The Perfect Snow

Perfect because it started late yesterday, giving me time to drive safely home; perfect because it was fluffy snow, not the usual sleet and ice; perfect because it was three or four inches deep, not half an inch nor four feet; and perfect because the sun is out and it will all be gone from the streets so that we can function normally. Perfect.

The portico this morning.

 

Backyard.

  

Cute little birdie footprints.

  

After snapping this picture of the bird feeder plate totally covered with snow I stopped and filled the bird feeders. I could feel and hear the birds' frantic movements as they were all trying to find food.

  

Then I went to the front yard and filled those feeders too, but first I had to take this picture of our front sidewalk. A winter wonderland.

  

  

Sparrow.

  

Funny how the snow falls on each surface according to shape.

  

Cyrus' summer wagon is belly up and covered.

  

  

Ice in the street.

  

Our neighborhood.

  

We parked our cars at the bottom of our yard to avoid our steep driveway.

  

Another interesting pattern of snow on our neighbor's van. I would love to understand the physics behind this.

  

Dogwood tree branches: brown underneath, white on top.

  

These footprints belong to Maggie. I saw her out with her owner earlier... no yellow snow is visible - good Maggie!

  

Cute little hoofie prints.

  

Sweet gum tree cones wearing little white caps of snow.

  

Cat and bird prints, hopefully not made at the same time. I didn't see any clumps of bird feathers so I don't think this is the scene of a crime.

  

I noticed the robins being particularly attracted to this patch of melted snow on the street. I couldn't figure out if they were finding food there or just drinking the water; it looked like they were drinking. Don't animals know they can 'eat' snow in order to get water?

  

  

  

  

  

Rabbit prints.

  

Saeed's favorite bird (mourning dove) took advantage of the cleaned off, seed-laden plate.

  

Notice the snow whirling around in the background. The wind was blowing it off the trees but it felt like it was snowing again.

  

Mourning dove and tufted titmouse.

  

Female cardinal.

  

Chickadee.

  

Snow swirls off the trees.

  

Back inside I find Banu looking out the dining room window.

  

Banu's view through the window lets her see into the bushes where birds take refuge. They are unaware that she is looking at them from inside the house.

  

In our bed room she does the same thing, only it's a cedar tree the birds hang out in.

  

When the birds sit on the edge of the roof gutter their tails hang down and move around. Such good kitty TV!

  

Lazy Lupe just finds a nice patch of sun in which to take a bath prior to her nap.

  

Layli stretching awake...

  

... and trying to look cute.

  

Cat silouette.

 

Last night:


This morning:


A winter zen moment:

Olympic Snowfall?

Perhaps if Vancouver doesn't get enough snow the athletes can come down here to South Carolina... you know, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Rock Hill, SC - catchy title, no?

 It started as I left work at 5:00. If you look real hard you can see the snow against the dark car.

 

Front yard when I got home; snowflakes in the air.

  

Front holly bushes when I got home.

  

Banu was huddled as the cold air came in as I stood at the front door taking pictures.

  

Layli stops in her tracks when she sees the snow falling.

  

Lupe watches from the safety of the upstairs. She's such a chicken.

  

Below the window on the second floor is the portico. I sit at this window when I work at my computer. Here it is at about 5:30...

  

...about 5:45...

  

...about 6:00. The snow was falling fast.

  

This is the front yard at about 8:30, three hours after it started.

  

The same front holly bushes.

  

The back yard...

  

...and the back steps.

 

See ya in the morning!!

Olympic Pretender

Am I the only one who used to pretend to be an Olympic skier, skater, swimmer, diver when they were a kid?  

When I was little I loved sports. I was on swim team, diving team, and participated in noncomptetitive winter sports with my parents. We didn't watch much TV back then. I was allowed to watch The Ed Sullivan Show, Lawrence Welk, and the Olympics. I remember bringing the kitchen stool in front of the TV set and doing all sorts of gymnastic shenanigans on it while watching the gymnasts do their routines. My Dad once told me (I think he got over excited when I got third place in the Illinois state swim meet in butterfly) that if I wanted to go all the way and shoot for the Olympics he would do whatever it took to help me get there. Poor Daddy, I didn't have the desire to spend six hours a day in the pool and told him so, but that didn't stop both of us from dreaming.

The Olympics start today. Probably, somewhere deep in the pretend-spot of my brain, I will be dreaming of my participation in my thrill of victory... not my agony of defeat. That's what dreams are for.

Be Safe

Very little news is available this morning. The networks to support computers and phone service has been interrupted and slowed. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Azadi Square, waving flags and supporting the celebration - this came out on the state television channel. But there is no word yet on the situation as far as the opposition is concerned. Shirin Ebadi advised people to go to the rallies to protest but to keep their actions non-violent. I am holding my breath.

Heart Day - February 11th

As the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution approaches I feel anxiety and dread. Although I am so glad that the people have taken to the streets to demand back their rights as citizens of Iran and plan to walk again on February 11th, the security forces are planning to aggressively break up these "illegal" gatherings. More people will get hurt, more will die, and many a heart will break, including mine. Iranians are wonderful people with a rich history and it hurts that they have to struggle so much for such basic freedoms.

Coincidentally I am reading "We Are Iran - The Persian Blogs" translated and edited by Nasrin Alavi. Persians blog a lot. Alavi states that Farsi is the fourth most common language used in blogs. It makes sense; as print and visual media is so carefully censored blogging is a safe way to for them to write freely. I would like to reproduce a few snippets of entries:

"... At a time when our society is deprived of its rightful free means of communication, and our newspapers are being closed down one by one - with writers and journalists crowding the corners of our jails... the only realm that can safeguard and shoulder the responsibility of free speech is the blogosphere."

"... I think... I live... I blog... therefore I... exist."

"...I keep a weblog so that I can breathe in this suffocating air... In a society where one is taken to history's abattoir for the mere crime of thinking, I write so as not to be lost in my despair... so that I feel that I am somewhere where my calls for justice can be uttered... I write a weblog so that I can shout, cry and laugh, and do the things that they have taken away from me in Iran today..."

"...What have the likes of me learned after 12 years of formal religious education? What is the outcome of being consistently bombarded with sacred information in this Islamic Republic of ours?  
1) When you talk about your religion for over 20 years, its problems will be highlighted.
2) Religious education is the best way to create agnostics in the modern world. Just look around at the people you personally know who went to the infamously strict Islamic schools...
3) Even those most addicted to religion will at some stage overdose.
4) The problem is not with Islam but with a few of our radical fellow Muslims.
The other day I saw a construction worker fast asleep next to a cement mixer; he appeared to have developed a deaf ear to all that noise. After so many years of being bombarded with religious facts you just stop hearing them."

"...This is Iran. You hear my voice from the land of the most compassionate mother - mothers who break your legs for fear that you may hurt your ankle walking on our very hard pavements......This is Iran. Mothers have to worry, they have to be anxious, and they have to break your legs."

"After 9/11, one of the most shameful pages of human history, we are witnessing a joint operation of the 'sons of Allah' and America's neo-conservatives, who march hand in hand killing innocent humans, taking our world to the edge of an abyss... But world opinion can see what the leaders of this new world are up to... People are tired of war and those who seek war... If the US doesn't bring stability and democracy to Iraq the greatest beneficiaries will be the rulers of the Islamic Republic."

"If George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Fox News Network swapped places with Ayatollah Kamenai, Rafsanjani and our own state-controlled television network, nothing much would change in the world. Just as everything in Iran is the fault of the Americans, in America, Middle Eastern terrorists are to blame for all the woes of the world..."

"Death to American! Death to Bush! Death to Colin Powell! Death to Elizabeth Taylor! But I want to go live in America."

"Yesterday during the BBC news report on the Bali bombing, the reporter kept repeating that the majority of Bali Muslims are peace-loving and do not in any way support the bombers. 
   The thief said: 'I don't know why every time something goes missing around here they come after me. But, interestingly, they always find the stolen loot here.'
   Now that has become the story of we Muslims, where it's left to the non-Muslim TV, out of common decency, to defend us as peace-overs. We are useless."

"What is there to be done with our own Islamic fascists? Our electoral system does not give us an opportunity to vote against them. Have we put up a fight? Yes, for 25 years our prisons have been packed to the rafters, we have seen the best of our kind sent to the gallows and buried in mass graves. Are the fascists in the minority? Yes. In two recent subsequent general elections they gained only 10 per cent of the votes. But they are armed and willing to kill for their beliefs and we are only willing to die for ours..."

This book is over 350 pages long and I am on page 96 where Alavi discusses the poetry of the celebrated modern poet Ahmad Shamlou who died at age 75 in 2000. Persians live and breath poetry, and Shamlou wrote poetry with the language of resistance. Alavi relates that during his funeral procession mourners chanted a line from one of his most famous poems:  "I have never feared death... My fear is to die in a land where the gravedigger's wage is higher than the price of an individual's freedom..."

These blog entries offer a extraordinary look into the hearts and minds of the young adults in Iran. Democracy cannot be forced from an external source, it comes from within a country, a people. These bloggers may just make the difference in keeping the resistance fueled with the energy of fresh ideas and unity of purpose.

We Finally Saw Avatar

Saeed and I agreed that we, who normally prefer to watch movies in the comfort of our cozy livingroom, would go to the theater to see Avatar in 3-D. For us it is mostly an issue of time and convenience, but Saeed felt he could afford the time this weekend, so here we are at the theater in front of the Avatar poster:

 

 Saeed sports his 3-D glasses

 

I didn't take any pictures of us after the movie. Saeed looked the same but I looked pitiful. I cried several times during the movie and my mascara was everywhere but on my eyelashes. All those issues I care most about were brought to life in front of my eyes: the greedy and powerful taking advantage of others, the invaders murdering the indigenous and their way of life, the destruction of animal and plant life as if it doesn't matter, the connection between humans/humanoids and other life forms (plants, animals), and so on. Chief Seattle's quote “Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” could have been the intro to this movie. I hope people who have not yet understood our (human) place amongst others have had that seed of realization planted in their consciousness as a result of seeing this movie. I could easily see discussion/analysis of Avatar turning into a course; there are so many departments that could offer it: Biology, Psychology, Ethics, Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, Art, Music, and of course Film.

In spite of my emotional reaction to Avatar I loved the movie - a true feast for the senses. I plan to buy the DVD once it comes out. Till then here's the trailer. I think it's really big and may cover my entire blog, but that's OK with me. It's a big movie in so many ways.


Official Avatar Movie

Little Bit Of Rain

I guess if I were in DC or Baltimore right now I'd be worrying about the snow that is part of this storm but this far south it's just A LOT of rain. Here's our parking lot at work today:

That water is just below knee deep at it's deepest point. We used to have to roll up our pant legs and go out and clear the leaves from the storm drain so the water could drain, but recently some wise guy paved over the drain when the parking lot was repaved. Is that even legal??? One hour after this picture was taken the owner of the car you see had to go out and move it because the water came up to the bottom of the chassis. Work is so exciting. :-)

To answer Shirin's question in the comment box, who has been going out to clear the drain... this crazy girl Stephanie:

Stephanie is the funny crazy person in our office who will do almost anything. We thought once she got married and had kids she'd be less so, but no. One husband and two kids later she's still the one who will hoist her pant legs up and go out to clear the drain. Steph keeps us laughing all day long, even on the bad days. Thanks Steph.

Wash That Pre-Washed Salad

Consumer Reports' March issue has an article about the bagged salads we buy (to make getting in those 5 to 7 daily servings of veggies a bit easier) being loaded with fecal contamination. You can read the full article here, but here is a sample:
You might think that "pre­washed" and "triple-washed" salad greens sold in plastic clamshells or bags are squeaky clean. But our recent tests found room for improvement....But in our samples, all of which were within their use-by date, we did find bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination—in some cases, at rather high levels....We tested for total coliforms and for other bacteria, including enterococcus, that are better indicators of fecal contamination. Federal action limits exist for indicator organisms in water, raw meat, milk, and some processed foods, but not produce. Those organisms are typically used to gauge possible pathogen contamination.

There are no federal limits for bacteria in produce? Did I read that? Senate Bill 510 "The Food Safety Modernization Act" is being considered to set stronger safety standards for produce. Considered? How much consideration is needed to decide if you want poop in your salad?

The article includes a "what you can do" section:
* Buy packages as far from their use-by date as you can find.
* Even if the bag says "prewashed" or "triple-washed," wash the greens yourself. Rinsing won't remove all bacteria but may remove residual soil. 
* Prevent cross contamination by keeping greens away from raw meat. For more information, go to www.ConsumersUnion.org/safefood.

Three Inches Of Ice

(Continued from previous post...)
Although we cleared a path in the driveway yesterday I failed to LOOK at my car that was parked at the top of the driveway. This morning I reassured my aching muscles that all that shoveling the day before would make my trip in to work uneventful and easy. I was surprised to see three solid inches of ice at the base of my windshield and back window, ice that couldn't be "scraped" off but had to be whacked and chiseled off. I felt like an anthropologist as I got closer to my wipers, brushing and chipping gently so as to not break the precious appendages.

45 minutes later, with frozen, painful hands, I drove in to work and arrived about half an hour late. Fortunately all of our early AM patients were also chipping their cars out of their driveways and didn't show up or came even later than I. One of my coworkers sent this to me, and I laughed out loud as I grimaced and tried to rub some life back into my aching hands:

We're supposed to have more of this kind of weather this week... can't wait.