Writing the Blank Page

There are days where I sit down to write this blog and I have zero topics lined up and zero ideas percolating in my brain. I scroll through the news looking for a spark of inspiration and... nothing.

I could really get hard on myself and beat myself up for coming up with nothing. I could also end up worried that people are going to think I'm weird for writing about nothing. And that would then stop me from writing which... is not the purpose of this whole process. The purpose of these blogs is for me to write. Period. With a theme that vaguely centers around "small steps".

Perhaps that is the link. Writing with a theme in mind is relatively easy. But writing without a theme... it means that I have to just start writing, one word, one sentence at a time, and see what comes out of the fingers. It's the small steps in action again. I might not have a whole blog in mind... or even a paragraph, but if I just start, then something will take form.

It's really a gift when I have a topic in mind... it makes it soooo much easier! It's all about parking downhill so things are easier. Obviously, I did not park downhill on this blog! And so I am slogging away uphill, which is hard work. I am hoping that if I get enough momentum going here, it will get easier, but sometimes that just doesn't happen.

Several years ago, I came across a blog post that talked about being a creator rather than a consumer. Those words inspired me. I wanted to become a creator... someone who writes things that other people might read and find helpful. I didn't just want to mindlessly (or intentionally) consume things without giving back.

I chose writing as my creative option, but there are many other different creative outlets out there - costume design, painting, drawing, music, calligraphy, art, gardening, photography... so many different options. And all of them have a secret... you need to do them all the time. In order to get better, in order to create... something needs to happen every day. It's the only way we get better. It's the only way we live up to our dream of being creators rather than just consumers.

And sometimes... we don't feel like it. We aren't inspired. We don't have a topic in mind. We don't feel the music in our blood. And those are the moments where we need to just start... no matter what we are feeling, just sit down (or stand up) and start. Pick up the brush, the pen, the instrument, shovel, whatever... sit down at the keyboard, the easel, the desk... and do what we do.

That small step of starting leads to other small steps which will ultimately produce something. Whether it is good enough to work with and share... only time will tell. But at least we have done what we needed to do. One small step at a time.

The Tick Bite that Results in an Allergy to Red Meat

We've all (likely) heard of Lyme Disease, caused by a bite from the black-legged tick. We know (or ought to know) that we should wear long pants, tuck in our socks and inspect ourselves (and our pets) for attached ticks when we hike in high-tick risk areas.

Lyme Disease Risk Areas in Canada

Lyme disease (caused by a bacteria) can be nasty, causing all sorts of symptoms like rashes, joint pain, facial palsy, etc... sometimes months after the tick bite. The repercussions of untreated tick bites are long-lasting and scary.

But now... down in the southeastern United States... there's a new tick-borne illness. Some people, who get bitten by the lone star tick (it has a white spot on its back) develop a permanent allergy to all mammalian meat and things like dairy. Yep. You heard that right. The lone star tick can carry can carry a substance called alpha-gal that, after a bite, triggers a delayed allergic reaction to red meat in the poor human who got bitten. It's called Alpha-gal syndrome and there's no cure. But what the heck is Alpha-gal??

Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule that humans don’t have in their system, but a lot of animals do. This includes many mammalian animals such as cows, bison, rabbit, goats, deer, pigs, sheep, and lambs. And their products... like milk, cheese, other dairy products and gelatin. If a person is bitten by a lone star tick and it transmits the alpha-gal molecule, then the person may develop an antibody reaction to the alpha-gal molecule. In other words, they could develop an allergy. This means the next time the person eats red meat such as beef or venison, or something made with beef gelatin, or drinks a glass of milk, or eats ice cream, they could break out in hives or have a more serious allergic reaction.

Black-legged tick (left) vector for Lyme Disease
Lone Star Tick (right) vector for Alpha-Gal Syndrome

Well... that shouldn't really matter to us in Canada, right? I mean... the lone star tick is down in the southeast United States. Well... yes and no. It used to limited to the SE US but now... with climate change, and warming temperatures, the tick can survive farther and farther north. It's recently been spotted in the northeastern United States. And... in 2022 and 2023... some have been found in Ontario and Quebec.

Soooo... if we allow climate change to continue to run rampant... we can expect a future in which the lone star tick will colonize higher latitudes... eventually scrambling over the Rocky Mountains and heading for the Pacific Coast. The cynic in me foresees a future in which the majority of North Americans have been bitten by the lone-star tick and are forced to readjust their eating habits. We might not make the switch to less meat now... voluntarily... but there may come a time when nature makes the choice for us.

More Reading

CTV News - Tick bites: Meat allergy caused by tick spit more common now

CNN - Alpha-gal: Meat allergy passed by ticks may affect hundreds of thousands in US, CDC estimates

CTV News - Another tick that causes meat allergy spotted in Canada

BeefResearch Site - The Red Meat Allergy: A Canadian Perspective

Virtual Camino Update

I am still inching my way along the virtual camino managing about 3 km a day with our mid-day walk. I passed the 60% mark a month or so ago (screenshot is from July 13).

When I first started this virtual Camino via The Conqueror Challenge... I had had high hopes of managing 10 km or so a day with several walks but... that was overly ambitious! Unlike on the real Camino, where all you need to do is focus on walking... here at home, real life sticks its busy nose into everything!

And it's OK... I need to cut myself some slack which I'm not always good at. But this is good practice in just letting things be and not getting my knickers tied up in a knot about how I am "failing". 

I am just inching along... and inchworms do eventually get places. It just takes a bit longer. This is not a race, nor is it urgent. 

So chill... relax... enjoy the ride and let the pressure go. I tend to have super high standards but the self-induced pressure can turn unhealthy very quickly.

As I write this in mid-July, I'm heading over to Vancouver next week and am hoping that I'll get a bunch of longer walks in there. So I might make a few jack-rabbit bursts towards my goal!

I did receive another virtual postcard a while back when I hit the 50% mark. It was from a monastery turned Hotel, in Carrión de los Condes. I had a look online, and the monastery cloisters look like something straight out of Harry Potter.

And... when I hit the 60% mark, they planted another tree for me! That's 2 trees so far... I hope the little guys are doing OK and will actually grow to maturity.

Is My To-Do List a Task List or a Wishful Thinking List?

 

I love lists. I make lists at the drop of a hat.

What's our meal plan for the week? Let's make a list.
What errands do I need to run on Friday? It's on a list.
What garden projects are still waiting for me? Check the list.

But... I am starting to realize that I am not the greatest to-do list maker. I always seem to have more things on my to-do list for the day than I can ever hope to accomplish. A lot of these things don't have a firm, fixed deadline. Nor are they overly urgent. They just need to get done within the next month or so. At least, I think they do.

What I tend to do is look at my overwhelming daily to-do list with all of these extra tasks, and I will re-schedule some tasks and kick them down the road to next week, or next month or 3 months from now. And when next week arrives, I find myself doubly overwhelmed because of these kicked tasks that now drop into my day with a thud.

You see... I don't actually know that I have a "To-Do" list. Such a list has tasks with concrete deadlines and actionable tasks that I can sink my teeth into. My lists, on the other hand, tend to be "Wishful Thinking" lists. Or Hopeful lists. Or Possibility lists. Or Maybe-This-Week lists.

I think that I can get these tasks done next week. So I just kick them into next week and hope that next week looks better than this week and I'll actually get around to them. Or some of the tasks/projects have been hanging around for a few months and I think... "I really need to get to that... my not this week, I'll boot it to next week and maybe it will get done'.

Yeah. Exciting, eh? Not.

When these Maybe/Hopefully/Possibly-Today tasks show up on a specific day, I generally look at them and think... "Nope, not today... maybe tomorrow" and punt them into the future. "I don't feel like it"... "I don't have the energy for this"... "Other things are more important"... Ad nauseum...

I know how to make lists. I even know how to make to-do lists. (Or at least I think I do). I have a great to-do list app that manages all my tasks. But when this overwhelm happens and I see the same pattern of behaviour (shoveling tasks into the future)... I think I need a new system. I need a new app!!! I've gone through a lot of to-do list apps and I know that is not the answer. The one I have right now is perfectly fine. Although... maybe it needs an AI integration to help me manage things? That would be cool!! (New shiny object distracting me from actually getting things done). But I don't think it's there yet... at least not this month.

In the meantime, I need to comb through my to-do list and get real. I know that I have gotten a bit sloppy with some of my tasks and that they are too broad (more like a project than a task). So it is to drill down and identify the next actionable task for these things that I keep booting into the future.

A Dream Cruise is a Carbon Nightmare

Well... there goes that little dream. Sigh. It's always sad when you come up with a bright light bulb idea and it burns out so fast.

My partner and I had come up with this brilliant idea of taking a cruise vacation. It seemed to tick a lot of boxes... affordable, easy travel out of Vancouver, see new places, all inclusive and easy for partner who has trouble on long-haul flights. What's not to love!

Just pop over to Vancouver, board a cruise ship and see the world! Enjoy the delicious food, check out the entertainment and soak up some sun around the pool. No flight. No airports. Just kick back and relax.

Sounds dreamy, yes?

Well... no.

I discovered, much to my chagrin, that cruise ships are essentially massive carbon producing monsters. They have these massive engines that run 24/7, even when the ship is in port. These engines use heavy fuel oil, a tar-like substance which is incredibly toxic and a residual of the petroleum industry. Basically it's the crud nobody else wants and is incredibly dirty.

Even though a new cruise ship costs $1,000,000,000 (that's a billion)... they can't afford to spend a piddly $1,000,000 (that's a million) to install emission abatement systems.

They've done tests on cruise ships and the emissions that the passengers breathe are 20 times worse than the pollution on a main road... in Beijing.

Soooo... what is the carbon footprint of a cruise ship? Well... brace yourself. They produce the same particulate emissions as 1,000,000 (a million) cars. Every. Single. Day.

Some cruise ships emit up to 150 tonnes of carbon. Every. Single. Day.

And no... even though the cruise ship companies claim they are clean & green... it's not true. At least not for the majority of them. Check out the Cruise Ship Report card by Friends of the Earth.

Oh... and if that's not enough... some cruise ship companies have been caught dumping dumping trash, raw sewage, and fuel into the ocean. Looking at your Carnival and Royal Caribbean. 

Cruise Ship Rankings for
Environmental Protection Measures
by NABU

My head is hurting. I did find a carbon footprint calculator for a cruise and... for a 5 day cruise with 2 days in port... it was 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per person. That's a lot of carbon... for 5 days. Our little car uses emits just under 5 tonnes of CO2 per year.

And then that got me thinking... what about our ferries??? They run off of diesel... I think. Well... ferries generally aren't as bad, mostly because of the short distances... and they're not dumping sewage and stuff into the ocean... And they are waaaaayyyy better than short haul flight! Here's a breakdown of CO2 emissions per km.

In case you're squinting... top of the list is Cruise, then short haul flights (less than 600 km), then flights more than 3700 km, car, flight (600-3700 km), ferry by car, motorbike, Ferry with car (4p), Car with 4 people, Train local, Touring car, Ferry (foot passenger), International Eurostar Train.

Right then... may have to rethink the cruise vacation idea. At least for a while. Some cruise companies are starting to make changes. And Hurtigruten, a Norwegian line, is miles ahead of the others. But we'd need to fly to Norway to take a cruise from them... which spews CO2 hither and yon.

Hydrogen fuel seems to be the wave of the future... maybe. Although, right now... hydrogen fuel cells in a cruise ship are used for in-port power and slow steaming. Other than that, they're still running off petroleum sludge.

I'm hoping that there will be some major progress by 2030 but... in the meantime... should we avoid cruise ships? I'm not here to say yay or nay. But if we do take a cruise... don't bring disposable garbage onboard, turn off your lights when you leave the cabin and limit the amount of grey water you produce (short or less frequent showers).

On a happier note... the Vancouver cruise ship terminal does have shore power so cruise ships can plug in and turn off their diesel power. That's 50 less tonnes of CO2 emissions per port call. Yay. Small steps...

More Reading

CBC - As it Happens - Cruise Ship Emissions are the Same as 1 Million Cars

Popular Science - Care about the Planet? Skip the Cruise, for Now.

Friends of the Earth - Cruise Ships' Environmental Impact

Friends of the Earth - Cruise Ship Report Card

My Climate - Carbon Footprint Calculator for a Cruise Ship

NABU - German Research Group - 2022 Cruise Ship Rankings

BC Ferries - Clean Futures Plan 2022

Ferry GoGo - Ferry Emissions - is UK site but probably ballpark for our ferries

Disposable Solar Lights

Every couple of years, I go to Home Depot and buy another box of 6 solar landscape lights to put along our driveway.

The first year, they work perfectly fine. The second year, less so. And by Year 3, I'm back at Home Depot buying another box.

And the old ones? Well... into the trash they go. And it annoys the heck out of me. Why do they die so quickly?

I've tried putting new batteries into them. Nope... makes no difference. The battery chamber often has bugs in it and the battery terminals are sometimes corroded.

The solar panel on top of the lights also gets all cloudy and even with a new battery, it's just not sucking up the solar power they way it should.

Now $20 for 6 solar lights isn't the end of the world but... there must be a better way? I know the Dollar Store has cheap little ones for $1 or $2. But that just contributes to our disposable lifestyle.

I've thought about getting wired driveway lights put in and I guess that is an option but it seems like an expensive one. And sooooo... I just pay $20 every 2 years for a new box of crappy battery operated ones. Which irks me to no end.

Could we do without the driveway lights? Probably not. Our basement suite is an Airbnb and at nighttime... it's nice to have the edge of the driveway lit up for them. But does that mean that "nice" is essential? I would say "yes".

Ugh... if anyone out there has a better suggestion than crappy disposable solar lights from Home Depot... please let me know!

What is Normal?

 I was cleaning out my email inbox and saw a headline go by... "What is Normal?" and it got me thinking. What... exactly... is... normal? And more importantly, who decides "what is normal"?

What immediately popped into my mind was.. the infamous Bell Curve... which is a "graph depicting the normal distribution". Most of the thingies are in the middle, with the mean, mode and median in there... along with the "standard deviation" (that's the bottom). So in this graph 68.2% of the thingies are within 1 standard deviation... and 95.4% are within 2 standard deviations.

I know... I know... are your eyes crossed yet? Yep... mine too. I vaguely remember some of this from high school math class. But the point is... this seems to be the root case of "normal".

If you have a car in North America, you are probably "normal"... in that, you fall within that middle dark blue bit.  See... it's a bit skewed but you can see the bell curve hump that most households in the USA fall within that 1 to 2 car range.

So if you are one of the outliers... either no car or more than 4 or 5 cars... you are not "normal".

But it's generally a numbers game... you need a scale along the bottom. So you could ask... how many body piercings do women have? And you'd get numbers along the bottom from 0 to 10+... same as with the cars. And in the piercings bell curve, you would find out where "normal" is... maybe 2 or 3 piercings.

But if you just ask, how many women have piercings, you'll get one number... 70% of women have piercings. So in this case... the majority of women have piercings... so they are "normal"...

Do you see where that goes? It becomes a "who has the most votes" game. Most women have long hair. Most men have short hair. You could probably even get a bell curve for hair length... with very few women having super-short hair... or super long hair. And the middle of the pack is "normal".

But while "normal" might have some usefulness in the world of geometry, where we also talk about means and medians and modes and standard deviations... it has also become a kicker of a word out in the real world.

Because if you are not "normal"... then you are "weird". And not in a good way. You are an outlier, a rogue, someone out on the fringes of "normality".

But what if we considered the entire bell curve is "normal". There will always be outliers and that is part of "normal" distribution. It's part of nature. If you had a bell curve where everything was just in one category... it would no longer be a bell curve. Everyone would be the same. And that would not be a "normal distribution".

Let's look at... oh, let's say deer antlers... see... bell curve.

That is a "normal distribution". Some deer have higher antler scores (inches), some have lower scores... but most of them are in the middle. And that's normal. But it doesn't mean that the ones with scores between 110-150 are "normal" deer. Does it? Or average? Or above average?

Geez... we really do like to measure things but maybe we take it too far. We take statistical probability language and turn around and apply it to living, breathing human beings.

• If you don't look like "most" women... then you are not normal.
• If you don't eat meat, like "most" people... then you are not normal.
• If you are not hetero, like "most" people... then you are not normal.
• If you weigh more than "most" people... then you are not normal.

Yeah. Normal is over-rated and misapplied. We take a statistical term and slap it on people who do not fit into our narrow (68.2%) worldview.

It's probably time to retire the word "normal"... unless you are a statistician and actually know how to use it properly. Most of us don't have a license to know how to use the word properly!