Posting from LA. I got off the plane to a beautiful South Bay day yesterday–clear skies, low humidity, mid seventies. And you could see mountains. What a contrast with Florida.
Anyway, driving up the 405 today from Long Beach to Torrance, I was behind a tow truck that had a banner on the back: “AAA Batteries Delivered And Installed.” Unfortunately, the little Canon I carry was in my briefcase in the trunk.
Anyway, considering that I was in Fry’s yesterday, where I could buy twenty four of the little suckers for seven bucks, and most of the plastic covers are pretty easy to get off, I think that the lack of handiness of the American male has gone too far.
Posting from LA. I got off the plane to a beautiful South Bay day yesterday–clear skies, low humidity, mid seventies. And you could see mountains. What a contrast with Florida.
Anyway, driving up the 405 today from Long Beach to Torrance, I was behind a tow truck that had a banner on the back: “AAA Batteries Delivered And Installed.” Unfortunately, the little Canon I carry was in my briefcase in the trunk.
Anyway, considering that I was in Fry’s yesterday, where I could buy twenty four of the little suckers for seven bucks, and most of the plastic covers are pretty easy to get off, I think that the lack of handiness of the American male has gone too far.
Posting from LA. I got off the plane to a beautiful South Bay day yesterday–clear skies, low humidity, mid seventies. And you could see mountains. What a contrast with Florida.
Anyway, driving up the 405 today from Long Beach to Torrance, I was behind a tow truck that had a banner on the back: “AAA Batteries Delivered And Installed.” Unfortunately, the little Canon I carry was in my briefcase in the trunk.
Anyway, considering that I was in Fry’s yesterday, where I could buy twenty four of the little suckers for seven bucks, and most of the plastic covers are pretty easy to get off, I think that the lack of handiness of the American male has gone too far.
I am not a happy camper. I’m willing to camp if it’s necessary to see something not otherwise available in the back country, but I don’t intrinsically enjoy it. But this is overboard, to me. I don’t mind the tents, and cooking, and cleaning, and knot tying, and fire building, but I really, really like plumbing. My ideal expedition would be with pack llamas to carry an inflatable hot tub and propane heater.
I always thought that the “self esteem” movement was a lot of hooey. All of the bullies I knew as a kid didn’t seem to suffer from lack of self esteem. If anything, they had an unjustified overabundance of it.
It’s exactly the kind of untested, unsubstantiated nonsense you’d expect from the education establishment, and unfortunately, too many parents bought into it. Donald Sensing describes some of the effects.
I wasn’t that big on playing outside as a kid, myself, though I do remember messing around in a small woods near our house. I also used to fish at our cottage up in northern Michigan in the summer, and pick berries. But I always preferred to read.
But I enjoy nature now, as an adult, particularly when I lived out west, and there seemed to be so much more of it.
The reasons for the decline seem fairly obvious. The fewer kids growing up on farms or in small rural communities, the less hunting you have. The more expensive cabins get, the less access the middle-class has to the lakes, so kids don