Why I truly miss my 75-mile commute
I used to commute from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Hallock, Minnesota. One interstate, two state highways, three turns. 75 miles.
Then, for a time, I commuted from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Fargo. Interstate all the way. 75 mph speed limit, give or take. 75 miles.
There were many things to dislike about the journeys — unpredictable weather, straight flat roads, MPR fund drives. Plus, of course, there were the high gas bills ($540 in April) and 2+ hours roundtrip just sitting.
I’d rather not go back to commuting that distance. With great joy I walked 1 minute to a coffee shop for my first meeting of the day yesterday. Later, I road my bike 10 minutes to my office. I love it.
But I miss many things about the commute as well.
I miss hearing hours of quality in-depth reporting from MPR and NPR.
I miss turning off the radio and just being, thinking quietly by myself for minutes on end.
I miss seeing the horizon in the distant North Dakota sky. I miss the sun rises and sun sets.
I miss passing farmers working in their fields.
I miss watching the crops grow day by day, and then in the fall seeing the lights of the sugar beet trucks out in the fields harvesting all night long.
And, though they were sometimes annoying, I even miss passing the semi-trucks coming down from Canada reminding me that goods don’t magically arrive on the store shelves.
I particularly miss the semi we passed on I-29 almost every Sunday afternoon with its multi-layer cargo of hogs with their snouts pointed outwards presumably headed to market.
I don’t want to go back to the long commute. I’ll suppose I’ll learn to manage OK with my current 2 miler. But, those other 73 miles, they were quite the ride.
image by Julia Starr
Oil price surge GOOD for drivers
Yesterday’s headline on the front page of the dead tree edition of the Grand Forks Herald read, “Oil price surge bad for drivers, good for N.D. revenue.” I appreciate the difficulty of writing pithy headlines (and sermon titles), but I think either writer Dave Roepke, or perhaps his editor, erred.
It may be the case that many drivers see high gas prices as “bad,” but I don’t. In fact, I welcome them.
Gas prices in the U.S. need to be higher to bring about a change in our behavior — driving less, building more eco-friendly neighborhoods, supporting mass transit, walking/riding bikes. In other countries, as I noted in this post written when I lived in Scotland, government gas taxes are much higher, enough to make people think twice before buying a large car and contributing to climate change.
Yes, some people — many people — suffer when gas prices are high. That’s why part of the national gas tax needs to go to farmers and those with low incomes. But as visionary Thomas Friedman argued this week, “If Not Now, When?”
In a labored but effective metaphor Friedman says of the turmoil in the Middle East which has caused gas prices in the middle west to rise:
America, you have built your house at the foot of a volcano. That volcano is now spewing lava from different cracks and is rumbling like it’s going to blow. Move your house!” In this case, “move your house” means “end your addiction to oil.
Every US President since Nixon has announced, “We are addicted to oil.” That’s every President, Democrat and Republican. The right public policy is to fight that addiction with a national gas tax.
So, to the headline-writer in the Herald yesterday I say, here’s one Grand Forks driver who begs to differ. Even as I abhor the violence in the Middle East, I welcome the pain at the pump. If only our government officials would raise the stakes some more.
Jon Stewart adds his satirical genius below:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| An Energy-Independent Future | ||||
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Shifting Culture: Laws against texting while driving
This week, the Grand Forks City Council passed a law that makes it illegal to send text messages while driving. I’m glad the ordinance passed — and it certainly took them a while. For some time now, in the state of Minnesota, it’s been illegal to text and drive. I hope such laws mark not just forward-thinking government but the beginning of a true cultural shift against the use of cell phones while driving.
Though in Grand Forks, a texting-while-driving citation will only cost you $15 (yes, North Dakota fines are ridiculously low!) a fine in Minnesota can range up to $131. In fact, this week, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office launched a two-day crackdown on texting or emailing while driving. Lawbreakers (I won’t call them “illegals,” but think about it) received a warning on Thursday, but if caught Friday, will receive a ticket with a fine. In Minnesota, it’s also illegal for those under 18 to talk on a cell phone while driving.
I’m in favor of such laws, because I believe common sense — and scientific data — points to the fact that looking at a cell phone and using one’s hands to type a message with a tricky little keyboard is not in any way conducive to safe driving. Or to put it another way: when you text and drive you endanger yourself, other drivers, and any cyclists or school children nearby.
And if the data doesn’t convince you, surely these stories will. Backpacking Dad (a friend of a friend) tells in “Why I Won’t Text and Drive” how he often texts and drives, but for some serendipitous reason he abstained yesterday and consequently avoided a head-on collision with a swerving driver. So sadly, Chris wasn’t so lucky. His story is told in the post, “Honor Chris today – Pledge to never drive distracted again” Chris, a young father, died after a collision with a driver who was texting. The texter crossed several lanes of traffic, and police officers found an active text message on her iPhone at the scene.
Texting and driving kills. But we do it anyway, some folks justifying the dissonance to themselves as Backpacking Dad did, saying, “I’m a good driver.” Others of us know it’s dangerous, but that knowledge just isn’t enough to stop us.
A few years ago, I lived in Scotland for a year. Driving laws there are much stricter than the U.S. (and, ironically or not, people are way better at driving in the first place). In Scotland, it’s illegal to text and drive, because it’s illegal to touch a cell phone at all while driving (handless systems are allowed). It’s also illegal to eat while driving — which makes sense to me because it’s dangerous to try to eat a burger and fries and drive at the same time, no matter what fast food restaurant lobbyists might argue.
(As an aside, Grand Forks city council member Tyrone Grandstrand is noted in the Herald as saying, “he wouldn’t want to ban talking on the phone or combing your hair or eating a burger while driving, things that may be a bit distracting, but is not sufficiently dangerous to require a law.”)
As I understand U.S. history, drinking and driving has been illegal for a hundred years, but prior to the 1970s had a much higher blood alcohol level designation (.15) and was rarely enforced. Back in the day, even when DUI or DWI was enforced, it was seen as a minor offense. But in the 70s, thanks in large part to a campaign by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), laws were strengthened and a cultural shift occurred. DUI is now a significant offense with quite negative consequences in society. DUI carries large fines, and though laws vary by state, can lead to jail time, huge fines, and suspension and losing one’s license.
So I hope the laws against texting and driving in Minnesota and Grand Forks signal the beginning of a larger movement. Though I’m not aware of a large movement like MADD’s against DUI, perhaps that’s just around the corner and a cultural shift is coming. Either way, think twice, hold your thumbs; it’s a matter of life and death.
Update: Check out this great application OTTER that has some real potential and fancy-cool usability options. Thanks, Erik!
image by Michal Zacharzewski
Solving life’s mysteries one pondering at a time
An inquisitive guy, I often find myself asking questions out loud like, “I wonder why it takes organic milk so much longer to sour than non-organic milk?” Every day or so, I’ll ask another question to Megan or someone around me (I have very patient friends). Well, I finally answered the organic milk mystery a few months ago, and I’ve got a wee list started of similar ponderables I plan to tackle over the next few weeks.
Today’s question: why do bees gather around the front of our car this time of year?
I’ll tackle this one in sections. First off, why this time of year? Well, late summer is the time queens leave the nest and mate (queen bees, that is). So all over Grand Forks you’ll see bees and wasps buzzing this time of year. Indeed, our favorite restaurant Rhombus Guys has a “sit on the roof at your own risk” type sign since there’s so many bees around these days — waiter Tony really enjoys killing them, though. Friends of ours who live downtown have a hole in the brick wall outside their window. The sight is amazing: hundreds of bees buzzing in and out of the hole inches from their window. There must be thousands in the wall. According to this article, they’re looking for mates and will seek out a wintering spot soon.
Ok, but why do bees hang near cars, and specifically, near the front of vehicles? I’ll be honest, this is a tough one. Internet research — usually so reliable — brought up many possibilities and dead ends. I feel most confident, however, that the reason doesn’t have to do with sap or dead bugs or pollen. Instead, I’m convinced by a few who have said the reason bees gather near the front of vehicles this time of year is because they are drawn to the smell of anti-freeze.
The anti-freeze explanation convinces me, because you can walk down a parking lot with cars of various sap or pollen levels, clean cars and dirty, buggy grills and shinny ones, and bees don’t seem to consistently swarm at any one of these factors. However, they certainly are attracted to something about some of the vehicles, and I propose that something is the sweet smell of antifreeze, which comes especially from the cars that are warmer and have been driven more recently.
Do I have any inside info or significant knowledge to backup my assertion? Absolutely not. It’s a semi-educated guess, so if you want to burst my bubble and have a better idea, please let me know. Until then, however, I’ll call this one of life’s mysteries solved. Case closed, bee happy.
image by kd kelly
Citizenship and the merits of dead trees
Maybe I’m becoming an old fuddy-duddy, but in recent weeks I’ve found myself speaking glowingly for the old-fashioned dead tree paper edition of the local newspaper.
No, it’s not that I think the Grand Forks Herald is a particularly stellar paper, anything but that. I do think it’s unfortunate, however, that subscribing to a local newspaper has become anathema to twenty-somethings. So much so, in fact, that I’m finding my usually optimistic perspective challenged by my peers’ reading habits, or lack their of.
To put it in a phrase: I read the local paper to better understand my neighbors. For me, it’s a question of ethics and ideas. And despite the helpful use of Twitter and blogs, in this town of 50,000 there’s no better way to follow local happenings than the newspaper. From letters to the editors to school board meeting reports, from traffic ticket statistics to mosquito spraying schedules, from stories of local movers-and-shakers to those on a small disc golf tournament nearby, the paper informs me of local goings-on and local perspectives in ways unparalleled by other media.
Maybe if I worked at a big office the local gossip I might pick up there would suffice. Or maybe if I listened to North Dakota radio stations or watched the TV news I could live without my paper. Maybe if I lived in a larger news market, I wouldn’t need the newspaper. But as my life is, were I to cancel my subscription I feel confident I would become a poorer citizen and pastor.
For example, earlier in the summer I voted in local elections of which I wouldn’t have known were I not following the candidate profiles and studying the sample ballot in the paper. Similarly, this week’s Forum Communications series, “Running with Oil” on the North Dakota oil boom is fantastically informative on a state issue (out west, mostly) I could easily overlook otherwise.
Let me be clear, I’m not exactly praising the quality of the paper, bless its heart. The website is horrendous, partly making the dead tree edition so superior. The local stories are fine, but certainly often of questionable quality and the coverage beyond local and state issues is paltry. Most editorials are too mainline, non-confrontational, and safe. I’m not praising the Grand Forks Herald for Pulitzer quality work, I’m praising them for a product that gets the job done — informing me of local happenings, keeping local politicians on their toes, shining the light of scrutiny where their resources can manage.
When I was in college at St. Olaf, the student government funded a program that put racks of free newspapers in every dorm and student hangout area — the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal, if my memory serves me. You’d see college students hanging out waiting for friends while reading up on the news. It was a beautiful site. Surely many college students today read their national and international news, like me, online and through internet-based news aggregators. But nothing beats that dead tree at my doorstep each morning, informing me which roads are closed on my morning commute.
image by Kay Pat
Married to a Medical School Student
That’s me. At one time, my partner Megan worked for Luther Seminary in St. Paul, during which time she began a support blog for the spouses of seminary students in the distance learning program she coordinated. So surely it’s only fair for me now to reflect on being a med school spouse. My advice in a sentence: be flexible, and remember it’s not really about you.
Ten things on being married to a med school student:
- It ain’t cheap. Yes, you know this, but you perhaps forgot about the be-gillions of costs above tuition — books, scalpels, a PDA, tests, a stethoscope, etc. (that Fisher Price set just doesn’t cut it anymore.)
- You’re a natural guinea pig. Every eight weeks, I pretend to be a standardized patient. This is cool, except when your spouse uses the largest hole thingy to look in your ear and nose (didn’t happen to me, but a friend. He screamed. She was supposed to use the smaller one.)
- Get ready to cook a lot. Again, not just my experience but shared by the other spouses. I cook most meals for us, which I really enjoy. It’s a gift to provide nourishment for those gray cells.
- Your schedule is determined by the testing schedule. Before Megan started, I had heard stories of spouses taking vacation by themselves in the week before their partner’s exams. I thought this was over the top, until I experienced the whole-household stress of pre-exam week. Multiple-day meetings away never looked so good.
- It’s totally cool seeing your spouse thrive. Well, at least that’s the case for me. Megan loves learning, and I love seeing her happy.
- You’re the connection to the outside world. I’ve always been the newsy one in the family, but that’s increased ten-fold since med school. Med students study a ton, and that’s about it (well, they try to sleep a bit, at least). Heck, even the curriculum at UND couldn’t accommodate a discussion on health care reform when it passed.
- Ice cream, cookies, and surprise coffee deliveries are a bonus for everyone.
- In med school hangouts, most conversation goes over your head. Embrace it: this presents a great opportunity for cheesy jokes and puns.
- It takes a while to benefit from your spouse knowing all things medical (apparently, they must not learn all things medical until year three or so). The joke, “you’re in medical school, can you look at this _________” gets old. But, yes, it’s still fun
- Make your dates and rituals to incorporate studying. For example, most Thursdays late afternoon finds us in Starbucks together — Megan studying, me writing. Saturday morning bakery runs are a fun date as long as you read the paper and your spouse reads lecture notes. That’s life these days. It’s fun. Be flexible.
image by sanja gjenero
Non-church miscellany
This post is not about General Assembly. Neither is it about Presbyterians, or even Christianity. Thank you, blog readers, for sticking with me through some heavy PC(USA) polity and politics. Instead, this post is about three things (which, I promise, has nothing at all to do with the fact that some sermons have three points.)
1. Living in Grand Forks, North Dakota has its perks — no, really, it does. For example, for eight months out of the year you don’t have to worry about ice cream melting in your trunk on the way home from the grocery store. Actually, in seriousness, I’ve found another.
I receiving a parking ticket a few weeks ago for parking on the street outside our apartment on day the city does road cleaning. Having lived there for a year and unaware of the Monday no parking policy, I called the city to complain. Before I could get an angry word out, the nice guy I spoke to said, “Well, we’ll be happy to forgive your ticket. As a courtesy, the city council has a policy to forgive any questionable first time tickets, so let’s get this erased.” And in about a minute, we did.
2. You big city folks will not believe this next story. Yesterday I was working at the church in Hallock, Minn. and made a phone call. On accident, though, I switched the numbers and ended up … Continue Reading
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