Two different parties

On Saturday I went to Boulder Creek. I took the route along Highway 17, then Bear Creek Rd and Highway 9. If you haven't done that, you have missed something. The alternating views between the trees and the open country and the ocean view bend after bend shows California at it best. I made old friends and new when I arrived. The creeping Charlie had grown so much that it covered the whole, once bare, side of the hill where my host maintains a neat house. A wonderful day.

Sunday I drove up to the Land, the beautiful land. I took Moody Road, then Page Mill up to Skyline. After three miles going south you find an iron gate. You then use the magic four numbers and the world becomes new. It is full of song and dance and blue flowers. The forget-me-nots are blooming this time of year. I was told it was the burs that bestowed the blue flowers their names. To me theses flowers are the blue flowers of the Romantic period. The blue is unforgettable. The California clouds creeping over the hills and mountains the heavenly smoke of the spirits, I won't forget them. These were two glorious days.

Reading gives me peace

I have asked myself why I love reading non-fiction. I think it gives me peace. The written word in non-fiction is as if cast in concrete. It has no option but to remain the same. After reading words, I can agree with them or disagree. If I disagree, the words are still the same. If I agree, they are the same. They do not care what I think. If I agree, they give me the comfort of knowing that I have learned something. If I disagree, I can think up ways in which I can improve upon what I have read. I can also be critical of them and reject them. That gives me the power, similar to the power I get form pruning branches from a tree, to master my thoughts. Since it is my own private matter when I reject what someone has written, I do not bother anyone. I just think about it, and then I forget about it.

I wished it were that easy with talk, specifically the give and take of conversation. I can reject what someone says, but it is hard to be outright critical because most people don't have the attention span it takes to really dope out logic. Now, I am not always logical. So, I wished people would spend some time talking about what I say. But, in this day in age, life is too short for most to talk about what they perceive are trivialities. So, instead we keep talking at one another tangentially forever.

A written piece of non-fiction has much more patience. That's why I like to read. I still like to talk, but it is not as satisfying in the long run.

We are getting new windows for our house

What's the significance? I'll be better able to see. My house will have windows to see the world a little clearer. Could it be that I haven't seen what everyone else sees so clearly? Is it possible that I am wrong about so many things because my windows have the layers of time etched into them and are giving me less clarity? I don't have those windows yet. So, I can act confused for a another five or six weeks. After that it will be the time of reckoning. That's when my windows arrive. It strikes me as odd that I am even thinking those thoughts. I have known since my first Latin lessons that "I know that I know nothing". And yet I have to examine my intellect ever so often to see if it is still there. My new windows will surely help me.

I'll get fourteen windows. I'll be sharper fourteen windows worth. So, learned me will find out more than I am asking for. All I am asking for is clarity, or better clarification.

How do you raise awareness?

People are people. They do what they must do, and it is difficult to influence opinion. If I could influence just one person who might be motivated to influence two more who, each, could influence two more, soon we would have a sea change. It wouldn't even take very long to get everyone to have the same (my) opinion. I am not interested in that. I would rather like to see everyone thinking for himself and coming to the same conclusion simply because it makes sense.

Right now we have two many folks out there starting with our all too fearless leaders right at the top who have worked hard at addling their own and others' brains. Maybe, just, maybe environmental influences such as mercury have something to do with that.

Let me tell you a story

If I told you the whole story, you probably would not believe it. You would say: Oh sure. You would think everything I say is over the top. I agree. It all is over the top, and it is all true. The only thing that makes it so hard for anyone to accept is the fact that today's mindset is geared to the myth that everything works out. I have a son named Erik. He has had a life of illnesses and pain. He has had to undergo countless operations on his head, on his abdomen, on his legs. He is mentally handicapped, and because his osteoporosis caused his legs to break, he now is in a wheelchair. His osteoporosis is caused by a vitamin D deficiency. In his case it is not the type of vitamin D you get from the sun. In his case it is the hormone the kidney makes from the vitamin D from the sun. Erik has renal rickets. He cannot make the hormone vitamin D. He has had other problems with his kidneys, one of them being hydronephrosis. In 1979 a doctor first mentioned that Erik's bones looked as if he had renal rickets. I researched the subject at the time and noticed that calcitriol might help. The doctors felt sorry for me and prescribed it for Erik once. After one month of use the doctors thought Erik shouldn't have any more. They took it away form him even though his condition improved. That was in 1979.

Since then Erik has gone from bad to worse. He has had broken legs, arms, ribs, and I don't know what else. It took a number of infections and the threat of his leg being amputated. It forced me to threaten and cajole. That's how unreasonable I am. Erik was almost fired by his doctor even though he can't talk. Finally, Erik is receiving the vitamin D hormone he needs. He has not had a broken bone for about a year. There is much more to this story. More later.