January 2021
Books read:
- White Noise by Don DeLillo
- Looking for Alaska by John Green
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money by Jill Schlesinger
Trails walked:
- St. Vrain Greenway west in Longmont (January 5th)
- Button Rock Preserve near Lyons (January 12th)
- St. Vrain Greenway east in Longmont (January 20th)
- Ouzel Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park (January 28th)
Song of the month:
It Ain’t Over Yet by Rodney Crowell (with Rosanne Cash and John Paul White)
Scientist Spotlight:
Edward Jenner
January
Summary: Welcome to 2021! Our Republic survived another
transfer of power this month….barely.
And our marriage has survived a transfer of all of our belongings from
the desert to the mountains.
If you’ve read this blog on a regular basis you know that I am not optimistic about the future of our country. Nothing this month has changed that. Not even a new government that promises to make positive changes to actually address the pandemic and climate change (although that poem by the young woman Amanda Gorman at the inauguration.....people like her give me hope). The basic problem that we have now is that there are two separate truths, the red truth and the blue truth (this differs from the age-old disagreements between conservatives and progressives which were resolved via compromise). Each tribal member only consumes media that supports their truth. I read about a study recently that showed if a conservative policy was introduced by a Democrat, then it was viewed more favorably by Progressives than by Conservatives. Conversely, if a progressive policy was introduced by a Republican, then it was viewed more favorably by Conservatives than by Progressives. Tribal indeed.
Although the pandemic is the current short-term issue that must be dealt with, climate change is the most important issue of our time (my opinion, based only on science). But because there are two different truths, it's difficult to imagine that enough will be done. But there is one truth that should be undeniable; and that is scientific truth. Science that is thoughtful and peer reviewed and generally accepted in the scientific community SHOULD be regarded as the truth, right? Right!? That used to be the case…it’s how we got the Ozone hole fixed with the Montreal Protocol during the Reagan administration. It’s why the Nixon administration started the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 70s. But those were both before Fox News (and arguably MSNBC) started the war for our political souls in the mid-90s. That war has gone nuclear now with social media feeding each tribe the information that confirms its views 24x7. This war has only served to drive us further apart and turn the truth into something that is no longer accepted as universal. And, by the way, turned families and friends against one another. I refuse to submit to this war. I refuse to make my “tribe” more important than my family and friends. Queue the scene from the great movie Network..."I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"
I’ve studied the science of climate change. It must be addressed quickly and dramatically, but it won’t until the majority of our politicians (and their constituents) understand and believe in its importance. And based on the study I referenced above, it's going to take influential Republican politicians to really create the change that is required. It’s why I’m involved with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a bipartisan organization trying to create the political will to address this issue. It's my way to do something positive about it and to create some hope. I have a one-year-old grandson who was born into the world of Covid-19 and I want to do my best to be sure that his future is bright. Who doesn't want a better future for their kids and grandkids? A great resource for studying the issue and debunking the misinformation that abounds can be found here if you’re interested: https://skepticalscience.com/
This month I was able to get out on four Colorado hikes, two
of them in my new city of Longmont and two in the nearby mountains (although I enjoy my now mostly solo hikes, I really miss my Hiking Buddy). I’ve also managed to read three “mystery” novels
and a nonfiction book on financial planning (which is pretty much a mystery to
me). Enjoy!
Exactly how I got here is hard to explain
My heart's in the right place, what's left of it I guess
My heart ain't the problem, it's my mind that's a total mess
With these rickety old legs and watery eyes
It's hard to believe that I could pass for anybody's prize
Jenner died from a stroke at the age of 73….no irony here of
his dying from smallpox thankfully.
White Noise is set in an unnamed midwestern university town
and tells the story of Jack Gladney, a professor of “Hitler Studies” at the
university. Jack is on his 5th marriage and lives with his current wife and a variety of kids from each of
their previous marriages. The novel touches
on various themes like American consumerism, conspiracy theories, the
disintegration of the family, human-made disasters, and the media’s impact on
society. And it also satirizes the
university academic idea of specialization, like offering majors in Hitler
studies, Elvis Presley, and Car Crashes in Film.
Rather than spending the first part of the book setting up the plot, DeLillo spends that time setting up the characters. And there are many interesting ones, including his children and stepchildren. He has a professor friend who studies human culture by frequenting the local grocery store and city parks. A chemical spill from a train wreck takes up most of the middle third of the book where the fear of death comes up as a theme, especially between Jack and his current wife (each of them with a fear of dying before their spouse). The last third of the story deals with this fear of death and a mysterious experimental drug called Dylar which interacts with the brain to remove one’s fear of death. Both Jack and Babette go through extreme measures to get their hands on this drug, while their 12-year-old investigates their strange behavior as she narrows in on what’s going on.
But it’s the phrasing and writing that I enjoyed the
most. Some lines from the book:
The kitchen and the bedroom are the major chambers around
here, the power haunts, the sources. She
and I are alike in this, that we regard the rest of the house as storage space
for furniture, toys, all the unused objects of earlier marriages and different
sets of children, the gifts of lost in-laws, the hand-me-downs and rummages.
Things, boxes.
I like simple men and complicated women.
He is trying to develop a vulnerability that women will find
attractive. He works at it consciously,
like a man in a gym with weights and a mirror.
I put on my robe and went downstairs. I was always putting on a bathrobe and going
somewhere to talk seriously to a child.
He’d once told me that the art of getting ahead in New York
was based on learning how to express dissatisfaction in an interesting way. People had no tolerance for your particular
hardship unless you knew how to entertain them with it.
Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.
Suleiman the Magnificent made it to seventy-six. That sounds all right, especially the way I
feel now, but how will it sound when I’m seventy-three?
These things happen to poor people who live in exposed areas. Society is set up in such a way that it’s the poor and the uneducated who suffer the main impact of natural and man-made disasters. People in low-lying areas get the floods, people in shanties get the hurricanes and tornados.
Watching children sleep makes me feel devout, part of a
spiritual system. It is the closest I can
come to God.
The old people shopped in a panic. When TV didn’t fill them with rage, it scared
them half to death.
It occurred to me that eating is the only form of
professionalism most people ever attain.
What kind of name is Orest? I studied his features. He might have been Hispanic, Middle Eastern,
Central Asian, a dark-skinned Eastern European, a light-skinned black. Did he have an accent? I wasn’t sure. Was he a Samoan, a native North American, a Sephardic
Jew? It was getting hard to know what
you couldn’t say to people.
When he emerged, I held his arm just above the elbow and we
walked across campus like a pair of European senior citizens, heads bowed in
conversation.
He had the look of a ladies’ man in the crash-dive of his
career.
The ash on his cigarette was an inch long, beginning to
lean. It was a habit of his, letting the
ash dangle. Babette thought he did it to
induce feelings of suspense and anxiety in others. It was part of the reckless weather in which
he moved.
Anyway, I digress.
The city also provides lots of outdoor recreational opportunities and
according to their website, the crown jewel hiking trail in town is the St.
Vrain Greenway. It meanders for 8 miles
through the city, connecting lakes, parks, and other trails. It goes under busy streets so no worries
about traffic. I walked only the western
portion of the trail because there is a detour currently around a section that
is being improved after a devastating flood in 2013 (they’ve been repairing the
trail one section at time since the flood).
I started on the western edge at
Golden Ponds….so yes, I was ‘On Golden Pond’ this day. I didn’t spot any loons but saw lots of ducks
and geese, had a face-to-face encounter with a great blue heron munching on a
fish, and saw a couple of bald eagles in flight. Along
the trail were great views of the mountains and some public art pieces. Not all the views were pristine as the trail
takes you past some industrial sections of town. The temperature on this winter day was in the
50s and partly cloudy, perfect hiking weather.
There were a few folks walking, running, and biking the trail but I had
it mostly to myself on this weekday. One
interesting thing I saw along the trail were bike maintenance stations that had
tools and air pumps in case bikers needed a tune up! Nice touch.
The trail construction ended my exploration for today, but
the closure is right next to a brewery so I made a note to myself that a fun day would be to walk the 2.5 miles from Golden Ponds to the
brewery, have a beer or two, then walk back.
Next time….
Overall a nice walk and good introduction to my new
hometown.
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| Golden Ponds is the western terminus of the St. Vrain Greenway |
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| Lots of nice trail art along the path |
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| More bluish than golden... |
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| Nice benches along the way with views |
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| Obligatory "dead" tree shot |
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| St. Vrain River Falls near Golden Ponds |
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| Great Blue Heron munching on a fish by the falls |
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| Lots of honking along the trail.... |
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| Bike maintenance stations along the path |
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| One of several small lakes along the greenway |
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| Trail art |
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| Rail fence perspective shot |
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| Trail art |
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| Sign describing the recovery from the 2013 flood |
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| Duck! |
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| Trail art |
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| Some industrial sights along the way |
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| Left Hand Brewery where the path is closed for repairs |
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| Canada Geese hanging out on the partially frozen lake |
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| River bend or island lake? |
Looking for Alaska won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from
the American Library Association for best young adult novel. Life as a teen seems so expansive and
imminent. It seems to me that we all
still have very strong memories of our teen years (good and bad). Our brains were still forming, our hormones
were raging, our parents didn’t understand us, and friendships and
relationships seemed like they were formed in battle with life and death
consequences. John Green, at the age of
24 captured this so well in the novel. It’s
partially based on his own life; he went to a boarding school for his high
school years and evidently many of the events in the book actually occurred during
his years there. The book was also
banned in some public-school systems for its portrayal of sex, drugs, and
alcohol by teens (evidently these public school systems believe that teens
never engage in these activities).
The story is separated into 2 parts: Before and After. With the number of days before and after as
chapter titles. You don’t initially know
what the actual event is which divides the book into those parts and when you
do find out, things get serious and real.
The narrator, Miles (aka Pudge), forms a strong friendship with his
roommate Chip (aka the Colonel), and Chip’s friends Alaska and Takumi. Each character is fascinating in their own
way, but Alaska, an intelligent, but troubled young girl steals the show. She’s a force of nature and right up there
with Hermione in Harry Potter and Katniss in Hunger Games. One of the lines in the book about her has
become a famous quote: So I walked back
to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain,
I was drizzle and she was a hurricane. The book was adapted into a miniseries on Hulu
which is pretty faithful to the book. My
wife and I watched it recently and both enjoyed it.
In the end, this book is about young adults’ search for
meaning in their young lives. It’s
great.
Some good lines from the book:
Imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do
it. You just use the future to escape
the present.
...the glittering ambiguity of a girl’s smile, which seems
to promise an answer to the question but never gives it. The question, the one we’ve all been asking
since girls stopped being gross, the question that is too simple to be
uncomplicated: Does she like me?
The final exam: What is the most important question human beings must answer? Choose your question wisely, and then examine how Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity attempt to answer it. (WOW, I never had a high school teacher ask me THAT question!)
I thought of the one thing about home that I missed, my
dad’s study with its built-in floor-to-ceiling shelves sagging with thick
biographies, and the black leather chair that kept me just uncomfortable enough
to keep from feeling sleepy as I read.
Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we’d learned,
and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering.
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| Old Dam holding up Longmont Reservoir |
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| Longmont Dam road follows North St. Vrain Creek |
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| Dam! |
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| North St. Vrain Creek |
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| Spillway below Ralph Price Reservoir |
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| Ralph Price Reservoir reflections |
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| Frozen log with a view |
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| Sun reflecting off the reservoir |
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| Frozen creek below the reservoir |
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| Another spillway |
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| Looking back up towards the reservoir |
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| Creek art |
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| Sun reflecting off the creek |
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| Longmont Reservoir mostly frozen over |
For me, the book is really dated. I know that Christie has said that it was her
most difficult book to plan for and to write, but I still found the whole
concept unbelievable. I guess for 1939
it was terrifically inventive and suspenseful.
The idea behind the story is that eight people get mysterious invitations
to a vacation on a small island off the coast of Devon in England. Incredibly they all accept and are all
available for that particular week.
There is a married butler and cook on the island to round the total
number to ten. Once all are together for
the initial welcome (unattended by the owner of the island who sent the
invitations), a recording starts playing from behind a wall. That recording proceeds to accuse each of the
ten gullible people of various forms of murder which didn’t have enough evidence
to make them legally guilty, but they were each certainly ethically responsible
for the deaths. Then, one by one, people
start dying and their deaths seem to follow an old children’s rhyme called Ten
Toy Soldiers (based on the racist minstrel song Ten Little Nig**rs). Each of the surviving few start to accuse
each other of being the murderer because after a search of the small island
there seem to be no other people. To me,
this was the only interesting part of the book, to see what fear can make people
believe. Of course, nobody could leave
the island because a storm happens to be scheduled for those particular few
days. That was convenient. Anyway, it wasn’t so bad that I stopped
reading, but I certainly wasn’t riveted.
A paved trail connects Sandstone Ranch to the St. Vrain
Greenway eastern terminus at County Line road.
The walk from Sandstone to County Line road is a nice walk along St.
Vrain creek. Unfortunately, the next
mile, from County Line road to 119th street is not very
pleasant. It’s a straight shot far from
the creek with farmland to the south and a dirt road to the north.
I’m not sure why they couldn’t re-route this section to follow the
creek, but it’s probably due to access rights.
However, once past 119th street, the walk becomes nice again
and follows the creek, ending at Dickens Farm Nature Area near Main
street. William Dickens built the first log cabin in
the Longmont area, along St. Vrain creek in 1859. This nature area is really pretty, with
footbridges and a spectacular view of Long’s Peak. In the spring and summer there is a float course
(tubes, kayaks, paddleboards) from Main street to 119th street (1.5-mile
float and 1.8 mile walk back). I talked
to a guy who was fishing the creek. He
said he’s caught carp, suckers, trout, and bass here. He hadn’t had any luck that day, but he sure
seemed to be enjoying himself anyway.
I sat on a rock by the creek and enjoyed a snack while
taking in the views. Besides the
fisherman, I was the only one there.
Nice. Time to head back the 5
miles to Sandstone Ranch, a nice walk (other than that one mile between County
Line and 119th).
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| Where Sandstone Ranch gets its name |
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| Old Barn and farming equipment near the trailhead |
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| Nice bridges crossing the creeks |
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| Bridge from the path with Sandstone Ranch in the background |
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| Nice views of Meeker and Long's peaks |
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| We're not in Kansas anymore are we? |
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| Nice views near Dickens Farm Nature Area |
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| Dedication to the people of Longmont after the 2013 flood |
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| Big bugs! |
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| Lunch Spot |
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| Views |
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| Trail art |
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| Views |
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| Canada Geese chillin' |
However, I managed to read all the way through Jill
Schlesinger’s book. It was entertaining,
understandable, and very readable. The
basis for her book is that so many smart people make dumb mistakes with their
money. This happens all the time. For many reasons. I consider myself a moderately smart person
who has done dumb things with my money, so this book was for me. She starts out by correctly stating (in my
opinion) that you need to address three issues before even thinking about any
of the other money ideas in this book: 1) Pay off your credit card debt, 2) max
out your company’s 401K if applicable, and 3) save enough cash to survive 6-12
months in an emergency. Once you’ve done
those basic things, then you can start to consider other financial areas.
Here are the 13 dumb things smart people do with their money
(each is a chapter in the book with several real-life examples and her advice
on what to do):
- You buy financial products that you don't understand
- You take financial advice from the wrong people
- You make money more important than it is
- You take on too much college debt
- You buy a house when you should rent
- You take on too much risk
- You fail to protect your identity
- You indulge too much during your early retirement years
- You saddle your kids with your own money issues
- You don't plan for the care of your aging parents
- You buy the wrong kinds of insurance, or none at all
- You don't have a will
- You try to "time" the market
Here are some lines from the book that I enjoyed:
We’re all flawed human beings who make terrible choices
(hello from the woman with two failed marriages under her belt!), including
financial ones.
We spend more time researching our upcoming vacations, or a restaurant for next Saturday’s date night, or the organic, dry-aged, grass-fed steak we eat at said restaurant than we do the financial products on which our futures depend.
Is it worth consigning your kids to lives of poverty to
attend a pricey second-, third-, or fourth-tier private school your family can’t
afford? And is it worth compromising
your own future by pumping money into these unaffordable schools rather than
into your retirement accounts?
(parents) feel selfish funding their retirement first and
asking their kids to either go to state schools or take out more loans. But that’s not selfish. Once you reach retirement age without enough
savings, your adult children will be paying to take care of you anyway! ….As
playwright Tony Kushner said, “Sometimes self-interested is the most generous
thing you can be.”
Colleges aren’t that impressed by helicopter parents who
take care of everything for their kids.
They are impressed by ambitious students who advocate articulately and
confidently for themselves.
It’s okay if your child doesn’t know yet what he or she
wants out of life. But please, let him
or her experiment at a cheaper school.
My Bulgarian friends likes to tell a joke about an optimist
and a pessimist who encounter one another on the street. “Oh, my God,” the pessimist says. “Things can’t get any worse.” The optimist shakes his head. “No, things can get worse.”
The smartest investing is passive investing…active investors
trying to match the performance of the S&P 500 lag it by 2.8 percent per
year over a twenty-year period.
We overestimate our ability to sustain risk, letting emotions influence our decision-making.
Kids get scared when they see you upset or anxious around
money – more than you probably realize.
That memory becomes imprinted in their brains, potentially traumatizing
them. It’s far better, Dr. Grubman said,
to “[keep} the focus on learning” when it comes to finances, and to sustain a “nonemotional
way of understanding money.”
As I tell people, the happiest clients I’ve had weren’t the
wealthiest. They were those who worked
hard with an eye not toward accumulating wealth, but toward living meaningful,
well-balanced lives. You can help your
kids become happier by putting aside your issues and behaving mindfully around
money.
Of all the off-the-hook stupid mistakes you can make with
your money, failing to have a will is indisputably the worst. You’re a bad person if you don’t have a
will. And I say that with the utmost
love and respect.
Richard Thaler has likewise said that his “…lazy strategy of
doing very little, buying mostly stocks and then not paying attention has
served [him] well.” If it works for him,
and if it works for Warren Buffett, and if it works for Charley Ellis, and if it
works for large, professional investors, it will work for you, too.
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| Copeland Mountain rising at the end of the road |
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| Copeland Falls frozen under the snow |
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| Typical trail above Copeland falls |
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| One of many stone and wood bridges along the trail |
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| Frozen trail section where spikes were handy |
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| Calypso Falls under there somewhere |
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| Really beautiful walk |
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| Long's and Meeker peaks |
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| Elk? Moose? |
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| Meeker and Long's peaks |
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| A smile on my face the whole way |
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| Ouzel falls...presumably.... |
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| Loved the bridges |
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| Sun and snow |
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| Picture raging water in the spring |
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| Copeland Lake a couple miles before the parking lot |
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| Meeker and Long's peaks from the highway towards Estes Park |