Lawn Tractors and Obesity in America...Any connection?

I was driving home today and noticed the predominance of lawn tractors. People mowing grass on a lot no more than one third of an acre. Not a big lot at all, considering half or more of the lot is taken up by the house and garage. The users were mainly 40 something men, a few were teenaged boys. Not a lot of grass to mow.

Yesterday, Eden, baby Z, and I drove past some homes that were on several acres, and had huge lawns. Overall, it appeared that it would take hours to mow those lawns, even with a lawn tractor. A "push" mower would take all day, maybe two. A lawn tractor would seem necessary. Maybe even a farm tractor with a mower attachment.

When, I was a kid, I would mow an acre of grass every week with a "push" mower. Most of the day was taken up. It was a lot of exercise. My pediatrician even perceived me to mow the grass when I was getting pudgy around the age of ten. A household form of exercise.

I could own a lawn tractor if I needed one. I'm not envious of those who have lawn tractors. Purchasing the machine is not a problem for me. I own a o.4 acre lot. I can mow my grass in about an hour and receive the benefits of some good old fashion exercise. My job is sedentary and the hours are long. So a weekly hour of exercise mowing grass on a regular basis is a good thing for me. I can use more exercise of course, but at least it's more than nothing.

So, maybe getting off the lawn tractor and pushing a mower can help the nationwide battle of obesity.

Eden made me do it. She's holding me back!

Reading

I did a lot of reading as a kid. We didn't go to the movies much. Growing up in the country, we didn't have cable TV. So we had at most 1-8 Tv stations to watch (2 of each of the 4 networks and an occasional independent station). It was big excitement when a major movie was premiered on free TV. Sitting through commercials was worth it.

The answer I read is simple. Movies cost money, as well as money for concessions. For a while, there was money for the occasional movie, always a matinee or a drive-in. When my second brother was about two, even those activities ended. This was the early 1980's. Deep in Reganonics. Poorer than ever. However, my parents could still buy the cartoon of cigarettes a week. Another blog topic sometime.

So, if I wanted to experience the movies I was interested in, I bought the book. Usually, I used money my grandmother gave me for making the honor roll. Or, we'd order books through Scholastic in school. For some reason, my parents were ok with buying books, even though they didn't read much. So, while most kids saw the movie, I read the book.

I turned seven when Star Wars came out. The beginning of my reading life. The only way I got the book was it was at a grocery store. Adds were on TV, and my brother and I were bugging my folks to go see it (which never came to be... see prior post). My mother, thinking she was coy, said that if I could pronounce a few words in the novel, then she would buy it. So, she leafed through the book and chose the words Alderaan and Tatoonie. Of course, she didn't know how to pronounce them. And when her seven year old didn't hesitate and spoke instantly on how he would pronounce them, she keep the arrangement and bought the book. To this day, I still pronounce Tatoonie the way I did as a kid.

It took me a while to read that novel. I was only seven. It was the first, grown up book I read. And I had an uncorrected astigmatism at the time, so I read slower. I failed my eye test in school the next year. And before X-mas of 1978, I was the first boy in my class with glasses. Naturally my reading speed increased now that I could see better.

My grandmother gave me a boxed set of the first 5 novelizations of the original Star Trek series for X-mas 1977. She confused Star Wars and Star Trek. I had seen the occasional Star Trek episode when I'd visit her (she lived in town and had cable, but no pay channels). And I thought Star Trek was cool so I read those books over and over again.

Usually, I'd read Sci-Fi books, usually Star Trek and Star Wars. It was for the further adventures of the characters. I still have all of the books. I've read most of them at least twice, some three to four times. On hot summer afternoons, when it was too hot to do anything, I'd climb a tree and read. In retrospect, most of the writing was ok. Not earth shattering. But it told a story of characters I was interested in. I started to read many other books, even classics that were already movies.

I've read many of the new series from the Star Wars and Star Trek universes. The writing isn't the best, though I'm sure some people would argue that point. But it gets people reading.

I know if I wasn't stimulated to read by wanting to read the novel of Star Wars, I probably wouldn't have read much as a kid. Which would have led me to just passing in school. College and med school wouldn't have happened. Who knows what I would have ended up doing, but I'm sure life would be extremely different.

So, if kids what to read pulp novels, let them. Who knows where reading will lead them.

Star Wars

As Eden stated in her blog, I saw Revenge of the Sith (ROTS) on opening day. It was worth the $6.50 for an evening show. And for staying awake for a few hours afterward wanting to see it again and telling her about it. Of course, it would have been better if the dialogue didn't feel stilted and the actors allowed to open up more. But then again, George Lucas isn't the best writer of dialogue. Or the best director as well. I will say that Ewan McGregor and Ian McDirmind were the best performances of the film. I would place this film as the second best Star Wars film. The Empire Strikes Back is the best, in my opinion.

I already had read the novel, as it was released in early April. So, I already knew what was going to happen. The novel had some other scenes that did not appear in the film. Nothing critical, but these scenes certainly added to the story. Just like what was not included in the Lord of the Rings films, particularly The Fellowship of the Ring. So, I was disappointed not to see Yoda conversing with the spirit form of Qui-Gon Jinn. Or how Obi-Wan didn't feel he was the best Jedi to be sent to capture General Grievous. And the battle with Count Dooku was longer. But then there are always some tidbits in the novels of the Star Wars books that aren't in the films (Luke and Biggs on Tatoonie in Stars Wars, Luke constructing his lightsaber in Obi-Wan's old hut in Jedi).

This isn't the first time I read a Star Wars book before seeing the film version. I admit this freely. I did not see Star Wars in a theater until the release of the Special Edition in the late 1990's. (Episode 4: A New Hope) I didn't see Star Wars until it was first played on network TV on CBS the night before Thanksgiving in 1988. I read the novel of Star Wars after the movie was out and it was a huge sensation. So needless to say, I expected more of the movie version when I saw it. And I had seen Empire and Jedi as well. My imagination of the story was more detailed than the film. The Special Edition is more how I imagined the story.

So, I guess this is a plug for people to read books and use their imagination to visualize the story.