Let Us Get Our Feet Wet

I live near the Chesapeake Bay on a river that feeds into it.  Five major rivers flow into this bay and numerous tributaries also dump water into this largest estuary in the United States.  Two theories hold strong for the formation of this bay.  One an asteroid collision or two a giant glacier.  If you are a numbers person, the Chesapeake Bay is 200 miles long. fed by 48 major rivers, and fills from 100 tributaries that drain across a 64,000-square-mile watershed.  These are rivers that run by highways, cities (including the Nation's Capital), subdivisions, and farms.  These are rivers that collect lawn fertilizer, farm pesticides, and runoff from highway oils on their rush to the sea.  The fertilizers from farms are one of the worst pollutants creating huge algae blooms and eventual die-offs falling to the bay bottom and resulting in dead zones where oxygen does not exist.  And the average depth of the bay is 21 feet..not very deep at all.  In fairness to farmers, they have reduced their use of fertilizers over the years through better practices.

Cow poop and pee plus packing of the shoreline...not so good for the river.

Two thousand seven hundred plant and animal species attempt to live in and near the Bay.  At one time there were so many oysters in this Bay that the water was completely filtered, ALL OF IT, in a week!  One Algonquin Indian translation of the word Chesapeake is "great shellfish bay."  That was when you could wade into the water and see your feet---I am guessing if you did not cut your foot on the many oysters shells.  "Such huge numbers of shellfish had a major impact on the environment.  Oysters are filter feeders, which means that they remove nutrients from the water as they siphon it through their gill system.  This filtering process removes the phytoplankton and other small organisms that grow in the water.  In essence, each oyster is a small, water-treatment plant that cleans the water passing through it as it feeds.  The cumulative effect of millions and millions of oysters feeding each day was to keep the waters of the Chesapeake clear and pristine.  Biologists have estimated that when the English settlers reached Virginia and Maryland in the 1600s, oysters were filtering the entire Chesapeake Bay once a week.  The result was waters of remarkable clarity, even down to depths of twenty feet or more."  Those days are past as we have less than 2% of the number of oysters growing in the Bay.  They have died off due to disease from pollution stress and also disappeared from over-harvesting.  Work is ongoing to restore oysters to the Bay... a slow, but perhaps ultimately successful process if we get a handle on the pollution and get better cooperation from the oyster fishermen which is a different species than the oyster farmer.

We have a former state senator, Bernie Fowler, who was an avid fisherman as a young man, and noticed the declining clarity of the water on the Patuxent River when he would wade in each spring just north of where I live and try to see his feet.  In 1988 this 'wade-in" became an annual tradition to remind people of the declining clarity of our waters and also gave energy to a movement where then Senator Fowler sued the Environmental Protection Agency for its lack of enforcement of pollution laws.  The Bay is no where near healthy, but at least has stabilized in its decline and Senator Fowler has brought it to the public attention.  He is now 89, but still does his wade-in.

Pinkney Island, South Carolina, protected shoreline

Since we live in the 'critical area' I only fertilize my flowers and perennials with a slow release food and I am super conservative with pesticides and fungicides.  I am removing those plants that require too much spray to survive.  We still keep a few fruit trees that are demanding.  We no longer fertilize or herbicide our lawn so it can look like a golf course.  It does look like mowed weeds and we have allowed more clover to take over.  The clover is good for the soil and rabbits like clover to eat instead of my flowers.  If you live in a first world nation and fertilize your lawn, allow run-off from your roof, are not careful when you fill your lawn mower with gas or any endless number of things that hurt our water quality...remember that like fossil fuels clean water is also is a finite resource.  (My next post is on drinking dinosaur pee...really)

The Treatment

I had absolutely no idea what to expect upon getting a facial.  I did know that I would have to remove my glasses and earrings, but when the young lady took me to the dressing room and told me to take everything off down to the waist and wrap a towel under my arms when I emerged, I realized this was going to be a much more intimate experience than I had anticipated.   My purse and watch and jewelry went into a locker with the key on a cord given to me to wear around my wrist. 

When I entered the room for the facial the key was placed in my bathrobe pocket as I took it off and hung it on the door.

The woman, maybe in her early 40's,  who gave me the facial was from Hungary originally (thus the European Facial ?).  We started out with a nice warm chat about paprika and getting fresh spices and other things as I nervously drove the conversation.  Eventually she got me to shut up and she had me lie down on a soft white hospital type bed.  I had neglected to put on the plastic slippers when I changed clothes so had to remove my shoes as she carefully tucked me under a warm sheet and wrapped my feet snugly.

My  hair line was wrapped with cotton and my whole head wrapped in a nice fragrant towel.  The first treatment was  a minty soap wash on my face, neck, shoulders, arms and hands!  Next was a body scrub of some type which was rubbed in and then rinsed away.  Then (since I had my eyes covered for most of this) I think they put on some kind of oatmeal mask for the face and neck and I sat under a warm steamy wand while she massaged and creamed my arms and hands before placing them in warm mittens.  She was mixing stuff behind me as I sat under this fragrant steam bath for about 10 minutes with my hands so cozy.

Then every thing was washed away once again and she applied a cold cream.  I mean a COLD cream.  I guess that is where the term comes from, because this felt like it came out of the refrigerator! 

Then came a 10 minute massage of my face with this cream.  It was really wonderful!  Firm in the beginning and ending with such a gentle touch I could not really tell when she had stopped!  I was allowed to rest for a few minutes before she once again removed all the stuff from my face with various cloths and tissues.

The next step was a little startling.  She covered my eyes in some fragrant damp tissue and then brought a bright light over my face and I began to feel little stings.  I realized after a time that she was squeezing my black/white heads with some tool and cleaning all of my pores.  It was not the most pleasant experience, but I have a high pain threshold, so sat back and endured and felt just a little embarrassed...I mean, how much money would they have to pay you to squeeze someones pimples?

Then there was one last wash with something else with a more flowery fragrance and a gentle pat dry and I was done!  I did not get a chance during that day or the next day to look closely at my skin, but I did feel really clean and refreshed and I would do it again if I was not so cheap!

My daughter had finished just a minute or two before me, so we were completely in sync to head out for the rest of our day.

Breathe Deep

Yep, it was one of those whirl-wind weekends.  (I think I get one every year.)  At my age it takes me a full day to really recover three days of full social contact.  When I pulled into the yard I could feel the blood pressure lower as my green lawn, my little blue bird couple and my tons of blooming iris greeted me in full spring glory.

I got home mid-afternoon on Sunday in the lovely sunshine and all was well until I saw two very healthy bunnies mating in the front yard under the pyracantha bushes.  Amazing, as the pyracantha has very nasty thorns.  It reminded me of the Tar Baby story, and if you do not know the Tar Baby story, don't worry.

Anyway, the spa day was full and expensive, but I would do it all again in a minute to spend time with my princess.

Check-in at the spa.  Ready for facials and massage!  (I could do a whole post on my first facial!)

This is where you relax after the massage and before the facial.  It is an old building that has been there for over 50 years although the spa has been in existence for about 15 years.

Then there was time for sitting under spring blooming trees and conversation.

And time for a walk and some window shopping.

And time for a long tour of the Torpedo Factory Art Center which is a famous place in Alexandria.

Then we arrived at the restaurant EVE and sipped some wine while waiting for our table.  We were eating early and yet the place was about a third full!

We were placed in the long room and had the whole place to ourselves for most of the dinner.  Notice the nice chandeliers above.

And like all good girls we celebrated the day with exotic drinks and exotic desserts before heading home and back to reality where we had to pick up two of the grandkids who were waiting for us at their older brother's Cub Scout meeting.

Social Queen

Busy weekend for this old lady starting this Friday.  I invited my daughter to a Spa afternoon.  We are getting facials and she is getting a European massage and I am getting my hair low-lighted and then cut.  It is a fancy spa place, and daughter selected it, because I would not know a good spa from a health juice bar.  Then we are heading to a nearby fancy restaurant in Old Town Alexandria.  It is a difficult place to get reservations, according to daughter, but I did not have difficulty.  Of course our reservations are at 5:45 which is not exactly prime time so that we can get home to assist hubby with the children.  I will be spending a lot of money, but it is my daughter's birthday and she is worth a fortune to me and I cannot take it with me anyway.  I will take photos to post, not to brag, but for my own memories if you do not want to see.

The next day we are decorating daughter's house for a movie-themed bridal shower for my son's future wife.  This is a big expense as well and I need to help with a check.  (I am absolutely apoplectic at how much money this generation spends on bridal showers and bachelorette parties to say nothing of weddings and honeymoons.)

After the shower I will be spending the night at daughter's house and then heading out to a "mom's brunch" a short drive away as I join my future daughter-in-law and her mother and grandmother at an informal gathering.  

This long weekend my life is like a movie, I know.  Such a social life does not happen often to me, but I have no regrets that I am surrounded by such special people 

Touching Base

Lots and lots of April showers (except it is now May) that has brought the May flowers.  Above is one of the many varieties of columbine that are blooming right now.

The tree leaves are no longer light lime green but changing to shades of malachite, jade, moss, and emerald green.  It is supposed to rain more today, but I see the sun fighting its way through now and again and when it turns the lights on, it seems too bright for my eyes since we have had nothing but gray for a while.

I have been in the house for two straight days except to run outside and take a few photos between the rain drops.  I am getting over my desire to hang out with my peaceful aloneness and I am pushing myself to head out to run necessary errands today.  After I exercise, of course.  

Thursday Thoughts 13 # 39 -- It has been a long time.

1. Blogs are like children.  If you have too many that you follow, you cannot give each one the attention that it deserves.
2. I love cowboy boots and own two pair...but I don't wear them as often as I should or could because I am afraid of getting them dirty and if I am home alone, I cannot get them off!
3. I was away from the house for two days and asked hubby to do one thing while I was gone - clean the microwave oven.  While I was gone he vacuumed the whole house, did three loads of laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, but did not touch the scum in the microwave! (Is this bitch ever happy?)
4. I was discussing the difficulty of weight loss with my daughter and she said she was sure if I just gave up bread I would lose weight.  In the spirit of self-defeat I am going to try that for as long as I can just to prove her wrong.
5. Over a week later my bouquet of mixed cut flowers from hubby is still in beautiful condition.  It has taken 42 years of marriage...but he finally gets me flowers from the florist rather than the grocery store.
6. I really do like being alone and if I was not afraid that it was a possible mental defect, I would rarely leave the house.  I will be really all alone this coming week, and I am a little sad about it.  Am I never satisfied?
7. Since I have a cable DVR I rarely channel surf in the evenings.  It all waits for me just exactly as I have arranged it on my elitist list.  Thus I was both shocked and surprised to see that I had recorded some program that set a contest of people trying to get wheels of cheddar down a hill on a sled.  Boring.
8. As a follow-up to the above, it depresses me to no end that people who watch the most popular shows on TV may also vote. 
9. After returning from Mexico and drinking their coffee, I cannot seem to find a brand that satisfies me anymore.
10. I am still boggled and trying to understand the message that only 10% of the cells in our body are human cells.  I guess the message is that we are more connected to nature than I had hoped.
11. A distant but long time friend died last week of a rare but nasty brain disease similar to Alzheimer's and left behind a sweet and smart wife.  I cannot stop running the scenario through my head on what I would do if this had happened to me.
12. Next week I am taking my daughter to a spa for her birthday as her choice.  I never go to spas and will be getting a facial for the first time in my life.  I got my first pedicure in my late 40's.  It all seems so decadent to this former farm girl.
13. I am thinking I should not do these Thursday 13's unless I really make an effort to structure them around a theme!  So lazy.

Grave New World

 
I remember, I must admit vaguely, my feelings when reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley  years ago.  I remember it was depressing and intriguing.  I actually do not remember the specifics of the novel other than the frightening cultural and technological challenges it portrayed.  Now I have decided to re-read it along with the two additional ones that followed the first to see if I still feel the same way.  I am thinking it will have certain relevance to today's challenges. 

Innovation and change, both cultural and technological, are inevitable waves that rock our ship of fate.  We cannot stop inventing new things that make life better and easier.  How great the invention of computers/internet that opened the world to us from our desktop.  We can read articles and watch videos and communicate from all types of places.  But with this new access comes dross that wastes precious time (cats playing the piano), inaccurate facts (talking heads with statistics that are selective), lies (propaganda from companies with nasty objectives), bad habits (simple answers to complex questions) and things we do not want innocent minds of children to see until they have fully formed.  For the more conservative, the outside world is a direct threat to their beliefs and lifestyle.  I remember arguing with an Iranian boy I dated back in college over our Western culture having too much influence on his people.  His primary complaint was that Iranians were now eating at tables instead of on the ground on carpets that way they had traditionally done.  His view:  this was due to bad Western influence.  I cannot imagine how apoplectic such conservative groups are today when faced with the Internet.  Change and exposure to something challenging over which they have no control is terrifying to them.

I am in the middle of reading Smithsonian's May magazine issue with the theme "The Future is Here."  Smithsonian is one of the best lay magazines published today.  I usually end up reading it cover to cover and have subscribed for years. 

One article discusses the life of American-Egyptian journalist-activist Mona Eltahawy, who risks life and limb literally, to take on the mission of democratizing Egypt.  In case you do not follow current events, Egypt's dictatorship which was crushed in the "Arab spring"  was replaced in an election by the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. "In other words, meet the new boss, same as the old boss, only worse because you helped get the new boss his job."  The future for Egypt is now very tenuous except for brave activists such as Mona and brave comedians such as Bassem Youssef (the middle eastern version of Jon Stewart).   But revolution, itself, has taken on a new form and new tools.

Another article in the Smithsonian discusses the tremendous breakthroughs being made with microbial science.  Infants that died within weeks due to a deficiency of unidentified bacteria in their guts may soon be saved, not by some fancy new bacteria or identity of a single pathogen, but by a better understanding of the dance between all of the microbial community in our body.  Our body has ten trillion of our own cells, but also plays host to another 100 trillion cells .  We are only 10% human by cell count.  Researches are finding that along with the pro on antibiotics there are some serious cons when antibiotics kill off bacteria in the very young.  "Infants exposed to antibiotics in the first six months of life are 22 percent more likely to be overweight as toddlers than unexposed infants."  "A lack of normal gut microbes early in  life disturbs the central nervous system...and may permanently alter serotonin levels in the adult brain."  "Just giving enough food to starving children may not permanently fix their malnutrition unless they also have the 'right' digestive micro-organisms..."  I cannot leave this paragraph without mentioning about one treatment for ulcers where a combination of healthy excrement from one person is injected into the sick person.  Seriously!  With each pro there is a con.

Finally, there is an article on the amazing technology of 3-D printers which not only print plastic toys and odd stuff, but also can print parts to cars and appliances which may render huge warehouses with shelves of various parts obsolete.  You may be able to hang on to that oven for a longer time, because the replacement part can be made far into the future.  This technology is also printing body part structures and adding cell growth media so that soon we may be able to print organs the way we print cat photos and no one has to wait for organ replacement!  Your daughter may be able to design and order custom shoes for the prom that no one else has.  You may be able to replace precious broken China in a very reasonable time.  BUT as a con, any idiot may soon be able to print his own gun and any revolutionary may be able to create a weapon of mass destruction on his kitchen counter much more easily,

It is a grave new world and while at this time in my life I find such challenges a bit overwhelming, I also admit that I am going to miss not seeing it in the decades ahead.