The Middlewesterner

This paragraph from Tom Montag really hit me between the eyes. I have been having the same thoughts pretty regular these days as I look in the mirror of a morning. It's not that I look that much like dad...But their is enough of a resemblance to cause me to remember bits and pieces.

A fellow starts out to become his own man. He wants so much to be his own man, to make his own way in the world, to become his own unique self. The longer I watched my father in the hospital bed, the more that we talked, the more I recognized I was seeing myself there, my own future self. My father has shaped me indelibly. I am not complaining, I've been marked by a good man. It's just surprising to see how little of me there is in the world, and how much I take from my father, from my family, from the land, the world I come from. Nature or nurture? Ultimately it doesn't matter exactly how it gets stirred; we seldom end up very far from where we began.

Unlike Tom, we said goodbye to my dad going on 11 years ago. I guess I too was marked by a good man. Thanks Tom, for the words I couldn't have said but can feel way to well.

Source: The Middlewesterner

News Story?

You sometimes have to wonder at the way the world turns...Where will George and Dick be retiring?

Halliburton Co. surprised the energy world, members of Congress and the city of Houston on Sunday by announcing it will open a new corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates and relocate its chief executive officer there.

Source: Halliburton says Dubai move won't cut Houston jobs | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Monday Morning Thunder

Weather Report: Loud

As I was in the shower this morning I started to hear the distant rumble. By the time my morning routine had carried me to the kitchen for the first cup, the thunder-boomers were almost constant. The light show outside the kitchen window is quite impressive.
Welcome to Spring Break all you little darlings...Judging by the weather forecast I looked at last night, most of this week will be stormy...Comfortably mild, but wet.

Oh well, let's see what the email gremlins brought in the night before this little summer storm out of season decides to kill the power...

Health Note - Why is America Fat

As someone who has battled weight problems ever since I was hospitalized with paricarditis in 1997. This article from the Washington Post this morning touches on something that has been peculating through my thoughts for a while, environmental causes of obesity. I have been following the arguments about the fattening of America for the last decade with a personal interest. My weight problems started with high dose steroids and have progressed over the last ten years. living on salads and walking for a couple of hours an evening did nothing to stem the rise in pounds. Following the American Heart Associations diet of low fat high carb menus was the absolute wrong thing to do. Adkins worked for a while but never to the point I was trying to reach, and it really didn't "seem" healthy to me. Moderation seem to manage to keep the weight from going higher but doesn't seem to stop the rise.

To find out that the chemicals "we" are putting into everything we use are changing the hormonal balances within the body and changing the very nature of our fat cells themselves is troubling to say the least. I was beginning to suspect the growth hormones given to our beef cattle. They probably are a contributing factor. But add the chemicals in your water bottle and your food storage dish...

Too many calories and too little exercise are undeniably the major factors contributing to the obesity epidemic, but several recent animal studies suggest that environmental exposure to widely used chemicals may also help make people fat.

The evidence is preliminary, but a number of researchers are pursuing indications that the chemicals, which have been shown to cause abnormal changes in animals' sexual development, can also trigger fat-cell activity -- a process scientists call adipogenesis.

Go read the rest of the article. Maybe we can stop this before we kill ourselves...

Source: Chemicals May Play Role in Rise in Obesity - washingtonpost.com

Well it's late and raining and I've got a ways to go to get to work...