to make for tough going without skins. So I used my new skins for the first time. I thought the skins gave you one-way traction going up while allowing the skis to slide downhill. After using them briefly, I soon came to the realization that they give almost as much traction in both directions. So I took them off again, and skied and skated as best I could with a 40-50 pound pack on my back. There were several sections where I took the skis off, strapped them to my pack, and walked. It took over four hours to get in, but it was well worth it. The good news is that the skis worked great on the way out. We made it out in a little over 40 minutes.


















Here's the view from one of the windows and our gourmet chefs in action. We had a Greek-themed meal, complete with Greek beer and wine (fortunately not the retsina variety!)

Bill and I managed to kill the beer supply that evening, but fortunately Layton had the keys to the Ski-doo and was able to replenish the supply the next day!

















Here's a few of us enjoying the feast!


On another note, I sold my Jag last week. I hadn't used it much over the last few years, and having the extra space in the parking garage is great. If you look closely at this picture that I took shortly after I had it painted in 2000, you can see my old friend Angus behind the wheel.

Stellet Licht

I finally managed to track down a copy of Stellet Licht and watched it the other night. I was interested in this film for several reasons, one being that as far as I know, it's the only feature length film in Plaut Dietsch, the Dutch/German dialect of my Mennonite forebears. It was the language of my parents and grandparents and my whole extended family. Another reason is that it's set in Mexico where several of my mother's uncles and aunts on her father's side settled in the 20's and 30's when my mom was a little girl. They moved there from Saskatchewan because Saskatchewan at that time was getting too modern for traditional Mennonite tastes and was bringing in English language education and all the trappings of the modern world. Fortunately for me, my mom's parents didn't move there, keeping their genetic line in Canada.

When I was a kid, my mom often spoke of her aunts and uncles in this far away and exotic place, and often spoke of wanting to visit them someday. When I "retired" in 2001, one of the first things I did was to take Mom and my two sisters to Mexico to try and track down some of these long-lost relatives. Daughter Megan was studying in Puebla at the time, so she joined us for a portion of the trip. So there we were, in the wilds of Mexico, driving around in a big white GMC Suburban with blacked out windows, which marked us as drug dealers, federales, or anything but natives. In any case, we did find the Mennonite Colony in question, near Nuevo Ideal, about 60 miles north of Durango.

That trip was truly memorable, and Mom has often said it was the trip of a lifetme, but it isn't really the subject of this post.

Some of the Mennonites we visited in Mexico were the old horse-and-buggy Mennonites, but living right next door to them in the village were Mennonites who drove cars and used more modern conveniences. Modernity was a problem for my mother's uncles and aunts, and how to live in the modern world is still a problem today.

The Mennonites in Stellet Licht are of a more modern strain than the strict traditionalists. They are religious, but drive trucks and cars. Johann (prounced Ja-HOWN) is a married man with several kids, but he's tormented by his love for another woman. And to make matters worse, he's been totally open with his wife about it all.

Who'd a thunk it?! A Cannes Film Festival award winning movie in Plaut Dietsch about illicit Mennonite love, made in Mexico by a Mexican director, with a non-professional local Mennonite cast???

But does the movie work? If you speak or understand a bit of Plaut Dietsch (there's still some of it imbedded in my brain, but I was very thankful for the English subtitles) and know a bit about Mennonite culture, it will all seem quite familiar. If you can get through the first third or so of the movie, you'll probably get all the way through. The beginning is tough going at times, with long scenes with a fixed camera, where not much happens. Some of those scenes, like the opening scene, are truly beautiful, but after a while you'll find yourself saying "Get on with it!" If you stick with it, it's well worth watching. It even has a brief soft-core sex scene! The ending was more than a bit weird, and I may have to watch it again, just to see if I got it or not.

This is definitely an "art house" movie and will never see wide distribution or popularity, but I think it could be a minor hit in the vast Mennonite diaspora. I know I was glad to see it.

Ps. If you're wondering where to get it, I found it on DVD at http://www.tower.com/.

Pps. In case you're wondering what I'm doing up at this ungodly hour, I woke up at 4 this morning to the sounds (and smells) of Farley having a violent diarrhea attack. It wasn't a great start to the day for either of us, but we're both doing fine now.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

No, I haven't started smoking again, but I'm sure having fun with it. Those Japanese are amazing! They invented an electronic cigarette, complete with nicotine capsules in the filter, a lithium ion battery in the body of the cigarette, and an atomization chamber that somehow produces carbon dioxide to simulate smoke.









Here's the "cigarette" with the filter unscrewed.

I told a partially-reformed ex-smoker friend about the e-cigarette, and he remarked that the only problem is the risk of e-cancer.

Another somewhat minor issue - now along with my cellphone and laptop, I have to remember to plug in my cigarette for charging at night.






Farley watched enough episodes of the Dog Whisperer taking dogs for bike rides that he thought it might be fun.

Here's a shot of him chomping at the leash.









Here he is in full bike-towing mode. As long as we get going fast enough, he pretty much ignores other dogs and other people passing on the trail. Only once did cross in front of the bike (when I wasn't paying enough attention). He just about got a paw run over and scared himself (and me) a bit, so he doesn't do that anymore.

He's having a great time, getting some good exercise, and actually seems to be better behaved at home. I think the biking is a good way to wring some of the piss and vinegar out of him.





The other night I watched an HBO documentary about Ted Haggard after his fall from the heights of power within the evangelical Christian community. Normally I wouldn't have much sympathy for a faggot-bashing, hypocritical Bible-thumper banished from the church after admitting to drug use and trysts with a gay prostitute. But after watching this documentary, I have to say I wish him well. Even though he was pastor of one of the largest congregations in the States and regularly preached to coliseums full of people, he never enriched himself. When he was fired, he essentially had nothing. He packed up some of his stuff in a U-Haul and headed off to Arizona to stay with friends and good Samaritans. He agreed not to preach, so he tried to get work in various businesses, but what does a disgraced evangelical super-pastor do? He hung flyers on door knobs and sold insurance door-to-door! Oh how the mighty have fallen!

He is a sympathetic character because is openly conflicted about his gay tendencies, and he genuinely seems to be trying to do the right thing by his faith and his family. I have little or no sympathy for his faith, but I have lots of sympathy for him and his family. I wish him well.

I'm back

I made it back from my winter excursion to Canada. Fortunately, the super cold weather was easing up by the time I left Saskatoon on Tuesday. Weatherwise, the trip was mostly clear sailing.

I had a good visit (other than the bitter cold) with my Mom for a week in Edmonton, and then a couple of days in Saskatoon with Martha and Allan. And of course, no trip to Saskatoon would be complete without filling a cooler with my favorite Mennonite sausage!

As it turned out, we didn't do any skiing on the way back, but we did some touristy stuff nonetheless. We visited Lake Louise for lunch, and while there took in the ice sculpture competition. It seems the world-wide market crash has hit the tourist industry. Banff seemed pretty much dead, and there wasn't much action around Lake Louise.
















I hope the economy doesn't totally melt down like these ice sculptures inevitably will.












We went to Kamloops and checked out the resort at Twin Peaks. It looks like a great development - a year round resort with skiing and golf, but gorgeous as it was, I don't think I'd want to be invested in a new resort with the economy the way it is. The big news in Canada was the new budget, complete with a $34 billion deficit - the first budget deficit in Canada in 12 years. Comparatively speaking the Canadian deficit is far smaller than that of the US, but still huge by Canadian standards.

While in the Kamloops area, we visited one of my favorite unknown places - Helmcken Falls. Not even most Canadians are aware of this spectacular waterfall. It has a vertical drop of 463' making it the fourth highest falls in Canada. I had been there in the summer before, but this was the first winter trip.

We took the scenic route along the Trans Canada Highway from Kamloops, visiting my old railway stomping grounds in the Thompson and Fraser Canyons.

It was a good trip, but as usual, it's good to be back home.