The Native Iowan

… In one piece, semi sane and without injury…

Very Merry day-after Cmas, 2013…

It is time to, once again, look forward to a new, another “calendar year”

We know it is all arbitrary, this date thing.  There has been something like a dozen major calendars used in human history. It is my belief that mankind’s need to define time is a direct result of his realised impotence when it comes to life and nature and the world at large. Mankind understands he has no control thus he exerts control to create a placebo effect. And the placebo effect works with amazing side effects such as math, science and even religion.

So I sit in my suburbian seat, watching the magical pageant rock on past. And it is a good show.

2013 has been pretty cool. Lots of changes have taken place. I feel satisfied and even pleased with what I have experienced in this calendar year.

So my thoughts go to old familiars, recent inductees and the future possibilities. I think of work left undone. I think of a possible BS present to all my faithful readers… a possible boon to those who read my posts, put up with my BS, or even show indifferent attention… So I go back and clean up my unfinished business…

My end year present to my faithful readers…

Nov 21 2013, The price of freedom: Each generation has to deal with their individual contribution, must pay their price of freedom.

It was not that long ago, only a generation or so, that life was simpler. Our grandfathers and fathers, grandmothers and mothers, and elder uncles and aunts paid reasonably clear and tradition prices for freedom. From immigrants to a new land to fighting for an ideal called Liberty. WWI and WWII, The Korean War, all offered traditional themes. To fight against fascism. To fight for personal freedoms. Though complex the basic values of each theatre were of a traditional format.

I admit Korea was the beginning of the new type of war. But we engaged in these theatres in a more than not traditional fashion. Soldiers wore uniforms and certain “rules” applied.

It was Indochina that the “rules” of WAR got confused.

I think distinctly of my generation of sadly fucked up, damaged and lost souls who “fought for Liberty” in Indochina.

Now we have the Middle East theatre. We had Serbia and Croatia. We had Sudan. The rules went from being blurred to being lost. So many sad and lost souls fought for Liberty and returned to a less than happy homecoming.

What is the Price of Freedom? Ask a Vet. Ask a Vet’s wife. Ask a Vet’s mother or father or son or daughter. The price becomes geometric when one person, making a sacrifice in the name of Liberty, inadvertently offers others who are near and dear, on the same altar.

I fear this is the price of Freedom and Liberty. And I feel it is a worthy cause and a price well paid by all who deserve nothing but honour and regard.

June 9 2013, defining our world: I am thinking that the process of defining our world, each of our own personal worlds, is what life is about. Noting that my world is mine and your world is yours and though we have overlap and interaction we each have our own distinctive world.

Some worlds become shared through ideology and training. Religion is a good example here… I was trained as a catholic. I was conditioned to respond to life in a catholic way. My definitions are largely catholic by default. My reactions, after all these years, remain and are comfortingly catholic.

But what can we do to really, really change the definitions of our world?

Are we defined by our possessions? Are we possessed by our possessions? I fear that such is possible, but those who are strong of character do not imitate but rather they emulate. So a possession is only a “thing”, a tool, a functioning distraction, an investment, or a conversation piece.

I have a “thing” for old British motorcycles. I can’t, and have no need to explain my “thing”, but it makes me happy.

Like, my mother who has a large collection of bells. She is lifted by the sound of a small bell. She knows and cherishes her bells for their sounds, looks and how they make her smile.

My bikes are the same… start the 750 3cyl trumpet and you’ll hear a strange imbalanced roar. The 3 pots give a third beat to the 2/4 measure of your average bike. Here you get a ¾ or a 5/6 measure. And it sounds great.

So what defines you?

Though not defined by any possession, I, like my mother, take great delight in the full package.

I guess it is important to not become obsessive. I, with respect, think of some  buddies who I ride with… They wear uniforms… They can’t get on the bike without the death skull scarf, or the chrome studded gloves, or the chain-laden boots. They ride for the image. And they do enjoy the package. But they accept and even welcome the definition that comes with the package.

I rebel against this in that I don’t want to be defined, pigeon–holed, or categorised.

Defining my world is not about things but rather about feelings and light and music and smiles and, you the get the picture.

In ending… I’ll define myself as simply s possible… A happy old Daddy and Granddaddy with more fun and smiles than a person really deserves.

April 14 2013, Traveling Light: Just back from a whirl wind trip of 5 countries, 6 major cities and something like 20,500 nautical miles or 23,600 statute miles or 38,000 kilometres.

Had the pups and Zai and visited and saw and walked and enjoyed a numbers of friends, family and places of interest. It was a good trip.

My main thoughts and lessons to come from this bit of gallivanting is that is best to travel as light as possible at all times.

Four of us, left Brisbane, each with a carry-on sized bag.

General logic calls for a full change of clothes and half-dozen extra undies and 3 or 4 spare socks. The boys each had a couple extra shirts. The boys had their ipads, and Grace and I had our phones. I took my sketch diary, the boys each had a couple of books. Grace of course had a number of heavy tomes.

We returned with 1 large, extra bag and a mandolin in a case. The new bag was mostly occupied by 3 nice afghans Zai Olo had made for the boys and Grace.

The funny thing about the lesson-learned here is that some of the clothes we packed did not get used so, in fact, we over packed.

When we first checked in for the Singapore-Abu Dhabi-London flight the gal at the counter was a bit shocked. How could 4 people be traveling for 2 weeks with only the bare necessities? She admitted that she’d have her full 4okg allowance and probably return over weight.

We could have travelled with 40kgs each. 160 kgs all up.

So, so much baggage.

Just like the people we met, visited and enjoyed being with… I saw so, so much baggage in their lives. I saw their wants and needs being overpowered and obscured by the un-necessaries of life, which each voluntarily collected, and carry.

I think traveling light is best…

In Ending, 2013: What a run. So much energy and commotion. So much fun and glory and tears and fears and stress and heartache and joy and smiles and love and fun and… you get, you get it… It has been a great year and I do wish everyone all the best in the coming, New Year.

More Later

Out feed’n the need for speed today. Our dirt launch-pad has been wore down a bit. I pushed it up, lengthened the entry and cut the ramp off about 1 meter high.

Mendozza did a couple of test passes then hit-it… He got both height and distance, landed hard but kept it all together. It was at least an 8.

But, when he landed, his chest whacked the gas tank and he was winded. One of those violent windings that leave you gasping for breath.

Mendozza brought the bike to a controlled stop and did one of those forlorn and injured head-hanging acts. I was walking up as he managed to get off the bike, set the kick-stand, then he laid down and cried. In a gasping, sobbing, pain filled way.

Of course, Angelo and I were hooting like fools. It was an impressive bit of gravity defying fun.

With good body armour nothing was badly bruised but the whack he took would have broken unprotected ribs. And being right on the sternum it is hard for him not to move and where it don’t hurt, a bit.

But like a “proper-bloke” he was up and moving in short order. Though the bike got put away he tooled around on the quad to prove he wasn’t gun-shy.

But I saw it in his eyes: That adrenalin-dump sparkle that comes from skating close to the razor’s edge.

What a ride! What a flight!

With more to come…

… And air…

Been a long, busy day. Loads of interesting encounters…

found a mummified gecko under an old safe…

Had a blazing day’s end…

And we got our Honiara Cmas tree up… yep, it’s a palm tree…

Good day had by all, except the gecko…

It’s about 80 degrees and heating up. A gun-metal grey sky and the slate flat sea speak of weather coming. The brisk breeze has a hint of rain in it. The skies could open and dump at any moment. or it could be a very warm and humid day here in Honiara.

Wind is picking up. May have to run inside soon.

That “Islands Sunday” quiet hangs over the morning. Most people are moving slowly. Off to church. The trials of smoke where motu fires are cooking are numerous. Faint choruses of hymns can be heard from the valleys.

A nice Sunday morn to ruminate…

I must comment… The following report appears to disregard the facts:

Quick calcs give us that there is a 90% discrepancy/ excess in consumption by the overweight, thus, a 70% short fall is easy to cover, “if we tighten our belts”.

UN report: World must produce more food

I just watched Obama give his speech on Iran. I hear a lot of rhetoric. Little of substance. Kerry is taking now and he is trying to be tough. I think he is a bit of a wuss… I’d like him better if he still wore his old duffel coat.

Obama, I feel, is floundering. And the bad thing about this is his administration has some years to go. It may well be a long, painful death by drowning. But a lot of damage can take place in the mean time.

I have stated that I dislike the general bashing and character assault and mud-slinging that is the status quo in our modern media/ life style. I consider it to be part of the “in your face” generation that stood up for their rights but failed to learn old fashioned respect. I find that being respectful brings barriers down faster than a swift kick in the family jewels.

I had to turn Kerry off. Geeze… all I can say is GEEZE!

So, who really killed JFK? (I changed the TV channel)… (tongue in cheek) … perhaps he committed suicide. Suicide may well be the only plausible theory NOT yet put forward.

found a UFC rerun… Much better that Gov’t Propaganda, better than a 50 year old conspiracy theory rehashed again and again. Honest competitive blood and guts works for me.

Just was reviewing global stats and found this…

interesting that there are more overweight people on the planet than undernourished people.

I have been studying this and I am convinced that the world does not have a lack of food problem but rather the distribution of resources is the problem.

But try explain this to folks who are indeed starving.

More later

Common Sense, 1776 – 2013

Shall be Dearly Missed

After a long time on life-support, Common Sense has passed away. Cause of death is noted as being “injury suffered from blunt force trauma”. The accident which led to the death occurred in Washington DC after a white House sponsored frat-party led to the members of Congress and Senate trampling Common Sense in their frenzied effort to all gain the podium at the same time.

Common Sense was known for his ability to think clearly and to cross partisan lines.

His life-long example of fairness, and reasoned thought shall be with us always.

It is how I see things in the US. The situation is constipated. Basically there is shit that needs to come out but it ain’t out yet…

And until it is out the situational status is “constipated”.

Let me say a few things…

1) A bit of socialism is OK. Don’t be afraid of communalism, not to be confused with communism. Being socially minded is a positive thing. We need more social mindedness in our world. No republican is an island. No democrats is an inexhaustible ATM. The Electorate is not a spineless mindless herd of bovine.

2) I am so frustrated by the fact that we all fail to see we are on the same team. I digress to my middle school years and an old story of two flies on a turd in the toilet bowel… we are those two flies… and when the log rolls over neither team is a winner, both teams are losers.

3) I love how my fellow citizenry  is so efficient at donning their rose-coloured glasses each and every morning. Republican have their rose-coloured glasses as do democrats as to the tea party as do the beer party as do the dope party… you get the point… which is… we are on the same team. No one is right until everyone is right. There are no winners unless we are all winners. Consensus is hard but the best path forward.

4) Success is communal, not individual. I know from experience that a mansion with security guards in the middle of a nasty inner city where poverty and crime abounds is not a nice place to live. You want a little house on a nice corner with good neighbors and a relaxed environment. SUCCESS IS COMMUNAL!

5) The lowest common denominator cannot dictate the Status Quo. Society, global society, must really rise above the petty mammalian mindset that keep us in the gutter.

6) The baby boomers are the problem but we did not create the problem. All them horny soldiers coming back from WWII and their fair lasses rolled in the clover far too much and someone has to pay. Our folks had a reasonable base to retire on but the BOOMERS are simply SOL… they did not have enough kids to ensure there will be funds for their future, especially noting our old folks who had the fun that started this are still alive as their numerous children are retiring… a double whammy?

7) If my thoughts and questions bother you then I feel real good. I see far too much constipated complacency in the USA.

More later

I joined the Peace Corps in late 1980. I have lived overseas since early 1981. As an expat for decades I have learned that an inevitable sense of patriotism attaches to you when you depart the shores of your birth. Additionally, as an expat, I have found that I have been more than normally interested and aware in the daily news of the planet. Being “away” made it imperative I stayed informed.

To date it has been my habit to watch, listen to and read a fair bit of news. My modern life gives me a variety of visual opinions such as FOX, CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, local and cable network news. I read hard and online versions of The Guardian, The Economist, Time, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and review various local papers like The Des Moines Register, The Strait Times, La Monde, The Age and, of course, the Solomon Star.

Right now my study has been focused on how confused the USA is and how lost and delusional the Obama Administration is. And I follow what I see as a social dilemma within the US of A. Perhaps even a crisis of identity of sorts?

I don’t want to go into detailed discussion or review stats or what has happened. Rather I wish to try to muddle through a  big WTF I have.

One thing that has stuck with me as an expat is the contrast between the attitudes and values of different Anglophone societies. I offer a simple dictum that I learned young… just because we all speak the same basic language does not mean have a lot in common.

I have a residence in Australia and note this as being the most regulated land I have ever lived in. Australians are a funny group which I am still studying. They almost expect to be told what to do. They want, vote for and shall continue to expect a socialistic, even paternalistic government. It is important to note here that there is a lot I like about the Land Down Under and enjoy my safe, suburbian, old fart life style.

I have a residence in the Solomons which, as  a LDC, purports to have socialized services such as education, medicine, etc but only so far as the very limited and resource poor system allows. The place is such a basket case that there is no effective police force in the country. The main city is pathetic. Sewer systems do not exist. Roads are a nightmare… If you can’t offer basic communal services or safety and security, an administration is doomed to fail when trying to do “much more”. So suffice it to say that, for the wrong reasons, the Socialist Attitude the Solomons was founded on, inherited from the Brit model, simply is not working.

I am a supporter of a medical system that offers care for all. A society as a whole can only be civilised if and when it cares for all members of that society. But how, where, when?

The immediate flaw in any such system is that many who CAN indeed contribute positively to society choose to become dependant. If it is easy to see a Doctor for my sore back I may end up going a lot. Indeed, if it is easy to kick back and be cared for by the Nanny-State, then why work?

So, where is the USA? I believe the USA spends more per head for medicine than any country in the world.

And we need to spend more.

Ok, that’s ok, but who pays for it? The bloated government systems are unaffordable as is. Why or how can we increase the cost of government, now?

I guess, when describing my political leanings, I am probably best described as a conservative hippie. Whats that? Well, to begin with I ain’t a liberal hippie.

I was raised very old-fashioned. A large family in the midwest. Of immigrant stock. Shallow roots, really. And the melting pot meant the mixed ethnic heritage was diluted into a positive sense of Americanism. A midwestern sense of conservatism as defined by hard work, unrestricted opportunities in life, and the ability to feel proud of what one has achieved through their own ability and initiative.

What can be more American than being from Iowa. The Bible-Belt? the land of grain and seasonal labour?

Bred, born and buried in Iowa, that’s the family I come from. I am a rare example of an Iowan that got out. Not many do.

My parents are celebrating their 68th wedding anniversary this month. All up, counting all in-laws and outlaws, they have well over 100 off spring. My father used the GI Bill to get a degree. Worked a white-collar job during the day and tended bar at night. When asked why, he said “..it got me through university, guess it’ll work to educate my kids too”. He was the essence of midwestern conservatism and voted republican as often as he did democrat. Welcome to Iowa.

My mother was always working/ cooking somewhere. Her thing was cooking and she was always in demand for weddings, and such. She sent 3 sons  into the US military and one into the Peace Corps. She, like my father, grew up in the depression era, knew what a tough life was and worked hard for a better life.

Medical bills were the bane of our household. My father’s white-collar job was with the Government so he never made much and his benefits were minimal at best. A trip to the hospital tossed any monthly budget into a spin. And with o many kids there were very regular trips to the Doctor’s Office and the ER. We were very well conditioned to NOT run off to the Doctor’s. A visit to the Doctor’s was a last resort sort’a gig. And that’s how folks in my neck of the woods lived. No one was exempt.

So, I agree that the US needs a change in the health care system. But I don’t think we are anywhere  near being where we need to be.

Times change. Demographics change.

And now the Central Government/ The political party in control is making what appears to be a paternalistic decision in regards to what THEY think is best for the rest of us.

And it was done by what I see as “sleight of hand”.

This is where I start getting this WTF feeling.

We need to be discussing choices and option not trampling on civil liberties.

Liberties which founded the USA.

As a Conservative Hippie I am not real keen on government control, censorship or, dare I say it… Political manipulation through lies and conjecture to achieve political and social gains. I have little trust for government. My life’s experience is that politics and politicians have evoked more harm and damage on those whom they serve than one may measure.

So WTF? Something like 600 million has been spent with no return what so ever. Someone somewhere has gotten very wealthy over all this but they have not performed. If you take pay for non-performance it becomes a con-game.

It all sounds like a con…

And who pays?

???

I’ll give a bit of a hint… before any of the DOHC jap-bikes, when these first hit the streets, they awed us with their quickness…

The rest of the story… Was tinkering and finally got this beast to fire up today. A lot easier than it should have been and it damn near idles… made me inordinately happy.

Funny, weatherriffic sorta’ day… Thunderstorms north n south of us, lots of weather off the coast and in the hinterland, lots of energy all around us. I was mowing the backyard until about 1pm when the lightning and wind and rain swooped in. I had the mower mowing and ear plugs in and didn’t hear a thing then stopped to move some deadfall when I first heard and saw the storm bearing down on us. We had some impressive hail. Not real, real big but plenty of it… first time for the boys to experience hail.

The weather, the wind and the rain and hail shook things up. After the rain the birds were out in force, foraging on the various insects dislodged and disrupted by the storm. I found this nice little, silky jewel still glistening with beads of rain… The rain, considering it has been pretty dry for about 3 months, made the garden smile …

Lots of little gems lost, buried in the tiny suburbian yard, all rejuvenated by the weather.

The passion fruit are doing fabulously…

Everything in today’s travel was delayed… computers were blamed for the hour delay for the final manifest before we could take off, rain at Brisbane put us in a holding pattern for over an hour, once landed it took thirty minutes to get the door open. It was one of the LDC-world scenes… people all cranky over missed flights and the such. The airline staff were terribly stressed with the 100 or so p’d-off passengers. I think there was 101 people onboard… Lucky for me I was not in any hurry and happily sat and watched life’s magical circus rock on by..

taking off from Henderson

over G’canal the light through the clouds was impressive

Flying high: the  clouds become a prairie