Brad’s Take

I might have been six. It was Christmas Eve, Mom had settled my sister and me in the car, and gone back to “help Dad get ready,” I think was the explanation. It was dark, we were headed to Church for the annual Christmas presentation. It might have been 1957 or 1958.

Years later it was obvious – Mom and Dad scurried, playing Santa Claus in the few minutes they grabbed to drag out the gifts from their hiding places.

The superintendent of the Sunday School at Church handed out to each of us children the usual and expected Christmas bag – a plain brown paper bag, with an orange, an apple, maybe a short pound of peanuts, three or four peppermints in cello wrappers, and a couple of pieces of hard candy. Each and every bit of it, from the paper bag to the last peanut, was a treat, something we didn’t get in the usual course of things. Mom says of that time, “Things were tight. It was a problem if Dad needed shaving cream and I needed deodorant the same week.”

It was a great year for Santa plunder. I got a metal Tonka truck with big wheels that didn’t scratch the floor, and there was a 10 gallon aquarium. With gravel, an air pump and filter, a plastic plant, a light, and four orange and 2 black “popeye” Moor goldfish.

I don’t know, now, how Mom and Dad passed that fish tank off as a gift from Santa Claus. But it was a wonder, and a delight. I think almost all of the fish were there when Star Trek came on the air 10 years later, after one move and with a different tank stand.

What is there to wonder about some fish in a clear bucket? Sure, there is a light, they move, there was a bit of color and gentle sound. What was Christmas-ey about it? I still don’t know. But it was a wonder, something bright, and precious, and fragile.

I still like aquariums. After serving in the Navy, I had a 29″ aquarium and a 10″ black and white TV. When I left the Navy in 1980, and traveled in a packed Toyota to Tennessee, I recall we had a couple of Red Cap Oranda (goldfish, I had been working in a pet store) in a gallon pickle jar, changing water and putting the fish in a large goldfish bowl each night.

Back then for that fishy Christmas, we lived on a farm in Iowa. With Bantam chickens, hogs, and milk cows. Yet that aquarium and those fish brought a different aspect of nature into our home. Dad took us fishing, both then and later. There was never a confusion about whether to eat goldfish or free the bluegills, Bullhead or wall-eyed pike.

Were the goldfish an introduction to chores – feed every day to keep them alive, never overfeed ’cause that poisons the water? Were they a stimulus to young minds, a balm to overactive toddlers and yard apes? Were they pretty, as a bit of nature displayed with respect and reverence?

An aquarium today costs more dollars than my parents probably paid back 50 years ago. 20 years ago the science and technology of home aquariums had subtly advanced over the decades, introducing undergravel biologic filters that use bacteria to filter and cleanse the water, better understanding of water flow and aeration. Vastly more varieties of fish for community tanks. For those interested in a bit more vivid display, along with more demanding care, there are great salt mixes and products to make a saltwater aquarium, and saltwater fishes, available and enjoyable.

Will an aquarium today be a room decoration? Sure. A learning aid? Maybe. A fascination? That depends. A bit of wonder, come Christmas time? For many, I think the answer is yes.

When there are electronic or computer games that wrap around a family, or watching commercial TV has embroiled a home in the advertising-gimmick world of “find something *good*” means “on TV” – then the simple aquarium has a lot of competition for attention.

When you look at an electronic game, don’t think, “That is hours of entertainment”, think, “That is the result of efforts by many, many paid engineers, accountants, and generations of technology, all designed to capture my attention. What don’t they want me to pay attention to, that they devote so much time and effort to distract me?” When you look at your TV, it might be there to display DVD or Video movies. Or to access the internet or watch commercial TV. Again, the real question is “Why do I let the phalanx of advertisers marketing research scientists, communication and production engineers, producers and writers, all conspire to demand my attention to this program or that?”

Why should I settle for stories told with the sole purpose of being interrupted for three or four minutes at a time, ever seven minutes? Interrupted by carefully crafted short messages *intended* to distract me from whatever I was doing, thinking, or the story I was enjoying. Interrupted with a message carefully designed to be more memorable, more likely to direct me into some activity, than the story I had assumed I had chosen, for this regulated time interval.

Did I mention I watch movies, or read, a lot?

The aquarium is random, it is never the same moment to moment. Yet you seldom change channels. You could buy more plastic plants (in smaller tanks, and without special care, real water plants tend to decay more than grow, causing a risk to water quality), or air powered toys. Don’t put a souvenir star fish in an aquarium – the no-longer-living carcass of the starfish begins to decay, putting fish at risk. Don’t ask.

For the most part, aquarium fish are simple, unaffected by their surroundings, not needing change or entertainment. Keep the tank heater set correctly (about 78 degrees F for tropical fish), keep up with water changes and filter changes, feed appropriately twice a day (all food must be eaten within five minutes; anything after three minutes is wasted and likely to rot, causing water poisoning.) De-chlorinate water before adding, as the chlorine in the water poisons the fish and can disable the filter for a while. Don’t overpopulate the tank – figure about one inch of fish, measured from gills to beginning of tail, per gallon of aquarium. Pick compatible fish, you don’t want to watch them kill each other, if you put a rough (but colorful) fish with others that don’t do well defending themselves. When doing partial water changes, the water from the aquarium makes very good water for houseplants – wonderfully rich with micronutrients. There are good books, and kits for bowls, 10 (12) gallon tanks, and larger sets.

The visible part, the tank, is often the least expensive part of an aquarium. Expect to pay at least another fifty ($50) dollars for pump, gravel (about one pound per tank size gallon, half that if not using an undergravel filter), filter (using two filtration systems is recommended for 20 gallon and larger tanks – I like undergravel and one other), de-chlorinator, tank heater, thermometer, light, and fish food. Don’t put fish in, until the tank has been circulating and filtering the water for several days. Oh, and a friend. If possible, you really want a friend that has a tank, or has kept one. There are some severely expensive filter systems, that most home aquariums won’t need. There are also barely adequate or inadequate cheap filters that are difficult to use. Picking a spot for the aquarium away from direct sunlight (grows algae, heats the water), and away from cold drafts (may overpower the heater, set to 78 degrees fahrenheit), and away from traffic areas that might knock the tank over (bad for the fish). A cover on the aquarium slows evaporation, keeps the temp more even, and keeps energetic fish from jumping out, which can be fatal to the fish.

What happens for families living off the grid, or when the grid fails as is predicted? Goldfish and gouramis (a large family of larger tropical fish) tend to do well without “aeration”, without an aquarium pump, as they can “bite” air at the surface of their bowl or tank. Goldfish are cold blooded, and can tolerate lower temperatures with more temperature variation than tropical breeds. Without aeration, moving water so that the exchange of oxygen that happens at the surface can proceed to enrich the water environment, a shallower bowl or tank is better, and will provide for fewer fish.

Perhaps there is room for someone to work out a clockwork driven aquarium aerator, or other means to warm and circulate water in an aquarium. Maybe an exercise bike driven, large but low pressure air bladder capable of powering the modest needs of an aquarium filtration and aeration system.

Until we all go unplugged, and for those families not completely enwrapped in electronically served, merchant designed “entertainment”, an aquarium can be a rich and rewarding addition to the family. Even if I can’t recall how an aquarium in the living room was endowed with so much Christmas wonder.

UPDATE: About.com’s Freshwater Aquarium adviser writes about “Common New Aquarium Mistakes“.

Sharon Astyk writes on Casaubon’s book about “Toys R Not Us”

Abbie commented on the post,

This post really speaks to me. Both my mom and my mother-in-law can go overboard with presents, and I fear that next Christmas will be way overindulgent for our baby. I’ve spoken to each of them about guidelines for what will be appropriate, and spent time reminiscing with my brothers and my husband’s siblings about our favorite toys: blocks, sticks, cardboard boxes, dolls… and of course our favorite things to play with were our pets. So I think (hope) that the moms will understand and give presents that reflect our simple values. I don’t want an overwhelming sea of plastic for each birthday and holiday!

My reply to Abbie, as usual, is bigger than a simple comment should be. So here is my reply to Abbie:

@ Abbie,

The honor of the recipient of a gift is to use that gift in a manner that the giver doesn’t regret the giving. (I read that in a science fiction novel.)

That said, I think the issue of respect must be addressed. You might approach your mother and aunts, and state you are concerned there is a problem coming up for the holidays. Explain that you and your house have chosen to address meaningless values of things, vs. values of spirit and self esteem. Explain that you see much danger in commercial gift giving, that you are focusing on enriching the inner life, and reducing the distractions of clutter and overabundance.

Explain you would prefer gifts of a recorder and song book, to a popular CD or Guitar Hero add-on. Song books and instrument books guide one to the beauty of culture, history, and art. They take time to master, and have no arbitrary “end of game”. The perseverance of learning to play well or sing well is a justly earned discipline, and builds character – instead of merely passing time, admiring an arbitrarily assigned idol.

Don’t get me wrong, there is much to learn from music, whether classical (endurance?!), country, rock, rap, etc. Some lessons should not be learned, but knowing that such a message is false and to be avoided is a valuable lesson, too. Also books, drama, movies, even TV. But electronic versions tend to represent more commercial interest than personal growth. And I am convinced that it is the short, bright intrusions of advertisements into TV programs that largely explains the growth in ADD and ADHD diagnoses – ads disrupt and distract from story telling, which destroys concentration and persistence over the seven (7) minutes between commercials. Some computer games return to the epic story format, and engage for protracted periods of concentration, effort, and persistence. Yet there is little, oftentimes, to learn about people or life from computer games. There are exceptions, yet they require the player to be willing to transfer game knowledge to life skills, something computer users tend to disassociate very early on.

Accept that you can and should not impose your own beliefs on others. But watch closely what they do. Gifting is *always* about respect and responsibility. Pay attention to what your gifting, and the gifts you receive, say about each relationship.

Giving an unwanted gift should be a disappointment to the giver. Within reason the recipient should acknowledge the gift – that is being “polite”. Giving a child a gift in despite of a parent’s request is a clear and aggressive act of disrespect. Disrespect through inappropriate gifts might be a slander to the parent’s parenting skills, their lack of adequate assets to parent, or it might be a simple bullying of the parents (perhaps a continuation of the poor parenting skills the now-parent survived as a child.)

A well-chosen gift is an endeavor of love, not a trip to the “most popular” aisle of a store. Using the above example of a recorder – a first recorder should be a gift. It should be chose with the finger agility and reading ability of the recipient. A certain amount of knowledge is needed to find an instrument suitable for a beginner – not just the “beginner” model the local store happens to carry. It should be easy enough for a beginner to play, and play adequately in the ranges a beginner will manage first. Like ponies, horses, bicycles, books, etc., buying a professional, Olympic competition model is great – when the craftsman that will be using the tool chooses one that fits his or her needs. For a beginner, a hammer is indistinguishable from a concert-grade recorder, a sawhorse from a world champion race horse, jumper, or other performance horse. Buy what the beginner needs. For later acquisitions, enable the craftsman to acquire the tools needed for the next level of growth, next usage. Overbuying kills dreams, because the beginner doesn’t get the tools to begin, and cannot acquire the skills to advance to the advanced tools.

If you have someone bent on a mega-huge purchase – ask for a good, solid, used upright piano, maybe a couple of beginner books. And a visit from a good piano tuner to condition and tune the piece.

Actually, I think the piano is an insidious family endeavor. Because the practice advances from “hit a key” to “hit the right key”, everyone in ear-shot learns about correct timing, correct notes, phrasing, etc. Plus, old tunes get dusted off.

Where electronic games create a world of fantasy, music and music lessons return awareness of earlier cultural values.

I suppose threatening Mom with picking a third-rate nursing home, when the time comes, next week, would be a bit of over-reaction. Depending on Mom, of course.

The New York Times wrote, on Oct 11, 2009, a piece on property values and disputes over hanging laundry out to dry, “Debate Follows Bills to Remove Clotheslines Bans”

. . . Like the majority of the 60 million people who now live in the country’s roughly 300,000 private communities, Ms. Saylor was forbidden to dry her laundry outside because many people viewed it as an eyesore, not unlike storing junk cars in driveways, and a marker of poverty that lowers property values.

In the last year, however, state lawmakers in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have overridden these local rules with legislation protecting the right to hang laundry outdoors, citing environmental concerns since clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumption.

The dispute is serious.

“It seems like such a mundane thing, hanging laundry, and yet it draws in all these questions about individual rights, private property, class, aesthetics, the environment,” said Steven Lake, a British filmmaker who is releasing a documentary next May called “Drying for Freedom,” about the clothesline debate in the United States.

The film follows the actual case of feuding neighbors in Verona, Miss., where the police say one man shot and killed another last year because he was tired of telling the man to stop hanging his laundry outside.

Tree ‘em.

But I have a solution. For communities with restrictions, and that don’t want to gaze, rapt, at the holes in the neighbor’s knickers flapping in the breeze – plant trees. Poplars, evergreens. Establish a wind-break zone about the homeowner’s association boundary, plant with wind and view-blocking, carbon dioxide-fixing, trees. Maybe hazel, pecan, or walnut trees for their annual bounty of edible nuts. Maybe apples and pears or oranges and plums. Cherries or peaches. A bit of gardening and landscaping, and in a brief time, watch the cycle of nature cover up those unsightly undies for four to six months of the year or more.

And all without bothering the neighbors. Or would the green-laundry types, intent on saving the air and the climate, object to the extra trees? Naw.

If the roof caves in.

If the homeowners association were to change it’s policy, the mature trees could double as clotheslines. They could use something like the Tuff Enuff Tree Saver to keep the rope from scarring the tree bark (could damage the tree or limb).

More on clotheslines at Project Laundry List.

Proof positive: Global warming

Project Laundry List is making air-drying and cold-water washing laundry acceptable and desirable as simple and effective ways to save energy.

Look at the information and products at The Clothes Line Shop, LLC. Or shop clotheslines and clothesline accessories at Amazon.com.

Casaubon’s Book.

Hat tip to Sharon at Casaubon’s Book.

Wired.com occasionally does a chemical analysis of common consumer products. I was breezing through the contents of coffee, when I noticed something interesting.

Caffeine is a diuretic, so coffee newbies pee out the water quickly; java junkies build up resistance.

Diuretics are sometimes prescribed for people with water retention problems, sometimes associated with circulation (heart) problems. My father was. And my father was a life-long coffee drinker. As in, according to this analysis from Wired.com, a diuretic-resistant person, due to a caffeine habit.

Check out the article, read about coffee contains compounds that fight cavities and free-radical damage (antioxidants), provide niacin when hot enough (160 degrees Fahrenheit), and also provide tastes, smells and ptomaine poison components.

Geekdads at Wired.com describe 30 venerable children’s games, from Button, Button, Who’s got the Button? to jumping rope and Red Rover – and Kick the Can.

The rules and play for non-tech games can enliven vacation days, picnics, and recess. Almost all are low carbon footprint, most are organic, and few require buying gear – maybe an empty can, a jump rope or two, or a play parachute.

Play on!

Noticed this clip on the Bruner Blog (All Bruner, All the time). A YouTube clip of Bing Crosby singing “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime“. With some awesome Depression era photos.

I bought a mattress. It was 1989, my air mattress leaked, and I wanted something that was a good value.

Instead I got a Spring Air, with pillow top (and bottom!) just like Vanna White was promoting, back then. The claim was that it would last 20 years.

I turned it over the last time, last fall. When a spring broke, and poked my butt. It only lasted 19 years and 1 month. I was irate. Problem was that for warranty I had to contact the seller who isn’t still in business, and was in St. Louis, while I have moved several times and now live in Oklahoma. No, I didn’t get a refund, I haven’t seen the receipt in about 17 years.

So I got to thinking. Mattresses often last 10 to 20 years. In any given year 5% to 10 % have to be replaced. What if we transition to a localized economy because the national economy and infrastructure collapse? Well, in the past beds didn’t use spring mattresses.

Crooked Tree Farms has a PDF file, laying out how to construct and string a Rope Bed. For real. No springs. In fact Crooked Tree Farms includes a number of 18th century living history designs and information. Hint: Most people in the 18th Century weren’t connected to the national energy or transportation grids, because there weren’t none. If you want to get by with less electricity, there are a couple of alternatives here, from period sewing issues to furniture and shelter information.

Free Woodworking Stuff has a list of plans for beds. Included is one from the Furniture Gallery of House Greydragon “devoted to attempting to recreate (and live in) the 14th century”. No, that isn’t a typo – but it is a hobby interest in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Along with quality tools at GarrettWade, is a plan for a rope bed.

I found a variation, a modernized version that addresses some issues with the rope bed – they sag, the ropes need retensioning (frequently!), and two or more occupants will roll together in the center. The last might or might not be a problem, depending on who the occupants are. The MtMan list variation uses the rope to hold the bed together – but a sheet of 5/8″ plywood makes this a full-slatted bed. It is interesting, too how mortises and butt hinges are used to tie the sides and head and foot boards together.

CurrentMiddleAges lists resources for plans and options on 12th-16th century furniture, including beds. Country Bed.com illustrates one method of stringing the rope, and includes diagrams and sells a straining wrench, a wooden device made to tighten rope. The Stamford Historical Society illustrates another example of a colonial era bed wrench.

Trod.org (The Realm of Darkness fantasy world) journals making a hybrid rope bed for personal use.

Mattresses didn’t always come stuffed with cotton and springs. Rushes, grasses, wool and skins have been used between the tired body and the resting place. Keeping mice and bugs out might be an issue, though. And one might look forward to spring cleaning, as a time to refresh the mattress!

Geekdads at Wired.com report on the book, “Little House On The Prairie”, Pa Ingalls – Pioneer GeekDad?.

Using few tools, the book follows Pa Ingalls as he builds a house – using nails when he gets to the roof. The door, without hardware?

“First he hewed a short, thick piece of oak. From one side of this, in the middle, he cut a wide, deep notch. He pegged this stick to the inside of the door….”

For other pioneer, geeky gadgets – a frame to make bales of hay in, by hand, and mangers to scalding tubs – check out Farm Appliances and How to Make Them, George A. Martin, copyright 1887, 1999. (Lyons Press, Amazon.com)

Coming out of a local restaurant tonite, I noticed the front plate on a truck. “Oklahoma Dressage Association”.

Dressage (I was told, something like “training” in French) is about riding a horse. Riding in a standard-sized arena. Riding standard test patterns.

The competition test might include various gaits – the walk, the trot, the canter. Maybe a variation on speed – a relaxed trot, a working trot, an extended trot. Maybe a change of direction – and accompanying change of “lead” – which leg moves forward first, on the horse, in the given gait. It matters, in circles, in corners, etc. The horse is much less likely to stumble over its feet or miss a stride if on the correct lead – which is the rider’s responsibility to train for and command.

But – Transition? This “rich people” exercise of buying expensive horses, buying expensive feed, hiring teachers and trainers, renting stable and practice space? Learning to work with livestock, understand “what goes in, must come out”, understanding that nutrition and practice are essential to get the expected results when you climb aboard?

To learn about finding feed, dealing with people that know hay from supplements from complete feeds, to meet people that understand large animals as livestock, as companions, and as competitors.

You might never use a horse as transportation. But being able to raise, train, and work horses takes a lifetime’s experience – and learning can start in a couple of months. Working horse farms depended on the adults knowing how to care for their horses and other livestock, and we are sadly poor in this tradition. By learning the discipline and precision of dressage, we prepare our children, and ourselves, for thinking “outside the car”. If and when the need comes.

At the least, dressage teaches the rider precision, respect, consistency, caring for the horse and learning they are dependent on the comfort and communication to and from the horse. By striving to achieve, riders learn to apply effort, overcome problems – and meet their test.

Transition. When you believe that change is coming – real change. As in, losing the ability to afford electric utilities. As in, losing easy access to nationally distributed food and supplies. As in, reducing your carbon footprint.

But what about your footprint?

In times past most shoes were made of leather, not plastic and other petroleum products. Shoes that expected to wear out the leather soles – and have them replaced. Several times. Shoes with cord, maybe, for laces – but maybe leather lace, too. Shoes that you polish with Kiwi or other waxed blackener or brown color, or even clear. A shoe brush that lasted for years and years, a rag for applying wax and buffing to a shine that reflected your pride in appearance, and indirectly a mark of character.

So, what shoes will you buy, next, if you are building your pantry to last through the beginnings of the end of cheap transportation? And have you identified someone in your neighborhood that works leather and can provide the leather necessities when plastics all run out – or have you started lining up leather supplies, tools to work it, and the skills to be a resource for your community?