Time once again for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week the prompts are:

1.) Your trip to the ER…spill it.
(inspired by Stephanie from This Blessed Life).

2.) “Why are American’s obsessed with weight? Why are we always fighting or complaining about what is natural for our bodies?”
(inspired by Jenn from Jenny Says What?)

3.) Describe one of your ‘God Moments’.
(inspired by Jordan from Wide Open Spaces).

4.) List ten things you would say to ten different people in your life…if you had the hutzpah.
(inspired by Cassandra from Cassagram)

5.) Why is your kid in time out?
(inspired by Sera from Laughing Through The Chaos)

Without further ado, I give you the minimalist answers for this week.

#1 – Given I have only been to the ER a couple of times and there is only one of those trips where I would not be disclosing someone else’s medical problem, my choice is easy. Thus, you get the case of broken arm. Or if you like odd titles, the case of Bubble Bouncer Mania.

I was in fifth grade and playing on the school basketball team against one of our arch-rival grade schools. (Even chubby kids get recruited to play basketball when they are taller that everyone else. {*grin*}) It was a hotly contested game with the lead changing hands multiple times. Late in the third quarter I went to block a shot by the other teams center and when all was said and done there were about five of us on the floor. I got up and the referee was shouting “Stop! Stop the game! That player has a broken arm!” So of course I looked around to see who was hurt and noticed that everyone was staring at me and turning green and pale. That was the first hint I had that it might be me the referee was talking about. The blood and the bit of bone sticking out of my arm made it clear it was indeed me. About then it started to hurt.

The school nurse and the principal splinted it loosely in old Life magazines and took me to sit in the office while they called mom to come get me. (This was in the days before the automatic ambulance calls and other over-reactions of modern society.) Mom arrived shortly and we set out on the journey to the hospital a few miles away. By now I was in definite pain. I mean the absolute, get sick to the stomach, gut wrenching kind of pain. So I am sitting in the passenger seat, holding my magazine cradled arm in my lap. And then we came to the railroad tracks. I swear that every track we crossed was like having giant spikes driven up my arm. We arrived at the hospital and shuffled into the ER. Like every hospital known to man, they had to take X-rays first before they could proceed. And then, finally, the nurse gave me a shot of pain killer preparatory to putting me under to fix my arm. No shot has even felt as good to get. Within a few minutes I was out cold, waking up many hours later in the hospital with my arm in a half-cast and immobilized, packed in ice. The end diagnosis was compound fracture of both bones in my right forearm.

The irony in this story is that I played football through college and even rugby after college and never once broke a major bone (fingers don’t count). But playing grade school basketball is the one time I broke a bone and I did it spectacularly well. My arm is still crooked some 40++ years later and I still have the little scar where the bone poked out of the skin. And I still remember the thankfulness I felt as the nurse gave me that shot that stopped the pain.

#2 – I suspect that there are some who are obsessed and there are some who are not. I belive that those who are obsessed come from two points of influence.

I have strong belief that those who are truly obsessed are those most susceptible to TV and the media and the images projected and emphasized there. TV and the movies can subtly skew our beliefs of what is normal and what is desirable. The continuous bombardment by images emphasizing certain physical traits makes the tolerance and acceptance of those that don’t meet those ideals even harder. When you have an arbiter of taste and preference that the average American is exposed to for 6 hours a day or more, cultural norms go by the wayside.

With that said, I suspect that the other side of the issue is that we are amidst the first of the generations facing the easy availability of excess calories. At the turn of the last century, the working farm male often burned more than 8000 calories per day. Today there are few occupations where an adult male burns more than 2000 calories per day. In that same period, food has moved from reap and prepare your own to mass preparation with salt and fat loading, boosting the available calories by huge amounts. We (human beings) have not adapted to those rapid changes. For the last 40,000 years or more, it was a huge survival advantage if your body stored fat during times of plenty to cover the times of famine and want. There is a reason that stone age fertility images are of what we would today consider obese women. It meant that they were able to store enough during times of plenty that they could successfully birth and nurture offspring during times of want. That same genetic adaptation in this time of more uniform and abundant supply leads to obesity and the associated diseases.

So my conclusion is that the current obsession is due to a) susceptibility to media and b) uncertainty due to changing external conditions which undermines listening to the body.

#3 – One can have many God moments on the journey through life, but the one that sticks with me the most was shortly after the birth of the Son. (Some background: L and I had been married for 14 years and had given up on having kids when we found out we were going to have the Son. Because of our age, we had undergone aminocentrisis, even though we had already decided that he would have to have a defect that was fatal and painful before we would do anything. We figured this was the one miracle we were going to get and weren’t going to give it up.)

The Son was born healthy, but shortly thereafter was failing to thrive and in fact had fallen deathly ill. We went to the pediatrician early in the week and when we came in later in the week, the pediatrician wanted to know if we wanted to take the Son to Denver to Children’s Hospital (some 130 miles away) ourselves or by ambulance. L immediately set off and I followed and spent several days there. I vividly remember pacing up and down the halls of Children’s Hospital, The Son in one hand and the other hand pushing the IV pole and monitors connected to the Son. I remember going through the classic conversation with God. You know the one – where you ask God if he can’t take you and let the Son live. L stayed in the Son’s room and I was staying at the Ronald McDonald House.I can remember heading back to the room and calling the grandparents to update them and then just collapsing on the bed. And I can remember waking up and feeling that somehow this day was different. And heading back over to see L and the Son and finding that the Son was improving and should get well now. That was a God moment.

#4 – I don’t know that I have anything to add here. I have never been noted for lacking chutzpah (note the corrected spelling – {*grin*}). I generally say what I think without much regard for the consequences. I’ve noted before that I am a curmudgeon. That was not hyperbole on my part. I once told the Chairman/CEO of the company I was working for that he “had the brains of a kumquat” during a meeting when he was insistent on following an illogically boneheaded path. (Interestingly, I wasn’t fired immediately either.)

#5 – He’s not. Given the Son is old enough to vote and other such signs of adulthood, I doubt that trying to send him to the corner for a timeout will help much. At this point, you hope he has learned enough to make the right decisions on his own. All we can do is watch and hope and pray and cheer.

Time once again for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week the prompts are:

1.) Who made you red hot this week?

2.) A day in your life…recap.
(inspired by Jennifer from Toddler Tirade)

3.) What decision are you having a hard time making?
(inspired by Evansmom from Just Sayin’)

4.) How will you enjoy your last days of freedom (aka summer)?
(inspired by Heather from A Day In The Life)

5.)List your 7 most favorite summer items!
(inspired by Summer from Le Musings of Moi)

To which I respond:

#1 – No one. I tend not to get red hot. I always figure that it is not worth the wear and tear on me and my glucose control to get really mad. Besides, getting even is so much more rewarding. {*grin*} The few times in my life I have gotten really mad have resulted in people getting hurt, usually the ones I am mad at. So I am happy it happens so rarely that i do get mad.

#2 – I give you Tuesday:

5:45 – get up
6:00 – shave and shower and get ready
7:00 – do some e-mail
7:30 – grab a ride with the city manager and director of public works to Denver CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment) office
9:30 – arrive at the CDPHE offices in Denver
9:35 – have a cup of coffee
10:00 – begin meeting
12:00 – end meeting
12:15 – go to eat at Chili’s with our water engineering firm (from meeting)
1:30 – start the drive back here
3:45 – arrive back here
4:00 – prepare notes for city council meeting tonight
4:45 – read paper and have supper
6:30 – head for city council meeting
7:00 – convene city council meeting
9:30 – adjourn city council meeting
9:35 – discuss misc. things in the parking lot
10:00 – call L in return of her call during the meeting (on the way home)
10:30 – get home and give the dog her chewie
11:00 – do some housework (like dishes, etc.)
11:30 – decide to wuss out on blog post for tonight
11:45 – make a few notes for the radio show in the morning
12:00 – go to bed
12:05 – realize I didn’t check the mailbox, get up and go get the mail
12:10 – go to bed for real
…
6:00 – start all over again

#3 – The answer could be any of several things. One of the more interesting is whether to enter partisan politics. I am term limited out of being mayor come November. One of the things I have enjoyed about being mayor is that it is a non-partisan office (no political parties involved). But I have been approached by several people about running as a party candidate for a partisan office next November. If I am going to do it, I need to answer in the next few months. I believe I could and would win, so the question in my mind is do I want to badly enough to put up with partisan politics and party lines. So I continue to wage the internal debate with myself.  (And am I deluding myself in the belief I could win?)

#4 – About the same way I have enjoyed most of the summer. (I’m really more of a spring/fall kind of guy.) So that will include mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, harvesting the garden, and walking in the bright sunshine. This year I haven’t been golfing at all for a combination of reasons. In a normal year I’d say I’d look forward to those hot days on the golf course where nothing hurts. Just not this year.

#5 – My favorite summer items are all versions of fresh grown produce. In no particular order, I give you

Melons – cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon
Beans – fresh picked green  beans
Onions – fresh onions straight from the garden
Peppers – both red and green bell peppers
Cucumbers
Squash – zucchini, acorn, butternut, etc.
Tomatoes – fresh picked.

I’m not a big tomato fan in general since I react badly to the acid in them. But a bit of tomato in a salad or on a sandwich cannot be beat. I like to stir fry chopped peppers, onions, zucchini, and sometimes even beans and potatoes. The rest are self explanatory.

Time once again for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week the prompts are:

1.) They just don’t make (fill in the blank) like they used to!
(inspired by Roxanne)

2.) If you had the time and money…what charity would you help raise awareness for?
(inspired by Christina…click here to enter her raffle)

3.) What are YOU giddy about?
(inspired by Heather)

4.)What’s on YOUR little kids list?
(inspired by Ashley)

5.)Describe what brought you closer to your faith.
(inspired by Emily)

My responses:

#1 – They just don’t make summers like they used to.

I can remember when summer lasted forever and featured all sorts of new and exciting things to do. It went on so long that you thought it would never end. And even though you had a vague concept of just how far away tomorrow was, it seemed like forever. If an adult told you “Not today, maybe we can go tomorrow.”, you just knew that tomorrow would never come. If the fishing trip was “next Friday”, that was so far in the future that you couldn’t bear to wait, even if it was Thursday already.

Then there were the timeless pleasures. Awesome events like sneaking off to a shady spot with a new book from the library and reading it straight through from cover to cover without interruption.  (That was why you snuck off to the shade of a tree away from the house – because otherwise you might get tagged for chores if someone spotted you.) You spent the afternoon lost in vivid imagery as your imagination caught fire with each word your devoured.  You remember that timeless feeling when each glance at the sky featured whole new armies of knights and dragons and aliens and machines and spaceships and …

Maybe it’s not summer that has changed, but our grownup lives. I would love to go back to those endless summers of youth, those times when it seemed that the world could never move fast enough to fit our dreams and ambitions. Those times when little pleasures meant so much.

#2 – I find this to be a hard question because there are clearly so many good charities to support and so many needs to be met. Let me begin by dividing the charities into two classes: those that respond to unforseen need and hazard and those designed to handle specific diseases and their effects. In the first class I place groups like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, etc. In the second group I place groups like the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes, etc.

I think that if I had time and money, I would spend it encouraging basic research so that we might have a hope of solving *all* the problems and curing *all* the ills. So I’d give some amount to the Salvation Army since they seem to me to be the most effective of the first class of charities. But the bulk of my money and time would go to support of fundamental research. It makes so much more sense to me to support fundamental research that may be applicable to thousands of diseases as opposed to squandering our efforts across the myriad of causes, trying to address each one individually, turning each into a popularity contest for funding (and hopefully results). Not to mention, the track record of issue specific efforts has been pretty spotty in the last couple of centuries. Emotionally it is certainly more satisfying to give to the cause that pulls the most heart strings. But realistically, basic science and research wins everytime. So I’d have to go with supporting basic research in general since I am not a fan of the disease-of-the-day causes,

#3 – Nothing. Call it a symptom of getting older, but I don’t find myself giddy over many things. Of course given that I am a famed curmudgeon, it might just be that I am not prone to giddiness.

#4 – Since I have no little kids anymore, I going to assume you meant what is on my own inner kid list. I.e. the toys for grown boys that I would like. The problem is that the toy I’d really like still hasn’t been made. I suspect it will be another decade or so before it arrives.

What is it you ask? Well picture a box the size of your cell phone with the computing power of a massive server farm, a holographic pop up display as large as you want, full surround projective sound, with direct voice command input. It would function as communications device, computing device, calendar, datebook, movie shower (in real 3d), etc. When one of those hits the market, I hope it hits a toy store near me. Oh, and I almost forgot – it should have a battery life measured in weeks or months under continuous usage.

 #5 – My faith is a bit eclectic to start with. I am a Methodist with a touch of rationalist and even a skosh of secular humanist thrown in. So I don’t necessarily think that the things that bring me closer to my faith will have much meaning to others. If I had to chose one thing that builds my faith, it would be the diversity of the world. Just the fact that life itself is so chaotic and random seems to me to be a sign of something interesting going on.

One of the outcomes of my eclectic faith is that I believe it is good to explore all faiths and integrate the larger whole. To that end I often talk to clergy of various faiths and ask hypothetical questions. One of the answers I got from a clergyman who is now bishop made a great impression on me. The question I asked this man was “How will you react if when you die and get to heaven it isn’t the God of your religion sitting on the throne?” So if you were a Christian cleric, what if it was Buddha sitting on the throne. And the answer he gave? “Since I’d arrived at a heaven, I would assume the gist of my version had been correct. Then I’d point out that all the worlds great religions are basically the same. We all have a moral code for living a meaningful life, we all value human life as being precious to our creator, and we all teach the treating of our fellow man with kindness and respect.” I thought that was one of the best possible answers to the question. I’m still waiting to pose a similar question to an imam. The answer should be illuminating.

It is time once more for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge. This week the prompts are:

1. If I sent you four hundred dollars today what is ONE thing you would spend it on and why. P.S. I want my change.
2. What are your kids talking about?
3. Tell us about a local news story that’s all the buzz right now in your neck of the woods.
4. Share some blogging advice.
5. Tell us about that time at the playground when that thing happened.

I felt a bit odd trying to answer some of these. No real obvious theme came to mind, so you get to watch me blither in a real time stream of consciousness way. Enjoy.

#1) I am torn. I could buy about a month’s worth of one of the drugs I take for my diabetes, but that is strangely unsatisfying to me.

I could also sign on to EBay and buy some computer and/or AV equipment, but that would be hard to estimate the change to give Mama Kat until the auction ended and one found out what (if anything) I had won. I could also bid on a new KVM box to replace this one that randomly sticks sending the last letter typed over and over. (I sometimes lose a whole post when it sticks on backspace and I don’t spot it in time.)

I guess I’ll go for a visit to the meat market. Four hundred dollars worth of steak and brats and sausage would make for a mighty fine start to a barbecue. Then I’d invite some friends over and settle back for some good food and even better conversation. And sorry Mama, no change left over. But you are welcome to come to the barbecue. {*grin*}

#2) Given that the Son just recently turned 19, it is hard to say for sure what he is talking about. One topic would likely be his job and the hours over the next few months until summer tourist season arrives. Another might be his plans for the coming year, including school, work, and the possibility of joining the National Guard. Beyond all that, it depends on his mood and what is going on in his life. Since I know he reads this blog, maybe he’ll leave a comment and tell us directly.

#3) The headline in todays paper was about a proposed real estate development that is before the city council. Since it is an active matter before council, I cannot say anything further.

Another headline notes that police responded to a vandalism call and found a mushroom growing operation. Samples were sent off to the state labs for identification and tox scan. The police chief noted that although no arrests had been made, leads were being pursued. It wasn’t clear to me from reading the story exactly what was happening other than some vandalism and presumed trespass. The materials found at the site were “organic”, so the question of the legitimacy of the mushrooms was left hanging. I’d suspect the unstated question is whether the mushrooms were of the illegal hallucinogenic species or just someone growing an edible species for fresh mushrooms. I suspect the answer will come out in the coming weeks.

#4) My only blogging advice from the production side is to just do it. I try to write most of my stuff like I was writing a letter to an acquaintence. I know it still comes out stilted at times, but it does seem to resonate with some of the readers. I never started this site with the goal of massive readership, so I am suprised at the number of people who actually read my drivel.

On the reading side, I might be considered an expert since I read about 200 blogs with my various reading software packages each day.

My number one gripe is the sporadic blog. I like a blog to be published regularly, at least once every other day. Given that is seems that at least a third of all the blogs are written by someone with a variant of the name Jennifer (Jen, Jenny, …), if it isn’t written regularly, I confuse the authors and backstories.

My second gripe would have to be the people who decorate their blog page to the point where the universe could go into heat death before it completes loading. Please recognize that most serious readers will be using reading software which strips all that fancy stuff out. The only time I actually visit your site is to comment – usually clicking in from one of my software readers because I found what you were asking or saying interesting enough to drive me to respond. So please don’t make it a test to see just how interested I am in commenting by forcing me to wait for the universe to reach heat death before your site loads completely. (And by the way, I also dislike the author approval for comments. If you are going to squirrel them away before publishing, why not just turn the comments off?)

#5) I’m not sure what you were hoping happened, but I do have one precious (to me) memory from the playgound. I was in the first grade at the rural Nebraska school I attended for K-3. The playground there was built up against a bluff that formed one wall of the valley the town was situated in. On top of the bluff was where we played games like Red Rover. After school, there was a group of us that played on the bluff before walking the one to four blocks home. (Small town living at its best – first graders able to walk unescorted to and from school and to each others homes.)

One day we were playing a variant of War, running like mad across the grass and bare dirt of the bluff. I remember running at full speed, loving the feel of the wind in my face, enjoying the endless energy that comes with being that age. And then I tripped. I went flying through the air. It was like time stopped. It felt like I was truly flying and the ground was never going to rise up and slap me in the face. Even after coming roughly to ground and getting up and dusting myself off, I was in awe of that feeling of flight, the feeling that one could just launch oneself into the air and fly. I spent many years from then on seeking to regain that experience again and again and again. The older and bigger and heavier I became, the harder it was to attain that feeling. It finally reached the point where the only time I experienced the feeling was while playing football. I suspect that was one of the reasons I loved football so much.

Well, that will do it for now. I have to get ready for tomorrow. I have my dental checkup and then a speaking engagement for the League of Women Voters meeting in the evening. Should be interesting.