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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Posted inSalem

Photos of Salem Women’s March 2019

Here's photos I took today at this year's Salem Women's March. My wife is the "cover girl." (Or "cover woman," I hasten to add.) The 2019 Women's March was just as inspiring as the 2017 and 2018 marches. Lots of creative signs, which I feature in the photos.
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Posted inHome life

Damn you, GM. I wanted more plug-in hybrids, not none.

General Motors has announced that it won't be making any more plug-in hybrids. It has killed off the Chevy Volt as of March 2019. Our 2018 Chevy Volt My wife and I have owned (well, leased) three Chevy Volts, as described in these blog posts I wrote about them:  a 2012 model, a 2015 model (which our dog bought!), and a 2018 model.   So we're disappointed that General Motors is only going to have pure electric and pure gasoline cars/trucks -- no more plug-in hybrids. Here's an excerpt from a Green Car Reports story, "GM president dashes hope of…
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Posted inHealth Salem

Dr. Vinay Prasad zaps fellow physicians at provocative Salem City Club talk

"Maybe 40% of what doctors do is mistaken." That was one of the first of many OMG! zingers medical provocateur Vinay Prasad, MD MPH, flung at us at today's Salem City Club presentation, rather drily titled Evidence Based Medicine: Weighing the Evidence for Effective Health Care. But not one moment of his talk was boring. In fact, it was one of the most interesting and entertaining City Club talks I've experienced. And I've been to many of them. Prasad is a great speaker: funny, caustic, informed, blunt, spontaneous. I found what appears to be a very close version of his…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

2019 Salem Women’s March is January 19 on Capitol Mall

People of Salem and surrounding areas, here's my strong advice for what you should do from 11 am to 3 pm on Saturday, January 19. Attend the 2019 Salem Women's March on the Capitol Mall.  My wife was an organizer of the first 2017 Salem Women's March. We loved it.  In 2018 we went to the rather weirdly named Salem Womxn's March. We loved it also. (See below for the photo/video web pages I made of the events.) Here's how the 2019 Women's March is described on a Facebook event posting: The Third annual Women's March in Salem is scheduled.…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

I’m loving JournoPortfolio. It’s a writer’s dream.

I'm a long-time writer. Yesterday I easily fashioned a JournoPortfolio site to showcase a selection of my blog posts, the three books I've authored, and a few of the videos and photo essays that I've created.  Below is a screenshot of the top of the home page. Click on "Behold!" to, not surprisingly, behold my JournoPortfolio masterpiece. Behold! JournoPortfolio is a unique Internet animal. It's sort of a cross-fertilization between a blog and a web site. I've been blogging since 2003, and I've used several web site builders, so I understand how difficult it is to find the right balance…
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Posted inGrowing older Home life

Old photos make me realize life is way more complicated than photos show

Today, December 25, I decided to use my free time (since my wife and I no longer celebrate Christmas, or accept presents) by going through a box of photos that's been sitting on a shelf in a mostly unused closet for, I don't know, forever. Or close to it.  At first it was bittersweet to pull out old photos from the envelopes that contained prints and negatives, which, young'uns, was how people got what their camera had taken back in the distant days when rolls of film had to be developed. Having turned 70 a few months ago, it was…
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Posted inHome life

Today someone told me they are going to kill themselves

It's a first. And not a pleasant first. About three hours ago I got an email from someone I've never met, but who I've communicated with via email about topics on one of my blogs.  He said he's decided to kill himself. He told me that he wasn't sure why he was writing me, but he wanted to thank me for sharing his ideas and participating in some interesting discussions. Early on in our correspondence this person told me that he has a genetic condition that leaves him in constant pain. He told me that his illness is getting worse,…
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Posted inHome life Humor

Behold! Laurel and Brian’s 2018 Christmas Letter

Once again, we defy the trends of the times by writing a Christmas letter that -- gasp! -- gets printed out and inserted into Christmas cards that are -- double gasp! -- mailed. Well, that "we" really means me, Brian. But after I cobble together a letter, Laurel reads it and has the opportunity to change it. This year she said, "Should we really talk about our health problems?"  To which I replied, sure. The problems are as much a part of our life as is our joy at the Democrats taking back the House in the midterms, which is…
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Posted inLiving with a catheter

Men’s “locker room talk” not conducive to openness about health problems

I had my annual physical today, Medicare variety, since I'm 70. I'm fortunate to have a family physician who is caring, compassionate, and willing to talk with me for as long as is necessary when I have a concern or question. Oh, the physician is also a woman. Which almost goes without saying from the description I just offered up. I'm not saying that male doctors always are businesslike and brusque. But most of the physicians of my sex I've gone to have been quite a bit less pleasant than my current family doctor. She and I talked about my…
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Posted inSalem

South Salem grocery store shopping carts rated

First off, please resist the temptation to think, This blogger guy has too much time on his hands. That thought denigrates the important subject of this post -- how I feel about the shopping carts at three stores in south Salem (Oregon version, not to be confused with the copycat Salem in Massachusetts; sure, the Massachusetts Salem came first historically, but we Oregonians consider ourselves superior to every other state because... well, just because). Yes, there are more important issues in the world. But I'm the designated weekly grocery shopper in our two-person household, our dog being incapable, or unwilling,…
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Posted inArcimoto

Arcimoto’s current financial situation: facts and my opinion

I'm an early Arcimoto backer with an early pre-order reservation number of #129. There's a lot that I like about the company's effort to design, manufacture, and sell an innovative electric three-wheeled motorcycle, which they call a FUV (Fun Utility Vehicle). But there's also a lot to be wary about. Notably, initial purchasers of the FUV have to make a bet on two things: (1) the quality of the final design of the FUV that will be used in retail sales (the design isn't finalized yet), and (2) the ability of Arcimoto, a start-up company, to stay in business through…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Weekly closes down. Sad day for our town.

Today, being a subscriber to Salem Weekly, I got a letter from our alternative newspaper that said the paper is being closed down, effectively immediately. I'll share my thoughts about this following the letter. Download Salem Weekly letter I feel a sense of loss, yet also thankfulness. A.P. Walther, who I assume wrote this letter, has been the tireless force that's kept Salem Weekly up and running since its birth in April 2003 as a monthly. Wikipedia describes the origins of the paper. I remember with fondness the Coffee House Cafe, a marvelously funky and welcoming place. The Salem Monthly traces…
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Posted inHealth

Shingrix gave my wife and I bad side effects. Still way better than shingles, though.

Getting shingles isn't fun, to put it mildly.  Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a painful skin rash caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus (the same virus that causes chickenpox). ...Generally, people only develop shingles once, although it is possible to get shingles more than once. Shingles may lead to long-term complications such as debilitating pain that lasts for months or even years. In rare cases, serious, long-term eye or hearing issues can occur. My wife, Laurel, and I are 69 and 70, respectively. We'd gotten the original Shingles vaccine, Zostavax, but we wanted to get the new and…
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Posted inHealth

City Club talk about opioids both enlightening and disturbing

We're all addicted to something. Coffee. Video games. TV. Golf. Travel. Whatever. But usually our addictions aren't so intense as to wreck our lives. And rarely are they fatal. Opioids, though, are both addictive and highly dangerous. They can do good, when used correctly. They also do a lot of harm, when used incorrectly. Last Friday a Salem City Club talk, "The Opioid Epidemic: How We Got Here and the Way Forward," both fascinated me with facts I hadn't been aware of before, and depressed me with fairly familiar statistics about how opioids are ravaging our country.  Coelho and Holton…
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