# 2

This weekend I got some kind of stomach flu. I sat all day Sunday in bed being pensive and I decided I had to write you another piece of correspondence. Any way as I lay there with my leaky gut I started thinking about Rons explanation of the rocks. If it is true that rocks appear because of weather patterns that would mean that if a field is left alone oh say for about 10 years with out having it cleared of rocks then the rocks would start adding up till the field would look like a river rock bed (just doing my math again). Or is there some kind of osmosis law going on. Do all the rocks have a saying “Us four and no more”. That is called anthropomorphism by the way. Another word for Ginny. Or do all the rocks act like a pack of dogs and start killing off the week ones when it gets overpopulated, that is called zoomorphism. By the way that brings me to yet another book recommendation. “Life of Pi”. If is a journey into the spiritual life of a shipwrecked adolescent stuck on a life boat with a bangle tiger. I suppose it is a statement that there is more than one way to a spiritual conclusion. Whether it is through any religious thought, philosophy or through atheism one will come to the same place. It is really cool.
Sometimes when I read my own writing I feel that it sounds a bit cocky. I guess it is true that I am cocky and vain. But you will be happy to know that Tammy has humbled me by throwing away my “For Him” make-up bag. I kicked and screamed through my tears using the words “shan’t” over and over again but Tammy was the victor in the end. But do not worry I shall be back on my high horse tomorrow as I will go down to the “Cancha” and buy more make-up, a new dread lock wig and some “90”s hot P-A-N-T-S in which I will go strutting down the Prado (I must spell pants incorrectly cuz I don’t like them). I’ll be on fire baby! People who see me will be impressed and will say “Wow, that guy is burning up!” or “That guy is on fire” or “Hey, isn’t that Dr. FIREstone your chiropractor? Hey Dr. FIREstone your flaming, on fire, hot!” or other such incinerary (a Rusty original) type remarks.
I must admit that I am surprised that that neither Ginny nor Lorry have given me any advice my new water polo initiatives. A good aunt around here would say something like “Yes mi sobrino or hijo, eet weell be good for health”. Or even the contrary “No mi hijo, eet ees a dees-honorable death to drown in a pool of naked man soup. You shame fameely name”. Apparently there is no guidance to be had here!
Speaking of religion Tammy muscled me into going to some kind of Anglican church dinner with her that was being hosted by the church. I guess this is par for the course being married to a fully ordained Anglican Priest. So when Rev. Tammy and I walked in one of the first comments that I got from somebody was “No dirty jokes, Rusty”. Man, what is wrong with these people! I think he was just jealous cuz last time I was there being witty I actually got all the female attention and he was not the popular guy. Well luckily for him I was out of dirty jokes. If I had to tell them I would have to start making them up. Which is not a problem really! I must say that I did get my attention when the bishops wife’s new cat crawled up on my shoulder and started to purr and hump my neck. It must be my pheromones.

FeO2
Excuse me. I would like to inject an immediately correction. The video clip you received was from RON. It was in no way a response from Ginny. If you look at the header of the email you will find RON's address and his address only. I repeat, I was in no way involved in the transmission of that video to your (or for that matter, anyone else's) computer.
Thank you,Ginny
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woW! Oops I said it backwards Wow (ya gotta love palindromes)! Now you have no excuse to not ride that thing down and visit us. You can write a book and film the trip. You can call it "Bolivious on a Bike" (that one was Tammy’s). I can see it now. A dark jungle somewhere in the Darien Gap (the area between southern Panama and Northern Columbia where a caravan of 5 jeeps was lost while trying to make it through in the 1950’s) there is an image of a fatigued blue eyed Ginny talking into a camera. "I must have pushed Ron on this bike through about 10 miles of swamp today. I don't think I can handle much more. I think I am starting to get depressed. I feel I am holding Ron back, I guess. Poor Ron he seemed so exasperated that I could not get up the strength for one more mile. Why am I doing this? I miss sex and my cats!" Then the next day you see a clip of Ron getting his leg bit off by an alligator and behind the camera you hear a voice with a northern European accent say "Oh my god...oh my goooood." Then there is a scene of the daily journals of Ron in front of a camera showing off his stumped bandaged leg and a can of bug spray. "I don't know how much longer I can take these bugs anymore. They are driving me insane! (as he sprays at himself franticly) "Maybe I will feel better tomorrow once we get going again. It is my turn to push the bike. I always feel better once I get moving. God I miss sex!"
Indeed you can take a new marketing angle. You guys can mix "Long way around" and "Blair witch project" and put it into one long hellish diabolical film. I have a better name for the project now that I think about it. Call it "The long bitch down".
This kind of reminds me of a story. I have a couple of friends who bicycled around the US. They would do about 40-60 miles a day depending on the terrain. They used to laugh and warn me about trying to have oral sex in the tent after one of these days. The conclusion was "Don't do it, really bad idea".
Any way the motor cycle is really cool. I can see from the pic. that Ron is really happy (even though I can not see his face). Just don't let Ron go out by himself on that thing he might come back with a new fixture or two mounted on the bitch seat!

FeO2One of my co-workers had her baby, the other is still waiting. But the coolest thing was that I was actually present for the birth! Never actually seen a live one from that side of the table/bed before. Made me remember a lot about the joyous aspect of having a child in your life. About how you get to re-learn everything all over again as they experience things for the first time. I remember how fascinating bugs where when you looked at them up close, having never seen one before. Or how entertaining a little piece of tape on the floor can be. Or about how to focus on the important things in life. You know, all the things you forget in the process of growing up. Anyway, it turned out to be quite a profound experience for me. It's been
about a week and I'm still reeling a little.Ginny
I was there for both births of both of my children. I must say it the first experience caught me off guard. It was actually a traumatic delivery for Tammy. It was an emergency c-section. It was not an easy thing to watch as the nurses held in Thomas’ body in the uterus as the feet had already presented. I watched as the child was literal torn out of the womb from the wrong side. It was amazing that Tammy held on to my arm through the hole procedure even though she was unconscious. They quickly carried the child out of the room and I had to ask the person standing beside me what the sex of the child was. He said “I think it was a boy.” Later when they closed Tammy up and took her to her room I went to the incubator room. I went in and looked at a child I was not sure I wanted. To be completely honest I had never seen Rusty as a father. It just did not fit, at least not in my mind.
That night I stayed in the hospital room with Tammy. The next morning they brought me the child. As Tammy was still to sick and injured from the procedure they gave the one and a half month premature child to me. I laid him on the side of the bed beside me and just stared at him. I realized when I felt his breath on my face I had never sensed anything so pure. I felt the “calm breathing of eternity” Umberto Eco, “Pendulum”. The Greek word for breath is “pnuemos”. The Greeks also use the same word for “soul”. As I continued my gaze at this strange sleeping child for I do not know how long I realized my attitude changing. That if there was anything that is credible about the divine, this was it. It was just before this point in my life I had decided that there really was nothing else out there. But here it was lying right beside me breathing. Eternity. I struggle on……and I love the child.

FeO2

I do pride myself in seeing the world through different eyes while others just tell me to grow up. But still I do things differently than most. This is probably why I find myself in the life situation that I am in. A good example would be when Lori made fun of me when I found a highlighter that was left at student commons when I was visiting Davenport. She said she was just reminded how childish I was. But that is why she hangs with me! Cuz I’m cool! I mean don’t get me wrong, Lori is cool too but right now it all about me. Anyhoo, I was so happy. And as the matter of fact I still have it here in a cup on my desk. Perhaps it is a reward from BJ for coming to visit his legacy. I owe him big for this one as well for other things.
But I tend to look at things such as ordinary field rocks and see beyond the field rock. I honestly thought that Ron’s explanation of why rocks appear brand new was good. From the little information that Ginny gave it sounds that the he was saying the earth is constantly churning. I guess that is why there would not be a great collection of rocks after several years. I figured this out while I was watching Thomas help his mother make coffee cake the other day. He was churning white and brown sugar. I started thinking that if I were to somehow pick all the little white crystals at the top it would leave the top brown. But if Thomas were to mix it again more white crystals would appear but no more or no less than there were before. A constant mixing would cause an even blend and not collect just white or brown on top. Is that how it works Ron or am I really whacked? I was amazed when I started to think how alive the earth was under my feet.
This was just using logic not really seeing the world through different eyes. But what is really cool is that fact that that ordinary field rock became something really fascinating that has enhanced my life. (No wise cracks about the quality of my activities!) The field rock now represents the movement under my feet, it represents a living planet, and it represents a cosmic motion of bodies being hurled through space and time at thousands of miles and hour. It also represents time and conversation that is spent between friends. Love, laughter and work. Whether it is a family working together in a field or friends just e-mailing each other in their spare time. Rocks are great. I remember no matter how many toys my parents would buy me they would get old after a while. Then I would go back to my favorite toy, a pocket full of rocks. We as adults still use rocks for very important elements of society. We seal relationships with a diamond, precious stones drive economies and we break windows with them. (Smile)
I think this is where the child like wonder comes in. Children discover and are fascinated by what seems be things so simple (rocks, bugs, adhesive tape, etc.). True, it is because they are seeing it for the first time, but I wonder if they can sense that they are close to something much grander that what we adults (notice I include myself) do not sense any more. We are too tied down with “reality” to realize that perhaps there is something bigger. Are we amazed by the wrong things being adults? What if when we see a child playing with a piece of tape on the floor it means much more than what we think? Maybe not, huh? So much for ideas.

FeO2

I like snow flakes too. I’ve seen them on various occasions. (California boy, (sort of) living in Cochabamba). Thomas has asked me several times for me to take him into the mountain to see the snow. The snow here comes around the rainy season which is the summer. Things are all ass backwards here. I have never seen it snow in the valley.
I did live in South west Missouri though and they do have a winter. I must say though it is probably not as harsh as it is in most parts of Iowa or Illinois. But they were bad enough to make me swear that I would never live in a place that had a winter any worse than CA again. The problem with that is once you start saying never Murphy’s Law will kick in. So I just pray to God that I will never have to live where there is ice again! The prayer is usually is followed with a solemn promise that I will never start a fire where it does not belong again for as long as I live. So far it has worked, (knock on wood).
Talking about being cold, after reading my geology banter, Tammy brought up interesting that we had both read. It is a book called Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It is basically about the old Clergy who is about to die and is journaling his thoughts and experiences for his 7 year old son. His thoughts are so when his son is older he will know his father. It is fiction but there are some really cool ideas in it. The particular one is that the main character is talking about the earth. He compares it to a cooling ember. An ember in a fire will form a cool crust around it to the point that one can almost pick it up with their bare hands. But if you knock that crust off you will be burned in an instant. What is cool is that we live on a cooling ember. The crust is cool enough to support life and even reach insanely low temperatures. Like Iowa winters! But in the center at the earths core is molten nickel that is spinning out of control. Again, the earth we live on really is alive.
I think that it is cool that you can relive some of your childhood memories by just going through the garage. I am jealous of that. Tammy has that privilege as well. She can go back to her mother’s garage and do that the whole time we are there. Lots of it is actually really funny and I have fun with her. I on the other hand have never had that. My family has moved around so much that when it came time for a move it was easier to give away than it was to keep. With so many moves (particularly international) at the end of 25-30 years there is not much around that is older than 5 years. But memories are most important. I remember after moving back to Cochabamba after not living here since I was a child I would go on walks (much like the one se went on) around Tiquipaya. Every now and then Alfredo would stop and say “Do you remember that lot? That is the one you nearly burned down completely when you were four.” Then we would walk on some more and he would stop again. “See that tree over there? That is the tree that had a beehive in it that you and Alex Jahn whacked with stick and came running to my house for me to save you. Ha!”. I am sure when you walk around old neighborhoods you have the same conversations as well. “Oh, look that is where I used to jump rope.” “Oh, look that is where my prom dates car ‘broke down’ after the prom”. Ah yes, the folly’s of youth. They were fun times! (Hn-hn-hn, heh-heh!). I like to call thems the foolin’ days. I tell ya I had a fool proof foolin’ machine made for fools who fooled all day long. What a fool I was! One looks at the world through different eyes at that age as well.
In that respect you are lucky you do not have kids. With every boy that Maddy will bring home I am going to show him my gun collection. I guess I better start buying some guns. Right now I am a bit short. Maybe Chris can loan me some of his. He has been stalk piling them every since I broke into his house and scared the s#@t out of him. Did you meet Chris when you were down here? I just heard today that is just got engaged! Very scary!
I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was doing an exam on a young gymnast girl who was starting to develop a scoliosis. Anyway I had her lay face down on the table and when she did her mother, who was sitting in the room said “Oh look, your socks are dirty!” Sure enough, it looked like she had been walking around with out her shoes off and her socks were slightly soiled. This of course embarrassed the poor adolescent girl. She was blue eyed and fair skinned. It was the first time that I saw somebody flush not only in the face but all down her back. Then she turned on her back immediately and kept her feet in what looked like an uncomfortable ridged dorsi-flexed position for the rest of the exam.

FeO2