The ice storm has gotten much more serious. Many areas have so many power lines pulled down under the ice that electricity will be off for several days. We have my sisters family staying with us because they have no heat or lights. It's a bit fun because they have a cocker spaniel and we never had a dog in the house before, my wife is alergic. Of course she will put up with it for her sister's sake, for a few days anyway. We are lucky that so far, our lights have stayed on. We have had some damage to trees. A couple of larger ones have been bent over and split apart or broken off. We have a small birch tree however that has bent over in an arch, half one way and half the other, all the way to the ground, like a heart shape almost, and has not broken, just bent. Odd, the small tree yields but should come back after the ice melts, but the older trees break. A story that is perhaps an analogy of how people react to change and stress in their lives?
David Blaine [7:16 AM]
To move to something totaly selfish, the weather here is driving me crazy. It is early April and spring should be clearly evident, but we have had an ice storm all night, and there is no end in site, in fact another ice storm is forecast for this afternoon and snow after that. I should be riding my bicycle to work by now, but no, I'm doing crummy 20 minute workouts in the basement and dreaming of nice 3 hour rides in the fresh spring air. Thanks, I feel a bit better now.
David Blaine [8:52 AM]
Coalition forces are now reported to be on the outskirts of Baghdad and in control of Saddam airport. Iraqi millitary was denying this on television at the same time that I was watching newsclips of the coalition cleaning up the runways, so either the Iraqi millitary is lying or confused, or both. I understand that Baghdad is now without electricity or water. I wish someone knew if anything happend to Salem Pax. He hasn't posted in so long. On a brighter note, Editor: Myself, aka Hoder had posted that he wouldn't be able to update his blog any longer. He resumed it yesterday. Some guessed it was an April Fools joke, but the author didn't comment on that. I'm glad he's back.
David Blaine [8:42 AM]
Shortly, on April 12th I will turn 48 years old. 30 years ago I was about to graduate from high school. I turned 18 and had to register with the draft board. I was pretty scared. The United States had been fighting in Viet Nam since I was in the 4th grade. I knew plenty of families who had lost sons in that war, I had been to some of the funerals myself. That April, shortly before my birthday, Nixon announced that we were pulling out of Viet Nam. Now I am only recounting my memories, and the truth might be something different. Everyone who publishes has their own agenda, and I got my news from someone else who had his own agenda, whether he wrote for the New York Times or High Times. I have always felt that we shouldn't have fought that war. I'm going through this now because some people compare Viet Nam to Iraq. They are different. In Vietnam the U.S. was propping up the Vietnamese president and his regime because he was friendly to the U.S. The people of Vietnam would have been sattisfied to let history take it's course, which probably would have left them under Chinese influence if not control. The U.S. was scared to death of China, they were communists. So we fought. In Iraq it is just the opposite, the U.S. is trying to take the reigning president (?) down so the Iraqi people can have a better government of their own choosing. Why should the U.S. get involved? Probably because they can. Not every country would be able to undertake this. Why should the U.S. care? Good question, many people think it's because we want something, the oil perhaps. What I think the U.S. wants is security. I believe that president Bush thinks Saddam Hussein supports Al Queda terrrrorists. I was never the strongest kid in school. Many times I had to avoid getting into a fight with someone bigger and meaner than I was. I learned that if you respected the stronger kids, the older kids, they would leave you alone, maybee even befriend you. If you got angry and tried to fight them you usualy got bloodied. I saw lots of fights that I wasn't involved in, so I'm not just speaking of my own experiences, but from observing lots of other school children. Nothing changes much in that regard, whether you are a student or an entire nation. It is usualy more benneficial to make friends than fight, but if you fight, the big guy wins. As one joke says, the fight may not always go to the strong, the race might not always go to the swift, but that is the way to bet. By the way, after the U.S. pulled out of Viet Nam Nixon made peace overtures to China and was the first U.S. president to visit the country. I don't think he was a very good president, but he wasn't a stupid one. I don't think anyone would want to fight a war with China.
David Blaine [8:32 AM]
I see more and more references to Salem Pax's blog in the media, but it doesn't appear he has made an entry to it in over a week. Has anyone heard any news about him?
David Blaine [9:51 AM]
This morning I got my first E mail reply from someone who visited this blog (after I wrote to them about their blog). They are from overseas and thought my page was interesting. I am delighted. Doesn't take much to thrill me. I am in the process of registering with some blog webrings. I hope to get some traffic and generate some discussions. Thrilled to see that we got an American POW back last night. Too bad about the corpses they found with her. Is Saddam hiding or dead? Obviously if he is alive he is scared to come above ground and go on T.V., but wouldn't you think he could go on T.V. from a bunker and be safe and heard? Sure is odd, but as I mentioned yesterday, I don't begin to think I understand how everyone else thinks.
David Blaine [9:45 AM]
Would I sound like a putz if I said I don't think an average Joe like me can understand all the intracacies of this war in Iraq?
I'm thinking that it isn't really too easy to be for or against the war. A lot of people have made it seem simple, but right now where I work they are discussing whether it is offensive to say "We Support Our Troops" in our advertising. Forget about supporting the war or the president, they aren't sure about saying we support the troops (ended up saying yes, lets say we support the troops). I like to think I'm smart enough to know what I don't know. Does that make any sense? So, of course I support the troops, may God keep them safe, fill them with courage, wisdom, and skill to get in and get out safely. Time will tell the story on the things that are hard to understand now. I hope we haven't done the wrong thing to the wrong people.
David Blaine [3:51 PM]
I don't know if everyone would find this ammusing, but it hit me as a bit funny.
What if the U.S. Looses?
David Blaine [2:53 PM]
Imagine how Americans would have felt if after the 9/11 incident at the twin towers, more buildings would have been destroyed the next day, and more the day after that. That feeling is the only way I have of trying to understand how innocent civilians in Iraq must feel as their cities get bombed day after day. Even the incidental damage to their homes, broken windows and doors, has to bring unbearable stress. I hope that we will be able to see the regime change come swiftly so the bombing can stop and the clean up can begin. I can believe that the majority of Iraqis wanted Saddam out, I can't imagine they wanted it to go like this though. It' s like a doctor saying he can get that splinter out of your eye, but he has to cut the eyeball out to do it. I'm not saying we shouldn't be there, it's a tough call. I hope in the end the ones in Iraq who had to endure this feel it's worth it. One thing that embarasses me is the news coverage on how the war affects the U.S. economy. Some families here are sacrificing the lives of their loved ones in the armed service. The Iraqis are sacrificing their cities and the lives of their soldiers and innocent civilians, and some Americans can't stand the small sacrifice of a slowing economy. It seems too selfish. Everything one American does or says can be construed by someone from overseas to be typical of all Americans. I hope some Americans can serve as a good example. I think the American servicemen and women overseas are doing a great job of that too.
David Blaine [9:30 AM]
Why do I still try to compete in athletics at 48? Well there are usualy some older competitors than myself. There is one over 70 year old man who was at most of my races last year. I hold myself to a different standard. If on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being that you just won the Olympic Gold Medal and 1 being that you performed like dog crap, I'm a 2. Why keep trying? I'd rather push myself to measure against the Olympic competitor than measure against the "average" 48 year old man. That doesn't mean I judge anyone else by that standard. It's just what I want for myself. There are plenty of reasons not to do this. You can stay healthy and fit with much less effort, in fact, trying to train to swim, cycle, and run all at one time along with weight training, you could do more harm than good. You have to know when to rest and recover as part of the training. I'd rather do this to stay in shape than starve myself to death and worry about every piece of food I put in my mouth. I still worry about every piece of food I put in my mouth.
David Blaine [2:26 AM]
Several things that worry me about the war in Iraq in no particular order: All the people who have died and who will die. The ones who won't die but will be carrying scars or maimings for the rest of their lives. All the people left to mourn the loss or injury of their loved ones and friends. Especially the children in Iraq. That people around the world think that Americans like myself want to do this, that we are doing this for some selfish reason. All the money that is being spent to hurt that might have been spent to help.
At some point everyone is going to have to answer to a higher authority for what he did with the resources left in his care, and hurting someone else doesn't seem like the answer I'd want to give when I have to account for what I did with my life.
David Blaine [2:09 AM]