Burn Baby Burn!

Maybe I haven't been watching the news closely enough lately, but I haven't seen any of these images from the Gulf of Mexico on the mainstream media. I also haven't heard many chants of Drill Baby Drill!

Another great baseball play!

A couple of weeks ago I posed what I thought would be the baseball play of the year. Well, now I'm not so sure. Take a look at this:


I'm still not that much of a baseball fan, but a few more plays like this could change my mind.

Debate with a Tea Partier

I recently concluded a lengthy correspondence with the author of one of the ranting emails that I posted a month or so ago. As it turned out, this guy would have denied being a Tea-Partier, and thought he was being quite reasonable in his arguments. He is an atheist, not an overt racist, apparently not a gun-nut (guns didn't really enter into our conversation), doesn't support Sarah Palin, and readily agreed that Bush and previous Republican administrations were far from perfect. I never met the guy and didn't talk to him - our only contact was email. When I replied to his email with facts, not rants, he replied in the same civil tone. I thought this might be the opportunity to understand the mindset of otherwise reasonable and educated guys like him.

He is certainly an advocate of personal freedom, but I was not successful in getting him to define freedom in anything beyond the usual bromides of personal responsibility and the caricatures of rugged individualism and American exceptionalism so beloved by the right. When I pointed out that in my opinion universal healthcare would be good for personal freedom because it freed you from the worry of bankruptcy due to illness, the freedom to move to another job or the freedom to start your own business without worrying about insurance. He replied that yes, that would be good, except that you'd be trading freedom for security, implying that the more secure you are the less free you are! I replied that using his logic, the best place for personal freedom is a country like Somalia where there is no security. He acknowledged my point, and didn't want to follow the Somalian model, but didn't (or couldn't) elaborate further.

He had a distinct nostalgia for what America used to be and bemoaned the direction in which we're headed. He was one of the air traffic controllers who replaced the striking PATCO controllers who Reagan fired back in '81. He hates unions and loves Reagan and what he thinks Reagan stood for, even though he was unable to say what Reagan stood for beyond the bumper sticker sound bites. I acknowledged that unions had their excesses but that on balance it was unions that built the American middle class and created the "good old days" that he longs for. I pointed out that inflation-adjusted wages actually declined during the Reagan years and that the only reason household income rose was because more women entered the labor force. In fact inflation-adjusted wages actually peaked in 1972! To support his argument, he replied by sending me a chart showing household income had risen during the Reagan years at least partly due to the increase of women in the labor force!

He talked a lot about economic freedom being linked directly to personal freedom. I sent him a paper by done by the Heritage Foundation (not a left-wing fringe group by any means) ranking the economic freedom of countries around the world. #1 is Hong Kong, #2 is Singapore - not exactly beacons of personal freedom in anyone's books. Interestingly enough, #3-#6 are Western democracies that he would define as "socialist." Canada is ranked #7 and the good ole USA is #8. What does that say about the link between economic and personal freedom?

He talked a lot about the constitution and what the Founders originally meant, but was like talking to a person who believes in the literal truth of the Bible in spite of the many contradictions. No, he didn't want to reinstate slavery, but he certainly was for State's rights. I couldn't pin him down on the line between federal government and state power.

Deficit spending was a huge issue for him, but he wouldn't (or couldn't) point to anything substantial he wanted to cut. He thought that the 47% of Americans who don't pay federal income tax were free riders on the rest of us tax-paying patriots. He neglected to include the payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes that those 47% still pay. He also neglected to acknowledge that many of those non-income tax payers simply didn't make enough to pay taxes, and he neglected to say how much income tax he pays. I suspect he's retired and pays little or no income tax. He definitely wanted to keep his social security and medicare but wanted them "reformed" - whatever that means. He agreed that military spending would have to be trimmed, but big cuts weren't necessary.

I could go on and on, but at the end of the day (don't you hate that expression?) it wasn't a very satisfying dialog. He acknowledged the points I raised, but towards the end or our correspondence, he essentially said that he couldn't raise the facts or statistics to support his arguments, but he knew what he felt in his gut.

It's impossible to reason with a "gut feel."

Projects at the Cabin, Kabine, Hütte, whatever

As noted in my last post, daughter Megan and I drove up to the CITW on Tuesday to work on a few of my projects. Getting the massive table there was a bit of a trick, but the Audi was up to the task. And no, I didn't duct tape it to the roof rack. The duct tape was a futile attempt to keep the straps from vibrating noisily at certain speeds.


I borrowed a belt sander from Hal to take off the existing finish and sand out a few gouges in the table. Well, in the final analysis, I think I added as many gouges as I removed. I think you should have to be licensed to operate one of those things. They can be dangerous. I was going to take off all the finish and give the table a clear finish, but sanding the pedestal down to bare wood would have been a major chore, so I didn't. My intent never was to restore the table as a fine piece of furniture, and in that I was successful. 


So that the table top would match the base, I decided to stain it all. It turned out a bit darker than I expected, but it'll be fine.


When I wasn't working on the table, I was working on the deck gate. I had been blocking off the opening so that Farley wouldn't take unsupervised excursions in the area. Making gates is always a bit fun, a bit challenging, and a more than a bit satisfying when it all works out. You want to match the gate to what's already there, you want it simple and strong, and you want to make it swing through it's arc without binding or twisting. It all seems pretty simple, but it always gets complicated. It took me a while to figure why the gate didn't line up all that well with the deck railing, even though the gate was level and true. It turned out the existing deck railing was off kilter! I was able to adjust the existing railing fairly easily, and now everything's fine.


Here's the table in what I think will be its final resting place. I've still got to put on the last finish coats and get some chairs, but I think the table will work out perfectly in its new location. 


I initially thought that I'd move the TV and stereo over to the other side of the living room, but that turned out to be more difficult than I had first envisioned. So I gave up and left it in place, and now that the table is in, it looks like there should still be more than enough room for the couch and TV. I did move the love seat over to the other side.


All in all, it was a successful trip.

Die Hütte im Wald

I've been trying to come up with a snappy new phrase to describe my cabin the woods, but so far haven't come up with much. Given the Bavarian/Swiss/bratwurst architectural style in Leavenworth, a Germanish name would be appropriate. Die Hütte im Wald kinda works, but it's not really any better than The Cabin in the Woods. A Plaut Dietsch version would be something like Kjleene Kot enn Woolt. I guess I know the perfect name when I hear it.

In any case, I'm headed up there for a few days to work on a few projects. I bought a great table for $40 from Goodwill to replace the crappy little table that came with the place. It can sit eight comfortably (as soon as I find some chairs), and will be great for eating and drinking and games and just generally hanging out after a long day on the water or in the woods. The table is a bit beat up (what do you expect for $40?), but if I sand the hell out of it and slap on a couple of coats of something, it should be just fine. I also want to rearrange my TV and stereo and build a gate on the deck so I don't have to keep an eagle-eye on young Farley every time he wanders out on to the deck. It should be fun and keep me out of trouble for a while.

I haven't got internet up there yet, so I'll be cyber-silent till the weekend.

Cortisone Update

I'm not sure if the full verdict on my cortisone shot is in yet, but I'll give you an update on my impressions so far. I got the shot on Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday evening, for the first time in months, had absolutely no pain. I was tempted to go play racquetball. Instead, I cut back on the Diclofen (a prescription NSAID) I've been taking for months to see what effect that would have. On Friday afternoon, I walked the three miles around Green Lake. By the time I finished, I still felt pretty good even though a little pain had reappeared. So I took a Diclofen that night, and the next morning, and the next, and today I'm still trying to get back to the pain-free state I was in on Thursday.

Right now, I'm certainly in no worse shape than I was before the cortisone shot, but I'm not convinced I'm much better off.

Second Opinion

I went to see another orthopedic doctor at Group Health this afternoon. I'm not sure exactly why I made the appointment - I guess I just wanted to talk to a different doctor. I'm sure the first guy I saw is well-qualified and I really had no intention of changing doctors, but I had problems connecting with the first doctor. During the two previous appointments I had with him, the doctor was very professional and very much by the book, but for some reason I had problems feeling comfortable with him. He was giving me a very cautious prognosis for life after surgery that was at odds with what I'd seen and heard from people who'd had the surgery. I think what he was telling me was what he'd tell an 80-year-old patient, not a somewhat active (dare I say youthful?) 57-year-old guy like me.

Anyway, the new doc and I hit it off pretty well. I discussed some of my concerns about the communication difficulties I had with the first doctor, and asked him if there were any other options, like cortisone shots, that might delay surgery. Doc #1 had dismissed cortisone shots as not being an effective alternative. Doc #2 said they work pretty well for some people and asked if I wanted one. Like now. This minute. Having heard that these shots can be quite painful, I said 'yes' with some trepidation. Did I mention I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to pain? I wasn't sure I was mentally prepared to bite the bullet that I neglected to bring along. Anyway, Doc #2 disappeared for 30 seconds and came back with the biggest damn needle I'd ever seen. I got the shot, but it wasn't as bad as it looked. But I can see why some people could be intimidated. He shoved all 4" of the needle right into my knee. I thought it would hit a bone or come out the other side, but it didn't. He warned me that the cortisone doesn't usually kick in till the next day, and that I might have a pain flare-up at the injection site. Four hours later, so far so good.

I'll be pleased if regular cortisone shots work and delay surgery for a year or two or more. I never was all that convinced that surgery was the only option. But in the meantime, I'll keep my place in line.

Knee Replacement Surgery

As some of you know, I'm in line for knee replacement surgery sometime around the end of August (who'd have thought there were lines in the best medical care system in the world?). Yesterday I went to a comprehensive three-hour class about what to expect before and after surgery. I was expecting to be in a class with a bunch of 400lb couch potatoes, but I was wrong! I was in a class with a bunch of nursing home refugees. God, were they ever old! I suspect that I was the youngest there by at least ten years. So there wasn't much talk of how soon one could get back to normal athletic endeavors. Instead there was lots of talk about getting in and out of bathtubs and the benefits of raised toilet seats.

As I said, the class was comprehensive, and in spite of the age of my colleagues, it was pretty interesting. They covered the administrative side of the procedure, and provided a checklist of all the things that have to be done before surgery. A couple of things surprised me. One was that I have to get certification from my dentist that I don't have any ongoing oral infections. There are all kinds of blood tests and even an EKG before surgery to make sure I'm healthy enough for the procedure.

Another thing that surprised me was that it appears that I have a choice of the type of anesthetic. I'll have to look into the spinal option. I'm somewhat convinced that my inability to remember names is as a result of the 10+ hours I spent under general anesthetic when I had my face remodeled back in '87. It was either that or the cheap drugs I ingested voluntarily back in the 70's.

But the biggest surprise came near the end of the presentation. Though it was of little concern to my colleagues, sex is not recommended for 4-6 weeks after surgery.

I might have to re-think this whole procedure!

Baseball Play of the Year

I'm not that big a baseball fan, especially this early in the year, but even at the end of this season this play will certainly be in the running for play of the year. Enjoy!

This video should be required watching

This video should be required watching for anyone who thinks that the Iraq War was (and still is) a good thing. The video was taken from an Apache gunship during an "engagement" in July 2007. The video is graphic and disturbing, but what to me was most disturbing is the recording of the radio conversations between the helicopters and their controllers. Even though as far as I can tell the helicopter was never in any danger from the "insurgents" on the ground, the gunner is at times almost begging for permission to shoot. And even though this is a long video, watch until the end when the crews involved are justifying the shooting of children. There's nothing in this video to indicate it was at all unusal. I'd be willing to bet that this kind of "engagement" with "insurgents" was commonplace. This is war at its worst.

I wouldn't blame the Iraqis for hating us forever.