HinesSight

Express yourself! City Club talk on Salem art scene was inspiring.

I'll begin with the end. Of talks by two art-encouragers here in Salem, Sandra Burnett of the Salem Art Association and Carlee Wright, producer of Press Play Salem. 

After listening to Burnett and Wright speak yesterday at a Salem City Club meeting on "The Crucial Role of the Arts in Our Community," I got to ask a question. It went something like this.

Carlee, I heard you say "express yourselves." As someone who writes almost every day, I know that I feel better when what is inside me is expressed to the outside world, and I then get responses from people about what I've written. But there has to be more to why people embrace art than this. Hopefully you can give me a fuller answer than what I've just said.

Now, I've got to confess that I don't remember much of what Wright said in her response to me. It certainly was in line with my question, as was Burnett's reply to me. I recall that one or both of them said it is indeed nice for artists to get responses from others about what they've created.

Leaving the City Club meeting at the Willamette Heritage Center, I walked down the stairs with Chris Hoy, a Salem city councilor.

Chatting with him about the talks, I said that when my wife and I go to the Salem Art Fair, we're careful about what we say about booth art, since occasionally we've made a negative comment, then saw that the artist was sitting on the other side of a partition. Hoy said that he's a photographer who has had his work exhibited.

"Do you hang around and listen to what people say about your photos?" I asked him. "Sometimes," Hoy said. That spurred me to observe that often I don't read Facebook comments after I've shared a link to a blog post I've written, because the comments can be both mean and uninformed.

Hoy and I then agreed that because art springs from the mind of someone, and is a personal expression of how they see the world, it feels much more problematic to critique someone's art face-to-face with them, while social media and online communications in general facilitate more negativity and nastiness because the other person isn't there in cyberspace.

So expressing ourselves can be risky.

If we only sing in the shower, the risk is minimal. If we choose to get up on stage and sing in front of an audience, there's the possibility of getting only a smattering of applause. Or even some boos. (Of course, we need to remember that just as we're entitled to share our creative impulses, other people are entitled to respond with their own reactions.)

Yet we humans still love to express ourselves.

Burnett said that this gives us a sense of how we stand in time and place. I agree. I suck at drawing, painting, and music, but I've always enjoyed writing. Partly it is because I never know what I'm going to say until I see it on my laptop's screen. The words come of themselves, though they come from me. 

A deeper part of me that I'm not really aware of until I make an effort to create a blog post, book, Christmas letter, or whatever. When what is within comes out, it's pleasurable. Not orgasm-like pleasurable (unfortunately). More like when you really need to go to the bathroom, and what is demanding to come out with such urgency does, there's a sense of relief. 

Until the next urge arises.

Carlee Wright, shown above in an artistic photo that the Great God Google Images bestowed upon me, said that she had an urge to share her love of all things art'y in Salem after her days at the Statesman Journal ended. Appealingly, she went counter to the digital trend and decided to produce a -- gasp! -- paper publication, Press Play Salem.

The publication is attractively priced: free. It's advertiser supported, so pick up a copy and support the advertisers in turn.

I liked how Wright talked differently about the oft-heard geometry of Salem: the nothing-much that sits an hour from Portland, Eugene, the coast, and the mountains, where you really can do something. Not true, she said. "We are the center, not an hour away from everything." 

Adding, "I often hear people say that I don't want to go to Portland, fight the traffic, find a place to park, and pay an exorbitant ticket price. It's so convenient to go out here in Salem!" Which is absolutely true. Three hours of parking is free in downtown Salem, and it isn't difficult to find a space on the street or in the parking garages.

Burnett shared her own take on the arts via a slide presentation. I learned that the Salem Art Association is 100 years old in 2019, though it began under a different name in 1919. The Salem Art Fair started in 1949, so it is now 70 years old. (Just like me! Can I get in free?)

She presented interesting information about how cultural events boost the Salem economy, noting that we have ten cultural institutions in this town. Burnett said that when corporations decide whether to come to Salem, they view the arts/culture scene here as part of the livability standard that has to be met.

Lastly, I like the new logo of the Salem Art Association. It's, well, artistic.

Open letter to the robin pecking on my GTI's mirrors

Dear Mr. or Ms. Robin (likely Mr.), I'm sorry to address you in such an impersonal manner, but I don't know your name.

Also, I don't know if you're able to read blog posts. If not, I sympathize, because we live in a rural area with crappy slow-speed DSL "broadband" (not!) for us humans, so I can only imagine how poor Internet access is for you birds.

Regardless, I wanted to thank you for your dedication in bringing some challenges, along with bird poop, to my generally serene retired existence.

You are not the first robin to come into the life of my wife and me. Back in 2003 I wrote "Further evidence of male idiocy."

Now, there's a title for a book, a really long book. I have an item to contribute to it. Not involving me, of course. That would be ridiculous, to think that I have ever, am now, or will in the future engage in any act that could fall under the rubric of "male idiocy" (the skeptical laughter from cyberspace is already ringing in my ears).

No, this is about the bird I like to affectionately call Bastard Robin, or even nicer names, depending upon how many tons of bird poop I find splashed on my Volvo wagon each day.

I'm no expert on bird behavior, but I believe these are the basic facts.

Bastard Robin wants to father some offspring. It isn't enough that he screw some sweet young female robin. In his delusional, and seemingly infinitesimal, robin brain, he is determined to be the only male in the whole wide world screwing a sweet young female robin, so all the baby robins everywhere will carry on the genetic heritage of Bastard Robin.

Hence, his singleminded determination to rid the neighborhood of other male robins. Now that makes some sense, I guess. But now the male idiocy kicks in, stimulated by what a character on Ally McBeal was fond of calling the man's "dumb stick."

In searching about for other male robins, so he can kick their feathered ass, Bastard Robin always comes upon himself first thing in the morning.

He (or they; I can't tell them apart) used to wake us up by fluttering against our bedroom window, trying to chase away that robin S.O.B. he could see when he peered at the glass, and who bore such a strking resemblance to himself, and who mirrored his every move, the crafty kung fu fighter.

We put shades over the window and carefully drew them down every night, believing that this had solved the Bastard Robin problem.

Actually, it just moved the problem.

Now he has found the windshield and rear view mirrors of my (previously clean) car. When I drive into the carport, I often see him flying off from a rafter, where he has been lying in wait for Bastard Robin2 to return.

And yes!, there he is, just as before, on the other side of the windshield and mirror, taunting with his antics that are so similar to Bastard Robins'. He thinks, "I am so angry! I am so frustrated! I can never reach Bastard Robin2! What should I do? Why, I will poop! And poop, and poop, to show Bastard Robin2 just who is the Biggest Baddest Robin around here."

Then, in 2011, I wrote "How we stopped a robin's pecking on window glass." The solution, which you're aware of, because I've used it on you in 2019, as shown below, was netting that I attached over several bedroom windows.

(Note: in that post I mentioned how female robins also are territorial, and can peck on windows or glass.)

I apologize for using the term Bastard Robin in my first post. Like I said, this was an affectionate term, at least insofar as a semi-profane name for a bird can be viewed as affectionate. In what follows I've tried to be more respectful to your species. In fact, even laudatory.

First, thank you for making the concrete floor of our carport so much more artistic. The splashes of white robin poop have a pleasing abstract quality to them. Random, yet purposeful. There is a special message accompanying the precise placement of your poop so close to the tire track of my VW GTI.

I believe I understand your message. Likely it is, in line with my 2003 blog post, "I'm going to drive away that damn male robin that I see in the rear view mirrors." Yes, actually it is you, so you are at war with yourself. But aren't we all, to some extent?

I'm sorry to interfere with your battle of Me vs. Me, but the Lifesource Natural Foods grocery bags I've been putting over the rear view mirrors are necessary to keep my daily poop cleaning to a minimum. And they add a certain flair to my car absent in the original VW design.

Now, I realize that you birds are complex beings, so I may have erred in assuming that your sole motivation in attacking my car's rear view mirrors was to drive away a robin that looks just like you. The oft-heard saying "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" could be adapted in your case to "Absence makes my robin heart pissed off." 

The absence being the removal of a nest from this area under our carport's roof. When you started pecking at the windows of our house a few weeks ago, I looked around and found the nest. I admit that I was the one who got a ladder and removed it, but it was my wife who took it into the woods and put it on a stump. 

So I'd like to suggest that if you're pissed (or more accurately, pooped) at me, you should direct half of your ire -- and poop -- at my wife's car -- which is the Chevy Volt to the left of my car. 

And in the interest of transparency, I want to add that even though I don't think you have any emotional attachment to this nest, this afternoon I removed it from a bush to the right of our front door that has been a home for robin's nests in the past.

My wife believes a bluejay was contemplating this as a home, but decided to pass on it -- maybe because it didn't have a three car garage, or fast broadband. At any rate, it's sitting at the base of an oak tree if you'd like to use twigs from it in your nest far away from our house, and my car. Oh, did you see the mention of far away?

Lastly, I want to express my thanks for you leading me to make this addition to our house, albeit a temporary one. I certainly wouldn't call myself a handyman, but you helped me explore the fine art of using masking tape and netting to create a robin barrier over four windows that, while admittedly lacking in artistry, has a certain rustic flair to it.

And when I look out of the window from inside our house, I'm reminded of how precious freedom is -- since the netting offers up a glimpse of what prison life would be like, assuming my cell was designed to keep robins out, rather than humans in.

First day report on Salem's plastic bag ban: I not only survived, I thrived!

Monday is my habitual weekly grocery shopping day, this being my role in our marriage. Today, April 1, coincided with the first day of Salem's ban on plastic bags at large retailers. 

Which didn't affect me at all, given that I carry around six Trader Joe's reusable bags in my car, typically bringing two bags into each of my trifecta grocery shopping destinations: Trader Joe's, Fred Meyer on south Commercial, and Lifesource Natural Foods.

Naturally, when the checkout person at Trader Joe's asked me how my day was going, I said "It's exciting to be here on the first day of the plastic bag ban. Of course, you guys don't use plastic bags, just paper, so I gather nothing has changed for you."

I couldn't resist adding:

"However, the ban is going to take away from my judgmental satisfaction when I'm in a checkout line at Fred Meyer behind someone buying $150 or so of groceries, and the checker puts a zillion (more or less) plastic bags into their cart, with like four items in each bag. I feel morally superior with my reusable bags in hand. I find this as irritating as the women who spend an hour (more or less) searching for exact change in the depths of their purses."

Our brief conversation ended with me blurting out a bit of quasi-philosophical wisdom.

"The way I see it, if I'm not getting annoyed at something, I'm not alive." Pleasingly, the Trader Joe's checkout person agreed -- though maybe it was because she didn't have time to disagree with me.

Plus, I got an absolutely free Trader Joe's reusable bag, which must have been in honor of the plastic bag ban.

At Fred Meyer, I also brought up the plastic bag ban when asked how my day was going.

Since I was at the store where many times I"d noticed people sucking up over a dozen plastic bags to put their groceries in, I repeated my comment about how this irritated me, adding, "I bet plastic-bag-customers are going to be thankful for the ban when they realize how many fewer bags they have to carry into their house now that they have to use either reusable bags or paper bags."

The checkout person said that she's glad plastic bags have been eliminated. "They tear easily," she told me. "And they don't stand up like reusable bags do," I noted.

I didn't hear any enraged Fred Meyer customers fuming about the goddamn City Council taking away their precious plastic bags.  In fact, as I wheeled my cart away I could hear the woman in line behind me speaking positively to the checkout person about the plastic bag ban. 

Councilor Tom Andersen was featured in a KGW TV story last night about the upcoming rollout of the plastic bag ban. Andersen spoke about the environmental benefits of the ban in this video.

Bill Maher's criticism of the PAX3 vaporizer was misplaced

I love Bill Maher and his Real Time show, which always ends with "New Rules."

But the March 22 show missed the mark when Maher criticized the newest version of the marvelous PAX vaporizer -- which in my highly (so to speak) informed opinion is the best way to imbibe marijuana. 

(Note: I live in Oregon, where pot is legal, so don't bother notifying the police about my nefarious behavior.)

In the video below you can see that Maher claims that the new version of the PAX doesn't include a raised mouthpiece. Well, actually it does. Here's the photographic proof.

First, my gold PAX3, with the extra raised mouthpiece attached.

Second, the list of what's included with the PAZX3.

Third, a diagram of the raised mouthpiece, also from the contents list.

I'm glad that Bill Maher and I share a fondness for PAX vaporizers. I've used the original PAX, the PAX2, and now the PAX3. They aren't cheap, but they're easy to use -- without the complicated button presses that Maher correctly criticizes in the video below. 

You press a button to turn the PAX on. You shake it to see how much of a battery charge remains. And that's all I've ever done with it. Oh, other than put ground cannabis in the receptacle that heats up to what seems to be a perfect vaporizing temperature. 

And yes, I do agree with Maher that the raised mouthpiece is preferable to the non-raised mouthpiece. I just wanted to point out that PAX gives users a choice of mouthpieces.

City Club talk about Oregon demographics and 2020 Census pleasingly factual

We live in an age of opinionating.

For example, this afternoon the Mueller report was released to the Attorney General. Now there's a frenzy of speculation about what is in the report, how much of it will be released to the public, what the political impact will be, and so on.

So it was pleasant to attend a Salem City Club talk today by demographer Charles Rynerson, a Research Associate with the Population Research Center at Portland State University (my graduate school alma mater): "Oregon Demographic Trends and the 2020 Census."

Rynerson was low-key, highly competent, and almost entirely factual. His talk felt like a healing warm bath of concrete data that (temporarily) washed away the torrent of opinions from a myriad of news sources that typically flood my political junkie brain.

-----------------------

UPDATE: After emailing Rynerson some questions, as noted below, I got the following replies after he returned from vacation. Keep in mind what he says here as you read the rest of my blog post. The first message was sent to someone else who had questions similar to mine. I've uploaded a link to his edited PowerPoint presentation.

Hi,

Sorry for the delay, I was on vacation from the moment I left the City Club event!

This is the edited version of the presentation, based on valuable feedback that I got from a few people after the meeting.  Slide #21 showing in- and out-migration by age group was presented with the two data series overlapped 100%, making it appear that it was a stacked column chart, implying that in-migration was smaller than out-migration.  In fact, in-migration (green columns) is larger for every age group.  By lowering the overlap percentage, this should now be apparent.

Download Rynerson_Demographics_2019

Brian Hines also brought this up in his blog post https://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/2019/03/city-club-talk-about-oregon-demographics-and-2020-census-pleasingly-factual.html, showing the original version of the chart. I have cc'd him here, and will follow up with him to clarify a couple of other points.

Glad you enjoyed it!

-Charles

Hi Brian,

I hope you saw my previous message in which I attached the PPT presentation and improved the migration by age group slide.  If you don't have PowerPoint, let me know.  I'd be glad to print it to PDF and send to you.

Thanks for covering the event with the blog post.  You captured most of what I said perfectly.  Allow me to correct a couple of things that I didn't make clear:

"In every age group, more people moved from Oregon to another state than moved to Oregon from another state."

• • My bad -- two other people who spoke with me immediately after the presentation had the same takeaway. Thus I realized that I should edit the image so that the two series are not completely overlapped.  It is not a stacked column chart; the green bars are really taller than the reddish-brown bars for every age group.  I think the edited chart makes that clear.

"Rynerson said there are 13 metropolitan areas in Oregon, with each area being a county. The other 23 counties are in non-metro areas."

• • I hope I didn't say that.  There are 8 metropolitan areas in Oregon.  The Portland MSA includes 5 Oregon counties (and 2 Washington counties), the Salem MSA includes 2 counties (Marion+Polk), and the remaining 6 MSAs are one county each, for a total of 13 Oregon counties in metropolitan areas.

"The other eight counties have a large net migration, but Rynerson said almost all of this was due to Marion County."

• • No, there is positive net migration in all of the metropolitan counties.  Most of the natural increase is attributable to Marion County.

"70% of people will get an Internet-first 2020 Census survey, while 30% of people in broadband deprived areas will get a Paper-first survey. "

• • I did say that, but I may have been a bit reckless.  I'm not sure where I got the 70-30 figure, and I can't find a source.  I may have been confusing it with the 2018 Census Test in Providence, RI, which was 70-30.
  • All of these links say that the 2020 Census breakdown will be 80-20.
    • https://www.brennancenter.org/digitizing-2020-census
    • https://www.wired.com/story/us-census-2020-goes-digital/
    • https://www.nlc.org/sites/default/files/2018-10/Census%202020%20MAG_0.pdf

 I hope these clarifications help!

-Charles

---------------------------

Here's photos of some of Rynerson's slides that I snapped with my trusty iPhone, along with commentary on each. I'll end with some additional things he told us. Let's geek out on some interesting info on how Oregon is changing demographically.

The flowing line is total population in Oregon, which is estimated to be 4,195,300 in 2018. The bars are annual increases in population form 2001 to 2018. The marked dip around 2010-11 reflects the recession that hit in earnest in 2008.

There was a decline in the rate of population growth from 2017 to 2018, but Rynerson said not much should be made of this, since the number of people added in 2018, 54,200, was still quite high.

Population growth is a function of net migration (# of people coming to Oregon - # of people leaving Oregon) plus natural increase (# of people born - # of people dying). This image shows these components in 5-year periods from 1960-65 to 2010-15. Remember: 5 years. That's why the numbers on the vertical axis are so large.

Net migration (brown bars) has always been greater than natural increase, except in 1960-65 and especially in 1980-85 -- which I recall was another economic downturn. The highest net migration was in 1990-95. Natural increase was at its lowest point in 2010-15.

This is a similar graph, but with the components shown in a single bar for individual years from 2001 to 2018. Natural increase in Oregon has been steadily declining since 2007, mostly because of lower birth rates. Net migration has increased a lot since low points in 2010-11.

Because population growth in Oregon has been greater than the national average, Rynerson said our state likely will gain a congressional seat after the 2020 census. He said that redistricting will start in April 2021, apparently because this is when requisite census data is available.

This slide shows that currently Oregon has a considerably larger population per seat in Congress than Washington, California, or the United States as a whole. Reason: Oregon narrowly missed out on getting an additional seat after the 2010 census. If we get a 6th seat, as expected, our population per seat will drop to about 715,000.

This slide shows the average number of people moving to Oregon (green bar) and the number of people moving from Oregon (brown bar) by age group from 2013 to 2017. Not surprisingly, those aged 20 to 29 are the biggest movers. In every age group, more people moved from Oregon to another state than moved to Oregon from another state.

This seems to be at odds with the positive net migration figures shown in a previous slide, so likely I'm missing something here. (Which is why Rynerson is a professional demographer, and I'm not.) I've emailed Rynerson, asking about this. 

Rynerson said there are 13 metropolitan areas in Oregon, with each area being a county. The other 23 counties are in non-metro areas. (All it takes to be a metro area is to have a population center with 50,000 or more people.)

Net migration has been greatest in the 5-county Portland Metro area, as has the natural increase. Which figures, since that area has by far the most people. The other eight counties have a large net migration, but Rynerson said almost all of this was due to Marion County. 

And in the 23 non-metro counties, which basically means rural Oregon, net migration has been very low -- along with a negative natural increase, with more people dying in those rural areas than are being born. 

This chart shows where people moving to Oregon come from. (The columns total to 100%.) Overall, 24% come from California. Rynerson said the SW Oregon and Deschutes column confirms his intuition that southern Oregon has a higher percentage of Californians than other parts of Oregon -- 34%. 

The Willamette Valley percentages are very close to the Oregon total, Rynerson noted.

This interesting chart shows by age group in 2016 the number of white/non-Latino people (blue) and all other people (brown). It shows that the proportion of white/non-Latino steadily increases with age: 63% for those under 15, 71% ages 15 to 44, 82% 45 to 64, 91% 65 and older. 

So demographically, the future belongs to people of color -- an oft-cited national fact that holds true in Oregon, though we have a smaller percentage than the United States as a whole.

Lastly, this slide shows the "baby bust" that's been reflected in previous slides. The blue 1990-2017 trend line is non-Latino total fertility rates, and the green line is Latino total fertility rates. Meaning, the total number of children a woman has. The fertility rates for both groups have been steadily declining, which is why the natural increase in Oregon has been dropping.

But the Latino birth rate has dropped especially fast since 2000. Now it is 1.96, not all that far above the non-Latino rate of 1.51. Rynerson said the replacement rate is 2.1, given that some children don't survive to adulthood. So couples need on average to have 2.1 children to keep the population steady, without accounting for net migration.

This shows that Oregon would be losing population long-term if it wasn't for people moving into our state.

Here's some other info Rynerson shared in his talk:

-- 70% of people will get an Internet-first 2020 Census survey, while 30% of people in broadband deprived areas will get a Paper-first survey. Those who don't respond to the Internet survey apparently will get a paper survey.

-- The Trump administration's attempt to add a "Are you a citizen?" question to the 2020 Census is still being adjudicated. Rynerson said that if this question ends up being included, and someone doesn't answer it, but completes the rest of the survey, likely there won't be a follow-up attempt, due to lack of resources. So I can see immigrant rights organizations advising people to leave that question blank. Heck, I'll likely do that myself, if the citizen question is asked. 

-- Attempts will be made to include homeless people in the 2020 Census. During a one-night event, census staff will go with local  people to try  to count the homeless.

Trump's tariff threat on foreign cars irks VW GTI loving me

Just when I think I can't get more irritated at Donald Trump, our (hopefully) one-term president does something that causes my Irritation Index to jump to a new high.

In this case -- imposing a tariff on imported cars that could reach 25% -- it's a threatened something that's raising my ire. But given Trump's oft-stated love of tariffs, even when they're a spectacularly bad idea, it sure seems like there's a good chance he'll go ahead with an imported car tariff. 

At my age, 70, obviously I've owned a lot of different cars. More have been foreign than domestic. And not because I've got anything against American-made cars. My wife and I have leased three Chevy Volts, a great car that sadly, is being discontinued by GM.

Foreign cars simply appeal to me more.

I've enjoyed my mother's '57 VW bug that I inherited and drove in my college years; a Toyota Corona that took my wife to the hospital when our daughter was born; a Toyota MR2 with flip-up headlights that I loved to turn on; a Volvo 850 turbo that proved station wagons can be really fun to drive; a BMW 325 ix that handled snow pretty darn well; several Toyota Highlanders, one hybrid and one regular; a succession of Toyota Priuses, or maybe Priii; a couple of Subaru's, a Legacy and an Impreza; and currently, a 2017 VW GTI that I'm enjoying even more than the GTI I owned in the early 80's. 

Oh, my wife and I also have ordered a 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, even though the hybrid version hasn't even been released yet.

It will replace our 2014 Toyota Highlander. The RAV4 Hybrid will be made in Japan. If Trump goes ahead with a 25% tariff, the car we're buying from Capitol Toyota here in Salem, Oregon would cost us about $8,000 more, at least. (We haven't gotten a final price on the car yet.)

Everybody who works at Capitol Toyota is an American citizen, I'm pretty sure. And Capitol Toyota obviously is an American company. Why Trump wants to endanger the financial health of all the dealerships that sell foreign-made cars escapes me -- along with so much else Trump does that makes no logical sense. 

I'm not sure what we'd do if Trump imposed a 25% tax on the 2019 RAV4 Hybrid. Likely we'll have bought the car prior to the three month window following the mid-February completion of a Commerce Department report that concluded tariffs could be imposed on foreign cars for national security reasons. 

The Trump administration won't release that report, probably because it is difficult to imagine how having the Toyota RAV4 built in Japan is a major threat to our national security. Likely the Commerce Department made crap up just to please Trump. 

So far few people with working brains in their head are saying "Yay!" to Trump's dumb tariff plan.

Even US automakers think a 25% tariff on imported cars would be a bad idea, in part because other countries would slap tariffs on American cars, and in part because American cars use a lot of parts made overseas that could also be subject to tariffs.

There's even a possibility that cars made in Mexico and Canada would be subject to a 25% tariff.

This would really irk me, since my much-beloved 2017 VW GTI was built in Mexico, and I'm looking forward to the release of the next-generation GTI -- which reportedly will arrive in the United States as a 2021 model sometime in 2020. 

Even with winter tires on steel wheels, I love how my VW GTI looks. And even more, how it drives. There's no better "hot hatch" made by any car manufacturer, foreign or domestic. 

So Donald Trump should let the market decide what cars are bought in the United States.

Believe me, if Trump makes VW GTI's unaffordable to those aficionados like me who adore this car, we'd rather keep our current GTI's until a smarter president takes office than buy a lower-quality domestic vehicle.

My fourth colonoscopy goes smoothly at Salem Gastro

First off, I just noticed the appealing slogan on the Salem Gastro web site: "What matters is what's inside." Nice mixture of philosophy and double entendre. 

The colonoscopy I had last month at the hands of Dr. Richard Brandes wasn't exactly appealing, but it went about as smoothly as possible.

This was my fourth colonoscopy.

Well, fifth, counting a virtual (CT) colonoscopy I had in 2006. In retrospect, that probably wasn't a great idea, since if a suspicious polyp had been found (maybe all polyps are suspicious), I would have needed to undergo a regular colonoscopy. But at the time it seemed like a good idea: simpler prep, no anesthesia.

Fortunately, I had a regular colonoscopy in 2009 after an occult blood test was positive, though a repeat test was negative. My family physician thought I should have a "real" colonoscopy, and it revealed a polyp that turned out to be benign.

Then I had another colonoscopy just two years later, in 2011, because the prep in 2009 wasn't ideal, and the doctor who performed the procedure said he couldn't see every part of my colon. Another wise decision, since another benign polyp was found in that location in 2011.

My first two regular colonoscopies were done at Gastroenterology Associates of Oregon in Tualatin, because I was turned off by what struck me as an overly lengthy prep period that Salem Gastro required at the time: no solid food for two days prior to the colonoscopy. Meaning, if your appointment was 9 am on Wednesday, you'd start the prep on Monday morning.

But in 2014 I was pleased to learn that Salem Gastro allowed a low volume prep solution, Suprep, that didn't require as much drinking on the night before my colonoscopy. And the no solid food time was a bit less, I believe. Again, three benign polyps were found.

As with my previous two colonoscopies, I enjoyed the propofol anesthesia -- which stimulated a quasi-spiritual 2011 blog post, "Finding enlightenment through a colonoscopy (and propofol)."

Five years passed before I was scheduled to have another colonoscopy in 2019.

Perhaps the longer period this time was because benign polyps were found the three previous colonoscopies. Regardless, my 2019 colonoscopy seemed to go the smoothest -- aside from some anxiety about possible snow being in the forecast, since I sure didn't want to go through the prep and then be stuck in our rural south Salem home because of thick snow or ice.

This time around I'd scheduled the procedure for early afternoon.

That meant I went without food for about four extra hours, compared to having an early morning colonoscopy, but I liked not having to get up early and head off to Salem Gastro at a time when retired me isn't used to fully functioning.

Interestingly, there were some differences between my 2014 colonoscopy at Salem Gastro and the 2019 procedure. Guess this shows the benefit of being an obsessive blogger. My posts function as sort of a diary. In 2014 I noted that it was nice to sit in a chair during the pre-colonoscopy preparation period. And I walked to the procedure room.

This time I reclined during the preparation period, and I was wheeled into the procedure room. But Dr. Brandes was still appealingly loose and joking around with the nurses, with rock music playing, as it was in 2014.

The nurse anesthetist told me before the colonoscopy that some changes had been made to the propofol. This time there was no counting backwards, or indeed any indication at all that I'd started getting the propofol. I was just out. Waking up, I didn't feel as blissful as the previous time. 

Meaning, no feeling that I'd been in a happy place, and now I had to deal with reality again. Instead, I had a vague recollection of what I thought at the time had been a dream. Now, though, I'm wondering if I was minimally aware during part or all of the procedure, and my "dream" was a vague memory. 

No big deal either way.

As I've noted before, it's unclear to me whether propofol truly renders you unconscious, or whether you forget what happened during the colonoscopy. I prefer the first option, so that's what I choose to believe, since it would bother me to consider that I endured pain during the procedure and simply didn't have a memory of it.

Dr. Brandes sent me a letter saying that the polyps removed this time (again!) were benign (again!), and I should have a repeat colonoscopy in five years. That seems a long ways off, but when 2024 rolls around, at least I'll have this blog post to refer to as a written memory of how smoothly my previous colonoscopy went.

The staff at Salem Gastro were wonderfully informal and pleasant. I had a great conversation with the nurse who handled my pre-colonoscopy preparation. However, I can't really recall when we talked about.

I like to think that's due to the propofol, rather than my age.

I'm a big fan of winter tires. Here's why.

I've had winter tires on quite a few of the cars my wife and I have owned over the years. They make a lot of sense, even here in western Oregon where sometimes it never snows all winter. 

I can't recall exactly what led me to start putting winter tires on in mid-November and off in mid-March, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with an experience I had driving our Volvo 850 station wagon to a cabin in Camp Sherman, Oregon that we were part owners of.

I'd just pulled off the main highway that leads to Sisters and was on the two-lane road that leads to Camp Sherman. It didn't take long before I realized that the road was icy. Really icy. So icy that I felt if I did anything sudden, my car would careen out of control.

I made it to the cabin.

But what I realized, after my heart rate returned to normal, was that if I'd passed a guy on the side of the road with a sign saying "Winter tires sold and installed here!", I would have (gently) pulled over and bought a set of tires for however much the guy was asking for them.

Western Oregon is notorious for snow and ice that falls onto roads that are close to freezing, 32 degrees. This makes for more slippery conditions than in places where the temperature is colder and the snow is powdery.

Winter tires provide a big dose of reassurance and safety. As noted in a 2012 blog post I wrote about winter tires, I've found that all-wheel drive doesn't cut it when all season tires are on a car.

I've owned several sets of snow tires over the years. Actually, they're better termed "winter tires" nowadays, because they're made out of materials which remain pliable under 45 degrees F., making for much safer handling in cold weather even when it isn't snowy or icy. 

(See here, here, and here for benefits of winter tires.)

Last year I put Bridgestone Blizzaks on our Hybrid Highlander SUV, which previously had all season tires. Even though the Highlander is all wheel drive, usually we couldn't get up our fairly steep driveway when it snowed. But with the Blizzaks, no problem. 

When I bought a 2017 VW GTI in late 2016, one of the first things I did was purchase four Michelin Pilot Alpin performance winter tires from Les Schwab -- after learning that Les Schwab can order whatever you want from any tire company.

I hate to put on tire chains. They're tough enough to install in our carport in good weather. Whenever I've had to put chains on by the side of the road in freezing weather the experience made me long for a better option. Which turned out to be winter tires. 

A New York Times article, "What's On Your Car? Winter Tires, We Hope," does a good job of explaining why winter tires make so much sense. 

There could be great dumping ahead of us, as there is almost every February and March. And for the most part, drivers will venture out, confident that modern drivetrain designs like front-wheel and all-wheel drive will get them to their destinations without drama. Electronic aids like traction control, stability systems and antilock brakes further bolster their self-confidence.

But I learned early that there is no substitute for winter tires in conditions with heavy snow. Their tread design keeps your car from skidding during braking and while making turns. You won’t slide through stop signs; you won’t continue going straight when trying to turn. Simply put, the tires give you more control of the car, help keep you out of accidents and avoid the skidding cars that don’t have them. All-season tires, despite their name, fall one season short if it’s a season of heavy snow.

If it’s just a dusting of freshly fallen snow, all-season tires will probably be fine. Driving gets trickier, though, when traffic packs snow to concrete hardness and parking spots get burnished to skating-rink slickness. Which is why you need to have tires that are up to the task.

This is even true if there’s just a little winter slop. Those electronic assistants built into modern cars can limit the amount of power going to the wheels or the braking force during a skid, but improving traction requires a better match of tires to surface conditions.

Yes, winter tires on steel rims are an extra expense. And there's some time involved in having them put on and removed. (Les Schwab does this at no cost if you bought the tires from them.) However, obviously every mile driven on my winter tires is one less mile driven on the all-season tires that came with my GTI.

So in the long run, there isn't a lot of extra expense involved with winter tires. The knowledge that I'm much better equipped to handle snow or ice is hard to put a value on, but it's considerable. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to our local Les Schwab tire center to have the winter tires replaced by the all-season tires. I enjoy the ritual of doing this. It starts with me staring at the stack of all-season tires in our garage. Les Schwab provides yellow covers that keeps the tires nice and cozy during their long winter sleep.

I've gotten to the age, 70, where my body doesn't like it when I make it do something unusual -- like lifting tires on rims into the back of my GTI. So I use a ramp that we got for an aged dog some years back to roll the tires into the back of my car. 

It's pleasing that every car I've bought winter tires for has been able to fit in a set of the tires. Even my Mini Cooper S (just barely). It seems that small cars have fairly small tires, so they can be squeezed in. Ditto with a larger car with larger tires, such as our Toyota Highlander, which also has winter tires put on in November.

I wondered whether I should have gotten black steel wheels to mount the Michelin winter tires on, since my VW GTI came with silver stock wheels. The black wheels now strike me as a nice winter change, November to March. When the silver wheels get put on tomorrow, it'll be (sort of) like I have a new car.

This is the tread design of the Michelin Pilot Alpin. After three seasons of winter driving, they have a lot of wear left. It just makes me feel good to head off in the GTI with these tires when snow is in the forecast. I know that I'll be a heck of a lot better off driving around with these tires, than with the all-season tires the car came with.

My "Return to the One" book gets a pleasing recommendation

I don't often plug my book about Plotinus, the 3nd century Greek Neoplatonist philosopher and mystic. Return to the One continues to have slow but steady sales, with good reader reviews on Amazon. 

Recently, though, my book got a pleasing recommendation from Christine McGinley, who founded a small book publishing company called Gleam of Light Press. Here's the email message I got from her.

Dear Brian, 

We want to let you know that the launch of Gleam of Light’s “Other Great Finds” is now up on the website: https://www.gleamoflightpress.com/ and we are pleased and proud to have Return to the One among our first offerings. 

One of the many things Emerson and the Transcendentalists have concretized for us is the recognition of intrinsic rewards as the greatest of riches. Please know that among the great rewards this project has yielded is the response from the authors and publishers involved – people who also appreciate intrinsic rewards.

We look forward to sharing many more great finds as we move forward slowly and thoughtfully.

Thank you so much for your graciousness and support.

Very best regards,  
Christine Mary McGinley

Gleam of Light Press has a web page called "Other Great Finds." Return to the One is in some excellent company there.

I enjoyed seeing my book's cover one row down from Emerson's Essays and Walden. Not that I in any way compare myself to Emerson and Thoreau. I'm just pleased to be on the same web page as them.

This is how Gleam of Light Press describes Return to the One.

Plotinus, the third-century Greek philosopher and mystic, considered himself a devoted follower of Plato. He has since been recognized as the ultimate Platonist and the embodiment of hundreds of years of Greek thought.

As scholars have pointed out, Plotinus shed new light on Plato’s philosophy minus the political and social elements. In other words, Plotinus dealt with the inner life, the life of the soul, and gave little attention to the worldly. This in itself is most telling of Plotinus’s philosophy, which many have described as an expansion of Plato’s mysticism.

As Brian Hines describes it, “Plotinus taught that no matter what we’re doing with our lives, it’s all pretty much worthless if we’re not yet in touch with our genuine beings.” And being in touch with our genuine beings has nothing to do with our outward identities or even the knowledge we accumulate over our lifetime. It has to do with the attention we give to the attainment of inner wisdom.

Plotinus believed that all of the urges we experience as human beings – to love, to create, to be moral – even to find our way as spiritual beings – are manifestations of the same primal yearning to “return to the One” – to be reunited with our true source, the source of all.

As Hines makes clear, Plotinus’s philosophy, which was a germinating force in major world religions, was in perfect alignment with the original root meaning of “religion”– religare – “to bind back to God.”

For those who wish to understand the spiritual teachings of Plotinus, Brian Hines’s Return to the One makes the “mystic Plato” thoroughly accessible. He explains Plotinus’s ideas about the nature of spirit, about the soul as the essence of identity, about the power of a contemplative life.

He also sheds light on the enormous role Plotinus and Greek philosophy have played in the formation of religious and spiritual thought throughout the world. He even explains why The Enneads, the writings Plotinus left behind, are impenetrable for those of us who have not spent years in deep study.

Plotinus wrote solely for his inner circle of disciples who were already deeply versed in his philosophy. He did not anticipate that one of those students, Porphyry, would one day publish The Enneads in their raw, unedited form.

Return to the One is a complete and inspiring introduction to Plotinus. One comes away from it with a deep sense of Plotinus’s philosophy, his unique presence in the evolution of spiritual thought, and the great value of his ideas for every seeker of wisdom.

The Gleam of Light Team

Return to the One
Brian Hines
2004, Adrasteia Publishing

If you have slower broadband than 6.25 Mbps, let me know

Misery likes company, as the saying goes. So if you have a "broadband" Internet download connection that's slower than my crappy 6.25 Mbps, leave a comment on this post. 

My wife and I live five miles from the city limits of Salem, the freaking capital city of Oregon.

But I have little doubt that people living in Outer Mongolia have a faster Internet connection than we do, since our DSL comes courtesy of the same copper wire that probably was used by the first telephones.

I'm especially irritated at the moment because I made the mistake of joking with some Tai Chi classmates this evening. I'd just made a nine minute video of our instructor doing a new form that we're learning.

I said, "I'll share this with everybody after I fire up our steam-powered Internet connection, which will only take a few hours or so to upload the file to You Tube." That led someone to ask how slow our connection was.

About 7 Mbps, I replied. Laughter ensued.

And not just from the people who live in Salem proper. Also from my instructor who, like us, lives in a rural area of small acreages. But he has Molalla Broadband, since he has the good fortune to live close to Silverton, Oregon. 

Here's a depressing screenshot of one of the Molalla Broadband fiber optic options. Geez, I'd pay a million dollars a month, or thereabouts, for 250 Mbps.

We have CenturyLink DSL. Frustratingly, our neighborhood of several hundred homes is just a few miles from Bunker Hill Road, where CenturyLink repairpeople have told me fiber optic ends and DSL begins.

Yet somehow CenturyLink seems prepared to let us languish in Slow Speed Internet Hell for eternity. Or at least until the beancounters at CenturyLink decide that they can make sufficient profits from our neighborhood to justify moving us into the 21st century of broadband.

I'm thinking of revisiting what worked for me back in 2007, when I managed to talk Qwest, the predecessor of CenturyLink, into offering DSL in our area. Before that we made do with satellite Internet, which had the annoying habit of cutting out whenever it rained hard, snowed, or a flock of birds passed overhead. 

OK, I made that last thing up.

But satellite Internet sucked even worse than our DSL does now. So I was hugely proud after I wrote a letter to the CEO of Qwest about our lack of broadband, which led to me being called by a local Qwest employee who notified me that, finally, DSL would be coming our way. 

My blog post, "I'm the DSL King of the World!," described my joy. 

That was 12 years ago, though. There's no joy now in 7 Mbps, on a good day. So if you're reading this and have even slower Internet than me, let me know via a comment.

I won't feel any better, but I'll get a mild bit of satisfaction from knowing that someone else is suffering with an even worse Internet speed than us and our neighbors have to put up with.