I met Tom thru my then wife Toni and we travelled around Fla enjoying the sights and scenery.  Tom was working for his Dad who owned a construction company and there was a time when the company was working on the Panamerican highway around Quito Ecuador.  Tam was down there working and as part of his contract was tickets to come back to the states 4 times a year for R&R.  Well, he met a beautiful girl there and decided to get married.  So he sent tickets for Toni and I to go free to Ecuador for the wedding and a week.  It was a marvelous experience almost beyond explanation.  I speak almost zero Spanish, Toni thinks she does.  Tom did quite well, but Sandra spoke zero English.  It was such fun.  The wedding was held in a big old church with an organist and a blind violinist.  I should have taken more photos for Toni to think she should have.  Tom would tell me stories of being the son of a wealthy industrialist, and until I saw the movie “Proof of Life”, I didn’t understand him.  My coming was the first time he engendered to travel out of the city of Quito because he felt safe.  We were in a huge pickup with a machine gun (honest) under the seat.  My eyes were wide open in amazement.

4/4/12…When one drove out of the city of Quito, one would see a pig or a calf hung head up on a tripod of wood, with pieces of it removed.  No refrigeration mandated pretty much that meat be butchered and sold directly as people went by either on foot or horseback or auto.  I have no idea how common refrigeration was in general in the city, but I do know that I was never sold a drink with ice in it, and they always kept the bottle when I was done with any bottled drink.

On my second trip to Ecuador, I was requested to go there because Tams Dad, Tom had a heart attack and I went to see if it was safe to stay or that he be brought back to the U.S..  I went to the hospital where he was, and I saw equipment that I had only ever seen in antique medical books, only I saw the equipment in hallways and rooms….still in use!  The defibrillator in the ICU where he was a patient…was unbelievably huge.  4 FEET by 3 ft, by 4 ft.!!  And some of the doctors had trained in Cleveland Clinic USA!!  The biggest problem they had with Tom was that he was my size…6′ 1″.  He stuck out on Both ends of the bed he was in, in the ICU.  So the first, and probably the best thing I did was get him into a private room with an acceptable bed.   We elected to leave him in Ecuador to rest up before returning to Fla.

During the second trip there, again…Tam and Sandra took me south and then west from Quito in that big pickup.  Gas was having to be shipped from the Amazon area of Ecuador, across two mountain chains of the Andes mountain that split vertically and Quito is in the middle.  Because of all this, we had to pay 16 CENTS a gallon for gas.  Wow.  So the trip to the area we were headed was 5 hours of Downhill on the west side of the Andes.  The scenery can not be justifiably explained.  Awesome doesn’t come close.  We went to a small “city”…where the road entering the city was paved…and one way.  On the exit of the city, the road was dirt.  In that city..I hope I can remember to look up the name…we saw stores and shops that had front doors like metal garage doors, and wares were hung around the opening to what they had inside.  One had to step up a big 2 ft or more step from the street to the opening of the stores.  A restaurant we went to, had us sitting at a table right next to the step down to the street, and the people threw their chicken bones and other garbage from the meal…into the street where it was fought over by buzzards and other animals.  Quaint sure doesn’t come to mind.  We had travelled here to see a “tribe” of indians known as Los Colorados.  This was because the men…put a seed from Aschioto (check this spelling) into their hair and brought the hair forward like the brow of a baseball cap…and the seeds and  maybe a grease turned their hair a deep red.  In my poor understanding of Spanish…I learned that “this is the way it has always been”.  In town, we would see males with pants on, but no shirt and that strange hairdo, and mostly drunk.  The women…would wear a flowered dress and strange (to me) patent leather shoes…but not tied.  The women did not use this coloration in their hair.  When we went out of town to see a dwelling…I’ll post a photo here…the men wore a deep blue and white transversed striped loin cloth, and barefoot.  The women wore a colored striped skirt and were topless and barefoot.  He charged us $ 50 cents to take their picture, and he, the man…put a pink satin cloth around his shoulders..assumedly to be dressed up for the portrait.  Their house, was made of split bamboo logs split and laid flat and then attached to other intact round bamboo trees to form a rectangular building.  It had a thached roof and dirt floors.  There was no stove and no chimney,but a small fire pit in one corner with the smoke going straight out thru the roof.  We experienced this when we went back to them after dark.  There was one oil lamp…raw flame and no protection.  The bed was a small elevated area right inside the door on the opposite end from the fire pit.  I saw no blankets.  I asked if I could buy a mans loincloth and they refused, but did bring out the most basic loom I ever saw and showed me how they make the cloth.  I did understand the spanish enough to hear the man say, “Do it right for the tourists”.

On that same trip, we travelled around trying to find other members of Los Colorados.  We found only a couple, a young girl with a toddler.  She had the same skirt and was topless.  Another was a teenage boy who had his hair in that style and blue jeans, barefoot and topless.  He told us his dad was drunk and couldn’t come out to meet us.  He was under a large roofed structure with walled in area at the far end, but the roofed area was again, about 30 by 50 and there was a wooden marimba suspended by roped/vines in the near corner.  Shortly after seeing him, we were driving on a dirt path thru the jungle when I saw a very large snake.  The jungle was like what I think was a banana plantation.  Very open floor with not much dense vegetation and banana trees separated widely.  I got out to photograph the snake but it took off and I ran to catch up to it.  I was in my 30s at the time, and it didn’t take me long to discover that I couldn’t catch up to it….but more important was the sudden realization that if I couldn’t keep up, if it turned and chased me, I wouldn’t be able to get away from it…it was that fast.  So I immediately stopped and went back to the pickup.  That…is an epiphany!

The next dog I remember was Midnight…a black cocker spaniel puppy.  Mom and Dad had made a month trip out west and the very day they returned, Middy had been killed by a car and all 3 of us kids were heartbroken.  Hardly a nice return for the folks.

Next was Doc.  A puppy Weimaraner that Doc Wilson had given me from his female dogs litter.  She was such a good hunter and I was sure excited.  He died from ?Parvo just a couple days after we had him.  I was heartbroken.

Next was Ringer.  A “redbone” beagle.  I have no idea what that means but he was white and two colors of “red” and taller than most beagles, and that’s what Dad said he was.  He was an incredible rabbit dog and many friends asked to borrow him to hunt.  I could watch him all day.  On one occasion, I was on one side of a deep hollow and on the other side almost directly across from me and a couple hundred feet away, I could watch both him and the rabbit he chased do their pattern, the well known figure 8.  Not just once but 3 times did he cross and I decided to shoot the rabbit on the 3 rd pass around me.  Dad still won’t tell me and I never knew what happened to him after I went to college.

Next was…Pepper.  when I was 12, Dad brought home a male Dalmation I called Pepper.  He and I bonded so very tightly.  I had to complain he always had to have his head on me in bed when we went to bed.  He would go canoeing with me and jump out and swim for a while and then bark and I’d have to go to shore to let him jump in.  Even in water with large ice floes.  He love the water and would jump off a diving board to get to me and even off the top of the dam down to the lower level, just to swim with me.  He got hit by a truck when I was in college.  It hurt.

While in college at Bucknell,  my wonderful biology professor Roy Tasker PhD, arranged for me to get a spider monkey from one of his former pupils.  Wow.  What a learning experience that was.  Fannie, was a female golden spider monkey with the  4 fingered hands and huge clitoris that most people thought was a penis.  She was a baby and I had All the details and more that one would have with a for real human baby.  Change diapers and feed and exercise and cuddle.  You had to be sure the hole for the tail was tight enough or you ended up with monkey poop all over your arm and shoulder.

At the same time I had Fannie, I had a parakeet, Diffy (as that was the sound he would make for unknown reasons).  Diffy was a challenge too.  You could not leave an open box of toothpix on a table or he would take them one at a time and walk to the edge of whatever he was on and drop it and watch it fall, then go back for another, until the box was empty.  He would sit on a glass and sway front to back until the glass toppled over and then with his head, he would roll it to the edge and watch it fall.  We had to completely change to metal and/or plastic glasses.  We also had to watch how we put toilet paper into the holder.  If the paper rolled out across the top and down, he would fly onto it and while flying would run the paper under his feet till the entire roll was on the floor.  Which brings me to a partial end of this post…I can vividly recall coming home one day, and up the long flight of stairs to our house which was the whole top floor of Dads machine shop.  And here comes Fannie running upright with her funny waddle gait and her tail held high behind her and the end of a roll of toilet paper flying from her tail back to the bathroom, and Diffy trying to get the paper from her tail.  No camera could possibly do that scene justice.

Oh, I have more pets, but that’s another day.

To this day, I stand in awe of such ancient sites.  And they exist literally all over our planet.  Every continent has more than one such site and many archeologists are trying to uncover the secrets.  I wish I could stick around long enough to hear what they learn.  When you see something that can have no other explanation than it was created by intelligent beings…you are forced to believe your eyes.

And to this day, I am totally baffled by the thought that the builders of the Egyptian pyramids didn’t have pulleys!

Fascinating.  Many years ago, in Tampa Fla., I was talking to a patient at his bedside and while talking, my attention came to a publication…paper, thin magazine type and though I don’t remember, something on the page made me ask about it.  He said, take it, you might enjoy it.  I was totally taken.  I have subscribed to it for almost 40 yrs now.  Science News is such a marvelous subscription.  It covers all of the sciences (some of which weren’t even sciences at that time) and it never fails to get my attention in one or more of it’s subjects.  Barely a dozen pages thick, but uncommonly informed.  Ever since writing the above about consciousness and memory, I’ve read of a bunch of studies being done and in progress and to be further examined.  Sort of predestined for me to read that.  Only in the past very recent time (weeks, maybe month)…there is an offering of a program that states one can learn a foreign language in 10 days.  Haven’t gotten it yet, but I most definitely will.  The study of language alone is intriguing.  The number of different languages in seemingly small and compact areas, alone, is fascinating.  I can remember my son going to Paris for study and I kept tell him to learn French.  Of course he didn’t but he did get to know that they teach the language French….IN FRENCH.  Ha!  Until one has experienced being alone in an area where obviously people are communicating even in generalities, and you can’t imagine how alone you are because you can’t speak the language.

I’ve experienced my soul being surrounded by children on Bonaire.  They spoke almost zero English and I spoke no Papiemento (sp) or Dutch, or Portuguese, yet we communicated about snakes and fish and the island and school and more for a couple hours.  It was REally special for me.  I never ever enjoyed haggling over the price of something, till I was in Mexico, in Merida, and I got to haggle for something in Spanish.  And I was able to do it.  Pretty minor in language arean, but the act itself was wonderful.

One other experience I had that is remarkable was going thru the countryside after leaving Chichenitza by bus, and we had to stop at a little village along the way.  I saw a man getting his hair cut…outside under a banana tree.  I can’t imagine a better experience in getting a haircut.  In that same village…no electricity…I had a Polaroid camera and they were pretty rare at the time.  There were teenage girls there dressed in everyday clothes that almost appear as a national or traditional dress.  I took a picture and handed them the developing print.  They looked at the blank sheet like what is it or what to do with it.  Then, in Mayan language…they became aware of changes happening on the print and chattered wildly.  They certainly had never experienced this before.  And when the image finally came out to full development…and they realized it was them….I will never forget that experience.

I am still wondering about consciousness and sentience.  Doubt that it will be uncovered in my lifetime, but they sure are working hard at it.  The ability to do MRI studies on the brain and follow paths is surely heading the the right direction. Follow that design and then watch Ancient Aliens and the logical course will follow.

The series on History channes of Ancient Aliens sure brings home how we just do not know much of our past.  I’d recommend everybody to see it, but know forehand that some of the narrators are speaking with forked tongues.  We certainly can not deny the presence of these Very obviously technological sites and entities around our planet, but to give ones own thoughts as gospel, that’s just wrong.  Wish someone would state that at the beginning of each episode.

4/12/12  Just read today that they have brain scan proof of actual function of acupuncture.  Wonderful.  How long has it been around?  I wrote an earlier post of Chapmans reflexes..and here it is with acupuncture.  Wonderful.

I REally wish I could remember the name of another he brought. They were at the Tampa Public Library and I’ve even called there but they no longer have them.  This one, in black and white with sound…starts out almost pitch black with murmurs of men seeming to come around in early morning.  In a woods as the light increases and now we understand they are in our Civil War and one of the men is chosen to be a scout.  The woods are damp and foggy and he makes his way to a small gully where there is a partly demolished stone building on one side and perhaps less than 100 yards away on the opposite side of the gully is a group of men with a cannon.  He crawls to the stone building and makes his way to where he can see unobscured and still hidden.  The men on the other side could be heard in the crisp morning air and he just watched them for a while, but then he discovered why the stone building was in the condition.  They were using it for target practice with their cannon.  There was a loud cannon shot and all went black.  Then…as things start to come in to focus,  we hear the buzzing of a fly.  We realize that the shot has hit the building and it has fallen down on our soldier who is now positioned with his body totally trapped except for his hold on his long rifle with the end of the barrel at his head and as the focus travels down the rifle, we see his hand barely able to reach the trigger.  A day passes and in the next morning the fly is louder and the poor soldier is realizing he is totally trapped.  He pulls the trigger and all goes black…but then the fly is on his ear with a trickle of blood coming out of his ear.

We are sentient people indeed.  How the hell did that happen?  God.  Likely but there are logically other answers.  I’ll let you decide for yourself.  A series on TV called Ancient Aliens is an intriguing series for you to ponder.  Some of it is just stupid, but when we absolutely know there are such fantastic things on our planet that are without question man made…but we know absolutely nothing about them.  One does wonder.  My whole life has been knowledge and science based.  I’m easily intrigued.

So, one day, I was asked to see a patient on that floor.  I arrived and went to the nursing desk and from there was guided by several nurses to the patients room.  Most of the rooms were for 2 people, but this one was a single.  The patient was a black woman in mid 30s.  I sat down and started a conversation regarding the reason for which I was invited to consult.  The lady was very quiet and acted withdrawn and timid, but not especially abnormal.  In the midst of that, I casually asked, so what problem brought you to this ward.  ALL the nurses…who had stayed in the room with me (a bit unusual)..did a quick aspiration of air…loudly as in shock.     One of the nurses grabbed me and hastily took me outside the room.  She asked, “you don’t know why she’s here?”.  I said no…and then they told me she had bitten the ear off her baby because a voice told her to do it.  I guess I don’t recognize crazy as well as I thought.  I don’t remember any more of the interview.

Here I sit, alone but with Gabby my dog and Wilbur, my female African Grey.  I could hardly have life better and I’m still able to dream.  Hard to imagine…I’m seeing my 73rd Christmas…but my Dad…is seeing his 98th!    I’ve told him, that my very best Christmas present ever was the Old Town Canoe he gave me for my 12th Christmas.

Thru the magic of computers…I have pen pals (as it were) all over the world.  I tell everybody I’m on the swing-by of the best grapevine in the world and it’s true.  As I age, I find myself more interested in the weather and being able to predict it with the charts.  I’m also more intrigued by politics.  I HATE it.  There is so much greed and stabbing.  Consider…All of the wars are due to greed and religion.  Love thy neighbor?  Not in this world.  Too many zealots out there…and impossible to tell one from the other.  Soapbox?  You bet.  If love could exist…greed and lust will tear it apart.  My new friend Shimon from Jerusalem has a nice blog and he tries at communicating much better than I.  I think that my getting knowledge…all I ever really wanted from my parents, is my saving grace.  If only I could remember it.  We are taught by religion that when we die, all knowledge will be given us.  Somehow, that’s a bit scary in one way and sad in another.  Not sure I’d like to know EVERYthing.  Learning has been the enjoyment of being human…that and sharing it.  I do have wonderful stories, but I tell them too often and can’t remember who I told what.  sigh  I wonder what the new year will bring.

I forgot earlier that I should have put up a photo for this day.  I had to have help with the lettering and Chris was a lot of help.  It was a good Christmas.  Now looking for New Years Eve.  I even bought a small bottle of Champagne.

As you can imagine, playing Santa is very big for me.  It’s just not possible for me to tell you what it feels like.  It is simply wonderful.  I enjoy a great-beard; notice the hyphen.  Yeas ago, I saw a photo of Alexander Bell,  and Thomas Edison and I think the English guy who was a philosopher (can’t remember his name at the moment).  They all had great-beards and the beards were white.  They were in a garden area and they had on white shirts and summer clothes of the south of that time.  The beards attracted me and I wanted to emulate that scene.  I’m glad I did.  I never could have realized the impact it would have on me and others this many years later.  While I’m at it, I’ll put in another image that just makes me feel good as it was my creation.  I have wonderful friends who model for me.

Life is good.  I’ve heard from my kids and grandkids and talked to my 98 yr old Dad today.  It’s been a good Christmas…and Mary is definitely the best cook in the world.