Pavlov

Since I've moved to Flagstaff, I developed a Pavlovian reaction to a once innocuous sound: a helicopter. A whirly-bird in Flagstaff means one of two things: wild fire or a serious medical emergency. As soon as I hear that familiar thump thump I find myself scanning the sky to try to identify the bearer of bad news. Is there a slurry pouch dangling from it? No--it must be a medical helicopter. I wonder what happened. Accident at the Grand Canyon? Serious car wreck? It's strange to me how a helicopter stimulates my fear so much more than a siren. The sound of a helicopter is somewhat sinister. It represents a serious situations. A fire that doesn't threaten structures is generally handled by ground crews. An accident in town is handled by land-based emergency vehicles. A helicopter in Flagstaff is a signal that something is very wrong.

Yesterday, two helicopters collided mid-air less than two miles from my home. Both were emergency medical teams bringing patients to the hospital. All but one of those onboard perished. Details of the accident remain under investigation. A big question on everyone's lips is, "Why didn't they see each other?" I remember when I used to do aerial surveys for eagles and hawks from a small, fixed-wing cessna. On one trip it was just me and the pilot. At one point the pilot pointed off to the left and said, "do you think he sees me?" I looked at the spot to which he pointed. It took a few seconds before I saw it--almost imperceptible--a silver flash. He was still a ways off--but not as far as I would have thought. Trick of the open sky and the position of the planes. It was no big deal, but it definitely made an impression on me. I don't know why these pilots didn't see each other. Maybe there was something distracting them like a mechanical emergency. Maybe each thought the other would move out of the way--sounds stupid, but who knows.

One of the patients was a 26-year old volunteer fire fighter that had been in the Grand Canyon helping to fight a blaze out of control on the north rim. He had a bug bite and was going into anaphylactic shock. They decided to air lift him to Flagstaff airport. Here's a guy that voluntarily risked his life to help fight fires. I wonder how many close calls he'd had fighting fires? I wonder if he knew that what would get him in the end would be an insect bite? It just goes to show you that it could happen any time. Whether you take risks for work or for fun--it may not matter in the end. I guess what I take out of that is that I may as well just take the risks.

Terrorist the new Communist

It seems like nothing will inspire hate in much of conservative America's psyche than to call someone a terrorist. Much like during like the anti-communist era of the 40's and 50's, America is out for blood. Will we have the Cheney trials to correspond with the McCarthy hearings? Not likely, this modern judgment is taking place within the media circus ring.

I'm sure everyone has heard of the Dunkin Donuts -- Rachael Ray incident by now. If you have been hiding under a rock for the last month or so, here's the gist. Rachael Ray, America's sweetheart cooking show hostess, posed for an ad for Dunkin Donuts wearing a scarf loosely draped around her neck. It seems the scarf reminded some conservative whack-jobs of a Muslim kaffiyeh. The kaffiyeh has been around probably since Jesus and is used for sun, wind, and sand protection. In fact the British army will often wear kaffiyeh in desert areas (although they use a different name). Yasser Arafat turned the kaffiyeh into a symbol of Palestinian liberation when he wore it in deliberate contrast to the more urban fez. Black and white keffiyehs are generally used to symbolize the Fatah party. In fact, many Israeli jews sympathetic with the Palestinians used to wear a kaffiyeh as a symbol of solidarity. Here is the picture of Rachael Ray
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/29/news/companies/dunkin_donuts.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

I think she's wearing what amounts to a scarf. If she were holding a machine gun in her hand as opposed to a cup of coffee--I could understand the misinterpretation, but as it is I think we're taking symbolism a little too far.

The other recent terrorist symbol involved Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. After sealing his nomination as the Democratic Party candidate, Barack and Michelle had the nerve to show their happiness with a "terrorist fist-jab". This accusation is even more laughable than the first. Terrorist fist jab? Since when did Al Qaeda adopt this modified "high-five" as a symbol of their hatred for Americans? In fact I can only imagine that the "fist-bump" is a fairly American gesture probably started by basketball players or rappers.

Lets face it, we're on the hunt for "terrorists". Since we can't seem to find actual terrorist leaders, I guess we'll just invent them. Will Rachael Ray and Michelle Obama share a cell in Guantanamo?

Every Drop Counts

For the past few weeks, my boyfriend and I have been using a plastic wash tub in the sink to catch the water from dishes or anything else we do in the kitchen sink. The idea is to capture the water to use on our plants. I am using only biodegradable soap so I assume it won't hurt the plants. Its very simple. Instead of letting the water wash down the drain, we catch it in the tub and then empty it when it gets full or when we need to start with clean water. I knew that a lot of water was wasted by the average household--but I must say I have been stunned by the number of times we need to dump the bucket. It really brings home the idea that convenience will be the downfall of our earth. I would love to have the money to spend on a graywater system--but I don't. Nor do we have the time to construct our own. In a way, I think this is better. The bucket cost me about $2--the soap is about $3.50 for a bottle which lasts more than a month. It takes me about a minute and a half to walk out the door and dump the bucket. Every time I do it, I feel good about conserving water. The only down side is that I dump food chunks and all because I figure its good for the plants--but my dog has other ideas. Often I go out to my cherry trees to find that he's eaten away all of the bark mulch because they smelled particularly desirable. Overall I think its a small price to pay.