Out in the middle of nowhere I find these tires. It seems to me that it would take more effort to haul the tires out here then just to put them next to a municipal waste bin which are free.
This setting was absolutely beautify except for the tires. Even the sand dunes refused to cover them up. I suspect that they are recent. Why?
I had my brother Laird over on a double visit as he was passing through and back to Saudi Arabia where he has had been working on an air handling project in a project called KAUST (King Abdullah University for Science and Technology). Needless to say the project Kaust a lot and Laird was there during this trip to get their payments straightened out.
Actually, the greatest thing about this project is that I get to see him from time to time. He comes to Dubai for R&R or does a 1 day hit and run. But this last trip was most noteworthy. Laird was diagnosed with a type of vigorous upper colon cancer about 4 months ago. This was really bad news for our family as my mother had just left for eternity the year before. While the word cancer isn’t always the end of the trail, his was serious since it was already stage 4 (meaning really invasive and aggressive). He is 50 and very healthy, in spite of the fact he chewed tobacco, smoked cigarettes and had his fair share of drinking these past 4 or so decades.
Most remarkable is his fighter attitude and faith in his ambitions. He doesn’t look at this as.. oh I have to completely change my life style and be good and now live healthy, which is one of the reasons’ why he is still smoking and drinking. He did give up chew. By the way never give your can of anything to a tobacco chewer and tell them to hold it for you.
I did manage to venture a, “don’t you think it would be a good time for a life style change?”, which is a nice way of staying, “Maybe, if you stop smoking and drinking NOW it will help in the fight to recover.” What better excuse is there for quitting?
Laird has lots of stress on and off the job. If there is such a thing as a worker messiah then Laird is it. He is the guy you heap your problems on and walk away with a good feeling. He doesn’t dream regular dreams. When he was sleeping I was listening to his audible dream conversation. In one part he stated, “OK (some name).. I think you have gone over your 10 minutes.” I was trying to figure out what the other person was doing.
Because our parents were the educational types we argued a lot. My dad was always right and so was my mother. I remember clearly that I was always right too! All of our arguments went something like… statement…. (retort)… bullshit…(retort)… I aint listening to this load of crap. Just take and swap out the retort with the other things and that is pretty much how it went. When we were small we used crap or liar instead of bullshit… that was a really bad word.
I tried like hell to avoid any argument with Laird until he said buying a fuckin cup of coffee for two bucks at Starbucks is just so fuckin stupin dont you think - just as I was sipping my Starbucks coffee and he the one I bought him! Not to show I was so offended I said, “Yeah Laird, its just like paying five bucks for a pack of cigarettes”. He smiled as he tapped his pack to pack it down, and we both considered that was fair enough.. kill the seeds of an argument before they grow.
I told Laird, let’s just avoid talking about religion and politics, sex was OK but wasn’t a good idea to discuss in the UAE in public. So we sat there looking around the cafe as people walked up and down the Qasba board walk.
When I go home I got on the internet to read my mail and my brother got on the other computer to check his mail. I asked him if he ever saw my web site or the many links that I sent him regarding my poems and short stories. He looked surprised and said, “you wrote poems and short stories?”. I said yes, a long time ago I sent you links. He said, ” you know I don’t have time for links. If it is not written in my email I dont follow links! So where are they?”.
I loaded up the poems from my blog and I read them to him one by one and the short stories. When I got to the poem about our mother he looked over at a picture of mom that I had in a picture frame next to my bed. Actually, there were two pictures. One of my mother in the hospital bed smiling with oxygen tubes ( I asked her to smile and she barely coherent and conscious gave me a big big but painful smile).
Wanting to have something from her, I asked to write on a piece of paper “I Love you Christopher”. I came out a little cryptic but it is still in my wallet.
My brother Laird (right) was diagnosed with cancer and in this shot was on his 3rd chemotherapy session. When he came to see me in Dubai he warned…”you won’t recognize me because I have no hair… what didn’t fall out I had to shave”.
I decided that when he would get here I would be just like him so he would be in good company so I went to a barber in Dubai Festival City just 10 minutes before his flight arrived. I said “Quick I have to get to the airport with no hair… how long will it take”. A glimmer went off in the eye of the barber. I presume that this is a dream cut. Wack Wack Wack and go away. In 3 minutes it was all gone
I went to the airport but got a good look at myself and memorized my look so I would know what my brother would look like.
I found him. Almost wearing the same thing as me!
We had some good quality time to talk about a variety of job issues. He loves to talk shop and so do I. He did tell me he was scared and that he wasn’t feeling so good. I don’t know what it was but as soon as I cut off all of my hair I started to feel more fragile myself. I joked with him and said .. “I find ouselves together and feel that even me like I have cancer.” Although it is not true I did find myself acting different, more careful and more deliberate.
Did you know that more bottled water is sold and used in the Arabian Gulf countries than in any other country in the world per capita! Even the relatively low income person buys or insists on having bottled water. The cost ranges from 2 cents per glass for the budget supermarket water to $2.5 per glass in a bar.
There are more water producers than other beverage producers. The majors such as Coke, Pepsi and Nestle all have their own brands.
Water is imported from several European and CIS countries.
There are people who wash their bodies with Evian water.
When going to a restaurant you are asked Evian or house water? House meaning a cheaper brand.
Almost NOBODY drinks tap water. It is not advised due to the fact that the water tanks are many times teaming with aquatic life. The water is warm or hot which is ideal for bacterial growth.
The larger supermarkets have complete isles for just water products.
You can find chilled water dispensing coin operated machines around the town.
The average person consumes 2.5 litres of bottled water per day.
Do the math. In the UAE this translates to 4million x 2.5 litres 10 million litres per day. Or 3.65 million cubic meters of water per year.
You can imagine how much plastic is consumed just for water bottles. It is one of the most ubiquitous forms of waste in dumps in the Gulf Countries.
Water is sometimes more expensive than gasoline and tastes better.
The chik Bin Hindi Avenue of only the TOP TOP brands closed due to lack of sales. The remnants are shops that are basically ghost shops with semi dismembered manequins. Quite a dreary site.
Guess What? After many decades of trying to reduce carbon emissions and various other pollutants we now discover that it is the light that we shine into the atmosphere at night is what is causing climate change. The spectrum of photons that we create and shine into our own atmosphere cause the Ozone to become depleted.
Mom was always telling us to turn off the lights to save the planet! Why we didn’t listen?
Using a variety of prescription drugs over a good number of years and being relatively inactive then entering into an immediate phase of strenuous activity. The myriad of trapped drug molecules store around the body are then released into the body’s metabolism causing a variety of symptoms which are confusing and worrisome to the victim who may think they are elevated stress levels and treat them with more drugs. The drugs may not be so detectable as drugs which were just taken as they may be trapped around the body near vital organs. This is one of the reason’s how people can be detected for drugs over a number of years even after quitting. The sports industry, military and certain industry careers test for such drugs on a routine basis.
It could be Michael Jackson died due to the combination of the resident drug molecules, new stress and a body that was not ready for the extreme amount of effort required for his style of entertainment.
I stumbled upon this handicapped ramp which if I wanted to I couldn’t walk up my self. It was in Sharjah at the rear of a building. The ramp was too narrow for a wheel chair and too steep.
It would be good for Skate boards however.
