Reflections on light bulbs

Funny thing. I never used to spend much time thinking about light bulbs. Every so often, I’d pick some up of various sizes when I was at the grocery or hardware store. A light bulb was a light bulb, or so I thought. When I had my first apartments as a young adult, first in Baltimore and then in Manhattan, I’m not even sure that I kept light bulbs in my apartment. If a bulb burned out, I was just as likely to do with out or to “borrow” one from another light fixture until I got around to getting a package of bulbs.

In those days, I could by one package of light bulbs and they would last a long time. When I was living in Manhattan, I might have had a lamp on my desk. Since I was a college student, it would have been the intelligent thing to do. Other than that, it was ceiling fixtures, one in the living room, the bedroom, and the bathroom. And they might have been bare bulbs.

So, almost thirty years later, my lighting needs are much more complex. And we are living in different times. All of a sudden what type of light bulb I use can make a difference. After spending $10 per spiral light bulb in the supermarket, I found myself in the light bulb isle of Home Depot. And listening to the ribbing my partner was giving me for making a trip to Home Depot to buy light bulbs.

And I learned about lumens in the light bulb. Lumens are the measure of the output of a light. Don’t be impressed, I only learned about lumens because I asked one of the people in the orange aprons about why some of the spirals I had seemed to produce less light than expected.

I learned that the 3–way spiral from GE had more lumens than the 3–way spiral that Home Depot sold. The other spirals sold by Home Depot had comparable lumens to the GE spiral light bulbs and the CVS spiral light bulbs. So, I’ll stick with the more expensive GE 3–way spirals for now, except I have not been able to find any. Oh, and 3–way spirals do not come in the compact size. They are larger because more spirals are needed in the higher watt spirals.

I have put the spirals in almost all the lighting on my list. Some of the lighting that gets lower use will not get spirals. Nor will some of our 3–way lamps because the spirals don’t fit. And I have not yet seen any spirals that will fit the chandelier in my dining room.

I am glad that I have finally dealt with getting spirals. It is a small way that I can help counter global warming.

light bulbs

A couple of weeks ago as we were experiencing warmer than normal weather here in the northeastern U.S., I finally went out and did something that has been on my To Do list for a few months. I went out and bought those spiral florescent bulbs. These are the bulbs that have been in the news as one of the simple things that everyone can do to try to counter the effects of global warming.

I first heard about these bulbs a few years ago. The owner of a small local hardware store, Joe, told me about these bulbs. We had just purchased our house and I was frustrated that the 60 watt bulbs that we had to use to light the study in our finished basement did not provide the lighting that my partner needed. Our light fixtures were rated for a maximum of 60 watt light bulbs, and using 100 watt bulbs comes with a risk of overloading the wiring and causing a fire. I have lived through fires, and have no desire to tempt fate again. So, we stayed with the 60 watt lightbulbs.

I happened to mention this to Joe at the hardware store one day while I was picking up one some item needed by all new homeowners. He mentioned these spiral bulbs, which I had heard about. He told me that these bulbs use less wattage than normal bulbs. So, we could put a spiral bulb that produced about 100 watts of output, but would use only 25 watts of electricity. In addition, the life of the bulb was far longer than the ordinary light bulb. So, in the summer of 2001, we went and purchased 4 100-watt output spiral bulbs at about $10 per bulb. The only drawback was that these bulbs were much larger than the normal bulb. Fortunately, they fit in the two ceiling fixtures in the basement. Five years later, only one bulb burned out, that we just replaced.

I never dealt with getting the spiral bulbs for our other light fixtures until last week, and feeling terrible for continuing to use ordinary bulbs. I was at my local pharmacy last week and saw that they were having a sale on the spiral bulbs. And they now have mini spiral bulbs that actually fit in our smaller fixtures and floor lamps. The even make mini three-way bulbs, but these seem to be hard to find.

We have thirty lightbulbs in various lighting on the main floor of our ranch-style house, because many of our light fixtures have three or four light bulbs. And I am only counting the lighting that will accomodate the mini-spirals. So far, I have replaced four. And I have eight bulbs that I can put in other fixtures. I am starting with the lighting that gets the most use.

Of course, now that I have written about how simple it is to use the spiral bulbs, it is time for me take the action and use the eight sprials that I have in my closet. And purchase some more.

My Christmas Vacation

I was going to write about AIDs in Uganda last week, but decided that I had to spend some more time checking things out on the net before I put electronic pen to electronic paper for all to see. So, I hold off on AIDs in Uganda for awhile.

On the subject of what I have been doing the last couple of weeks, You can tell from last week's post that I watched a lot of football. Probably too much, but it was fun. Fortunately, my other half is also a football fan so this is something that we enjoyed together. Speaking of football, I get e-mail from Apple, including i-tunes updates. Do you know that you can go to i-tunes and purchase copies of the 2007 college bowl games? Now there's a thought . . .

Orange Bowl at half-time

This second day of January finds me watching the Orange Bowl. [Wake Forest almost blocked a punt] I have been a pretty serious NFL football fan –– as in the New York Giants –– for twenty years now. [two commercials] My Dad was a pretty big football fan, but for some reason I did not enjoy watching football all that much as a kid. I am not sure why. [Wake Forest scored a field goal and another commercial] Perhaps it was because I did not understand the game. But I do understand the game now, and have been enjoying watching college football this season. As an alumnus of Rutgers and a football fan, I have gotten interested in college football because the Rutgers football team had one of their best year. [first down Louisville]. And won their first bowl game. [first down Louisville but there is an official review, and another commercial]

We are watching our fourth bowl game in two days, with three more to go, I am thinking of my Dad. My Dad lived in Pasadena CA for five years when he was a little boy. He talked about being able to watch the Rose Bowl from the roof of his house. I always wondered if he snuck out onto his roof. I would have tried, I think. [booth review upheld call on field, first down Louisville]. I remember this beat up football that he had. He said it was a game ball from the Rose Bowl. I wanted to play with it, and even snuck it outside one day. [field goal Louisville. Tie game] He let me play with it for a while then took it away saying it was too fragile. At this time the ball was probably between 25 and 30 years old.

Now if my Dad were alive, he would ask me what I am doing writing this blog entry while I am watching the Orange Bowl. This is a big game for us because our conference is playing in the Orange Bowl. And I’d tell him that since I am good at keyboarding that I can write this AND watch the game at the same time. And correct my typos during the commercials.

My Dad preferred college football to professional football, but he watched both. [another commercial] There was one thing he hated, the super bowl pre game show. My Dad died on January 22, 1992. It took awhile to gather family together for his funeral so his wake did happen until the following Sunday. Super bowl Sunday, Washington Redskins v Buffalo Bills, his wake was during the super bowl pre–game show. Not a coincidence. By the way, the Redskins won, 37–24. In case you are wondering, I have a helper, a copy of the 2007 Sports Almanac.

[Wake Forest fumble with less than two minutes to go in the half. Louisville goes three and out. Wake Forest drives down to within field goal range and their hotshot kicker misses a 47–yard field goal. Louisville is up, 10 to 3 at half time.]

My Dad and HIV/AIDs research

I’m not quite sure what transpired that lead my Dad to focus on immunology. By the early 1970s he was running a clinical immunology laboratory in a hospital in upstate New York. He attended conferences in his fields, both immunology and microbiology and kept up with his journal reading. As such, he read much of the early research in HIV/AIDs, and probably kept up with this reading at least until a couple of years before he passed. As far as I know, he did not do any HIV/AIDs research but several of his friends did.

Over the years my Dad and I had several occasions to talk about HIV/AIDs, both from the perspective of the research being done at that time and other writings from his immunology journals, and from the point of view of seeing so many fine young people die of AIDs.

I recall one of his last visits with us in New Jersey in June of 1990. It was the weekend of the annual gay pride parade in New York City. We took a train into the city to watch the first hour of the parade before going out for lunch. Our perch was somewhere near 23rd street in the boro of Manhattan (NYC). We got there in time to see the beginning of the parade. Among the early marchers was a rather large contingent of HIV/AIDs groups. Dad was very moved by seeing both the AIDs activist groups as well as all those living with HIV/AIDs. Remember that this was before the widespread use of the various drug cocktails used by those living with HIV/AIDs in the U.S. and other developed countries.

A couple of years later, my dear Dad was dead from complications resulting from a neurological disease.

When I first became acquainted with the Global Aids Interfaith Alliance , I knew that Dad would want to be very involved with GAIA if he were alive. If he were able, he would want to go on one of their trips to Malawi to visit various medical facilities working with HIV/AIDs patients and orphanages with children whose parents have died of HIV/AIDs. I’d like to think that my Dad is one of GAIA’s special angels.

My Dad and Africa

I want to pause for a moment and tell you about my Dad, John. You see, in many ways, my Dad is an inspiration for my interest in Malawi. You see my Dad had a Ph.D. in microbiology. I had just turned seven years old when he earned his Ph.D. Around this time; he was offered a post–doctoral fellowship in what was known then as the Congo in Africa. It is possible that my mother mentioned the possibility of living in Africa to my younger sister and I. It seemed so exotic. At the time, the only thing I knew about Africa was that the lions, monkeys and elephants that I saw in cages at the zoo lived wild. I dreamt of seeing African tribesman and wild lions, elephants, and monkeys. A short time later, my mother told us how disappointed she was that Daddy was not going to accept the fellowship. Several years later I recall hearing about some sort of violence and unrest in the Congo. I understood why he didn’t accept the fellowship.

After he earned his Ph.D., he stayed at his university, teaching biochemistry in the med school and doing research. It may have been during this time that he started to shift his research focus to immunology. Later, he ran an immunology lab in a chief medical examiner’s office of another large east coast city before moving to a small city in upstate New York where he ran a clinical immunology lab in one of the local hospitals. My Mom passed in the mid–eighties, my Dad followed a little less than eight year later.

It never occurred to me to ask him about his dissertation research or why he was offered the fellowship in the Congo. After he passed, I found his masters and Ph.D. dissertation in an antique secretary I inherited. I knew that he had left his dissertations in this secretary, when I was ready, I looked to see what he had done his dissertation research on. I don’t know what I never asked him about his dissertation work, perhaps because his life’s work took a very different direction. After he died, I got curious. All I had to do was look in the secretary and read the abstract.

Now, I am not a microbiologist, nor have I taken a microbiology course. But, I knew enough to know that his work was related to Dysentery. The Shigella Flexneri bacterium that was the focus of his research is one of the organisms causing one of the diarrheal diseases sometimes referred to as Dysentery. It wasn’t until over ten years had passed since Dad’s death and I was working on an article on the efforts to supply a safe and clean water supply to a small village in southern Malawi that I made the connection to my Dad’s dissertation work and the fellowship in the Congo that he turned down.

It was when I was reading about water borne diseases that I made the connection about my Dad’s dissertation work. I felt like it was not a coincidence that fate had led me to my interest in southern Malawi. In some ways, I feel like I am finishing the work that my Dad started in the 1950s.

I know that he would be thrilled to know of my interest in working for a safe and clean water supply in Africa and globally. I do believe in angels. he is hovering around me, smilling, as I write this.

Reflections on water

It may be ironic that as I write this it is raining. Rain, what some of the arid or semi–arid regions in the world wouldn’t give for the amount of rain we have had this year, about 9 inches above normal. Those of you who have been following my blog will recall the entries that I wrote in June and July about the flooding on the Delaware River in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

I am not here to write about our abundant rainfall, I am here to write about how my passion for Malawi started. It was about seven months ago and I had started to do background reading and research to familiarize myself with life in southern Malawi. I knew that many people living in less developed regions of the world. I knew that many people in these regions do not have easy access to a clean and accessible water supply near their dwelling. I knew of the various diseases transmitted by dirty water. I knew that the people of these regions were very, very poor. Somehow all this seemed so far away. Up until last spring when I started writing about southern Malawi

It would be arrogant of me to sit here on the east coast of the United States to say that a few months of reading and writing about the people of rural southern Malawi translate into really knowing what life is like for these wonderful people. I can not, even if I should get a chance to go and visit with these wonderful people some time in the future.

But I can have compassion. And I can use the gift of my electronic pen to write of the compassion I have for and how writing about southern Malawi has, I hoped, helped me to not take things for granted. Like the well on my property that supplies us with clean water.

It was around the end of April, and I was taking a break from my research on Malawi. I started to think about what I might or might not plant in my garden in the middle of May after the threat of a freeze had passed. Believe it or not, we were then in our third consecutive month of below average rainfall. I was wondering if we were headed for a dry summer. I wondered whether I should set in new plants or not. I decided not to, to wait awhile.

Suddenly, I thought back to the people in the village in rural southern Malawi that I was writing about. The “problems” of a dry spring seemed suddenly so trivial and unimportant. I thought to myself, what is the worse that could happen if we did have a drought that summer, some of my plants and trees might die. Perhaps we would have to dig a deeper well. But we wouldn’t get sick from drinking dirty water. We don’t have to walk for an hour one–way and wait in a long line at the crack of dawn to get a bucket of water to last the day.

I know that these words sound trite and some of you may be shaking your heads, saying, “Give me a break!” You probably have a point, for I am an expert at what I can white liberal guilt. All I can say is that, suddenly, I began to look at my own use of water differently. And perhaps I can use my “white liberal guilt” for some good, through my writing.

And a few weeks later the rains came.

Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance

In the course of my writing about Malawi and her people, I happened upon a wonderful organization called the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance . Their mission statement is:

Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) partners with religious organizations in resource-poor countries for community-based HIV prevention and care.

We assist communities in developing locally initiated, planned, and led workshops that create detailed action plans for projects specific to community needs. These grass roots, village-level projects educate high risk groups about the disease, modify sexual behavior, promote voluntary counseling and testing for HIV, foster the social and economic empowerment of women, care for AIDS orphans, provide home-based care of ill persons, improve nutrition, and reverse the stigmatization of people with AIDS. Where medications and treatment are available, projects provide aggressive referral for treatment of opportunistic infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV itself. We assist these projects through small grants and through assisting them with applications to other funding sources when appropriate.

One of the countries that they work in is Malawi. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with a retired physician who has been to Malawi for extended visits on several occasions with GAIA. Our discussions haunt me.

GAIA has a fact sheet on Malawi, with some facts that I did not mention in my earlier post that you may find interesting. I urge you to spend some time on the the GAIA website . And I urge you to look at their video.

More Facts on Malawi

Electricity (lack of), Sanitation, and Source of Drinking Water in Malawi
Source: 2004 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (Chapter 2 of the Main Report)
Prepared by the National Statistical Office of Malawi
URL: http://www.nso.malawi.net/

93% of all households do not have electricity.

Source of household drinking water:
Piped into dwelling 2.9%
Piped into yard or plot 3.4%
Public tap 13.7%
Open well in yard or plot 2.4%
Open public well 22.6%
Protected well in yard or plot 4.9%
Protected public well 38.6%
Spring 2.6%
River or stream 8.0%
Pond or lake 0.4%
Dam 0.2%
Tanker truck 0.1%

58% of all households are at least a 15–minute walk from the closest water source.

Household sanitation facilities
Flush toilet 3.4%
Traditional pit latrine 79.4%
VIP latrine 1.1%
No facility, use bush or field 16.1%

89% of all households cook with firewood.

Facts on Malawi

These facts on Malawi were forwarded to me by someone that I have cooresponded with about Malawi. I will let these facts speak for themselves.


Current Facts about Malawi

"Pocket World in Figures, 2006 Edition"
published by The Economist. (London: Profile Books.)


Highest population per doctor: Malawi ranks 1st in the world at 88,321.

Most road accidents (# people injured per 100m vehicle-km): Malawi ranks 1st in the world at 2,730. (Rwanda is a distant second at 1,764.)

Lowest purchasing power (US = 100): Malawi ranks 2nd in the world at 1.6

Maternal mortality rates: Malawi ranks 3rd in the world with 1,800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, behind Sierra Leone and Afghanistan

Lowest GDP per head: Malawi ranks 5th in the world at $140

Lowest median age: Malawi ranks 6th in the world at 16.3

Lowest life expectancy: Malawi ranks 7th at 41.1.

Lowest female life expectancy: Malawi ranks 7th at 40.6 (women live shorter lives than men in this country.)

Highest foreign debt, as % of goods and services: Malawi ranks 8th at 660%

HIV/AIDS prevalence among 15 - 49 year olds: Malawi ranks 8th at 14.2% of population in this age range

AIDS deaths per 100,000 of population: Malawi ranks 8th at 694.

Highest death rates: Malawi ranks 12th at 19.9 per 1,000 population

Crude birth rates, number of live births per 1000 people: Malawi ranks 14th at 44.6

Highest fertility rates in the world: Malawi ranks 16th at 6.1.

Highest infant mortality: Malawi ranks 16th at 102.6 per 1000 live births

Malawi geography

Malawi is a landlocked country in what is often referred to as the sub-saharan region of Africa. That is, the region below the Saharan desert. Located not far from the east coast of Africa, it borders Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania. If you are looking at this map of Africa, Malawi is small enough that you may not find it unless you know where to look.. So, I will offer a couple of hints that I hope will be helpful. First, find the equator, running through the middle of Africa. Look below (south) of the equator. Go to the east coast and look for Tanzania. If I have the correct compass points in mind, Tanzania lies northeast of Malawi. Translation, Malawi lies to the left and underneath Tanzania. In terms of its total area, Malawi is slightly smaller in size than the State of Pennsylvania in the U.S.


Natural resources include: limestone, arable land, hydropower, unexploited deposits of uranium, coal, and bauxite.

Current environmental issues include deforestation; water pollution from agricultural runoff, sewage, and industrial wastes; and silt buildup in spawning grounds that endanger fish populations.

The climate is subtropical. There are two seasons in Malawi, rainy and dry with the rainy seasons running from November to May. During the rainy season, roads serving the more remote villages may be impassable. Above ground water sources may dry up during the dry season.

A good summary of information on Malawi may be found in the World Factbook entry on Malawi. Most of the information included here including the map reproduced above is from the World Factbook.

Platelet donor

I am starting to work on my next entry about Malawi, about geography including a map. I hope to post this tomorrow or the next day.

In the meantime, some of you may recall that I wrote about making a blood donation sometime last summer. I think this was in early August. About ten days ago, the New Jersey Blood Services had an apheresis donor appreciation event that I attended. A nice buffet breakfast on a very rainy Friday. Considering that the weather was pretty awful, there it was very well attended. Hearing the people from NJ blood services talk as well as a couple of the recipients got me thinking about why I am an apheresis donor.

As I understand it, an apheresis donor is another word for a platelet donor. Platelets are the component of our blood that, among other things, form clots when we cut ourselves. Patients receiving certain forms of chemotherapy, for example, need lots of platelets as do certain newborn infants.

Many of you have probably donated whole blood at least once, perhaps in an employer or school sponsored blood drive. Whole blood donations take about 20 to 30 minutes. After your intake, you lie on a table and make your donation.

Platelets are one component of whole blood, another being red cells and plasma. Platelet donations take about one hour, not including intake. I donate double platelets, which takes a little longer. On top of donating double platelets, I can make a red cell donation about every 60 days.

Why do I do this? I do it because of people I know who live with cancer, or are in need of some form of transplant, or have received a transplanted organ. A couple of people who fit in one of those categories have touched my lives in special ways. Blood is the gift of life. As long as I continue to meet the various criteria for a blood donor, it is a fairly simple thing that I can do to help out someone who really needs help. A way of giving something back and of giving something to people I love. I can not, for example, give my friend one of my kidneys. But I can make a platelet donation for an anonymous recipient where my platelets mean the difference between life and death.

Why am I writing about Malawi?

Well, I'll tell you.

Over the last couple of years, I have been doing more reading about issues affecting the global water supply, with a focus on conditions in developing countries. Sometime in the late Spring, I had the opportunity to submit an article to Progressive Planning for their upcoming issue on water and politics. While there are many areas I could have chosen to focus on, for reasons I won't go into here, I decided to focus on Africa. Because I have never been to Africa, I knew that I needed some contacts. So, after several queries, I made contact with people who had been to Malawi.

Like a rock that gathers more and more moss as it rolls down a hill. One contact lead to other contacts, including people in southern Malawi. It is difficult to express in words how all this background research affected me. I can only say that I was and continue to be very moved by what I found out. In addition, I feel almost driven to keep going with research and writing about various issues affecting water quality and supply in southern Malawi.

I readily admit here that one of the things that I can not get past is that I have never been to Africa. Perhaps one day, all the necessary cards will fall into place, and such a trip will be possible. At present, I can only work with what I have, which is my compassion and my call to keep writing about Southern Malawi.

So, for know, I am going to do some writing about Malawi in the blog. As the title, random ramblings suggests, I will probably post other random thoughts on issues unrelated to southern Malawi in particular and global water supply in general. For those of you reading this blog who are interested in Malawi, I will endeavor to remember to mention Malawi in the title so that you can easily find postings about Malawi.

If I get something wrong, or "fail to be correct", I know that someone will tell me either privately or as a public comment. As appropriate, I will respond to these comments in this blog.

Grateful for sitting in the dark with no water

Last Friday afternoon, a line of squalls with high winds went through here in the middle of the afternoon. I didn't think much of it until I decided to take a break from my writing to see what was on the tube. Does this ever happen to you? The remote wouldn't work and I wondered what was wrong. It took me about one minute to realize that the reason the remote didn't work was because the power was off.

When we lived in northeast Jersey, we lived in a town with a municipal water system that, for the most part, kept us in water even during a power failure. Not so here, we have our own water well in our front yard. So, the only water we had was the water in our water tank, some bottled water, and a large trash can with water in it (a reserve for flushing). The power failure wasn't all that long, all things considered. It did run into the dinner hour, and fortunately for us, it was not widespread. So, we were able to go out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

Then we came home and sat in the dark with no running water. We grumbled and complained about this while listening to the radio and reading by flashlights. We dug up a few candles that provided a small amount of light. Cats and candles don't mix. At least we know that our cat and candles don't mix, so we paid close attention to where we put the candles as well as paying close attention to where the cat was.

A couple of hours after we got back from dinner, the lights came back on. All things considering, not to bad.

Why am I grateful for sitting in the dark with no water?

I spent several weeks working on an article about a remote village in southern Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa. This article will be published in the upcoming issue of Progressive Planning, the quarterly publication of the Planners Network. The theme of this issue is water and politics. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and like many other countries in sub-Sahara Africa and elsewhere, many people do not have clean, safe water for drinking, cooking, washing, etc. Poor water quality leads to a variety of public health issues including a high incidence of water-borne diseases such as cholera. Many of these same villages can not afford to hook up to the electric power grid, assuming the grid is nearby.

I have thought about the people in this remote village of southern Malawi quite often over the last few months. Writing about these wonderful people has been a life changing experience.

My lights came back on as did my running water.

My friends in Malawi are still waiting for the things that I take for granted, running water free from disease causing organisms and electricity. For some, the wait for clean and safe water may be too long, they may be dead.

Confessions

Ok, I have talked the talk about my intention to make an entry to this blog every day or so. And as you can see by the length of time since my last post that I have not lived up to this. So, This is both a public confession and a kick in the you-know-what to get me started again.

R.I.P. Cory Lidle and Tyler Stanger

Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, died yesterday when his plane crashed into a high rise on the east side of Manhattan. His flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, was with him and died in the crash.

Both were young men, dead well before their time. Cory was 34 and Tyler was 26. My prayers are with Cory’s and Tyler’s family and friends as they mourn their loved ones.

Their deaths hit me heard because of my relationship with baseball and the New York Yankees. I have been a baseball fan most of my life. I live with baseball and the Yankees for six months a year where games are played virtually every day. Baseball games on TV or the radio, conversations over dinner, newspaper accounts of games we missed, and listening to sports radio are a part of our routine during baseball season. In a sense, the ball players on the Yankees are like a part of our family. In his short time with the Yankees, Cory has already left his mark on many.

He left his mark on me. Perhaps it was because he was a starting pitcher. Perhaps it was because of his love of life. Perhaps it was because those who knew him well spoke of a normal guy who loved his family. Perhaps it was because he spoke his mind and didn’t shy away from the media. Perhaps it was because he died doing something he loved, flying.

I don’t know much about Tyler Stanger. I wish I had a way to give him equal time here. He was a flight instructor, so I suspect that he too was passionate about flying. He too left a mark on people, and he a way that is hard to explain, he has left his mark on me. Tyler, I am sorry that I never got to know you. Dead to soon.

Like many other Yankee fans, I was deeply disappointed by their early exit from the playoffs. Somehow, their loss to the Detroit Tigers seems unimportant, as does the usual post–season intrigue. Two young men are dead.

I don’t have any information on Tyler’s family. Cory and his wife Melanie, have a six–year old son, Christopher.

Rest in peace, Cory and Tyler. You will be missed.

I'm back

No, I didn't go anywhere. My fall allergies lead to a sinus infection and a little bronchitis. I laid low for most of last week, and did very little writing.

I did watch some but not all, of the first round of the baseball playoffs. I am not even going to talk about the Yankees.

For those of you who are not up on baseball, the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Actually saying the Yankees were beaten by the Tigers is being much to kind to the Yankees. The heavily favored Yankees were embarrassed by the Tigers. The Tigers, who entered the last weekend of the season in first place in the AL central division, who lost all of thier games that final weekend to end up as what is known as the wildcard team (the fourth place team).

So, while the area media is ruminating about the fate of Joe Torre, the Yankees manager, I am trying to pick up where I left off before post season baseball (and my sinus infection) and go on with my life.

In the meantime, we are due to have another warm fall day. I am behind in my fall gardening chores. The weather is glorious, and I intend to enjoy it and get some chores done at the same time.

Fall is my favorite time of year except . . .

Fall could be my favorite time of year. The weather in September and October, even into early November can be very pleasant. Like today, temps will be close to 70, nights are cool and crisp. The early morning chill gives way to moderate temps by mid-day. On a day like today, I would, at most, wear a long sleeve shirt as a stand-in for a light jacket.

The one thing that I don't like about Fall are my allergies. What I try to remember as a sometimes moan about the inconvenience of my allergies is that, all things considered, I don't have it so bad. If the worse thing that happens to me is that I suffer from sinsus congestion, I am a lot better off than many people who are in far worse health than I.

And then there are the baseball playoffs which start this week which is always a special time of year for this baseball fan.

Today is the last day of the baseball season, and some the playoff spots are still up in the air.

Final weekend of the baseball season

This is it. The final weekend of the baseball season. The Yankees clinched a few days ago, and are playing for home field advantage through out the playoffs. It still feels a little strange to even think about homefield advantage in the playoffs. I am going to date myself by saying that I remember when there was ONLY the world series. Well, those years are going, and now we have the designated hitter in the American League . . .

This is going to be an interesting final weekend of baseball, especially for the National League. The Mets clinched the east a couple of weeks ago and just lost one of their pitchers, Pedro for the playoffs. The NL central division is up for grabs with Cardinals, the Astros, and the Reds in the hunt. Though the Reds have to get lucky, IMHO to win. The NL west will be represented by the Padres or the Dodgers. And the Philies are still in the hunt for a wildcard berth.

I remember my first post season. 1963. I was recovering from that broken hip that I wrote about in my earlier entry on the solar eclipse. When you spend most of the summer in bed at the age of nine, what do you do? I watched baseball. Dodgers v. Yankees. I remember watching Sandy Kofax pitch and he was my hero. The Dodgers won in 4. I was too young and new to the game to fully appreciate Sandy Koufax. He had a 1.88 era. 1.88. Even in the National League, without the designated hitter, it is an almost unheard of era.

In the meantime, it is time for me to go back to the game.

Delaware River Redux

Ok, one last post on the subject of the June 2006 Delaware River Floods. I was talking to a friend a few days ago who was years and years of experience in hydrology and water utilities management, the subject turned to floods so I brought up the Delaware River floods. In case you are wondering, hydrology, according to Websters, is a science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on and below the earth's surface and in the atmosphere.

For awhile know I have been wondering if, instead of the State coming along and offering to "buy out" certain residential properties in flood prone areas, why couldn't the Government offer direct subsidies to help offset at least some of the costs of rehabbing the property to better with stand flooding. For example, putting a house on piers, raising outlets so that they are a three feet higher, suspending the furnace from the ceiling, and taking appliances including hot water heaters out of the basement or first floor, to name a few.

Well, I'm glad I talked to my friend, because he told me something which seemed very simple. That is, that it is not always possible to rehabs so a house will withstand flooding with minimal problems. I was reminded of all the times that people ask me about my "summer cabin" or camp in Vermont. It was not built to be lived in from mid-October to early-May. People are always asking me, why don't you have the house "winterized"? I reply that it is literally impossible to add insulation and otherwise seal off the house to keep it warm. First it is built on short piers, there is no basement, and no place for insulation. It just can't be done. I would be better off tearing the house down and building a new house.

So, I am back to square one. I have thiis idea in my head that I have to acknowledge may not work. I continue to think about all those people living along the Delaware who love the River and want to keep living there. Some are going to have the money, from various sources, to do the type of rehabbing that I am talking about. Just as important, they have a house that can be rehabbed. What happens to the people who can not afford to rehabb their house so that it can withstand floods. What happens to the people who own a house that can not be rehabbed?

No answers, I'm afraid. Just questions.