Apr 13, 2010 by Naomi.

There is something wonderful to be reported after a visit to an ophthalmologist and be told you have healthy eyes. That was after about 45 minutes of examination by reading letters on a wall fifteen feet away, first with glasses and then without, then deep visual searching after dilation. What exactly does “healthy” mean in regard to eyes. I had to ask. It means there is no sign of macro degeneration or glaucoma. No evidence whatsoever. It is very good news. Several years ago I had the cataract in each eye replaced with a clear lens and enjoyed good eyesight ever since. Using those eyes for over eight decades didn’t wear them out. Hooray! I was at the specialist because I was straining to read more than was comfortable and was being checked for a new prescription. A change was made especially for the prism of my right eye. I am reasonably certain that my eyes would not be healthy if the remainder of my body was not. Keeping in good health requires a lot of steady hard work. Diet, exercise, and happy deeds and thoughts.

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Apr 9, 2010 by Naomi.

Shakespeare again. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” He said something like that or at least he gets the credit for the quote. What name is put on things doesn’t make much difference anyway. It is the nature of the thing. For instance, toes. Now my toes are most always inside shoes and socks so others rarely see them. I had toenails painted a month ago and that makes an otherwise funny looking collection of stubby digits rather attractive. At the least – colorful. Toes are otherwise not totally useful. Toes lost do not make a person immobile. But that is all. Now for birds its a different story. A bird’s foot makes use of the digits on its feet with much more dexterity. A bird can perch on the tiniest most fragile looking twig on a treetop and stay put. Oh it has to spread wings to keep its balance in a high wind but it can perch to overlook the landscape far and wide. So far I do not need that capability, although the hobbits found it critical. It might even be fun. My feet and the digits thereon keep to flatter surfaces. Even ladders are not beyond my ken. My ancestors left the evolution tree and did not develop toes that could cling to a branch as the hands could. Suits me just fine.

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Apr 7, 2010 by Naomi.

The BBC had news flash this morning that England was experiencing an earlier spring than usual. I thought that was cool, well I mean nice. Spring is certainly here in my yard. I have forsythia, quince, cherries, plums, apricots and buffalo berries in bloom. Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths already faded. Dandelions are springing up to make a bright showing on an otherwise bleak soil. The lilacs have heavy purple clusters that have not yet released a fragrance. Because I will be away for a couple of weeks those clusters will have opened and gone and I really do not want to miss the spectacular. I brought some branches inside to induce earlier blooms. It appears to have worked. The buds opened nicely. However they do not fill my kitchen with the lilac fragrance I expected. Why not? Do you suppose nature does not want to be forced?

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Apr 4, 2010 by Naomi.

As usual my Sunday morning is quite routine so after my 5 am breakfast and a walk around the back yard, which was to have been postponed because of the rainy forecast. No rain. Off to Freethought at 1100 hours but that had to be reassigned because our regular meeting place – Hastings Bookstore – decided that on this Easter they would not open until 1 pm. Well we weren’t going to wait and congregated instead at a fast foods restaurant where I decided to have a kids meal and lots of root beer. We were pleased over several members who had great letters in the Tri-City Herald forum. Lauded our president and criticized the right wing radio for its vociferous spouting against him. Before I let one member insist on talking health care I decided to leave for home and dig dirt in my yard. I planted the sisters – corn, beans, squash – in the rich plot south of the shop, tomatoes by the raspberry bush outside the computer room and pumpkins in the front yard. Couldn’t resist pulling a lot of quack grass out by the long roots that were coming up around the perennials. That brought out sweat. Took my shovel and chopped off dandelion rosettes. Tiring but no way did I eliminate them all.  Indoors I scanned the photos of the Australian Olga mountains near Uluru, the world’s largest monolith that I climbed in 1996. Look for an adventure story about that soon. No rain. Seeds planted. I can sit back in my sun room and watch them grow!

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Apr 3, 2010 by Naomi.

Teeth come from skin. Read that again. That can’t be right. Well science tells us it is. I’ve quoted Neil Shubin before (Your Inner Fish, 2008) and he backs up his stuff with references to my other favorites – Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer. This is a book on evolution. A page of suggested websites indicate sources of the cutting edge of many fields and disciplines of science. You can read them for yourself. Well written and entertaining. Full of humor as well.
Anthropologists and paleontologists, those picky people that dig into ancient layers of the earth, can tell an awful lot about an animal just from studying the teeth. I recently had a molar pulled and looking at the rascal all I see is a block shaped thing with two prongs that straddled my jaw bone like a cowboy who can no longer straighten his legs. What a hoot. If that tooth were to be dug up in a hundred years by a reincarnated Stephen J. Gould he could never tell it belonged to an over eighty-year old writer who had one fine life. That wouldn’t matter anyway. The digger could tell it had been a substantial contributor to a healthy human, maybe even suspect it was a female if other body parts were found nearby.

According to Shubin, teeth develop by an interaction of two layers of tissue in our developing skin. Skin. That’s what he says. As those two layers approach each other, the layers change shape and make proteins. Wow, proteins pop out all over the place, don’t they? The key is the interaction. I understand the value of action. Acting together. Necessary to help the body absorb calcium and contribute to healthy muscle tone, food digestion and blood circulation. When TV came along so did the couch potatoes and a generation of obese children showed up. Diabetics as well. Heart trouble in women is of recent concern. I don’t think the medical community understands exactly why that is an increasing problem, but it shows up in statistics.

The Bard says “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Such wisdom! But who reads stuff by dead men anymore? Skin or teeth. My teeth are hard and chew well. And if they came from skin so be it. The more I study evolution the more intriguing it becomes.

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Apr 1, 2010 by Naomi.

Today I completed the last of the talks on Ecology promised last week. Pasco library was the place and the room to which I was assigned was occupied with noisy elementary kids in the last throes of completing a paper plate frog with feet drawn in the shape of the hands of its creator. Each happily told me of their favorite animal, some as far fetched as platypus, lion, or whale. No matter how impossible to imagine those in our local rivers, we described the environment which they must have to survive. The children were well versed in foreign habitats being enforced from repeated visits to reference books and of course the world wide web. The kids were able to discuss the reality or impossibility of a salt water animal living in our local rivers. They were hilarious at the thought of a whale in the Yakima river. Or a mermaid on the islands in the Columbia for that matter. The West Richland library and the Union Street library were visited on the previous days. My assignment was complete. I am on to the next adventure, where ever that may take me.

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