Category Archives: 2019 Trip to Southwest United States

Musings on my trip to the Southwestern United States that occurred mainly in 2019 (though it started 2018)

A Big Beautiful Wall

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, politics, Trump

 

Today,  I considered 2 reports on the border issues in Arizona.  First, I read a brief report in the Arizona Republic newspaper which I decided to subscribe to today for the balance of our visit. I think local news is important. We should not rely entirely on Comedy News.

The newspaper reported on a group of mostly Guatemalan asylum seekers that breached the U.S.-Mexico Border yesterday. A smuggler helped a group of 118 asylum seekers by providing a ladder so they could climb over the wall near Yuma Arizona. that sounds like a lot of people. They were caught on video surveillance scaling the wall yesterday. About 86% of them were families travelling together, Customs and Border Agency reported. The video showed a number of people dropping to the ground after scaling the fence that was about 18 ft.

As the members of the group dropped to the ground they huddled in a group. The person who supplied the ladder, on the Mexican side, was shown leaving the scene in a hurry. According to the report, the people were “brazen  A spokesman for Border Security said, “It shows how brazen these smugglers are and the fact that they’re unafraid I wondered, ‘were they brazen, or were they desperate?” This incident happened about a mile from where 376 asylum seekers dug  holes to tunnel under the border fence last week. That too sounds like a lot of people.

Is this an emergency as Trump alleges? Does it warrant spending billions on a wall? Does it warrant shutting down the American government? Some would say yes. That group in Yuma was the single largest authorities had encountered in the area.

Some say that the wall there is “only” 18 ft. high. We should build it 30 ft. high some say. Of course, if a wall is built 30 ft. high does that mean the next smuggler will get a ladder 31 ft. high? A border guard interviewed by the Arizona Republic said, it might not be so easy because the smuggler would need two  30 ft. ladders. One on each side of the fence (wall). The video showed that an 18 ft. drop was pretty high. Particularly for young children. There are always young children. We have to remember that. These were families with young children. Do we not care about that?

On the radio today I also heard an interesting interview with Santa Cruz Sheriff–Tony Estrada. He is 75 years old and was recently elected for his 7th term as Sheriff.  That county includes Nogales Arizona and Nogales Mexico where  Chris and I lived near  for a month 3 years ago.

Estrada  said he was  the longest running Sheriff in Arizona. He seemed very knowledgeable.

Estrada is not a fan of Trump’s proposed “Big, beautiful, border wall.”  In fact he thinks it is a fantasy. “The wall won’t help,” he said.  Estrada said that almost all illegal immigrants come through at points of entry. Those are the legal border crossings that people use when they cross a border. Those places all have border walls already! They don’t need more walls.

Estrada also said that illegal immigrants were not the big problem, illegal drugs were the main problem. Meth in particular had in recent years become the main problem. This reminded me of Manitoba. Meth is a problem. But a wall won’t help. Those drugs also come in through points of entry, according to Estrada. The real problem is demand! In the US demand for illegal drugs is extremely high. Estrada said, the US has 5% of the world’s population and more than 50% of the world’s drugs. Americans can afford to pay and they demand that they get them. That is the problem. It is not a wall or lack of a wall that is the problem.

Sheriff Estrada said the border authorities could use money in the new proposed bill that Trump insists be signed before the government is reopened. It could be used for better technology (even though they already have the best technology!) and more boots on the ground, but spending money one a wall would be a waste. (Other border guards agree with Trump that building a wall is a good idea.)

Estrada pointed out that once in a while people cross the border with ladders as happened in Yuma, but this is rare. It is also rare that some people dig under the wall. I think he was saying if we wanted stronger borders we have to be smart. Building a ‘big, beautiful wall’ is not smart. I agree.

It’s always better to be smart.

Something Nice About Trump

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Extremism, politics, Trump

 

As some of my critics have pointed out, I don’t often say something nice about Donald Trump. That is true. Today is an exception.

As everyone knows, the American government has been partially shut down for more than 4 weeks. Not everyone knows this has caused serious problems. It causes serious damage to the American economy as many things can’t be done, that should be done. Even more important, it has caused serious damage to many Americans. About 800,000 American government employees are not being paid. Many of them are still expected to go to work. That is inherently unfair.

I blame both sides. Not just Donald Trump, but certainly including him. Trump has said he won’t approve spending that does not include money for a wall on the southern border. This is an absurd position. It is highly unlikely that a wall will do any good. It is just window dressing for his ego. He is asking for about $5  billion at this time. This is small  beer in terms of American political spending. The Democrats say they were elected on the basis of opposing the wall. But Trump also got elected on the basis of promising a wall. Both sides should get over it.

This stand-off  shows how crazily dysfunctional their system of government is. This keeps happening over and over again, particularly as the chasm between Americans deepens. I damages the American international reputation. Extremism is on the march. This should be resolved. That will required either statesmanship or compromise or both. Since statesmanship is conspicuously absent, that means the parties must compromise. That means both sides have to agree to a settlement that is less than ideal from their perspective. So be it. Politicians willing to compromise in America appear to be a species on the endangers species list.

I listened today to  a small part of an interview with Joseph Stiglitz a respected American economist. I really just heard one small part of his talk. That was enough. He said there were figures out there that indicated that 40% of Americans have less than $400 in their accounts. 25% have less than $1,000 That means such a shutdown has serious consequences for these people. I have heard that Air traffic controllers have been working over time at second jobs with Uber so that they pay their portages. Americans need to be fair to their civil servants (even though many of them don’t respect civil servants). Many other people have lost their jobs because they depend on working with government employees. All of this is a serious drag on the American economy.

Today Donald Trump offered to approve a temporary extension of protection for people facing deportation on the basis that they are undocumented, so that both parties in Congress have more time to come up with a solution for this serious problem, but only if Congress approves a spending bill that includes money for the wall. In the circumstances Trump has made a reasonable offer. This will help thousands of people in America who are anxiously awaiting a return to work so they can feed their families and pay their bills. It will  postpone many deportations for at least 3 years. This is good. Not perfect, but good. Democrats should not let perfection be the enemy of the good. The Democrats should compromise, even though that will be painful for them. It will be good for the country. It will be good for many individuals and families. That is more important. Much more important.

Thinking about Climate Change

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Climate change

 

I have been thinking a lot about climate change lately. Thinking of course, not necessarily doing anything about it. That is harder. So I am determined at least to speak up. I will also try to do something in my own personal life. But I think speaking up is important too.

I have recently left a country that is in climate change denial for another . I have left Canada for the United States. In Canada we are just more surreptious about it. We claim we  believe climate change is real and is caused by humans, and we claim we are doing something, but nothing gets done. IN 20 years now nothing has got done. In the US many people  still don’t even believe that climate change is happening or that it is caused by human activities. The numbers of those who resist the obvious are shrinking, no matter what their President says about it. I am not sure which country is worse.  The hypocrite (Canada) or the resister (the US). Both have serious flaws. Our grand children won’t be impressed.

If the temperature rises 1°C the new UN Climate report released in 2018 says, up to a third of people in the world could lose their source of clean water. At a 2 °C rise people begin to die in what are “normal” summers. Countries already hit hard by hurricanes could see those already dramatic effects amplified, and most fearfully, 1/3rd of all  life on the planet faces extinction. If that does not catch the attention of people it is difficult to comprehend what could. Now I admit thinking about things like that are hard.  Who wants to do that?  Well, for sure, not the President of the United States. Nor most of his Republican enablers.  Even worse, millions of Americans still support his Presidency.

Trump was recently interviewed on CBS 60 Minutes and was asked if he still thought climate change was a hoax. He dodged the question. As comic Jim Jefferies said, “Some Republicans continue to say that climate change isn’t real, but the real hoax is Republicans pretending it’s a hoax. They know the science is real, they’re just making so much money they don’t give a shit. ”

Texas Republican Lamar Smith is the Chair of the American House Science Committee and he received more than $600,000 from the oil and gas industry. Another Republican, the senior Senator from Oklahoma since 1994, has many contributors from the oil and gas sector. His biggest funders include ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. It sometimes  seems the only thing that one can afford to buy is a Senator.

Of course it is difficult for people to focus on issues like this when you tell them they are going to die. As Anthony Leiserowitz the Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication  said, “Climate change is the policy problem from hell. You almost couldn’t design a worse problem as a fit with our underlying psychology or with the way our institutions make decisions.” The problem is that when we feel fear, or guilt or experience anxiety we tend to withdraw from the issue and try to think about something else that makes us feel better. That is much more pleasant. It is difficult to avoid doing that. But critical thought demands it.

As Jim Jefferies said, “Imminent death is too scary to contemplate. If you told me that I am going to die and everyone I ever met is going to die a fiery death my first thought wouldn’t be ‘Oh I’d better bring my own grocery bags to the store. It would be more like, ‘I have been meaning to try heroin.’ The problem of climate change is just too big and overwhelming. How can we possibly deal with a threat to our lives, our kid’s lives, our grand kid’s lives, our great grand kids?”

Jefferies suggested that the only way to get Trump’s attention was with pictures.  So he drew one of a Trump Hotel filled with people, but not the kind of people Trump wants. he pictured a Trump hotel filled with dirty refugees. He asked Trump to consider this, “First Mr. President with all the refugees created by global warning, poor people will have to stay in Trump hotels with all their disgusting unwashed faces and their dirty hands.” Then Jefferies had another horror story for Trump to consider. “As the weather gets more severe if you think Stormy Daniels is a problem wait until she is upgraded to Hurricane Daniels!”  As if that picture was not graphic enough he had another, “Eventually Russian prostitutes will be too dehydrated to piss on a mattress.”  His conclusion was that “we gotta put these pictures on chicken buckets until he gets the message.”

These were stories from a comic. It’s pretty bad when the comedians give us the straight goods and the politicians evade the truth. That seems to be where we landed.

Hummingbirds: How Smart are they?

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Birds, Hummingbirds, Natural History

 

 

After our adventures on the highways we did make it safely to our rented home in San Tan Valley Arizona. Our first Arizona friends to visit us were the hummingbirds. They arrived the first day we were here and went directly to the same spot we had our feeder last year before we had time to set it up.  How smart is that? I don’t think anyone has fed them here for 9 months!

As we were reading in the backyard, we saw an intense aerial display that could match any of the dogfights in either of our World Wars. Two Anna’s Hummingbirds conducted this military exercise. They flew after each other for so long that mostly they had no time to dine on the nectar we provided. That is not very smart! I did get a couple of photos of one of them in one of the few moments when he stopped to drink, including the image above.

Humans have a strong tendency to think they are better and smarter than everything else. Many of us believe that God made this world for humans to rule. The world is subordinate to us. Sometimes however, humans should learn a little humility.

I have watched a few astonishing nature shows on television about hummingbirds. One of them was about  Andy Hurley and his research partner Sue Healy who study hummingbirds. In particular, they study rufous humming birds, astonishing little birds with brains the size of a grain of rice. Yet even these birds are smart–very smart. Their hearts can beat at more than a 1,000 beats per minute! Their wings beat at more than 70 times per second! All of that requires the expenditure of an enormous amount of energy. How do they get that energy? Well they need to be smart to find it.

         Hurley and Healy found that in the lab birds like this do surprising things, but not nearly as surprising as the things that the birds do in their environment. That is where their intelligence really shines. They set up a number of fake flowers for the real birds. Each a different colour. They created a pattern of cardboard disks on top of sticks or poles stuck into the ground to resemble flowers. These were artificial flowers filled with a sucrose solution that resembles nectar.  The birds were actually offered slightly better food than they would get in the wild, in order to keep them interested. “Being smart birds they recognized a good thing when they saw it.” They kept coming back for the nectar of the gods. “Not only do they see it; they remember it,” Hurley said.

Because male rufous hummingbirds are so territorial, the same bird comes back to the cafeteria over and over again. As Hurley said, “A Male rufous hummingbirds has hundreds if not thousands of flowers in its territory. As a result, he has to remember where good food is, and where he has just visited.” That takes serious smarts! As Healy said, “they seem to know where a flower is after one visit. One visit! And we are still asking ourselves how do they do it?” Remember that is one visit among hundreds or even thousands of flowers! That also takes serious smarts. No doubt this is far beyond my capacity. But that is not all. They are even smarter than that!

As David Suzuki, who presented the show, said, “Its not just bird brain power, its biology. Hummingbirds have such a high metabolism they cannot afford to waste precious energy looking for food.”

People need a meal every 3 or 4 or 5 hours. “Hummingbirds are thinking I need a meal every 10 minutes! They have to make decisions that are really important, and if they don’t do it well they die. ” If we miss MacDonald’s we can always go to Wendy’s down the street. It doesn’t much matter to us. We have the time to make mistakes and correct them. Hummingbirds don’t have the luxury of much time. They cannot make a lot of mistakes.

Hummingbirds have another big problem–that is biodiversity. Normally that is a good thing for all of us, but for hummingbirds in the wild that can be a serious obstacle. In the wild, unlike the nectar Café the scientists could create, flowers replenish their nectar at different rates. In the experiment the scientists mimicked this diversity. The question then became can the hummingbird figure out which fake flowers are empty and which are filled with sucrose solution? The scientists were shocked at how well these tiny birds with their tiny brains did in the wild.

For half the flowers, after a bird visited, the scientists waited 10 minutes before replenishing. The other half of the flowers were refilled after 20 minutes. So a bird came in, visited 3 or 4 flowers, then went away and came back 10 or 15 minutes later, and then the bird must decide which flowers have not yet given up nectar and which ones will have it already. That is no an easy test. I would not want to take this examination, particularly if my life depended on it. Hummingbirds have no choice. They take such tests every day, over and over again. As a result the scientists  saw a hummingbird that had already sipped from 2 flowers. Then when it returned it headed straight for a new one. After a day of doing this, the hummingbird had a remarkable ability to separate out the 10 minute and 20 minute flowers. The bird must treat them differently.

Scientists call this episodic memory. I am glad I heard this expression. That is because I know I will forget it. That’s because I have so little of it. “They have to remember not just the what, and the where, but the when.” As Suzuki said, “this is a cognitive skill once thought to belong only to humans.” How wrong can we get?  How stupid are we? At least in comparison to these little birds with their minute brains.

Hurley described this well, when he said, “I would need a clipboard and pencil and 8 different stop watches for hours and hours and hours. Yet the birds are able to do this, seemingly without effort. They are smarter than me.” They are astonishing creatures and we have underestimated them–forever. As Healy said, “These birds have extraordinarily small brains and yet they do things that we find phenomenal.”

Naturally, that brings up an important question, ‘when it comes to brains does size matter?’  Humans are a good example of species where the size of brains does matter. Humans have very large brains for the size of their bodies and humans have an astounding capacity thanks to their brains. Well some of us at least.

The question was, ‘can a hummingbird outsmart a human?’  It seems unlikely. Andy Hurley is still amazed by hummingbirds after studying them for more than 25 years. Hurley said, “I’ve been humbled by these birds.” That was a lesson he wanted to pass on to his students. Humility is good.

Hurley did an experiment that required his students–smart University students–to forage like a hummingbird at the University of Lethbridge. He set up a memory test with candy instead of nectar. This one was to test the students. He had 8 paper cups.  4 of the paper cups were visited by students earlier. He asked the students to go to the cups that they had not yet visited to determine if they had candy hidden underneath them or not. One would think humans could do this easily. After all, humans have huge brains, and university students are thought to be the best of the best. The Students did pretty good. They got it right 75% of the time. This was the same as hummingbirds!

This made Professor Hurley say to his students, “You have brains that are 7,000 times larger than hummingbirds. My question is what are you doing with all those neurons? Why are you not scoring better than an animal that has a tiny, tiny brain?” The students chuckled. They chuckled at themselves that is.

Why are hummingbirds so smart? According to Professor Hurley, “the answer is that there is intense natural selection of hummingbirds to get this right because if they don’t they die.” Now humans have figured this out. They are pretty smart too.

A Reward for Years of Righteous LIving

2019 Trip to Southwest United States

 

In Newton Kansas, where many good Mennonite boys and girls went to college, we had a nice sleep thinking our weather troubles were over. Then we made the mistake of listening to the weather channel. I actually woke up thinking it was not necessary. What more could happen?

As soon as we listened to the weather channel we heard about another storm coming our way. It had already dropped huge amounts of snow in Arizona and New Mexico. How was that possible? The newscasters warned of dire results in and around Oklahoma City, exactlywhere we were bound!

I was shocked. It also seemed that there was trouble everywhere and there was no place to hide. As a result we seriously considered hunkering down again. We had a fine hotel that was very comfortable. A couch and a comfortable reading chair. Why would we venture out into a storm? We wanted to heed the advice of Barack Obama–“Don’t do stupid stuff!” I had already done enough of that. Yet the broadcasters had said the storm would last for 2 days! That meant we would have to spend 2 days in the hotel.

Yet it looked very clear outside. It seemed like only a sissy would stop. We decided to get back on the Interstate toward Oklahoma City about 2 hours away or less. I really figured we would not make it past Oklahoma City. Our thinking was that even if we drove for only 2 hours before shutting down, that might help later in making it to Arizona when the storm was over. The extra 2 hours might make it easier to make it to San Tan Valley in 2 days. Otherwise, if we stayed, we might take 3 days to reach our home. We promised ourselves we could keep an eye on the weather and stop as soon as we encountered bad weather. So we drove right into the storm. So we thought.

That was one of the best decisions we made on this trip. Finally a good decision! We had no problems getting to Oklahoma City. In fact, much to our surprise we had no problems all day. It turned out there was a very bad storm, as we had been warned, but we got past Oklahoma City and headed west on Interstate 40, beforeit arrived and it had already done its damage in New Mexico and Northern Arizona where we were going. This time luck was with us. It was weird perfecttiming.  We figured we deserved this luck after Watertown South Dakota. All day we worried about a storm that we just narrowly managed to avoid.

Later we met people in Arizona who had driven through the storm that did reach Oklahoma City and were told it was horrendous. We had already done horrendous, so were grateful we did not have to do horrendous twice.

We were very happy we did not chicken out early in the morning as we were tempted to do. Had we done that we would have been stuck in a hotel in Newton Kansas for 48 hours.

We reached as far as Tucumcari New Mexico where we packed it in. I read in the paper that a couple of days ago, I-40 was closed on account of the storm. This was the storm we had just missed. Hundreds of cars were stranded in the ditch and in town.  All 1,200 rooms in the local hotels were taken. A local First Baptist church offered shelter to 200 people and all the spaces there were taken. The Knights of Columbus took in 40 more stranded people.

The next day we drove along I-40 and saw hundreds of tire tracks in the ditches clearly showing where cars had slid into the ditch or meridian. A number of highway tractors were lying on their sides in the ditches, like huge dead insects. Many guardrails were destroyed. All of this was rather disconcerting. This storm had been serious. We had been lucky.

I was convinced this was a reward for years of righteous living.

Best Covers Ever

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Music

 

One day on our drive from Steinbach to Arizona, we listened to National Public Radio in the mornings and my own personal Play list of my own recordings some afternoons.  Listening to interesting conversations or great music makes the miles melt away on a long trip. With all modesty I claim that my play list is the best play list in the world! Chris’ only complaint was that I did not have enough Bob Dylan tunes on it. OK that was fake news.

I noticed that in addition to original recordings I also had some great covers. My personal favorite cover was “Fields of Gold” originally written and recorded by Sting and covered by Eve Cassidy. I recommend it highly. In fact, I challenge my Facebook and blogging friends to come up with their favorite covers. By cover I mean a new recording of a hit by another artist.  It must have been a hit the first time around. I have a few other favorites, and promise to give an incredible prize to anyone who names one of my 3 other favorites. I hope people will participate. Don’t be shy. Live boldly.

Early Onset Dementia

2019 Trip to Southwest United States

 

The title of this post might make you think I did something stupid again. This time I want to talk about stupid things others do.

Frankly I find New Years events boring. I find the forced requirement to have a great time wearying. And boring. Probably the most interesting thing for us this  day on New Years Eve was an interview with some young people lining up to get the best standing room places in Times Square in New York. For security reasons no one was allowed to bring an umbrella to the event even though it was going to be cold and wet. Heavy rains were expected.  Even worse, there were at best inadequate toilet facilities. Anyone who left to attend to urgent person business would likely lose their prime spot for the show. Then the line up would be for naught. The television interviewer asked the group of young people ‘How many of you are wearing diapers?’ They were all young people, but all, sheepishly raised their hands. Everyone of the young people was wearing a diaper! This event was so important to them that they would stand in line for hours to get the best place to stand without an umbrella in the rain and wearing diapers because it was likely they would be unable to use toilets. If this is not early onset dementia what is?

Boring people like us stood in no lines and were asleep by 10:30. That was probably the earliest I went to sleep all year.

I am a very stupid and very happy guy!

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Family

Believe it or not, I am actually getting tired of telling people how stupid I am. But I can’t stop.

We woke up early and looked out our hotel window in Watertown South Dakota. We immediately knew we had a problem. It was white outside. Very white. Everywhere white. We listened to the television weather/travel station and went on line. The message was clear. This was not a good day for driving. There was a small snow belt across South Dakota and we were right in the middle of it. We could have driven out of it in about an hour or two, but it was wicked outside.  I-29, was extremely slippery, visibility was near zero, and it was bitterly cold. Travel was not recommended. We decided to heed that advice. The wind chill was about -50 degrees Fahrenheit.  We hunkered down for an exciting day in the Days Inn in Watertown. We had a large breakfast. Of course, any breakfast was better than what was being served in the ditches off I-29.  We had good books, a warm room, excellent liquor and we were not in the ditch. Life was good. So we thought.

Road conditions were  horrible. Even big rigs pulled in to our hotel lot.  It was extremely slippery (that we already knew) almost zero visibility and extremely cold.  So I smartly, decided to go and see if the doors to our care could be opened. As I feared they were iced shut. What to do?  The hotel had no de-icer.  I did not know who the truck drivers were in our hotel. Surely they would carry some. The clerk at the hotel suggested Walmart, not far away. That seemed like good advice. So I trudged over thanking my Peltz Metz (fur cap for the non-Germans) wishing Chris had not persuaded me to leave my parka at home. Bad Advice. It was expected to get cold tonight but it was already incredibly cold.

When I got to Wal-Mart I checked the auto department and found only windshield wiper fluid. I picked it up, thinking if all else failed this might work. Then I found a helpful employee and he found the lock de-icer. When I told him about the doors also being frozen shut with thick ice he suggested a spray on windshield de-icer. That would do the trick he thought. At least he had some optimism. He said I should have applied it last night to prevent icing. Now he tells me. Warily, I trudged back to the hotel facing the wind and froze again.

After a short stop in the hotel room I went back to the cold to see if my implements would work. I diligently applied the windshield spray de-icer to the car and it seemed to work. I could see the ice melting! Then I heard my wife shouting “Hans, Hans.” What now, I thought. Why should she bug me I was obviously busy? Well…she had good reason I must sadly report. She had a vision, what else can we call it, that for some reason I would be de-icing the wrong car and that is exactly what I was doing. I was busily de-icing the wrong car in the middle of a blizzard! Sheepishly I moved over to our car. Chris had saved the day. Very happily, the de-icer worked on my car too! After all that I got the car doors open and the car started. I also got the cord to plug in the car on account of extreme temperatures expected tonight.  I wonder how long I would have worked on the wrong car had Chris not seen me and came to my rescue? I don’t want to think about that. I wondered what the owner of the car I had de-iced thought. Did he think an angel had done it?

I returned to the hotel room stupid, incredibly stupid, but incredibly happy too.  So I spent 24 hours in Watertown South Dakota deliriously happy, but realizing again, how stupid I am.