Posted inWriting/Weblogs

I’ll accept the praise of my writing, even though it’s a bit over-the-top

I have to be honest. As much as I aspire to humility, in truth I really enjoy being praised. That was evident to me today when I read a comment on my Church of the Churchless blog by a regular reader of my posts, who calls himself Appreciative Reader. An apt name, since in the comment he praised my writing on the blog in a fashion that would have embarrassed me if I wasn't so much in agreement with this Noel Coward quote. I've shared the comment below. It means a lot to me, so I wanted to make it…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Ukraine aid bill passes in House. Bad news for Russia.

I'm happy for Ukraine. This embattled nation, which has been bravely fighting the unprovoked Russian invasion since February 24, 2022, has been waiting for more American aid for months due to dithering by House Republicans.  But today Ukraine had something to celebrate: $60 billion in aid. It took Democrats to get the aid bill across the House finishing line, first by supplying votes needed to have the bill move out of the Rules Committee, then by supplying votes needed to have the bill approved by the full House. The vote breakdown is a mark of shame for the 112 House…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Iran’s attack on Israel shows urgent need for military aid to Ukraine

It's time. Way past time, actually. For the good-for-almost-nothing House Republicans to show that they're not completely useless by finally getting off their GOP butts and passing the Senate bill that has much needed aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan this coming week. A lot of damage already has been done. Ukraine is running out of artillery shells, ammunition, air defense missiles, and other essential military gear needed to fend off the Russian invasion of their country. All because of Republicans. The GOP used to be the party that stood up to Russia and wanted the United States to defend…
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Posted inSports

I enjoyed women’s Final Four more than the men’s

It was a slogan for a cigarette brand, Virginia Slims, way back in 1968, but it still seems an appropriate way to describe the state of women's basketball in 2024: You've come a long way, baby. (OK, calling a woman "baby" may not be appropriate to some. However, that's part of how far women have come, both off and on a basketball court.) Yesterday I watched the women's NCAA championship game between Iowa and South Carolina. It was the most watched basketball game, men or women, college or pro, since 2019. For good reason. South Carolina was undefeated. Iowa had…
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Posted inHome life Scootering

Why I didn’t buy a Can-Am Spyder after my test drive

At the age of 75, I figured my motorcycle and scooter days were beyond me. After owning a little Honda 55 in high school, which I took to college, I got my motorcycle endorsement in my 40s, owned one for a year or so, then limited myself to cars until I bought a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter in 2009. I liked it a lot. Rode it for about three years. I might still be, except I succumbed to my wife's dislike of the maxi-scooter, since every time I rode it, she was convinced I was going to die riding it.…
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Posted inEntertainment Health

Woman in wheelchair brought tears as I watched So You Think You Can Dance

There's a lot of crap on television. There's also beautiful, unforgettable, highly emotional moments. That's why I watch. A single moment of that sort makes up for all the crap. My wife and I have watched every episode of every season of So You Think You Can Dance. The show took a hiatus during the covid years. It reappeared recently. So far this season has had a lot of memorable auditions, as the three judges select contestants for a Top Ten competition, if I recall the number correctly. (It's varied somewhat over different seasons.) The audition that has stuck in…
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Posted inGrowing older Health

If you’re wondering about my absence, the answer is: sciatica

There's lots of painful medical conditions. In my 75 years, I'm only become intimately acquainted with one of them: sciatica.  If you're unfamiliar with the term, I'm glad for you. Because sciatica pain, which for me is in my right leg, hip, and buttock areas, can range from mild to excruciating. I'm familiar with the whole range.  Injury or pressure on the sciatic nerve creates the pain of sciatica. So sciatica is a symptom of an underlying medical problem. However, that can be tough to figure out. Thus I tend to view sciatica as the problem, though I realize to…
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Posted inEntertainment

Masters of the Air — a moving series about the bravery of WWII aviators

Having just finished watching Apple TV's nine-part series, Masters of the Air, I can heartily recommend it to anyone who would enjoy a deeply moving portrayal of the American aviators who flew B-17 Flying Fortress bombers into Europe from bases in England during World War II. It's based on a book with the same name about the 100th Bomb Group. At the conclusion of the final episode, some of the main characters are shown along with photos of the real-life aviators, plus a description of where life took them after the war ended.  I found that highly emotional. Partly because…
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Posted inGrowing older Health

Health care workers, it’s the system that bothers me, not you

Way back when (to be more specific, the 1970s and 1980s), I was, in order of my career moves, a research associate in the Oregon Medical School Department of Family Practice, a manager with the State Health Planning and Development Agency, and the executive director of Oregon Health Decisions, a pioneering community-based bioethics effort. As I like to say, I must have done a terrific job, because now our state's health care system is running perfectly smoothly with no problems. Of course, that's a blatant falsehood. Oregon, along with the rest of the United States, has a disjointed health care…
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Posted inStarlink

Starlink Gen 3 pipe adapter is horrible. Here’s how mine got fixed.

I became a Starlink beta tester in January 2021. While this Space X satellite internet system was buggy in the beginning, it's gotten increasingly reliable. And the download/upload speeds are better also. At least, they are here in western Oregon. However, the pipe adapter that Starlink is selling to attach the Gen 3 (third generation) dish to a variety of mounts -- I'm using the Ridgeline Mount for my Gen 3 dish -- is, to put it bluntly, a piece of crap. It's hard to believe that Starlink let this poorly designed piece of equipment that replaces the fold-out legs…
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Posted inStarlink

I like my Starlink Gen 3 dish (even though it fell off the pipe adapter)

Here's a report on my installation of the Starlink Gen 3 dish, which I bought so our Gen 1 dish could serve as a backup. First, some background. This is how I started off a post about needing to have a blacksmith make me a pipe to fit in the poorly designed pipe adapter for the Gen 3 dish. I called the post, "A blacksmith made this for me to fit in screwy Starlink Gen 3 pipe adapter." I've been a happy Starlink customer since January 2021, when I reported on the installation of the first generation round dish that…
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Posted inStarlink

A blacksmith made this for me to fit in screwy Starlink Gen3 pipe adapter

I've been a happy Starlink customer since January 2021, when I reported on the installation of the first generation round dish that I was chosen to be a public beta tester for. I described my tale in "Our Starlink is working well on its Ridgeline Roof Mount." Since, that Gen1 dish has worked flawlessly, though Starlink has had its reliability ups and downs, with recent experience being much more on the upside, probably due to the much larger number of Starlink satellites in orbit now. But nothing lasts forever, and my wife and I are heavily dependent on the much…
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Posted inHealth Home life

Amazon Pharmacy just worked well for me

I'm a big fan of Amazon. Almost am ashamed to admit it, given how huge Amazon is and the many tales of how it screws over employees and businesses it doesn't want competing with its brand products. But there's no doubt that Amazon is amazingly efficient. I have Amazon Prime. My orders arrive promptly, sometimes the next day, with very few errors. It's just so damn easy to get stuff from Amazon instead of heading into town, a 20 minute drive away, and looking for something that may or may not be on a store shelf. Plus, I get a…
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Posted inEntertainment Television

I like to watch TV with subtitles on. Half of Americans agree with me.

My wife, Laurel, and I agree about most things. That's one reason we've been married for 33 years. But we differ when it comes to watching television with subtitles (a.k.a. closed captioning) on.  I enjoy subtitles considerably more than Laurel does. So when I'm watching on my own, I almost always turn subtitles on, especially with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. With sporting events and news programs, I usually leave subtitles off. Though I'm 75, firmly in the Baby Boomer generation, not being able to hear dialog isn't why I like subtitles. I can hear what actors are saying…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon needs to bury more power lines. But here’s why we won’t.

I have a friend who was born in Germany. She tells me that in Europe, almost all power lines are buried. She can't understand why here in Oregon, so many power lines are strung along wooden poles -- a "technology" dating from the 1800's when telegraph lines used the same approach. After every major disastrous weather event in our area, such as the high winds and freezing rain that caused massive problems in the Portland area recently, along with freezing rain that decimated the Eugene area, there's calls for our power companies (PGE and Pacific Power, mainly) to do a…
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Posted inSalem

Statesman Journal screws up Salem’s Tuesday ice storm forecast

I'm seeing a pattern here. Last Saturday I wrote a post, "Portland's Channel 12 gets Salem freezing rain annoyingly wrong." My gripe was that Channel 12's Mark Nelsen said that Salem and other parts of the central Willamette Valley easily could get an inch of freezing rain on Saturday, January 13. That, Nelson added, could produce widespread power outages on the magnitude of the Great Ice Storm of 2021.  Actually, the National Weather Service was forecasting much less freezing rain for the Salem area. That turned out to be correct, as there was little freezing rain in our area on…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Portland’s Channel 12 got Salem freezing rain annoyingly wrong

Being a weather geek of sorts, I'm well aware that forecasting is an uncertain science. It's about probabilities and models, not mathematical precision.  All I ask is that professional weather forecasters recognize when they can be wrong, and communicate that to the public as clearly as possible.  Which Mark Nelsen, the main KPTV weather guy at Portland's Channel 12, failed to do Friday night, the day before today's winter storm was to hit Oregon. This annoyed me. After all, on Thursday I'd written this blog post: "Among Saturday forecasts for snow and ice, I'm hoping the NWS is correct." It…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Among Saturday forecasts for snow and ice, I’m hoping the NWS is correct

I've been experiencing post-traumatic stress from our area's horrible Great Ice Storm of 2021. Our rural south Salem property had a huge amount of tree damage. I measured ice 5/8 of an inch thick.  Now snow and ice are being forecasted again for the Willamette Valley. Yikes!  I've been doomscrolling my iPhone's weather apps and the National Weather Service web site forecast for Salem (and our specific location near the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge).  I thought it'd be interesting to share those forecasts for next Saturday, January 13, which is when the bulk of snow and ice is supposed to hit…
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Posted inHome life

Our Generac whole house generator worked great on its first outage

Well, like many things in life, we got what we paid for. It cost us quite a bit to have a Generac generator installed at our rural south Salem house last March, as I described in "We get a Generac whole house generator after the ice storm trauma." The ice storm was in February 2021, so we didn't exactly jump into the Generac decision, since it took us two years to decide on a generator upgrade from our 7,000 watt Honda generator that was a lot better than nothing, yet not nearly as powerful and convenient as the 24,000 watt…
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Posted inEntertainment Television

Here’s how our (not so) wild New Year’s Eve went

If you think that your New Year's Eve was mild, not wild, in comparison to how others celebrated the last day of 2023, take heart: likely our night was just as unexciting. We did go out. To a neighbor's house. Which took a whole three minutes of driving. (They have a really long driveway out here in rural south Salem; otherwise it would have been quicker.) The get-together started at 6:30 pm. Most of the attendees were old, so there's no way we were going to party on until midnight.  After snacks and conversation, Pictionary took center stage. Laurel, my…
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