Sliding into Another Hot Summer Weekend

Yeah, I made it to another Saturday.

Friday was long and at times difficult. Fridays can be like that. Ask the Orioles who blew a ninth inning lead for the first time this season and lost.

But at the threshold of the weekend, everything seemed better--at least for a while. Friends and wine were the words of the evening. Even so, I have a busy weekend planned--heading out of town.

I watched some of the opening ceremony of the Olympics last evening--it was really fantastic. A spectacle, they call it. A planned in excess of 5800 hours of television coverage.

So for the next ten days or so there will always be sports to watch and medals to be awarded.

But for this weekend--it is off to the history and wine country of Virginia. Jefferson and wine--a great combination. Call it a presidential combination.

We will see how it all goes as we head off to the Monticello region and some fun.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Olympics: Sport, Politics, and Mistakes

The official opening ceremonies are scheduled tonight for the 2012 London Olympics and already the world has been treated to a series of sporting events (soccer or football depending upon which side of the ocean you reside) and some poorly timed mistakes all highlighting the increasing political overtones to a game which is supposed to transcend politics.

Many of the problems are detailed in an ABC News article titled: On World Stage, Olympic Culture Clashes Inevitable, but one of them is particularly interesting to me:

Already, the International Olympic Committee and Prime Minister David Cameron have apologized profusely for the most blatant mistake to date: displaying South Korea's flag rather than North Korea's on a giant screen ahead of Pyongyang's inaugural women's soccer match Wednesday night. The flap sent the North's team off the pitch for an hour in protest.

I am happy that the soccer team returned after a short protest. They won the match 2-0 over the Colombian women's team.

The series of problem highlights how difficult it is to get thousands of moving parts to synchronize for this huge event. If everyone remains focused upon the sport and international goodwill, then the games will proceed successfully despite the unintended gaffes.

But--we are living in a tit for tat world where every transgression demands recompense rather than forgiveness.

I know, I'd really be upset if the US flag were displayed upside down or our athletes were credited to some other country--like Puerto Rico. But while there is a high degree of national pride evident in the games, they are really dedicated to competition across all of the political, regional, social, and religious boundaries which divide and separate the people of this planet.

The more we know each other, the more we can appreciate what they have accomplished to be on the worldwide stage for their few moments of fame and glory. And not fame and glory to the country they represent, but to the sport and athletic excellence.

Let the games begin (oh, they already have begun)

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Aurora, Guns, and Common Sense

I read a report that gun sales are surging in the wake of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, because people are concerned that new restrictions that key be placed on gun ownership.  The article published by CBS News can be read at the link.

In contrast to this, Maryland is about to loosen restrictions on concealed gun carrying. The court just ruled that the Maryland laws are too restrictive.

I have become a fan of concealed handgun carrying in the wake of the Aurora theater shootings. We the people have for too long been viewed as sheep to be slaughtered by terrorists and wackos. If more Americans exercised their concealed carry rights, which are legal in 49 states, perhaps the terrorists and wackos would rethink their plans.

What if--in that theater last Friday morning some of the movie goers had weapons on them and could have defended themselves against the insanity which walked in through the side door and started shooting? Less people probably would have died or been injured AND we would not have been subjected to a lengthy and expensive trial complete with news media coverage of every small lead and innuendo.

.357 Magnum

Instead of limiting gun sales, legislators need to ensure that citizens are encouraged to carry concealed weapons to assist law enforcement in defending the peace and ensuring wackos and terrorists think twice before plotting to kill Americans. I know this is in direct contrast to the mayor of New York's view on the issue who believes that less guns are better.

Common Sense thought: I just have to believe that if we, the intended victims of violence had the ability to defend ourselves in kind, then we would all be safer. If the criminal with the weapon had to think twice about the possibility of facing someone with the same kind of firepower--and who could probably use it, too, then perhaps there would be less crime. Just a thought.

So in closing, I read a story that is close to my opinion on the matter. It is titled: The Difference between a  Liberal, a Conservative . . .  and a Redneck.

Nice grouping!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Football vs Baseball

It is that time of the year. The Boys of Summer (who play 162 games) have to share the airwaves and fan interest with the behemoths of autumn who play 16, 20 counting pre-season, games per season. Football training camp is starting.

OK--it is true--I love baseball.

This year is different for those of us in Baltimore. The baseball season is not effectively over. Baltimore has a team with a winning record and contending for a post season wildcard playoff berth. While I fear the annual July-August Orioles meltdown, I hope fervently that this year is different and that the team grows stronger, rather than weaker as the season begins to draw to a decisive conclusion.

And then there are the Ravens (or the Steelers, or the Redskins) who are beginning training camps and trying to monopolize the sports interest in a manner only the overpaid football players can do. Football is the king of the autumn, but it is still summer and our Boys of Summer are still in the hunt.

This week begins some important series which will definitely shape the Orioles post-season aspirations. They face the Tampa Bay Rays, the Oakland Athletics and then head off to New York to face the (I hate to even write the name) Yankees. Our small budget team can turn some heads by winning these series. I will be at the Thursday afternoon game against the Rays.

The Ravens (as well as the other football teams) will still be on the sidelines during these pivotal series, but the sports media will be all over ever practice snap of the ball. It is like a soap opera with a gangland style ending.

Baltimore is a baseball town. Don't forget that. Having a winner again is awesome. While I enjoy having a great football team and experiencing the intense rivalries of the AFC North, the Orioles are in the AL East, perhaps the toughest division in all of baseball--and they are still alive.

And if the Boys of Summer can keep the football teams on the sidelines for a few extra weeks--all the better. Autumn needn't come too quickly this year.


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

I Can't Take it With Me

Closet cleaning this weekend brought me face to face with a harsh reality--I have too much stuff, I need to downsize, and I can't take it with me when I go.

The good news is that I won't need it--but right now I still feel the need to surround myself with things that represent the trophies I have accumulated during my live.

But there a just some things that I don't need to hang on to--like the tee shirt from someplace that I visited that I never intend to return to.

And there is the five year rule--a corollary to the one year rule, that says if it hasn't been touched in five years then I probably don't need it. I have stuff that hasn't been touched since we moved in twelve years ago--I wonder if that qualifies. Yet, like the big game hunters of last century, it is hard to part with the trophies of expeditions past. Surrounding myself with stuff helps provide a sense of security. I'm not sure what the stuff is protecting me from--but it does make me feel better.

I have a lot of stuff related to hobbies I've done in the past. Fortunately, one of them helped me accumulate a number of tools which I still use to complete projects around the house. But as for being a clock repairer/restorer, I'm not sure that I will return to that hobby anytime soon. Maybe I need to sell some of the numerous clocks that I have to help with the downsizing. There is something wrong when the under bed storage spaces are filled with clocks which have not been running in, let's say conservatively, twelve years. There just isn't anymore room on the walls--and I already decorate with clocks.

So, as the cleaning continues--or moves to the really serious spaces crammed with stuff like the attic--some difficult decisions are going to be made.

Fortunately--probably not until another rainy Saturday and maybe not even then. Just because I don't need it and can't take it with me doesn't mean I have to get rid of it now!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - July 23, 2012

1. Prayers for the victims, families, friends, and communities affected by the senseless movie theater attack in Aurora, Colorado.

2. It made me laugh about the guy who stripped naked at a TSA checkpoint to protest invasive search procedures and later was quoted as saying:"I was aware of the irony of removing my clothes to protect my privacy." He was found not guilty of indecent exposure by a judge in Oregon.

3. Rainy days can result in significant positive activity.

4. I was saddened that the statue of Joe Paterno was removed from in front of the stadium at Penn State--I'm not sure that due diligence has been done in the rush to judgement on his knowledge and culpability in the crimes that were committed on the campus.

5. Writing of Penn State, the rumor of yesterday was that the NCAA is preparing significant sanctions against the sports programs. While I believe something needs to be done to ensure that similar crimes cannot again be committed, punishing those who are currently there and in no way connected to the travesties does not seem either fair nor equitable. The civil and criminal court processes will likely exact a measure of deterrence in in the form of significant fines and convictions--it does not seem to me to be a sports issue for the NCAA.

6. It has been a week since I returned from vacation--and it hardly seems as if I was away at all.

7. I have to replace the motor on the pool pump later today. I was amazed at how quickly the water cooled with all of the rain and moderate temperatures we have been experiencing.

8. Another Mars landing is getting closer as the US probe Curiosity prepares for an August 5th landing.

9. Ready, set, OLYMPICS! Anyone know where the US soccer team will get together to watch the games?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Rainy Day Activity -- Closet Cleaning

The rain fell all day yesterday. Despite the weather report which indicated that the showers would end during the afternoon--they didn't. I wonder how weathermen could get it so wrong.

Don't get me wrong--we needed the rain, but rainy Saturdays are a real downer.

There were so many things that needed to be done and what did I wind up doing? Cleaning and rearranging closets.

By the end of the day, every closet in the house was touched, cleaned, and rearranged. Hidden in there somewhere was a trip to Goodwill to donate the no longer needed items.

At one point, the house was in complete disarray because this was not just a individual closet cleaning, but rather, it was total restructuring of the closets in the house. There was even some minor construction involved as we realigned the storage and shelving in the master bedroom closet.

The project was finally completed just after 7pm. About the same time that the rain stopped.

Exhausted, we sat for a moment before beginning work on dinner and a bottle of wine followed by a movie.

I hope I do no have to suffer through another rainy Saturday again soon. Although I won't have to spend the day in the closet, it could be worse--the attic or the garage.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Weather Change

I am sitting this morning on the screened porch enjoying the 63 degree temperature with rain falling to begin the gray cloud overcast day.

OK--I am not really enjoying it. I am a bit chilled after the 100 degree plus days of the recent weeks. We went to a local restaurant last evening for happy hour and dinner, choosing to sit outside, and by the time we left--it was down right chilly. I went into the air conditioned restaurant to warm up.

The rain is frustrating.

The motor on my pool pump burned out during the heat wave--a new one will not be here until Monday. That means I can't even lower the rising water level in my pool--which I suppose I should consider a blessing.

But we need the rain--I haven't mowed in three weeks and the lawn still looks good--except for the leaves which have fallen from the heat stressed sycamore and tulip poplar trees that surround my yard.

The birds are awake. I hear them in the trees, along with the sound of the rain falling on the leaves and the babbling of the over-filled stream that runs behind the house.

If this were September, I'd be ecstatic. But, alas, it is July--and worse, it is the dog days when the weather is supposed to be extra hot and sultry.

Makayla just began barking at a deer who happened to decide to cross the lawn. They are so quiet. And graceful. I am happy that we are within a fence so that Makayla can't chase after the deer. I do not enjoy cleaning her coat after she romps through the wooded area next to the house and crashes through the stream in a futile effort to run with so fleet a creature as a deer. Robert Frost wrote about good fences making good neighbors in Mending Wall. They are also good for keeping dogs within their boundaries.

I suppose that I will not be working on the still unfinished stairs to my deck today. They are so close to completion--too close it seems. Just a few hours more and a few more boards and balusters.

The rain is still falling--one of those light, soaking rains which should restore the trees to the browned trees and lawns. That will be a nice way to slide into August--with renewed, springtime-like greens.

I just looked at all of the vegetation around me and realized that I am happy to live in so green a place.

It is going to be a great day. I am sure of it.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

NDPH--a question and an update

I received a question through the blog the other day regarding my NDPH. I realized that I had not written about my affliction since October last year after being diagnosed with the syndrome during September last year.

I was afraid to write about it.

NDPH is new daily persistent headache. It is a headache which is always there and varies in intensity from annoying to incapacitating.

I was blessed with the more annoying part of the spectrum of NDPH. Most days I could function at near 95 percent capacity. I was learning to live with it and trying not to let it affect my life. I chose not to make my blog a litany of things that NDPH prevented me from doing or ways my life and relationships were impacted by the affliction.

I did a lot of research on the web and read about many of the sufferers of NDPH who were incapacitated by the affliction--and I thanked God for being one of the luckier ones.

When I received the "official" diagnosis from the neurologist, he believed that my symptoms would likely go away at some point. Whether they would return was an unanswerable question.

I began watching my diet to determine what aggravated the headaches--chocolate seemed to help and wine deadened the pain.  I began getting regular massages--which I still continue. But I never found a magical direct link.

And then--one day during December, I woke up and noticed that my headaches were gone and had been gone for a couple of days. While I clearly remember when the headache came upon me it is funny that it took a day or two for me to realize it was gone.

I was, as I wrote, afraid.

Afraid it would return--so I didn't tell anyone. But funny thing, the important people in my life--Chris, my wife; my family; and co-workers all noticed and asked me if the headaches were gone. While  I had believed that they were not affecting me much, clearly, they were since so many people noticed the change.

As I write this, I continue to be cautiously optimistic.  My NDPH remains in remission. I don't know why except that I have been richly blessed. My heart goes out to all of those who continue to suffer and while I never had to bear the burden that many of them do, I know that they are truly suffering and that it is easy to run out of hope--because the headache is always there.

Thank you, Hilary, whoever you are for asking the question in my blog two days ago. You have helped to remind me how richly blessed I have been and I pray that you too, find relief from the persistent headache. I wish that I could give you some formula for success--but as you probably already know--there isn't one.

I thank God for my healing.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Palm Trees on my Mind

Palm in Turtle Bay, Tequesta, Florida

I love palm trees. Just being in an area where the palm trees grow makes me happy.

One morning last week, near the end of our vacation, Chris and I walked through the neighborhood where we were staying and happened upon a palm tree standing tall with gathering storm clouds behind it. It seemed defiant in its anthropomorphic attitude.

Palms are defiant by nature. They stand against the worst weather that hurricanes can throw at them and, for the most part, remain standing when the storm has passed. They may not be unscathed and have lost some fonds--but they remain tall in the storm's aftermath.

I wish I still had that much defiance in me. The storms of life continually attempt to batter me into submission--like the walnut tree which fell into my yard a few years ago. The storms finally tore it out of the ground by its roots. It took me weeks, and a new chain saw, to clean up that mess.

But palm trees stand--often alone, weathering the worst storms. And after the fury has passed--they remain.

I often remark when I am traveling--usually as we cross the South Carolina border, that once I can see palm trees I know that I am far enough south.

Palm trees are not just another pretty face in the crowd--they are strong and ready to face the worst weather imaginable.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD