BUTTERFLY LIVES ARE BRIEF

Summer outdoor temperatures have arrived, 80 to 81 degrees although the humidity is still low; hence, a delightful open roofed ride to the Fredrick Meijer's Sculture Gardens off East Beltline Road in Grand Rapids. What appears to be a 100 acre site, there are outdoor and indoor sculpture displays including a Leonardo DiVinci inspired 24 foot bronze horse. Although the clay molds for the horse were destroyed when French troops over ran Milan Italy, the sketches remained and Fredrick Meijers commissioned the horse to be reserected in bronze as a center piece for his sculture garden.

What has captured the imagination of the people of our State however, is the Conservatory of Butterflies. Within a multistoried glass and aluminum building, air temperature maintained at 80 degrees F and almost 100% humidity, is the largest butterfly conservatory in the world. Butterflies in chrysalis form, grown on butterfly farms in Asia and Central America, are flown to Grand Rapids, set inside an incubator where they hatch and dry their wings to a gackle of elementary school children and walk-about retired folk. Once all water is gone from their wings, they begin to fly and are released into the Conservatory. The butterflies lives are brief, usually two weeks. 90% of the chrysalises hatch, once emerged, butterflies fly about this tropical garden, lighting everso gently on the children who are standing still. They flit amongst the palms and philodendrons and the multitude of tropical forest plants. Nectar is supplied in pods, over-ripen fruits (I wonder where they get their over ripened mangos, Meijer's maybe?) sits along the ground. Seed eating birds fly in this forest as well. Volunteer instructors tell any one who is listening about the butterflies, and, as a special attraction from March 1st to May 13th, the Clear Butterfly. That's right, the wings of the butterfly are clear see through. The structural architecture is preserved, but it looks as if there is no substance inbetween. We are told, that in reality, this type of butterfly has so few scales on its wings, that the delicate membrane appears transparent. Hence, they blend into whatever environment they inhabit. The wings of other butterflies have many more scales and have a variety of protective camoflage markings. Our egress from the Conservatory was through a double door room, where we are asked to turn around to be sure that no butterfly remains on us as we leave.

After the butterfly Conservatory, we walked portions of the indoor and outdoor Sculpture Gardens, found the 24 foot horse, had a picture of KK beneath the horse.

Our ride home was open aired, Spring barely visible in the farmland we saw, although the faint green of Winter Wheat was beginning to show as it emerges from its winter germination. After a dinner at Sahara's Middle Eastern Resturant, great humis and kabobs, we arrived home in the first sprinkles of rain.

BARACK OBAMA

Several weeks ago the Wall Street Journal had an editorial with the headlines "Is Obama Black Enough?" The gist of the non-WSJ columnist's message as I recall was that Barack Obama is biracial with a West Indian father and a caucasion mother, brought up in a middle class oriented environment. The article cited straw presidential polls of African Americans who would be voting for Hillary Clinton instead of B. Obama by a wide margin. The editorial went on to say that the reason for not voting for potentially the first African American for President of the USA, was that he did not have the ancestry of slavery so central to the culture and thinking of today's African Americans. What reminded me of the WSJ editorial of several weeks ago were two articles today: 1) A New York Times article regarding a follow up story on the fire in the Bronx also several weeks ago where 9 children and one women died. The owner of the home had two wives, is a polygamists, and an immigrant from Mali, Africa. The NYT article was about the practice of polygamy in West Africa as it has been brought to the US. The practice of polygamy has long been imbeded in the West African culture as well codified in the Islamic tradition. The article interviewed a women from Ghana who came to the US legally; met and married a man from Ivory Coast, starting a family. The women came home one day to find a teenager in her house who was her husband's second wife that he had acquired and had imported from Africa. The article went on to highlight issues of legal status in the US of these women as well as the cultural traditions/family, clans practices continuing today. If a women objected to her husband acquiring more wives, she was shunned not only by her community here in US but she was also shunned by her family/clan in Africa. The article likened polygamy as still practiced in Africa, apparently here as well, to the enslavement of women. 2) the second article of today was by the columnist Clarence Page, initially addressing how black immigrants from Africa achieved the highest educational attainment of any population group on a series of national tests. C. Page went on to cite the 2004 black Harvard profesors Lani Guinier and Henry Gates Jr. research on black Harvard undergraduates. Between 1/2 to 2/3 's of Harvards black undergraduates were West Indian or African immigrants, their children, or of biracial couples. The make-up of other Ivy League or other elite universities undergraduates are also of a similar mixure of West Indian, African Immigrants, or children of biracial couples. The high scores on the tests were by this same Immigrant, West Indian, and biracial children. C. Page asks retorically if elite schools are padding their racial diversity numbers with blacks who do not have a history of American Slavery in their families. He questions whether affirmative action fulfills its original intent. C. Page goes on to say that the original intent of Affirmative Action was to provide reparations for slavery and this has morphed into a promotion of diversity irrespective of any American Slavery Ancestory.

I have lived through the 1960's when many of the Civil Rights laws were written and publically debated, editorialized, and discussed amongst people far more knowledgable than myself. From what I recall, affirmative action was a device to recognize that black & women applicants, who had similar qualifications as white males, should be equally regarded in the application process whether admissions to educational opportunities or jobs, etc. The justification for affirmative action was that it was only fair that blacks and women who were equal, be considered equal. Over time, ideas and language has indeed morphed. Instead of using the descriptive "blacks", the substitute word was now "minorities" with the express exclusion of Asians from the minority lexicon. Currently" Minorities" has blacks and latino imbedded in the implication. So, words have morphed and I guess that the concept of "fairness" which had enormous support from the general American public has morphed into "reparations for an ancestry of slavery" in the black community. I see a conflict brewing as several states have reversed their affirmative action legislation. Is affirmative action reparations or fairness now?

I do know from my own ancestry "Honicky" is an Americanization of Honyesky meaning "belonging to the manor or house". The reference to the Slavic (slave) of South Central European or Serf from Eastern Europe or Russia, is one who belonged to the land and was bonded to that land, was bought and sold along with the land/manor prior to 1862. (Read Nikolai Gogol "Dead Souls") At the same time as Abraham Lincoln was declaring the Emancipation Proclamation, Czar Alexander Nikolaievich II, abolished Serfdom throughout Russia, what is now South Central Europe and the territories under the influences of the Orthodox Catholic Church extending to the Mediteranian Sea. By the middle of the 19th Century, in what is considered Western Civilization, slavery emerged from the shadows of feudalism and into the light of Voltaire, Locke, and eventually Jeffersononianism here in our country, and was abolished. I recall the meaning of Honyesky from my mother who was talking about her grandparents and their history in Czeckoslovakia. Today, vestiges of institutionalized slavery exist in the developing world, and, if we believe that the 20,000 number of women in immigrant or Morman polygamy situations here in USA is true, slavery persists here.

I would like to know from you, what is your interpretation of the intent of the editorial question "Is Obama Black Enough?" Has "reparations for previous slavery" been at the heart of affirmative action all along? Do these questions need to be resolved before a black American president can be elected? Are there other questions or issues that need to be raised and resolved before an American President can be elected by a color blind nation?

From my point of view, the Founding Fathers adopted a Constitution that outlined a process to achieve the ideals embodied in the second sentance of the Declaration of Independance. "We hold these trueths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, amongst which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Nothing is mentioned about justice, reparations, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc. It seems to me that the intent was to take the situation as we find it, and go from there. We are all born with a clean slate, initially that slate is written upon by our families and our communities. As we grow up, that slate is then written upon by ourselves as we make choices of how we will behave towards one another.

When you want to know: go to the source

Whenever I have an opportunity to obtain original source documents/information, I make a concerted effort to read or attend a lecture which likely is as close to original information as possible. Such was the case today. A MSU Medical School graduate, who has been working in International Health for his career, gave a Pediatric Grand Rounds on "Adolescent HIV/AIDS in South Africa." Michael Banash is an Infectious Disease expert who had developed infectious disease control and treatment programs in Calcutta Bangaldesh, has, over the last 7 years, been in the Zulu Homeland of South Africa, Natal, studying HIV/AIDS in adolescents and young adults.

The scope of the HIV/AIDS problem in sub-Sahara Africa is huge ranging from 6% prevalence in populations of West Africa, to 13% in Central Africal countries, 20% in South Africa, and in the Zulu Homeland, 10% of 14 year old women having thier first child and 50% of women 20 to 34 years of age are infected with HIV. That means that within 7 to 10 years, these HIV infected women will die of AIDS and its related complications. The women have their first sexual intercourse about 5 years younger than the males. The male prevalence data for HIV is highest amongst the 25 to 40 year olds. All of the African prevalence data may underestimate the true prevalence since such information is collected after the mother has delivered her first child and she consents to be tested for HIV, and informs who her partner is. The consent process is complicated by the societal shame associated with HIV infection. Societal shame has multiple factors. The person with AIDS and just being sick is believed to reflect badly upon one's self and dishonors one's ancestors. One is a victim of a spell cast by another or an ancestor. One of the most important contributors to societal shame for this population, however, is the perceived failure of the traditional healer to cast out the "spell" which is believed to be the cause of the person's ailment. In addition, Zulu traditional healers do not acknowledge chronic illness (for the same reason as looking impotent by not casting out the spell of HIV) nor preventative care since the body does not look "sick." The conflict between traditional and Western medicine is being played through out Africa on the broader government level as well . Recently, a 30 year old South African Cabinet member died of pneumocystis pneumonia, a type of pneumonia found almost exclusive in adult patients with AIDS, and there was a denial of HIV infection in this man by governmental officials.

More than 50% head-of-households in Natal are women. When the HIV infected head-of-household mother dies, her children may be adopted into a relative's home, unless the child is HIV positive. There is a dysincentive for the mother to find out if her child/children are infected with HIV, since the children may not have any place to go when the mother dies. And, since the Zulu tradition does not involve forming villages or towns where children may gather and be visible, the initially adopted child who later on is found to have AIDS, then is "out" of the adopting relative, and disappears into the bush.

Against this background, Dr. Banash has spent the immediate last two years of his 7 years in this region, organizing an informational and interventional program which would go from school to school. To attract children to the program, school uniforms and computer lessons/time are offered to those who do not have uniforms and almost no one has access to computers. Mobile teams provide limited examinations, testing and counseling services after an initial 2 hour informational session. This traveling program then will return again and again, enhancing the educational, counseling, and testing components. The program runs on weekends and school holidays for the parents of the children. Two years were required to develop this program: to meet with government officials who did not want to look bad in front of Non Governmental Organizations (NGO), governmental personnel lacking authority to permit NGO's from operating within the various communities, central government kicking out the Luthern missionary medical services which was the only provider of medical care to Natal; need for tribal leader approval in multiple geographic and overlapping regions; and developing partnerships with traditional healers to allow information and testing to occur.

Treatment for AIDS and vacinations against HIV are a very difficult issues at this time. Current WHO recommendations to initiate Anti-Retroviral Treatment involves assessment for the complications of AIDS, individualized treatment for those complications, all by highly trained medical personnel such as doctors and advanced practice nurses. Recruiting such highly medically skilled people is difficult since they would have to go into these areas overnight and this area has a very high murder rate. (Some of the high murder rate is related to the only crop raised: marijuana.) (The people staffing the testing, educational and counseling program are recruited from the indigineous population) Vacinations against the HIV are more than 15 years away by some estimates since the HIV outsmarts the human body's defenses and adapts to the new changes in the immune system. However, the most effective preventative therapy against HIV acquisition, more than 60% effective, is circumcision of males. In the Zulu culture, circumcision is not an accepted practice, nor is it performed so there are no practitioners who could perform circumcisions. (in the Jewish tradition, a Rabbi or maven perform circucisions on the newborn male so a medically trained practitioner is not needed).

In the fourty five minute presentation, the 45 minutes of questions and answers that followed, as well as the hour spent with resident teaching during Pediatric Subspecialty Conference, there was a lot of first hand information. When I got home, KK suggested that I write down what had been discussed so that I could remember for a future date. I thought I would share some of the information to you as HIV/AIDS in Africa are regularly in the news.

Spring 2007

The weather temperature has risen to 50+ degrees although the sky is overcast and there has been rain. Ice that had covered our lake just yesterday is now gone. The Mallard ducks that returned from elsewhere, are now checking out the neighborhood looking for a good nesting place. Some years they have nested in the clumps of cedar trees next to the sidewalk just a couple of doors down. Other years, they have hidden themselves in the wetland area separating us from our neighbors. In the lake, here near the shallow end, there was a tumultuous underwater scurrying from the large goldfish. As KK and I walked this afternoon, delayed by some rain drops, we saw evidence of early crocuses coming up. Tulips and daffodils are sure to follow.

Last night was our last home basketball game for this season. The lady Spartans lost a sloppily played game for the first session. However, the second game, between Bowling Green State University and Vanderbilt U was well played, with excellent point guard play by # 20 of BGSU, exciting to watch. The Vandy band was right next to us. The Vandy cheerleaders immediately in front of us. Mascots: Pirates, Scarlet Knights, Comodors, Spartans, Hornets, and something we could not figure out were present. We were surrounded by the BGSU supporters, dressed in their orange and brown jackets, shirts, pants, and caps. All in all, a memorable time to enthuse us for coming back next year, hopefully the Lady Spartans learn how to play without repeated turnovers.

Our next brief outting is to the Butterfly exhibit in Grand Rapids; a double doored affair where attendents gently remove the butterfles that have landed upon you when you were in the main open exhibit. Following the butterflies will be the Holland tulip festival at the beginning of May.

Titilating Warm Weather

A hint of Spring came yesterday with 73 degree weather, soft breezes, and clear sunny skies. Collectively, mid-Michiganians breathed a sigh of relief from the previous sunny but bitter cold temperatures. On our walk, the ice had mostly melted from the sidewalks, or left pathways through the ice fields. Early on in the tour, I took off my Rugby shirt and continued in my MSU 2000 Basketball NCAA Champions tee shirt. The Ice on the lakes is intact, with small fringe areas of open water. This phenomenon suggests to me that the ice was really thick from all the cold temperatures we have had, and a few days of gloriously warm days have only just begun to melt the lake ice.

Today, KK and I walked earlier than usual since the ice is mostly off the pathways and the temperature later on today is suppose to fall, ending in snowfall later in the week. Still, signs of Spring abound: two geese, residents from previous years have returned honking as they glide along the margins of our still frozen lake, looking for open water; finding none, settle on the grass in our neighbor's yard. Pesky ground squirrels have emerged in our front and back yards, leaving gaping holes in the ground. KK and my concern is the ground squirrel nesting in the floor of our sun room, chewing on the wiring again for the floor heat. KK is off to Mason, and the MSU extension pest control station which furnishes live traps to capture the critters. We again will deposit our catch into the woodlands of Meridian Parks. To return to our yard, they would have to cross the now flooded area of the Raby Drain and Okemos Road; both sufficiently hazardous as to form a barrier to illegal immigration. As I write this blog, I can see two black squirrels jumping over one another, then each pausing, digging through the leaves on the ground of a strip of wetlands leading to our Lake, digging in the lawn, then sitting upright, chewing on a morsel retrieved from a buried past. Cute aren't they? all but for the chewing on our house wires. Hopefully the contractor has sealed the known underfloor opening.

This is the time for March Madness. With both the Men's and Women's MSU Varsity Basketball teams in their respective NCAA tournaments, our lives revolve around our TV viewing, and, in the case of the Women's team, attending the initial rounds of the games being held at the Breslin Student Events Center. Tickets for the Women's first two rounds are less expensive than the Men's, they are available for the Women's where the Men's first round is in Winston-Salem NC and sold out, and our seating is in the lower bowl, with real chairs that have backs, and not in the nose-bleed section aluminum benches. We are treating ourselves this weekend, of course, as Tuesday is KK's __th birthday.

On a final note, I have been spending my days, slogging through my tax preparation forms, to submit my tax return to our accountant who will plug my numbers into a spred sheet, and generate a tax return to be filed electronically. The only thing I have to do after submitting the preparation form, is to send checks to Uncle Sam, Govenor Jennifer Granholm, and Mayor Benarro. I hope all of you have gone through this falderall by now, are sitting back expecting a large refund check. This is the time of year for reflection on income redistribution issues.

Today has been cold with the water surrounding the ice pack frozen. KK and I on our walk, were bundled up against the wind.

INFORMATION: KK and I will be going to Alaska June 13th, flying from Vancouver to Dawson and then we train and bus until we reach the coast via Anchorage, Denali Park. Then we cruise various glacers and the inside passageway back to Vancouver, arriving July 1st. We will have Rudy with us as we travel along the coast to San Francisco. Therefore West Coast people, ma and pa will be arriving at your doorstep sometime during the first two weeks of July. Towards the end of July, we will be at the cottage. You are welcome to come to Canada and return the drop in favor.

My system will not allow pictures to be uploaded for some reason, so...

Is It March Already?

KK and I have pushed back the time of our morning walks to noon or midafternoon. These winter days have been absolutely gorgeous, brilliant sunshine, blue skys and just a hint of breeze. However, our walking time change is not in response to this Sunday's Daylight Savings Time change, rather, saftey. Having had a late onset of winter here in Michigan, winter weather changes usually observed in February, are now felt in March. With the sun higher in the sky each day, the days are somewhat warmer, relatively that is; mid to upper teens, sometimes low twenties F during the day, and very cold, single digits to below zero during the nights. This makes the sap run, good sugaring, but also the snow on the sidewalks that has been packed into ice, now is warmed somewhat, then freezes leaving a skating ring surface to walk on.

KK and I addressed the slick sidewalks with ice cleats earlier this winter, but now, with many stretches of sidewalk clear and dry, 1/4 to 1/3 mile lengths at a time, we found ourselves taking on and off the cleats. Our strategy now is to leave while the sun has had a chance to warm mother earth, await until the icy areas become slushy so that our boots tramp and grip our way along. This strategy works until Burcham Road, shaded as it is by densely packed deciduous trees, sheltering the sidewalk from direct rays of the sun, warming slightly with the prevailing ambient temperature, but freezing at night, leaving a perpetual ice rink surface for major stretches. KK and I have taken different approaches to this dangerous walkway issue: I walk with short choppy steps finding snow and traction where I can. KK on the other hand, chooses to walk in the streets. The danger in the street is to be slowly run over by aged drivers who long ago should have had their licenses revolked, or early drivers (teenagers) who drive distracted by companions, radios, Ipods, cellphones oblivious to their outside-of-the-car surroundings. Two days ago I observed both kinds of dangerous drivers: the elderly, driving slowly on Burcham, bumping along the curb in their Saab; and the younger, nearly plowing into the rear of a gasoline tanker truck, whose lights and flashers were going. The tanker was turning into a gas station but waiting for a car to clear the driveway. I had oberved the tanker stopped 1/3 mile ahead and saw the young person passing me on my right. I slowed to let her switch over to my lane, then I realized the driver was unaware of the tanker until tail lights came on and the car lerched forward, stopping a few feet from the tankers bumper. To me that was unsettling.

As winter creeps into spring, the times of glorious days mixed with the pall of night has me reflecting on the seasons of one's life; the calendar, a metaphor for life's seasons. Indeed it is fortunate that KK and I live in the Northern USA, as there are seasons to mark such changes, as well as uplift our spirits in anticipation of the coming rebirth. Activities, no matter spring, summer, winter or fall, are insufficient for my spirit; rather, it is the shared moments that binds us together, evolving as we are.

The Snow Train

The trip up to Sault Ste. Marie Michigan via "motor coach" began ominously with icy Clark Road leading to the parking lot where we were to be picked up. Having arrived early, we waited and watched as cars turning into the lot made 360s. We boarded the bus with prefunctory "hello's", strangers to one another as we were. Northward we went. The snow came down in intense flurries making the highway slushy. The bus rocked in the cross winds. For our 19 travelers, each were thankful that someone else was driving. We began connecting with one another by giving a short synopsis of who we were and where we came from. Many of us are retirees; many enumerated children and grandchildren. Some were State of Michigan office workers, some from Michigan State University, others transplants from West Virginia, even Australia. Most were born and raised within a few short miles of Lansing. The funniest threesome: the Slut Sisters, co-workers for the State of Michigan who nicknamed themselves and carried the title with pride; the most intriguing to me: a former "Flying Tiger" who during WW II flew the "hump" from Burma to China carrying supplies that turned the tide of war against the Japanese. The Japanese seemed invicible and had committed the "Rape of Nansing". Before being stopped, the Japanese were marching towards Chungking along the banks of the Yangtze River. A memorial is erected in Chungking in honor of the "Flying Tigers" and our traveling companion had visited there, greeted warmly.

Our tour reached the Quality Inn on time inspite of the weather, KK and I going to the Family Dollar Store to purchase a makeshift bathing suit so I could swim in the Motel pool. We bussed into town for dinner at the Ramada Hotel dining room overlooking the Soo Locks, now frozen and stark. White fish, freshly caught from Lake Superior, perfectly baked and garnished was the majorities' entre. After dinner, our driver dropped a contingent of us off at the Native American Casino. KK and I headed for the slots where we spent the next hours winning and loosing, having broken even between the two of us for the evening. A shuttle ride back to the Motel included a casino regular and a demographic lesson: an almost 80 year old, cigarette smoking women, who lives by herself on Social Security, knows and chats with our shuttle driver. She lives in a former single story, 8 room motel, converted into low income apartments, with mounds of snow lining the walkway into each door. The shuttle driver waited until the woman had opened her door and entered, he saying to us, as if by way of apology for the delay, "I'll wait until she opens the door. Last night I had to help her unlock her door." The casino provides socialization in this town of 16,000 which has little to do except drink, snowmobile, and watch satellite "Direct TV" programing. The shuttle follows back roads to our motel. We get out, tip the driver, enter our warm room smelling of cigarette smoke.

KK and I awakened at 5 AM to be ready for breakfast at 6 AM, to be ready for our 7AM departure for the Snow Train. Across the International Bridge, high up, we look down upon the massive American side locks, large enough for 1000 foot ore carriers, and, further on, over the smaller locks, mainly for pleasure boats on the Canadian side. Expectantly holding our passports, the bus stops at Canadian Customs, the driver gets out and enters the customs' booth, returns and says that our Phillipino origin, former Australian, now American green card holder must get out of the bus and go inside the booth. She stands, pauses, turns to the group and waves and says "goodbye", she takes her leave. Quickly she returns and off we go to the Sault Ste. Marie train station. We are early, the train is late. Finally, the two engine 10 car train arrives and we go to our group assigned car: #5. Vintage 1950's, refurbished in red seating, large windows, and a redone, now stainless steel toilet, retrofitted with a holding tank. Apparently environmental laws have caught up to the frozen North. The whisle blew, the train lurches forward and we snake our way, first through the switch yard, past the Algoma Steel mills, and quickly into the suburban areas of this city of 75,000. We parallel Highway 17, although we can not see it because of the trees, up the AGAWA Valley to the Provincial Park at the end of our 114 mile route. Yes, the markings along the rail line are in miles; highway # 17 is in kilometers. The train picks up speed, to 40 miles per hour and we are rocking from side to side. Seated, we begin to snap pictures through the windows, reminded by the overhead speaker of coming attractions. The views open up to mounds of accumulated snow. Solitary rocks piled with 2 and 3 feet of snow. Black spruce and balsm trees bowed with snow like some of KK's Village 56 houses. Waterfalls, with layers of ice, blue & green cascading down, are frozen into long pillars. After long intervals of level travel, the train climbs the Niagra Escarpment, made by a fault in the Earth's crust 2.3 billion years ago. The valley we are in had been carved by the last ice age glacier, it having receeded 10,000 years ago. Slowly we make the 1600 foot elevation before we descend to the Valley floor. There is a reason that two engines are needed for our relatively small train of passenger cars. On our way to the Provincial Park, we are called to the dining car for our lasagna lunch, served on Melmac plates, with stainless steel utensils (obviously no threat to use them in a hijack situation as might occur when traveling by air). The journey to the dining car is an adventure in and of itself as the train car rocks side to side. We walk with wide-based gait, holding onto every seat-top corner, inspite of occasionally flicking the head of the seated occupant. Apologies given and accepted. Laughing loudly, our troop proceeds. Between rail cars, the rocking and rolling is augmented by hard to open heavy doors, a blast of cold winter air, the din of noise made by the steel train wheels on the steel tracks, and the up and down motion between train cars. PinBall like, we ourselves lurch to the dinning car. Lunch is served and eaten with quiet chatter. Concluding our meal and against dining car personnel recommendations, a small group of us head even more forward to the "gift shop", located in the most forward car, identified by an area on one side with a counter having replaced 3 rows of seats, and a storage area on the otherside, also, 3 seats long. Baseball caps with logos, Canadian flag refrigerator magnets, and cutesy Royal Canadian Mounted Police dolls in brown broad brimed hats, scarlet red coats, made in China, are for sale. On the journey back to our assigned car, we are greeted by the seated one's recognizing our troup and accompanied by more laughter with appropriate comments.

At our Park destination, the engines are switched from front to back using a side track. The overhead speaker asks us to change our seats; rotate them from back to front so that for the return trip most of us will be facing forward. The engines puffed and pulled us up the canyon wall. High along a ridge one could see a companion valley emptying into Lake Superior with some islands further out; over a train tressel perched upon a hydroelectric dam, and gradually rolling towards our starting point. We could see snow covered landscape, at times broad and sweeping, other times, we were confined within the tall trees and craigy rocks hugging the train tracks. As we approached Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, the suburban environs were punctuated by railroad crossing signal's blinking red lights and the sound of the warning bell, at first faint, growing louder, and then faint again as we passed.

Through the railway switch yard, past Algoma Steel, we stop at the train station. Retracing our luncheon rail car steps to depart, now the train car is no longer rocking. We descend from the train into the bitter cold wind towards our warm bus. The bus driver tells us about an note left on the driver's window and his encounter with a man who had written the note and left it, in foul language, he wishing the driver harm and death, and the driver's family bad forturne as the note admonished the driver about the motor coach polluting the air and contributing to greenhouse gases. Sounds to me to be a Canadian version of "road rage."

Back over the International Bridge; stopping at US Custom's, a chatty officer mentioning the China stamp on my passport, asking me how the trip was and where did we go, then getting off the bus, waving us along; back to our Motel; into the pool and sauna; dinner, then a encore visit to the smokey casino. KK and I put on the previous night's clothes, stains and all, eager to play the slots again; not wishing to smoke up another outfit.

After a leisurely awakening, breakfast, a 9 AM departure, we had a memorable trip back to East Lansing in brilliant sunshine, glare off the snow. We recrossed the 28,600 foot Machinac Bridge rising high above the confluence of Lake Michigan and Huron. Ice in sheets, room size and house size, abut, some riding on top of one another, intersperced with areas of open water, this fractured mixture stretching as far a the eye can see in either direction. The days inbetween our coming and going has allowed the roads to be dry and our motor coach moves along swiftly, Sunday morning music "Turn Your Radio On", etc is piped in. Nearing our drop-off point, we say our "goodbyes" and "thank you's", expressing our gratitude to one another for the fun time we had together. Clark Road, the road which was iced when we began and had cars sliding and doing donuts, now it too was dry. KK and I arrived home, glad we went, glad we returned home, and did some laundry, especially our smokey clothes.

The "report" is back

There is relief on my part to have completed my medical evaluation and follow-up for my recent chest pains. Since starting the calcium channel blocker several weeks ago, my blood pressure is now normal and my chest pains are gone. Since starting the Ca++ channel blocker, I have had a rest and exercise "Cardiolyte" nuclear imaging of my heart, lab tests for my cardio lipids, liver and kidney function, and an assessment of my risks for further heart disease. All of this was important to me as KK and I make plans for our travels this year. I wanted to have any interventions necessary to be done before the year gets too far along. So, yesterday, my visit to my cardiologist was momentus for me; ie, there was a lot of emotional energy riding on the outcomes. I did receive copies of the reports from the various tests, yet, I still had questions.

Results: exercise capacity better than the average man of my age; normal liver and kidney function tests; very low cholesterol (121), very very low LDL (bad cholesterol), very very high HDL (good cholesterol), very very low triglycerides (good). Overall risk for further heart problems low by the scales used. Nuclear image study, no areas of poor blood flow.

Impression: KK and I can go on our travels, take the hiking side trips we want, and keep planning on doing what we have been doing. Resolution of chest pain related to taking of new medication which works by dilating the tiny arterioles; ie, less resistance to the pumping action of the heart, hence, less pressure needed to move blood around.

Conclusion: Be self aware, mindful of the changes going on in our minds and body, addressing these changes in a timely manner, avoid preconcieved notions and sound bite popular trends, obtain objective information and data, embrace outcomes that are varifiable and measurable, don't make excuses or blame others for what one finds inconvienent or critical.

Postscript: KK and I are headed North of Soo Saint Marie into Canada for the Snow Train and the AGAWA valley this weekend.