February 12, 2018

.

Mid February.  The sun is moving north..... 

Sunrise in a snowy Tree Town.

There was a significant amount of snow on the ground on February 12, 2018.

How Emotions are Made is a really interesting book. 

The more I read, the more convinced I am that pretty much everything that goes on in our heads is constructed.  Constructed partly of input from the outside world, partly of what we believe about our past experience, partly of how our body feels at the moment (contented?  queasy?  calm?  aggitated?)...............

For example, I have bodily sensations when I am working up to having a hot flash that I have experienced as "anxiety."  My brain notices that my body is having those sensations, and immediately hunts for a reason Team Me might be feeling anxious.  (There is ALWAYS something to be anxious about, if we hunt for it..........)

The more I can notice those sensations, and regard them as being unrelated to the outside world ("I must be about to have a hot flash.  If I wait a a few minutes, I won't feel this way." rather than "What's wrong???  What evasive action should I look for???"), the less anxious I feel.

I believe we would all do well to continually check what we think is right against data, if we actually want to maximize reasonable confidence that what we think is true lines up with what is likely to really be true............

I recommend this book.  I don't agree with every word, but I think there is a lot of useful info here.

Now here's something to be, well, not anxious, but annoyed! about..................

Ann Arbor would like to be a good place to live.  We pat ourselves on the back about "quality of life."  There's a lot of BS from city hall about how Ann Arbor is good for non-motorized traffic.

Here's Exhibit A for the prosecution.

Street all plowed.  INTO THE CURB CUTS.  (And, I add, into everyone's driveways!)  How does this benefit anyone but cars?  (And, on my street, *PLENTY* of cars just passing through [NOT neighbors....].)

The poor people who own corner lots are expected to keep the curb cuts clear.  It is often the case that they have shoveled out the curb cuts, only to have the plows come by and do this........  Oddly enough, those home-owners rarely feel compelled to shovel this mess out of the curb cuts, having already moved the original snow.

(I note that the plowed mess is much harder to shovel than the original snow.  These piles are hard heavy chunks, and if you don't move the mess immediately after the plow puts it somewhere, it freezes into a solid mass that must be chopped up before it can be moved.............)

The result is this.  A hazard for more-or-less able-bodied pedestrians, and an impassable obstacle for anyone else.

A closer view.  The pink is where my foot will be in the next image, to give some scale to this.

This mess is well over 2 feet tall.

Having successfully navigated this hazard, we look back at it from the middle of the street.  You can see the home-owner has shoveled out the walk, AND the curb cut ... up to the place where the plows filled the curb cut.........

.