Vichy Water – Author's Blog Just another WordPress weblog

 

From my earliest recollections, I’ve been infatuated with a hurricane, going back to when they were named after women exclusively. Last week I was glued and immobile watching an incredible documentary on HBO, “Gloria, In Her Own Words;’ an incisive insight into the remarkable career and life of Gloria Steinem. Much to be said, huge amounts of prop praise for her courage and vision; just the facts about her can be found all over our world; no need for duplicity here. But I would like to see her around until at least 100 years old; she wants that too. Kind of a heavy thought: we’re quite evolved, but always find ways to subjugate specie differences; gender, religious, color; that kind of stuff.

A white dove, again, flying into a calmer ocean, (without a hurricane) but not finding places to rest, worries about the human species; environmental degradation, Somalia, climate change, bigger hurricanes, Mid-east unrest, and county fair patrons in Iowa who eat deep fried butter on a stick(60 gm of fat, duh). And my cousin Stuart, near Dallas, experienced 44 days in a row over 100 degrees and his Texas governor says no to global warming. Hey, I call it as I see it: New Jersey’s governor Christie, a few months back, spent a day with climatologists and environmentalists to learn about global warming. Failing to fall into the trap of taking a political swipe or two at the Texas governor who denies global warming, leaving me in a state of frustrated disbelief, I shall not seek nor will I say anything else. “What’s the difference?”

Back to hurricanes; I do love to digress, regress, egress and progress; that’s why I jump around in this blog. Hey, ‘Saturday Night Live’ is starting its 37th season. And I miss John Belushi, John Candy and Chris Farley. A strange reaction to Belushi’s passing: I was really angry at him for denying us his gifted talent.

 

My love affair to remember with hurricanes began in 1954 on this very day. Hurricane Carol hit New Jersey with powerful winds. My younger sister was born just about now, then. Mother Nature’s windy symphony in thrashing trees around, breaking branches and creating piles of leaves intrigued me. Since then, I’ve wanted to experience storms first hand. So I just did to an extent.

But Hurricane Irene beat me up and wore me down these last days;  prior to her arrival, I watched hours of weather message boards to see which prognosticator said the most wind for Monmouth County; that person I liked and followed. A few said 90 mile per hour winds. I liked that big time wind forecast but then it gently hit me, people could really get hurt and lose property so I felt better as the storm would weaken; winds wimped down to the 60 mph range.

 

Company came Friday night as portions of New York City and Long Island were under mandatory evacuation. My sister-in-law and journalist niece arrived along with Rufus; I swear a human dog who communicates with the best of them. My son also showed up; told to leave Brooklyn(subways stopped running on Saturday; fear of flooding) By Friday night, Asian food leftovers on counter, we played Mexican dominoes until wee hours, talking and laughing. Nary a cell phone was used. Confession: I pretend talking on a cell phone (and really proficient) when I’m not in the mood to communicate with  other human species. And I’m not alone. 13% of cell phone users do that.

 

Saturday night electricity was gone; winds and rain intensified. Preparedness meant flashlights and candles. We played on; it was tough making out colored dots on game tiles. Later my Ipod eased me to sleep instead of CNN. Sunday morning: a flooded basement and no sump pump; no power and no hot water. But we talked; our group of five adults; about everything. As the storm eased, I looked for a reason to believe; I needed to get to my jetty at the ocean and witness last gasps from Irene.

 

 

 

 

The sun came out; the back side of the storm wind was ferocious. I sat on my jetty and wondered about the protons, neutrons and electrons which make me up; then I wondered about the glue holding me together; about quarks, elementary particles and constituent of matter; then Higgs boson particle, which has never been seen. Gosh, I’m far from a physicist but I still wondered, sitting on my jetty with no ships heading to Kilimanjaro, what holds me together. Higgs has been called God’s particle; that missing link which may explain. I think all the time about the Universe in easy to understand terms; there’s something out there.

Hurricane ocean waves were towering, thrashing and almost caught me off guard; my sneakers escaped white with foamy water. Sunday night it all fell apart; no electricity, no treated air, no CNN, no cold yogurt, no hot water and suddenly the room was dizzy spinning and carbon monoxide alerts were sounding. A few minutes later, the fire chief, an ambulance, police, fire engine and the gas company arrived at my dark world. Life’s first oxygen took place for me; I declined transport to a hospital. Dizziness and spinning is still a mystery. Enough of my travails; no more hurricane interest for me or weather message boards; I love electricity, dry basements and cold yogurt as nature intended or did she?  Tropical Storm Katia just formed in the Atlantic near Africa and I don’t care; a newscaster snuck that in before I could mute.

A couple more thoughts on climate change which I think means global warming. Take this governor of Texas (for some reason, I refuse to mention his name, although in past blogs, I took plenty of pot shots at Wisconsin’s Governor Scott (‘King’) Walker who may face a recall for monstrous ineptitude and who’s seen several of his party’s elected officials already recalled), I don’t want to take the Texas Governor. (Henny Youngman shtick) Oh, for more information on Scott Walker’s recall go to: http://www.recallscottwalker.com/

But if there’s no climate change and global warming why this:?

The tiny South American nation of Suriname recently joined its neighbor Guyana in creating an agency dedicated to dealing with climate change. Suriname, the continent’s smallest country, is a low-lying nation on the northern coast of South America. A majority of the population live at the coast. More importantly,  Suriname counts itself as one of the five nations already most vulnerable to effects of climate change. And I do remember hearing about a Massachusetts sewage treatment plant near Boston  moving to higher ground now in preparation. For a few weeks, 40 years from now, I’ll be worth a fortune as I’ll finally have beach front property. (I live 16 miles inland from the Atlantic)

 

In November l959, just days before Thanksgiving, the Secretary of HEW set off a national food panic when he announced that domestic cranberry products were “contaminated” with a weed-killer called aminotriazole which is a chemical that in huge doses; equivalent to eating 15,000 pounds of cranberries every day for several years was found to cause cancer in laboratory rodents. As a result of the federal warning, schools discarded cranberry products, restaurants changed menus, supermarkets suspended sales and millions of Americans had Thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce. To this day I’m still haunted by that; haunting means still tentatively eating cranberries. And my home state, tiny New Jersey is third in cranberry production behind Wisconsin and Massachusetts. And New Jersey is in the top eight tomato producing states. Jersey pride guy am I. But Jersey music is uniquely special and this summer I’ve discovered many venues, performers, types of music; part of my new gig writing for OURTOWN/Barfly newspapers.

 

A few days before Hurricane Bitch (Irene) (see how fast I’m turning), I went to see/hear Stormin Norman Seldin and Ronnie Brandt gig in Monmouth Beach; simply amazing music. I pinch myself up to five times when I’m at these gigs. Point being; there’s so much out there to take in; here (Jersey) there and everywhere. And thanks to the spirit and Higgs particles created by Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi and so many others, Jersey percolates and I grow and stick like glue.

 

Living to 150 years: here’s the deal if middle and beyond age groups make it the next 15 years, we’re there; technology- wow. Biologists at USC discovered major declines in the availability of an enzyme, known as the Lon protease, as human cells grow older. The finding may help explain why humans lose energy with age and could point medicine toward new diets or pharmaceuticals to slow the aging process. That’s good stuff. I love this: Xalkori is a new targeted therapy drug by Pfizer that really works well in 5% of lung cancer cases usually involving non-smokers. The drug messes with a specific protein on the cancer surface and sometimes within days it could wipe out an entire tumor. (it’s not a cure and very expensive; $115,000 per year). This cost thing makes me think (usually on a jetty). As cures arrive, and cost cutting is rampant, well then, who shall live and who shall die? Scary thinking, I think.

You Tube video of Seinfeld /Kramer ‘Junior Mints’

And to this day I still worry about eating ‘Junior Mints’ since  Seinfeld’s  Kramer dropped one into the open incision of an operating room patient being viewed by a class. Oh, even 15 minutes a day of exercise can lower the risk of dying and give you three more years of global warming and climate change to live through.

There was more to blog about but truthfully, my head is still spinning, I’ve got the munchies; I didn’t smoke anything. But I did find out it’s all the hypothalamus’ fault that folks get the munchies. I just winced, winding down this blog entry: 48 years ago on Saturday, I arrived on college campus to begin life education for real. How many times these last decades have I clenched my fists;  I want back those six years (I prolonged my education to avoid travel to distant lands and jungles). Life is funny sort of:  I spend the equivalent of 14 weeks a year on Rutgers campus now absorbing, attending, listening, beer ponging, cheering and learning. So I think I can un-clench my fists, for I’ve got the best of all worlds and I never have to open a blue book again. Once I threw a blue book (looking back, a crowning moment) in the face of my German professor for flunking me for wrong reasons. It felt good and so did summer school in 1965. The music was particularly great that year; folk, protestation, civil rights and British invasion. ‘The Temptations’ hit number one with ‘My Girl.’

Temptations sing ‘My Girl’ number one in 1965

 

I went ‘downtown ‘Toledo with Petula Clark and got jumped by townies. ‘As Tears Go By’ is fitting to wind down. Damn, I’m clenching again. If I had a child heading to college, I’d walk around the block several times and exhort my child to absorb every precious moment, sometimes with determined clenched fists. Ah, I’ve got Rutgers Football kickoff tonight and a full plate of autumnal activities, Jersey tomatoes, bag of dried cranberries, notions of 150 years, oceans and jetties, working electricity and water heaters and cold yogurt; so I’m grateful. Someone told me recently to frequently express gratitude to the universe. I do. Why wait for Thanksgiving, just around the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

website: http://vichywater.net    (vichywater bottle)

Facebook: Cal Schwartz   

Twitter: Earthood

 

book trailer video( 65 seconds):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

 

GOOD LINKS:

 

August 2011. Guest on Alicia Cramer Show (podcast) “Thin Healthy Happy” :
http://wausauhypnotherapy.podbean.com/2011/08/02/calvin-barry-schwartz-interview-on-living-life/

 

 

Are you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique but
unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet Linda Chorney:
http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/