Ones and Zeros

I don’t understand it, I just don’t understand it!

There’s been a lot of people who lost power around the Washington DC metro area this last week, I understand that.  But several times I’ve heard people quoted on TV or radio complaining that the stuff in their freezer and refrigerator would spoil.  I can’t understand that.

Right now the outside temperature is 27 degrees F (-2 degC).  That’s freezer temperatures.  The warmest it got outside this week was about 40 degrees F.  Most of the time it was in the low thirties or colder.

You don’t need a refridgerator or freezer.  Just a box (read ice chest) to even out the day/night temperatures and keep squirrels and birds out.

Some years ago I ran a marathon.  I wasn’t fast, but I wasn’t near the last one either.  I want to run one again too so I have an interest in marathons.  Many American runners are, in a more competitive way, like me in that they’re not fast.  Or not fast enough.

But for the first time in quite a while, an American has won the NYC marathon in 2 hours 9 minutes and 15 seconds.  There were also more Americans in the top ten that in a very long while too.

But a CNBC commentator referred to this as an “empty win” saying that Meb Keflezighi is a “ringer” because he’s a naturalized American instead of native born.  The next day the commentator backpedaled and tried to correct himself.

Let’s get in straight: By constitution, law, and tradition, you’re an American if you’re either born here or if you take the oath of citizenship.  That’s it.  Keflezighi is as American as anyone is.  The sole difference is a legal one having to do with the ability to become President, this is limited to native-born citizens.  And that was muddied by the last election in which Sen McCain was unchallenged in this despite being born outside US boundaries.

Frankly, it was no effort for me to become American.  As I was born here it was a birthright.  But for Keflezighi and many others citizenship is an earned right.

Changing countries isn’t easy and it can be a one-way street.  It requires a willingness to start over and create a new life for yourself in a strange and foreign place.  It means you will understand your children even less than most parents do, and it means you may always feel you don’t fully fit in.  You will have a foot in two countries and two cultures.  But you do it anyhow for your future and your family’s future.  So in many ways a naturalized citizen is one who’s made a real choice and commitment and is in many ways more an American than a native-born citizen who can take it all for granted.

So yes: Meb Keflezighi is a real American.  And he averaged 4 minutes 55 seconds per mile for 26.2 miles.  He has my respect on both counts.

I took the kayak out recently for a largely successful short journey. First upstream, then down. Get the harder paddle over with first. Turns out it was a little more work than I’d thought. Next time, I’ll check the water flow on the web first.

I was able to get some tips from an experienced paddler there. He gave me the picture of what the river was doing and recommended somethings. It’s always good to get local advice! The current was high, although not near flood stage. I could see a large branch floating downstream out in the middle of the current as I launched. My plan was to use the shallow draft of the kayak and stay mostly to the sides.

The upstream paddle was work I was making a slow speed as compared to the nearby shore, but was carving an impressive wake for a kayak. My route was short, but I lingered for a while near a side inlet and on an island in the middle of the river too.
(GPS tracking by InstaMapper.com)

(My start and and are at the red dot, but I didn’t start tracking till at the green dot.)

At the inlet I took pictures of a groundhog and turtles while floating on the calm water. The turtle in the front has its legs and head fully out and is sunning himself.

I crossed the river in the kayak. I angled my kayak’s bow into the current slightly and let it push me a little sideways while I paddled to counteract that push. In this way I slide horizontally across the current while moving upstream slowly. I watched for branches and the like in the current but encountered nothing substantial to modify my path.

In the current shadow of an island in the middle I rested. I’d always been curious about these islands and now was my chance to see one. I slid the kayak against a shallow shore and got out taking care to secure the kayak. I didn’t want to have to swim that current.

The island was overgrown and solid. No larger animals lived there that I saw as there were no paths or eaten vegetation. It was wild and unpopulated but within sight of a busy bridge and roads on the shore. For all I know, I was the first human footprint there. These islands are destroyed and remade in floods and have a geologically infinitesimal lifespan. Many of them have changed drastically or been made in living memory.

Getting back into the kayak went smoothly, at first. I have a closed kayak which means I have to raise myself up and slip my legs forward into the covered area ahead of my seat. The island was muddy and I wanted to rinse off the mud before I put my feet in. That involved dangling my foot over the side. Well, that proved to be my undoing. I got off balance and wasn’t able to regain it.

Fortunately, all critical things (camera, cell phone) were safe in plastic dry bags. I ensured that before crossing the current in the first place. My legs and butt would dry. I ended up getting more mud and water in the boat than I would have in the first place. That’ll teach me.

I paddled out to a rock in the river and sat in its lee, then drifted downstream to Point of Rocks bridge on the MD side of a large island. The downstream drift was pleasant, I watched the shore go by with the rocks on the hill above the C&O canal. And I watched the bridge approach.

I knew the current was strong enough that I wouldn’t be able to cross it between the bridge and the island, so I planned my route under the bridge. I went upstream close to the shore on the VA side and got back to the launch point.

All in all, a short but nice trip. I had plenty of exercise paddling, and found a good way NOT to get into a kayak.

We were all gathered in a playground parking lot, about twenty of us, and we were listening to a brief welcome talk and an introduction to what we were about to do. Then we sorted through the tools: pruners, saws, pick-axes and McLeods. I’d brought some tools, but my chainsaw wasn’t required and my other tools seemed a little toy-like compared to these serious heavy-duty trail-building implements.

We were all volunteers today to help build a section of the Potomac Heritage Trail. Some of us were first timers, or practically so, others were members of the PHTA - the association building the trail. They were the leaders. There also was a county official there, and an REI employee. Many of us were there because we heard about today through REI.

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