What Would Jimmy Do?

We had our driveway resurfaced yesterday. It was six years old and put in by the builder – it wasn’t a particularly good job to begin with, but six winters and summers had taken their toll and it was beginning to crack in spots, so it seemed like a good idea to get it done before it got worse – and cost more….

Of course the process got me to pondering about a few things….
I wonder where they came up with the term asphalt – after extensive research, I’m still not sure, but the origin of the word appears to be Greek – one source indicating it is from the Greek word, asphalia which means to give assurance. Another source that I like better says its origin is from the Greek word asphaltos, meaning secure. To tell you the truth, neither makes a lot of sense to me, but i wasn’t in any mood to pursue the origin any further.

Asphalt has been around almost forever. It occurs naturally in both asphalt lakes and in rock asphalt (a mixture of sand, limestone and asphalt.) The ancient Mesopotamians used it to waterproof temple baths and water tanks as a sealant to prevent leaks. The Phoenicians caulked the seams of their ships with asphalt. In the days of the Pharaohs, Egyptians used the material as mortar for rocks laid along the banks of the Nile to prevent erosion. I found one article that indicated that the infant Moses’ basket was waterproofed with asphalt.

The first recorded use of asphalt as a road-building material was in Babylon around 625 B.C. In 1870, the first true pavement in the U.S. made of asphalt was laid in Newark, N.J. During that same time frame, Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington was paved using 54,000 square yards of asphalt.

Of course, I couldn’t talk about our new driveway without wondering about the age old question of, why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? Apparently Parkway wasn’t used to designate roads until the 1950’s and the term was used for roads that went through parks and people often drove on them just to tour the scenery… so – ‘way’ pretty much means ‘road.’ A driveway is a road that you drive on, even if you just drive from the street to your garage. And a parkway (originally) referred to a road through (or to) a park.

I remember when I was growing up, driveways were usually much longer than they are today. Houses set further back off the street and if people were fortunate enough to have a garage, it was usually at or near the back of their property. So then, you really could “drive” on your driveway.

Of course, you could chalk this nomenclature up to the English language – lots of things seem backward – like for some reason anything sent by ship is cargo and things sent by cars is a shipment.

No matter — when you come to visit us feel free to park in our (new) driveway.
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Seems we’re in the midst of a lot of holidays — we’ve celebrated several birthdays in the past week or so, including Claire’s yesterday. Today is Flag Day and one of the more important holidays is coming up on Saturday — National Hollerin’ Contest Day.

Unfortunately, hollerin has just about become a lost art. That’s too bad because hollerin’ is really the earliest form of communication between humans. Before the days of telecommunications, it was the traditional form of communication used in rural areas to convey long-distance messages.
Fortunately, hollerin’ still exists among some peoples of the world and is still practiced in certain societies. In the US, the art is practiced mostly in the south.
Hollerin’ usually falls into one of these groups:

Distress hollers — these hollers were essential in rural communities. They notified others within hearing range of imminent danger…

Functional hollers — these hollers were/are used in day-to-day life on the farm or in the field. Each farmer had his own distinctive hollers to bring in his hogs, cattle, sheep, dogs, etc.

Communicative hollers — the main purpose of these cries were to express the greeting, “howdy neighbor.” Women frequently used this form of holler.

Expressive hollers — some hollers are voiced purely for pleasure’s sake; often this is a hollered version of a popular tune of melody and serves no purpose other than of entertainment.

So there you have it, in case you were wondering. Next time you hear a holler, see if you can categorize it – expressive, functional, distress, communicative. Why would you want to do that? The answer to that question is beyond the scope of this blog. I suggest we just all be quite and listen for the hollerin’ on Saturday.
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Chúc mừng sinh nhật
Maligayang kaarawan
Buon compleanno
Všetko najlepšie
Nakutakia mema kwa siku yako ya kuzaliwa!
Halala ngosuku lokuzalwa
Hepi berthde
Ia manuia lou Aso Fanau
Laa-ruggyree sonney dhyt
Barka da sabon shekera

In any language, the message is the same today.
Happy Birthday to the love of my life.

You are still the woman of my dreams and hanging out with you is still my favorite thing to do.
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In a couple of days we’ll celebrate Flag Day. Well, “celebrate” probably isn’t the right word, because lately the day usually passes without much notice. That’s too bad, because the flag is a symbol of our country and should be treated with the respect that was intended and that it deserves. I hate to see any type of clothing made from the American flag.

Flags have been around for at least 3000 years. They are mentioned in lots of old literature and there a biblical references to “flag” symbols. Some believe that flag colors and symbols originated with the Chinese who consigned different colors with religion or philosophy.

We’ve probably all heard that the first American Flag (the flag we’re celebrating on Flag Day) was made by Betsy Ross. The fact is that there is no historical evidence that Betsy Ross made the first American flag – or – that she helped design it.

The fact is that there’s a lot not known about how the flag originated. There’s been a lot of speculation, but we really don’t know why the American flag contains stars and stripes, or why the colors red, white and blue were chosen.

The Star-Spangled Banner (the flag that inspired the National Anthem) was made by Mary Pickersgill in Baltimore in 1815 and had 15 stars and 15 stripes. In 1818, Congress enacted the third (and final) Flag Resolution, mandating that official flags would have thirteen stripes and one star for each state. Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1815 but it didn’t become the National Anthem until 1931.

The idea of a national Flag Day was conceived of, and worked for by B. J. Cigrand, a small-town Wisconsin school teacher. Only one state (Pennsylvania) observes June 14 as a legal state Flag Day holiday.

The 50-star flag was designed by a 17 year old high school student, Bob Heft, of Lancaster, Ohio. He made the flag for his 11th grade history class in 1958. (He got a grade of B minus.)

During the manufacture of the flag, the material left over is never allowed to fall onto the floor (it always falls into containers.)

The flag planted on the moon is made of nylon and set in an aluminum frame.

Miniature flags of the 50 United States and 124 United Nations were carried to the moon and brought back to Earth. These flags were distributed by President Nixon to the governors of the states and the heads of the member nations of the United Nations.

There should never be guide wires on a flagpole. It must be free standing.

Happy Flag Day to everyone….
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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
—and—
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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