Categories
Living in Society

Where We Live

Autumn Blaze maple tree.

When we moved to Big Grove Township, I took out a map and compass and drew a circle to indicate where we wanted to live after beginning work on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids. Having lived in the city previously, returning there was not a positive option. We looked at potential homes within the circle, including a couple in Williamsburg — a good distance from work. The housing market was tight in 1993, with homes sometimes selling the day they went on the market. We ended up buying the lot where we built our home, and for multiple reasons, it has been a good setting for our lives.

My commute to work was 18 miles or 25 minutes. Why would I live so far from work? I wanted to maintain a separation between work and my family and creative life. Back then, I embraced the automobile culture and that aided my decision. Early on, I learned the importance of a buffer between my two lives.

Until entering the military I had lived in a city or community that either was walkable or had reliable, inexpensive public transportation. In Army basic training and officer candidate school I lived in a barracks with everyone else. When I received my commission, I moved to officer quarters at Fort Benning. I could still walk to classes yet when I arrived in Germany, I would need a vehicle. I bought a yellow pickup truck in Georgia and had the military ship it to Europe.

When I arrived in Mainz in 1976, the kaserne where the troops were stationed was in another city called Mainz-Gonsenheim. Martin Luther King Village, where officers, non-commissioned officers, and their families were housed was too far away to walk to work. Some of my fellow officers who were married did not care to live in military housing at all and picked rentals in other nearby villages. They found separation from the military was good for their family life. It is a lesson that stuck with me.

I have been cognizant of the difference between city and country living for most of my adult life. In many ways, increasingly in the age of internet communications and mobile devices, city vs. country is a false distinction. That is particularly true in Iowa where country folk trade grain internationally and need to stay in touch with markets all over the globe. What is the difference between Wall Street and Martelle? Not as much as people would have us believe.

There is something to be said for the automobile culture that dominates rural areas. As a gardener, I need supplies from multiple vendors, including soil mix near Tipton, and fertilizer near Monticello. Driving to these vendors saves money in terms of a potential dealer mark up on the items. Similarly, if I need groceries, in a vehicle I can bypass the local grocer and drive to a store more suited to my needs. We rely upon having a vehicle in a small, rural subdivision.

Our neighborhood is walkable, if by that one means enjoying the solitude of nature. I’ve been talking a daily walk ever since I could no longer jog on the trail. Even at sunrise I encounter others I know who walk or jog on the trail, so there is a sense of society. Some of those folks have been neighbors since we arrived in Big Grove Township in 1993. Having a nearby state park is not really the meaning of having a walkable community.

In Germany I needed a vehicle to get to work. At the same time, I lived near the main railway station and all of downtown Mainz was within walking distance. When I had free time, I would walk by myself or with a friend all the way down to the thousand-year-old Mainz Cathedral or to the opera house. If I needed groceries yet didn’t want the the American fare at the post exchange, a German grocer was located near the train station. I did not have an intimate relationship with the city, yet I learned to wear proper walking shoes there.

My maternal grandmother lived in downtown Davenport where she could walk to get most things she needed, well into her 80s. She got basic groceries at the Walgreens near her apartment. She continued to work as she aged and there were several work sites near her apartment. Growing up on a farm in rural Minnesota, the family took the horse and wagon to town when they needed something. Otherwise they made do in place, without leaving the property. She brought that farm culture with her to living in a large city.

The draw a circle on a map method of picking a place to live worked out for us. Now that I retired, we live in a quiet, safe place where two or three trips a week to town is sufficient. If I didn’t have a Powerball gambling habit, there would be less trips. I retain the automobile culture, yet inexpensive delivery of almost every commodity needed for living is readily available. Once we cut loose from the vehicles, I found life is even more livable than it is with them. That is important when picking where to live.

Categories
Creative Life

Late October Photos

Abandoned bird nest.

It’s hard to believe it is November already. Following are some photos taken in the last two weeks.

Late harvest of Red Delicious apples.
Pelicans returned.
School bus.
Morning light on the state park trail.
Last gleaning of kale.
View of our Autumn Blaze maple tree.
The trail goes on forever.
Autumn Blaze maple tree at peak color.
Before sunrise on the state park trail.
Kroul Farms specialty pumpkins.
Autumn Blaze maple tree.
Categories
Kitchen Garden Writing

Getting a Pumpkin

The pumpkin I bought at Kroul Farms on Saturday.

It has been a couple of years since I froze pumpkin for smoothies so Saturday I went to Kroul Farms which specializes in growing pumpkins. They have orange pumpkins and specialty pumpkins: a lot of them.

Specialty pumpkins at Kroul Farms.
More specialty pumpkins and a little pie pumpkin.

I took mine home for seven dollars and on Sunday I processed it.

First, cut it in half and remove the seeds.

This pumpkin yielded a cup and a half of seeds for roasting.

Cup and a half of pumpkin seeds.

Both halves went into a 400 degree oven and baked about 90 minutes until tender. The timing varies depending upon size of pumpkin and quality of the oven.

Baked pumpkin.

I let them continue cooking on the counter. Next I skinned them and put the flesh of both halves into a large bowl. The use for this pumpkin is smoothies. Since it will go into a blender, I only did a rough mash using a potato masher. The flesh was too wet for smoothies, so I used my conical strainer to drain it. It extracted 4-5 cups of liquid which will go into soup.

Straining the pumpkin flesh.

I cleaned the baking pans and then used an ice cream scoop to make portions on a piece of parchment paper lining the pans. They went into the freezer. Once thoroughly frozen, they go into a Ziploc freezer bag for storage.

Frozen portions of cooked pumpkin.

And that’s how I spent part of my weekend.

Roasted pumpkin seeds.
Categories
Living in Society

Living with AI

Analog sunrise on the state park trail.

It seems clear we will have to live with artificial intelligence, like it or not. As Scottish data scientist and senior researcher at the University of Oxford Hannah Ritchie posted on Monday, “AI could really change things. It has the potential to not only improve the accuracy of (weather) forecasts but also to run them more quickly and efficiently. That then makes them better and cheaper.” Okay… I’m listening.

At the pre-2025 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, weather predicting got very good. I could look at the weather radar on my computer, identify where the storms were going and with what intensity, and then figure out how much time I had to mow before rain started. Because of great weather forecasting, I was almost never wrong. How much better can it get? With the administration’s cuts to NOAA, the machines may be necessary to continue progress, and according to Ritchie, it looks like they have the potential.

For me, the AI game changer has been organizing basic life tasks. On Oct. 10, I wrote:

I’m four days in using AI to help plan a more productive day. With its “Balanced Day Plan,” I immediately eliminated a background concern that there is too much to do and not enough time in which to do it. I am fond of the saying an air traffic controller can only land one airplane at a time. So it is with tasks I have before me. AI finds a way to get it all into a day. If it can’t, it tells me. This serves as a stress reliever, helping me focus on the task at hand, and I do a better job with it. For example, I need to drink more water to stay hydrated. …This pursuit is just getting started and my best hope for AI lies herein.

From there, my life has taken wing. It is curious what a tonic eliminating worries can be. While AI has been great at getting my organizational juices flowing, I have already come to a high water mark with the machine, and from here I can proceed on my own.

I took the “Balanced Daily Plan” and translated it into language that fits in my world. I updated my existing, pre-AI Daily Plan to include the most salient points identified by AI. I was concerned about adequate hydration, so I highlighted in blue some words where my new hydration schedule would occur. I generalized the pomodoro work block process, with three blocks in the morning and two in the afternoon. I was careful to create plenty of space to do necessary tasks and recover once they were done. I decided to move to the kitchen about 3 p.m. and work there until dinnertime. AI helped me to recognize how a day could be structured, something I was not doing with any effectiveness on my own. Now that I re-wrote my regular schedule, I am free to go on my own, and will.

During the pandemic, stuff had a way of accumulating without being adequately addressed. This includes all of the areas in which I work at home. Think of the basics: food, shelter, and clothing. Each of them was a disorganized space where I had no idea what was possible. I got bogged down by stuff accumulated in each area. To get started, I queried AI about the vast quantity of t-shirts scattered throughout the house. The machine result helped organize the collection enough to know what I could be wearing for different purposes, and store the ones not in immediate use in labeled boxes. That had been hanging over me, yet by using AI to do the project I relieved stress and worry about it.

From here it became easier. I cleaned out the refrigerator and found a vast quantity of pickled items. Unaware, I overestimated how many pickles I could eat in a year. The pickled vegetable situation got away from me. I did not use AI for this sorting. The t-shirt project had primed the pump for any type of organizational project. Now I look for those projects to fill some of the space outside pomodoro blocks. This will apply to my workshop, writing space, the kitchen, garden, and all of the defined spaces in our home. This is what I mean when I say my life has taken wing.

AI is not going away. I expect to use it as a tool when I find a project puzzling, poorly designed, or inadequately resourced. No one knows the future of AI despite all the public rhetoric. It is far from easy to use and keeps crashing on what I believe are easy tasks. For the time being, it is one more tool in my workshop to help make life better. That and a few pickles to snack on and I can make it a day.

Categories
Sustainability

Will the U.S.-Russia Extend New START?

B-61 Nuclear Bombs

Oct. 28 marked 100 days until the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between Russia and the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin said publicly he would like to extend it. President Trump said it sounded like a good idea. We have gone nowhere since. Here is a source for this paragraph from an Oct. 6, Associated Press story. It fills in some details.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Monday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits under the 2010 New START arms reduction treaty for one more year, and he urged Washington to follow suit. When asked about the proposal, Trump said Sunday it “sounds like a good idea to me.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Trump’s statement, noting that “it gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.”

While offering to extend the New START agreement, Putin said its expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. He also argued that maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.”

The Russian leader reaffirmed the offer Thursday, noting that Russia and the U.S. could use the one-year extension to work on a possible successor pact.

New START is the last major remaining bilateral, U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control agreement.

The president should support a U.S.-Russian agreement to respect New START limits after the treaty expires, then use the time to negotiate a new framework to slash the massive Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals. Likewise, the parties should call on other nuclear-armed states, including China, to immediately freeze the number of their long-range nuclear launchers. It used to be the case the U.S. would lead.

Will Trump act, put America first, and do what is best for the United States? Who knows? In the meanwhile, tick tock on the last remaining arms control treaty.

Categories
Living in Society

Dr. James Zogby Joins Veterans For Peace on Armistice Day

Dr. James Zogby.

IOWA CITY — On Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, beginning at 11 a.m. CST, the local chapter of Veterans For Peace will hold three public events in Iowa City to re-dedicate ourselves to the work of peace. Members of the public are invited.

Beginning at 10:45 a.m., we will assemble at the Iowa City Ped Mall. Bells will ring at the 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month, as is tradition. Dr. James Zogby will present brief remarks.

In 1985, Zogby co-founded the Arab American Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. He continues to serve as its president. Zogby is also Director of Zogby Research Services, a firm that has conducted groundbreaking surveys across the Middle East.

Immediately following the outdoor observance, Veterans For Peace will host a free luncheon at the Iowa City Public Library. Dr. Zogby will address the group in a longer format. His topic is “The war that didn’t end all wars and instead launched a century of conflict.”

At 6:30 p.m., Veterans For Peace will sponsor a screening of the new film Earth’s Greatest Enemy at Iowa City FilmScene, 404 East College Street, Iowa City. This is a documentary exposé of the world’s biggest—and most unaccountable—polluter: the US military. Learn the environmental cost of having a military empire. The film was written and directed by Abby Martin and Mike Prysner. Prysner will attend and introduce the film. Afterward he will host a question-and-answer period. Tickets are pay-what-you-can.

This is the sole Armistice Day observance in the State of Iowa.

More about Dr. James Zogby from the Arab American Institute website:

James Zogby co-founded the Arab American Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community, in 1985 and continues to serve as its president. He is Director of Zogby Research Services, a firm that has conducted groundbreaking surveys across the Middle East.

In September 2013, President Obama appointed Dr. Zogby to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He was reappointed to a second term in 2015 and concluded his service in May 2017. He was twice elected Vice Chair.

Zogby is featured frequently on national and international media as an expert on Middle East affairs. Since 1992, he has written a weekly column that is published in 12 countries. In 2010, Zogby published the highly-acclaimed book, Arab Voices. His 2013 e-books, “Looking at Iran: The Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab Public Opinion” and “20 Years After Oslo,” are drawn from his extensive polling across the Middle East with Zogby Research Services. His most recent book is, “The Tumultuous Decade: Arab, Turkish, and Iranian Public Opinion – 2019-2019” analyzes the fascinating transformations taking place across the Middle East region following the US withdrawal from Iraq and the Arab Spring.

Dr. Zogby has also been personally active in U.S. politics for many years; in 1984 and 1988 he served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. In 1988, he led the first ever debate on Palestinian statehood at that year’s Democratic convention in Atlanta, GA. In 2000, 2008, and 2016 he served as an advisor to the Gore, Obama, and Sanders presidential campaigns.

For the past 3 decades, he has served in leadership roles in the Democratic National Committee. He currently serves as Chair of the DNC Ethnic Council, an umbrella organization of Democratic Party leaders of European and Mediterranean descent. He served on the DNC’s Executive Committee from 2000 to 2017 and for more than a decade served as Co-Chair of the party’s Resolutions Committee.

In 1975, Dr. Zogby received his doctorate from Temple University’s Department of Religion, where he studied under the Islamic scholar, Dr. Ismail al-Faruqi. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University in 1976 and is the recipient of a number of honorary doctorate degrees.

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Reviews

Book Review: Dear Marty, We Crapped in Our Nest

Art Cullen is the kind of writer I have to watch what I write about him in public. Chances are, unless the Good Lord takes him from us, I’ll run into him in some unforeseen context to experience consequences for writing anything too negative. Not that I would, Dear Marty, We Crapped in Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World is a well written narrative with a compelling story. Readers should buy a copy and read it.

I recognize many of the players, like Henry Wallace, Norman Borlaug, Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, Frank Zybach, Aldo Leopold, Ricardo Salvador, and others. These men orbit the sun in an array of stories with which I was already familiar. Thanks to Cullen they were pulled together in a way that has me nodding in agreement. Even the politicians he mentions, Terry Branstad and Tom Vilsack particularly, make their planetary circle around the main theme of Iowa’s extractive agriculture. It’s not a particularly happy story, yet the confirmation bias I experienced created a positive afterglow that lasted the rest of the weekend as I finished the book.

What Dear Marty accomplished is an Iowa narrative, one of many out there, some of which are unknown. We need such narratives. They teach us how to live based on lessons learned or not learned from a tangible past and present. We need that as we live in a time when the U.S. Department of Agriculture set aside billions of dollars to pay for SNAP benefits in the event of a government shutdown. The government shut down, and Republicans refuse to use the money as intended. They instead politicized food insecure people to show they are in control. What are we, as a society, even doing here? I look forward to Cullen’s next column about things like this.

Cullen displays his skills as a newspaper writer in the book. That he could pull together this Iowa story can be attributed to research done to write weekly articles for his newspaper. He shared many of those articles in social media and I read them. This makes the story in the book familiar. It gave him a leg up on anyone else trying to write such an Iowa narrative.

The author makes a lot of sense in the chapter “Finding Center.” There are plenty of things we have in common with people in our neighborhoods, he said. We should just begin pursuing those common interests. This is such common sense, people are missing it. That or they are too busy working more hours, both paid and unpaid, and can’t take their noses up from the grindstone to catch a breath, much less engage in new things. I appreciate common sense. It’s value has diminished in the broader society.

This book reminded me of the late Donald Kaul’s How to Light a Water Heater and other War Stories. In it Kaul reprinted a bunch of his columns in a way that makes it look like they are in a newspaper. The difference between Washington D.C., where Kaul lived, and Spirit Lake is that Cullen actually used his columns to make something new and worth reading. Donald Kaul was no Art Cullen. Many of us are thankful the latter lives in Iowa.

Categories
Living in Society

Eating Alone – Mexican Fare

Home Made Tacos

When my spouse is away, I haul a small boombox upstairs and crank the volume up. I find myself digging out old compact disks and audio cassette tapes, listening to Iowa Public Radio more, and tuning into the local classical music station. Classical music is more interesting on the radio than in other media because of the announcer. While I wouldn’t call it “going wild,” it’s as wild as I get regarding music these days.

How I prepare Mexican food is different when she is away. When cooking for two I avoid use of ingredients that contain capsaicin, a.k.a. 8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide. According to Wikipedia:

Capsaicin is an active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is a potent irritant for mammals, including humans, for which it produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact. Capsaicin and several related amides (capsaicinoids) are produced as secondary metabolites by chili peppers, likely as deterrents against eating by mammals and against the growth of fungi. Pure capsaicin is a hydrophobic, colorless, highly pungent (i.e., spicy) crystalline solid.

It’s hot. Lots of people don’t care for it or are allergic to it, including family members.

When we are together I get my spice by adding hot sauce as a condiment. When I cook and dine alone, I’m free to add it while cooking. Mexican fare is flexible in preparation so the lack of heat while cooking has not been an issue. My process for using chili peppers continues to change. I wrote about the basics in 2019:

The recipe for hot sauce evolved over time from one Juan San Miguel explained in 1977 when we both garrisoned in Mainz, Germany. Those were days before a four-foot section of assorted hot sauces became standard in supermarkets.

I lost contact with him yet the recipe persists. It is a rare day when there is no hot sauce in the ice box.

We carried the condiment in plastic milk jugs and put it on our army rations while on maneuvers in the Fulda Gap. It made our eyes water and changed regular food into edible fire. We laughed a lot in that peace-time army… and ate sandwiches of bread and hot sauce. I continue to make it mostly the way Juan taught me. (Meditation on Hot Sauce, Oct. 20, 2019, Paul Deaton).

This week included making hot pepper paste, dehydrating Cayenne peppers for red chili flakes, blending jars of powdered hot peppers from the pantry to use in shakers, and using a fresh jalapeno when making enchiladas. I found less is more: reducing the number of preparations to just a few that will be used. October is the month to do this as hot peppers are the most abundant late harvesting vegetable. Getting all this kitchen work done while she is gone is a plus. Even I had to wear a KN-95 face mask while mixing the powdered hot peppers. I should be wearing a pair of surgical gloves yet don’t and my hands sting for several hours after preparing fresh chilies. I know I’m alive.

A typical difference when I am eating alone is taco filling. The main recipe I use is a blend of black beans, kale, onions, garlic, bell peppers, tomato sauce and Mexican oregano. When cooking alone, instead of tomato sauce, I make a sauce of dried guajillo chilies. These chilies are not that hot but when allergic to capsaicin, any amount is too much.

Enchiladas are in the refrigerator waiting to bake for dinner. Tuesday is for tacos when I’ll use fresh chilies. I am not a heat nut, yet have a more developed use of chilies grown in the garden than most Iowans. The use of chilies characterizes my kitchen-garden.

Categories
Home Life

End of the Season

Lake Macbride on Oct. 24, 2025.

We have been expecting the first hard frost. I was awake when it hit in the wee hours of Friday morning. The average date is Oct. 13, so we are 11 days behind. Nothing to say about that other than that is where the day began.

It was chilly indoors so I turned on the furnace when I couldn’t stop shivering. I set the thermostat at 65 degrees and that took care of the shivers. When I went for my morning walk I donned my winter coat and needed it. I saw the sunrise light show from the dining room windows, yet had things to do and didn’t get out until daylight. The way light falls on the trail is always a show in its own right.

I felt like crap when I woke. It is likely the COVID vaccination on Thursday. By evening I felt myself again. The main accomplishment this week was going through clothing to see what I want to keep and what goes to the thrift store. I reduced the number of blue blazers to the one that fit best. I kept only one pair of slacks to go with it. The others will go into the back seat of the car with other clothing donations until I drive by the drop off point.

On the to-do list was fix the short garden hose attached to the spigot in back. For whatever reason the hose washers came up missing and I got quite a spray yesterday. I found two new ones in the first drawer I opened. Hose washers are not something for which to make a special trip to the hardware store. The main hose is stored in the garage until spring.

I aired the front left tire on the John Deere, stored the grass catcher for winter, and fueled. I mowed one last time for the season. It went quickly and looked okay when finished. That tire needs replacing so I backed the tractor into the garage so I can get at it, jack the front end up, and remove the tire and rim. The thrift store is not far from the tire shop, so I’ll put the old one in the back seat so it can be dropped off on the same trip.

Before sunrise I made a dish of enchiladas. I’m not sure when I will bake them, yet likely over the weekend. The refrigerator and pantry are full of food so there are plenty of meal options. Thank goodness my Social Security pays for most basic stuff of living.

Now that the garden is finished attention turns to the two dead ash trees. My chainsaw is kaput so I need to get to the hardware store and see about a new one. I noticed the Ace Hardware in Mount Vernon is a Stihl dealer. I’ll likely start there and see where it takes me. I hate the expense for a tool to use two or three times a year. However it is more expensive to pay a tree service to remove dead trees.

It has been quiet in the neighborhood. As if the whole world is preparing for winter and can’t be bothered. Days like this I notice my mobile device usage is pretty low. There is plenty of work to do as the season turns in the real world.

Categories
Living in Society

Eating Alone – Convenience Store Food

Photo by Robert Nagy on Pexels.com

While returning from my sister-in-law’s home I stopped at the Casey’s convenience store in Colfax. Visits to Casey’s are my nod to Iowa corporatism. They sell stuff that is convenient. My usual purchases are lottery tickets, gasoline, coffee, salted snacks, and something from their warming/display ovens. Back in the day I used to buy a slice of their famous pizza to serve as a meal, yet I gave that up. Once in a while I buy a bottle of Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink as a throwback to when I lived in South Georgia. Tuesday I needed a lottery ticket, gasoline, and something to substitute for a missed dinner. I bought a fancy version of Tater Tots from the oven. It served.

I spend most of the time in the car alone. I do the majority of in-the-store shopping although trips to get groceries are outnumbered by trips to Casey’s to gamble. I spend about $24 per month on Powerball tickets. I usually don’t buy anything else when I want a lottery ticket. Iowa gambling is another concession to corporatism, this one run by the state through The Iowa Lottery Authority.

I ritualized my ticket purchases, taking into consideration what ticket I buy — always only one “Powerball, no extras,” the people who sell me the ticket, and the path I drive to run errands beginning with a stop at Casey’s. I don’t need to gamble. I enjoy the ritual. It’s kind of like going to church would be, only no one is telling me how to live my life. One day I asked about the prominent checkout display of small alcoholic drinks for a fixed price. They said most of their sales come in the morning when people are on their way to work.

I eat convenience store food alone. Sometimes parked in the Casey’s lot, and sometimes while driving. Rarely do I eat it outside the car. I enjoy it while it lasts. I understand most of what I buy is not good nutrition. “Everything in moderation, including moderation,” Oscar Wilde reportedly said. My main weakness for convenience store food is when I’m making a long trip.

As my recent use of the calorie counter app My Fitness Pal revealed, everything we put in our mouths adds calories. By being cognizant of caloric content, I have been successful in meeting the first half of my weight loss goal. The main change inside the convenience store is walking out immediately after buying a lottery ticket without a food purchase. I won’t be buying that Tater Tot item again now that my curiosity is sated.

I still drink one or two servings of Coca-Cola per year. I’ll likely get that at a convenience store.