Mowing the Lawn

Check out the terrific set of maps  produced by the New York Times  about the 8.8-magnitude earth quake in Chile earlier today.  The set includes maps depicting the tectonic plates in the region, the approximate location of the epicenter and the predicted tsunami height and arrival times across the Pacific Ocean. I'm struck by just how quickly the wave moved.  I spent the morning refereeing basketball games and learned about the earthquake from Thelma.  I was surpised when she mentioned that a large wave was expected along the Washington coast later in the day.  That's fast.  Looking at the estimated arrival times, I wondered whether it would be quicker to fly from Santiago to Seattle or simply ride the wave.  Amazingly, the estimates were about the same. According to arrival data from the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center , the quake struck at 10:34 PM PST on 2/26.  The estimated wave arrival time in Seattle was 4:41 PM PST on 2/27.  That is 18 hours and 7 minutes

As you will have read on Thelma's blog , we celebrated Valentine's Day by cooking and enjoying a seven course meal as a family.  Our children loved it.  It felt novel and luxurious.  They keep talking about "our seven course meal" as if it is something we now own—some badge of honor for us to proudly wear.  That night, Mark prayed and gave thanks that we were able to attend church and have a seven course meal. Thelma came up with the great idea close enough to Valentine's Day that I was willing to discuss and dream with her about how to pull it off.  Ordinarily, Thelma likes to plan our holidays six to eight months in advance.  I prefer to start thinking about things a few weeks ahead of time at the most. Thelma and I have had a few multi-course meals, but not many.  I'm sure any meal where some of your food is served at separate times technically counts as a multi-course meal, but I don't think a meal should really get credit just because the kid behind

I stepped out of my car yesterday and smiled at Thelma.  "It's a good grass day," I said.  She just laughed.  She humors my obsession with—and general failure at—trying to maintain a healthy lawn. There are two growing seasons around here.  From late Spring to early Fall the grass is usually growing.  The rest of the year the moss is growing.  (The weeds, of course, grow year round.)  We're in the thick of moss season now, but the weather has been unseasonably warm.  Already the primroses are in bloom, the tulips and hyacinths are peeking out of the ground and the grass is growing again.   Saturday, I dusted off the lawn mower and gave our yard its first clip of the year.  The air was too cool for the scent of fresh cut grass to linger, but I did get to stare and soak in the beauty of an evenly trimmed lawn.  I know my 2o1o grass growing adventure will be full of the inevitable frustration and fretting, but for a few days at least everything is perfect. I've deci

Too often I find reporters trying to strike a balance in their reporting by publishing comments that have little news value.  For example, take the following quote from an article in the New York Times about possible Republican health care proposals .  The comment seems to have little to no news value and sullies an otherwise useful article about the types of proposals that might become part of bipartisan health care reform: Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, said, “If the Republicans’ health care plan was a plan for a fire department, they would rush into a burning building, and they would rush out and leave everybody behind.” The statement is inflammatory.  It is contradicted by the article.  It does not benefit the national discussion on healthcare.  It allows partisans a cute sound bite for avoiding the debate about whether our nation should invest in sweeping changes, incremental improvements or more of the same.  Surely there is at least one Democrat who can p