Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Roger's journal entry: Quetico Magic
65 miles of water, 5 miles of land, and 27 ibuprofen
On June 22, as our truck got caught in some road construction while traveling north on I90, a middle-aged guy in a beat-up Buick pulled along side. We were loaded with 2 canoes, a week's worth of food and gear, and four excited guys.
"Where ya headed with those canoes?" he shouted out his window.
"Quetico."
A blank look. "Up in Canada," we explained.
"Cool! You starting out or coming back?"
You'd think since we were heading *toward* Canada he might have figured that out. But no matter. We were giddy with excitement for our impending canoe trip: nine days of canoeing in a giant loop in Quetico Provincial Park, a rugged, heavily forested land just north of Minnesota. Motor boats are outlawed, cell phones don't work, and canoeing is the preferred mode of travel. There are no hiking trails except for the (usually) short portages between lakes and rivers.
This type of trip isn't Margaret's cup of tea, so I went with Bill and two of his friends. Bill is a friend I met last winter while contracting with General Casualty.
I brought along a few books, including The Great Gatsby (finally some fiction instead of all those programming books) and Walter Cronkite's autobiography. I was hoping we'd canoe into the backwoods, set up camp, and I could explore, commune with nature, and get plenty of reading without the normal distractions of our lives.
But the guys had other plans. They were all buff studs and more interested in athletic adventure than enjoying the peaceful solitude of a quiet afternoon in the wilderness. We ended up pushing ourselves so hard that we often ended up pounding down ibuprofen - with me leading the pack. We visited lakes so deep in the park that the ranger thought we were probably the first visitors this year. One of the days we paddled all day and covered about 25 miles. Even though the sun set at 9 pm, on most days we didn't get around to making dinner until after dark.
Perhaps it is a deep dark secret of men that should be left alone, but there is something about guys and camping that brings out the dumbest humor. The entire week was spent poking fingers at each other, hoping the other guy would help release built-up gas. There were relentless and repetitive references to farts, defecation, women, and gays. Often the jokes were intended to make the other guy look bad. I gained a complete and absolute appreciation of Margaret's complaints about this type of juvenile humor. By the end of the first day I was not only sick of it, but frequently uncomfortable, especially in regard to the anti-gay slurs.
In an attempt to bring the comforts of city life to the woods, the guys grossly overpacked. They brought a hammock (unused), 3 tackle boxes, 15 pounds of Kool-Aid, two lanterns, a SpongeBob Squarepants child's rain jacket (don't ask), a tripod, tons of rope, and way more food and propane than we needed.
Now, my philosophy would be to bring the minimum - keep things light, eat beans and rice instead of grilled butter cilantro shrimp (and therefore leave the dry ice, butter, and shrimp at home), sleep when it's dark, and cook when it's light.
There's nothing wrong with overpacking if you are willing to carry the stuff. And they were, and they were strong enough to do it. But as the weak link in the chain, I wished we had left a lot of that stuff at home. 15 pounds of Kool-Aid? My back and shoulders were killing me.
I did get some good reading in, and I loved my quiet time spent soaking up nature. I didn't notice any invasive species, and the diversity and quality of the plants and wildlife was awesome.
Ultimately, my personality did not match well with these guys. However, I find that I grow as a human being the fastest when I am out of my comfort zone. That certainly happened, and I gained a new appreciation and fuller love of Margaret and my friends and family.
Check out the photos!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Roger's journal entry: Midwest Prairies on Channel 3 News
Last week a local television station did a three-minute segment on my parents' recent restoration work in a Madison park. Cool! If you have broadband (or a lot of patience), check out the video (wmv, 9.5 MB). Unfortunately, the capture card I used removed all traces of color and de-synchronized the audio/video a bit, but it still works.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Roger's journal entry: Finally some good news from our government
With most of us - even Republicans - frustrated with our government lately, it's nice when there is some good news to report.
The U.S. Education Department has just released a study showing that public schools are every bit as good as private schools.
The researchers looked at 4th and 8th graders in reading and math. They compared public school students with their counterparts in Catholic, Lutheran, Conservative Christian, and other private schools. To make the comparison fair, they controlled for student characteristics.
The final tally? Public school kids did just as well as Catholic and Lutheran kids, and performed better in math than Conservative Christian kids.
Back in my Libertarian days, I believed there was no way a government program could effectively compete against a private one. But there are just too many success stories to be able to make the blanket statement that government-run programs are always wasteful and inefficient.
Congratulations to our public school system! Now, if we could only perform as well as the 27 other countries that are ahead of us...