Me Grams I mentioned my sweet grandmother a while back and said that she wasn't doing that well. That hasn't changed - she's still not well. But I visited her this past weekend and was surprised by how "on" she still is, despite the apparently almost blinding constant pain from various cancers attacking various organs.
I find it interesting how well being selfless pays off in the long run. Hers, not mine.
Olde It's kind of sad that my grandmother's generation is vanishing, because they were our only link to a time when things were way different. For instance, my brother's baby, Wallace Shawn, has these grandparents (oddly enough, my parents) who really aren't that different from my brother in regards of their life experiences and how they grew up. But we had my grandmother who had grown up on a farm in Georgia and would chase snakes around... and spent a good bit of her childhood without cars or TVs. Or robots.
There just seems to be such a huge difference between my parents generation and their parents. She was a link to a whole life and time that has about vanished.
The Cuban Diet All plantains all the time. Man, I love me some plantains, but that's not what I am talking about. If you read Harpers regularly, check out the article in the April issue by Bill McKibben entitled "The Cuban Diet" (it's not online at this point).
After the fall of Soviet Union, Cuba lost all the cheap imports from them and went into a bit of crisis where they had a hard time getting wheat and grains and oil for farm equipment. This shortage has spawned a movement of urban gardens with a great side-effect that because times are so tough they have to resort to traditional (and cheaper) modes of farming. Without oil or the money to purchase parts for their farm equipment, they have resorted to using oxen to plow their fields. Without the money to buy expensive pesticides, they employ traditional methods to control insects. All this helps to create this accidental organic food supply.
The low point is of course what happens when Castro leaves office and maybe Cuba becomes a free-market. The same corporate style farms that we lucky Americans have that are so good at producing chemical laden, tasteless vegetables will most likely replace these traditional farms. Awesome.
Read the article if you get a chance.
SUV Somehow, through the magic of car rentals, we ended up with an SUV this past weekend. I can see their appeal. Sitting up higher is nice and it has more storage space than our apartment. Then again, the gas mileage was nappy and the dang thing blew around on the interstate when there was any sort of wind.
Driving down a narrow road Sunday afternoon, I smacked the mirror of another car, though. Guess I am not used to something that large.
Go Local Sports Team My father is a alum of UNC Chapel Hill, so of course I have many childhood memories of my father watching the tarheels play while I sat on the floor playing with Legos or my building blocks (up until I was about 18). I grew up with Pope-like regard for Dean Smith.
Oh, so congrats to Carolina.
People who know me and my indifference to watching televised sports may find it interesting to know that I played basketball for like 10 or 12 years when I was a young pup. For a time, it seemed like every Saturday morning was spent playing basketball at the downtown YMCA. So, I do like sports. I guess what I am missing is the gene that makes me like talking about sports with other men - or writing inane comments on websites declaring the supierority of one organization over another. julia: JJ REDICK & TRAVIS DIENER! are both amazing bball players and whoever makes fun of them is just jealous~ plus Duke dominates BBALL and is going to win the NCAA tourney!
Das Boob Tuesday: far too many female co-workers made breast related comments to me / around me.
