I've seen other estimates of how much Americans spend on Halloween ($3B for example). Whatever the nubmer is, it is staggering. If it is $3B, that is about $10/person in the US. I find that amazing. I wonder how many people contributed $10 this month to help somebody who is hungry.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "Today, 70 percent of American households will open their doors and offer candy to strangers, most of them children; 50 percent of Americans will take photographs of family or friends in costume; and the nation as a whole will spend more than six billion dollars. In terms of dollars spent, it is the second most popular holiday of the year in this country, after Christmas."

Amazing cloud pictures.

june2004hastings-mammatus

I've seen clouds like this, but never this spectacular. And, with my luck, if I ever did see something like this, I would not have a camera with me!

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "Poem: 'A Scientist's Acrostic' by Jennifer Gresham, from Diary of a Cell. ? Steel Toe Books, Bowling Green. Reprinted with permission.

A Scientist's Acrostic

Scientists are like beetles
Crawling over the earth, antennae twitching,
In tune with the mysteries
Einstein whispered under a star-polished
Night sky. He chose the celestial playground by
Convention-even logic, as beetles know, can be
Enhanced by beauty.

Illumination dawns after years of
Scratching through dark leaves, dirt.

Lying on one's back, legs flailing,
Is temporary, and not, as some imagine
Fundamental failure or
Even such a bad thing."

“As flattering friends pervert, so reproachful enemies mostly correct.” Augustine, Confessions (Book IX.18)

Refdesk.com - Thought-of-the-Day Archive: "'When you have nothing to say, say nothing.' - Charles Caleb Colton"

"Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind." - Leonardo Da Vinci

tag line for 10/28.
"Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind." - Leonardo Da Vinci

Supreme Court information: http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0405/ijde/ijde0405.htm

Poem: "The Worriers' Guild" by Philip F. Deaver, from How Men Pray ©. Anhinga Press. Reprinted with permission.

The Worriers' Guild

Today there is a meeting of the
Worriers' Guild,
and I'll be there.
The problems of Earth are
to be discussed
at length
end to end
for five days
end to end
with 1100 countries represented
all with an equal voice
some wearing turbans and smocks
and all the men will speak
and the women
with or without notes
in 38 languages
and nine different species of logic.
Outside in the autumn
the squirrels will be
chattering and scampering
directionless throughout the town
because
they aren't organized yet.


I saw it on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac:
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

I had an interesting Friday morning (the 19th of August).

My riding buddy, Kevin, and I decided to go for a bike ride, even though it was wet and threatening rain. It was my last chance to ride for a week so after taking about (via IM), we decided to go ahead.

We were riding along, near our turn around, when we saw a man sitting on a bench at the entrance to a group of mountain bike trails. He was slumped over, leaning way to the right, and was obviously asleep, or worse. Kevin and I noted him, and asked ourselves if we should stop. I said, "We're turning around in a while and we can check when we get back." But, as I thought about it (and I am sure Kevin did as well), I thought that we should check now. So, we turned around and went back. Kevin went over and tried to wake him up, first by saying, "Sir". THen he shook his shoulder, and begin to tale louder to him. After 30 seconds or so, he looked at me and asked if we should call 911. I told him to keep trying and I got my cell phone out (I'll always take a cell phone riding with me from now on). There was no sign of life, although he would occasionally "snort". That startled us, but gave us hope that he was still alive. After another 30 seconds (or less) of trying, I called 911. They needed to know where we were on the trail, so I set out on my bike looking for a mile marker while talking to the 911 operator on my bike. I thought I heard Kevin calling me so I circled back, but he was just trying to wake him up. So I went back, found the mile marker, reported that, and continued up to the nearest street to see if I could find its name. I couldn't, so I turned around and headed back to where Kevin was (3-4 minutes after I placed the call). He was still trying to wake him up. When I got back, Kevin said, "He's dying Chuck"! One look told me Kevin was right. His face was turning blue. The 911 operator asked if we were willing to do CPR. We said yes and she started giving us instructions over the phone. The first chore was to get the man on his back on the ground. Kevin and a runner who had stopped to help managed to do that--the man was quite overweight and probably weighed 250. Plus, they had to get him bike helmet off. We (Kevin) started with CPR, alternating forcing air into his mouth and compressing his chest. After a few minutes of that, with no effect, the police arrived. Three cars, all within a couple of minutes of each other.

We were glad to see them. They were very professional, and seemed well trained to respond. They took over the CPR, but were not optimistic that he was alive. I heard one of them say, "He's gone". But, they kept at it, much more experienced at it than we were. One of them was the breather, another was the chest compressor, and the third was checking for pulse. They rotated after a couple of minutes. Finally (it seemed like forever, but was probably only 3-4 minutes), the ambulance arrived. They brought the AED and I think they tried that, but it wasn't clear to me. They got him on the gurney and wheeled him to the ambulance. The last I saw of him, they were working on him in the ambulance.

After giving the police some information, we got back on our bikes and started home. We didn't know his fate, but we were not optimistic. We both started hammering (bike speak for riding hard) after a while because it felt good to focus on hard physical effort rather than the intense emotions of the moment.

Needless to say, we were shook up. For me, at least, this was the closest I have come to being around someone who is dying. Both of us were thinking what could we have done sooner, or better, or different to have changed the outcome. As I think about, I think we did the best we could. I was proud of Kevin. He is a fastidious person (would you agree with that Kevin?) and giving mouth-to-mouth to this man was not a pretty site. I could tell Kevin was grossed out--I was and I was on the phone with the 911 operator. But, Kevin took a deep breath and did it. And, I he did a great job.

One thing I could have done, that I didn't, was say a prayer for the man. That occurred to me on the ride home and I was disappointed in myself for not thinking about it at the time. As a person who believes in the power of prayer, I should have invoked that power at the time. I had called Carolyn and told her what was going on to alert her that I would be late getting home. She told me later when we were taking about it that she had immediately said a prayer for the man. That was both a consolation to me (somebody was invoking the power of God in the situation) and a further amplification of my disappointment with myself (why didn't I think of that?). I guess I was totally immersed in the tactical situation.

I learned a couple of lessons from this experience.

An obvious one is don't take life for granted. This man was out for bike ride and most likely never came home. We looked at his odometer. He had only ridden three miles. He must have not been feeling good, sat down on the bench to rest, and never woke up. When the police arrived, they noticed right away that he had heart surgery before.

Another is if something looks really odd, there might be a problem. We almost just kept going, and I think we both a little reluctant to wake this guy up. What if he was just taking a nap--we would have felt a little stupid. I'll be more willing to feel a little stupid in the future if I ever see another situation like this one.

As an update, Kevin sent me a link to the obituary of a Mr. Daly who died on August 19th.

Finally you must believe as your heart instructs. If you are a gossip or a cynic or an apostle of realism, you believe the worst you can imagine. If you follow the other way, accepting the bonds of faith and affection, you believe the best you can imagine in the face of the evidence. Wendell Berry in A World Lost, p309.

Dick Staub:
Staublog -
Affluenza: "Thirty-four percent of Americans polled in 2000, rank shopping as their favorite activity, while only seventeen percent prefer being in nature."

An interesting book.

A folk tale by Leo Tolstoy on the dangers of having too much.

Dick Staub:
Staublog -
Wellspring of God: "Dilemma
by David Budbill.

I want to be
famous
so I can be
humble
about being
famous.

What good is my
humility
when I am
stuck
in this
obscurity?"

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media: "It's the birthday of Graham Greene, born in Hertfordshire, England (1904). He wrote just 500 words per day, often stopped writing in the middle of a sentence when he'd reached his quota but ended up publishing over 30 books."

I find this fascinating. 500 words seems pretty simple. Only a few pages. Yet, he wrote 30 books in his life time, 30 excellent books. I guess 500 words a day is a lot of words in a year.