First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

James Knudsen, in the garden

You're probably thinking, “enough with the bugs already!” But, this fellow... fella, I suspect it's a she, charmed me. She has made her home in the patch of mint off the back porch that has been there since my youth. And if you're wondering about the orientation of the picture, that's how I snapped it. Praying mantis' seem to enjoy hanging around upside down. They really do move in a three-dimensional way, forward/back, right/left, up/down. At some point this mantis decided, via her well-developed, binocular, stereoscopic vision, that I was nothing to be concerned about and started cleaning her forelimbs. That's what the camera has captured here.

    Now, someday, it is my dream to observe one of these master predators capturing its prey. But I hope it's not one of these. Maybe it's a sign of global warming, but I have never seen this species of butterfly before. Anyone out there recognize it?

    Fall does seem to be on the horizon. And suddenly I realize that I've never written a Fourth Saturday piece about football. Like how many decades it's been since my Miami Dolphins won a Super Bowl! I must go shape young minds now. May your September be all septs.

André Duvall, in the Ozarks

Early last month I visited the Ozark Mountain region of Arkansas. In addition to spending time in the historic downtown of Eureka Springs, I decided to find a hiking trail that I had not yet explored. I selected the Lost Valley trail, between Arkansas Scenic Highways 21 and 7 near the Buffalo National River in Newton County. Nestled between a large slope on the west and towering bluffs on the east, this trail is now one of my favorites in the state. There is ample shade for the entire length of this heavily forested trek, making it an ideal choice if you are wanting to avoid the sun in the hottest days of Arkansas summer. The sunlight passing through the translucent canopy of tree leaves created an especially beautiful and memorable visual display, perhaps because the land rose gently on the west side, allowing me to see green light pouring from a very high angle on the sides of the trail.
    Awaiting hikers at the end of the trail is Eden Falls. Because it had not rained in the last several days, the waterfall was not flowing at full force, as pictured below. However, the light trickling of water had its own special appeal. The area around the waterfall and the pond below it was mostly in the shade, but sunlight poured into a small circular area where the sprinkles from the waterfall bounce off the rocks, gleaming like diamonds. The reduced amount of water also allowed me to see the luscious moss growing in the shady part of the waterfall. The moss is obscured by water when the falls are flowing at full force.

    Beyond the falls, Eden Cave awaits those who are willing to stoop down and venture into the darkness with a flashlight (or two). The mouth of the cave is located near the top of the waterfall. Within a few feet of entering the cave, the refreshing breeze of what felt like an outdoor air-conditioner greeted me, accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature before I was even completely inside. The cave eventually opens up into a large room containing another waterfall, which cannot be seen without a flashlight.
    In addition to Eden Cave, whose tour is unguided, I took a guided tour of Mystic Caverns, located on Highway 7 near Marble Falls. It is always incredible to think in cave years when viewing the natural artistry of cave formations: the "young" stalactites the width of soda straws are 500 years old on average, and the much larger formations took thousand of years to form. They are extremely fragile, easily broken by someone's trying to snap them (something that happened regularly by the cave's first explorers, who sold the calcite deposits), and their growth is easily stopped by the oils of human hands.

Kyle Garza, in curricula

I've begun my fourth year teaching. This time around it will be 8th grade English, middle school debate, and something we call "Academic Tech," which is essentially a course on how to survive in school with technology competence required of you.
    I've also begun my readings for my two fall courses towards my MA: a Philosophy of Religion course and a Medieval Culture and Philosophy course. I've been reading Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. I never knew what Cartesian philosophy was before these readings. Soon I'll be thumbing through Pascal and Nietzsche too. This semester will be great because I'll finally be able to say not "I've heard of him" but "I've read him!"

Geoffrey Dean, in Salt Lake City

For the past month I have been living for the first time in Salt Lake City and learning more about this part of the country. Our apartment is near the Utah Capitol Building in the north of the city, in the Marmalade District, where Apricot and Quince streets (and maybe some others) are named after the imported fruit trees that early residents planted.
    Last week I solved the mystery of the carillon music that I was hearing, emanating from somewhere nearby, every weekday at 8am. It turns out the carillon is in the Capitol Building, but is automated rather than played by an actual carillonneur such as SLC resident Joey Brink, a recent Yale graduate and an active carillon recitalist who has played the grand carillon of St. Rombouts in Mechelen, Belgium, the birthplace of this instrument.

    I’ve also slowly figured out the logic of the way SLC’s streets are numbered, emanating (sorry, had to use this word again) from Temple Square. Apparently this particular application of the grid system was Joseph Smith’s idea, implemented by Brigham Young. At first I assumed that the Smith’s grocery store chain, the local equivalent of Kroger’s, and Smith’s Ballpark, home of the SLC Bees, were also named after Joseph Smith, but no, that one is Dee Smith.
    Bees and beehives are big here because “deseret,” the word for honeybee found in the Book of Mormon, was the name for the huge state that Young tried to have approved by Congress in 1849, when California also applied for statehood. US president Zachary Taylor’s counterproposal would have combined UT and CA into an even huger territory! Even after the Utah territory was ratified by Congress, attempts continued to establish a state of Deseret, but the native American name Utah stuck when the territory was granted statehood in 1896.

Jim Rix, in search of Eros

My research project, ErosMe, detailed in my article for "Thirst Satyrday for Eros” this coming Saturday will, with your help, get to the bottom of a very important erotic issue with deep undertones. I was blown away by Cherry Bang and her enthusiastic willingness to participate in my research.

Ralph Earle, remembering aboard ship

The First Girl I Ever Kissed

We met in a dark bar drinking Grasshoppers
or was it Brandy Alexanders, bound for Europe
on the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam. She said she wanted me
but I wasn’t sure. Your mother kisses you.
Some day, your wife does.

A few nights later, I was sitting in the bow
trying to make time with her older friend.
During the day, tired of pretending to be eighteen,
we commanded a game room nook whose jukebox
moaned “Be My Baby” and “Mountain of Love.”

Everyone was on vacation.
One night I started climbing bulkheads
for a better view. Halfway up
the radar mast, I watched fickle
moonlight stipple the slick ocean.

Tom Lowe, behind last photo

The spire in the photograph below sat atop the offices of the Presbytery of San Francisco before the building was torn down for apartments – which violate the area's zoning: three stories higher than anything else in the block!

Last Sunset 

Chuck Smythe, off for a backpack

My wife’s arm has almost healed. Life is getting much simpler.
    Long ago I rode the train shown in the video below down from a backpack in Arthur’s Pass. It was raining two inches an hour, and had been for four days. Those were the days....And I’m off for a backpack in the Madison Range. With rain, no doubt. And grizz.

The Midyetts, back in Bunbury

Well, after three years wandering around the country, Shirley and I are finally back in Bunbury. We reached Busselton, 52 km south of Bunbury, about August 20, and stayed there for a few days while we talked with my sister, Anita, about where we would stay until the house we had been going to stay in becomes available. Anita said we could stay at her place, so we planned to drive on to Bunbury one day last week, but the forecast for heavy rain prompted us to go a day earlier. The sunshine was beautiful that day.
    So...now we are settled at Anita's, with our caravan parked in her front yard, at a bit of an angle, but I maneuvered it onto a relatively level spot that will suffice. We are staying in her spare room, constructed of tile and brick..

The house we left three years ago is an example of a brick & tile home

    There sure is a lot of room in a house! Our world isn't 20 feet long anymore. It's weird having to walk so far to get to a door going outside!

The Rogers, back in Costa Rica

We were in the US for 5 weeks. So part of August was spent lying around my daughter’s swimming pool. For any of you that have taken off on vacation for more than two weeks, you know that upon your return you find nothing got done while you were away – you walk in and there it is just as you left it. So I've been playing catch up.
    August 15 was Mother’s Day here in CR. We went up on the hill and had a cook out with all the Mothers. It is a holiday here and schools, banks and so on are closed.

Paul Clark, aka motomynd, still vending from Eclectic World

The knife shown in August's "First Monday" column was made somewhere between the years 1200 and 1900, but no one can tell for sure when, so it is hard to sell for any real value. The problem is that most knives like that have been made by the same families since the time of Genghis Khan, and they make them today using almost exactly the same techniques and materials they used 800 years ago. In some cases they are actually using the same tools that have been in the family for several hundred years. A few years ago you could stop just about anywhere in Mongolia and buy all you wanted for 20 bucks each. And even now a silly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure from 1988 will sell for more than such a knife. Go figure.

Jill Auditori, working for downtown Mebane

We won’t fly you to the moon, but we will take you on a trip around the world in 180 minutes! You don’t even have to pack a bag to visit the 16 countries that will be represented by Destination Downtown Mebane businesses on September 4th. The first 150 visitors will receive a souvenir passport that will direct you to the participating locations. So please join us and experience foreign refreshments, music, decor, and languages for the evening! FMI downtownmebane.com.

Sharon Stoner, in swimming weather

Finally Jacksonville received some nice hot weather. 90° to 100° but apparently I'm the only one who loves the heat. Unfortunately, today the temperature dropped to 85° with cool breezes all day.
    Yes, it is a lovely day. No humidity, but no direct sun, and I am continually removing leaves from the pool.

    Oh, the hard life of a retired person who can do whatever they want whenever they want!
    Oh yeah, that's me.

Siegfried, recovered
    Siegfried is happy to be allowed to go into the yard unsupervised again, free to run and cavort and mess about. And we're happy for him. Unfortunately, before that freedom was recommended by his doctor, he contracted a severe urinary tract infection, for which a 14-day course of antibiotics was prescribed, along with the instructions to try to get Siegfried to drink more water, or more often, and to go pee every two hours (except over night). Because he was still on the leash, the instructions called on us to go out with him more often too. We, of course, were glad to do it. After two weeks, his urine tested 100% free of blood and pathogens. 'Sbeen a rough mid-year for Siegfried!

Morris Dean, off caffeine (virtually)
    I conferred with my doctor about my heart palpitations reported last month. The report sent her by the company that provides the 2-week heart monitors was quite detailed and identified my palpitations as symptoms of supraventricular tachycardia – "a rapid heart rhythm originating at or above the atrioventricular node." The report identified all of the irregularities over the 13-day period I was monitored. The episodes were barely more than the five or six I noticed and made a note of in their diary, and only one was lengthy - going on for about five seconds at a rate of about 160 beats per minute.
    My doctor seems to have been right in letting me know exactly four weeks earlier (by way of a telephone call from her nurse) that I should stop drinking stimulants, such as coffee (that hasn't been decaffeinated). I resisted that for almost two weeks, but only because I wasn't given sufficient information on the phone. As a possible result, during that period I noticed a significant increase in the number of incidents I was observing - even several on the same day for several days. So, about two weeks after the nurse called me, I started making only one cup of coffee (in the French press we use), for my wife, and, on the first two days I even poured out the extra coffee. On the third day, however, and ever since, I started having the extra swallow or two (sometimes three) "for my morale." The result seems to confirm, if only circumstantially, that the caffeine stimulation may indeed have been the main (or at least a significant) contributor, for I have had very few "incidents" subsequently. Fortunately, I didn't have any "withdrawal symptoms" from virtually stopping drinking coffee. No headaches or anything like that.
    Of course, tea and chocolate and colas also contain caffeine. And my doctor reiterated that insufficient sleep can also provoke the body into producing the stimulant adrenaline.

    She also gave me a printout titled, "Supraventricular Tachycardia: After Your Visit - Your Care Instructions." Of special interest to me is the statement that "your doctor may suggest that you try vagal maneuvers." She didn't suggest this, but my wife was curious what "vagal maneuvers" were. They are actions intended to slow the heart rate and to convert to sinus [normal] rhythm. "Vagal" refers to the vagus nerve, which can be involved when you're straining to have a bowel movement and as a result begin to feel light-headed – something I occasionally experience. Vagal maneuvers include: holding your breath, bearing down as though having a bowel movement [see above], or attempting exhalation against a closed airway (the "Valsalva maneuver" – usually done by closing one's mouth and pinching one's nose shut while pressing out as if blowing up a balloon). Somehow, I hope I don't have another long-lasting palpitation indicating that I maybe should try this.
    My doctor kindly agreed to an interview for "Ask Wednesday" ["Whitman Reardon, MD on medical doctoring," November 21, 2012].

My wife baked me a blueberry pie.

Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean