Waldoboro, Maine

I have been hanging out the past few days in Waldoboro, Maine.  It's refreshingly nice to escape the oppressive confines of the city, and I have taken full advantage of the outdoor activities and the plentiful National Geographics. On Saturday, we engaged in a riveting game of tennis, and yesterday, we sparred off in a few intense matches of badminton. 

The Drapkin family has been more hospitable than one could imagine, and the rural life is a welcome respite.  I am sure today, we will find ourselve in another venture of some sort.

World War two

After a week of straight reading, I finally finished A Man Called Intrepid. It recounts the secret intelligence and guerrilla war that was spearheaded by Bill Stephenson.  I really enjoyed the book because it gave new insight into a part of World History that it is nowadays taken for granted.  When previously studying World War Two, it always was a fore spoken conclusion that the Allies won and the Axis lost. I thought that this occurred primarily through victories on the battle field.  However, Intrepid discusses how the victories on the battle field were directly attributable to the victories of a separate intelligence war.  

The book recounts how even before the US entered the war, there were joint operations being conducted between the British secret service and the US government.  The actions of these agencies resulted in such feats as the deciphering of the German's enigma message system, the disrupting Nazi attempts to create a nuclear weapon and the formation and support of guerrilla armies throughout Europe.

I think the most prevalent point of the book and the thing that drove my passion for reading it was that WWII was won because of intelligence and clever ideas opposed to brute force.  WWII was one of the moments in history and when humanity as a whole could have fallen down a dark hole of despair.  The Nazi's used fear, secrecy, lies and brutality to force their ideology and will upon people.  However, it were these very policies that formed the weakness of the Nazi. Through the courage of the free citizens to expose and shine light upon their misdeeds was it possible to destory the greatest evil in modern history.

 

medical insurance debacle and noah in town

This morning was a battle with the Medical Insurance establishment.  About this time last year, my lung collapsed.  Consquently, I racked up quite the bill from the hospital (near 20k).  Fortunately, I had health insurance, but even with this assistance, I am paying quite a bit.  Today, I decided that I would fight back.  I think that it is a strategy of insurance companies and hospitals to bombard with as many bills as possible.  I have bills from 8 different departments within the hospital! The strategy is that they hope that a patient will feel overwhelmed by total bills and will just pay whatever they say to pay. Today, I realized that if I am confused about how much I need to pay, then whose to say that the insurance company or hospital didn't get confused while figuring out my bill?It's not as if they are good buddies of mine who want me to pay less. I basically came to the realization today that there is a certain amount that I have to pay out of pocket, and I understand this and itis fine, but any amount above that is unacceptable.  Thrilled with this realization, I dove headlong into the process, and was proud to show instant results.  For one of the bills, the insurance company mis-calculated (which means i pay less).  I imagined it as if i had made a dint in the armor of an inpentrable knight. Before I thought that insurance companies couldn't make a mistake, now I smell blood in the water. Now to more positive matters. 

Noah came to town today and we spent a good deal of time discussing the substance of life.  We mostly just sat at Otherside, basking in the sun and talking a good many things. We tried going to the garden and watering, but alas, the main water pipe is still broken. The tomato plants look pretty thirsty. 

Later on we went all the way to the north end to Mike's Pastry. We ate them at the waterfront, watching sailing races in the harbor. 

Also i watched this video today

Tribes and garden

Today was particulary cold in Boston, and I fear a frost may come upon us.  Such an event would mean certain peril for our newly planted tomato plants.  It would be truly sad if our unique heirloom species, imported all the way from Pennslyvania, were to freeze to death.  

As I was walking along Newbury today for my daily coffee, I was passing the Boston Architecture School when a bulletin caught my eye.  It was advertising summer classes and one in class in particular seemed interesting.  

"Botany for Designers: Plant form and function, evolution of seed plants, plant ecology, plant communities, basic plant physiology, and prospects for conserving plant biodiversity will be highlighted in this non-science majors' course designed for undergraduates." 

Yea, that sounds pretty cool. However, at $749 for just auditing the class, I am going to see if we can negotiate this down.

I also watched an interesting video about tribes today; however, his final request to make a tribe and create change is a little far fetched.

Gardening and Plants

Had another exciting day in the garden. We got our dirt delivered by the Fenway Garden Society--a whomping 20 bags of dirt and 5 bags of manure. It took eight trips in a rickety decrepit wheel barrow to haul the load into the garden. As Ms. Drapkin, commented later, 25 bags of top soil and manure for $46 was truly dirt cheap. Besides the delivery, I put the finishing touches to our boxes.

some interesting things we have discovered are the names of two plants which we were wondering about in the fens. The first is "Bloody Dock", which we have two of planted in our lettuce patch. The second was in one of the front gardens (which I refer to as the show-off gardens). We were passing by and saw two beautiful pink flowering plants, turned out they were Dahlias.

Both of these plants are perennials, meaning that they live for more than two years. I like the idea of this over annuals, which are only alive for one growing season. Annuals are kind of a pain in the ass. Every year, you have to go back in, replant, water, wait to grow and then harvest. Perennials you just let them do their own thing. Wikipedia also had an interesting piece about the benefits of perennials over annuals:

"Perennial plants often have deep, extensive root systems which can hold soil to prevent erosion, capture dissolved nitrogen before it can contaminate ground and surface water, outcompete weeds (reducing the need for pesticides), and help to mitigate global warming by carbon sequestration. These potential benefits of perennials have resulted in new attempts to increase the seed yield of perennial species[4], which could result in the creation of new perennial grain crops."

What are perennial grain crops? Could these new grain crops be a solution a more sustainable food source? Could wheat or corn be adapted to become a perennial? The implications could have a major impact on the environment and the future of food consumption.

Found this song today and will certainly be humming it tomorrow as we begin planting veggies.