Random Musings

I recently joined Facebook, just because everyone else in the world seems to be on there. On the home page is a blank box entitled "What's on your mind" where you are supposed to write whatever. What's on my mind is this. I have a number of Facebook friends, mostly people in my email list. It's a diverse group. There are people who think George Bush is the devil himself, while others reserve that sentiment for Barack Obama. One of my Facebook friends posted that today is the 60th anniversary of Germany's invasion of Poland to start World War II (she meant 70th, but that's irrelevant to my point). She went on to say that in her mind, January 20, 2009 (Obama's inauguration) is on par with that date. Now, I'm no Obama fan, but equating his inauguration with the start of a world war is a bit much. On the other side, I recently read an opinion by a well-meaning University of Utah student lambasting the Bush administration and asserting that "generational equity" is THE greatest problem facing the United States. By this she meant that she is contributing, forcibly by dint of law, into a Medicare and Social Security program that will in all likelihood be broke by the time she is eligible for its benefits. Granted, this is a problem, but is it THE most important problem facing America?

My point is, it seems everyone (and here I'm guilty of what I'm criticizing) is going to extremes. We as a nation are polarizing ourselves. We demonize the other side. Depending on your point of view, George Bush/Dick Cheney/Sara Palin are Satan or he's Barack Obama/Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid. Once you've called the president the greatest disaster since the start of World War II, you have alienated him and his supporters. You simply can't reach a consensus because the other side is evil, immoral, unethical, and probably cross-eyed. Of course, the other side has to retaliate in kind, and we end up with a sort of mutual assured destruction.

Can we set aside hyperbolic rhetoric, if for no other reason than that hyperbole, like the boy who cried "wolf," soon loses is impact? As a more aspirational goal, can we have true civic dialog? The recent town meetings with people shouting each other down, waving canes and threatening physical violence are not a good reflection of what is supposed to be the greatest democracy in the world. Can we find a way to disagree without being disagreeable? And in our civic dialog, can we stick to the facts? Just the facts, ma'am, as Jack Webb used to say.

Le Tour

July is here and that means the Tour de France. Yesterday was the team time trial (TTT) and after watching Astana ("the well-oiled machine" in the words of Paul or Phil -- I can never keep them straight), who can argue that cyclists are not high-level athletes. The beauty of the individual riders working as one is something to see.

On the topic of the Tour, please check out my somewhat tongue-in-cheek article on how to watch the Tour in this month's Catalyst Magazine, which you can find online here:

http://www.catalystmagazine.net/component/content/891?task=view&ed=35

On another topic, last week was the Chambers' family annual gathering at Bear Lake. Hopefully I will have some pictures posted shortly. The only downside to the weekend was that Steven's specatular fireworks display was rained out. Not to worry, the fireworks themselves are safe and dry, waiting for Labor Day.

Dogs

My last post, just before my ride home on May 8, led to a dog bite. It was not the way I wanted to end that day. It was a perfect ride, a little on the cool side when I started, but I soon warmed up. I had just crossed the last major street of my ride and was relaxing when suddenly old Sport ran at me and took a hunk of flesh out of my right leg. We spent the evening at the Insta Care, where, fortunately, I didn't need stitches.

Now I'm sitting here at the end of the day looking at my trusty steed ready to take me home, but today it's near 90. Unseasonably hot for May. Hopefully I will neither faint from the heat nor be attacked by a dog again.

Bike Commuting

I'm sitting in my office at the end of Friday, looking at my bike. It's a beautiful day, mid-60s, sun shining, and I rode to work. Unlike last Friday, I won't need a pickup to get home because it's raining. This is perfect biking weather; too bad it won't last and in two months I'll be facing a 30 minute commute in 90 degree temps.

Last Saturday I attended the first ever Salt Lake City Bike Summit. A bike summit is a sort of convention for bikers. Not racers or even touring bikers, but those who promote cycling as a way of life. It was interesting to hear all the work going on behind the scenes to make cycling a legitimate form of transportation. In other countries, biking is "what we do". That was the theme repeated by several of the speakers who had interviewed cyclists in Europe, Asia and other countries where biking is the norm, not a fringe element. One day maybe the U.S. will be there, too.

Cycling

The weather is on again, off again. Today is gorgeous, tomorrow will be in the mid-60s and Wednesday we are back to rain and probably snow even in the valley. It's making cycling very hard. Next Saturday is the Salt Lake Marathon bike ride, that I have done every year since they started it. I'm signed up, but it's weather dependent whether I ride. If it's raining or snowing, forget it. I need to get out a ride more because I'm supposed to be a bike commuter columnist and it's hard to write about commuting when you haven't really started commuting yet. I did, however, drop my mountain bike off for a tuneup. That should really be my commuting bike, since it's a beast and more or less immune to potholes, gravel and other road hazards that can destroy a road bike.

I'm really enjoying my gig as a columnist. I don't yet have a stiff piece of cardboard with "Press" written on it to stick in my fedora, but that might come. Every March there is a national bike summit in Washington, D.C. Maybe next year I'll have to cover it as part of my duties. I could write the trip off as a business expense. The great thing about being a writer is you can deduct almost everywhere you go as research for a story.

Spring Break

Our family is at the tail end of our combined spring break. Last Saturday, March 14, we arrived in sunny California for three days at Disneyland and a week in a beach house at Newport Beach. The whole family was here: Courtney and Robert (though they had to leave on Monday because Robert started school again on Tuesday), Brad, Melanie and Chloe, who left today to return to Missouri, Steven, Cathy, Maddie and Isabelle, who just walked in from riding the Balboa ferry, Jeff and Holli, Melinda, Leah and mom and dad. We've spent our days at Disneyland searching for hidden Mickeys, riding Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain, California Screamin', Maliboomer and all the other rides until we were sick, and shopping, adding more to Disney's empire. Courtney figured that they take in over $100,000 a day just in parking.

In getting ready for D-land, as the fam calls the Kingdom of the Mouse, we traded Disney trivia (well, mostly Steven provided it for us), but I discovered there are dozens, if not hundreds, of blogs and websites devoted to to Mouse-dom. That got me thinking about the Disneyland cult. Clearly old Walt was on to something nearly 60 years ago when he conceived of a theme park in the middle of a bunch of orange groves 65 miles from LA. It seems a no-brainer now, but back then I'll bet the bankers thought he was crazy. It also got me thinking that we baby-boomers are the first Mickey generation. We had the Mickey Mouse Show, Annette and all the Mousketeers. When Disneyland opened in 1955, our parents were the ones who took their kids and made it what it is today. Hooray for the old folks.

Square Root Day

Today is Square Root Day (3/3/09), where the month and the day are each the square root of the last two digits of the year. The last square root day was February 2, 2004 (2/2/04) and the next one will be April 16, 2016 (4/4/16). In the last nine years, we've had three (10/10/00, 1/1/01, 2/2/04 and now 3/3/09). Now they start to spread out. I know, this is very left brain, tending to geekiness. But it got me thinking of how many more square root days I might have left and that was kind of sad. I doubt I'll see 7/7/49, because I would be closing in on the century mark by then. I hope to make 6/6/36. Put this way, in three months, I could be gone. Anyway, enough doom and gloom. 6/6/36 is still a long ways off. Enjoy square root day.

My son mentioned to me that coming up is Pi day (3.14). Way to go Steven.