Thinking Aloud

45 Click my latest creation...

2012-01-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

44 Seattle-to-Belize Photo Mash-Up

2010-09-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

A mix of pix from several drive-downs during the aughties...

Galena Alyson Canada 8 September 2010 Vashon Island Washington USA

43 J+K Forever <3

2009-08-12T13:57:00.008-07:00

This made me so happy; I was utterly shocked to find myself laughing and crying at the same time. It just seems so genuine. I don't know these folks, but I hope they're just insufferably happy.

I found this at Running After My Hat, who said "I don’t know these people, but I bet they had one hell of a reception." No doubt!

(I tried watching it a second time -- but alas, like other emotional surprises, it only really works the first time. Oh well.)

BTW, the song is Chris Brown's Forever. Here's his video, which may illuminate some of the choice moves in the above...

Galena Alyson Canada 12 August 2009 Vashon Island Washington USA

42 I'm A Photographer, Not A Terrorist!

2009-08-11T13:39:00.014-07:00

Do you take photographs in public? Then best check this out.

Two more pages for UK photogs: www.sirimo.co.uk/ukpr and a good video slideshow here.

If you photograph in the USA, then look here.

For those who snap in Canada, go here.

If you're down in Oz, here's a link.

Français, you say? Cliquez ici (if the site is down, try the Google-cached page ici).

While I'm at it, I'll include links to other countries -- got one?

Portugal.

Galena Alyson Canada 11 August 2009 Vashon Island Washington USA

Last updated 13 August 2009

41 The Australian Epony Mouse

2009-04-07T12:48:00.007-07:00

Photo by George Shuklin

The Common Epony Mouse -- a minor creature of little note, given to efforts to aggrandise itself through attempts to name things after itself. Thrives especially in environments recently wrested from their former inhabitants. See eponymist, empire, conquest, grafitti, manifest destiny, &c.

[Article in draft. --Lena]

40 April Fool

2009-04-01T11:53:00.019-07:00

Photo by Lars Andersen.

It has been snowing here all morning, which is absurd. It's too warm to stick, but still, snowing in April?!

[Note— Google has taken down all their April Fool stuff. I did save one CADIE screenshot, which is at the end of this article. —GAC]

Google is up to it's usual 1 April shenanigans, this time announcing CADIE a successful AI, which appears to be "getting loose."

The nice, light-weight Google browser Google Chrome is, this morning, offering a PDF download of 3-D glasses to enhance your Web experience.

There is, also as usual, an April Fool Gmail hoax (you have to be logged-out to see it), this time an "intelligent" utility that answers all your mail for you. Some pretty funny samples here.

Of course the free service Gmail was itself announced on 1 April (2004), with an "impossible" amount of free storage, and was presumed at the time to be a hoax. It wasn't. So...CADIE? Are you there?... Oooooh....

(Those Google folks are pretty "special." Look fast — it'll all be gone by the end of the day...)

A local radio morning show reported receiving calls that the landmark Seattle P-I Globe had been relocated by April Fool pranksters and was floating in Puget Sound. A 'witness' even sent in a photo, which they showed on the radio ;-P The globe weighs over 18 tons. You can figure it out.

Photo source unknown.

(Having failed to find a buyer, the P-I is soon going the way of so many hard-copy newspapers these days, and that is not a hoax.)

About April Fool's Day: a Wikipedia entry, the top 100 April Fools of all time, and some history.

So, y'all keep an eye on your gullibles today...

By the way, I'm pregnant. And moving to Australia.

Galena Alyson Canada 1 April 2009 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

39 Thinking About the Tipping Point

2009-03-19T10:02:00.004-07:00

My friend Dr. Hugh Spencer (austrop.org.au) says:

"...this [environmental consequences] will be a leit-motiv to everything in the future....the trick is not to lose oneself in despair..."

Hmmm...it might be too late for me...

I was born and partly raised in Berkeley, California (otherwise, in W. Europe) to/by educated, environmentally conscious parents, in an educated, environmentally conscious community. My folks were Sierra Club members and recycling their waste in the 1960s, rehabilitating clear-cut forest land in the 1970s. I never understood "everyone else's" boorish refusal to note the obvious. My subsequent training as a scientist hasn't helped.

In contrast, in adult years, I have lived and worked among loggers clear-cutting, farmers slash-and-burning, and developers a-developing (no miners a-mining as yet, but lived in the California Gold Country and seen the moonscape left by the hydraulic-ing there). In these environments I have struggled to understand the viewpoints of others, and myself live as an example. I have also, myself, sinned.

Today I try (but not too hard) to use as little as possible (e.g. I have a good, low-maintenance car that is 16 years old and gets about 38 MPG, which is about as high as you can get in the States; I maintain it myself; I work from home and drive little). Most of the "stuff" I own was bought, borrowed or given used (exception, computers and my houses, food ;-). The most "unsustainable" aspect of my lifestyle is probably air-travel, which I usually consume several times a year. Not sure what I'm willing to do about that...

So by western standards I have a half-way respectable conservationist pedigree. And I have been forced into being a conservation pessimist. It all seems so pointless to me now.

I think we're already past the tipping-point in so many areas. And even if we aren't, humans are still so ignorant, selfish, and boorish that the ship won't change course soon enough to avoid sailing off the edge of the world. My guess? The politicos will still be arguing market economics as we sail into the abyss.

Sometimes, I actually find myself hoping for a plague.

My only solace the past decade or so has been the knowledge that Earth's biosphere has collapsed several times before and recreated itself in a substantially new form each time. In the future there won't be tigers or mammoths or humans or beluga whales, but there will be other, new things...

I'd love to have my mind changed.

Galena Alyson Canada 19 March 2009 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

38 xkcd is Bloody Brilliant

2009-03-17T15:05:00.010-07:00

xkcd.com

Clever in a way I could only dream of being...

(...did you see the alt-text???)

And here it is in real life.

Galena Alyson Canada 17 March 2009 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

37 Alan Becker is Bloody Brilliant (Again!)

2009-03-01T10:21:00.004-07:00

I spend far too much time lollygagging about the Web perusing mediaocrity [sic], but every now and then I trip over something utterly brilliant. Today that something is Alan Becker. His art generally is interesting and varied in a still-lifey kind of way (not my thing), but the stand-out piece is (evidently his only) animation piece Animator vs. Animation.

Becker says:

An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself. A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself. -- This took three long months.. i think it's worth it.

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviant ART

Hey Alan, the melons are pretty, but can we get some more stick figures please?

Update: A kind reader has provided a link to Becker's sequel, Animator vs. Animation II:

Animator vs. Animation II by *alanbecker on deviant ART

And evidently III is currently in the works...watch this space...

Galena Alyson Canada 1 March 2009 Vashon Island Washington USA
Updated 18 August 2009

36 Vipassana Birthday

2008-05-28T08:36:00.003-07:00

Today is my 51st birthday, and today I start a 10-day gift to myself -- I go to a retreat in southern WA where I will learn vipassana meditation -- a continuation of my life-long effort to learn to be at peace with myself.

It's getting better all the time.

Here, check it out: http://www.dhamma.org

Over at the Two Gringas blogsite...

2008-03-21T08:24:00.003-07:00

I am en route by car from the USA to Central America, and I'm blogging the trip over at TheTwoGringas.blogspot.com. I'll be back here writing other things once I get settled into my home in Belize.

Update 5 April: I am now home in Belize, and shall write soon...

'Lena

35 T minus 2 weeks and counting...

2008-03-03T11:40:00.004-07:00

Well, the new Two Gringas blogsite is starting to look pretty good and as we close the gap to D-Day (Departure Day). I am now actively blogging for the new adventure (as well as back-blogging the prior adventures), and you can now follow along with our preparations (including yesterday's little mini-meltdown).

Galena Alyson Canada 3 March 2008 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

34 T minus 3 weeks and counting...

2008-02-24T13:53:00.009-07:00

Three weeks from today we (me and Denise) are scheduled to blast off once more from the Pacific coast of Washington State for Belize, on the Caribbean coast of Central America, with another vehicle for our enterprise there (C.Am. eats vehicles).

We first did this — ferrying cars and trucks down — back in 2003 and 2004. Those trips were blogged on a couple Belize-related BBSs, and became rather popular as the "Two Gringas" adventures. As we prepare for the current Two Gringas #4 adventure, I am updating those original blogs with current links, photos and slideshows. You can see this work-in-progress and read our past sagas starting here.

At this writing, I am adapting those prior epics to the new Two Gringas blogsite, where you will also get to follow the upcoming adventure in pseudo-realtime. The site is still under development, and you can follow my progress at http://TheTwoGringas.blogspot.com.

Galena Alyson Canada 24 February 2008 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

33 Tourists need not apply

2008-02-20T18:40:00.037-07:00

I just came across an opinion piece by Eric Lucas, published yesterday by the Los Angeles Times. I had the pleasure to know Eric some years ago, and am honoured to have a minor credit in one of his guidebooks. What follows is a flagrant breach of copyright, for which I apologise, but I can't help myself. (Hopefully neither Eric nor the LA Times will be too pissed, should they happen by.)

But Eric has captured so perfectly what I — as a US citizen with nearly five decades of travelling in and out of the USA with non-citizen friends, family, spouse and children — have felt almost every time I have entered the USA...well, I just couldn't improve on what Eric wrote, so here it is.

See the original Los Angeles Times op-ed piece here.

Tourists need not apply
A crass, rude and greedy U.S. is missing out on a worldwide travel boom.

By Eric Lucas
February 19, 2008
'You guys are from the States, yes?"

Our interlocutor, speaking in the crisp cadences of the British Caribbean, was a woman in her mid-50s with a food stall along the Rainbow Highway in Belize. "We're from Seattle," I acknowledged. "Have you been?"

She sighed.

"My daughter lives in L.A. I've been trying to go visit her -- I'd love to see Disneyland -- but my visa application has been rejected twice. It costs $100 to apply, and that's about as much as I make here in a week. One has to go to the embassy in person, and that takes up a whole day. I can't afford to try again. They keep your money whether you're accepted or not."

Travel is booming worldwide -- except in the United States. And that woman's experience represents just one reason why.

Overseas arrivals to the U.S. have declined 11% this decade, to 23 million in 2007 from 26 million in 2000. Travel is the world's largest industry, currently worth $5 trillion, and it is growing 6% a year. It employs almost a quarter of a billion people. And yet the U.S. is missing out on this wonderful human commerce.

Californians have a keen understanding of this. Travel spending in the Golden State is about $90 billion a year. With the U.S. dollar as soft as confetti, you'd think droves of overseas visitors would be arriving to spend their pounds, euros and other currencies. Yet foreign arrivals are still down from their peak in 2000 at Los Angeles International Airport, the West's top gateway for international travelers.

Why? American arrogance. The United States is a crass, greedy and rude host.

To start, we treat foreigners as criminals until proved otherwise.

These are the 29 countries whose citizens may visit the U.S. without a visa: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain. It's a near lily-white list. The rest of the world's people -- all 5 multicolored billion of them -- are suspect. And overseas, they know the U.S. thinks that.

Canada, by comparison, accepts nonvisa visits from citizens of more than 50 countries. The European Union exempts all EU-member nations, plus another 43 countries, including South Korea, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. So it's easier for a Mexican citizen to visit Europe than the United States.

We're no more helpful once a visitor arrives. I thought about this recently when reading a freeway sign. It said, concisely, "O'Hare next left." I read English, so I was able to get to the airport and fly home. But suppose you speak, oh, Cantonese?

There's an international symbol -- an outline of an airplane -- used on direction signs all over Europe, Asia and in Mexico. Not here. "Costs too much to add signs for all them furaners." That's what a highway official once told me when I asked about fixing this.

Signs aren't the only issue. Tourism Vancouver, which promotes visits to that Canadian city, posts its website in six languages. At Vancouver's Metropolitan Hotel, staff members muster 20 languages among them.

The Los Angeles visitors bureau has four foreign languages on its website -- Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Japanese -- which is a darn sight better than Seattle, my hometown (one, Spanish) and San Francisco (none). Disneyland? Spanish. San Diego? Zip. The U.S. State Department? Zero. Discoveramerica.com, the travel industry's website promoting U.S. travel, appears to offer four foreign languages but, er, um, no content. Check back in March.

For those still determined to visit the U.S., the visa process involves going in person to a U.S. Embassy or consulate for an interview. And as the woman in Belize learned, there are no refunds if your visa application is rejected. Why are people turned away? Scruffiness, unsuitability, past contributions to Greenpeace or general ickiness. Read the State Department guidelines -- visitors must satisfy consular officers that they deserve to enter. But consular officials do not have to explain reasons for rejection, and they don't.

A colleague of mine has a business in Brazil, and one of his investors conceived the idea of taking his family to Walt Disney World. This wealthy businessman, who could buy a whole hotel in the U.S., never mind hotel rooms, flew to Sao Paulo, paid $500 ($100 a person) to apply for a visa, and patiently spent an hour answering questions. Two weeks later he was turned down. The letter suggested that he reapply ($500 more, please!) but, surprise, he took his family to Europe. Brazilians don't need visas to enter the EU.

The nonrefundable U.S. visa application fee recently went up to $131. Luckily for many visitor wannabes, their currencies are climbing while the dollar is shredding. Unluckily for us, we're too busy protecting the homeland from supposedly scurrilous foreigners to let them in. Until we change our official and unofficial attitudes toward the world, 5 billion people will pass us by. We're missing out on a lot more than just money -- but we're missing out on a lot of that too.

Eric Lucas is a Seattle-based travel and business writer whose work appears in Michelin guides, Westways magazine and other publications.

Eric, you said it all right there. Look me up next time you're in Belize, would you? I'd like to buy you a drink.

Galena Alyson Canada 20 February 2008 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

32 Dear André

2008-02-18T11:15:00.018-07:00

Dear André,

You are not online this morning, I see, so I imagine you are doing some things about your farm, or perhaps out shopping in the village. I hope you have good weather for your activities.

It is cold and foggy this morning, here on Vashon Island in Puget Sound, but it is expected to become sunny towards mid-day. I hope so, because it is expected to rain all week beginning tomorrow. Yuk. I am tired of the cold rain of North America's Pacific Northwest. I am eager to head south toward my tropical home...

Clic map to enlarge.

Denise and I reviewed our schedule and possible routes last night after dinner. We have decided to depart Washington State on Sunday morning 16 March or Monday the 17th at the latest. We try to choose a different route for each trip (this will be the third time Denise and I have made the drive to Belize**), and this time we will again follow mountains: first the Cascade Range through Washington and Oregon, then past the volcanoes at Lassen to the Sierra Nevada of California, past Lake Tahoe and Yosemite and Owens Lake, then across Death Valley to Las Vegas where we will drive The Strip. Then on across to Zion National Park, across Glen Canyon Dam, and a loop around the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Then straight south past Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona, where we will meet up with some friends.

Where we will cross into Mexico, and which route we take south, is still unsure. This will be decided when we get to Tucson. For the first time we have the luxury of a loose schedule on this trip, so we intend to do more sightseeing this time. Denise has a paid annual pass for the USA National Parks*** and we plan to use it as many times as possible on the USA part of the adventure. The main routes we're considering through Mexico are the central and Pacific Coast routes. Either way, once we get south of Mexico City we will head into Chiapas and take a rest day in San Cristobál de las Casas, where I want to meet some people doing work with the poor.

Leaving Chiapas, we intend to start very early, take a short break to visit the Classic Maya city at Palenque, then rush along our usual route across the Yucatan to Chetumal and the northern frontier of Belize. If the crossing into Belize goes well we should make it home to Stann Creek by late evening, exhausted. This should happen around 28 March, but perhaps as late as 31 March.

I can hardly wait.

Meantime, there are just a few more minor repairs to make to the car we bought for this journey...

Did you bring home something nice home for dinner?

Besos,

'Lena

** As I mentioned, you can read the real-time diary of the first trip here.

*** You can read Denise's blog of her around-the-USA road-trip here.

Galena Alyson Canada 18 February 2008 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

31 Welcome My KIVAfriends...

2008-01-10T17:26:00.001-07:00

I see that some folks from kiva.org and kivafriends.org have started trickling over this way, so I thought I'd welcome you in person...

Welcome!

For my new KIVAfriends — if you want to find out about me, you might start here or here, but if you'd rather just look at some pretty pictures, then go here and here, and if you want both at once look here.

For my readers who have no idea what a kiva is, I'll tell you that Kiva is a brilliantly simple mechanism that allows you to give without giving and allows you to interact personally with those who are receiving without taking, then you will clic right here.

Hey, thanks for dropping by. Please leave a comment.

Galena Alyson Canada 10 January 2008 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

30 How to Wash a Shirt

2008-01-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Comment if you care.

If you're new to the blog, clicking here is a good place to start.

Here's a video from 2005 of doing the wash in my village. The language is Mopan Maya.

Galena Alyson Canada 6 January 2008 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

29 Hurricane Felix — The big blow turns all wet.

2007-09-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

(Felix resource links are at the end of this article.)

14:00 Belize Time, Tuesday

Image: US Navy

At this writing eastern Honduras and northern Nicaragua are getting roughly 1.7 cm (2/3") of rain per hour. Forward progress of the system continues to slow unfortunately, now at about 22 km/hr (14 MPH) and is expected to slow further. Although Felix has dropped in intensity from Category 5 to Cat 3, it will likely be the rainfall that will do to most harm, and the longer he lingers, the worse it'll be.

Landfall occurred in Nicaragua, south of the Honduran border. We await the first reports from the affected area.

Image: NHC/NOAA.

As you can see, Belize is now out of under the worst of the threat. A surprise turn to the north could still bring tropical storm conditions to southernmost Belize, but even this is quite unlikely at this point.

Nevertheless we will look sharp until all risk has passed.

THIS ARTICLE IS STILL IN COMPOSITION. More here soon...'Lena

Hurricane Felix Resources

There are ongoing Belize-centred discussions of Hurricane Felix at the Belize Forums and at the Ambergris Caye Forum, and also at the new Belize Free Forums. The latest storm info is available at the NHC and at the Weather Underground and for discussion by and for serious weatherheads look at Storm2K. The Disaster Friends & Family Tracker for Ambergris and Belize is at Ambergris Caye Emergency Rescue, where you will also find the latest NEMO alerts. In addition to Love FM, web radio is broadcast from Belize by KREM Radio and Reef Radio. The San Pedro Sun now has in-real-time Felix coverage, and articles are available from local Belizean news sources, which are linked in the banner here. There is a possibly useful list of webcams at webcamplaza. Some other Belize-based hurricane bloggers are: Colette & Maya and tacogirl, and SciGuy is in Houston. Please comment here or email me at themisslena at gmail dot com if you have other good sources.

What coming next? Check out the NHC's Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook page.

Galena Alyson Canada 4 September 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

28 Hurricane Felix — Here we go again...

2007-09-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

11:00 Belize Time, Monday

Original image and cone: NOAA. Composite: Galena Alyson Canada.Felix at 10:15 Belize time with NHC Advisory 13 cone.

Good grief.

12:00 Belize Time, Monday

Lena is, once again, in the Seattle-Tacoma area while the next bloody Cat 4/5 hurricane bears down on her home and family in Maya Centre Village in southern Belize. Crap. I've just been on the phone with Alfonso again this morning. Everything is still boarded up from Dean, so there's not much to do this time around. Water and food supplies are being renewed in the church, all the fuel tanks have been topped-off, arrangements have been made to bring up residents of Hopkins Village, which is on the beach, whereas we're several km (miles) inland. Alfonso will again move my cat Ix Mis from my house to the workshop, which is more secure.

13:00 Belize Time

Lena is cruising the web-waves for bloggable data and her favourite quote so far is here:

Felix is now a Hurricane. Good news is that most of the models after a brief flirt with moving Felix into the Gulf have now shifted back to Belize...
— klingoncruiser

Say whaaaat?! [Emphasis mine; expletive deleted.]

There is much talk of prayers on the web right now, prayers for Felix to head "elsewhere". Very few of the many BBS posters point out that there are occupants of those elsewheres who also prefer not to be wiped out by a hurricane. Pious people have expressed gratitude to the Lord that He has pushed Felix down into Honduras and Nicaragua. (Geez, He must hate those people...)

In fact, if we are being strictly humanitarian, we should pray for all hurricanes to go to the USA: The population is, on average, wealthier; good shelter is generally available; the roads are mostly paved and remain in service for emergency vehicles; the buildings are, on average, better built; there are more resources available for recovery; and most folks have at least some insurance. There is much less in the way of disease, famine, mudslides, and general overall loss-of-life when a storm heads north versus, say, landing in Honduras or Nicaragua.

15:00 Belize Time

NHC Advisory 14 is just out, and the forecast track is continuing to drift southward. Poor Honduras, poor Nicaragua...I hope this isn't a repeat of Mitch for them.

For now, we are still scheduled for hurricane-force winds in southern Belize sometime Wednesday.

17:00 Belize Time

I am already hearing various Belizean interests breathing a sigh of relief. Perhaps that is nearly justified if one is on Ambergris Caye or north, but it is certainly premature if one is in central or southern Belize. Let's have a look at the 17:00 EDT track cone provided by the NHC:

It seems to me that many of the prematurely relieved do not understand the probability cone. This does not represent a "storm swath", nor does it represent the most likely path of the eye with decreasing probabilities to each side. In fact, for the given time of forecast, every area within the cone is equally likely to see the eye of the hurricane. All of Belize as well as most of Honduras and Guatemala are still within the track forecast cone, and any point there is as likely as any other to see the eye, and it is still projected to be a hurricane when it gets there. I feel unrelieved.

Here's how it's put together: At the time of forecast the bright bulbs at NOAA — using several different computer models and combining that info with hunter and satellite data, historical data, and a liberal dose of personal experience and hunch — determine a projected future location for the eye at 12, 24, 36, ... hours hence, plus or minus an uncertainty distance; which distance is greater, of course, the farther in the future we guess. The actual location of the eye may occur any place within that uncertainty with equal probability. Got it? Now the NOAA peeps sketch a smooth curve around that series of 12-hour probabilities, and you have a track forecast cone.

The cone is based strictly on the historical accuracy of forecasts, and is not a part of the forecast itself — it represents only the uncertainty of the forecast.

And all of this is assuming that the forecast is correct to begin with, which it may not be.

For the NHC's explanation, look here.

19:00 Belize Time

Nicaragua is getting wet.

21:00 Belize Time, Monday

NHC Advisory 15 is just out. The forecast track continues to creep southward and weaken slightly. Felix is now predicted to be a tropical storm when it gets to southern Belize, rather than a hurricane. A Hurricane Watch remains in effect for the east coast of Guatemala and all of costal Belize.

Felix continues to track westward at 32 klicks (20 MPH), but is expected to slow (which is not good as it can lead to strengthening). Current projected ETA Honduras/Nicaragua is sometime tomorrow (Tuesday) morning as a Category 4 hurricane, and the Bay Islands and Belize/Guatemala sometime Wednesday as a Tropical Storm.

This is all based on the eye staying over land in Honduras once first landfall is made. If by chance Felix's eye drifts north of the latest forecast track and goes back out over water, across the Gulf of Honduras, then we are looking for re-strengthening before making a secondary landfall at Belize/Guatemala.

The next NHC Advisories are scheduled for 0:00 and 3:00, Tuesday, Belize Time.

OK, I'm calling it a night. See you here tomorrow for the main event.

'Lena

NOAA GOES East

Galena Alyson Canada 3 September 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

27 Hurricane Time — Volume 5, Wednesday

2007-08-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

This in-real-time report on Hurricane Dean began Sunday, 19 August 2007; scroll down or clic for earlier reports #23, 24, 25 & 26.

Post-Dean in Majahual, Mex. Reuters photo.

12:00 Belize Time, Wednesday

Curfew has been extended in Orange Walk and Corozal Districts to prevent looting in the areas most damaged.

Damage reports for these areas beginning to come in and seem modest, considering. Check local news sources linked in the banner here.

Agricultural losses in the north seem to be the most serious consequence for Belize. Still no report of serious injury.

The rest of the country seems to be back to normal.

Post-Dean photos are beginning to come in. I will do a Gallery later; for now you can run down these sources: ambergriscaye.com member pix, Yahoo! news source pix, this flickr search, and palmbeachpost.com here, and of course the local news sources linked above.

For more links, see below.

22:00 Belize Time, Wednesday

TROPICAL DEPRESSION DEAN DISCUSSION NUMBER 40
WS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
100 PM EDT WED AUG 22 2007

THE HIGH TERRAIN OF MEXICO HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL ON DEAN. SURFACE OBSERVATIONS AND SATELLITE IMAGES INDICATE THAT THE CYCLONE IS RAPIDLY WEAKENING AND IS BECOMING A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE. THE DEPRESSION IS MOVING WESTWARD AT ABOUT 17 KNOTS ACROSS MEXICO BUT STILL PRODUCING TORRENTIAL RAINS. ANY REMNANT CIRCULATION OF THE SYSTEM WILL LIKELY DISSIPATE IN ABOUT 12 HOURS OR SO.

THE MID-LEVEL CENTER APPEARS TO BE MOVING WESTWARD A LITTLE FASTER...AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE CLOSELY MONITORED IN CASE REGENERATION OCCURS IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC.

THIS WILL BE THE LAST ADVISORY ON WHAT WAS ONCE CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE DEAN.

There are ongoing Belize-centred discussions of Hurricane Dean at the Belize Forums and at the Ambergris Caye Forum, and also at the new Belize Free Forums. The latest storm info is available at the NHC and at the Weather Underground. Disaster Friends & Family Tracker for Ambergris and Belize is at Ambergris Caye Emergency Rescue, where you will also find the latest NEMO alerts. In addition to Love FM, web radio is being broadcast from Belize by KREM Radio and Reef Radio. Info is starting to become available via local Belizean news sources, which are linked in the banner here.

Galena Alyson Canada 22 August 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

26 Hurricane Time — Volume 4, Tuesday

2007-08-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

This in-real-time report began Sunday 19 August 2007; scroll down or clic for earlier reports #23, 24 & 25.

"Goood morrrning Chay-too-mall!"

A street in Chetumal Mx early this morning. AP photo.

10:00 Belize Time, Tuesday

Photo above: a street in Chetumal, Mexico, early this morning.

Word so far this morning is that we got off pretty easy in Belize, but we are still waiting for good outdoor info from Corozal and north Ambergris. And information from Mexico is still very sparse. (If you have current information to report, please post a comment using the link below - thanks!)

The first local website article I know of from the affected area is the San Pedro Daily of Ambergris Caye, which is reporting "ALL CLEAR."

San Pedro Daily photo of Ambergris Caye this morning (?).

Belize's Love FM is streaming continuous reportage here.

The best up-to-the-minute web forum for Belize Dean info is here at ambergriscaye.com. You may have to re-try several times, as the site is very busy right now.

Less loaded are the new Belize Free Forums, where the site admins are working hard to summarise info coming in from the ambergris forum and other sources.

(If you have other links to current information, please post a comment using the link below - thanks!)

12:00 Belize Time, Tuesday

Second-hand reports from Ambergris Caye, north and south, indicate that damage has been relatively minor, mostly to the docks, signage and roofs, and there are no reports of injury so far.

Second-hand reports from Corozal are that damage is moderate, along the lines of a roof here and a wall there, and there are no reports of injury so far.

A street in Chetumal Mx early this morning. Reuters photo.

Early reports from Chetumal are that damage is moderate (similar to Corozal), and injury status is unknown.

We have yet to receive useful post-Dean information from further north.

(Again, if you have information please post a comment using the link below.)

Yesterday in Belize City. Reuters photo.

In Belize City, early second hand reports are that there is no significant damage, and there are no reports of injury.

Further south in Stann Creek District, Dave in Sittee River reports this morning that Dean was a non-event there, and Oliver at the Windschief in Hopkins Village reports that they "had one little short blow yesterday afternoon, which took the cap off my thatched roof - that must have been rotted though, probably the only damage in whole Stann Creek :o)"

"Catastrophic" damage at the Windschief, Hopkins. Photo Oliver Güthoff.

In my own village, the damage report by phone this morning is that there was some drizzle and a leaf fell...

We have no news of interest from Toledo District in the far south; only that many people did go to the shelters where nothing happened. Thank goodness.

13:00 Belize Time

According to the Associated Press, Dean is now officially the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since record keeping began in the mid-ninteenth century. I found the article here.

Individual reports continue to perk in from Ambergris Caye, and the news is uniformly positive. Nothing new from Corozal or Caye Caulker.

In addition to Love FM, web radio is being broadcast from Belize by KREM Radio and Reef Radio.

I still can't find any current pix of areas in northern Belize: please help.

I am going to have a nap now... 'Lena

There are ongoing Belize-centred discussions of Hurricane Dean at the Belize Forums and at the Ambergris Caye Forum, and also at the new Belize Free Forums. The latest storm info is available at the NHC and at the Weather Underground. Disaster Friends & Family Tracker for Ambergris and Belize is at Ambergris Caye Emergency Rescue, where you will also find the latest NEMO alerts.

Galena Alyson Canada 21 August 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

25 Hurricane Time — Volume 3, Monday

2007-08-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

This in-real-time report began yesterday; scroll down for earlier reports #23 & 24.

19:00 Belize Time, Monday

Now that is a big storm:

Dean is now Category 5.

20:00 Belize Time

000
WTNT64 KNHC 210034
TCUAT4
HURRICANE DEAN TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
835 PM AST MON AUG 20 2007

DATA FROM THE AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING HURRICANE DEAN INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO 160 MPH...MAKING DEAN A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE.
$$
FORECASTER KNABB

21:00 Belize Time

A shop in Cancun, Mx. Photo from the BBC article here.

I've completed my final telephone calls to Belize for this evening. It is eerily calm in the south of the country right now, with few animal or insect noises. My people have completed their preparations and are settling in to try to get some sleep before the main event.

23:00 Belize Time

Excerpt from the 23:00 EDT NHC Discussion 32:

DEAN HAS TAPPED INTO ENERGY PROVIDED BY THE DEEP WARM WATERS OF THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA...AND HAS REACHED CATEGORY FIVE STATUS...DURING THE LAST PENETRATION BY...RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT AT 00Z...A CENTRAL PRESSURE OF 914 MB WAS MEASURED...DUE TO COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEMS...WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED ALL OF THE DROPSONDE AND SFMR DATA IN REAL-TIME. THE ADVISORY...IS SET TO A POSSIBLY CONSERVATIVE 140 KT...PENDING...EXAMINATION OF ALL OF THE AIRCRAFT DATA. ANOTHER AIRCRAFT WILL ARRIVE IN THE EYE OF DEAN IN A FEW HOURS...PRIOR TO LANDFALL...

THE EVOLVING SATELLITE PRESENTATION OF DEAN REVEALS AN INCREASINGLY SYMMETRIC CONVECTIVE PATTERN...AND A VERY WELL-DEFINED AND GRADUALLY CONTRACTING EYE WITH A DIAMETER OF ABOUT 20 N MI. REPORTS FROM THE AIRCRAFT...AND RECENT MICROWAVE SATELLITE IMAGERY...PROVIDE NO INDICATIONS OF ANY INNER-CORE STRUCTURAL CHANGES THAT WOULD LEAD TO WEAKENING PRIOR TO LANDFALL...

In other words, Hurricane Dean remains perfectly on-track for it's Yucatan landfall, and in the meantime it is intensifying and ground-level wind speeds are probably somewhat higher than the 140 knots (260 km/h, 160 MPH) estimate given. And there will be one more hurricane hunter flight before landfall.

That landfall will, at the currently steady advance of 32 km/h (20 MPH), occur at about 03:00 Belize Time (GMT minus 6 hours, 02:00 PDT). And, if the currently projected track (NHC Advisory 32) holds, at that time the eye will land about midway between the tip of Ambergris Caye and Majahual to the north, right about in-line with Chetumal. It promises to be quite a ride for our friends in the north.

For a play-by-play account of events as they unfold throughout the night on Ambergris Caye and in the north of Belize, go to the Forum here. The latest Marty Casado reports there: "milo says the waves are very big in boca del rio. a house has collapsed by compadres. its floating in the area."

And thus far the wind has risen less than half of what it is likely to this night.

0:00 Belize Time, Tuesday

OK, I'm toast, so I'm going to sign off for tonight. When we see each other in the morning, we'll know what happened. Until then, good fortune to all, and enjoy the ride.

'Lena

Below: The view from Portofino, Ambergris Caye, at 17:00 with Dean in the distance.
Photo courtesy Jan van Noord, Portofino Resort.

Dean at 00:15 Tuesday Belize Time - photo NASA/NOAA.

Dean at 01:15 Tuesday Belize Time - photo NASA/NOAA.

Dean at 02:15 Tuesday Belize Time - photo NASA/NOAA.

Galena Alyson Canada 20 August 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

24 Hurricane Time — Volume 2, Monday

2007-08-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

This in-real-time report began yesterday; scroll down or clic here.
Satellite image NASA GOES NOAA, from here.
Hurricane Dean forecast cone courtesy NHC/NOAA.

11:00 Belize Time, Monday

Hurricane Dean has continued to slip southward and grow larger and there is now Hurricane Warning for the entire coast of Belize. I have been on the phone with Sittee River and Maya Centre Villages south of Dangriga, and people are beginning to prepare more seriously. In my village the church and school buildings are being prepared for emergency occupancy. I am waiting to hear about preparation on our own property. Dave is running around checking on our clients' properties.

12:00 Belize Time, Monday

From the NHC's Advisory 30A:

"...AT 200 PM EDT...1800Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE DEAN WAS LOCATED...ABOUT 330 MILES...530 KM...EAST OF BELIZE CITY.

"DEAN IS MOVING...WEST NEAR 21 MPH...33 KM/HR...ON THIS TRACK THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL...VERY EARLY TUESDAY MORNING. HOWEVER...CONDITIONS WILL...DETERIORATE ALONG THE COASTLINE WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE CENTER.

"MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 150 MPH...240 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. DEAN IS A CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE...SOME STRENGTHENING IS EXPECTED LATER TODAY...AND DEAN IS LIKELY TO BECOME A CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE PRIOR TO...LANDFALL.

"HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 60 MILES...95 KM...FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 205 MILES...335 KM.

"ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 924 MB...27.29 INCHES...STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 12 TO 18 FEET ABOVE NORMAL...NEAR AND TO THE NORTH OF WHERE DEAN MAKES LANDFALL..."
HURRICANE DEAN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 30A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
200 PM EDT MON AUG 20 2007

The image below is a clip from the GOES 16:15 GMT image, on which I have superimposed the currently projected track and the approximate "hurricane force" and "tropical storm" (TS) margins for that track. The green dot is my village, currently well within the TS forecast band.

If you have been following this report, you know that Dean has continued to trend south of the forecast track throughout the past day. From the image, you can see what even a slight continuation of this southward drift would mean for Belize. Oh, and Dean has grown significantly in size since this image was taken...

Above: Detail from GOES satellite image showing projected eye track, storm intensity margins, and the approximate location of my village.

15:00 Belize Time

NHC Advisory and Discussion 31 just came in and there is no significant change in outlook before landfall on the east coast of Central America. It's still tracking to land the eye north of Chetumal; it's still expected to be Cat 5 at that time. But, the NHC was not able to get most of the data from the hurricane hunter aircraft due to communication problems, so the current Advisory is based on (as yet) incomplete information.

15:30 Belize Time

Just got off the phone with Alfonso in Maya Centre Village, south of Dangriga. It was sunny and mild an hour ago. Now the rain, thunder and wind are beginning. I have yet to hear from Dave at Sittee River...

Image: NASA. (Thanks Marty!)
16:00 Belize Time

Marty Casado over at ambergriscaye.com is doing a great job of supplying the latest data and images. Thanks Marty!

Image: NASA GOES East at 15:45 Belize Time

17:00 Belize Time

"It looks like the biggest threat is going to be for portions of northern Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula coast of Mexico."
Daniel Brown, NOAA/NHC
from this BBC article.

"Hurricane Dean has just bulldozed the place and left. The devastation is horrible but manageable."

Ruth Howard
Kingston, Jamaica
from this BBC article.

18:00 Belize Time

"Everyone heading to Belmopan. I cannot get out to the junction to see the action. I can only hope the cops are waving on most traffic - go west, guys, deep west, run for the border. Belmopan is full!

"Still I understand many will not leave Belize City. Heard a couple of conversations at the breadline today. Generally, they do not trust the cops to take care of business as the last time they were cleaned out by thieves. One guy said the last time they cleaned out his house and even stole his dog.

"Bumber to bumper on the Western Highway, hundreds of vehicles, 10 accidents so far, drivers being very mean and not giving way to ambulances trying to get through - it's everyman (and woman) for himself."
from a Friend of Marty's
posted here.

This entry has become too large to manage easily...we continue at 19:00 BzT in #25...

Galena Alyson Canada 20 August 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

23 Hurricane Time — Volume 1, Sunday

2007-08-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Photo of Hurricane Dean by the crew of the Shuttle Endeavour via the BBC here.

12:00 Belize Time, Sunday

"...CORE OF EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE DEAN NEARING JAMAICA..."
HURRICANE DEAN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 26A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
200 PM EDT SUN AUG 19 2007

And it's deja vu all over again:
To me, today feels like 7 October 2001.

On the morning of that day we were watching a small and apparently weakening Hurricane Iris pass south of Jamaica on its (projected) way toward a landfall in southern Yucatan or northern Belize.

Today we are watching a strengthening Hurricane Dean aim its eye just to the south of Jamaica, anticipating a sweeping of the island with its northern wash, on its (projected) way toward a landfall in Yucatan or northern Belize. As I said, deja vu all over again. At this writing, at noon Belize Time, the Jamaicans are rushing through final preparations for Dean's imminent arrival.

Today, according to the USA's National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami, Florida, as of 14:00 EDT (18:00 GMT) Hurricane Dean is moving east-to-west (roughly WNW) at about 30 km/h (18 MPH) and will be hitting Jamaica shortly. Currently a Category 4 (Saffir- Simpson) with 230 km/h (145 MPH) sustained winds over a 95 km (60 mile) radius and a 'moderate' internal pressure of 930 millibars pulling a 2.1 - 2.7 metre (7 - 9 foot) storm surge.

I love the language of the NHC forecasters; this from the 11:00 EDT 'Discussion':

"IN THE SHORT TERM...THERE COULD BE SOME BROADENING OF THE WIND FIELD WITH FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH AS THE CORE OF DEAN APPROACHES JAMAICA...BUT FURTHER STRENGTHENING OVER THE DEEP WARM WATERS OF THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN IS EXPECTED."

In normal English this means that the storm will soon grow larger and hit Category 5 — the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Yesterday the forecast models put Dean's track making a bull's-eye on Jamaica, then continuing west and hitting Cancun and then heading on across the Gulf toward Texas. Today the forecast track has slipped south, which is good for Jamaica and Cancun, but bad for Chetumal and northern Belize, which now fall within the forecast envelope.

I will continue to add to this article as this unfolds... 'Lena

Photo Reuters and the Washington Post.

15:00 Belize Time, Sunday

Right now whatever is going to happen to Jamaica is happening. We won't know much for another few hours. The NHC's Advisory 27 says:

"...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS DEAN SCRAPING THE SOUTHERN COAST OF JAMAICA...AT 5 PM EDT...2100 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FROM DANGRIEGA NORTHWARD TO THE BORDER WITH MEXICO...DEAN IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 20 MPH...32 KM/HR. A MOTION BETWEEN WEST AND WEST-NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS...MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 145 MPH...230 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. DEAN IS A CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE...DEAN HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME A CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE IN THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA TOMORROW..."
HURRICANE DEAN ADVISORY NUMBER 27
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
500 PM EDT SUN AUG 19 2007

In other words Dean is still sinking south of the projected track, now heading west by WNW, and is picking up a little speed. My village is just south of Dangriga.

The BBC says: "Jamaica is starting to feel the effects of...Hurricane Dean, with reports of heavy rains and mudslides." They have some early pix here.

I telephoned my Maya family earlier (we use high-power cell phones in my village) to find out what information they had. I've been holding off, so as not to cause unnecessary alarm. I was surprised to learn that there has been not one word about Dean in the village. It is mild and sunny today (as often seems to be the case before a major storm), and the men are away at a Sunday football game.

I alerted my comadre Dominica that, at the least, there would be heavy wind and rain by tomorrow (Monday) afternoon, and she might want to spread the word to that effect without giving undue alarm. I'm going to call again once the men are back, because they may not take the women seriously.

17:00 Belize Time

Photo: Iris aftermath, Red Cross.

Once again I am, by chance, stuck in the mild-weathered Pacific Northwest of the USA, as a hurricane threatens my other home. On that corresponding day in 2001 I was also on the phone to the village. No one was too worried, Iris was poorly defined and weakening as it passed safely to the south of Jamaica, doing little more than wetting the island. At that time it was projected to make landfall in northern Belize or southern Yucatan as a Category 1-2 hurricane.

No one in southern Belize was too worried.

Jamaica is less fortunate today with Dean, now a well-defined Cat 4 storm, raking across the island. As I said, we won't know much more for another few hours...

Dean Forecast Track image: NOAA/NHC. Clic to enlarge.

21:00 Belize Time

The Hurricane Watch zone extends south to Belize City, and the Tropical Storm Watch now reaches south into Honduras.

I just got off the phone with my compadre Alfonso in Maya Centre Village and my business associate Dave over in Sittee River Village. Everything is getting battened down and the vehicles all gassed up. Chainsaws and generators in working order and fuel available.

I am somewhat perplexed by those who feel this preparation is premature or alarmist. Dave has an associate out on a small caye (coral island) who he went out after yesterday afternoon, in rough water, to evacuate — and the guy refused! Excuse me?! Even if Dean stayed right on the then-forecast track (it's much closer now) this guy is due to endure tropical storm conditions and some degree of a storm surge on a tiny coral bump in the sea. The fool's life is at very real risk. And he is not alone. What are people thinking?

With Dean's eye 36 hours from landfall on the east coast of Central America, NEMO, the Belize emergency authority, called for "Stage 1 Red" voluntary evacuation; which means essentially "bring the boats into safe harbour, prepare yourself, and evacuate the islands." Some presumably experienced people are criticising NEMO for acting prematurely. A long-time member of one discussion board writes from Ambergris Caye in north Belize:

In my opinion, there is no real imminent danger yet and NEMO could have waited until tomorrow morning when a much clearer picture has emerged to make an informed announcement.

Wait until tomorrow (Monday) before giving real warning to prepare? This view strikes me as bizarre. Landfall of the eye is now about 30 hours out, wherever it will occur, and Ambergris is well within the projected track cone (clic the image above). That is the eye, not the edge of the storm, which will arrive much sooner and reach much farther, depending on how Dean builds over warm, open water through Monday — anybody's guess, but Cat 5 and a 100 km (60 mile) hurricane radius is a good start. That puts Ambergris in hurricane conditions if Dean continues to drift south another -uh- zero km (miles). And Dean continues to drift south.

Boats and planes in Belize can operate daylight hours only and must shut down for storm conditions. Put that all together with demand outstripping supply, and your safe window for leaving the island is -uh- tomorrow morning. Maybe into early afternoon. That's it. And just how quickly can you board-up, hmmm? Might need a few hours of calm yet to do it?

I just re-read the NEMO advisory, and actually, it seems inadequately alarmist to me.

Dave and I are far south of Ambergris, and well south of the current Hurricane Watch zone, and he is already all boarded up. Dave has been through hurricanes before. So have I. Who's being alarmist?

23:00 Belize Time, Sunday

"DEAN IS HEADING TOWARD 280 DEGREES AT ABOUT 17 KT WITH STEERING PROVIDED BY A STRENGTHENING MID-LEVEL RIDGE OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. THE MODELS ALL AGREE THAT THE RIDGE WILL GET EVEN STRONGER AND MOVE A LITTLE WESTWARD WITH DEAN...MEANING THAT DEAN WILL PROBABLY MOVE IN A RATHER STRAIGHT LINE UNTIL FINAL LANDFALL IN MEXICO. OVERALL THE MODELS HAVE AGAIN EDGED A LITTLE SOUTHWARD...AND SO HAS THE OFFICIAL FORECAST.

"ALL OF THE OBJECTIVE GUIDANCE CALLS FOR STRENGTHENING IN THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN WHERE THE SHEAR WILL REMAIN WEAK AND THE OCEAN HEAT CONTENT VERY HIGH. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST FOLLOWS SUIT AND INDICATES THAT DEAN COULD REACH CATEGORY FIVE STATUS DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO."
HURRICANE DEAN DISCUSSION NUMBER 28
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
1100 PM EDT SUN AUG 19 2007

Still no real word on conditions in Jamaica.
Next in line: Cayman Islands.

More tomorrow. 'Lena

BBC photo.

Galena Alyson Canada 19 August 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

22 Correction or Recession?

2007-08-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

This image swiped from economist.com via yourmoney2keep.com. Thank you.

With the end of the mind-boggling run-up in USA real estate prices, the progressively lax credit that was followed by the noose-tightening of increased rates and payment requirements, and the US Fed's (and other's) rate-based anti-inflationary position, you knew this was coming, right?

The parrots are harping on the high-risk mortgage business in the USA and oil prices worldwide, but the causes are much, much broader than that; and the resulting cycle easily foreseeable, even without those two factors. (It is not just the cost of the gas going into the house-sized SUV, but the zero-down loan that was used to acquire it, the leveraged costs that were used to produce it, and competition with China for the steel that went into it...)

But catastrophe? I doubt it - not in the short run, anyway. USA employment is too strong yet. (The parrots have underscored a layoff or two, but there's always a layoff or two.) In fact unemployment is about as low as the churn will allow, wages are holding well against historically low inflation, and cost of living is steady (looking past oil and credit).

Image source: Wikipedia article. Thank you.

There will, of course, be localised effects. Credit- and housing-related businesses are already affected, as are oil-related businesses (some for better, some for worse). People who borrowed money under terms they could afford at origination can no longer afford the skyrocketing terms on those loans.

(We ourselves are preparing for a slump in our travel-related business, which we're already seeing a bit of, probably from the weak US Dollar, but which we expect to get worse if credit dries up and oil stays high, especially if the parrots get loud and scare people.)

And if the US federal administration actually does force the hospitality and agricultural industries to lay off a significant fraction of their so-called illegal workforce (which I kinda doubt) we would see US food prices spike, but also a vacuum would appear in the low end of the US labour market. (Besides, I'll wager any amount that any significant enforcement would wait until after this year's harvest!)

So, to summarise, for the US economy as a whole to slide into recession requires a reversal of the current state of the labour market, which would require either (a) quite a bit of time, or (b) a huge catastrophe which no one has even thought of yet. But if you're in a fuel-intensive business, a luxury business, or a credit-dependent business (or all three - like travel!), you would be wise to hedge against a lean time ahead.

I am not an economist, but I play one in real life out of raw necessity.

Galena Alyson Canada 17 August 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

21 Tidbit #1: Shrimp Christmas 2003

2007-07-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today is July Xmas Day, and in honour of that I am posting this piece from December of 2003...

Miss Lena's Tidbit #1: Shrimp Christmas 2003

"Yes, I'd like the Road Pizza, please, with extra shrimp..."

Friday morning about 8 AM, 5 December 2003 -- Santa Rosa Village

A fully loaded 20-tonne semi-rig is speeding through the village, loses the curve, and overturns.

. . .

Friday morning about 9 AM, 5 December 2003 -- Maya Centre Village

Here in the South of Belize we have an increasing number of shrimp farms. While the ecological effects of these operations are (or ought to be) of grave concern, the economic benefits are undeniable as they bring more jobs and higher wages to rural southern Belize.

To include the transport sector, as more trucks are needed to ply the newly paved Southern Highway with huge loads of fresh, iced shrimp.

This morning, just an hour or so ago as I write, one such truck -- a fully loaded 20 tonne long-bed semi-rig -- chose to overturn right in the middle of Santa Rosa Village; a Maya settlement about ten miles south of where I live, in Maya Centre Village.

The bad part is that the driver was dead at the scene -- no seatbelt, of course (Belize does have a seatbelt law, but I've only ever seen Belizeans wear seatbelts when I force them to in my own vehicle) -- and recklessly speeding. In fact, the first news of the incident up here was when local boys saw the body heading north in the back of a Police pickup.

But then, within minutes, the *real* news reached our village: tonnes upon tonnes of fresh shrimp sitting right on the highway in the middle of Santa Rosa Village. And you can bet the news was spreading southward at the same pace.

We called the Santa Rosa Community phone to verify the tale. Everybody dropped whatever they were doing and, grabbing buckets, headed south in great haste with whatever vehicles were available.

Even my little red car was commandeered, and I am, even now, minding the house and awaiting the return of this strange harvest...

. . .

About 10 AM

The first of the foragers has just now returned, and I am seriously regretting having stayed behind, as it is evidently quite a scene in the village of Santa Rosa this morning.

People are calling it "Shrimp Christmas."

Sadly, I have a hard time feeling sympathy for the driver who lost his life, as he lost control of his rig in the curve right in the middle of Santa Rosa Village, in a school zone, while children were on the road walking to school. It's an easy curve: he must have been driving very fast for his load. It is with great relief that I report that no children were hurt.

OK, now to the fun part...

Picture the scene: approximately 20 tonnes (!) of iced shrimp, tipped over the highway, right in the middle of a Maya Village.

[Now, the road ditches down here are quite literally large enough to drive a pickup in, with the roof below pavement level -- they don't call it rainforest for nothing!]

The ditch is completely filled, over the top and overflowing the roadbed with iced shrimp. Word has by now reached for 30 miles in each direction, and already at least six villages are represented by gangs of bucket-, shovel- and bag-wielding natives, with more arriving by the minute. Pickups which happen upon the scene pull over -- and shrimp are shovelled, scooped, tossed by hand, by hat, whatever -- into the open beds. Even the regular schedule transport busses stop in the middle of their runs, and the drivers and passengers bail out and begin loading up the busses, right on the floor, under the seats, wherever.

The poor, foolish driver is long forgotten. A sizeable crew from the shrimp company involved arrives to recover what they can of the equipment and packing crates. Then the crew pitches in with shovels and helps everyone else load up before the bounty spoils.

That's right, the shrimp company is paying its workers to help all comers to load up with free shrimp. When asked why, the super is quoted as saying "Well, we can't sell it, and why let it go to waste?"

Our gang, headed up by my driver Daniel and Yoli, the mistress of the house, took a relatively modest quota and left early: one 5-gallon (19 l.) bucket and half-a-dozen plastic grocery bags full -- about 50 pounds (23 kg); market value: about $600 BzD -- well in excess of a month's wages for the typical village family.

In Santa Rosa, perhaps the 5th of December will from now on be celebrated as "Shrimp Christmas..."

. . .

Epilogue: about 11 AM

Yoli's fingertips are already bleeding. She is cleaning the shrimp, and their carapaces deliver little micro-cuts to the intruding finger. Yoli is not yet even 1/4 the way through her modest haul. A neighbour is on her way to help out, in exchange for a share of the spoils. The phone rings; it's Yoli's mother, who just happens to live in Santa Rosa Village, right next to the excitement. She has too many shrimp, her freezer is jammed, she threatens her daughter with another 50 pounds. Yoli says she might take them, but only if they're already cleaned!

And so supply has outstripped demand in the shrimp market in southern Belize, as the value rapidly plummets from $12 to nil per pound. Pity the poor fishmongers of Dangriga, Placencia and Punta Gorda who have already paid (the former) market rate for their wares...

Galena Alyson Canada 5 December 2003 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

20 Gallery: Lena's Morning Walk

2007-07-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

When I am in Washington, I take a walk in the woods behind our Vashon Island place on nice weather days. The other day I took my camera with, to catch the early light, to show you...

(Photos by Galena Alyson Canada. Clic to enlarge.)

We got our 3+ hectares (8+ acres) of woods at an excellent price 15 years ago, in part because the large abutting property belonged to an operating landfill, and the 'borrow pit' was near the property and noisy. Most buyers saw this as a negative. But we thought 'a thousand un-developable acres for a backyard'.

And we were right. The landfill is long closed. Ecology requirements meant that the borrow pit was re-graded and planted as a meadow and wetland, which is now used as a hunting ground by a flock of nesting swallows. The capped landfill is well south of us, silent and out of view, but setback requirements mean that the county can never sell or develop the lands that border ours to the south and east. We think we're pretty set.

There is a hundred-metre (-yard) swath of mature woods around the county property ('twas a required 'buffer zone' at one time), which is used only by deer and other wildlife. This is our immediate backyard. Over the years we have blazed a path through the brush and now have a loop-trail which serpentines through the woods and returns along one side of the meadow. This is my usual morning walk. Beyond, there are a thousand hectares (several thousand acres) of State Lands with their own woods, meadows and trails, should I feel more vigorous.

The property sits right on the backbone of the island, which sits in Puget Sound. A few kilometres to the northwest, the climate at the edge of the island is borderline 'temperate rainforest', covered in hemlock and cedars that drip with moss. A few km to the southeast there is a rain-shadow and madrona and grasses cover the dry sand. We're right on top, in the middle, and the terrain is moderate but pronounced, sheltering a variety of microclimates, which our little loop trail passes through.

Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor).

American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) under

Douglas Fir(Pseudotsuga menziesii) and
Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) .

Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum) under
Evergreen (Black) Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum).

About the only colour in temperate forests in early summer is green (albeit in all its varied shades), so the Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflorum) is a welcome break for both humans and birds.

Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) under
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata).

Salal (Gaultheria shallon).

American Hazelnut (Corylus americana).

Sitka Willow (Salix sitchensis).

Now I see that the morning is slipping away...time for my walk.
Are you coming?

Mature fir and hemlock forest understory showing Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum), Salal (Gaultheria shallon), huckleberry (Vaccinium spp.) and hazelnut (Corylus americana).

Galena Alyson Canada 9 July 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

19 Thinking About Schmutzie

2007-07-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

(This pic belongs to Schmutzie and she's probably
going to kick my ass for swiping it without asking.)

Schmutzie is having a chunk of her insides taken out this morning to save her life. Yesterday I had a tooth out. Coincidence?

Schmutzie is a recent net.friend of mine. The term was popular on Usenet, where everything was net-dot-this and net-dot-that. It's fallen from use now, but I continue to use the expression because there is really nothing to replace it.

net·.·friend (nět' dŏt frěnd)
n. A person with whom one has a meaningful reciprocal friendship, but whom one has never met in person; typ. over an electronic network.

Actually, even in net.friendship terms we barely know each other, having only recently begun reading each other's blogs. Nevertheless, the net.friend phenomenon has already occurred, at least in one direction.

The phenomenon is not new. Before UUCP and the Internet this kind of relationship existed in the form of pen pals. Getting a pen pal was a shot in the dark, usually determined mostly by chance, and the relationship took significant effort to develop and maintain, and conversation was difficult and awkward due to the extended delay between expositions. When I was a kid I had a couple pen pals. One of them I wrote a whole letter, which I think I even sent. The other I wrote about half a letter and gave up. Neither ever wrote to me. Bitches.

The advent of email made the pen pal relationship more immediate, facilitating the conversation, but it was still difficult to find a pen pal and establish pen-pal-hood. Then came Usenet and a decade later the Web and upon the web the Blog, and now it is, for many of us, almost a given that we frequently 'meet' people we will never meet, with whom we share our interests, experiences, feelings, history, goals and dreams; our lives.

And whom we care about, sometimes a great deal.

And this is the strange part, the oh-so-human part, because there are thousands of people out there today getting chunks of their insides removed and ending up in various states from ouch-to-dead and, except in the vaguest philosophical sense, I don't really give a damn about any of them, because I don't know them. But I care a great deal about what happens to Schmutzie four hours from now.

Of course, in 'reality' I don't 'know' Schmutz either.

(But she has just now posted a comment to this blog entry, and it made me jump-up-and-down happy!)

And this is the strange part, the oh-so-internet part, because there are thousands of people out there today having these meaningful net.friendships and caring about each other and sharing their lives, but they're not all real. Some of these lives do not exist. That is, some of these net.people are not at all what they present themselves as; indeed, most net.people probably do a little enhancing and omitting, and (now or eventually) some may not be people at all.

In a strange twist on the virtual relationship, my father and I recently began an email-based net.friendship after nearly two decades of not speaking to one another. While neither of us has any interest in a face-to-face meeting, this byte-based conversation has been carrying on rather nicely.

For example, I am pretty sure that Schmutzie is not my net.friend's real name, and for all I know, 'Schmutzie' may be a balding middle-aged guy with a beer gut hanging out over the waistband of his boxer shorts half-covered by a soiled wife-beater, who is (admittedly) very talented and is enjoying this feminine fiction greatly. Somewhere on the net this is happening. Maybe here. Maybe I am that guy! Maybe I'm software.

Trust is the keystone of friendship, net-dot or otherwise. We trust that people are who they say they are, and we imagine that we would detect falsehood. In truth, we engage in belief. That belief is not necessarily well founded, but is necessary nonetheless for us to have meaningful relationships, for us to live as human beings.

So here is a head game for you: I value my net.friendship with Schmutzie, I have learned from her, I care what happens to her, she has had an effect on my life. What if she is 'really' that middle-aged guy? Or software? So long as s/he/it can sustain my belief in her, does it matter?

Well, does it? I'll probably never meet Schmutzie face-to-face anyway. So long as the feminine truth-or-fiction is convincing, what's the difference (to me)?

Schmutzie is, of course, 100% real-live woman and an absolutely wonderful human being. Even if she is Canadian.

So in four hours from now my dear net.friend goes under the knife in a life-or-death event that will forever divide her life into Before and After. Either that, or he will grab a ham sandwich, pop a brewski, and kick back in his wife-beater and boxers to watch the game.

Galena Alyson Canada 3 July 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

18 Dear Schmutzie

2007-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

The following was originally a long comment I left for Schmutzie on her blog when she posted about her fear. Read her article here.

Galena Alyson Canada ~ 12:42 PM, July 01, 2007

Schmutzie, I have been waiting for this post to say anything real about this... THING ...that is happening to you.

I am probably going to tell you nothing but shit you already know, but I know that sometimes it helps to hear the echo. I also want to emphasise that I am not not not talking down, but across...

- * -

At risk to our budding (and highly valued) acquaintance, and with no disrespect to those who feel grief (I honour you too), I do not feel sorry for you, Schmutzie.

Oh, please don't mistake me, I am concerned and I empathise like hell -- I look back from the other side of this 'procedure' (as they like to minimise it) and your honest, raw words bring back that terror afresh, that had faded in memory.

(Ah, how the 'professionals' like to 'treat' the patients' well-justified fear with minimisation and over-blown confidence. Ignorant assholes.)

I was so fucking terrified going in that I went in still drunk from the night before, with a head as fat as my fear. I don't recommend this -- your dear body needs all the health it can get right now, and you can't take anything that thins the blood (you know, aspirin, ibuprofen). The good news is that the general anaesthetic works. The bad news is that it's all additive in post-op...I felt pretty dreadful for quite a while.

- * -

I feel concern, and I feel empathy, but I do not feel sorry -- because nothing BAD has happened.

BAD would be if your illness were untreatable. BAD would be if something went horribly wrong (car wreck, anaesthesia reaction) and we lost you. BAD might be if your existence were centred on having your own babies.

But no BAD things have happened as yet, and they are unlikely to.

How can I possibly say this? That a hysterectomy is not a BAD thing? Well, it's not, nor is it a GOOD thing; it is just a THING. As you yourself have recently written (albeit sardonically) there are good and bad aspects to this (as with all things). The most obvious GOOD thing is that you will probably not die prematurely. Another might be that you will probably, over time, recover your expenses through savings in feminine hygiene products and contraceptives (ha ha ha -- sorry 'bout dat -- you bring out the sick humour in me, Schmutz).

What this THING is, is another transition. You are about to go through a fast-forward version of menopause a bit ahead of schedule. As with puberty, as with being born, as with first sex, there will be anxiety and there will be changes to your body and to your mind. These changes will probably be somewhat less drastic than those you experienced at puberty, and probably somewhat more dramatic than when you first had sex. You'll probably experience some hot flashes. There may be a sense of loss; you may need to mourn.

We won't really know how the transition went for another year or five. I've known some women who continued to mourn their hysterectomies, usually because they wanted to make their own babies. I've known women who came to love their hysterectomies, who after healing came to feel that their lives had been liberated many years ahead of schedule -- that they got the best of age and youth at once. And I've known women who were just... ambivalent ...about the whole thing and did their best to forget about it.

- * -

I will not tell you that everything will be just fine, because I cannot know that. Shit goes wrong. When I had my 'procedure' it was cruder and more invasive than what you are having, and this was during the HIV-contaminated blood supply fear period, so they didn't want to transfuse and there was 'somewhat excessive blood-loss' (the bastards were careless and damned near let me bleed out), and I was so damned weak I couldn't even roll on my side by myself.

But that was then and this is now (another GOOD thing), and the laparoscopic 'procedure' you're having involves far less cutting and therefore far less risk. Not even a visible scar.

- * -

Which is not the same as not having a scar. I know about the traitorous body, that agent of duplicity, self-destruction and pain delivery. I am at war with my own treacherous future-cadaver on several fronts, even as I write this. This is one of my own as-yet unresolved demons: my ambivalent relationship with my own body still badly troubles my otherwise fairly content life. In my view the traitor body has two distinct components, and from your writing today, I think you mix them together, as I do.

The first is a general kind of body dysmorphic disorder that is induced wholesale in women (and increasingly now, in men) in cultures that value only youth over age. This is probably the root of the 'bloated figure', the 'arm wattle and looser skin' of your 'ugly and too obviously aging' body of which you write today. It is certainly the root of the big footed, flabby bellied, balding, greying and wrinkle headed unit that confronts me in the mirror.

The second, and quite distinct, dysmorphism is that which comes with injury and disease: you have been betrayed. Your 'meat suit' (thank you Schmutzie, that one's new to me!) can no longer be trusted; it may even be an enemy. If you can't even trust your own body to have your best interest at heart, then... I mean ...what the fuck is there?!

I do not, as yet, have an answer, although I do know that my own future wellbeing depends on my ability to change my ambivalent, antagonistic relationship with my body into one of mutuality and cooperation. Let's just say that, like you, I am clearly still a work in progress.

- * -

Well there now, I've said a lot of things and I'm not even sure why. Probably in part a selfish and opportunistic use of your immediate shit to review some of my own shit. Partly because I feel a (probably unwarranted) connection, and I write in the hope that, somewhere in all of this, you find a word that is useful to you in your transition to the next stage.

Whatever happens, I look forward with great interest to reading about it here.

Schmutzie, with all my heart,
'Lena

Again, you can read Schmutzie's article here.

Galena Alyson Canada 1 July 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

17 Gallery: Mopan Maya Deer Dance

2007-06-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

(Photos by Galena Alyson Canada. Clic to enlarge.)Deer.

A hunter and 2 deer circle past the 3-man marimba.

A hunter.

The deer are nervous.

3 marimba players, 2 fawns and a doe.

Groupies.

The hunters bag a deer.

The jaguars bag a hunter.

Jaguar in love.

Galena Alyson Canada 26 March 2005 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

16 One way my life may differ from yours

2007-06-22T11:28:00.001-07:00

The Alarm Clock

Nothing has had a more profound effect on my quality of life than choosing to live without an alarm clock. You probably think I'm a special case, and you cannot live without one, but you'd be mistaken.

I cannot recall exactly when I last used an alarm clock on a regular basis, but it is somewhere in the realm of 15-20 years. These days I use an alarm clock maybe once or twice a year for weird things like 4 AM flights, but otherwise I--

Live with the sun. Maybe I should've said live with the sun we are adapted to, which is roughly equatorial +/- 23 degrees latitude. This is harder when you get further from the equator, but still doable. Go to bed as early as you can in summer, do not stay up too late in winter. Avoid highly arousing stimuli just before sleeping (I'm talking about coffee and TV, not sex), and do not stay up too late, period. When you do stay up too late you'll be getting up late; accept that. The net effects of living with the sun is that you respect the circadian rhythms to which your species is adapted, and you--

Get enough sleep. I have been coming around to the idea that 'modern' (a.k.a. 'western') society as a whole exhibits behaviours which can be categorised as insane, and that the prevalence of insane behaviours among individuals is greater in modern societies than in older forms. There is plenty of research showing that chronic sleep deprivation leads to madness in direct proportion, and there is a growing body of public and occupational health research that shows that an increasing fraction of the westernised population is chronically sleep deprived. It is not a great leap of imagination to think that these two phenomena might be connected.

(Clic to enlarge.)

Healthy humans wake up without outside help after roughly 6-10 hours of sleep, depending on the individual's need. (The only exception I know of is with some depression symptoms.) Let me repeat that word: Need. If you are using an alarm clock to wake up then you are, by definition, sleep deprived. And probably, in some degree, insane. The only thing worse than an alarm clock is, of course, an--

Alarm Clock Radio This nightmare invention would be right at home in Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron. Not only does it deprive you of the natural conclusion of your sleep cycle, but it then quashes whatever wonderful or useful thoughts and feelings you may have produced during sleep (which is not a passive state), and replaces them with whatever drivel some program director has come up with to support advertising. The clock radio is second only to the television as a means of synchronising minds in a society at the lowest common denominator. The clock radio is at its most nefarious when tuned to a morning zoo show.

I have had many, many times the experience of epiphany during sleep. I've solved problems, composed songs, had therapy break-throughs, even produced essays, and just generally generated excellent ideas which I harvested as I awoke after a good night's sleep. All of which would have been lost to the rude intrusion of commercial radio advertising or other irritating noise.

And then I hear you say---

Things that suck.

"Oh, but I can't..."
Oh, nonsense. You would not knowingly choose to breathe asbestos dust in exchange for money ("oh, but I have bills, and I need the money, so I must breathe the dust, what else would I do?!") and no longer does anyone expect people to ingest toxins for pay. Think of sleep deprivation as a westerner's occupational health hazard. The people of Rome drank lead in their ignorance, and it probably made a lot of them whacky. It's a matter of awareness: they didn't know better. In my view, sleep deprivation is modern society's lead poisoning, the modern worker's coal dust. And now you know better. Alarm clocks and morning zoo shows are stealing your thoughts, your health, your very sanity and your life. Just say 'no.'

You're a smart, educated person; you can figure out how to make it work. That, or you're just nuts. xkcd.com/313

Galena Alyson Canada 22 June 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

Clic here to see the world's most difficult-to-set alarm clock...

15 Aimless Blathering #1

2007-06-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Long distance Maya...

Ugh. OK, I'm writing now just to get something written.

Sorry, it's been rather sparse here at Thinking Aloud lately, as I've once again made to move from Caribbean Central America to the Pacific Northwest. At least for once I'm moving in the right direction for the season, leaving hurricane-and-bug season behind, arriving in the PNW for the few months of the year that the climate is truly marvellous.

(Photos by Galena Alyson Canada.
Clic to enlarge.)

But ugh, the adjustment. For me returning to the USA is a little like when you visit your parents and have to sleep in your old room and you find yourself not only acting, but feeling all those grotesque juvenile things that you are just so glad you've banished from your adult life...

But I must admit, it is nice to experience room-temperature again. And mostly without bugs.

I am in full-tilt therapy-mode lately; probably triggered by the arrival of my 50th birthday. (Were I a member of an eight-fingered species, would I have had this experience ten years ago?) I have been reconnecting with my known family -- half-siblings and stepsiblings -- my former nuclear-family-of-origin is no more. But my father and I are corresponding (tentatively, cautiously) for the first time in 18 years. And it's been at least that long with the others. I was 30 when we blew each other off; 20 years on things seem different. The Old Man made it to 80. I'm not so angry now.

My friend Sarah is moving to Jordan and gifted me a box of CDs. Some old favourites I haven't heard in ages. A couple new-to-me's. I am listening to Samia Farah for the first time. Really, really nice. Highly recommended.

I am chatting with some 48-year-old married guy who works as a freight forwarder on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and I don't even know why. At least he can go back and forth between French and English...

I semi-inadvertently joined an online therapy group and, much to my surprise, people are being extremely candid about their stories, which means that the experience of interacting with them has been surprisingly intense. This is not your typical internet bla-bla-bla. It seems to be more intense than face-to-face groups I've attended. And sometimes I get people's stories confused. That could be embarrassing at some point.

Ugh, and then there's all this unresolved crap waiting for me -- the accounting in arrears and taxes overdue and legal problems and finance issues and investors to whom I owe an explanation... It is easy to forget these things in the immediacy of life in the tropics, but here in the Land of the Dollar they just don't go away.

A friend of mine was attacked and brutally raped last Saturday. There, that kind of puts the overdue taxes in perspective, doesn't it? I think she'll be OK, eventually. Right now she's insane, but what do you expect? Her husband is biting his fingers off, which may complicate his future employment.

I really like Schmutzie's writing. I got caught up on her blog today and left a note with almost every entry. She probably thinks I'm stalking her. Schmutzie, I am not stalking you. Or I don't think I am.

Well, there you go: I see words and punctuation and paragraphs and such, so this must count as writing, and if so then I am done here. Next time I promise brilliance. No, really.

Here's another random picture to distract you:

Galena Alyson Canada 20 June 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

14 These Two Photographs

2007-06-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

I have two pictures I want to show you. These pictures mean a lot to me. And, of necessity, I am going to show each picture to you in a different way.

First, Picture #1: This photograph once existed but was lost long ago, except to my memory.

Tossa de Mar

It is the tail end of summer, 1964. There is a sandy Mediterranean beach partly occupied by small wood fishing boats drawn up on wood runners and draped with nets spread to dry in the rosy late-afternoon sun.

The beach is deserted, but for a child near the edge of the weakly lapping surf, and she is making hills and valleys in the sand, with lakes and little rivers linking them. She seems very busy. Strawberry blonde hair mostly obscures her face and she is unaware of her mother's camera. She is seven years old and seems happy.

And now, Picture #2: My goddaughter Elizabeth, two years ago when she was not quite five years old. She will be seven soon...

(Photo by Galena Alyson Canada. Clic to enlarge.)

Galena Alyson Canada 11 June 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

13 The Rain is Come

2007-05-30T05:22:00.001-07:00

This morning, a little before 6 AM, the Rain came.

We are not talking about the drench-and-gone cloudbursts that we get any time of year, even in Dry Season, but the kind of intense continuous downpour that sets in with the Wet and cannot be out-waited.

(Photo by Galena Alyson Canada.

Clic to enlarge.)

I am thoroughly wet by the time I complete my 30-step commute to the office.

True Rain is an active kind of thing, near impossible to catch in a still photograph. The drizzles of Seattle I can capture, with their mists and drips from branch tips and hat-brims and their deep abiding grey. But the Rain of the tropics is a dynamic, dramatic beast that requires a movie; motion and sound.

The Rain is filling all the cracks and crevices, swelling the parched earth, and many of the Tiny Ones are on the move, rising on the tide. Ants and roaches and beetles are on the swim. And scorpions.

A juvenile scorpion has climbed the gap in the office doorjamb and gives me a glancing prick on the forefinger as I turn the key. He is small and it was not a solid strike, so only a few minutes of fire in a finger and thereafter a little linger. And he would have done better to scurry away and leave me be, for he is now arthropod paste. Now, a solid body-hit from a mature ten-plus-cm / four-plus-inch specimen is an injection of a different colour. This life-affirming event will occupy your attention fully for one to two days, and is an experience not to be missed. If you prefer to miss it, Wikipedia says there are no scorpions in New Zealand or Antarctica; so those are your choices.

After an hour-and-a-half there is an intermission. The sun peeks through the clouds and the humidity rises to saturation. The birds come out to play -- it is the Feast of the Commencement of the Wet, and everyone scurries after the Tiny Ones, flushed from their refuges. Joy and Life for some; Terror and Death for others. Then the sun hides itself again, the temperature drops a degree or two, and the birds are hushed. Looking down, I notice that there is already mud on my ankles.

The Wet is come.

Galena Alyson Canada 30 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

12 A Beautiful Morning

2007-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

(Photos by Galena Alyson Canada. Clic to enlarge.)

The workshop and office, where I now sit as I write.

It is a beautiful 50th birthday morning here in tropical southern Belize. A comfy 28 C / 83 F at 7 AM. There are thunder cells crowding and booming all around, but it's still sunny in my yard at the moment, and the birds are singing a riot. While the light is still good and it's not too hot I decided to wander around the yard with my camera, so that I might show you a little of my southern home.

Here is my house, the second I've built here in Maya Centre Village. The sapling in the foreground is a 4-year-old mahogany, and to the left of it, if you clic the pic to enlarge, you can just make out Ix Mis (EESH MEES, "Girl Cat") in the window.

I am glad to see the storm clouds. It is the tail end of the Dry Season, and this one has been dryer than usual. We have finally had a few good showers in just the past couple weeks, so the cracks in the clay are beginning to heal a bit, and the maya plums are leafing out of their dormancy. Other dormant trees are waiting for a greater certainty.

Dry season is nesting season, and this particular region has more birds than most. A few hundred species at any given time, 500+ species over the year, so the books say. I am not a birder, but I can tell you that they run from tiny little things smaller than many of our insects, to the big snowy egrets, frigate birds with a 1.2 m / 4 foot wingspan, and giant toucans. And many outrageous colours. I just saw an I-don't-know-what smaller than a chicken egg and a brighter scarlet than fresh blood sitting on a grapefruit branch.

Weaverbirds usually make colonies of basket-nests in a tree, but I guess they have to start somewhere, and I have a solitary weaverbird just outside my office window. There are baby-noises inside and the mom is vexed with me as I take these photos to show you. You can see the tunnel entrance, downwardly directed to keep out the riff-raff.

There are many species of orchid in my yard. A few are holdovers from when I made this little dent in the bush, but most are gifts from villagers returning from clearing the bush for farms. The giants have enough resources saved-up to bloom in the Dry Season, but smaller species are just leafing out with the first showers and will do their bit later on.

I am not a big fan of lawns, but I have to admit the yard looks nice. This grass is not planted, it is just what grows natively if you mow. Yards here are mowed more for safety than appearance. We have many species of toxic snakes, and I have seen coral snakes and many fer de lance around the edges of the yard, the largest almost 1.5 m / 5 feet long.

The cohune palms are used for thatch here, and the grape-clusters of egg-sized nuts are delicious little coconuts, but nearly impossible to crack, even with a big hammer, so nobody eats them any more. But the gibnut that live in the bush at the fringes of the yard are evolved to cohune and come over at night to bite the nuts open.

The birdsong has been so wonderful this morning that I have left the fan off as long as possible to enjoy it. But the sun is higher now and the clouds have run away, so the temp is pushing 32 C / 90 F and the fan must go on. It will top-out in the mid-30s C / mid-90s F mid- afternoon, as it has done on all but a few days for many months now.

Hot and dry. Everything, the very clay itself, is waiting for the Wet to begin in earnest. Soon, very soon now. And then it will be a little cooler and life will be insects and mud, and we will pray for the Dry.

Galena Alyson Canada 28 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

11 Thinking About Governance and the USA

2007-05-21T08:10:00.001-07:00

It is a beautiful morning here in the tropics of Central America: The sun is out, but it's not too hot yet. There are parrots in the trees. The yard is clean and green. Fully ripe grapefruit are dropping from the trees. Even my old beat-up 4WD diesel P/U is washed and beautiful, just back from the mechanic and running as beautifully as this morning.

After my last few 'downer' postings here, I really intended to write something uplifting -- you know, celebrate life, marvel at the world and my remarkable fortune to be here in it.

Alas, but that's not what has happened.

In an internet forum with which I usually begin my day, a net.acquaintance posted a piece about some (USA) government malfeasance she was upset about. When her readers made little response she got upset and argued that citizen complacency was ruining the USA.

Instead of writing about my beautiful day, I chose to invest my writing time in responding to this accusation -- a mistake, I know, but this is what you get today; sorry. :-) I'll try to write happy tomorrow. ;-)

If nothing else, maybe this'll inspire some comments... :-D

Not complacent -- overwhelmed.

So much has gone so horribly wrong in so many parts of the government in so many ways, and for so long that an individual can hardly grasp the situation. And as a student of history I would have to say that it has ever been so.

A majority of voters would need to become far more educated and broaden their thinking for matters to change significantly. I vote. Beyond that, I pick my issues narrowly and do what I can.

My opinion about the USA? [Oh gawd, here we go...] What had been intended as a federation of states (i.e., countries; something akin to the EU+NATO nowadays) has become an oligarchy that controls too much of what happens on the planet, and where most of those affected are not allowed representation.

You want a solution? The only real solutions I can come up with are drastic. (Hint: I was involved in efforts in Siberia for a couple years following the break-up of the USSR. What a fucking mess.)

Give up. The Universe is laughing behind your back.

Galena Alyson Canada 21 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

10 Thinking About Depression

2007-05-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

[This started out as a response to a friend's blog entry. Once done, I thought it deserved a place here.]

I've fought with depression for about the past 42 of my 50 years. Over the past 18 years I have done a lot of therapy and used medication. Life is much, much better than it was (and I am indeed living, which might not have been), but I have given up hope of being 'cured' and, as with other chronic diseases, I now aspire to be 'better managed'.

I might characterise my 'levels of depression' as follows:

-0: OK. Pretty balanced; got some stuff I'm looking forward to; making jokes and relating to people; making pretty good use of my time for the most part; taking fairly decent care of myself; low level of medication. Life is good.

-1: Out-of-sorts. (see dysthemia) Nothing in the future I'm looking forward to (except possibly an 'escape' of some kind); focussed mainly on the past, esp. where I went wrong and wrongs I have done; still making jokes and relating to folks, but less so; generally poor use of time and wasting a lot of time in diversions (TV, excessive reading, surfing, solitaire); work begins to suffer; notably poor self-care. On the way down.

(I see level -1 as within the range of 'normal', which I might suggest is something like -1 to +1.

(If I'm 'on it' when I find myself here, I increase my med dosage, concentrate on good meals and exercise, make sure I make contact with friends and therapist; cajole, force or trick myself into more functional behaviours. If I am not 'on it' then I either stagnate here until I do get 'on it', or the slide continues down to level -2.)

-2: Melancholy. (see Melancholia, but really it's Major Depression) Significant loss of function; periods of deep abiding sadness; very little self-care; alternate not eating and binging; significant non-sleep periods in bed; I close the door to the room I'm in and rarely go outside. Absolutely no interest in the future and little in the present; suicidal ideation begins to intrude; distinct avoidance of people and tasks; I stop answering email and the phone, and work suffers greatly; minimal interaction with close family; I miss taking meds occasionally.

-3: Full-Blown Depression. No interest in anything; virtually no self-care; chronic suicidal ideation, possibly including preparations and action; complete avoidance of outside contact; prolonged melancholy alternating with significant periods of dissociation (loss of personality/body connection); I may go off my meds.

-4: Dissociation. Completely shut-in; almost all time in bed; near-complete loss of ability to care for self; near-continuous dissociation or sleep, interrupted by periods of melancholy with continuous suicidal ideation (but little inclination to act on it -- or anything else for that matter); getting up to pee is a major problem; responsiveness is minimal.

-5. Catatonia. (see also Vegetative State) Subject is completely unresponsive. I have had only brief periods here (a few minutes, maybe an hour at most), tho' I understand that it can become chronic.

There is also, of course, a plus-side to the scale, with +1 being Joy, up through Euphoria, with the extreme being Mania. I do not often make radical excursions to the plus-side, so this is less of an issue for me.

I want to mention that I am not getting this scale and these symptoms from any place but my own experience -- I am just making it all up. I'm sure the clinicians have such scales, but I am unaware of them.

For much of the past couple years I have been firmly stuck at -1 with periodic excursions up and down from 0 to -2. In recent months I have been trending more into -2. The last time I was at -4 was over a decade ago (I believe).

And please also note that what I have been talking about is 'uncomplicated' depression. Add in substance abuse (which used to be a big factor for me -- thank god I'm past that nightmare), illness, disability, toxic relations, etc., and things get a lot more complicated. For example, I am stuck at the low end of -1 right now, but I am dealing with moderate but intrusive chronic pain, which makes it hard to concentrate; I believe I could be on the way up right now, were it not for this.

If you're not depressed and you never deal with anyone who is, then I haven't been much help, have I? Otherwise I hope my experience has been of some small use.

If this issue is of interest to you, please open a discussion in the comments section (link below), and I will be glad to respond.

Galena Alyson Canada 17 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

9 Gallery: This Morning at My Comadre's House

2007-05-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

(Photos by Galena Alyson Canada. Clic to enlarge.)
The kitchen hearth.

My goddaughters Ammy and Elizabeth at sunrise.

Maise and eggs nearby.

Elizabeth in the kitchen.

The house and my borrowed Jeep.

The lavatory and laundry.

Manuela's Shop adjoins.

My comadre Manuela in her shop.

Newly arrived: the only refridge in the village.

Elizabeth is now ready for school...

...and then I got in my borrowed Jeep and headed back home...

Galena Alyson Canada 14 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

8 Grandma Got Her Gun

2007-05-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

For the first time in three decades, I am packing a loaded gun.

This is interesting for two reasons: first, I am strongly against private gun ownership in general, and second, what could possibly happen to cause gun-control grandma to pack heat?

Armed bandits. Probably from eastern Guatemala, and using loaded handguns (the kind I am most against) in several local strong-arm robberies. When I say 'local' I mean within 500 m of my place here, and within the past several weeks. And although they've hurt no one as yet, they do shoot-off at each robbery to demonstrate their intent. And unfortunately I am a pretty obvious target.

Not that robberies and assaults are exactly rare here. Machetes and knives are commonplace, and attacks and robberies involving blades are a usual occurrence (which is the whole reason this gun is here to begin with). But blade attacks are rarely fatal, and gun-toting bandits are common only in the border areas (probably due in part to our country's heavy gun-control laws) and we are mercifully distant from the border.

But let me tell you about this gun. There is effectively no police force here in the South, and so businesses must hire their own security when needed. When we were in operation we employed the services of an armed guardsman at times. Both he and the police (!) wanted him to have a 9mm "short gun" so he could carry it easily and do real damage -- the very reasons I would not permit a handgun.

[Note here that both my mother and a close friend are dead because they kept handguns in their homes. Words cannot describe how strongly I am against private ownership of handguns. Even police should be restricted to shotguns IMO.]

I would only permit a shotgun, so the guardsman wanted a 12 ga with slugs, which I would also not permit. I bought him a 16 ga bird gun with small shot. I would have further reduced the implement's lethality by sawing it off if that would not have rendered the weapon illegal. Suffice to say that my guard was less than thrilled with my choice, but accepted it, which made it perfect.

So at the end of the tale here I am with this bird gun propped by the window. It's loaded, so watch your step, or I'll give you acne.

Galena Alyson Canada 7 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

7 Reflection on My Current Mood

2007-05-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

It is Sunday morning and I am in one of my 'difficult moods.'

The daily electronic issues of The Writer's Almanac build up in my in-box for weeks upon end, and, when I am in one of my difficult moods and at a loss for a direction to face and yearning for that tranquillity which I absorb from the notes of Garrison Keillor's rusty voice, I listen to the whole lot at once, usually in reverse order as I drill down through the layers of unanswered requests and internet tripe that have collected, but sometimes in chronological order instead, saving today's instalment for last, hoping that somehow I will land facing the right way.

I am listening to Ala dos Namorados, aladosnamorados.net (sorry, no English site available), an acquired taste if ever there was one. If you like traditional Portuguese music, Iberian Gypsy music, or opera, you might like Ala -- start with Solta-se o Beijo. Difficult music for a difficult mood.

I had promised myself ages ago that I would surely 'be grown up' by age 50, but it looks like I may miss that mark -- only 22 maturing days left till birthday. Crap. Sometimes I feel like I've made no headway in decades: I still put off doing my homework (if anything, I'm worse); I still make grandiose plans which have an ice-cube's- chance-in-hell of coming together (and I'm still dissatisfied with the sometimes-remarkable things I do accomplish while falling short of the grander plans); I still do not take care of myself worth a damn (in some respects much better, but in equally important respects much worse, and no, I won't tell you); I'm still on medication (nope, not that either); and I still live under the same cloud of hopeless personal failure that my dear father programmed for me forty-five-god- damned-years-ago.

It's twenty years, nearly to the month, since the divorce. The children are grown, but not whole (there is now a grandchild who will doubtless inherit the damage). After a few bad attempts I gave up and never tried again. Damn. I really, really thought I'd be doing alright by now.

I am facing consequences, the accumulated consequences of fifty years of choices and influences, and I don't like it one bit.

OK, thanks, I'm done now.

If you know me, kindly leave a comment below, containing some kind of gentle reminder of that which I have momentarily forgotten.

And if you do not know me, then be so good as to leave your comment as well, containing please, some new insight which, until now, I have been lacking.

Galena Alyson Canada 6 May 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

6 Back Home

2007-04-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

It's 30C / 86F in my office at 7 in the morning, the midges are biting my feet as I type, and I'm suffering from intestinal distress: I must be back home.

Latitude 16 and it's the dry season. The mud and mosquitoes are gone, oranges and oop' (custard-apples) are in season, and tourists are ripening on the beaches only 13km /8mi from this small Maya village on the edge of the jungle.

I move back and forth between here and the Seattle (USA) area (where the current temp is 9.4C / 49F), and the first week or two are always tough -- either direction. Heading south one must readjust to more primitive conditions -- heat, insects, microbes; little is available and nothing works properly. Heading north, it is the stress, isolation and general "busyness" that is hard to adjust to.

Yes, I said 'isolation,' for I frequently feel alone and disconnected in The West; where here, in this small rural village, I feel embraced to the bosom of humanity. Which is probably mostly why I am here.

As I roll my bicycle along the dusty track past the school the children stop what they're doing and, waving, call out "Na'chin Lena!" Everyone greets me as I pass. I must take care in choosing the order of my initial visits so that no feelings are hurt. In Maya terms I have varying degrees of family ties here; there is a hierarchy that must be respected.

Tzik -- formal respect -- is at the very core of Maya culture. Although changing with the generations, and despite what Mayans themselves may say, tzik is alive and strong in the culture. Perhaps the ceremonial-language rehearsed speeches once given upon greeting each relation have passed by the way, but if you want to 'dis' a Maya who is older/senior to you, just fail to offer your seat and you're one step on the way to a family feud.

I think there was once tzik in Western culture, but it is mostly gone. Our loss.

An old woman (nooch'up, senior status, big tzik) sends a grandson to fetch me -- will I come give his na'chin an injection please? As with many of the older women here she is Type-2 diabetic, poorly controlled, and has lost the nerves in her feet. She needs a periodic anti-inflammatory injection. I am neither doctor nor nurse nor medic, but I am the best she has here in the village. What does she do when I am away? Sometimes a nurse comes to the village, but usually not. When she gets to the point she can no longer get out of bed, her husband takes her by bus to the doctor in town, which trip they cannot afford. Did the doctor test her blood sugar last time she was there? Yes. What did he say about it? They don't know. I remind her and her husband to make sure the children check her feet every evening. She says they do.

Polinaria is at the creek washing dishes, clothes and herself. She is huge with her first baby, and earlier than expected. My return was timed to this birth, and I am glad that I came a few weeks early, because this looks like any minute now. She has had an ultrasound to check for complications -- prenatal care is rare here, but Poli is younger-generation, educated and 'modern' (and yes, lives in a thatched house, makes tortillas by hand, and washes in the creek) -- the doctor says it's a boy and it is already 3.5kg / 8 pounds. My next ahijado.

I visit 'my son' Christi Eric at his na'chin's home. My comadre Andrea is his grandmother. Andrea's daughter Bonifilia is also my comadre, as I am her son Christi's na'yoox. Na'yoox (pronounced na'yosh where the apostrophe represents a glottal-stop and the 'o' is held) translates as 'godmother', and ahijado (a-ee-hadtho) and comadre are borrowed from Spanish -- 'godson' and 'co-mother', respectively. Got all that?

Since Christianisation, the Mayan comadre/compadre relationship has been formalised with the baptism of the child, and carries with it the same responsibilities as in traditional Catholic observance. But it still retains much of the original Mayan significance: a godparent is considered a blood-tie to the family, with authority over the child that supersedes that of the birth parents. This comes with a host of expectations and assumptions that are difficult for a non-Mayan to appreciate. Occasionally a missionary or other interested gringo will take a position as a godparent in a Maya family, and I just cringe and bite my fingers off -- once they go back home one rarely hears from them again. I was so naive once.

I have a pair of goddaughters in a village one hour south, who provide me with relations in several villages in the remote hills. I have one godson in the village here, and another situation here that is ambiguous (as the baptism has not yet occurred and there is a complicated rift in that family right now -- a not uncommon occurrence in Maya relations). Poli's baby will give me blood ties running all the way to the Guatemala border. I'd say I am pretty well 'embraced.'

Galena Alyson Canada 28 April 2007 Stann Creek, Belize, C.A.

5 Why Maya?

2007-04-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

Mike wants to know how I ended up in a rural Maya village in Central America. Or maybe what he really wants to know is "why?" The how is interesting, certainly, but meaningless without first grasping the why...

It's a fair question, but one that I am often at a loss to fully answer. The Caribbean beach dwelling ex-pat gringos that populate the nearby coast everyone seems to "get." But a university educated middle-aged white woman living alone in an indigenous farming community at the edge of the jungle? What's that about?

Well, the first thing to understand that seems to get overlooked, is that I am not alone. These are "my people." Though I continue to struggle with the language and still blunder into cultural misunderstandings and I stand out in a group like a Caucasian billboard, nevertheless I identify with these short brown people. Our values mesh. After nearly a decade of moving back and forth between these worlds, it is still in some ways easier for me to function in white western culture, but Mopan Maya culture feels better.

The second thing to understand is what I'm doing here: everyone wants to know that. I'd rather start by talking about what I'm not doing here, with these Maya: I'm not buying up their land; I'm not trying to get them to be more religious or change their sect. I'm not trying to make money off of them or cheat them. I am not trying to change them, improve or modernise them, educate or enlighten them. I am not trying to record them, study them, or preserve them. I neither look nor talk up nor down to them. I do not think they should be more like me.

But I do think I should be a little more like them: Social life, daily work, family and food matter; life is centred on the children, elders are respected; washing is done in the creek; learning, culture and history are valued; you can live barefoot and eat with your hands; feelings are up-front, men can weep; everyone speaks two or three languages and bathes daily.

An ideal human cultural environment? Hardly. Violence is common, as are injury and disease; vicious gossip is the primary form of entertainment; sanitation, health care and food handling is inadequate; there is a nasty Catholic-Protestant schism; alcohol is a growing problem; the roads and trails are rough and muddy and the most common cause of death is inadequate transport; women and children are sometimes treated as property; dishonesty and theft is tolerated, and there is frequently a striking lack of empathy for others.

And yet, I much prefer this raw, messy, real life of making food, raising children, caring for the old and sick, and burying the dead. I feel alive here. I feel important and valued here. When I drop and they bury me, I believe I will be remembered here. Whereas, in the self-involved make-believe max-consumption, auto-paced, cash-and-credit-valued have-or-die world of western culture as it is now, I think that few would really be much affected by my absence. I no longer know how to have a meaningful life in modern western society.

Life, here in the village, is human scale. The stories, activities, behaviours and motives, good and bad, are those that we evolved to as a species. My body and my soul understand life here.

But to explain how I got here requires that we go back to the beginning, and we will leave that till next time.

Galena Alyson Canada 8 April 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

4 Thinking About the Greener Grass

2007-03-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fertilior seges est alieno semper in arvo.
-- Latin proverb, quoted by Erasmus of Rotterdam

The corne in an other mans ground semeth euer more fertyll and plentifull then doth oure owne.
-- translation by Richard Taverner, 1545;
Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (1970)

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
-- American aphorism, c. 1957

The "truth" of this metaphorical proverb can, of course, also be observed often enough in the countryside when a cow or a horse is trying to get at that juicy green grass just on the other side of the fence. And since people are equally dissatisfied with their lot in life, it should not surprise anyone that a modern psychologist has spoken of "the 'greener grass' phenomenon" by which modern individuals continually evaluate supposedly better alternatives for themselves.

-- from "The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side
of the Fence": An American Proverb of Discontent,
Wolfgang Miedler, 1995, reproduced at deproverbio.com

[article pending]

3 Thinking About Betricia

2007-03-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

I am so proud of my "fairy-god-daughter" Betricia -- her first high school report card was all A's and B's!

Betricia is the oldest daughter of my "sister" Dominica, with whom I usually share meals. Like most Maya, Betricia is growing up in a fairly large and relatively poor family, which means that she is pretty short on luxuries (like clothing) but pretty long on what really matters -- love.

The Government here provides only for primary school -- high school costs serious money and is out of reach for most Maya children. Many quit even primary school because of the cost of books, supplies and uniforms (which the family must pay) and/or because they are needed to work in the home or farm.

It is only recently that any Maya girls have attended high school. Before now, if the family could afford it, the son would be sent to high school, and the daughter would work in the home until she could be married. Dominica was 14 when her marriage was arranged, which was usual at the time. (By contrast a friend of mine was recently able to get out of such an arrangement even though she is 21. This is progress. Maya girls still do not go out on their own.) But Betricia's parents always wanted her to continue in school if she wanted to...

Dominica and her husband Alfonso scraped to get Betricia's two elder brothers into high school but the family's income fell just as Betricia was finishing primary school. The second son dropped out to go to work, and when it came time to register Betricia for high school there was no money for the fees, not to mention books and uniforms. So Betricia resigned herself to the inevitable and gave up her hopes of school.

But just before it was too late a family member was able to borrow some money and pay Betricia's fees and supplies. Never in my life have I seen a child so ecstatic at the prospect of heading to school in the fall.

For a Maya girl, school participation comes as an extra, on top of her traditional family responsibilities. Before Betricia can put on her uniform and board the bus for the 24-mile trip to the nearest town where her high school is, she must rise before dawn with her mother and next sister to prepare food and care for the younger children.

Upon her return from school in the afternoon, Betricia washes clothes and dishes in the creek 200 m from the house, then with her mother and sister prepares dinner and again cares for the younger siblings. By eight o'clock or so in the evening the family is getting ready for bed, and Betricia finally sits at the table to begin her homework.

When her first report card came in showing all A's and B's I broke into tears. Way to go Betricia.

Galena Alyson Canada 6 March 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

2 Thinking About Internet Forums

2007-03-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

What is this brain-damaged feedback loop I get into with internet fora?

What are internet fora?

Long after I have exhausted whatever reason brought me to the forum in the first place, like some kind of drug-addicted rhesus monkey in a cage with a button, I keep jerking back to read whatever insipid new posting popped up in the 2.5 seconds that have passed since the last insipid posting...for what?

Make no mistake -- I think internet fora are one of the truly great innovations of the www (and I was a big fan of Usenet "newsgroups" and email lists before that) -- indeed, I owe some of my dearest friends, a couple career changes, and my current country of residence all or in part to the internet forum and its antecedents.

But there is something about the damned medium that always sees me reduced in the end to this drooling-simian mode: is there a new post yet? how about now? any new members? any PMs for me? anyone reply to my post? is there a new post yet?...

Good grief. I just did it again.

Honestly. It is become truly pathetic.

Galena Alyson Canada 5 March 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA

Lena is member #4596 @ belizeforum.com and member #4 @ lalaunderground.com and is afraid to even look at the blogger boards here.

1 Thinking About Thinking About Writing

2007-03-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am reminded of the Steinbeck character "Doc" in Cannery Row [or was it Sweet Thursday?] who, having decided to write, spends his time sharpening pencils to perfect points and never quite manages to press one to paper...

Having decided (once again) to put together a journal, I seem to have spent much time choosing among blog hosts and configuring templates and photo hosts and... and...

Everyone wants to have written a book, but no one wants to have to actually write one [who said that?]; and the same goes for journals. When my mother and I embarked on our second European tour in 1967 she gave me a bound diary for the trip and I kept it religiously for the duration of the flight over. Since then I have been an intermittent "journalist" at best, missing and forgetting far more than I have logged, but I admit to treasuring the disjoint scraps I have managed to get down on paper and not lose along the way...

My most successful bouts of journaling have been when I have managed to get a routine going without being too "editorial" -- a rare condition. While I am constantly composing works of great literature in my head, I am inhibited by the sense that anything that actually oozes from the tip of my pen (or typing fingers) is de facto published, and must therefore arrive on the page already perfected. This tends to reduce my prolificacy somewhat.

So today I am trying out this very public form of journaling in an attempt to break that editor down somewhat. What you see here is unrefined rough draft -- an attempt to get my underexposed thoughts out into the open air -- just me, thinking aloud.

If something you see here makes you think [or if you have the answer to one of my many questions] kindly post a comment or send me an email. Much appreciated.

(The real-life Doc was Steinbeck's friend, marine biologist Ed Rickets. According to Joel Shurkin, ...Of Cabbages and Kings, he was killed by a train, crossing a railroad track whilst going for a six-pack of beer. Best write while there's still time.)

Galena Alyson Canada 3 March 2007 Vashon Island, Washington, USA