What Is John Lutz THINKING?!?

NOT DIRECTIONS TO CPR! The Rescue After 3 hours on the road, I was probably a bit dazed. Not to mention, there weren’t any traffic lights or intersections on the open road. I guess I can’t blame Zak for getting nervous. “What are you DOING?!? Either stop or GO MAN! GO! DRIVE!” “What? Oh, CRAP!” As I find the accelerator, and weave past the oncoming car, I realize that in front of a city bus, in the middle of a 4 lane intersection is definitively NOT the time to hesitate. I also realize I don’t like being told how to drive “Man, there were feet to spare. I don’t want to wreck my ride either Bro!” That’s how I defend my ego against bad driving. At least from having to admit it. Living in the mountains, it seems counterintuitive that we’d be travelling toward a city for our climb. I suppose people in the city appreciate natural beauty too, and you can’t relocate nature’s wonders! Now that we’re in the neighborhood, it’s time to find a place to rest our heads. Eve...

What is family? There’s a number of definitions in Merriam-Webster. Without needing to define it, family is something that can often be felt, or seen, even experienced. So I am led to wonder, what, or who is my family? I can clearly define a short answer, as I wake in my home daily to the warm hearts and smiles of my wife and daughters. Does it extend beyond that? Certainly, by blood, I am related to everyone around me. Genealogically we are all approximately 50 th cousins. Should a closer blood relation yield more connectedness? Is that reason enough to care, look out, or otherwise work for another person? Should family be built on ideology alone? It is said to be a good thing to surround yourself with ‘like-minded people.’ At what point does this become a Dogmatic lullaby? So too is it said to challenge oneself by getting outside of your comfort zone, or thinking outside the box. Some follow this path only to end up wandering alone in far reaches. As I ponder th...

Life in a ski town / Death of Winter  I live in a land of paradoxes. It is a land of high alpine semi-arid wetlands. The population here is equally extreme. Hyper athletes who are ultra-lazy at times. Parents at my child’s preschool/after school program just got the third reminder: Don’t park in the crosswalk. They are going to start ticketing (because the extra 20’ walk is a pain). These are folks who will only do the hardest work, for the least pay. Others do almost no work, for 6-7 figures. A photo from January, after last year's season was also delayed. (Carl Marcus) I wake this morning to the coldest day of ‘winter’ so far. Low single digits, nearly zero degrees (F) down by the river. This is the result of our last weather system. A wind front, followed by flurries and cold. This too is our problem, and surely someone else’s fault. This year we blame a baby girl. La ni ñ a spells warmer, and (usually) dryer weather for our part of the world. Indeed, in the de...

Can the Microsphere save the Macro? These days I am fascinated by microbiology. I am not a biologist or microbiologist, but the microbiome surrounds, and penetrates us. Literally there are billions, and trillions of microbes living on, around and within us. Total biomass in microbial life, is more than the rest of life put together. We hear all the time about how probiotics can shape our personal health. Living medicines are being developed to fight cancer. Algae are being discovered and modified to secrete useful energy, food or material byproducts.  With an increasing atmospheric CO2 loading, increased frequency of antibiotic resistant bacteria and relatively new found knowledge and ability in areas of genetic modification; where will it take us? Already people are discovering microbes that can build materials, or create energy. Some are naturally occurring, others are modified in some way. We know up to 20% of the atmospheric oxygen on our planet comes from phytopla...