What Would Jimmy Do?

We recently replaced our air conditioner (for the upstairs.) Now our house is only 6 years old – why on earth should we need to replace our air conditioner so soon? We’d had a number of problems and the unit had to be repaired a few times, but this time it needed a part that wasn’t available because they don’t make those units anymore. Obviously the builder used end of the model run equipment to save money, but when something goes bad, there is a decision to be made – try to find a refurbished part or bite the bullet and upgrade. There’s an old saying that they don’t make things like they used to. No argument with that statement. But of course this all got me to thinking…

My car is 11 years old and has in excess of 100,000 miles with (cross fingers) no problems. On the other hand, as I said, we’ve lived in this house 6 years and just about all the appliances are within sight of their end of life. How come cars can be made better and last longer and a dishwasher can’t be made to last more than 10-15 years – if you’re lucky. I remember my parents had a refrigerator that lasted probably 30 or 40 years, and as far as I know, it was still working when they got rid of it – they just wanted a newer model….

It’s often said that we have become a throw away society. I guess it’s true, and the fact is — it’s probably our own fault. I’m not sure people today would be happy with products “built to last.” We all want the latest and greatest — the newest and fastest computer; most people don’t buy a new car because the one they have is broken and can’t be fixed; new furniture is often bought for new decor, not because the old stuff wore out.

Ideally, things being made to last sounds like a wonderful thing, but if you look at it from the business point of view, it doesn’t make good sense. When a new product is introduced, the demand is high, production is high, profits a good, lots of jobs for people… but what happens when the market is saturated? Everyone has one already, so only new customers coming of age and a few that break their product will be buying new ones. Production demands decrease, profits fall, layoffs of employees increase and maybe even the company goes out of business.

A long time ago businesses realized the mistake of building products to last, and came up with methods to create demand by coming up with new colors, features, etc. to entice people to buy new versions of the products every few years. This was a way to keep up demand, production, profits and jobs. The products were still built to last, but now people disposed of them even though they were still working.

So — industry figured that if people were buying new products every few years, even though the old ones were still working, they could cut costs and save some money by building in “planned obsolescence.”

How long should things last? I don’t know, but in many instances I know we’ve replaced things that didn’t have to be replaced, so maybe it’s not planned obsolescence by the manufacturer, maybe it’s our desire to have the latest and greatest.

Obsolescence isn’t new – it’s been around forever — someone said that God used it on humans. I remember reading something a long time ago that’s probably true — the four stages of man are infancy, childhood, adolescence, and obsolescence. I may be at that obsolescence stage, but boy do we have an air conditioner that won’t be for at least a couple of months.
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Today, May 22 is Anniversary Day – Both Kelly and Chris and Mike and Sue are celebrating today.
I was an attendee at both weddings – if my memory serves me right, they were both very nice.
Happy Anniversary Mike and Sue
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Happy Anniversary Kelly and Chris
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The retired space shuttle Discovery flew in to Dulles Airport on April 17. I didn’t drive down to see it, but watched it arrive on television. A number of years ago, when the Explorer (the shuttle that never went into space, but was used for glide/re-entry tests) was donated to the Smithsonian, it too flew into Dulles aboard a 747. At the time, I was traveling to the west coast just about every week and Claire, Kelly and David usually dropped me off at the airport. On that particular day, Claire pulled over and they all watched the arrival of Explorer – I saw it from the window of my TWA flight waiting to take off. That’s once I didn’t mind sitting and waiting for our turn to depart.

Discovery served the space program well – and had a lot of “firsts and onlys” to its credit during its period of service. The event brought back a lot of memories for me. I was lucky enough to be involved with the shuttle program periodically from its start. I spent a lot of time with some of the shuttle crews and even more time with a few that were chosen to fly in space but never got the chance.

Before the Challenger disaster, there was a big push to build a space shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB in California. It was named SLC-6 (Space Launch Complex 6.) I was involved in that project, off and on, for the better part of a year. The space shuttle was intended to be the primary, and some believed, the only vehicle to be used to get into space and launch satellites. There is a good reason (physics/orbital geometry) that some satellites need to be launched from the west coast and not the east cost launch site (Cape Canaveral.) That’s the reason it was going to be necessary to be able to launch the shuttle from the west coast – if it was to be the nation’s only “ride into space.” The Challenger disaster of course, changed that view and no shuttle ever launched from California.

During that time is  when I learned of the “Twang Effect” (I’m not making this up – that’s the technical name.) I won’t go into details right now – maybe that’s a subject for another blog – but it’s the reason that, had the shuttle ever launched from Vandenberg, it could have carried a heavier payload than if launched from the east coast.

Flying, in one form or another has always fascinated me and even though I’m no longer actively involved even remotely in the space initiative, I’m still a big fan and follow the events closely. Someone once said something that I really liked – the meek shall inherit the Earth – and the rest of us will go to the stars.
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There are a number of things that I want to discuss here, but things have been a bit hectic lately — hopefully I’ll catch up soon.

But I didn’t want this day to pass without wishing somewhere between a third and a half of all readers of this blog a happy birthday….

Happy Birthday John!!!
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I watched the end of the Masters on Sunday and after Bubba Watson won, he seemed to hug everyone within reach. I’ve noticed that this seems to be a trend lately – not just among golfers, but everyone – the hug seems to be gaining popularity everywhere.

When I was growing up, I don’t remember people hugging so much. There was always the grandmother or great aunt that always hugged the kids of course, but grownups – not so much. I don’t ever remember my parents hugging and I don’t remember friends meeting on the street hugging.

Claire hugs everyone – always has. All her family are huggers. The first time I went to Cleveland, everybody was hugging everybody – at first I thought it was a Cleveland thing or a Slovak thing. But it was apparently just a nice gesture that seems to have caught on over the years in other places.

It turns out that there is a National Hugging Day (January 21st.) Amazingly, it’s a holiday that I don’t celebrate – but you can bet if we make it past 2012, it will be on my list next year.

When we were first married, and away from Cleveland, Claire used to get strange looks because she hugged everyone. Now it’s more of an accepted practice – either that or everyone has just gotten used to Claire. I must admit I was a little uncomfortable when I first encountered the hugging culture, but I’ve grown accustomed to it and find it a rather nice way to greet people. Of course hugs are (properly, I think) used to convey not only greetings, but good-byes, expression of sympathy or sorrow, joy, happiness and all sorts of emotions. I’ve come to believe that a hug is a genuine outburst of emotion. Hugs that aren’t genuine are readily apparent – much more so than a non-genuine hand shake.

There are lots of different kinds of hugs and its interesting to see how different people go about it. A couple of years ago, a lady was house-sitting our neighbor’s house and when I met her and extended my hand, she said, “I won’t shake your hand, but I’ll give you a spiritual hug.” To be honest, I had never heard of a spiritual hug before (or since) but I guess it was a nice gesture. There is the bear hug which is well-meaning, but sometimes painful, the cheek hug, where only the cheeks touch and not many, if any, other parts of the body, the back to front hug, that sometimes comes as a surprise to the one in front. The side to side hug, sometimes used when sitting next to someone or standing in line or something like that.

As nice as hugging may be, let’s face it – there are some crappy hugs and crappy huggers. There’s the way too long hug where you think the hug will never end – they just hang on and on. There’s the awkward hug, when one person is really tall and the other is really short. There’s just no way this kind of hug can turn out good, no matter how good the intentions or special the occasion is. The unwanted kiss hug. I’m not big on kissing in public and I hate it when I hug someone and get an unexpected kiss – I never know how to react. The man hug, when you sort of shake hands and reach out and touch each others shoulders and never make eye contact – not sure why we bother, but it seems “appropriate” at certain times. The lets get this over with hug, when the person hugs someone and barely touches them – probably think a hug is in order, but they really don’t want to. And of course there’s the crusher hug – this person hugs you so hard you think  you’ll have to go to the hospital to have your broken ribs taped up…

Hugs are good for you – one study has shown that hugs increase levels of oxytocin and reduce blood pressure. Some of the other benefits of hugging might be: feels good, builds self esteem, slows down aging, helps curb your appetite, fights insomnia, exercises shoulder and arm muscles, its a stretching exercise for short people, a stooping exercise for tall people, its ecologically sound, no special setting or tools required, it’s energy efficient – hugs are good for all these reasons – or – maybe not, but they might be.

Many people do not like their personal space to be invaded, but I’ve observed that a high percentage of people at our church hug. Women seem to be more into hugging then men, but I’ve noticed that a lot of men seem to be more open to hugging after a few drinks at parties.

There’s been lots said about hugs over the years, such as its like a boomerang – you get it back right away. Lyndon Johnson said you should hug your friends tight, but your enemies tighter – hug ’em so tight they can’t wiggle. But my favorite hug saying is: A hug delights and warms and charms, that must be why God gave us arms. Now — don’t you need a hug?
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I got an e-mail from someone a day or so ago rambling on about things you should be aware of in order to protect yourself in this modern world. It mentioned that one ingredient used to make dynamite is peanuts. I already knew that. It’s probably no secret that I have a lot of useless knowledge in my head. Lately, I seem to remember stupid things, but can’t remember to do things I should be doing. Before I get into my discussion of just how much stupidity there seems to be in the universe, let me give you some examples of some of my stupid stuff and stupid thoughts that I remember that serves absolutely no practical purpose.

Just like a sick dog supposedly has a warm nose, a sick pig rarely curls his tail. There are more Rolls Royce’s per capita in Hong Kong than any other place in the world. Percentage wise, more people walk to work in Alaska than any other state. The average life span of a baseball used in professional baseball is 7 pitches. Tom Sawyer was the first novel written on a typewriter. A duck’s quack doesn’t echo – a mystery that’s never been solved – to this day, no one knows why. Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy. The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.

I also wonder and think about things that aren’t especially important – but they make me think just the same… the Russians sent a dog up in space before their first astronaut. That seems like an odd choice to me, because you’d think he’d want to stick his head out the window and his face might burn up… Once when we were driving, we saw a sign that said, “bridge freezes before road.” Claire said it should say, “water on the bridge freezes before the water on the road.” I told her she should write to the highway department and suggest they change it, but she said it was a joke – just to get out of writing a letter…. when I was a kid, I learned how to make invisible ink with a chemistry set I had – I only made it once though, I could never tell if I ran out…

But anyhow, I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one that has stupid thoughts and does stupid things. How many times have you misplaced something and while you’re looking for it, someone has asked, “where did you lose it?” The obvious response is that if I knew, I wouldn’t be looking, but I’m always tempted to say, “on the couch.” A few weeks ago we went to the doctor – walked up to the elevator and pushed the button. The light came on and while we were waiting someone else came up and pushed the lit button. Did I mention the button was already lit?

But sometimes a situation or question just begs for a stupid answer – for instance, when I was a kid and I was asked, “Did you take a bath?” I always wanted to say, “Why, is there one missing?” Or in school if the teacher asked, “Are you chewing gum?” the proper response, in my mind, was, “No, I’m Jimmy.” (I actually did that – but only once. Mrs. Harris had a fairly narrow sense of humor.) Every time I hear, “I have changed my mind” I want to say, “Thank goodness! Does the new one work better?” Since both Claire and myself drink our coffee black, in restaurants, after Claire indicates no cream or sugar, just black and the waiter says, “Would you like your coffee black, too?” I always want to say, “What other colors do you have?”

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I really didn’t have anything to blog about – it’s just been a long time and I figured I should write something. And, sometimes it’s good to just get some of the junk rattling around inside out – to make room for more important stuff. I guess if there is some point to be made here, it’s just that everyone does, says and thinks stupid things sometimes. I’m not sure why, because it’s so simple to be wise – just think of something stupid to say and then don’t say it.
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Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t remember much about St. Patricks’s Day when I was growing up — about the only thing I remember is that for some reason you were supposed to wear green and it was great fun to pinch anyone that didn’t wear something green. I never understood why someone should be pinched for not wearing green on that particular day — so — my extensive research mode kicked in and although Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, the tradition of pinching is uniquely an American tradition. One explanation I found was that green is traditionally worn on St. Patrick’s Day to honor the fact that Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle. The pinch is just a reminder to those people not wearing green that they should remember to honor “the Emerald Isle.” Of all the explanations that I found the one that I like best is that St. Patrick revelers in the United States (probably in the 1700s) thought wearing green made one invisible to leprechauns — those fairy creatures who would pinch anyone they could see (anyone not wearing green.) People began pinching those that didn’t wear green as a reminder that leprechauns would sneak up and pinch green-abstainers.

But there’s more to March 17 than wearing something green and knocking down a pint of Guinness. Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century and is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland — but he’s probably best known for driving the snakes from Ireland. Apparently it’s true that there are no snakes in Ireland, but there is a good probability that there never have been.

In American cities with large Irish populations, St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal. There are parades, Irish music and songs, food and drink and, of course green beer. So why is the day celebrated on March 17? Probably it is the day that St. Patrick died. In Ireland it’s a serious holiday — with the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close. It’s also a religious holiday and many Irish attend mass as it’s the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide. Of course after mass the serious celebrating begins.

One of the traditional symbols for St. Patrick’s Day is the shamrock. According to Irish legend, St. Patrick chose the shamrock as a symbol of the church’s Holy Trinity because of its three leaflets bound by a common stalk.

As I said earlier, I remember that you were supposed to wear green — in fact, green beer, green leprechauns, green hats — green everything on St. Patrick’s Day. I couldn’t find any definitive answer to why the wearing of certain colors originated. In Ireland, only Catholics wear green; Protestants all wear orange. The colors of the Republic of Ireland are green, white and orange. The orange supposedly represents the Protestant population, the green the Catholic, and the white the peace between them… it’s a bit ironic that the Irish flag is supposed to represent the unity between the two groups with the white between the two colors representing unity.

Anyhow, the luck of the Irish to ye – remember, if you cross poison ivy with a four-leaf clover you get a rash of good luck!!
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Had a visitor yesterday. Emily came out and spent some time with us. Went for a stroll around Deerfield Village even though we were having a few snow flurries. Being smart like she is, though, she came prepared with her winter coat and hat — think she wanted to build up her appetite — after her stroll, we went to her favorite Mexican restaurant – Casa G’s, where she managed to polish off some chips and salsa and a few other Mexican delights.
All and all a pretty good day for someone that just turned a year and a half….
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When I first came to the Washington area, I realized that I had an accent — I never thought I did, but people commented on the way I talked. Not so much the way I pronounced words (although that did happen) but some of the terms and phrases I used. For instance, I used to say, “sure ’nuff?” on occasion and I’d get a reaction like, “where you from, boy?”

Anyhow, I got to thinking about how it’s sometimes difficult to understand people, and I’m not talking about the immigrants, which is another issue altogether.

When I grew up in Oklahoma, we all used a term, “Y’all.” The term, which is often pronounced yaaaaaallllllll further south, is a way of referring to at least one other person. Actually, if you were talking to more than a handful of people, the correct expression would be “all y’all.” Another term that I heard and used growing up, but don’t hear around here is, “Fix’In.” It’s not used in reference to repairing anything, but is a way to indicate that at some, yet to be determined time, some action is going to be taken. I remember my grandmother saying things like, “I’m fix’in to go to the store.” A couple of terms that I often catch myself using (and I’ve noticed that Kelly uses them, too) are: “dudden and iden.” Dudden means doesn’t and iden means isn’t. For instance I may say, “That just dudden make sense,” or “That just iden right.” Of course, these often slop over into the next word and all run together; I might say, “That sounds funny duddenit,” meaning that sounds funny doesn’t it. Funny how I talk idenit?

While I was writing this, I realized that I also use “haden,” such as “He haden made up his mind yet.” The more I listen to myself, it’s a wonder anyone ever understands anything I say. The other day I caught myself saying, “I usta could do that,” referring to the fact that I used to be able to crush a beer can with my hand before I had it fixed.

Something I remember hearing growing up that I don’t hear much around here is, ‘mind to.’ For instance if you’re thinking about going to Virginia, you’d say, “I got a mind to go to Virginia.” He’s in a bad way always meant he was very ill. And one more from my past — I got shed of my old car, meaning I got rid of it.

We all talk funny — both strange funny and ha ha funny — and use terminology and phrases that may be foreign ( or “farn”) to others. When something has already happened, some say, “That’s in my behind” — just like today’s ramblings….
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As some of you know, I’m a big fan of holidays — I like them so much I even make up some of my own from time to time. Well, today isn’t exactly a holiday, but maybe it should be. Today, of course, is leap day and for a day that has only occurred 102 times previously, seems to me it should be treated special.

We all know that leap day occurs every four years — well, almost anyway. A leap year is any year whose year is exactly divisible by 4 except those which are divisible by 100 but not 400. How come? Because the exact number of days in a solar year is actually ever-so-slightly less the 365.25 (it’s 365.242374) so the algorithm to calculate leap years had to be designed such that a leap year is skipped every now and then to keep the calendar on track over the long haul.

People born on leap day are called “leaplings,” or “leapers.” It was once thought that leaping babies would inevitably prove to be sickly and “hard to raise,” although no one remembers why.

The fact is that the whole point of adding an extra day to February every four years was to align the human measurement of time more closely with nature, when the practice was started, some people apparently believed that monkeying with the calendar might actually throw nature out of whack, even hampering the raising of crops and livestock. In Scotland, there was a saying that, “Leap year was never a good sheep year.”

Another tradition that dates back at least four centuries holds that leap years confer upon women the privilege of proposing marriage to men instead of the other way around. The origin of this (romantic?) tradition is probably long forgotten.

But back to today. February 29 should be a holiday because most years, it doesn’t exist — but this year, it does. So I figure it’s a “free day.” Since the day didn’t even exist last year, you obviously didn’t go to work, or keep doctor appointments, sit in rush hour traffic, or any of those things you normally do.

Because this is really a nonexistent day, let’s just all do something that we wouldn’t normally do. Just skip work and wander around aimlessly for no apparent reason. We should all give it a try — we seem to get by without this extra day all the other years, and I don’t ever remember getting paid more in leap years, so what the heck, let’s take this nonexistent day to do stuff we never do — after all, we won’t have another chance for four more years.

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