Tag: Earth Day

  • Thinking of Autumn and Climate Change

    I put pants on today. Since the last week in June until yesterday, I have been in shorts. It is Summer after all, so that should not come as a shock to anyone. But the fact that I put on a pair of khaki pants, and it is a little humid today so it might not have been the wisest decision, to me marks the start of Fall. That’s right, I am calling it: Today starts the slow and steady decent into the Autumn Season.

    Not too long ago, I made the declaration that I am over Summer. The heat, humidity, and the constant A/C being on, wore me down. I was, and still am, ready for the seasons to change. Today, I took an active step in acclimating myself to this coming Autumn.

    Yet, I don’t think any of us have been able to escape the constant and unrelenting news reports that this Summer was the hottest, and depending on where you lived, either the driest or wettest on record. Once in a 1,000-year droughts, or once in 1,000-year floods keep happening. The heat will only get worse. Meaning that Summers will get longer, making the other seasons shorter. Even talking to my father this weekend, and he isn’t the biggest believer of climate change, he has started to express worry and concern for the future.

    There are many things that I dislike about humanity, and sadly, I think most people are like my father. They didn’t believe climate change would happen, until it happened. I remember being in grade school, so that is the mid-80’s, and every school year we had an Earth Week, where we were taught about cleaning up and throwing away garbage, being respectful of nature, because if the planet started falling apart due to how we treated it, then we are all screwed. And I grew up in Texas, so I know I got the most conservative version of that message.

    Now at least, it seems like everyone is coming around to the truth. That at least makes me hopeful for the future, and for my daughter’s generation. I know two things to be true. One is that humans are great at adapting and overcoming life threating problems. We’ve been doing it for 100,000 years. The second goes back to what I said before, people only believe in something if they experience it first-hand. To me, that’s says that humanity is primed to solve this problem.

    I’m trying to stay optimistic, and keep the faith in all of us working together. I sure hope that’s not misplaced. In the meantime, I will start to think about taking the sweaters out of winter storage.

    (And on that happy note, If you like what you read, be a champ and give a like, or a share, or hell, even leave a comment. Does a body good!)

  • ODDS and ENDS: Museum of Natural History, Alice Walker’s Journals, Dallas Mavericks, and Jazz Samba

    (Stay Fresh, Cheese Bags!)

    It’s Earth Day! AND the kid is on Spring Break! So, we’re going to the Museum of Natural History today! This is low hanging fruit when it comes to doing something with the kid that she will enjoy for several hours. For most of my friends with kids, the zoo is their “go-to” place to occupy some time, but my kid never has really enjoyed going to a zoo. Now, a petting zoo, or looking at baby animals, she will go crazy over that. But your normal, run of the mill zoo; nope, my daughter ain’t having it. What she wants is a display case with rocks in it. Maybe a diorama from the 1920’s. Give us a squid and a whale!

    Yesterday, I read a piece in The New Yorker about a book of Alice Walker’s journals. I was interested because I think Walker is a great writer who I look up to, and being that I journal, I am curious what her journals are like. Two things I took away from the article are that Walker at one point thought she should smoke “less weed,” and her preoccupation with money. I admit that I haven’t read this book and am only going off what was in the article, but these two points, weed and money, humanized Alice Walker for me, and made me respect her more. The weed statement means that she feels like she should be getting high less, and doing other things, and I infer that means writing. Even someone like Alice Walker thinks she should be working harder. And there is money. It’s not surprising that Walker was thinking about money issues before she was “ALICE WALKER” and was just another writer trying to make it. Yet, to see it in her journals just proves that finances were taking up a large part of her thought process, and needed to be expressed. Yes, she was trying out new ideas that would become great stories, but she was also trying to figure out how to pay rent and eat.

    I have been enjoying watching the Dallas Mavericks vs the Utah Jazz in the NBA Playoffs. Especially, I have enjoyed the Dallas bench playing some clutch basketball.

    Today’s album that I am listening to is “Jazz Samba” by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.