More Water is Not Necessarily a Good Thing

As a reader might recall, I spend time watching YouTube videos created by narrowboat owners on the Cut in the U.K., the canal system. I live vicariously through them, lusting for that lifestyle while knowing it will never happen at my advanced age and deteriorated financial condition. Some narrowboaters are full-time residents, called 'liveaboards,' and some aren't, but they all struggle with winter conditions at this time of the year. 

In the U.S.A., we have experienced a variety of nasty weather, from unseasonable tornados to extreme snowfalls and dangerously low, below-zero temperatures. But we are not alone in the world dealing with what must be one of the results of climate change. For the last half of December and most of January 2023, England has suffered from very heavy rain and very cold weather. The canal system has frozen for days, which results in hardship for those liveaboards because they cannot move their boats, so the humans must walk to water points, food stores, and places to empty their onboard toilet systems. Those who live on small boats, including narrowboats, and work near London have an additional problem this winter. 

Their largest river, the Thames, has begun to overflow its banks in places near London.

This is not good news for narrowboats, which, unlike larger and/or more powerful boats, are ill-equipped to deal with significant increases in water volume and increased river flow. If rivers overflow the banks, small boats can be lifted off the river and dropped on other non-water places...like sidewalks and parking lots. If this happens, a crane must be called in to lift the boats, which can weigh 20 tons or more, and place them back into the water, an expensive and time-consuming event, assuming the boat is not damaged.

The narrowboaters have begun preparations for the rising river from the heavy rain, which is forecast to continue for two more weeks. Often, moving is not an option, even though the Thames has not frozen. Narrowboats are designed to run on the canal system, the 'cut,' which are mostly narrow, slow-running, shallow bodies of water. The Thames, on the other hand, is a proper river that is currently running quite fast with the added rainwater. This flow is beyond the navigational capacity of a low-draft narrowboat; moving one in these conditions could be disastrous.

Terminology Is Important

 Homeless.

The word conjures up unpleasant thought-adjectives: misery, displacement, dirty, unstable, disreputable, and more. Since the Great Recession began in 2008 with the worldwide economic crash, the number of people who have been removed from their "permanent" housing dramatically increased. With that increase have come unwanted responses from communities. Laws outlawing 'living on the street' have exploded. People scorn those living in cars and vans as undesirable in "our community." Myriad photos show the misery of living in a decrepit, smelly, worn-out sleeping bag on--or in--a cardboard box over a heating vent in a large city. 

The stories of these humans are heart-wrenching. A professional worked in an office for decades until his company went out of business, and he was laid off, now older and probably unemployable. A commercial bank crashes and takes a considerable part of the world economy with it, throwing hundreds of employees out of work.

The city of Detroit suffers arguably the most focused losses of all. Almost an entire auto manufacturing industry is suddenly halted, along with the many plants that created cars for the world. Overnight, parking lots are emptied, families face the ugly combination of limited skills and family entrenchment. Strong unions are weakened.

Many houses go into foreclosure, the breadwinners file bankruptcy. Those who are lucky enough relocate to live with other family members. Parents spruce up long-unused bedrooms and buy bunk beds as they welcome their adult children and grandchildren back into their house, straining their own resources and patience.

Homeless.

In the ten-plus years since then, the economy has improved while significant and often unpleasant political changes have happened. The old manufacturing base has not and will not recover; sending the work offshore is less expensive and requires lower-skilled workers in this country. Apple makes its magnificent electronic devices in massive factories in China. Cars are made in Mexico and Canada and trucked across the border to be finished in the auto industry's remains before they are sent to and sold at local dealerships. The international shipping container business has boomed as low-cost labor markets are identified, and goods are shipped to the USA. 

Far less attention was paid to those on the lower end of the economic ladder. Those who lost houses and those who filed bankruptcy discovered that their ability to get a new home disappeared with their job. Underneath the headlines, an entirely new cadre of people have emerged, struggling to make ends meet while dealing with the ugliness of the Great Recession and the very personal impact on themselves. They own no house of the 'sticks-and-bricks' variety, but they are not at all homeless.

This term for this new cadre of people who do not live in traditional sticks-and-bricks houses is 

Houseless

These intrepid souls are not homeless; they just do not have the traditional house they once had. They live in their cars, in retired and built-out school busses, ambulances, old vans and RVs, or any other mobile vehicle that can hold them and their meager, fully-functional belongings and keep them moving when needed. Some of them move from temporary jobs to temporary jobs, as Jessica Bruder wrote about in her marvelous book, "Nomadland."

The life they lead is not easy, dull, or in many cases, predictable. These are not campers heading out to a campground or RV park for a few days then returning to the comfort and security of their homes and jobs. Not all of the new nomads are poor, and not all of them were forced into their situation, but all of them live frugal lives necessitated by their condition. You cannot do in a 200 square foot living area what you can do in a 4-bedroom suburban house. But it does not mean life cannot be enjoyable.

Houseless. As I write these words, that is what I am. 

On February 1, 2021, I closed the sale of my house in Michigan, the one place I lived in longer than any other home in my entire life, and moved into a spare bedroom in my daughter and her family's home. 

The adjustment has been difficult. My son-in-law is a government contractor; we first moved into temporary quarters on the Aberdeen Proving Ground Army base in Maryland until their new house is built in another city in Maryland. For six months, the family of two adults, three children, two full-grown Great Pyrenees dogs, plus the newly-arrived grandfather will have to figure out how to keep peace in minimal space. Somehow, we all (mostly) survived.

It was not an easy task, as the arguments born out of stress leading to periods of icy silence and crying children have shown.

Thoughts of changing my current houseless condition to another one have begun to germinate in my head. But that is for another treatise.

How Do I Resubscribe to a Magazine When the Notice Comes Late?

We are all familiar with the partisanship in the upper management of the United States Postal Service. The Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, was hired in the last months of the previous administration - I refuse to type the former president's name - for one purpose: to slow the mail down so mail-in ballot requests and the mail-in ballots themselves would not get to their intended recipient in time. Since absentee balloting was used by Democrats far more than Republicans, who distrust the mail system, even though it is one of the most efficient and secure delivery systems in the world, and is heavily used by people without adequate means of transportation. This means Black and lower income people, the groups the former president wanted to disenfranchise. His reelection campaign hoped for late votes which would not be counted, thus putting a thumb on the scale in his favor.

His plan did not work and he was defeated because the same groups stood in line in inclement weather of all kinds for many hours to cast their ballots. But the system has not returned to its former efficiency.

DeJoy removed sorting machines, cut hours, and demanded that the letter carriers return to their offices after one truckful of mail was delivered; no returning to the station for the final load. These new procedures were put in place before the holiday rush, so there was a serious slowdown for what was a record setting amount of items being mailed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. People got their gifts late, individuals who depend on regular deliveries of prescription medications were never sure if the next doses would arrive on time, and many letters were delivered late. 

Some of them, like the mailed notices folks like me get come late and some never arrive, even though my postal notices show that mail will arrive. Today, I received a notice from one of my Condé Nast magazines. It came in a red-tinted envelope to indicate high importance, and it was. It was an urgent reminder that my subscription was about to expire and that I had a deadline to return the form. As I write this, the day is January 21, 2021, the day after President Joe Biden was inaugurated. I experience first-hand one of the reasons he has begun undoing the damage of the previous administration, though fixing some, like returning the USPS to its former efficiency, will be harder than others. 

The notice I received said the absolute, final cutoff date for me to return my form was January 10, 2021.

Eleven days ago. This, of course, means it was mailed long before that!

I like using stamped mail when I can and I always get magazine renewal notices and other important information like insurance papers both by 'snail mail' and by email. That way, I help the USPS a bit and get timely notices. In this case, my subscription was renewed online earlier this month because of an email notice I received. Had I waited for and depended on my mailed notice, well, I would be renewing an expired subscription and most likely missing several issues.

I wish President Biden well as he works through the terror of the past four years. He has already removed many former appointees, including those in sensitive positions, but getting rid of the Postmaster General is not easily done. The president cannot directly fire DeJoy because the USPS Board of Directors appointed him; the Board normally consists of up to nine governors appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, which is evenly split. Whether Republicans in the Senate would go along with a change is a bet I would not take. The most immediate action Biden can take is put pressure on DeJoy and the Board for a replacement. Considering that there are currently only two Democrats on the Board of six, so Biden could appoint additional governors and a Deputy PMG, which might help.

My trust and faith in timely delivery of mail by the United States Postal Service has been badly, perhaps permanently, damaged. I will not be giving up my email account and I will continue to get snail mail, even if it comes eleven days after the deadline.

Thoughts of Medical Training for the Old and Decrepit

On December 23, 2020, I received a book published on December 21, 2020. That, in itself, is pretty amazing; I have never received a book that close to publication before. The book is by John Lawrence and apparently is the first of a planned four-volume set. This one is titled, "Playing Doctor."

It is a very funny, easy-to-read book about the foibles of him becoming a physician, quite unlike any other story I have read - and I have read many. He never wanted to go to med school, never took the required classes, and never focused on it until it all changed for him. The story of that change is what this book is about.

This post is about my own interest in medical training and the disappointment that nothing ever came of it.

My continued interest as a 70-Something is confirmation that I, too, should have become a medical professional. I never wanted to go to med school or be called "Doctor;" I was thankful that the physician assistant (PA) profession had been invented by Eugene A. Stead, MD, and the first class of four Navy corpsmen would enter the same university in 1965 that I eventually started, Duke University, thus opening the door to later candidates like me.

One of my biggest regrets was not finishing the program. Funny thing about that: Duke seemed to want me to pay for it upfront at the same time then-President Reagan decided that student loans were a bad thing and had his Secretary of Education at the time, William Bennett, work on cutting funding. He was successful and you can see how those two factors might clash. That I was unable to continue is one of the regrets I live with to this day.

It is also probably the reason I keep reading books about medical training, physicians, and why PAs remain my provider-of-choice when I have one. I also like physicians who have a sense of humor. John Lawrence, MD, is one of them. I highly recommend the book.

New Vaccines and Who Should Get Them First

 So three companies have highly-effective vaccines against the novel coronavirus. There is a worldwide need and the burning question for them and the politicians who guide them is this:

Who gets vaccinated first?

Many writers have written treatises on the topic, so mine will be short. Some have suggested giving the vaccine to the most vulnerable first; the elderly, those with significant health issues, and preexisting conditions have been suggested.

I disagree.

While saving a life--any life--is highly desirable, the already-sick and elderly are not the first group of people that should be given the vaccine first. Why, you ask? Because they are neither likely to spread either the disease nor increase resistance to it.

No, the people who should be given the vaccine first are the social butterflies and those who insist on attending large gatherings where mask-wearing and social distancing are not seen as necessary. Vaccinating them will help spread the resistance and will allow a faster 'herd immunity' than would happen with any other single group.

So find all the authoritarian cultists around the world, young people who think they are not going to "get" the disease, and those who want to crowd into a bar with other non-wearers. Vaccinate gig workers and those "essential" workers who have no choice but to continue working in places with patrons who might not wear a mask or see the value in protecting others lives. Definitely give the vaccine to health care workers and those on the front lines of protecting us.

After they have been vaccinated, they will go out into the world - remember, this a worldwide suggestion, not just for us - and not be part of the super-spreader group they were before. The active virus will not be transferred and fewer people will get sick faster.

Then the vaccine can be given to those people like me who don't go anywhere and who avoid crowded spaces. The economies will improve and life can begin to return to something recognizable as 'normal.' Doing anything else merely slows the process.

Think about it.

Choices and Magical Thinking

Humans are the only species in the Animal Kingdom that can make logical decisions. We were given the ultimate talisman to rule the Kingdom at the top of the food chain. We have thrived and advanced for a very, very long time. So why do we continue to make the decisions we do, hoping that magical thinking, somehow, will result in a different outcome? 

The answer, to me, seems clear: we can also make no decision and we can make a bad decision. Take this observation from an editorial board member at The New York Times:

"We know a lot more [about coronavirus] now...we know that temperature checks won’t prevent outbreaks (at least one-third of people who transmit the virus have no symptoms at all), but that routine surveillance testing can catch outbreaks before they become catastrophes. 

"We don’t know how safe schools are, or how safe they might be made. But we do know that bars and restaurants are hubs of viral transmission.

"And yet, as we enter the third — and potentially worst — coronavirus surge, pandemic fatigue and magical thinking have us acting like all of this is brand-new. Schools are closing while restaurants remain open. State and local leaders are dithering on mask mandates. 

"Too few communities have effective programs in place for contact tracing, quarantine and isolation."

However bad it looks right now, this pandemic won't last forever; they never have. Our goal as a nation should be to protect as many people as possible in the tough months ahead. Magical thinking will not get us through this. Making good choices will help.

Well, little boy, what have you done good this year?

 What, indeed. But let's not wait for Christmas to answer the question, eh? Oh. And let's skip over the poor grammar, too.

I bought a high-quality ukulele in April and Fender gave me three months of lessons free. I moved forward in my long-held goal of learning two specific songs on the ukulele. It is still a work in progress.

This month, I watched what has become a very popular movie about chess. I know how to move the pieces, but not how to "play" - a computer game 'thinking' only one move ahead beat me in less than a dozen moves - so I bought a high-quality chess set. I put two chess books on hold at the library on "opening chess moves" and "winning chess strategies." One of them is by Bobby Fischer.

When they arrive, I will be notified. Then I will go pick them up--curbside pickup only--and become a better chess player for the first time in my long life.