Posted inHome life

Toyota’s special order process for cars is irritating

Don't get me wrong -- I love Toyota cars. But I'm not loving what's happened since February 5 of this year, when my wife and I thought we were putting in a special order for a 2019 RAV4 Hybrid in Limited Trim -- Blizzard Pearl color with black interior, plus several option packages. Based on my experience with special ordering several other cars fairly recently, a Mini Cooper S and a Chevy Volt, I expected that after we told a salesman at Capitol Toyota here in Salem, Oregon exactly what we wanted in a 2019 RAV4 Hybrid, that information would…
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Posted inSalem

Express yourself! City Club talk on Salem art scene was inspiring.

I'll begin with the end. Of talks by two art-encouragers here in Salem, Sandra Burnett of the Salem Art Association and Carlee Wright, producer of Press Play Salem.  After listening to Burnett and Wright speak yesterday at a Salem City Club meeting on "The Crucial Role of the Arts in Our Community," I got to ask a question. It went something like this. Carlee, I heard you say "express yourselves." As someone who writes almost every day, I know that I feel better when what is inside me is expressed to the outside world, and I then get responses from…
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Posted inHome life

Open letter to the robin pecking on my GTI’s mirrors

Dear Mr. or Ms. Robin (likely Mr.), I'm sorry to address you in such an impersonal manner, but I don't know your name. Also, I don't know if you're able to read blog posts. If not, I sympathize, because we live in a rural area with crappy slow-speed DSL "broadband" (not!) for us humans, so I can only imagine how poor Internet access is for you birds. Regardless, I wanted to thank you for your dedication in bringing some challenges, along with bird poop, to my generally serene retired existence. You are not the first robin to come into the…
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Posted inSalem

First day report on Salem’s plastic bag ban: I not only survived, I thrived!

Monday is my habitual weekly grocery shopping day, this being my role in our marriage. Today, April 1, coincided with the first day of Salem's ban on plastic bags at large retailers.  Which didn't affect me at all, given that I carry around six Trader Joe's reusable bags in my car, typically bringing two bags into each of my trifecta grocery shopping destinations: Trader Joe's, Fred Meyer on south Commercial, and Lifesource Natural Foods. Naturally, when the checkout person at Trader Joe's asked me how my day was going, I said "It's exciting to be here on the first day…
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Posted inMarijuana

Bill Maher’s criticism of the PAX3 vaporizer was misplaced

I love Bill Maher and his Real Time show, which always ends with "New Rules." But the March 22 show missed the mark when Maher criticized the newest version of the marvelous PAX vaporizer -- which in my highly (so to speak) informed opinion is the best way to imbibe marijuana.  (Note: I live in Oregon, where pot is legal, so don't bother notifying the police about my nefarious behavior.) In the video below you can see that Maher claims that the new version of the PAX doesn't include a raised mouthpiece. Well, actually it does. Here's the photographic proof.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

City Club talk about Oregon demographics and 2020 Census pleasingly factual

We live in an age of opinionating. For example, this afternoon the Mueller report was released to the Attorney General. Now there's a frenzy of speculation about what is in the report, how much of it will be released to the public, what the political impact will be, and so on. So it was pleasant to attend a Salem City Club talk today by demographer Charles Rynerson, a Research Associate with the Population Research Center at Portland State University (my graduate school alma mater): "Oregon Demographic Trends and the 2020 Census." Rynerson was low-key, highly competent, and almost entirely factual.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Home life

Trump’s tariff threat on foreign cars irks VW GTI loving me

Just when I think I can't get more irritated at Donald Trump, our (hopefully) one-term president does something that causes my Irritation Index to jump to a new high. In this case -- imposing a tariff on imported cars that could reach 25% -- it's a threatened something that's raising my ire. But given Trump's oft-stated love of tariffs, even when they're a spectacularly bad idea, it sure seems like there's a good chance he'll go ahead with an imported car tariff.  At my age, 70, obviously I've owned a lot of different cars. More have been foreign than domestic.…
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Posted inHealth

My fourth colonoscopy goes smoothly at Salem Gastro

First off, I just noticed the appealing slogan on the Salem Gastro web site: "What matters is what's inside." Nice mixture of philosophy and double entendre.  The colonoscopy I had last month at the hands of Dr. Richard Brandes wasn't exactly appealing, but it went about as smoothly as possible. This was my fourth colonoscopy. Well, fifth, counting a virtual (CT) colonoscopy I had in 2006. In retrospect, that probably wasn't a great idea, since if a suspicious polyp had been found (maybe all polyps are suspicious), I would have needed to undergo a regular colonoscopy. But at the time…
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Posted inHome life

I’m a big fan of winter tires. Here’s why.

I've had winter tires on quite a few of the cars my wife and I have owned over the years. They make a lot of sense, even here in western Oregon where sometimes it never snows all winter.  I can't recall exactly what led me to start putting winter tires on in mid-November and off in mid-March, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with an experience I had driving our Volvo 850 station wagon to a cabin in Camp Sherman, Oregon that we were part owners of. I'd just pulled off the main highway that leads to…
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Posted inBooks Plotinus

My “Return to the One” book gets a pleasing recommendation

I don't often plug my book about Plotinus, the 3nd century Greek Neoplatonist philosopher and mystic. Return to the One continues to have slow but steady sales, with good reader reviews on Amazon.  Recently, though, my book got a pleasing recommendation from Christine McGinley, who founded a small book publishing company called Gleam of Light Press. Here's the email message I got from her. Dear Brian,  We want to let you know that the launch of Gleam of Light’s “Other Great Finds” is now up on the website: https://www.gleamoflightpress.com/ and we are pleased and proud to have Return to the…
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Posted inHome life

If you have slower broadband than 6.25 Mbps, let me know

Misery likes company, as the saying goes. So if you have a "broadband" Internet download connection that's slower than my crappy 6.25 Mbps, leave a comment on this post.  My wife and I live five miles from the city limits of Salem, the freaking capital city of Oregon. But I have little doubt that people living in Outer Mongolia have a faster Internet connection than we do, since our DSL comes courtesy of the same copper wire that probably was used by the first telephones. I'm especially irritated at the moment because I made the mistake of joking with some…
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Posted inArcimoto

Why I’m not buying one of the first 100 Arcimoto FUVs

My Arcimoto pre-order number of #129 shows that I've been following the ups and downs of the company for many years. Recently Arcimoto sent me an email with an enticing image of the Evergreen Edition FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle) that's being offered for sale to 100 people with low numbers on the pre-order list who live in Oregon, Washington, and California. (I live in Salem, Oregon.) But I've decided to pass on plunking down a $5,000 deposit on the $19,900 Evergreen Edition, with delivery promised by June 2019. Here's my reasons, roughly ranging from most important to least important.  (1)…
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Posted inHealth Salem

Youth mental health focus of gripping City Club program

In retrospect, I was crazy to consider not going to today's Salem City Club program, "Oregon Youth: Crisis in Mental Health." Fortunately I had the good sense to attend the meeting and hear two people from Liberty House, a child abuse assessment center, plus a South Salem High School counselor.  I'll end this blog post by talking about my own long-ago mental health problems in my high school years. First, though, here's some of what I remember from the presentations by Alison Kelley, CEO of Liberty House; Neda Grant, program manager of Liberty House's Hope and Wellness services; and Ryan…
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Posted inEntertainment Philosophy

Netflix, like life, works in mysterious ways

I've used psychedelics, meditation, and philosophy to understand the mystery of the cosmos -- with decidedly mixed success. But now that I've reached what feels like the astoundingly old age of 70, I'm pleased to find wisdom any way it appears to me. Such as, through the unexpected workings of Netflix. Which led me yesterday to a better appreciation of what is really important in life. My mini-enlightenment began when I noticed that "A Star is Born" was available in our Netflix DVD queue as of February 20. So I elevated it to next in line and mailed back the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

The totality of one’s life is what counts, not a few screwups

Shock! I totally agree with a piece by Bret Stevens, the New York Times columnist who usually tilts too far rightward for my progressive taste.  But "Why Ralph Northam Should Not Resign" is absolutely correct in its condemnation of judging people by a few missteps that they've made, rather than the totality of the path they've taken in life.  Stevens notes that almost all of us have done things that, in retrospect, make us cringe. Here's some personal examples from the high school period of my 70-year-old life. I want to note that my behavior was shared by most of…
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Posted inHome life

Consumer Reports needs to investigate itself after subscription “glitch”

I'm a big fan of Consumer Reports. I've been a subscriber to their magazine for as long as I can remember. And in recent years I've been an "All Access" subscriber so I could also peruse their digital information via ConsumerReports.org But today Consumer Reports screwed up by sending me, and who knows how many other subscribers, a false email message saying that I'd changed my membership from All Access to Digital -- which meant I wouldn't be getting the magazine anymore. When I read the message (shown above), I was perplexed. I was almost completely sure that I hadn't…
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Posted inHome life

Subaru Forester or Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, that is our question

I'm an automobile aficionado. I love reading car reviews and pouring over comparative specs. But at the moment I'm (almost) overdosing on a question my wife and I are pondering: Which vehicle would best meet our needs, wants, and desires? A 2019 Subaru Forester or a 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid?  We know we want a smaller SUV to replace our semi-beloved 2014 Toyota Highlander. I say "semi," because we now are a three-car family, with Laurel mostly driving her truly-beloved Chevy Volt, and me mostly driving my truly-beloved VW GTI. Both of those cars are much more pleasant to drive…
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Posted inSalem

LifeSource Natural Foods has a great response to my blog post

I really appreciate the prompt response from LifeSource staff after I sent them a link to the blog post I wrote yesterday, "I love LifeSource but recent changes are disappointing."  Matt Trickey, the bulk department manager, emailed me this morning with some insights into the challenges that LifeSource Natural Foods faces -- along with most other locally owned stores in Salem.  I feel considerably more sympathetic to LifeSource now. It isn't that what Matt said is totally new news to me. I just hadn't fully understood how difficult it is for LifeSource to compete against grocery stores that are jumping…
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Posted inFood and drink Salem

I love LifeSource, but recent changes are disappointing

This is a "tough love" blog post, because I've shopped a lot at LifeSource Natural Foods ever since it opened way back when. Three or four times a week I go there. But changes LifeSource has been making cause me and my wife to be a bit less satisfied with the store. I readily admit that those changes probably are profitable for LifeSource. However, they go against the grain of my longtime vegetarianism -- which began about 50 years ago while I was in college. (Along with other students of a crazed Greek yoga teacher, we started the second health…
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Posted inDogs

Yikes. Our dog is becoming more catlike. Not good.

Fortunately, we live out in the country. Thus only a few people would have wondered why we spent well over half an hour yesterday screaming "ZuZu, come!" into increasing darkness.  However, the bad news is that some of those few people are cat lovers, and our dog's name is ZuZu, so they might have been listening smugly, thinking, "I'm glad we don't have a disobedient dog." What perplexed us was that until recently ZuZu didn't behave weirdly. Basically she was a normal dog. I mean, look at that sweet face. Could this canine drive her owners into, not quite madness,…
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