Close Call With Kitchen Floor Gives Me Pause

 Early in the Morning od Jun e 11th, on which my late mother would be turning 86, while chasing down a roach before heading to the back of the house,, I lost my balance and collided, nose-first, with the hard kitchen floor. At first I was convinced that a tooth had been broken, but the effect was to violenty twist the cartilage of my nose, bringing on some scary, acute nosebleed before the needed clotting set in. Melissa quickly drove my sorry ass down to the UFHealh Emergency room on  NW 39th Avenue.    After my session there, I returned home and slept off the rest o the morning, grateful to God for His divine protection during that time of my personal foolishness that I hope I learned something important from.  The rest of the day saw me being much more careful with my movements while honoring my wonderful mother's memory..Now onward to June 12th..    

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Some People Change When They Get Behind the Wheel

I never was a particularly adept middle-to-long distance runner, although in the end that seems to be the sport I took to for much of my life, especially for the last ten years.  When I was growing up, I was in fact a pretty ferocious sprinter in high school and did very well in the 50-yard dash...until around the 11th grade when fellow classmates grew up past me.  But one crucial difference that made running the longer distances more attractive to my higher instincts was that it forced me to go out into the world to train...when my natural inclinations were bent toward staying home, safely indoors. And consequently, I got to observe the flow of that world around me, including how people tended to compartmentalize themselves in their motor vehicles...anonymous to the world while I was out there in the open, along with the other runners, pedestrians, and bicyclists.  I noticed that when folks were safely ensconced in their cars, they would sometimes shed the common respect and courtesies they would normally be careful to display were they personally identifiable.  So cars would honk at me for exercising my right-of-way, curses yelled safely from behind windows as they sped by...once someone threw their soft drink at me just to be an [expletive deleted]. And I've experienced eggs, glass beer bottles, and even a firecracker thrown at me while riding my bicycle on different occasions.  This dichotomy between the insulated and unaccountable masses and the vulnerable few (like me) came to influence my view of the world and human nature...

For most of us, we slip in and out of situations where we are traveling in motor vehicles and walking, running, or bicycling.  Yet a few don't have that option: for various reasons, someone may be forced to walk or bike to wherever they need to go...many others have to take public transit and spend much of their time walking to and from bus stops.  But in a city like Gainesville, the traffic is weighed very heavily in favor of road travel, and pedestrians are often overlooked as drivers allow themselves to get distracted by their various gadgets that they like to play with when they should be paying attention to where they are going.  The other day, Tommy, a middle-aged man whom people in this area had come to know well and who due to his life circumstances had to resort to walking to get where he wanted to go, was crossing NW 39th Avenue from his home, just across from where I am sitting here in this Starbucks.  A car was switching lanes and took no notice of the pedestrian stepping out onto the pavement and struck him, killing him.  Now there is one of those sad flowery memorial displays at the site to remind us...or at least try to remind us...to please look out for people and not just take the narrow view of the vehicles around us when we drive.  But I look back at the conclusions I drew from running roadside way back then in the 1970s and I know it's all probably an exercise in futility: some people just go through an ugly metamorphosis whenever they get behind the wheel.  I don't know the exact details of what the driver who hit Tommy was thinking or doing...or even whether Tommy may have stepped out too soon...but I have had too many personal experiences over the years with drivers who imperiled my life with their distracted or aggressive driving and others who harassed me while I was out there walking, running, or bicycling.  Yet if I encountered any of the same people in a store or restaurant...in person...I'm confident that they would all be on their best behavior...

Just Finished Rereading The Dead Zone by Stephen King

I first read Stephen King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone several years ago and, when a co-worker mentioned it as one of his favorites, I realized that I had forgotten a lot of what happened in it...only that I had also liked it.  So, as I have recently done with other King novels like 11/22/63, Salem's Lot, Insomnia, and Needful Things, I reread it...it really was pretty doggone good...

Johnny Smith is a young man...residing in Stephen King's home state of Maine, naturally...who had a childhood accident that occasionally gives him precognitive powers.  Employed as a high school teacher, he takes his date, Sarah...also a teacher at the same school...to the carnival where he freaks everyone out by repeatedly hitting the right numbers at a gambling stand. The circumstances during that night culminate in Johnny being critically injured while riding a taxi home...and he doesn't come out of his coma until five years later.  Meanwhile, Sarah has married and had a child...and history has marched on as well...

The Dead Zone follows another character, the antagonist Greg Stillson, as he "progresses" from a dog-killing Bible salesman to a heavy-handed small town mayor in New Hampshire.  Stillson has big plans for himself and decides to run for U.S. Representative in his district.  While this is going on, Johnny comes out of his coma...with much stronger abilities...to see into others' lives, even their futures...simply by touching them.  When he encounters Greg Stillson at a campaign rally, he sees a terribly ominous future for the country and the world...

As was the case in Firestarter...written by Stephen King at about the same general time...the protagonist cannot hide his paranormal abilities from others and as a result suffers persecution.  But Johnny cannot help wanting to warn others of impending doom...some heed his words, some don't, but almost all come away with the feeling that he is one very scary guy, to be avoided.  What I liked the most about this story was how the author developed the characters and put people like Sarah, Johnny's father, and his neurologist Sam Weizak into his life who genuinely cared and supported him...it wasn't just Johnny vs. the world...

I never saw the movie version of The Dead Zone, which came out in 1983 and starred Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith and Martin Sheen as Greg Stillson.  I do know that the ending was changed around a bit, though...but that doesn't surprise me.  I also read that the television version of this story is markedly different from the book.  Although a couple of people I know who saw the movie said they liked it, I'd still recommend that you read the book first.  Oh, by the way...that term "dead zone" referred to a part of Johnny's brain that had been damaged during his accidents and which caused certain lapses in his memory...

Theme Parks...and Me

A tragic event happened at the Cedar Point theme park near Sandusky, Ohio (on Lake Erie) yesterday: a man was struck and killed at the site of one of their roller coasters after his cellphone spilled out while riding it and he scaled a fence afterward and went into the underlying restricted area to find and retrieve it.   A lot of people lose stuff on theme park rides, usually coming out of their pockets.  I have always been careful when attending them to wear a fanny pack and stuff anything I didn't want to lose in it.  But going into an area where the coaster is going to be diving at high speed? Not very wise...

I used to be very averse to riding theme park rides of any kind...well, I WAS brave enough to ride Dumbo, It's a Small World, and If You Had Wings at Disney World back in 1973...and the Congo River Rapids at Busch Gardens in '86.  But I avoided the more serious ones until my own children were of age to ride them (which they boldly began to do)...and so I decided to "face the fear", as my son Will then liked to put it.  We started, in late 2002, going to Wild Adventures just southwest of Valdosta, Georgia, and in the next few years also visited Busch Gardens, Universal Studios of Orlando (both parks contained within), Walt Disney World (Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios, and Blizzard Beach...we never got around to Animal Kingdom), Dollywood (in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee), and Wild Waters (a water park feeding from Silver Springs).   Will, Rebecca, and I would go on the more challenging rides while Melissa would gamely ride on those a little more subdued (like Ant Farm at Wild Adventures, ET Adventure at Universal, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney).  I got over my fears of inversion, extreme heights, and sudden changes in gravity during this time...and built up a list of personal favorite rides (maybe I'll write about them in some future post).  When I went down to visit my father in Hollywood, I stopped on a couple of occasions in Dania and rode South Florida's then only roller coaster: the wooden Dania Beach Hurricane off Stirling Road next to I-95 (it's since been dismantled and moved to another part of the country).  From 2002 through 2006, my family together regularly attended theme parks and I went on most of the rides...some many times (e.g. I've ridden Busch Garden's Montu 26 times and Kumba 22).  But since that time, the kids have grown up and Melissa isn't really a "thrill rides" kind of person...understandable: before 2002 I was downright phobic about them.  So I haven't been to any theme parks in the past few years.  Still, Melissa and I could still go to places like Universal and Disney that have lots to offer visitors besides the rides...

There are also a couple of factors that have diminished the quality of our theme park experiences.  One is the travel to and from the park site, usually on the Interstate and for around two hours on the average in each direction.  That can get to be tedious whether you're a driver or a passenger.  The other is the problem these parks have with long lines for their rides.  For a two-to-three minute roller coaster experience, it simply is not worth the aggravation to have to wait upwards to an hour or more to have the opportunity.  Once we stayed at one of Universal Studio's hotels for our vacation (July 2003) and as a side benefit each of us received an express pass for the many rides.  Now THAT was great, almost running through the express lines and getting to ride our favorites many times!  But that experience was also a bit more expensive, too...

I'd like to attend some of the better theme parks again with a more balanced approach: don't just concentrate on the rides, but take in all of what they have to offer.  Still, there are some rides I'm sure I couldn't resist going on again...unless of course that entails having to wait 1-2 hours in line beforehand...

Car Accident and Annual Medical Checkup

It's been a few days since I wrote an article on this blog, but I've been a little preoccupied.  On Monday afternoon, I was driving to work and, while I was stopped at a traffic light, another (larger) car plowed into the back of my car, crumpling up the back of it like an aluminum can.  Fortunately, I had my foot solidly on the brake pedal and my car remained stationary throughout...so I avoided hitting the car in front of me.  And, oh yeah, I also had on my seat belt, a real life saver.  People around me seemed surprised that I was walking around afterwards without a scratch.  Two days later, I'm still not feeling as if I sustained any kind of injury.  I suspect that the driver (also apparently uninjured) who hit me was distracted, because the impact was pretty severe...not like someone who was slowing down for the light but whose brakes couldn't completely stop their car...

Yesterday I spent the whole day at Shands Hospital getting my annual checkup for a chronic condition that was discovered in early 2012 and which, as it turns out,  I had from birth.  The condition hasn't worsened in the three years since that diagnosis, and as such I've been "cleared" again for another year.  I was a little surprised (and dismayed), though, to discover that my weight had creeped up to an unacceptable level.  This in spite of all the running I've been doing.  But then again, of late I have been eating too much, and especially too much of the wrong foods.  It looks as if a "dietary reset" is due for me...

My Take on Downed Malaysian Jet in Eastern Ukraine

The understatement of the year may be that there is a lot of bad feeling going around concerning the recently shot-down Malaysia Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, causing the deaths of nearly 300 passengers and crew, among them many Dutch.  I'm convinced that Russian separatist rebels, armed with anti-aircraft missiles from Putin's Russia, shot it down mistaking it for Ukrainian fighters that were actively engaging them in warfare.  It is a terrible tragedy, but in the context of war, it is also an accident.  Clearly no one was trying to shoot down a passenger jet.  The U.S. and most every other nation under wartime conditions have committed their own share of accidents with innocent deaths resulting from them.  The corridor of the flight, which apparently was heavily used (but no more, obviously), took it directly over the combat zone.  Many critics in the West are pointing an accusatory finger at President Putin for arming the rebels with missiles sophisticated enough to target and hit such high flying planes, and I think he is definitely operating in a warmongering, land-grabbing mode.  But I believe that you can't go about business like usual in your own little peaceful bubble and intrude into war zones without expecting some potentially catastrophic results to arise.  The main problem I'm having with Putin and the Russian rebels is the cover-up and denial they seem to be engaged in following the fact, which they should have admitted as an obvious mistake and assumed responsibility and apologized for while cooperating with the crash investigators and recovery team.

The Russians living in eastern Ukraine, before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 into its constituent republics, had always considered themselves as being part of Russia even though Krushchev in the 1950s had redrawn their area into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.  But back then it was all one big country, and they didn't have to submit as a minority within another country to that country's majority political direction.  The same goes for the Crimean region that Russia just annexed through force a few weeks ago.  Seeing for years within Ukraine that there was a deep division between the regions populated chiefly by ethnic Russians and the majority Ukrainian areas that caused serious crises in previous elections, the leaders in Ukraine should have been wise enough to allow referendums in the affected areas for the people to democratically determine their destiny, be it remaining with Ukraine, becoming independent, or rejoining Russia.  This way that Putin has of crisis-by-armed-crisis confrontational behavior destroys any trust or good will toward Russia that had been built up after the fall of the USSR and is only going to serve to militarize the rest of Europe in fear that he will seek further territorial gains elsewhere...

Accident In Bad Weather Sighted on I-75 NB Near #374

This afternoon, around 2:30 pm, I was driving my wife and daughter down I-75 back to Gainesville, in the northbound lane just north in the Micanopy exit (around mile marker 374).  We suddenly came up a dazzling, severe outbreak of rain that lasted only a few seconds and then was gone.  I don't remember ever having driven through anything like that before...it was as if we had driven beneath a waterfall.  For the brief time that we were under this rush of falling water, it was nearly impossible to see the road in front of us.  After we came out from under it, my wife told me that she just saw a car wrapped around a tree off the road and that there seemed to be an accident back there involving a semi truck.  Wow.

After getting back home, I checked the computer and got this story.  It mentioned nothing, though, about the bizarre weather that may well have contributed to this accident (although the "precipitating" event seems to have been a tire blowout).  I'll see what I can do to follow up on it.  I'm just glad that we were able to miss whatever had happened to the involved vehicles, and wish the passengers on them to be unharmed and safe. Also, I'm glad that I managed to just get through the area before it became hopelessly backed up, especially when two trucks collided further back...