The contrast between our major presidential candidates could not be more stark. On one hand a candidate promises to be a dictator on day one of his administration and praises Hitler’s generals, wishing his would be like them. On the other hand, Kamala Harris represents everything good about our imperfect American Democracy.
I continue to do two or three things daily to contribute to Democratic wins on Nov. 5. At the same time, I realize I’m not only working for a particular result from the election, but setting the stage for the future. The relationships built during the next two weeks will strengthen as the winners become known. The election doesn’t end with vote counting, the inauguration, or much else related to process.
Going forward we must build a better America, one that includes everyone, one built on personal relationships. This will be challenging, yet more so if the Republican is elected. It must be done for the benefit of all.
Neither will the work end on election day. What seems clear is we have 13 days until tomorrow. We must ask ourselves what kind of tomorrow we want and work to get there. May the year 2024 be a turning point in American society. One that brings hope for a better life for our country and its people.
Working together, we can make that possibility a reality.
Secretary of State’s office in Cook County, Illinois.
During the period 1987 until 1993, I spent a lot of time in Chicago. We lived in Lake County, Indiana just across the Illinois-Indiana line, yet for a while I worked in the loop for Amoco Oil Company. My work took me often to truck driving schools in Chicago and throughout the upper Midwest, where regular people attempted to work through changes in society originating in the Ronald Reagan administration.
I recently stayed overnight in a working class neighborhood in Cook County. The mostly younger folk who live there can’t afford to buy a home and apartment rent is very high. It takes multiple working people to make ends meet in a single apartment. It is difficult to see how today’s working class can get ahead.
I arrived in late afternoon and everyone in the household gathered in the kitchen as dinner was prepared. While attempting to help, our child told me twice, “I got this.” I stepped back and enjoyed the conversation and studied the meal preparation process. It seemed a very Middle Class experience, which I appreciated.
The purpose of the trip was to spend time with our child before the election. We didn’t talk politics much, yet I recommended a vote for Jan Schakowski in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District where they live. Schakowski seems like a solid Democrat and a reliable House vote where there is a narrow division between Republicans and Democrats. The rest of the political discussion had to do with the Israel Hamas War and the apparent lack of a spine among most members of government who work in Washington, D.C. Short version: We know where Republicans want to go. What will Democrats do to represent liberal values? Like many, I can’t wait for the election to be over.
Errands included a trip to the Secretary of State’s office in Deerfield. Taking care of business is easy there, from security standing outside the entrance screening arrivals, to an efficient way of processing customers. Richard J. Daley, the last of the big city bosses would have smiled at the efficiency. Of course, changing a voter registration was easy because, “this is Chicago.”
We made a trip to Costco where I paid for a cart mostly full of “protein items.” That means beef, pork, chicken, hummus, and sausages of indeterminate origin and recipe. I added one of the rotisserie chickens for which the chain store is well known. The purpose was to provide options other than simple carbohydrates for meal preparation. When money is tight, folks lean into pasta, rice and bread for meal calories. The shopping trip was designed to create options. One of the first tasks upon returning to the apartment was dividing everything between the refrigerator and freezer to spread out use of the items.
It was a bit weird for a vegetarian to buy so much meat. Our child was raised vegetarian yet became an omnivore upon exposure to the broader world beginning in college. I feel comfortable with the purchase for two reasons: I worked in a meat packing plant and am familiar with where meat comes from. In visiting our child in other apartments, I found meat items in the freezer and was able to prepare a meal for us with them (I know how to cook). I do a lot of meal preparation in our home, where one of us if vegan. Labels like vegetarian, omnivore, and vegan have lost meaning in my life. I should really say, “I am mostly vegetarian” yet that doesn’t really capture it.
From years of driving into and through Chicago, I am comfortable while driving. I continue to use WBBM AM Radio for traffic reports “on the eights,” and Google maps for directions. A driver must be attentive when working the Chicago interstate highways, yet they seem well-organized and efficient. Years of experience, combined with modern communications, makes it easy to find my way. There is value in that.
Public water system well water treatment building.
The annual meeting of my home owners association last summer was good. Thanks to all of our board members for their volunteer work. It was a pleasant evening in Randall Park. As is usual, very few members showed up for the picnic-style meal and conversation.
We discussed the association water system and the need to meet new compliance standards. The most recent compliance issue is inventorying the type of pipes bringing public water from the well to and inside our homes. I began following our public water system shortly after we moved here in 1993. We comply with new numbers as they come along. When we cannot get into compliance, we make an investment in extraordinary measures. For example, we spent $400,000+ to comply with revised arsenic standards.
I said this at the meeting and it bears repeating:
The water coming out of the well house into the community water pipes is fit to drink and use. It meets state and federal standards for a public water system. The board sent our annual water quality report in the last mailing. Read it!
We talked about water softeners. When Bob was president, he announced that water softeners were no longer necessary after installation of the new arsenic treatment facility. I’m not sure that information was adequately distributed at the time. However, the quality of water in a home is a matter of personal preference and expense.
Is the water delivered to our homes potable without treatment? Yes, it is. We have data to back that up. Do you want to wash your white clothes in untreated water? Maybe, maybe not. Since the new water treatment system was installed, there have been surges with heavy concentration of iron in it. A whole house filter combined with a water softener buffers users against such anomalies.
One set of data that assists in decisions about whether to treat water in our homes is a water hardness test. Those are locally available, usually for no cost, plus a volunteer in the association is willing to test your water without charge. If you have questions about using a softener, that is a beginning place.
The wastewater treatment facility was built in 1994. While it was maintained as things broke, there is a significant project in the near term future of refurbishing the physical plant. Chloride compliance is a different question. The reason for all the attention to chlorine and salt usage is in pursuit of a reduction in the amount of chloride entering the wastewater stream. Hopefully we can get chloride numbers into compliance and avoid doing something to divert effluent flow from Lake Macbride to somewhere else more acceptable to Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Here is some additional information:
Iowa’s recent inventory of public water supply systems was 1,838. The percentage of systems in compliance with all health-based standards in 2022 was 96.2%, while the percentage of population served by systems compliant with all health-based standards was 98.9%. Not perfect, but good.
The other segment of well water, which is significant in Iowa, is the use of private wells for household water needs. Private wells fall under the jurisdiction of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. There is a recommended testing and treatment program for private well owners that includes free annual testing, and money for shock chlorination, well plugging, well reconstruction, and the like. There is also a fully developed program on their website. I couldn’t find information about the level of compliance with the voluntary standards.
They say water is life, and it really is. It seems important to know what the standards are and whether what comes from the tap is safe to drink. In our community we invested a lot to make sure it is.
Iowa farmers are harvesting soybeans. It seems early, yet when the beans are ready, they are ready. I’ve been burning up Interstate 80 on family business for a few weeks and in addition to changing colors in fields, the soybean harvest is the most prominent activity. Corn is Iowa’s biggest crop yet there remains a lot of green in the leaves, indicating it’s too moist to harvest.
A few farmers have been harvesting hay in large round bales. Iowa generates some $119 million worth of hay each year. It ranks in the top ten commodities. Hay holds a dim lamp to the major crops of corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, chicken eggs, and dairy products.
I don’t particularly like all the driving of late. At least I can pay attention to something uniquely Iowan. When I returned home I grabbed a bucket and picked some tomatoes. The tomato harvest has been abundant, although it will soon be over. I found nice ones on the vines, though.
This week I made it into the clinic for my six-month check up and the news was not good. I was referred to an outside clinic for a foot problem, and had a chest x-ray which revealed liquid in my lungs. My numbers on the blood test are mostly okay, yet some important ones are going the wrong direction. There will be reconsideration of lifestyle once I get beyond today’s political events. I know now that changing my exercise routine and eating habits are both necessary.
September is not over yet it has been a pisser. The six-month check up served its purpose, even if I don’t like what I am seeing. As we support family in Des Moines, I’ll be seeing more of the fall harvest as days unfold.
Wild flowers continue to arrive on the state park trail.
Last night I decided to work on sleeping through. Surprisingly, I was successful from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m. Seven straight hours of sleep is a rarity in my world. One hopes to make it less rare.
It’s 50 days until the Nov. 5 general election. I figured out how I hope to fit in with the campaigns. I have the plan, now to work it. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.
As winter approaches, there is a lot to get ready. I’m thinking about writing the second volume of my memoir. Last time, during the coronavirus pandemic, our restricted movement helped keep me focused on writing. This winter I must figure a way to regain that focus and set aside a multitude of distractions in the non-pandemic life. With a little work, I can do that.
It was a good call to finish and print the first volume of my memoir. While it could be refined, the fact of spending the money to print it forces closure. It is what it is and now exists in the world. This week, I’m sending copies to a dozen people I have known a long while. Along with the book, I’m sending a reply card to collect a few sentences about their reaction to it. I have a vague notion about what happens next. Basically there is a decision whether to put it out in the world with intent to sell some copies. Thus far, people have been supportive of my work.
At mid September, the garden is reduced to a few items which continue to grow. The main undertakings are finishing the tomato harvest, clearing a plot to plant garlic, and cleaning this year’s garlic harvest for storage. Certain crops did well and others, not so much. There was enough home grown food to keep me away from the farmers’ market. I’m hoping to find more hot peppers when I go out to the garden today.
This year has been weird in that my spouse spent a lot of time away helping her sister. Maybe with some luck and planning, we can get back to normal.
A sure sign the period of annual warm ambient temperatures expanded is the fact our lilac bushes are flowering a second time this year. I planted them some 30 years ago and only recently have we experienced a double bloom. The flowers are pretty, but the reasons behind their twice a year appearance are not.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) members are skeptical that warming will be limited to the Paris targets of well below 2 °C, but are more optimistic that net zero CO2 emissions will be reached during the second half of this century. What does that mean? We, as a society, are inadequately moderating the rise in atmospheric temperatures by getting to net zero fast enough. I don’t see any of my neighbors concerned about this, even if they should be. I doubt many of them even know what is net zero.
Whether we like it or not, large online retail sellers provide an efficient service. Not only do companies like Amazon compete on pricing, their distribution network prevents untold automobile trips to retail establishments. That may be a pox on smaller retail stores, yet Amazon is committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040, much sooner than society as a whole seems likely to achieve it. We citizens may be skeptical of Amazon’s Climate Pledge, but what else is there in a world increasingly controlled by large corporations?
A person can only do so much. Our combustion engine subcompact automobile remains parked in the garage five or six days each week. When we bought it, electric vehicles were simply not available when we needed one. I mow the lawn with my gasoline-powered mower only once per month. I set the thermostat for our HVAC system higher in summer and lower in winter. If everyone did these things, our aggregate actions might have an impact. Like with net zero, this is something our neighbors don’t talk much about. Whether they take similar action is sketchy at best.
To address the lack of awareness, I learned to interpret visual cues in the environment. Things like the second blooms of a lilac bush. It seems essential to do more than appreciate the beauty we find in nature. At the same time, we must question why long-standing botanical and animalia behaviors are changing. With few exceptions, such changes lead us back to new, polluting emissions since the Industrial Revolution.
We won’t undo the changes of the Industrial Revolution quickly enough. We, as a society, should be working on that. Imperfect though it may be, achieving net zero carbon emissions is a worthy goal. Midwestern lilac bushes seem to be adjusting to a changing climate. Now it’s our turn.
My life was scrambled in August and early September. Now begins the task of putting it back together into something more coherent. My COVID-19 symptoms departed. The rest of my turbulent life settled into stability. Perhaps I have a platform to go through a neglected inbox, and my multiple to-do lists, to put a plan together. It seems clear I will need a nap or two as I go through my days. That is likely related to getting older and not a long-term effect of having had COVID-19.
My maternal grandmother had a heck of a time when she was my age, plagued by heart disease and adult onset diabetes. We are lucky she lived, mostly on her own, until age 92. Compared to her, my early seventies have been a cake walk. My health status begs the question, what shall be done with this gift of time? I will continue to write.
Hopefully regular visitors to this site will find something worth reading.
The near-death experience that was my case of COVID-19, especially the hallucinations and becoming temporarily unhinged from reality, was a wake up call. Life can be snatched from us on a moment’s notice. I lived to tell the tale, and every day I wake in good health is a blessing.
What will I do with my remaining time? That is the wrong question. I will continue down the path I started so many years ago: to be a writer, to live a life where I enjoy good health, and where I have the stamina needed to take each next step. My relationships with family and friends are important, so is living in a just society. There is a whole separate life in this. I hope to embrace and cherish it.
The coronavirus upset my schedule to get back to work on the second part of my memoir. Once I get caught up in real life, I will take up that project. Publishing the first volume was an unexpectedly positive experience. Now I want to finish the second book so I can move on to other things.
Friedrich Nietzsche first said, “Out of life’s school of war — what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” I’m not at the stronger part yet, although I’m building stamina as I walk the long path into the future.
Positive test result for COVID-19 on Sept. 1, 2024.
I expected the coronavirus would find me eventually. I also expected the vaccines would protect me. Although I got sick as could be, and at one point thought I was going to lose my mind or die, I didn’t. So all those vaccines — and I had every one of them — served me well.
The memoir I am writing will end with the coronavirus pandemic, in which we continue to be. This post is to record my experience of getting sick with COVID-19 so that when I get to writing the end of An Iowa Life, I will have these notes.
It started about a month ago with a mild, persistent cough.
I didn’t think much of it, that it would go away on its own. It was only after attending the August 24 special convention in North Liberty that I began to cough more frequently and to cough up phlegm. After I tested positive on August 29, I found at least three other people who attended the convention tested positive about the same time. Because I had symptoms for so long, it is hard to pinpoint the beginning of the infection on a time line.
For the most part, it doesn’t matter how or when I contracted the virus. I’m no longer on the board of health where staff studied these things looking for societal solutions. In aggregate, public health requires data to combat the spread of the coronavirus. What matters more is I, as an individual, do have it and it persists. I thought I was going to die.
For this instance of COVID-19, emails, text messages and medical reports tell a story.
To T. (Aug. 28, 2024, 5:44 p.m.): “I have gotten sick since we met and could not hardly get out of bed today. I wanted to tell you in case I’m contagious. Symptoms are coughing, headache, dizzyness and loss of appetite. Hopefully this will break soon. Take care of yourself.”
To E and M. (Aug. 29, 2024 7:22 a.m.): “I went dark on the internet the last 36 hours because I have been bedridden with a terrible cough and general malaise. I looked up the symptoms and the search result was influenza, which I doubt. So the forecast for me speaking on Friday is partly cloudy. Will advise if I can make it.”
This 36-hour period of coughing and feeling bad included not eating for the duration, no coffee, and mostly lying in bed. Toward the end of the period I began to dream psychedelic images and when I attempted to wake, I did wake, and the dreams continued in real life. I couldn’t tell the difference between dreams and reality. I felt as if I had lost all memory. At this point, I felt death must be imminent. I was able to gather my wits, take a home COVID-19 test and telephone the local clinic.
To T.: (Aug. 29, 2024, 4:27 p.m.): “I did get a positive test for COVID 19 today.”
To E and M. (Aug. 31, 2024, 2:23 p.m.) “I forgot to tell you I tested positive for COVID on Thursday. At least three others who were at the convention tested positive about the same time. I saw an MD Thursday afternoon and appear to be on the mend with couple scripts of cheap medicine plus acetaminophen. Blood count is good, lungs clear. I spent an 90 minutes in the garden today and it worked wonders.”
To T.: (Aug. 31, 2024, 6:04 p.m.) “I think the worst is over. The medicines seem to be working and once I began eating and taking acetaminophen my headaches went away. The x-ray turned up a partially collapsed lung, but clear otherwise. Clinic gave me breathing exercises to hopefully reinflate that part of my lung. Blood work showed tracks of COVID in a couple of tests but my blood counts are good. Doc offered paxlovid but I declined because my symptoms began outside the window in which it is effective. (Why is the doc asking me what I want to do for meds?) I worked 90 minutes in the garden today and it was a huge benefit, the best medicine. So focusing on the positive, eating tacos and listening to Dylan tonight.”
Following are some edited extracts from my medical records:
H.R. at 8/29/2024 1:43 PM (Via telephone) Pt calls to state that he’s been coughing for about 1 month, 1 week ago, cough started producing some white, yellow, clear and a few streaks of red 3-4 x total; and had a home test turn +COVID today 8/29/24. Nose with occasional clear to white secretions; has decreased appetite; has body aches; has fatigue and sleeping a lot. Wondering what to do? Per Dr. – OK to see pt today.
A.C. at 8/29/2024 2:30 PM (In person) History of Present Illness Patient presents secondary to having cough that has been ongoing for the past month. The past week the cough has gotten worse since changing color. It is now brown discoloration. He has had a few episodes where he has coughed up some blood. He has not been take anything OTC for his symptoms. He has had myalgias and overall has not been feeling well
S.H. at 8/29/2024 4:51 PM (Via telephone) Patient was informed that Hemoglobin and white blood cell count were normal.
A.C. at 8/30/2024 10:02 AM CDT CRP level highly elevated secondary to COVID, glucose level elevated secondary to illness, liver enzymes elevated secondary to same.
A.C. at 8/30/2024 10:06 AM CDT Some atelectasis noted, take deep breaths as often as possible, no pneumonia noted.
On Thursday, Sept. 5, I finished the course of prescription drugs and most of the symptoms are in remission. I continue to be tired during the day and somewhat restless at night. My stamina is diminished. I read a study indicating the coronavirus can persist in tissues for as long as 14 months after being infected. It is uncertain whether continuing to take COVID home tests will produce anything other than a positive result.
I’m not sure when I’ll return to regular writing here. Thanks to everyone reading along. I feel like the coronavirus has been living with me and distracting me from what I want to do. I suppose it has been.
UPDATE: On Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, my COVID home test result was negative.
More than any recent summer, this one has been exceptional for growing food in the garden. The rain came, then it came some more. Ambient temperatures were not too hot, and if they climbed above 90, it wasn’t for long. It has truly been the summer of the garden. I can feel it every time I go out there.
A garden represents humans asserting their will over nature. I have not been so disciplined. All the same, I’m getting onions and potatoes, yellow squash and zucchini, kale and collards, parsley and basil, peppers and peas, and oh my God, tomatoes! Today I harvested Zestar! apples and they are great tasting. I can’t keep up with the genetics and environment producing this abundance. That is okay. Let nature have its way.
If I live my life according the Social Security life expectancy calculator, I can expect to plant 13 more gardens. That’s exactly what I plan to do. We’ll see if I can take better control, not that I want to. It is all part of the great circle of life and I’m in it!
Journey Home 
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