Cru 22-Part one-WE BEEN ROBBED!!

Last week Brenda and I returned from our biannual meeting of CRU, CRU-22. It was held, for the first time in our knowledge in a location OTHER than CSU, Ft. Collins, CO. It was in Milwaukee which turned out to be a pretty good location.

Bre and I got to experience something brand new--a stolen rental car. The morning after our second night in the city, I looked over at the hotel parking lot to spot our rental Kia Soul. But, it wasn't where we had parked it the night before. NOTHING-- the car had disappeared.

We quickly went to the hotel lobby who called the Milwaukee Police for us. I called the rental car company and reported the theft to them. The Police officer who showed up was a nice man, Adam R. He took out report and told us this type theft, of this type auto, was extremely common these days. A kid would break the window out, crawl threw to avoid setting off any alarm. They would then strip the column where the key, yes key, would start the car. The plastic apprently comes off easily. They could then use a USB connector to turn the ignition and start the Kia.

The hotel video of our parking lot showed the thief arrived at 1116 Saturday night, 16 July and by 1122 they were departing the parking lot. The policeman criticized their slow actions. He said 3 minutes was more reasonable. He said that the impound lot looked like a Kia/Hyundai sales lot. He said 26 were stolen each day. I asked how the theft was monetized and he said they were simply joy-riding and posting their "accomplishment" on social media.

Our thieves were captured and the car recovered after running into a stop sign at 0233 Sunday morning. They were 17, 15 and 12 years of age. They fled the wrecked auto, but were later taken into custody.

Welcome to Milwaukee.  At least we got a nice police car ride out of it. The police officer was very nice and gave us a ride to our morning meetings.

Moving STUFF

Brenda and I spent 3 days helping her sister move out of her house and into a very nice apartment her son built for her in his house. For safety reasons, this is a much better place for her, and is small, neat, tidy and convenient.

The process of helping her was a real challenge to both Brenda and I. She had lived in the house for 45 years and accumulated a lot of stuff.

Brenda and I had to downsize in moving from Bellwood with over 3k square feet to Allums with a bit less than half that. Brenda's sister's new place is prob a bit smaller than half her former home, so it is really tough. Plus the furniture pieces she has collected over the years are very nice and it is indeed hard to see these beautiful pieces go.  But, decisions have to be made and they would be tough for any of us. The sister has a terrific memory and can tell a story about even small knick-knacks.

So, it is hard on us all, but especially on her. She loves a lot of stuff which she is having to leave behind. i am hoping to learn something from this. Stuff is stuff, we will leave it all behind eventually. I don't want to get too wrapped up in the stuff I have--or it will own me.

And that is the lesson for us all. One day we will all do the same.

Cleaning Fish

 Yesterday I had some free time, so naturally...I cleaned 3 dozen fish.

What did you do?

Yeah, Andrew and I keep the bream (sunfish) that aren't too small and we occasionally keep a larger bass when we fish the lake behind the house. Sunday I kept 20 in about an hour of fishing. They were almost all bream. Plus, our habit is to keep most of the bream and often, especially on Sundays, I don't want to clean them. I put them in a plastic bag and freeze them. So, when I get around to cleaning them, I have a lot of them to clean.

I have fish cleaning down to a pretty fast process now. I have a sharp filet knife and make my first cut right behind the gills all the way to the spine. I think run the tip of my knife down the spine towards the tail. When I get below the ribs i turn the knife to slice along the tail right next to the spine. This leaves only the skin under the ribs attached. I got back and make sure all the filet is off the bones, and then slice down the ribs to the belly. I cut that, and am done.

I wind up with two filets with the skin on. I put my left finger on the tail with the skin down and slice off the skin, leaving a nice filet with only a small row of lateral bones in the middle of the chest area. I make two little cuts and pull that little sliver of flesh out with the bones.

I pass these along to Brenda who is faithful to wash the filets and divvy them up into meal-sized bags.

Now that's some GOOOOOOOD eating.  And we do enjoy them.

Sweating

Physical labor can be tough at my advanced age. When the heat index exceeds 100F, it can be even harder. I borrow a wood-splitter from my friend Steve, but my friend Mark had gotten lined up for it before me. So I talked to Mark and waited and waited…and waited. Finally he contracted COVID and called me to come get it. I wanted to get my stuff done and get the splitter back to him.

So I started early Monday. I worked all day Monday and sweated, and sweated, and sweated some more. I spent most of the day soaking wet from sweat. Tuesday I was tied up with meetings—which probably worked out well. Wednesday AM I started out and worked about half a day, quitting about 2 PM, and sweated quite a bit. Thursday I started and after a half day was too whipped to continue. Finally Friday we finished up.

I kinda wish I had measured my sweat rate and volume. I din’t but trust me, it was a lot. But I am happy to be healthy enough and fit enough to split about 3 cords of wood-pear and hickory in 4 days. It is also a real source of satisfaction

to see those piles of split stove wood.

That wood got it hot enough to pour sweat, and I expect it will warm me up more pleasantly than it did the first time.

Applying George Yancey’s book

I blogged a while back about Dr. Yancey’s great book, Beyond Racial Division. I mentioned his plan of engaging in conversation for mutual suasion.

On our cruise, I was pleased that we had several good opportunities to chat with African Americans. I was a bit surprised that, I seized the opportunity to initiate conversations with several folks. Victor and Vaneta, both young schoolteachers, seemed very interested in chatting. After we had built some rapport I asked Victor about his experience with racism in school. He said there wasn't much, because his school was almost 100% Hispanic and Black. I was caught off-guard, but happy to hear his experience.

A couple of days later, I was in a cruise-sponsored veteran's appreciation meeting. I struck up a conversation with a former US Marine. His experience was somewhat different from Vic's. He had, to my extreme surprise, run into harsh racism from one of his USMC supervisors. He wisely documented the racism and when things came to a head, he provided his commander with his notes. This resolved the problem, which I was happy to hear. But, I was saddened because my own experience was the the US Armed Forces, back in the 70's seemed far ahead of popular culture on dealing with racism.

As Yancey predicted, it was educational and useful to engage in these conversations. "Mutual suasion" is the ultimate goal, but this only comes about with communications.

I hope I will continue to get, and pursue, these conversations.

Patience

I have never been a patient person. In the USNA, things were required to move very quickly, and that suited me fine. I got a lot done during my academic career, and lack of patience worked in that direction.

A month or so ago, we started playing WORDLE. Lack of patience in WORDLE can hurt you. I am in such a hurry that I sometimes submit words I should know won’t work. I rush. I have rushed. But in WORDLE it can hurt you to rush. Slow down. Don’t press “Enter” until you’re sure the word could work.

Yes, rushing has given me a lot, but taken away some things. I am now retired, and not required to accomplish so much so rapidly, so the need to rush is generally much less. So, let’s just slow down and not rush.

Let’s not push “Enter” too quickly.

Body Fatness

 In writing about fatness, I am thinking I may well be blogging on the LEAST popular topic in modern culture. But, having just got off a cruise (organized gluttony), it is on my mind.

We, not that long past, surpassed Mexico as the fattest country in the world! Wow, what a distinction!

And, shortly after boarding the cruise I realized our position is NOT in jeopardy! For reasons, some obvious, others perhaps not so much, our cruise attracted some BIG folks. I have no way (or weigh) of knowing, but I suspect our average fatness of our cruise population substantially exceeds even the USA average.  This could be connected to the abundance of tasty food available.

My doctoral advisor was an expert on body composition, and I became knowledgeable through him. But, it doesn't take expertise in body composition to recognize morbid obesity. And there was no shortage. The tendency of people on cruises to wear shorts and bathing suits didn't help either.

I am not writing this to make anyone feel bad. However if you are overweight, I do NOT recommend taking a cruise. Also, it is very bad for your health. 

Let me take this opportunity to remind us all of how to lose fatness:

1) Try a common, popular diet: fasting, South Beach, Keto, etc.

2) Decide if it is: practical, doable, workable, tolerable for you.

3) If "yes", keep at it, if "NO", try another one. There are PLENTY to try.

4) No dietary restriction works for everyone, but each of them works for someone. How do you know if it works for you? Only way to knw is to try.

Experiment!

The Downside to Cruising

 

One, and perhaps the only, downside to cruising is the cost. They charge you a high price, and everything on board, with few exceptions are priced for high profits. Understand that the price for the cruise includes all your food. So, you can get all the lemonade and tea you want from most of the day, but a glass of coke will cost you $3.99. Yes, that’s the charge. We saw a lot of folks spending a lot of money on beverages. We bought one Photo of Brenda and I, and it cost…$17.99. Yep.

One of the things that showed up on our bill was a charge of $145 for “tips”. In fact, they wanted us to pay this tip before we had even set foot on the boat. What? I thought tips were voluntary and that they were “extra” to reward great service. How can we give a tip BEFORE we have received any service at all? Most of the food we ate was self-serve with o service. True enough our small stateroom got good service, but $29 per day for less than 30 min (maybe 15 min?) in our tiny stateroom?? And, I am thinking the attendant also draws some salary for his/her work.

Cruising the Carrib

Brenda and I enjoyed our first cruise in many years, thanks to our children. They gifted us a cruise out of Mobile, AL. We have done at least 2, and as many as four in the past, but this was NOW.

I’ll write several posts about this, as it is unlike normal life. The Ship was the Carnival Ecstasy, which is 30 years old and due to retire about Oct 15, 2022. Despite that, it looked great to us. The crew was painting throughout the whole 5 days. The entire crew seemed to be hard working folks. Most of the service crew were from India or from the Philippines. There were a few crew from central and South America, and at least two from Ukraine. We met one Pol, and a few from Republic of South Africa and several from Indonesia, and one from Morocco. Most of the USA folks seemed to be in the entertainment team.

One of our friends once described cruises as "organized gluttony".  True enough. More on that later.