Stupid Nose

I have a cold. Not really a big deal. My body and I simply don't tolerate illness and my immune system usually gives colds the boot in 2 to 3 days. It's just an overachiever that way. I started getting a scratchy throat on Saturday night. I knew when I woke up Sunday that it would be a full blown cold, and it was. Sneezing, runny and stuffy nose, typical cold stuff. I also knew that by the time I woke up Monday morning, most of the symptoms would have subsided. And sure enough, they have. Though the lifespan of a typical cold for me is less than 3 days, the damage it inflicts on my nose will take up to a week to heal. All that wiping and blowing my nose has left it red, and raw, and chaffed. The cold itself is tolerable. What it does to my nose is the worst part. I’m sure it doesn’t help that instead of nice, soft, two-ply, quilted tissues with lotion and all that fancy stuff in them, I use regular one-ply, rough-on-the-butt toilet paper. Fancy expensive tissues just aren’t on my list of justifiable luxuries, and thus, I look like Rudolph. Stupid nose! Toughen up! part

Pat Robertson is the Devil!

Today on CBN:

"Don't have faith in your job, don't have faith in the things around you.
Don't have faith in your own abilities. Have faith in God."

Argh!!! A friend alerted me today that this was what was being spouted on the Christian Broadcasting Network this morning. There are very few things in this world that get my blood boiling, but the things I hear on the 700 Club almost always turn up the heat. Where do they get off spouting this garbage? I swear, it’s dangerous. These people are DANGEROUS! And the context they put this in makes it all that much more dangerous. Go ahead, have faith in God. But don’t just expect Him to solve all your problems for you. I don’t know, but somewhere in my 10 years in Catholic school I do remember one piece of smart-sounding advice: “God helps those who help themselves!”

I regularly had the show on in the background in my lab when I was working. I remember my boss walking in once and giving me a quizzical look. He asked what I was listening to, and I told him it was the 700 Club. He quipped that he wouldn’t have expected me to be listening to that. I explained to him that I liked listening to it in the morning because the anger it incited in me really got my “blood pumping.” To this he smiled and said, “Chris, that’s what they make coffee for. And it’s probably better for you too.”

To me, the 700 Club represents everything wrong with religion in America today. Its hosts shamelessly prey on people who are on their last leg financially, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. On almost each episode, its hosts try to extort money from their viewers/listeners by spouting stories about people who gave to CBN when they really hadn’t the money to give in the first place. Then, “miraculously” their lives would be turned around. A couple on the verge of bankruptcy who gave their last $250 to CBN and the next week, the husband finally found a job. Another couple who was down to their last $20 put $10 in gas in their car, and sent off the remaining $10 to CBN. The next day, they received a $3800 check in the mail “miraculously” from a client of their business. (If it’s a check from your client, they owed you and it wasn’t a miracle!) Another woman who couldn’t afford milk for her only child sent a donation to CBN, and her life was turned around after there was a free cosmetology class offered in her area and she took it and became a pedicurist.

It’s one thing to go out and claim these people’s lives were turned around by God and not just by chance, or other forces, or even events set in motion by the people themselves. (To get that job, I’m sure the guy had first applied to the job, and had somehow acquired the skills necessary to perform that job. The check for $3800 was from a client for services rendered, etc.) It’s something else completely, something cruel, and socially irresponsible, to use these experiences as evidence of God’s work in an attempt to get money out of a group of people who are already down on their luck, desperate, and thereby vulnerable. It sickens me! The 700 Club rarely ever makes a donations plea without including two or three of these such examples. It’s clear that its target audience isn’t people with the means to give, but those unfortunate people who are desperate, and looking for a miracle. That’s borderline criminal in my eyes. Any decent faith-based organization would be in the business of giving these people hope, FREE OF CHARGE, and not selling it to them for a “free” license plate frame and a CBN membership card. Ugh!

Mt. San Jacinto 10,834 ft

This past Saturday I went on a hike with my friend Jerry to Mt. San Jacinto (10, 834 ft). It's the 2nd highest peak in So Cal but most of the hiking accounts I'd read claimed it to be a more beautiful and rewarding hike than its superior, Mt. San Gorgonio. The accounts I had read also warned of tough, snowy conditions, and the danger of altitude sickness. I have done a few 10,000 ft+ peaks before, but that's when I was living in Salt Lake City at 5,000 or so feet and was fairly acclimated to the elevation. Now, I live in San Diego at approximately 0 ft. The altitude definitely made a difference.

It was a 12 mile round trip hike with about a 2,200 ft elevation gain. The hike itself wouldn’t be called steep by hiking standards, but the thin air and snow cover made it quite a formidable trek. Snow shoes were required the entire way, and that alone changes your gait enough to make the going more tough. I was just happy to be using my snowshoes. I brought them all the way to New Hampshire with me when I visited my folks for Christmas, and there wasn’t any snow. Turns out I had to hit the trail just 2 hours from San Diego to find any of the white stuff.

The hike was beautiful! The snow covered trail weaved between huge granite bounders and sturdy pines. It wasn’t at all like the high desert ecosystem I had come to expect on the trail in So Cal. There were a few folks out on the lower reaches of the trail, but it seems that few actually make a push for the summit during the winter months.

We didn’t start the hike until after noon, which certainly wasn’t optimal. We knew we had to haul booty if we wanted to complete the 12 mile out-and-back before sundown. Even still, I think we both knew when we set out that we’d be doing much of the return trip in the dark. We were recording our trail the whole way with a GPS unit. Had that not been the case, we wouldn’t have kept pushing for the summit as the sun was setting. The trail was straight forward and without dangerous outcroppings or steep sections so we knew it wouldn’t be too technical to handle in the dark. We summited around 4:30 pm in the wind and piercing cold and began the descent after just 10 minutes on the top. Within half an hour the sun was down and we hiked the next two an a half hours in the dark aided by the trusty GPS. Though I’ve done a lot of hiking with a GPS before, this was the first time I can say we were actually depending on it. Were it not for the GPS, the return trail would have been near impossible to follow. Even with it, there were a few spots where it took some reckoning to stay on course.

At just about 8 pm we stumbled back to the trailhead sore, and tired. I can say with certainty that is was the hardest hike I can remember going on. Even with just 0.3 miles to go to the summit, I had my doubts about actually making it to the top. At 10,000 feet, all your body wants to do is lay down and take a nap. Anyway, I don’t have many summit pictures. I seem to always have issues with the camera battery when it’s cold out. Turns out that batteries don’t like the cold. But I’ve got a bunch of pictures I like from the lower reaches. Enjoy!