Chores

Today I thought I'd weed the garden path. The grass has been encroaching on the sides into the crushed stone and narrowed it by several inches on each side. 'Shouldn't take more than an hour' methought. As I was weeding the path I decided that I should pull the weeds between the flagstones at the entrance to the garden too. That proved harder since the creek stone I had used to fill the spaces between the flags had settled over the years and needed to be loosened in order to pull the weed roots. No point just breaking the weeds off. They'll just grow back. Then there were the weeds that had grown roots under the flagstones so I had to lift the flags. Of course then the creek stone got where the flags had to be put back and they had gotten filled with dirt and crushed stone from the path that had to be sifted out so I dug out the whole area, sifted and washed the stone, relaid weed block and reset the flags before putting the creek stone back between the flags. Some of the smaller stone had been lost in the sifting since my soil screen is ½" mesh and a lot of the stone was small enough to fall through with the dirt so I went to town to buy another 40# bag of yellow creek stone but they were out so I bought some crushed brick to mix with the remaining stone. That required rearranging the stone I had already filled back in in order to get a more or less even mix, but about 5 hours after I started my one hour job it was done and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Health Care Debate

From today's FactCheck.org "In 2008, U.S. health care spending is estimated to have been $2.4 trillion. It is projected to nearly double to $4.4 trillion in 2018."

So we'll be spending more than the 1.5 trillion that opponents are complaining that the proposed health care overhaul will cost over the next 10 years whether or not the health care plan President Obama wants is passed. The difference will be in how it is spent and what we get for the money.

Currently (according to some sources) 30% of all health care dollars go to insurance company overhead and profit . The CEO of United Healthcare (the largest of the health insurers) not only has a salary in the millions but has accumulated stock options of almost ¾ of a billion. Allegedly one of every 700 dollars spent on health care in the US goes into his pocket.

Many years ago I read an article in which the author said the way to get rich was to put yourself in a "gatekeeper" position, find something people need and position yourself between them and the thing they need so that you can collect a fee for letting them have it. That is what health insurance does. It adds nothing to the health care system, it simply acts as a gateway through which you must go to get health care. The health care you get is what the insurance company decides it is willing to pay for and that decision is based on preserving its profits.

Ideally an insurance system is one of shared risk, meaning that all members contribute and the money helps those who most need it. You may pay in more than you get back for many years, like the driver who has no accidents, but at the point where you do need it there are more resources available to you than you would have on your own if you were not a member of the insurance plan. That is the irony of the complaint by opponents who object to a public option on the grounds that it is socialism. The concept of shared risk though insurance is essentially socialist, a group of people looking out for each other. The only thing that makes private insurance different is that it allows the insurance company to add profit to the cost of the system and puts the decision making over who gets what benefit into the hands of those who own the company instead of people who are accountable to the insurance holders.

Personally I think it is sad that a single payer system is not one of the options on the table. According to several polls that is what most people would prefer. It would be the most economical. I often wonder if the 30% that is currently eaten up by overhead and profit would not be sufficient to cover all those who are not now covered. True, there would be overhead with a public option. Currently Medicare (a public insurance plan that covers everyone in the country that is over 65 and those who are permanently disabled) has an overhead of 3%. Putting everyone on Medicare would still save 27% ($756 billion in 2008) and that would go a long way toward covering everyone.

Addendum: A friend in Texas sent this link to a YouTube video of some Canadians commenting about the health insurance reform debate going on here in the US. As readers of this blog know I have relatives in Canada and while they have problems of distribution too, theirs are based on how to spread the services where they are needed rather than who can afford care and who can't. You may have to wait for some non-urgent services but if you need care it is there whether or not you can pay.

Last Rainbow Falls Shot(s)

Because of the extreme range of brightness I could not get this view in a single exposure so I shot six and combined them to get details in the full range of tones from the sky to the deep shadow areas at the bottom of the canyon.

The Waterfall I Went For

As I said in my last post I actually went on my hike Thursday in order to photograph Rainbow Falls. I arrived later than I had planned and there was no sun at all in the narrow canyon that this falls comes over one side of. The best light for photographing this waterfall is overcast but then you have to leave out the sky or it is just a boring grey patch in the photo. Using some photographic wizardry (I don't divulge all my secrets to just anyone) I managed to get blue sky and even light on the falls.

Where I Ate Lunch

Yesterday I went hiking. I walked the West River trail on the AMR property (Ausable Club). I hadn't been in there in over a decade and had forgotten how much uphill walking was involved. To make matters worse I decided to do a side trip to Cathedral Rocks. I'd never been there so, why not? I was tempted to bail at one point but I am a stubborn cuss and did the whole loop even though it was further and more climbing than I had bargained for.

My real goal was Rainbow Falls which is by the end of Lower Ausable Lake. Because I spent so much time photographing I arrived there about 2 hours later than my original plan but the photos, which I spent some time working on today were worth it. As the title of this post suggests the picture above is where I stopped for lunch. It is a waterfall on the appropriately named "Wedge Brook". Be sure to click on it for the larger view. Perhaps tomorrow I'll post one from Rainbow Falls.

Thoughts on the Prof. Gates arrest incident.

I will start with the disclaimer that I don’t have all the facts but also observe that having been in a position of authority for investigation, one rarely has indisputable facts to work from. Based on what I’ve seen reported the incident was one of two strong wills butting heads and taken from the respective points of view, both are probably 'right' within the context of their own perspectives on the incident.

Again, having worked in a capacity of bureaucratic authority I can see where the training and procedures lead the police officer to the action he took. On the other hand he had the discretionary authority to overlook the professor’s anger over the intrusion into his home, to exercise diplomacy in the conduct of his verifying the professor’s identity and that he was in fact in his own home, not a burglar. He could have recognized that here was an older man, tired from travel, who was understandably upset and annoyed over having his right to be in his own home challenged. He chose instead to react in a strict bureaucratic way and as the President observed, that was stupid. Procedurally correct perhaps, but not necessary and stupid.

Professor is not without blame either. The police were simply responding to a report which they had no way of knowing whether was or was  not a crime. The reasonable course would have been to respect their need to verify the facts and cooperate. As the John Mellencamp song observes, “authority always wins” and while it may feel good at times to challenge authority, that too can be stupid.

The fact that one is intelligent, is a good person, a good officer, etc. does not mean that one is immune from occasionally behaving stupidly. There was some stupidity on both sides. The best solution would be for the two parties to meet, admit to acting stupidly and forgive each other for an all too common human failing.

Another Cloudy Cool Day

I spent part of yesterday and this morning working on some new window screens. It isn't urgent though. We have had only a handlful of days so far this year that we wanted windows open at all and the four screens we already had allowed for more than adequate ventilation on those days. It is 62º outside and 69º inside as I type. We'll probably fire up the pellet stove this evening to get rid of the dampness.

My evening was brightened yesterday by the one bloom on the cyclamen by the kitchen window. I shot several views of it. This is the best one.

Discrimination

I'll probably be on the wrong side of the fence with my liberal friends but I agree with the Supreme Court decision on the Connecticut Firemen. Before anyone leaps to the conclusion that I condone discrimination against minorities, I don't. I'm a firm beliver in civil rights and I believe the laws against discrimination were, and still are, needed. OTOH they can be carried too far.

As an illustration I'll relate an incident from my own past. After I graduated from college I intended to teach art in the public school system but I graduated just as the state universities produced a glut of teachers and I found myself searching for a non-existent job. At one point I ran onto an SBA (Small Business Administration) brochure that was promoting small business loans to individuals who had skills they could turn into a business but had resources too small to support themselves much less get a traditional loan. That was me at the time.

Per instructions in the brochure I went to my local bank and asked to speak to the loan officer who handled SBA backed loans . The loan officer listened to my proposal but said he'd never heard of this program. I showed him the brochure and he promptly called the SBA and asked about it. After a conversation with several "Uh-huh"'s and a "No" he said "Thank you" and hung up the phone. He then told me that although there was such a program and I met all the qualifications that the brochure listed, he couldn't help me because I lacked one qualification that was not in the brochure, I wasn't black.

I didn't sue. I had no money to get a lawyer and at that time, almost 40 years ago, it probably wouldn't have gone anywhere in the courts anyway. After three and half years of temporary minimum wage jobs interspersed with periods of unemployment and food stamps I finally found a steady job that I didn't like but felt lucky to get so I stuck with it until retirement 30 years later. Because of my experience though I sympathize with those firemen. If the city couldn't show that the test was actually discriminatory against minorities, those who passed should have gotten the jobs. Discrimination is discrimination no matter who it is against.

Chaumont Barrens

I went to Chaumont Barrens on Tuesday in hope of finding some Yellow Lady Slippers to photograph. Unfortunately they apparently peaked last week. I found only two quite small ones, one of which was in a clump of 4-5 that had wilted to the point of turning brown. My day was rescued however by the discovery of some Wood Lilies growing up in the midst of a dead Spreading Yew that was all silvery from being weathered. I had never seen a Wood Lily before but the Barrens is a unique environment for the North Country with several species not normally seen around here.

The Wood Lilies in this photo are all on one stem, two full blooms and a bud. The others I found were all single flowers per stem. In the past I've only gone to the Barrens when the Lady Slippers and Prairie Smoke were in bloom. I guess I should go back at other times of the year. Who knows what else I may discover.

Camping

For several years now I've gone camping in June with a couple of fellow retirees. We spent the last two days at the Eighth Lake campground. Our site was actually on Seventh Lake just North of Inlet, NY. The DEC Eighth Lake campground straddles the space between the two lakes. John and I attempted to ride the Moose River Plains Rd. on our mountain bikes. I attempted, John succeeded. I ran out of gas after 16 miles and rode the last 6 miles with Bruce who was running support for us in his SUV. My excuse is that I am out of shape because I hadn't been exercising regularly after my gall bladder surgery but it was a pretty tough trip anyway. I'm not sure I'd have been in good enough shape even if I had been riding more this spring.

We found some Pink Lady Slippers in the woods right by our campsite. I even got a shot of one with a bee on it. Last night was a beautiful evening, clear sky that turned black with glittering stars. An owl and a loon sang us to sleep.

The Bees & the Birds

Our crabapple tree is in full bloom and appears to be preparing another bumper crop of apples. That will be three years in a row. In past years it often produced only every other year. We've had milder winters in recent years though so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Not only is it a delight to look at but standing under it, the smell is wonderful. It buzzes too. The whole tree is full of bees, both bumble bees and honey bees, flitting about from blossom to blossom collecting nectar. There is no danger in standing there as they work. The bees pay no attention to me at all. They are too intent on their work.

Within days the blossoms will be gone, the ground beneath the tree white with petals, and the birds will have the tree to themselves again, a place to hide in the foliage while they work on the sunflower seeds we put out for them. Come fall I will pick the apples and give them away. I still have more jelly from last year than we can possibly eat.

Another Bloodroot Photo

I've been editing the photos I shot at Stone Valley two days ago and I think this one turned out the best of the lot. There will be no more bloodroot photos this spring as I caught them at the tail end of their blooming.

New Series of Photographs

Recently I have been playing with some images of details that I have taken over the years. I crop them round and simplify the image to reduce the unnecessary detail. The idea is that the finished image is an object for contemplation.

Spring is Here

Time for a photo in my blog. I haven't posted a photo in for quite a while. I went out photographing this afternoon. A friend called this morning about a place we both like to go. He had been there this morning and called to tell me that there wasn't much happening there yet. Some trillium but not much else. It is at a higher altitude than here and spring gets there later. During our conversation I mentioned that I had taken a couple of photos of Bloodroot yesterday but they weren't very good and I wished I knew where to find more. Ron said there was a large patch of them by the South end of the Stone Valley Trail so off I dashed after lunch and spent the afternoon happily shooting photos of Bloodroot, Trillium and more.