Does Warm Weather Encourage Smoking?

We have a few nice days this week, with the temperature nearly 70 degrees (about 18 deg. C). So, I was walking around outside. But, in front of every office building were the ubiquitous smokers. With indoors smoking banned, they line up outside doorways, spewing second hand smoke in the midst of passers-by.

So, while I thought it should be an great day to enjoy the fall air, but instead, there was a heavy dose of second hand smoke along every sidewalk.

Now, I grew up during the “tobacco age” where smoking was normative. Adults might choose to “take up” smoking. I recall women declaring “I like a man who smokes!” as though nicotine addiction made a man more macho or handsome. Yuk!! Who wants to live with a man whose breath smells like an ashtray!

In my family, most adults smoked when I was a kid and every family gathering was blanketed in a blue haze of smoke. Amazingly I survived! But instead of “taking up the habit” I was strongly against the idea of smoking. Well, I’m glad the tobacco age is over, the health risks are well-known, and we now know smoking is one of the strongest drug addictions out there.

I’m always amazed at those addicts who persist. There are a couple of “professional smokers” in the building I work in. It seems they are always outside one door or another attending to their addiction, sometimes socializing with fellow addicts. I wonder if they actually do work in their office!

But this week got me wondering: does the good weather encourage smoking? Do the smokers come take additional breaks because it’s pleasant to stand outside? In that case, maybe cold and inclement weather is actually healthier – smokers lighting up less and non-smokers exposed to less second-hand smoke.

A Snow Globe in October?

October in New England. Fall foliage. Brilliant colors. Hillsides and mountains draped in reds, yellows, oranges, and browns. Leaves falling on tree-lined streets.

That's what you normally expect. But whether it's a sign of climate change or just a fluke of the weather, but the scene was quite different yesteday in Massachusetts. It was snowing! And sticking!

The New England Patriots were playing in Foxboro, Massachusetts while the snow was accumulating on the field. It was like the stadium was in a snow globe!

Was I asleep for 2 months and woke up in December? What's with the weather? First we had rain and cool weather in June and the beginning of July. Then we had maybe 6 weeks of summer when we should have had 3 months. Now snow in October? ¿Qué pasa aquí?

Going to the Fair

Every once in a while, I get out of the city and experience life in more rural environs. While I’ve lived most of my life in the city, my second favorite place to be in out in the country, be it a rural town or out in the countryside. It always seems peaceful to drive past farms and fields, especially where you see cows and horses.

So, on Labor Day I was out in Northampton, Massachusetts, and visited the Three County Fair. The fair included a variety of features, such as kiddy rides, “fair” fast food, farm machinery, monster trucks, a youth talent show, and my favorites, live animals. Now these animals were not of the urban variety (such as pigeons, squirrels, and cockroaches) but of the farm variety, such as cows, pigs, chickens, roosters, and rabbits.

A crowd favorite (and mine, too) was the pig race. The race involves four little piglets running around a small track motivated by a bowl of Oreos, which they much on after the race is over. It takes all of about 20 seconds, but it’s so cute watching the little piglets run. (To protect the health of the piglets, they only do this a couple of times a day, and let them rest in the shade the rest of the day.)

My sentimental favorite are the bunnies – always so cute! But second were the roosters – or, as I think of them, the analog alarm clocks. They are quite handsome and studly and speak with great projection!

Here’s a few photos from the fair.



Above and below: Little piglets after and during the race.



Below: my favorite of the cute little bunnies.



Below: I was tempted to purchase one of the analog alarm clocks!



Below: Something you don't see in the city - a watermelon grows in a driveway.

Is it a Dad’s Duty to Clean the House?

Which is more believable:

• Is it a dad’s duty to clean the house?
  
• Is it a mom’s duty to clean the house?

What is your first reaction?

If you’re a mom, do you laugh out loud at the thought of it being a dad's duty to clean? Do you think “I only wish?” Or is it true in your family that dad and mom share the house cleaning?

If you’re the dad, do you do most of the cleaning? Or does your wife do all/most of it? Split 50/50?

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a post titled “Is it a mom's duty to clean house?” by a blogger friend Jenny (of Suburban Jungle http://www.suburbanjungle.net/). And it got me thinking about gender roles in housework.

You see, I’m old enough to recall the ‘50s and ‘60s when TV families all had a husband working a full time job and the wife at home cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. But then came the woman’s liberation movement and a move towards equality both in the workplace and a home.

But today is there equality in the workplace and at home?

Today, women have achieved much in the workplace compared to the ‘60s. Back then, my mother was the rare example of a woman in a major corporation with a professional position (i.e., not a secretary or administrative assistant) and, without a husband, got a mortgage, bought a house and was the sole provider of our extended family household of six! I mention this so you understand I grew up with a mother who was a true pioneer, though she would never admit that herself.

Some 40 years later, my mother’s situation is commonplace. Women can be found in virtually all jobs and professions. And there’s been an evolution in the workplace. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s there was resistance from some men to having women in some jobs and professions. But, my observation is that now it’s more “just the way it is” to have both men and women in the workplace. There is still an income gap and the issue of a “glass ceiling” in some fields, but, still, much progress has been made.

But, while change has come in the workplace, it seems to me that equality in the home seems to be still an elusive goal. When my mother re-married in the ‘70s and they both commuted to the city and worked 8-hour days, it still fell upon her to handle the domestic work. Even today, my observation from some of the comments on Jenny’s blog posts and other sources is that some women still do much of the house cleaning chores, even if some husbands do help out. Although, some comments from women indicated that they don’t trust their husbands to do the cleaning.

For those well off financially (particularly with couples of 2 high earning professionals), “equality” can be obtained by outsourcing the domestic chores to cleaning services or a domestic. In fact, Jenny's blog mentions that now she has someone to do her cleaning for her.

Yet, most families can’t afford that. So why does it seem the cleaning still falls to the woman?

There really is no anatomical reason that men can’t clean a house as well as a woman. In fact, I’ve known men who are quite skilled at the domestic. Now, a good number may be gay, but regardless, I believe any man can do as good a job as a woman.

So, what is the domestic “glass wall” that keeps women “manning” the oven and vacuum and washer/dryer? How does it work in your family?

Cycling Along the Cape Cod Canal

Cape Cod is widely known as a famous vacation destination in eastern Massachusetts. Known for ocean beaches, sand dunes, and cranberry bogs, the Cape is an arm-shaped sand bar left behind by the glacial recession about 12,000 years ago. The Cape became a popular vacation spot in the late 1800s, when the industrial revolution filled the cities with smoke and coal soot. Urbanites yearning to breathe free flocked to places like Cape Cod, arriving by rail.

In the 20th century, the Cape became synonymous with summer vacation. Perhaps, this fame is best illustrated in the lyrics of "Old Cape Cod," a 1957 hit by Pattie Page. The song (written by Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus, and Allan Jeffrey) could have been sponsored by the tourist bureau, praising the Cape for its “sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there.”

Today, the Cape remains popular with tourists seeking beaches and boating. The gateways to the Cape are two bridges that span 135 feet above the Cape Cod Canal. The Sagamore and Bourne Bridges, opened on June 22, 1935, are also known as the pinch points that back up traffic for miles on summer weekends.

Despite the traffic, the bridges afford picturesque views of the canal. But to see more than a fleeting view of the canal, one needs to spend some times on the banks of the waterway. Perhaps the best way to do that is to bike the pathways that parallel the canal.


Last weekend, as part of our summer hike-and-bike “stay-cation,” we took the bikes to the mainline side of the canal and biked the 7 miles (each way) along the canal. The warm sun was mixed with cool breezes along the canal, at times providing a stiff headwind for the westbound ride.

But overall it was a nice day and a pleasant ride. And an opportunity to mix this with a little photography of engineering structures captured in the scenic backdrop of the cape.

Below: Looking up at the Sagamore Bridge towering above the canal and bike path.


Above: a power plant on the "cape" side of the canal.

Below: the canal meets Cape Cod Bay.


Above: typical view along the canal. With all the trees, you feel far away from the traffic and development.

Below: looking up on the massive tower of the railroad bridge.


Below: the quait railroad station at Buzzards Bay. It was a busy station before the auto surpassed the train as the popular way of traveling to the Cape. Now, only one train a week leaves from Buzzards Bay to Hyannis.

View from the Mountaintop

With a height of 3,165 feet (965 meters), Mount Monadnock is said to be the second most frequently climbed mountain in the world, after Mount Fuji in Japan. Located in southwestern New Hampshire (USA), on a clear day, one can see 100 miles (160 km) from the mountaintop. What makes the views so spectacular is the bare rock summit above the treeline and in the midst of unique alpine vegetation.

It’s been years since we climbed, so we returned to Mt. Monadnock on July 5th. It was a perfect summer day, sunny and not too hot. But the climb (1,000 feet or 305 meters) and descent were a little tougher than we remembered. Come to think of it, it was probably about 20 years since our last climb! That could be why.

Well, the views and pictures were worth the wear and tear on our leg muscles!

The path to the peak starts out as an easy walk through the woods:

Hikers climing with the summit in sight. This was about 1.5 hours after we started hiking.



Near the summit, a view of miles around:



A disc markes the top of Mount Monadnock:










Hikers rest from their climb at the mountaintop. A nice breeze kept the temperature perfect.



View of vegitation near mountaintop:



Views from the mountaintop:

O for a Sunny Day

o, for a sunny day in a month lost,
obscured in clouds,
with nearly perpetual precipitation
washing away the joy of solar radiance.

o great orb that rules the day:
can i remember how you feel?
your warmth upon my face,
my body bathed in summer heat
as I stroll the city streets
enjoying the leisure of the unhurried pace
that your warmness imposes.

how can we endure the grayness of another day
where the subtlety of colors is diluted
in such dull diffused daylight?
where an autumnal chill in my bones and
a film of mist coat over our flesh
left my soul in a joyless limbo.

o new month of Julius,
will you restore what we lost last month?
the simple joy of a warm summer day
bathed in sunlight.

At last, a summer's day! Part 1: Walk in the Garden

Then suddenly, the month of rain ended! Just like in the movie, Forest Gump, when the monsoons stopped in Vietnam: the rain stopped and the sun came out. Suddenly, it was summer!

With the warmth of the sun beaming down, the city came to life. At lunchtime, I walked through the Public Garden. Like a tourist in a new city, I documented the planting beds, the logoon and the famous swan boats.