My Trip to FL!

So I decided to take a bit of a break from the bitter cold and not-so-spring weather of New England, and, taking advantage of MIT's generous spring break, I went down to Sanibel island to visit my grandmother. When she picked me up, we spent some time trying to remember when I had last visited. There was an awkward pause when we realized that I hadn't been there in over 11 years. But more on that later. First the fun stories.

My first night there, Grandma and I went to a wine tasting at the Captiva Yacht Club. There was some really delicious food, and the wines were spectacular. I was designated driver, so I only had a small amount. Luckily, I don't really drink much anyway, so I didn't feel like I had lost out on too much. What struck me most was the cost: $100 per person! Grandma doesn't mind such things, and since it was for charity, she minded even less. Ah, to live that life.

The next day, I spent most of my time just relaxing. In the evening, I took a very relaxing bike ride (almost 10 miles). I went to the Ding Darling Sanctuary, and biked around on their trails. While there, I actually stumbled upon a very cute scene, and this ties into the best story from the trip: my baby raccoon story!

I first saw the momma raccoon sniffing the ground on the side of the path. I didn't want to scare her, but I also wanted to see better (and eventually pass her). I slowly walked forward. She saw me, and tried to distract me by sauntering off into the brush. That's when I realized that she was leaning over a tiny baby raccoon. It was so small that it didn't really have the thick raccoon coat. It had only a soft downy coat! I guess she decided that I wasn't a real threat, since she soon came back. This time, she brought with her a young one! She had evidently decided that it was time for her to check on her littlest one. I started to get a little concerned myself, since the little one wasn't moving that much. I have a soft spot for raccoons, since they are just so cute with their little masks and tiny paws. You just don't get much more adorable. The mom and older sibling circled the little one for a while, making a really cute purring noise and chirping at each other. I'd never heard raccoons make any noises, so this came as a bit of a surprise to me. Eventually, Mom and the older one decided it was time to go into the bushes. This gave me the chance to get closer to the little one. Again, I worried it might be ill, and if it were, I would have gone back to alert the workers at the sanctuary. I'd assume they can do things to help them, besides "take them behind the shed". The baby looked at me a little bit, and then, miracle of miracles, it hopped up, stretched a little, and wandered into the bushes, chirping for its mom! I was pretty happy that the little guy was doing ok, and I hope that it continues to do well!

The next day, Grandma had some functions in the morning because of her patronage of the various charities on the island, so I was left to my own devices. I decided to take another bike ride, and this time, I went between 25 and 30 miles! It was outrageous. I rode for many hours, all over the island. It was really nice to just be outside in the warm sun for a good bit of time. I had lunch with Grandma when I returned, and then we went to the shell museum. There is a brick in their parking lot dedicated to Grandpa, and Grandma also dedicated an exhibit to him in the museum. It was nice to see it. The museum was really cute too. I'd never been before, and I'm glad I went. I'd always enjoyed shelling, and there were some really interesting specimens.

Wednesday was my last day on the island. In truth, it might be my last time there ever, which makes it all the more bitter-sweet. Grandma and I went to another preserve where we walked on some trails for much of the morning. After lunch, she drove me the long way back to the airport, and I headed home. It was a really nice trip, and if it is the last time I go to that island, it will be a sweet closing to a sizable portion of my young life.

So now I might as well close with why I'd not been there in so long. It's not the most exciting or positive story. My grandfather died of a brain tumor on March 1st of 1995. It was somewhat unexpected, but there were lots of signs. I'd known of some of them, but Grandma told me a lot more of what she'd seen when she and I talked about my previous trip to Sanibel. I wasn't there when he died (mainly because he had flown to Baton Rouge to be closer to my family during his treatment), but I had visited the Thanksgiving before. That's when I saw that he was having troubles. We'd gone out to dinner one night, perhaps Thanksgiving itself, and when we got back in the car, Grandpa started it, put it in gear, and then couldn't find the break. The car started to roll towards a small bay behind the restaurant, and finally Grandma screamed at him about it, and he managed to get his food on the break pedal. I knew that he'd had some neurological testing recently, and I spoke with my mom about him being unable to find the break. It struck me as a little odd. She called his neurologist that night, and his neurologist pulled my grandfather's driver's license.

While my grandmother is a very good driver and was a good driver at the time, Grandpa did all of the driving when we were all together. They were very angry when they found out that I had told Mom, who in turn told the neurologist, who in turn pulled the license, and there was a huge fight lasting for the rest of the trip. There was a lot of yelling (all one sided, since I didn't really have any retort), and I never went back.

Perhaps this is why this trip meant a very great deal to me. Grandma is selling the house on Sanibel, and she's moving to a retirement community off of the island. My trip back this last time was a way of saying good by to a place that had a very great many memories. Some of them were very good. Some of them were not. I think that by having a good time these few days, I helped harmonize those feelings inside me, and just remember pleasantly the good times I had.

Declaration of War

Our corn and sweets industry has perpetuated food terrorism against the American people for far too long. I'm here to ask that you stand by my side and stand up to their horrible fat building machine. You all know me. I've sat next to you in many classes. I've rambled insanely next to you on various street corners. I've organized conferences you've attended, and I've injured myself skiing in front of you. After much thought, I've decided that the most important battle facing us is against Big Corn. That's right: it's time we go to war against HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

This has been brewing for a while. Recent studies have shown that mice (honest to God MICE, people!) put on more fat when fed diets with calories coming from high fructose corn syrup rather than diets with calories coming from sugar, even if the mice ate fewer total calories! I'm normally not concerned with the outrageous media debacle that is "Obesity in America", but the lessons garnered from the sacrifices of these brave mice cannot be ignored.

So I ask that you join me in no longer consuming products sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. This is actually a little trickier than you might think. This rules out pretty much any soda made in the states (though European sodas are sweetened with sugar instead). It's also ruling out most forms of candy (which is why I might have to "grandfather" in certain candies like cadbury cream eggs, to which I have an addiction for which I am seeking treatment. One day at a time). Obviously, things like fresh fruit are still ok, but sadly, it costs a large bit more. This is the price the people must pay to spread thin freedom.

Join me, my friends. Join Operation Enduring Thinness. Fight the battle of the bulge by cutting out that horrible high fructose corn syrup.

Settling Back Down

I apologize for my lack of posts of late. It's been a very hectic couple of weeks! A quick recap:

Three weeks ago, I went to Notre Dame to give a talk and talk with people there. I got some great ideas for future projects, and I got to spend a little time with my friend C.R. Now few people may recall, but this friendship was instrumental in the formation of the Talbot Conference. This made it all the nicer to see him, especially since two days after I returned to Boston, I headed to North Conway, NH to attend said conference. It lasted a week, during which time I gave a talk, attended a few, skied a bit, fell down, tubed a bit, and chilled in the hot tub. Quite an amusing time, all told. I returned home, a bit exhausted, on Saturday, and on Sunday, I hopped on a plane to go to Baltimore to give a talk at Johns Hopkins. Since I'd been on the road for so long, I only stayed a few days. I did, however, have a fantastic time there, meeting really nice people and talking with old colleagues. On Tuesday, I returned home, hopefully to stay for a bit.

Truth be told, I'm kinda traveled out. I should go down to FL to visit my grandmother, but I'm not exactly sure when I can schedule that. I'm just really beat! Plus, with each passing day, my thesis weighs a little more on me. What makes it all the harder is that I've got a number of projects just boiling away in the back of my mind, none of which I can work on until the thesis is done! With Cherry Bomb's help, though, I was able to put my various parts and papers into the required format for MIT. That seems to be a good bit of the work, since now I can focus on things like the introduction and polishing things. One of my goals for this weekend is to find all of the things that I must prove before I can turn it in. Ugh!

Speaking of weekend goals, I've already accomplished one: setting up my windowbox garden! I have two small planters that sit on my porch, and today I turned over the soil, ripped out all of the dead plants (burying them in the hopes that they become mini-compost), bought seeds, and planted them! I also filled an extra flower pot I had with the last of my potting soil (which has lasted me 3 years), making a bit of extra space. In the large box, I planted some small tomatoes, some sage, and some rosemary. In the small box, I planted thyme, and in the pot, I planted lavender. I think that the pot will mainly stay inside, so it seemed like a nice addition. I'm excited about this, since I really like gardening, and it's finally warm enough for me to get things started. I hope the weather holds out.

I'm a little behind on my reading. Since my last post, I've only read one book: Ptolemy's Gate. It's the last in the series of books I'd `blogged about earlier, and I think that it was in many ways better than the earlier ones. At times it dragged along, but like many of the books I most enjoy, it is essentially a big tale of redemption.

I'm sure there are huge things I am missing. I can only say that much of my brain has gone to mush in the last few weeks. I'm sleeping so deeply at this point that even my Senate Contact's kitty has trouble waking me up. When everything is back to normal in my life, then I should be more on my game!