Monthly Archives: November 2016

Hair of the dog

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I love dogs. They provide agreeable company, which was important for me when I lived by myself for many years. They can provide some sense of security, which was important for Leah since I worked away from home from the time we got married in 2005 until the time I retired in around 2015. They’re always glad to see you, and they hate to see you leave. They listen carefully to everything you say, although they don’t always do what you say. I think their sense of humor is admirable, since they seem to admire my jokes.

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In addition to all of those sterling qualities, they also often shed profusely. When Leah and I get up, the rays of the rising sun come in the living room window and front door at a grazing angle, highlighting the dog hair on the floor. The hair seems to shine with an internal light against the dark hardwood floors. I swept this up one morning a few days ago.

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We only have to do this every single morning. Some mornings there is even more than this.

I have had indoor dogs for more than 30 years. I found white hairs on my sweaters from Jesse, my first indoor dog, for years after she died. Doberman Pinschers shed, too, but their hair is dark and less noticeable. Zeke and Sam have lots of white hair, so theirs is very visible.

I use a special comb with sharp metal teeth to groom the dogs, and I routinely rub them vigorously with my hand. It usually looks like it’s snowing when I do that. But they still seem to shed as much indoors as they do when I don’t try to get the loose hair off.

I don’t really understand how they can shed as much as they do.

Jazz and Culture

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Thursday night we went to a Berry College concert featuring the Berry College steel band “The Berry Breeze” and the Berry Jazz Ensemble. We both thought it was very good. We were surprised by the steel band. They use steel drums (or steel pans, or just pans).

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I used my new camera, the Olympus EPL7. I used the relatively slow “kit” lens, which required me to shoot at a fairly long exposure. That caused some blurring of the performers. Maybe one day I’ll get a faster lens for things like this.

My favorite piece was Paul Simon’s “Late in the Evening.” The Berry Breeze performed for about a half an hour, and then the jazz ensemble performed for another half hour. Their repertoire was mainly jazz from the ‘40’s, with some slightly more modern.

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I know very little about music, but I thought these students were professional quality. One of the things I enjoyed most was seeing how much the students seemed to enjoy their performances.

The performance was held in Berry College’s Ford Auditorium, one of seven buildings constructed in the late ‘20’s and early ‘30’s in the Collegiate Gothic Style. According to the marthapedia (from Martha Berry, the founder. The marthapedia was actually a class assignment at Berry) says that the buildings were financed by Henry Ford, but were not named for Ford until after his death. Apparently Ford was afraid if they were named for him he would be expected to maintain them during his lifetime.

The Berry Department of Fine Arts gives over 40 free concerts every year. We’re thinking about attending more.

On Saturday we decided to go to the Intercultural Fest held in downtown Rome. It was supposed to offer food, music and lots of other stuff. We first attended our own Intercultural Feast at our favorite Mexican restaurant. The Intercultural Fest was supposed to go from noon to midnight. Unfortunately, it had slowed down considerably by the time we got there. A Columbian dance group had just finished when we walked in. After that there was a West African bell and drum solo, which, I have to confess, did not impress except through the soloist’s enthusiasm. After that a local Latin rapper performed. By this time there were only about 30 people watching.

The event was almost entirely Hispanic. The mistress of ceremonies would speak a few sentences in Spanish, then say a few sentences in English, and then switch back to Spanish. I don’t know Spanish but I could tell that she was not just translating herself.

The light was so dim that any shot I took required an even longer exposure than at the Berry concert. The most visually interesting thing we saw was this.

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A little baby’s hand and foot. I had to put the camera in my lap and shoot for about a second.

The Intercultural Fest was a disappointment, but we’re hoping they do it again next year. If they do, we’ll go earlier in the day.

Rough Ridge Fire

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On Thursday morning we got up and, as usual, I looked out the window to see the sunrise. This is what I saw.

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I wondered why there was a cloud bank with such a clearly-defined edge when there was no passing front at the time. I learned later that it wasn’t clouds, it was smoke coming from the Rough Ridge fire burning in extreme northern Georgia near the Tennessee line. It has been burning since October 16. As of Thursday it had burned more than 10,300 acres. That’s about 16 square miles. The smoke has been blowing down towards the Atlanta area from the Rough Ridge fire and some others.

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The smoke was thick enough that a Code Red air quality alert was issued for the Atlanta area. That means that the particulate matter was high enough to be unhealthy for all people.

The wind direction changed on Friday. This is what the view looked like Friday afternoon.

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Downtown Rome, which is usually visible, is almost completely obscured by smoke. There was a noticeable haze up on the mountain and a slight odor of smoke. I think the thickest part of the plume was east of us; it was not bad, but we were clearly within the plume.

The Rough Ridge fire is burning in the Cohutta Wilderness in the Chattahoochee National Forest. It is thought to have started from a lightning strike. At this point it has not reached populated areas, which is good for residents, but its location in the wilderness area has caused problems for fire fighters. The terrain is rough and the area is isolated.

The unusually warm and dry weather and windy conditions have made fire danger particularly high. The relative humidity has been in the 20-percent range, which sounds to me more like what you might see in the western US.

This Web site has some photographs from the fire.

Atlanta’s air quality was upgraded on Friday to Code Orange, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups. It’s better, but still not good. As far as I can tell, our air quality index is Code Yellow, or moderate.

The weather forecast for Friday night was for more windy conditions. One of the firefighters said in an interview that the fire won’t be completely out until we get a long, soaking rain. There is no rain in the forecast for the next week, so we can expect the fire to continue to burn.

Whom the gods would destroy*

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Leah and I went to bed Tuesday night slightly depressed and worried. When we woke up, I checked the CNN Web site to find the election results. We were not surprised, only disappointed to learn that the serial sex assaulter had been elected.

People have been talking about coming together. One talking head said that politicians generally rise to the challenges of office. The news media have been analyzing what parts of the pathological liar’s stated aims are realistic. I suppose that some think that he can’t single-handedly wreak the horrors that he has talked about.

They are wrong. The Republican god Ronald Reagan single-handedly set the US alternative energy program back decades. He dismantled Jimmy Carter’s plans almost immediately after taking office. Now we are in danger of being reliant on Chinese solar energy equipment. He single-handedly convinced Middle Eastern extremists that the US would run away if we lost some men by tucking tail and bringing the Marines home from Lebanon when a terrorist blew up the Marine barracks.

George Bush single-handedly took the US into a long, illegal, unwinnable war in Iraq, wasting thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and, according to some estimates, about $2 trillion in actual and future costs.

Both of these men did almost inestimable damage to the US and its interests, and yet I did not fear or hate them. But I fear and hate the racist who will inhabit the White House. If he can deliver on his wild promises, he poses an existential threat to the United States as we know it.

What if Putin decides that the ignoramus’s statements on our flexible commitment to NATO is a green light to invade NATO members near Russia’s borders? Would the rest of NATO live up to their words and help? Who would use nuclear weapons first?

What if Japan or South Korea decide they can no longer rely on the US for protection against Chinese aggression and start to build a nuclear arsenal as he suggested? Will China allow that, or will they act before they can build their nukes? What if North Korea decides that they will not allow South Korea to build nukes and so use theirs on South Korea first? What will the US do? Nothing?

What if the three-time business failure starts a trade war with China? How far will the US stock market fall, and how much will it cost Americans?

What if he deports all the undocumented workers in the US? Depending on whose numbers you accept, between 50 and 70 percent of US agriculture workers are undocumented. How much will produce prices rise when half or more of the workers are shipped out of the US? Who will replace the undocumented workers in the construction trades? According to some estimates, Hispanic workers comprise up to 90 percent of the house construction trades, usually in framing, drywall and other less skilled areas. Some builders admit that “most” of them are undocumented. Who will replace them when they are deported, and how much more will it cost to build a house?

If the non-taxpaying freeloader names Supreme Court justices, it may result in the loss of hard-earned rights that a lot of people struggled for years to attain.

I saw Paul Ryan say that the misogynist’s election was a mandate. If Republicans believe that, they may give the xenophobe his way.

Probably none of this will affect us personally, unless we die from a nuclear strike on Atlanta or the economy crashes so bad that our Social Security and savings are destroyed. And yet the country this abomination may bring about is not one that I care to live in.

* They first make mad.

I try to avoid politics in this blog, but I make this exception under duress.

Sunrise triplet

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I never get tired of watching sunrise from our house. Others might, but not me.

Here’s one shot from Thursday morning, taken from our bedroom window.

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This was slightly later from the driveway as I walked the dogs.

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And then even a little later from the bedroom again.

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Sunrises have been hazy and red lately, almost certainly because of the lack of rain over northwest Georgia. We haven’t been getting really smoggy air because we still have an occasional front pass through, but the fronts bring nothing but slightly cooler air, no rain.