Life & Death

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 the US population reached 300 million. At precisely 7:46 am the 300th million baby human arrived kicking and screaming as they say. He, Ignacio, was born to illegal immigrant parents - having walked across the Mexico-Texas border ten years ago. This Mexican family lives in Cleveland TN, about 40 minutes from where I live. I don't want to vent my frustrations about (a lack of) illegal immigration policy at this juncture, but I hope (because I can only hope) that our nation's leaders soon recognize that our country is vastly overpopulated in terms of the long range carrying capacity of its resources and environment. Our country needs to adopt policies that halt our population growth and reverse the trends that threaten our natural resources and diminish our quality of living. We owe it to future generations to address the issue of an already overcrowded country.

On another note, my friends' Angela and Adam went to the annual Bridge Day BASE jumping event at the New River Gorge yesterday. Angela called last night to vicariously replay the horrific details of a BASE jumper's final jump - final because the jumper's parachute never openned and he hit the concrete-esque water of the New River with the speed generated by an 875 foot freefall. Imagine a bridge so tall that more than 3 Statue of Liberty's can stand one on top of the other between the bridge and the New River - that is the distance the jumper fell before hitting the water full-speed, face first. Angela recalled that he hit the water, then a pool of red blood surfaced a few seconds downstream of the initial impact. For more details, check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15364271/.

I'll write many, many happy things tomorrow as I've had a wonderful weekend relaxing with my kittytoms in my new house and reconnecting with friends via cellphone. I know you are on the edge of your seats waiting to read about the k'toms - they send their fuzzy love. What's in store for future blogs includes topics such as: the joy of finding a place to fuel my coffee buzz in Dandridge, the Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama (which I am currently reading and you should be too), and teaching a Yankee how to drive (hint: point them north). Speaking of Yankees, my friend Julie, one of the Honey Creek Honeys, whom I worked with on Cumberland Island and Okefenokee Swamp is getting married! She will be enterring holy matrimony with Gus, whom she met while working at the Baltimore Aquarium, on June 24th in Mystic Seaport. I can't wait for this party (urr, wedding). I am looking forward to partying down with all my Honey Creek Honeys and another blissfully wedded couple. I have nine months to save for travelling expenses, and more importantly, nine months to secure a fun date.