HinesSight

Dancing cockatoo shows that birds can boogie

Browsing through some news web sites this morning, it was nice to come across a story that made me smile rather than frown (as swine flu and economic headlines do).

For the first time, apparently, scientists have proven that an animal can dance to music. Snowball, a cockatoo, performs to various tunes. This video of him grooving to the Backstreet Boys was the first one I watched.

Loved it!

I wish our dog could do half (heck, a tenth) as well. And that I could put a video of her on You Tube that would get over 2,150,000 views.

Unfortunately for our family pet's fame, researchers analyzed more than 5,000 You Tube videos of "dancing" animals.

In the end, only 33 videos really seemed to show creatures moving with a beat. There were 14 different species of parrots and one elephant species.

It seems that only species capable of imitating sound can keep a beat. Dolphins are going to be studied to see if they can aqua-dance, since they're capable of learning vocalizations.

I don't think they'd be as engaging as Snowball, though. Here's another video of him dancing, this time to Huey Lewis. I love how he throws his head around.

Live with coyotes, don't kill them

Excellent story in the Portland Oregonian today, "Coping with neighborhood coyotes." It makes the same points that my wife and I have shared with some coyote-hating neighbors of ours recently.

(Since the Oregonian eventually archives its online stories, I scanned the piece by Jacques Von Lunen so it will be permanently available.)
Download Oregonian coyote story 4-28-09

Coyotes are part of nature's balance. Von Lunen says they weren't in western Oregon until wolves were eradicated and clear-cutting of forests enabled them to cross the Cascades.

Laurel and I wish we had more of them here in semi-rural south Salem. Ground squirrels are a problem for us. Coyotes aren't. As the story says:

There's no reason to want coyotes gone anyway, say the experts. Without coyotes, the local rodent population would skyrocket to four or five times its current level, Sallinger says. [Bob Sallinger is conservation director for the Audubon Society of Portland.]

Urban legends about coyotes abound. We've heard neighbors say, "I'm worried they'll kill a small child."

Actually, points out Von Lunen, there's only one recorded case of a coyote killing a human in U.S. history. And that was after a family continuously fed a coyote, causing it to be unafraid of humans. It then attacked a 3-year old child.

Don't leave food out for coyotes, and they are much less likely to come around. This is rule #1 for dealing with them.

Another rule is: don't kill them. This just leads to more coyotes.

Killing an individual coyote only opens up its habitat to other coyotes, which replace it almost instantly. Coyotes also employ "compensatory breeding strategies," Sallinger says. Typically, only the alpha male and female of a pack breed. But if pack members are killed, the remaining coyotes start breeding, pushing their numbers higher.

Being animal lovers, we can understand why people worry about their pet cats and small dogs in coyote territory. But keeping cats indoors (especially at night) and not letting your chihuahua roam on its own will go a long way toward keeping pets safe.

Our coyote-hating neighbors are fond of feral cats, feeding and taking care of them. That's nice. But feral cats aren't part of the natural Oregon ecosystem, whereas coyotes are.

Cats decimate the wild songbird population, as evidenced by how much they hang around our bird feeders. Coyotes control rodent pests.

Give me a coyote over a feral cat anytime. The Oregonian story concludes with:

"Coyotes are amazing animals," Sallinger says. "We're very fortunate to have them around. We shouldn't want to get rid of them."

Drilling a new well: lessons from our muddy experience

If you have city water, you turn a tap and water comes out. Pretty simple.

Out here in the south Salem (Oregon) countryside, each house has an individual well. And that's where things get complicated.

Especially if you have super-crappy water, as we do.

It takes four large tanks in our garage -- an ozonator, softener, iron filter, and ph adjuster -- to treat our current well water and make it suitable for indoor use (outside, the plants love the raw water with its iron, magnesium, and such).

The equipment is sensitive, prone to breakdowns, and fairly expensive to maintain. So we've harbored fantasies of drilling a new well that would (A) supply us with a greater flow than the 10-12 gallons a minute we've got now, and (B) have higher quality water.

Here's the fantasy, fulfilled. Sort of. We got (B) but not (A). Well, you can't always have everything you want with a well.

Our driller, Troy, of All Seasons Well Drilling, reminded us that sometimes people get a dry hole for the thousands of dollars they fork out for a well. So we're thankful that our 445 foot hole turned out as well as it did (hard not to use "well" a lot when you're thinking about wells).

This is the first well drilling experience for my wife and me. We've learned quite a bit. And gotten to play in muddy flowing water like we were kids again.

A well looks so neat and clean when it's all finished, like in the first photo. But the process of drilling a well -- messy! No way to avoid it, especially with a well that was widened to 10 inches.

Troy started with a 6 inch hole, which is standard in our neighborhood. He told us that he likes to do this, drilling down all the way without casing the top part of the well, because it lessens the cost if water isn't found.

Some drillers, he said, case (meaning, seal) the upper part -- 53 feet in our instance -- before knowing whether the well is productive. So people can be left with an expensive underground concrete or bentonite "flag pole" that has to be abandoned.

After we got down to 445 feet with seven gpm of better quality, but still fairly iron'y, water, we had to decide whether to widen the well to 10 inches. In various areas of life, including well drilling, there's a valid question: "is bigger better?"

We pondered the pros and cons of a six versus 10 inch well. And decided to go with bigger.

Troy educated us with some geometry. Each foot of a six inch well holds 1.5 gallons of water. Each foot of a 10 inch well holds 4.5 gallons, three times as much.

There's about 400 feet of standing water in the new well. So in our case a 10 inch well essentially serves as an extra 1200 gallon holding tank (a six inch well would hold 600 gallons; a 10 inch well, 1800 gallons).

Yes, it cost us more to widen the hole to 10 inches. Everything is more expensive when you go bigger: the drive shoe, the casing, the perforated liner (which extends from the upper casing all the way to the bottom of the well).

But we figured that if our water flow drops for whatever reason -- global warming, over-development, well problem -- it'd be nice to have a maintenance-free "holding tank" with plenty of storage for our household use.

(We'll probably end up using our old well for outside watering, in part because our garden plants love the mineral-rich water so much).

I'll attach a copy of our well log, which is public information, for any well geeks who enjoy looking at the detailed information.
Download Well log

Our current well, which was drilled in the early 1970s, doesn't have a liner. We like the idea of having a six inch perforated plastic liner from five to 445 feet down. The way we understand it, this keeps rocks and other debris from caving in and messing with the pump, or making the well unusable.

Here's a prime piece of advice for anyone who is having a well drilled: be aware that lots of muddy water, gravel, and such is going to flow from the drill rig and go...somewhere.

Water is injected into the hole as it is being bored. Then it is blasted out. Quite a scene, as the water/rock/dirt mix sprays out 15-20 feet or so. Think ahead about where it is going to end up.

We ended up digging a series of trenches to divert the muddy gravel/water mix away from our landscaping. Had to do it by hand, since there were too many trees and brushy vegetation to use a machine.

Troy, who worked by himself most of the time, handled the bigger trenching up near the drill rig. Laurel and I kept the water flowing in the right direction the rest of the way.

It wasn't a hugely horrible task, once we got it figured out. Gushes of muddy, gravel'y water would come flowing down the trenches when a new section of the well was drilled out.

We'd shovel out the gravel from areas that came close to overflowing. Mostly, the downhill topography kept the muddy mix moving along nicely into natural areas of our property.

After the well was finished, Troy scooped up a lot of muck with his tractor and buried it in an open grassy area. Believe me, you don't want this stuff hanging around any place you'll be walking. Or where you want vegetation to grow.

I don't know whether this is always the case, but what came out of our sandstone well was a lot like watery clay. Or quicksand, in the deeper areas. It stuck to our rubber boots like the mud that it was.

Anyway, that's a description of our first -- and hopefully last -- well-drilling experience. Now that it's over, I can almost say that it was fun. Almost.

While the drilling is going on, expect noise, mess, and a prodigious amount of muddy water. Remember the 1.5 and 4.5 gallons per foot rule for six inch and 10 inch wells, respectively.

With a 445 foot well, we had about 2000 gallons of mucky soil and rock that came from underground, and became part of our overground. Dealing with that stuff was the main thing we had to cope with. 

Aside from writing some pretty large checks.

Don't mess with Oregon's strip clubs

They're going to have to pry nude dancers out of Oregonians' sweaty, dollar bill-clenching (or is it a five spot these days?) hands.

At least, I hope so.

I haven't been in a strip club for a long time. But it bothers me when prudes in Tualatin want to amend the Oregon constitution so local governments could regulate where the clubs are located.

We're #1 in free speech. And strip clubs. Why surrender our top positions?

Oregon's constitution and rulings by the Oregon Supreme Court have protected nude dancing, adult bookstores -- even live sex shows -- through the free-speech clause. Those protections have helped dub Portland the country's per-capita strip-club capital.

Rick Attig of the Oregonian, Portland's largest newspaper, makes some great points.

But since 1994, Oregon voters have been asked three times whether they wanted to limit free-speech protections for the sex industry, and three times they clearly have answered no.

Tualatin is now seeking a fourth statewide vote on the issue. Again, if nude dancing was anywhere near the top of the list of Oregon's problems, maybe we could see starting yet another statewide argument on the issue. But when legislators are just trying to keep schools and universities open and provide jobless benefits and basic shelter, food and health care, Oregon doesn't have the luxury to obsess over women dancing naked on a Tualatin stage.

Conservatives freak out when the "will of the people" supposedly is challenged by liberal legislators, judges, or special interest groups. Yet here they are, wanting to revisit a free speech issue that Oregonians have decided three times already.

There's a big right-wing uproar over any proposal to "chip away" at the second amendment by banning automatic assault weapons or regulating sales at gun shows.

But when it's the free speech provision of Oregon's constitution that's being watered down, no problem.

Let's keep Oregon pleasantly godforsaken. Strip clubs, yes. Moralistic judgmentalism, no.

My review of "The Ego Tunnel"-- 5 stars

I buy lots of books from Amazon. I don't post many reviews about them. Just four, something I'm not proud of.

Because I love to peruse the Amazon reader reviews when I'm trying to decide whether to purchase a book. Often what someone has said determines if I click the buy button. So it's sort of strange that I usually don't take the time to offer up my own impressions of a book.

Guess I figure that all of my blogging, which frequently includes a mention of books I've been reading, fulfills my review-karma. But once in a while I'm drawn to give kudos to a title that particularly moves me.

Tonight it was "The Ego Tunnel" by Thomas Metzinger. I loved this blend of neuroscience and philosophy. I wrote a succession of posts about it on my other blog (see here, here, here, here, and here).

It's surprising that mine was the first reader review. "The Ego Tunnel" deserves more attention than it's getting. I suspect this will change as more people buy the book and recommend it to other people.

I noted in my review that after seeing a mention of Metzinger's book on a Twitter feed I follow, I read about it in New Scientist -- which I subscribe to. Owen Flanagan's review of "The Ego Tunnel" was pretty negative.

And undeserved, as I found after I said "to hell with Flanagan's opinion; this book seems interesting to me" and bought it via Amazon. That's partly why I wanted to post a reader review: they often reflect a book more accurately than some academic's take on a title.

Having written a philosophical book myself, and anxiously waited for Amazon reader reviews to dribble in, I have some understanding of Metzinger's probable state of mind as the days go by and the Amazon listing still has "no reader reviews" showing.

Well, now there is one. May the reviews prosper and multiply, and all be five stars, Dr. Metzinger. You and your book deserve it.

Homeless obvious in Portland, Oregon -- not Munich

A friend recently got back from a trip to Munich, Germany, where she attended a week-long conference.

When I asked what struck her about Munich, compared to this country, she said: "You don't see any homeless people there."

But here in Oregon, as elsewhere in the United States -- supposedly the Greatest Country on Earth (according to Fox News) -- homelessness is painfully obvious.

As hugely talented Oregonian cartoonist Jack Ohman showed in the Sunday paper today. (click to enlarge...and maybe weep)

We need to stop this "greatest country" crap. Fortunately, Obama is restoring some much needed reality to our sense of national self.

We've got a lot to learn from the rest of the world, especially the European social democracies. For instance, they've had high-speed trains for a long time. We're just beginning to try to catch up.

Ditto with health care that actually makes citizens healthy, and doesn't cost an exorbitant amount.

And...dealing with homelessness.

Fox News tries to make tea party news

Today some friends and I were talking about how Fox News was in the business of making news, not reporting it -- when it came to promoting the ridiculous pseudo-tax protests called "tea parties."

I say pseudo, because the sparsely attended tea parties clearly were much more Obama-bashing events than anti-tax efforts. After all, Obama has reduced taxes for 95% of working Americans, not raised them.

Here's proof.

As Media Matters has extensively documented, Fox "News," the most popular cable news network in America, aggressively pushed these tea parties on air and on line for weeks on end. It billed them as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." It ran 107 ads for the event in just 10 days. Neil Cavuto and Glenn Beck made the events cornerstones of their shows. In short, the "most-watched news network," with some 2.2 million viewers at night, was a 24/7 infomercial for these events.

The mammoth effort to promote the protests also took place online. At its newly-revealed "community" website, FOX Nation, Fox News held "virtual" tax day tea protests, linked readers to organizing sites, and otherwise appeared as if its sole purpose was to generate support for the events.

It's amazing, really, that a supposedly "fair and balanced" (what a joke!) news organization would devote itself so wholeheartedly to producing a political event, then report what happened as if Fox News was a detached observer rather than a promoter and organizer.

Hopefully this will solidify the organization's reputation as "Faux" news, not to be taken seriously.

Some April '09 Oregon land use news

Like I said earlier this month, things have been pretty quiet on the Oregon land use front since Measure 49 was passed by voters in November 2007, restoring some much-needed protections to this state's vaunted livability.

But there's been some action recently.

Closest to home, a Marion County hearings officer issued her recommendation on the Laack subdivision vested rights application. (It's a 3.2 MB file.)
Download Laack vested rights recommendation

My wife and I have been leading our neighborhood's fight against the proposed subdivision, which the county's own groundwater experts say threatens neighboring wells and nearby Spring Lake.

The vested rights "recommendation" really isn't one, since it leaves tricky legal and factual questions up to the Marion County Board of Commissioners to decide. We're hoping that the Board will have a public hearing before they make a decision.

If you agree that deciding whether to allow 43 homes (and wells) on groundwater limited farmland deserves a public hearing, let the commissioners know that you'd like this to happen. Here's a link to a page with their email addresses.

On the legislative front, bills have been introduced in both houses of the Oregon legislature that would allow more Measure 37 claimants to request 3-10 home sites under provisions of Measure 49.
Download SJArticle-904160328

The bills also would require the Department of Land Conservation and Development to deal with those requests by June 30, 2010. (The department has been criticized for taking too long to process the Measure 49 paperwork.)

It's nice to see that 1000 Friends of Oregon and Oregonians in Action, which usually are on opposite sides of the land use fence, were able to agree on these bills.

Finally, the Oregonian reported today that the Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and required that Multnomah County pay a $1.15 million judgment to the estate of Dorothy English, the 90'ish woman who became the "poster child" for the campaign to pass Measure 37 in 2004.

I don't know much about this case. It doesn't bear on other Measure 37 claims, or Measure 49, so far as I can tell. When Multnomah County approved English's claim, apparently excessive restrictions were placed on the eight home sites she requested.

Less God, more porn

Pat Buchanan says America "is being systematically de-Christianized and secularized," while pornography is promoted.

And the problem with this is...?

Sure sounds to me like this country is on the right track. My fellow citizens are steadily coming to the same conclusion also.

I love taxes! They do so much good.

Today is tax day. I feel happy. Giving, like they say, is better than receiving. Well, at least equal.

Each year, paying our taxes is the biggest gift that my wife and I offer to other people.

We help elderly and poor people get health care through Medicare and Medicaid. We help make public education available to every child in America. We help support international assistance programs that feed, clothe, and otherwise assist fellow human beings in need.

Close to home, today our local newspaper here in Oregon ran a story, "Thousands more may get jobless benefits." Women with children. Young people losing a first job. Construction workers.
Download Jobless benefits

The money is coming from -- take a guess -- taxes! In the form of the $787 billion federal economic recovery package. I have a friend who is out of work. He said that the stimulus bill also extends unemployment benefits, which will be a big help for him.

I don't get this Tax Day Tea Party thing. There's no taxation without representation, as there was back in pre-Revolutionary Way days.

We democratically elect people, who then vote on government spending and taxes. The United States always has done this. Where's the need for a Tea Party? If people don't like what elected officials are doing, they can try to vote them out of office at the next election.

There's a Tea Party happening right now in Salem at the State Capitol. Reportedly 1000 or so people took part. Not bad. In Boston only about 500 showed up. Obviously not a mass movement.

Because most Americans aren't selfish, like the Tea Party folks seem to be. All I hear from them is that they want to keep more of their own money, so sick and poor people can't benefit from society's helping hand.

Well, each to his own.

One of the signs at our local Tea Party said "I'd rather live under a bridge than under socialism." Me, I'd rather live under a caring social democracy (which is inaccurately called "socialism") than under a bridge.

Often, if not usually, government can spend taxpayers' money more wisely than they can. Just look at all the crap people buy. And how it isn't possible for any individual (unless super rich) to pave a road, build a school, or run a hospital.

Government allows us to band together, pool our money, and pay for the communal goods that we can't provide on our own. So tax day should be celebrated, rather than cursed.

It's when we demonstrate that the boundaries of our concern, empathy, charity, and love extend beyond the narrow confines of our little ego-centered me, me, me world.

Pay your taxes with a smile. It's the greatest gift you'll give in 2009.

[Update: just read this piece by Paul Begala. We're on the same pro-tax wavelength:]

If the whiners at Fox News want to advertise their selfishness, they are free to do so. But please don't dress it up as patriotism. Patriotism is putting your country ahead of yourself -- which is the precise opposite of what the tea party plutocrats are doing.

California ground squirrels are driving us nutty

Maybe this is karma for a one-time Californian, moi, defying Oregon governor Tom McCall's plea in the 1970s to "come visit, but please don't live here." 

I stayed, and now I've got plenty of California company --  ground squirrels who have migrated into the northwest and are making a mess of our yard and crawl space. 

They are super cute, which makes dealing with the critters a lot more difficult. We can't imagine killing them. But their reputation as "one of the most troublesome pests to homeowners and gardeners" seems well-deserved.

For most of the nineteen years we've lived in rural south Salem, gray tree squirrels have been our bushy-tailed wildlife neighbors. Now, the California ground squirrels seem to be taking over.

They hibernated during the winter, undoubtedly dreaming of the good life on a warm beach. When they emerged in the spring, we enjoyed watching them frolicking around our yard.

As noted here, the squirrels are skilled at getting into adorable positions. (Maybe natural selection has evolved them into adopting a look of "I'm too cute to shoot!")

I especially like the contemplative pose, similar to the photo above, where a squirrel sits on a rock just beyond our deck, looking like a Chinese courtesan with her hands folded neatly in front under her kimono.

Not nearly so cute, though, is what we discovered today.

Crawling under the deck, Laurel found that the little bastards had dug completely under our house's concrete foundation and had made their way into our crawl space. Evidence: insulation that they had dragged out through the tunnel (probably to make a bed where they will have sex and create more California ground squirrels to drive us even nuttier).

Speaking of sex, we've seen them doing the deed on the same rock where contemplation occurs.

Since the average litter is seven to eight, this is worrisome. We'd just as soon not have a big commune of ground squirrels tunneling all over our property.

Burrows, which are about four or five inches in diameter, may vary in length from five feet to more than thirty-five feet and may be used by many generations of ground squirrels...In studying California Ground Squirrels, one group of scientists found a squirrel home with six females and five males which consisted of tunnels totaling 741 feet in length and had thirty-three openings. The deepest tunnel was twenty-eight feet below ground. Although most tunnel excavation work is done in the spring, digging and burrow improvement is a continuing process.

I went to Lowe's today and got some hardware cloth. We'll seal up the openings around our deck, which should keep them away from the foundation.

We've also borrowed a live trap from a neighbor. If you've ever wanted a cute California ground squirrel, let me know. Hopefully we'll be able to accommodate adoption requests soon.

Other options listed under "best management practices" for controlling the critters don't appeal to us. The burrow exploder seems like overkill (especially since we don't want to kill them).

There is much equipment involved in this burrow explosion method.  You will need personal safety gear, which includes a hard hat, heavy gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs, ear protectors, and full body protective clothing.  A fire extinguisher and shovels are highly recommended. 

Reminds me of Caddyshack, a great movie about getting rid of gophers by any and all means on a golf course. But we'll stick with the hardware cloth and live trap for now.

Patients should question their colonoscopy preparation

Recently I wrote about my aggravation when staff at Salem Gastroenterology Associates (SGA) , the only place in town that does colonoscopies, brushed off my questions about their two day clear liquid diet preparation for the procedure.

I'd emailed a mention of the post to the SGA nursing staff, saying that I hoped they'd reconsider both their colonoscopy prep protocol and how they respond to patient concerns.

Yesterday I got a phone call from Zoe Wendolowski, who I believe is the nursing head honcho (probably her real job title is more formal).

We had a thoroughly enjoyable lengthy conversation that likely would have gone on even longer if I wasn't getting the Demanding Walk Look from the family dog. I came away feeling that if everyone at Salem Gastroenterology Associates is as pleasant and sociable as Zoe, the patient care there must be excellent.

She invited me to consider SGA for my next colonoscopy -- which is supposed to be in a couple of years -- and I told her that I'd be pleased to do that. But I'm still concerned about their atypical colon prep schedule.

Having worked in the health planning/policy area for fifteen years, I dredged up some memories of early enlightening experiences -- when I'd just started working as a research associate in the Oregon medical school's Family Practice Department.

One of the faculty members there was big on treatment protocols. Basically, flow charts to guide a doctor's decision making process. I told Zoe about the time I observed several experienced family physicians sitting around a conference table discussing urinary tract infections.

It turned out that each of them had a different way of handling this common problem. They argued for their own way of doing things; I can't remember if a consensus ever emerged.

So medicine isn't a science -- not in the sense of physics, where doing this generally causes that with remarkable precision (except in the quantum realm, where probabilities rule).

This is why patients should feel free to question what a doctor wants to do. And physicians should respond openly and non-defensively. Reasons should be given, not the sort of "just because" that I got from Salem Gastroenterology Associates.

I reiterated to Zoe what I wrote to the SGA doctor who was going to do my colonosocopy: the Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, and plenty of other highly respected medical centers typically use a one-day colon prep schedule, so why does your clinic believe a two-day liquid diet is called for?

Until I get a good answer to that question, I'll continue to wonder about Salem Gastroenterology Associates' approach to colonoscopies. Zoe said that they conduct research on the effectiveness of this screening procedure, which is great.

But I told her that they needed to also ask themselves whether they're doing some things just because that's the way it's always been done -- which isn't the best way to practice medicine.

President Obama is calling for more emphasis on comparative effectiveness research. For example, a question dear to my heart (and organs underneath) is whether a one-day colonoscopy prep is as effective, from both a patient and physician perspective, as a two-day prep.

Given that a one-day prep is so common, I suspect there's quite a bit of research to support that approach. However, if Salem Gastroenterology Associates can prove otherwise, they should do so.

If not, SGA may just be a quirky exception to a reasonable typical rule.

This is common in medical practice. There are large variations in how often certain procedures are performed in different parts of the country, as well as varying areas of the world.

Doctors get into habits. Often there isn't any reasonable reason for doing things a particular way other than "this is how we've always done it." As the story mentioned above said: 

At this time, however, comparative effectiveness research enters very little into most of our healthcare experiences. Clinicians still generally make decisions based on often limited research, professional guidelines, and their own experience. They don't have any other options: Comparative effectiveness research exists for only about 30 percent of medical treatments, experts say.

"We know macro answers, like whether surgery helps reduce heart attacks," says Jed Weissberg, associate executive director for quality and performance improvement for the Permanente Federation, the umbrella organization representing physician groups at Kaiser Permanente, which has been a pioneer in this area. "But we don't know answers to precise questions, like for different groups of patients, which drugs or which surgeries work best."

So don't have a my doctor knows best attitude. Question. Do your own research. Become friends with Google. Don't be afraid to ask "Why?"

I told Zoe that everyone agrees the colonoscopy prep -- cleansing the bowel -- is the worst part of the procedure. If it isn't necessary to almost double the time someone is on a liquid diet, why do it?

There may a good reason Salem Gastroenterology Associates typically uses a two-day prep. I just haven't heard it yet.

Well drilling ups and downs

These well-drilling photos are a good reflection of our emotional state the past few days.

Drilling a new well has its ups.

It was a kick to see Troy, of All Seasons Well Drilling here in Salem/Keizer, making his rig do sit-up tricks as he maneuvered the hugely heavy truck into place over the gravel that we'd put down in front of the new well location.

Next day he was ready to go.

Amazingly, given the stories I've heard about how long it used to take someone to dig a well by hand, or with crude equipment, he was down to 445 feet by late in the afternoon.

Our expectations were as high as the top of his rig.

Sure, we knew that drilling a well is a chancy affair, but we'd used a VLF water finding service (Water Finders, based in Gladstone) that claims to be able to locate water-bearing fractures and faults (sample equipment shown here).

The well we use now has pretty good quantity -- about 12 gallons per minute -- but the quality is super-crappy. It takes an ozonator, softener, iron filter, and ph adjuster to transform the raw well water into usable house water.

So we weren't horribly disappointed when Troy told us that he was getting about 7 gallons a minute from the new well (hard to tell exactly, apparently, until a pump is installed).

We could live with that. But our home test kit indicated that the iron level was about the same as our current water. Iron is our biggest water treatment bugaboo.

Hardness and other issues can be dealt with fairly easily. Iron, though part of the hardness problem, is the nastiest stuff. It clogs treatment equipment and is a pain to handle if it sneaks into our house.

(For much of my karate training career, we were figuring out how to treat our water effectively, so I stood out as the student in the decidedly non-bright "white" gi.)

However, at the moment we're on an upswing. Laurel re-tested the new well water this morning and got a considerably lower iron reading. Plus, after sitting overnight there was no sign of the scum that forms on our current raw water.

Additionally, Troy phoned a few hours ago with results from a water sample: 2 ppm of iron, 25 grains of hardness.

Not great. But for us, reason for hope.

That iron reading is at least half of what we have to deal with now, and maybe considerably less -- depending on the date of our old well water testing.

Tomorrow we'll get results of an even more definitive new well water test. Hopefully our emotions will keep going up -- if iron is down.

Ageless consciousness or perpetual immaturity?

I don't feel my age (60). But when I ponder my inner sense of self, it seems that I don't feel any age.

That said, often I'll admit to having an adolescent personality. But since I'm a man, this pretty much is taken for granted. (Witness my instant infatuation with iFart.)

Plus, it's obvious that if we're going to feel like we're a different age than what we are, it's going to be a younger age, since we have no experience with being older. So when people say "I don't feel my age," I suspect they're referring to what I said above:

Consciousness doesn't have an age, though the body does.

This explains the strange disconnect that shimmered through my psyche this afternoon. I was chatting with Troy, the guy who is drilling a new well for us, during a noise-free break to grease some machinery.

In the course of talking about this country's screwed up health care system I mentioned that in less than five years I'd be eligible for Medicare.

As soon as those words left my mouth I thought, "Who the hell are you talking about? It can't be me. Medicare? Me???!!!"

The weird thing, of course, is that "I," "you," and "me" were all the same person -- the guy who is writing this blog post. But like all of us, I come in various guises, which accounts for the feeling that there's more than one of me hanging around.

Social Security thinks that I'm sixty years old. So do I, sometimes. Such as when I look at the age spots on my hands. Or my gray beard.

But ordinarily I don't feel any particular age.

If I shut my eyes, ignoring my hands and the rest of my body (aside from a basic internal sensation of being embodied), I can't discern any difference between how I remember feeling at sixteen and my current sixty'ishness.

Along this line, there are indeed disgusting lecherous "dirty old men." However, if consciousness is ageless, old is a chronological rather than psychological phenomenon.

Meaning, men (and women also) don't have a feeling of being a certain age. So when a older guy acts toward a sweet young thing as if he were part of her generation, at that moment he might very well feel that he is.

On a more elevated note, likely this ageless consciousness sensation helps explain the widespread belief in an immortal soul.

Since my internal feeling of "I" doesn't seem to grow older, it's easy to see why people would jump to the conclusion that the essential me continues on unchanged after death. 

As this "Non-aging consciousness" essay believes: 

Consciousness does not age, ever. You may not appreciate this statement until one day you realize that you ‘still feel young’, which of course tells you that your body has aged. The ‘still feeling young’ is consciousness reminding you that no matter how old you are consciousness is ageless. You always feel the same age regardless of how old your body is.

From your first day upon this planet to your last, consciousness remains perpetually constant: another indication of your spirit reality. Consciousness is the only constant you have, everything else is in continuous change. The material or physical is that constant change; it is in unceasing alteration, never remaining consistent. This is the world of the physical and it ages. The world of spirit on the other hand is ageless. It is complete in itself. Consciousness never alters; everything alters around or within it.

Well, maybe. Seems that way now, but after death we might simply be nothing -- neither ageless nor aged.

Think twice about getting a colonoscopy in Salem (Oregon)

First off, note that I said think twice. Your first thought -- "I should get a colonoscopy"-- is absolutely correct.

The procedure saves lots of lives through early detection and prevention of colon cancer, though recent research shows it isn't as effective as previously thought. Now it looks like colonoscopies prevent 60-70% of cancers rather than 90%.

Still darn good. Which is why I had a virtual (CT) colonoscopy in 2006. Naturally I blogged about it.

Last fall an occult (hidden) blood test done as part of my annual physical exam was positive. I asked for a re-test, since I had reasons to think that this was an anomaly. The second test turned out negative.

Regardless, my family doctor and I agreed it made sense for me to get a regular tube-up-the-butt colonoscopy. The procedure is no fun, especially the preparation for it, but colon cancer is a lot worse.

Thus I dutifully made an appointment at the only place in Salem, Oregon that does colonoscopies, so far as I know: Salem Gastroenterology Associates (SGA).

It didn't take long before I was doing my second thinking, because SGA turned out to be a frustrating place for an informed patient to deal with. Since I'd had a previous colonoscopy, albeit a virtual one, I was familiar with the typical preparation procedure.

This involves various dietary restrictions starting a week before the procedure. Then, on the day before the colonoscopy a clear liquid diet is proscribed. No solid food.

Yet when I had my pre-colonoscopy appointment with a SGA physician's assistant, and was given the preparation packet, I saw that the clear liquid diet was to begin at noon two days before the colonoscopy.

Whoa! That was about 14 hours additional waking-time fasting.

Vegetarians like me are used to eating frequently, and I wasn't looking forward to even a 19 hour clear liquid diet (if my colonoscopy was scheduled for 10 am, that's about how many waking hours the usual "day before" prep would last).

I fired up Google and did some research.

The Mayo Clinic said that typically the colon prep is done during the 24 hours prior to the exam. Mass General Hospital, another leading medical center, was more liberal, allowing a light lunch on the day before the colonoscopy.

I couldn't find any prep procedures that started two days before the colonoscopy, though I understood that in special circumstances (constipation, for example) this could be necessary.

My family doctor thought it was entirely appropriate to contact the physician at Salem Gastroenterology Associates who would be doing the procedure and ask about adapting the preparation schedule.

After all, I was a vegetarian who didn't consume nasty colon-clogging animal flesh, and I'd done just fine with a "day before" prep when I had the virtual colonoscopy.

So I wrote Patricia Kao, M.D. a thoughtful, respectful, well-documented two page letter, complete with attachments showing how Mass General and some other gastroenterology clinics handle colonoscopy preps.

I ended the letter this way:

As a final comment, a day or two after I had scheduled this exam I was listening to Dr. Dean Edell on the radio. A woman phoned in with almost exactly the same concerns I had about the colonoscopy prep schedule.

Edell told her that old habits die hard with physicians, that there are alternatives to the “old style” prep, and that doctors learn one way of doing things. He mentioned that his own colonoscopy prep “was horrible” and repeated that there are newer ways of accomplishing this. His ending advice to the woman was to be insistent with her physician.

I don’t particularly like the word “insistent.” I guess I prefer “questioning.” It seems to me that there are good reasons to modify my prep schedule, and I’m confident that we’ll come to a mutually satisfactory agreement on this.

Well, I was wrong. Because I never got to talk with Dr. Kao. Just a front office sort of person, who phoned to tell me that there wouldn't be any changes made to the two-day prep schedule.

I asked, "Why?" The response: "Dr. Kao and Mr. Butler [the physician's assistant] keep up on the latest research and regularly attend conferences."

I told the staffer, "That's nice. But the fact remains that the Mayo Clinic, Mass General, and every other colonoscopy place that I could find on the Internet typically uses a one-day prep, and I'd like to know why Salem Gastroenterology Associates thinks it knows better than the medical consensus."

In reply I got a robotic repeat of "Dr. Kao and Mr. Butler keep up... ."

I hung up the phone. Contacted my family doctor. Asked for a referral to Gastroenterology Specialists of Oregon (GSO) -- who have several offices in the Portland area and were one of the "day before" prep examples I'd mentioned in my Dr. Kao letter.

Everything went smoothly once I made the change to GSO. I was treated like a human being there, rather than a patient who shouldn't ask questions and do whatever I was told.

I didn't agree with everything in the GSO colonoscopy prep guidelines. But at least I could discuss things with staff and get reasons for doing this or that a certain way.

I told them about a "Gourmet Colon Prep" article, written by a nutritionist and physician, which cited research showing that nutritional supplements like Ensure could be taken in addition to clear liquids without messing up the quality of the colonoscopy.
Download Gourmet Colon Prep 

When I had the virtual colonoscopy, Ensure was allowed. It made a big difference to my uncomfortably empty stomach, providing some substance in addition to the clear liquids.

But I survived without it the second time around. When it came time for the colonoscopy itself, that was the easiest part. I went to sleep about two seconds after the intravenous sedative started flowing and didn't wake up until I was back in the recovery area.

The doctor told me that he found a polyp. It was removed. Turned out to be non-cancerous. I'm supposed to have another colonoscopy in a couple of years.

This shows that it's possible to have a "clean" virtual colonoscopy, and within two years get a regular colonoscopy that turns up a polyp. Of course, the same could happen with regular colonoscopies two years apart.

My experience also taught me that if a physican isn't listening to you and is playing the "Just do it, because I'm the doctor" game, head for another medical provider.

I might have gotten an equally excellent colonoscopy at Salem Gastroenterology Associates. But I lost confidence in that clinic after I was treated like a patient rather than a person.

Interestingly, I began my post-graduate school working career as a Research Associate in Family Practice at the Oregon Health Sciences University Family Practice Department.

One of my jobs was designing patient satisfaction questionnaires for the Family Practice Clinic, so doctors-in-training could get feedback on how they were coming across to patients.

I wish Salem Gastroenterology Associates would have sent me such a questionnaire. (The clinic I ended up going to, Gastroenterology Associates of Oregon, does use a patient satisfaction questionnaire -- and got excellent results.)

But I guess this blog post will serve equally well as a way of saying to them, "Respond respectfully to people when they have questions; doctors aren't gods, and shouldn't be preachy either."

If you live in the Salem area, get a colonoscopy when it is called for. But realize that you have options about where to get it. And what sort of preparation you have to go through.

Oregon Court of Appeals ruling supports Measure 49

The Oregon land use front has been pretty quiet since Measure 49 was passed by voters in 2007, negating the most obnoxious provisions of Measure 37 -- which allowed some property owners to opt out of rules that everyone else has to live by.

However, legal issues relating to these measures continue to percolate in the coffee maker of state and federal courts (to use metaphorical language that I regretted as soon as the words dripped through the filter of my writing mind, but which I'm too lazy to change).

One of these issues is whether Oregon's "goal post statute" -- ORS 215.427(3)(a) -- applies to Measure 37 claims. I'm not exactly sure how the goal post metaphor is to be applied here, but since I'm into metaphors, I'll hazard a guess:

If a kicker in football attempts a field goal, it wouldn't be fair if the opposing team managed to move the goal posts while the ball was in mid-air.

Similarly, the intent of the goal post statute is to assure that the standards in effect at the time a land use application is submitted determine its approval or denial, even if those standards change after the submission date. (At least, that's my non-lawyerly understanding.)

This issue has come up in several Measure 37 cases, including some vested rights determinations in Yamhill County. A basic question is whether the passage of Measure 49 unfairly changed the goal posts, or whether this was a valid exercise of the public's voting will.

A few days ago the Oregon Court of Appeals issued an answer: Measure 49 trumps Measure 37, so Measure 37 waivers aren't protected by the goal post statute. (Ruling can be read here.)

Good news.

The Court's opinion said that specific statutes trump general statutes, and recent statutes trump older statutes. Here's key excerpts from the order that show the legal reasoning.

Twitter -- my path to enlightenment

Some people consider my new found Twittering to be a useless waste of time. By "some people" I mainly mean my wife.

She hasn't realized yet, as I have, that Twitter is much more than an easy means for me to cast 140 characters or less of what I'm doing into cyberspace on a whim.

Clearly, it is my path to enlightenment.

I say this after having pursued daily meditation, vegetarianism, and other spiritual practices for some forty years (longer, if one considers that being almost continually stoned on pot or psychedelics in college is a spiritual practice).

Now, of course, I tweet about my meditation. Plus other minutia of daily life, such as the mystery of dog pooping behavior.

Thus I have embraced the Zen emphasis on here and now. Which, updating a famous aphorism, may be stated as "Chop wood and carry water -- then tell your Twitter followers: Just chopped wood and carried water."

Well, some people (let's name them Laurel) might say that simply doing something is more Buddhist'ly present in the moment than doing it and also telling the Twitter world what you've done.

Perhaps. But this presumes a distinction between (1) reality and (2) 140 character or less descriptions of reality.

Does not the Heart Sutra tell us that emptiness is form, and form emptiness? So how is posting a tweet about my life different from my life? Eventually I am confident that a Twitter satori will lead to a realization: My Twittering is me, and I am my Twittering.

Additionally, I am learning humility and furthering ego-loss. Currently I have six Twitter followers on OregonBrian. John McCain has 334,591.

Yet only a few times a day, around a couple of dozen (before noon, I mean; more times later), do I lament how few followers I have, and wonder why my pleadings to almost everyone I come in contact with ("paper or plastic?" "I don't care, just follow me on Twitter") have fallen on such deaf ears.

Like a prophet who is unrecognized in his own land, but continues to preach to the empty desert, I send a daily tweet out into the barrenness of my Twitter realm.

I scoff at John Mayer's assertion that "Twitter is silly and dumb." Especially this quote of his:

"If you really think that Twitter is the pathway to spiritual enlightenment, well...It’s one step away from sending pictures of your poop."

Ah, Mr. Mayer, I have been so close to taking that step. (When I wrote that post I toyed with the idea of posting an image of the inside of my colon, the source of my poop, but ended up deciding against it -- though if I hear a chorus of demands, I'd be glad to reconsider.)

So apparently I'm just the sort of person who will be able to achieve enlightenment through Twittering.

Which reminds me...I've got to put up a tweet about this blog post!