We did have the opportunity to share what we do know with some brand new gardeners (70 new across the city). Namely, that installing drip irrigation is both easier and cheaper than you might think given the city’s rebate program. And I did get to ask about peonies, the other long-term investment plant I’m considering. Peonies and ants go together like any symbiotic partnership, and I’m not sure what the ants will mean for the rest of my garden. However, I didn’t hear any warnings – just explanations about planting depths for peonies – so I think I’ll be going for it. And as the sky seems to indicate snow again for tonight, I’ll just have to type up my notes for what I hope to have bursting in green in the garden in another couple months.

While fighting off the flies became exhausting the first day, it was more than a week before he fully realized the boy was never coming back.

• It is always one of two guys, who work at a nearby warehouse that sells framed art to doctor’s and other professional offices.
• The doll is, shall we say, abused. The hair is matted and looks like it might have been burned, and there are marks all over it from shoes and some sort of violence.
• The guy isn’t running, but isn’t moving slowly – like it’s something he has to do but wants to get it over with.
• The doll wears a similarly abused lace thong (no, I didn’t previously know thongs were made in doll size either).
• The doll is always carried by a foot, like a kid holding a safety blanket.
• The doll lives on a  shelf in the warehouse the guys work at when not performing this lap.
•  While the employees at the framed art warehouse regularly have pep talks in the parking lot, we never see an interaction prior to the trip around both of our buildings.
• The shipping manager and myself are the only ones to have seen this, as far as I know – since we get there earliest in the morning.

Last week, something changed. The bigger of the two guys strode by with the doll wearing no shoes on his stockinged feet, and a construction helmet.

So WHAT IS GOING ON?

OK, I’ve already admitted, along with the shipping manager, that we don’t actually want to know. We suspect it is a punishment doled out on the employee with the lowest sales – some kind of punishment/motivation for working harder for your commission. But seriously, why did the doll have to be abused to create this situation?

I suspect I will never know.

I must admit, having extraordinarily convenient revelations is an excellent way to secure things you want as well as reinforce how well-connected you are to god. Also, having sacred objects that no one is allowed to see, but only feel through an opaque sack is also an excellent way to show you are holy. Thirdly, telling a young woman that god told you to make her your spiritual wife ASAP or else you would be slain by an angel is apparently a way hot pickup line in the 1840s. (And BTW, god said “don’t tell the first wife about this, babe.”) If anyone has success with this line in the present, please let me know, I’m very curious.

One of the author’s strengths lies in explaining how popular explanations for life in the American Frontier worked their way into Mormon belief. For example, meeting large groups of native people, who built houses, weapons, objects of beauty, and other things believed to be European inventions was completely confusing to the settlers. It was not uncommon for many settlers to believe that the Native Americans were actually descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel, and furthermore, that a white person returning them to the Christian faith would ensure that the converted natives would turn white skinned. Wow. I can’t imagine the explanations used to tell Native Americans why they would want this.

There is much I don’t know about Mormon faith. And I am would believe that much of the Masonic-influenced ceremonies have changed greatly from Joseph Smith’s time. But Masonry had a resurgence in popularity around the same time that many of the ceremonies in the temple began. This section on the original ceremony for a man joining the Mormon priesthood and donning the sacred undergarments was very interesting:

“The Masonic square and compass were cut into the garment on the breast and a slash was made across the knee. In the beginning the cut across the knee was apparently deep enough to penetrate the flesh and leave a scar, but this practice was eventually abandoned as a result of protests from the Mormon women. There was also a slash in the garment across the abdomen, symbolic of the disemboweling that would be the fate of anyone who revealed the sacred secrets.”

 excerpt from No Man Knows My History, by Fawn M. Brodie

Smith had recently become a Free Mason along with most of his trusted leadership, and was deeply interested in the rituals associated with the group. However, I am willing to assume that the difficulty in finding out more about the sacred undergarments today (as a non-Mormon friend of mine in Salt Lake strives to do) is a result of dire consequences warned to new Mormons even now if you reveal any sacred Mormon secrets. Sorry anyway, Brian, and good luck.

UPDATE: My brother is still pretty shook up. Many co-workers have quit, making his job more stressful, and he had to remove graffiti left by the shooter. All the employees are supporting each other, though. He may still decide to quit (he had lots of valid reasons before this happened), which he has my full support on.

We’ve gotten very little snow here so far this season. Which is a shame, because the most notable thing about the weather has been the howling, gusty winds. Snow is much better than wind – and certainly better for tourist dollars, which the state could definitely use.

In Colorado, there’s a two week period where you can vote prior to the election. There tend to be 4-10 voting sites per county and you can vote at any of the locations within your county, between the hours of 8am and 5:30pm (hours differ slightly by county). Despite urging from multiple friends to take advantage of this, I had much more time available on voting day itself, and held off voting until this morning. And it paid off! 30% or so of registered Colorado voters had voted early, (67% in one county) making my trip to the booth smooth and simple. I took longer to fill out the ballot with its dozen amendments than I did waiting in line. Across the county, poll workers were complaining of being bored, because there weren’t that many voters trickling in today. (Turnout overall is still expected to be high, just distributed through early, mail-in and traditional voting). Compare this to reports from St. Louis:

“Problems persist at Velda City city hall tonight, where more than 200 people still waited to cast a ballot as night fell and the closing of polls neared. The wait: still about 5 hours.” – STLtoday.com

Even the exact polling place I used to vote at had long lines. A friend emailed me:

“We waited four hours in line to vote this morning! We arrived just before 6:00. The polling place didn’t actually open until 6:30. And then there were not enough election workers in place to move things along.”

I’m not so much feeling voter outrage as thinking that I’ve observed an easy solution to this. Missouri (and the rest of the non-early-voting country) would be much happier with early voting. It makes it easier on poll workers, on voters who can’t get time off on voting day easily, on people with unusual work schedules, on voters who like to vote early, and even people like me who stubbornly insist on voting the old-fashioned day-of way.  Demand more voting days, MO.

Set in an unidentified city, with unnamed characters, and with what would otherwise be an annoying lack of grammar or identification of the speaker in dialogue; the book examines what would happen if an unexplained, very contagious outbreak of blindness broke out across an entire population. Described by those afflicted as a “milky sea”, they are at the mercy of those who can still see, and the quick-spreading epidemic doesn’t inspire charity. This is made all the more interesting to me since my last position dealt extensively with vision – one of the few medical complaints that has as much subjective data to it as objective. Everything we do uses information from sight – especially interaction from other humans.

If such an epidemic really happened, would society survive? We treat blindness in its current forms as a disability, but expect that those with it can lead pretty normal lives, with jobs, relationships, and often a decent ability to live on their own. But if everyone was blind, would this still be the case?

More importantly, in the face of a major crisis, how do those who are determined to keep their humanity and compassion do that against those who would take advantage of each other, with no witnesses so to speak. The results leave me spooked, and yet the book feels completely realistic – some characters are prepared to change their lives to deal with a new and urgent need to depend on others and provide for others in turn even when dignity fails.  And at the other end, horrible, horrible acts are committed when people know they’re not being watched – literally, not seen, not identified and therefore it is almost impossible for these characters to feel guilt.

I also chose to read this book just before embarking on a long road trip/vacation that I think applies. Except for the first time I took this trip, I have been fortunate to be almost completely surrounded by people who express humanity to the fullest: super welcoming, eager to give new people warmth and laughter, work hard together, and solving problems for the good of the group in times of crisis. But this is by far not the norm in any society, and the fragility of group governance is all too obvious if you look around wherever resources are scarce. I am looking forward to the trip, and the confirmation it provides that I can identify and learn from those people who see crisis as a time to improve things, in an environment that doesn’t have any natural consequences for those who choose to instead screw their neighbors.

I should point out that Blindness did win the 1998 Nobel prize for Literature, which is an indication of greatness – and that I loved Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, not that the books are similiar, though both examine humanity in crisis. Both are definitely recommended reading, even if you also prefer non-fiction.

Just a warning, kids: even good boots go bad. The mold won in this case, but Sam gave them a good life before they were consumed.

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