Removing my American West page

Posted on March 1, 2019 by John Kevin Hickey

(Editor’s note:  I am doing some minor housecleaning to my blog.  Mostly I am updating the focus on several of the pages that you see at the top of the blog.  My writing has improved a bit since I started MrVintageMan and I felt that there needed to be some improvements.  However, I don’t want to lose my older writing, so I am converting these pages to posts for posterity)

   Over the past 10 years or so I have become something of student of the American West.  Not just the “Old West”, that legendary time of cowboys and Indians, gunfighters, iron-horses and Manifest Destiny.  But also the really Old West, the pre-historic West of the Anasazi (now commonly known as the Ancestral Puebloans), the Hohokam and the Athabaskan.  I’m also interested in the Modern West, especially in water issues and the changing Western culture from being predominately agriculture and mining based to leading the world in hi-tech and medical technology

But how does one define the region we call the American West?  Where does the West begin?  What separates the Pre-historical West from Old West; and Old West from the Modern West?  There’s no concrete answer to these questions, but I’ll be happy to share my two-cents.

There are several places that could be said to be the gateway to the West.  Perhaps the mighty Mississippi river is where the West begins; or maybe it’s Council Bluffs, Iowa where most of the pioneers began their westward migration to distant California and Oregon.

It is my opinion that the American West begins at the 100th meridian (middle school refresher: meridians are the lines that go from pole to pole).   The 100th meridian is roughly where the twenty-inch isohyet occurs.  East of the meridian gets over twenty inches of precipitation annually and agriculture can occur without man-made intervention.  The majority of the area west of the meridian gets less than twenty inches of precipitation annually, so agriculture and human development require extensive irrigation (population density drops to less than 18 people per square mile west of the meridian).  As Westerners know too well, he who controls the water, controls everything!

Las Vegas, a man-made oasis in an arid desert environment

As for when the different eras of the West begin and end, that also is entirely subjective.  My view is that the Lewis and Clark expedition separates Pre-historical West from the Old West.  Obviously, Native Americans were here long before the Europeans.  But Lewis and Clark extensively documented the West, and more importantly,  released their findings to the rest of the world.  Thus “pre-history” gave way to history.

The divide between “Old West” and “Modern West” is generally considered by most historians to be the year 1890.  That was the year the U.S. Census Bureau declared the frontier was closed because there was no longer a discernable frontier line in the western United States, nor were there any large tracts of land untouched by settlement.

Below are some resources for those that might be interested in learning about this fascinating region and its history, but don’t know where to start.  I have included books,  television shows and websites that you might find edifying.

BOOKS

Pre-historical West 

  • House of Rain by Craig Childs
  • The Four Corners by Kenneth Brown

Old West

  • Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
  • Nothing Like it in the World by Dee Brown
  • Soldiers West by Paul Andrew Hutton
  • Best of the West by Tony Hillerman
  • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
  • The Old West by Time-Life Book
  • 100th Meridian by Wallace Stenger
  • The Last Gunfight by Jeff Guinn

Modern West

  • Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
  • Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
  • Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck
  • Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
  • Dead Run by Dan Schultz

TELEVISION

  • The Real West hosted by Kenny Rogers
  • The Gunslingers on American History Channel
  • The West by Ken Burns (not one of my favorite, but it is informative)

WEBSITES AND MAGAZINES

 

 

 

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Updating my Bicycling page

Posted on February 26, 2019 by John Kevin Hickey

(Editor’s note:  I am doing some minor housecleaning to my blog.  Mostly I am updating the focus on several of the pages that you see at the top of the blog.  My writing has improved a bit since I started MrVintageMan and I felt that there needed to be some improvements.  However, I don’t want to lose my older writing, so I am converting these pages to posts for posterity.  Be sure to check out the new Bicycling page!)

The Joy of Cycling

A few years ago I destroyed one of the ligaments in my left knee.  I don’t know it for a fact, but it is my belief that those years I spent jogging in a vain effort to lose weight, as well as training for the Air Force fitness test is what ground my meniscus into dust. Sadly, I will have to have a partial knee replacement someday, which sucks balls.  Ah well,  c’est la vie.  Since I cannot go back in time and tell my younger self to knock it off, I am instead learning to adapt and overcome the damage.

Since I plan to have an active lifestyle into my old age, I have taken up swimming, walking and, most importantly, bicycling to strengthen my cardiovascular system.  I find riding a bicycle gives me the greatest joy out of all them.  Perhaps it’s because it reminds me of the sense of freedom that riding gave me when I was a child.  There is just something about flying along on two wheels, taking in all the scenery as you go, that makes me feel alive.  Plus, unlike when I  jogged, I never feel all beat to hell when I finish my ride.

 

     A Bicycling Success Story:

Cycling has strengthened and conditioned my legs to the point that I rarely ever notice my bad knee.  Oh, it twinges now and then, and it does tend to ache when a storm moves in.  But it doesn’t hurt all the time like it used to.

For the longest time, I thought that running was the best and most efficient way to lose weight.  So I kept running and jogging for years, slowly destroying my knees, and for all my efforts I gained weight.  Since I’ve started cycling, swimming, walking and strength training I’ve lost close to 40lbs.  I plan on losing even more.  I think the biggest reason for my success so far is that I actually enjoy bicycling, something I could never say about jogging.  So instead of dreading exercise,  I revel in it now.

Some of the topics I will be writing about on my blog will be bicycling and general fitness for the older active man.  I certainly no expert on the subject, but I do have a few nuggets of wisdom I can pass along to men (and women) of any age.

I want to make it clear that I’m not one of those Lance Armstrong wannabe’s that go blasting by you on the bike paths.  No, I ride until I feel I’ve had enough and then I turn around.  I like to stop and scope things out as I go along: maybe get a banana at a coffee shop, or tour a nature center or take pictures of an amazing view.  In other words, instead of killing myself trying to get into shape, I stop to smell the roses.

Here are my wheels:

 This is my primary bike, a Trek 7.3fx

It’s light and very responsive, and when I am on it I feel like I am in the cockpit of one of these:

 

This is my Schwinn Sierra hybrid bike

It is studier than the Trek and I use it when I do soft-core off-road riding on gravel or dirt trails.  However, when I ride this bike I feel like I’m behind the wheel of this:

The Family Truckster

The Schwinn is heavy and stiff, but hey, at least it’s slow.  I kid.  It’s actually a good bike, but it is the red-headed stepchild.  I definitely get a helluva workout whenever I ride the beast.

As I mentioned earlier, I am riding so I can have an active life going forward. That statement is not really specific enough to be an effective goal.  So here are a couple of very specific long term goals I have made for myself:

  1. Ride my bike at least 3 times a week from March to October, weather permitting, for the rest of my life.
  2. Do not turn into one of those arrogant, inconsiderate Lycra-clad douche nozzles who act like they own the bike path and the rest of us should just get out of their way.

I have some short to medium goals as well. One of them is to ride in as many of the bike rides I’ve got listed below as is humanly possible.  I should warn you that a couple of these are charity rides, so I’ll probably be hitting up friends and family for donations when I enter one.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

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Book Review – Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Dummies

Posted on February 24, 2019 by John Kevin Hickey

Editor’s note:  I have set a goal to read 26 books in 2019, and review them upon completion.  Below is my review of Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Dummies, the 4th book I have completed so far this year.

   Yeah, yeah, I know it’s a cookbook.  How can reading a cookbook count towards my reading goal?  Well, the first half of Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Dummies goes into an extensive description of this eating lifestyle (I hate to use the word “diet” in conjunction with the Mediterranean style of eating, because the word conjures up negative connotations.  The Mediterranean “diet” is more of a way of life, and less a weight loss plan).  The book also details the health benefits of following the Mediterranean lifestyle, as well as ways to incorporate into daily life with a minimum of disruption.  It’s not just a book of recipes.  So, yes, I read the whole thing and so it counts.  It’s my blog, so it’s my rules!

     Dummies books can be hit or miss, depending upon how much you already know about the subject.  I’ve never been too impressed with their books on gardening, because I already have fairly extensive knowledge in that subject.  Because I am just starting to adopt the Mediterranean diet, this book for dummies is right in my wheelhouse.

     The first half of the book goes into extensive detail about the history of the Mediterranean diet, what health benefits can be expected from following it, what type of foods make up the diet and ways to incorporate it into your life.  This was, as you might imagine, the more interesting part of the book.

The second half is mostly recipes, but there are a lot of helpful cooking tips scattered throughout this section to make cooking the Mediterranean way much easier.  I’m giving Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Dummies 4 thumbs up because it is so informative and because the recipes are (so far) delicious and easy to follow.

Informative about what the Mediterranean diet is and full of great recipes.  Plot is hackneyed and the characters are two dimensional.  Nevertheless, a very good book.

Epilogue:  Hope you enjoyed this post.  Comments, book recommendations and writing tips are always welcome.  If you don’t wish to post comments on this site, feel free to email me at:  Mrvintageman2@gmail.com.

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