No one said there would be snakes

 Indiana Jones Meditations and Revelations

Take the path less trod by others,

whether a cave or passageway hidden,

or through a wall that might look solid,

but crumble when one is thrown against it.

If attacked by bad guys, grab any nearest

artifact, be it a spear or statue or piece of marble.

Hit them on the noggin while they are making

some silly or threatening speech to someone.

Be able to change plans at the drop of a hat,

or crack the whip on trying a different passageway.

It only takes one shot to bring down a Nazi, or

a few stabs with a knife ought to do the trick.

Be careful when borrowing any uniforms,

the bullet hole will give you away every time!

When escaping in a truck or airplane,

enlist a young teenager to drive/fly/pilot the thing.

They’ll claim inexperience, but get you away just in time.

When trying to wrest control of a careening vehicle,

stretch your neck and watch out for looming rockfaces;

kick out the bad guy before he dangles you facedown.

Don’t trust anyone to back you up all the way,

but know that oftentimes your enemies will screw up

enough to help get you out of any kind of jam.

A yell and howl and rash move will get you down,

or out or nearly so, and save your skin.

Alter your course just so, every so often;

those alternative moves and outside tracks

can save the day and bring you and yours

battered and bruised but alive, and with

artifact intact, to win the day every time.

Cue audience cheers and indy theme

Enjoy that movie, folks.

Torturous Roadways

 

Summertime, and retirement: A good time to go on some longer drives and see the country. So I have. I’ve driven around the home state of Iowa, and into Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska. Even went to Colorado with a friend, and also to Kansas City. Some things have stood out during the travels.

The Interstates seem to be in rough condition in a lot of places. They are working on sections here and there, repairing or re-painting. But I’ve encountered lots of cracks, and dimples in the surface that a tire hits and bounces on, and even potholes here and there (especially I-70 going through Missouri). There are spots whee an asphalt coating is coming off of concrete underneath, leaving large blotchy “holes” about an inch deep, that make for pretty rough driving.

My car is a compact, with smaller tires, and these uneven, rough surfaces make for a bouncy ride. I take it slower than the speed limit in these spots, but bigger vehicles don’t have as much of a problem, so they ‘tailgate’ and pass me with abandon. It can be scary, especially in heavy traffic with lots of semis.

Another interesting event is when said semi loses a tire, or a re-tread, and leaves shreds of tire skittering down the roadway. These are big enough to present a hazard, and I swerve to avoid them.

To be fair, there are large stretches of Interstate that are smooth, (or grooved) and are easy to drive on. But it seems like states have a real struggle ahead to maintain them, with the increasing amounts of traffic of all kinds. Secondary roads, like state highways or county roads, are similarly a crapshoot as to what kind of shape they are in. But the secondary roads can offer more entertaining sights. Rest stops with historic markers, or unique and unusual spots near a town of some kind can appear. I have enjoyed seeing some sights, visiting some state parks and the like. A treat of retirement is that, instead of pushing myself out the door to go to work, I can push myself out the door to go take a drive or do something else pleasant. But one still has to be on full alert, whether or not one is going to work. Be careful out there!

What, no Rivers?

 

Why did Grant never seem to paint a river?

All of those symmetric fields rounded just so,

those dour farm families, expressions sour;

Where are the fishers, or thirsty livestock?

American Gothic,

The Appraisal,

Daughters of American Revolution,

(Sultry Nights at least had water in it.)

Young Corn,

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,

Storm Coming – (at least rainwater there.)

Fall Plowing,

Stone City, Iowa.

So many landscapes and pastures,

but nary a river or stream to be seen.

Come on, Grant, rivers are the givers of life,

bringers of sustenance and refreshment too.

Wherefore are any in your many fine works?

Surely you didn’t a key feature of nature shirk?

Perhaps it just did not occur to you,

so busy with teaching, commissions and travel.

To paint just one fine, wide river,

maybe the Missouri from our side, even the Cedar?

How about the Wapsi in spring all swollen?

The Nodaway nodding southward, or Skunk swirling?

That is okay, the omission can be forgiven,

your fame still spreads far and wide.

Even the greatest can miss one small item,

for a critic to pick out with so much pride.

Thank you nevertheless for giving us so much fine art,

stamping colorful images of Iowa on retinas for all time.

NASA 901 1966

 

They were flying to a factory one morning,

to see their Gemini spacecraft being birthed.

Two dedicated astronauts in T-38s piloting,

ready for more training, not feeling any mirth.

Bad weather set in and fouled their plans,

affecting their final landing approaches.

One pulled away as the other tried to land,

One survived, the other crashed in smoke.

So much effort and personal sacrifice

went into that early NASA space program;

affecting astronauts, their kids and wives,

two losing their lives while trying to land.

It is given to us to honor their memory,

record their names for all time in history.

Getting There

 

When one retires, they tend to look back...

on all of that time spent earning a living,

working on an assembly line,

slogging it out in a busy office,

being careful in a computer room.

Even riding elevators,

or waiting for one at work.

How many hours have we spent

just looking up inside an elevator,

avoiding eye contact,

trying to be polite,

and wasting more minutes of our life?

No small amount of minutes were wasted

being inside an elevator that got halted

by accident or mishap or mechanical fault.

It would sure be nice to get those moments back,

and release the hidden terrors they conjured.

Perhaps they are better than gasping one’s way

up interminable flights of stairs -

Better perhaps, but not much easier.

Companion in Solitude

 

It is the times one is alone

that the small stream speaks,

just the right size for whispering to one.

Curls around rocks and under roots,

gurgles out a quiet greeting again.

Tiny creatures surface and splash hello,

or just chase food, that chases other food.

Watch out, here comes a skin-clad human to

join your underwater (and above) play.

Highway noise is never far away,

civilization maddeningly near.

But this spot is quiet, the water clear.

On this warm summer day, one can

wade up and down, or just relax in place.

Let the water settle, and see the activity within.

Minnows dart about, tadpoles hug the shoreline,

birds sing, raptors swoop high in lazy circles.

A clam traces a thin white trail in sand underwater...

You have a front seat to something that money cannot buy,

and it is all free, except for the cost of getting here.

Finally the sun banks lower, and an internal clock chimes.

Time to head out soon,

get something to eat,

resume life in civilization.

And don’t forget to say thank you and goodbye to this

secluded small river, your ever-present friend,

who will wait here until you come back again.

Religion and Government Do Not Mix

 

Christian beliefs are fine in the home,

helping bond a family in love and care.

But once these beliefs are set to roam,

into the halls of government they tear.

And tear and rip the fabric of humanity,

forcing all to accept one belief system.

A virus that spreads and corrodes civility,

angers and polarizes people, creates schisms.

Folks can believe whatever they want,

an old man thundering in the night sky,

the earth resting on a giant turtle’s paunch,

a pantheon of gods that argue and lie.

But none of that should determine the direction

of a capitol municipality, or it invites insurrection.

Learning Curves and Supply Slopes

 

In the last 10,000 years or so, humans have learned how to mine the metals and materials of the Earth, and make many useful objects, from tools to (sadly) weapons, to eating utensils, and PC’s and smartphones. Ultimately we were able to fabricate spacecraft, and send them off to other planets.

In the meantime, we have been rapidly depleting the Earth’s resources in our economic quest to prosper and get around. Petroleum from ancient dinosaurs and forests. Rare earth metals to power our devices, and build them. Even fresh water to slake our thirsts and clean ourselves, and power many industries.

Now we are at a threshold. We have accumulated the knowledge and expertise to visit nearby planets and asteroids, and even acquire small samples. But we are using up the Earth’s petroleum and fresh water reserves at an unsustainable rate. So we need to make some hard decisions and maybe, slight changes in emphasis too.

Outer space can no longer be the province of purely scientific research. We need to learn how to live on nearby worlds, to mine essential metals and materials to enable continued existence of the human race. Ultimately we should create an economic system that can use resources and thrive in an outer-space setting.

Selfish, perhaps. But who wants to just use up one planet’s resources and then go extinct? I’ll leave the argument of whether we deserve to, to someone else. I just would like to see us survive and prosper, at least in our own solar system.

But this may require a renewed effort to find resources, including water, not only on the Moon but also on asteroids and planetesimals. And then develop techniques to use the water for sustenance, and possibly someday, even delivering some water from celestial objects back down to the earth.

Humanity is already depleting the Earth’s supply of fresh water at a rapid rate. As some already understand, we had better find ways to go out there and get more, water and everything else, before we run out here. (sometimes it seems to me that population control of some kind wouldn’t hurt either, but again, that is a different argument).

Let’s renew our vigor and go out there and find more resources, and figure out how to use them – sooner rather than later! Thank you for taking the time to read and think about this.