Translating "Blah" Into Architecture - My Grandparents Suburban Home

From my Xanga blog:

Translating "Blah" Into Architecture - My Grandparents Suburban Home

I've posted before about how I dislike city life, but suburbs depress me just as much as urban blight, although the former is more subtle and insidious. I had an experience recently which reminded me why.

My grandparents moved into a new house in what I'd call a REAL suburb -- one of those places where you can't get more than three or four sheets of paper between the identical homes. One line of them made me think of a row of pointed teeth against the sky. My security-paranoid grandmother showed us that she had both backyard gates tightly locked; I asked if she would hire a security guard to sit in a watchtower brandishing a rifle perhaps?

The sizzling, sun-bleached gray driveways winding to monotonous pastel houses were almost blinding as we pulled in, and as we got out the unearthly quiet was the first thing to hit me. It's hot for a lack of trees of course, because they're all mowed down, and any hills seem to be leveled as well -- a slope or hill might resemble something in the real world. Any semblance of nature was carefully planned with the customary band-aids; short, scraggly trees rounded by pine-needles, grass that looks like carpet, and perfectly trimmed shrubs. Chaos theory doesn't apply in this place -- life doesn't "find a way."

Inside the banality was worse; there was a high-ceiling main room loosely divided into a kitchen, dining and living room, and four other smaller rooms branching off of its four corners. Essentially, like a shoebox, you could see most of the place from any corner. All the rooms displayed more flat, pale pastels, and everything was so neat it felt about as lived in as a new casket. One room was a very light, sickly shade of blue with all of the furniture stark white. Very "early morning," or "creamy" comes to mind, but without any of the sugar that word might entail.

My mother tells me that my grandfather is depressed for the first time in his life. My grandmother has been having some health issues, but they seem to be under control now. Frankly I have to wonder if it's the environment, especially for a man who used to enjoy a large garden and walks in the woods. I'm don't believe that I'm poetically overstating how utterly vapid this neighborhood was, and I was only there for a 15 minute visit with my mother. Perhaps I'm just too sensitive to such things, but it was like someone asked, "How can we translate 'blah' into architecture?" They outdid themselves. I only thank goodness it was summer, as I can't imagine how that place would feel in winter and I hope we don't go there for the holiday get-together...pardon me, I'm shivering in July...

I haven't lived in what I'd call a suburb since I was 10 years old, and I was fortunately too young to know what depression was at that age. After that I lived in a more rural area until I was about 25 where we had a real yard and literally miles of woods behind us. Then I moved to where I am now, which is a kind of suburb a few miles outside of Atlanta, but it doesn't FEEL like a suburb.

Rural isolation has it's drawbacks as well as urban blight, but the attempt to combine those two worlds into the "suburban home" has resulted in a very bleak, inane caricature of the "country home."

Night Walking and Nocturnal Musings...

I'm a nocturnal person, a night owl, and one thing I like to do is go for walks at night – not for exercise, but purely to get out of the house. And I'm not talking about 10 o'clock at night, I'm talking about 2-4 in the morning. I don't want to get too deep and philosophical about it, but at this time the world's a very different place; man and nature are sleeping, the air is cool, and the peace heightens awareness.

Time slows down, and you can feel like you're the only person on earth. And yet if you tune in you'll see that nature’s still operating, but on a different rhythm; one of meditation and contemplation.

Night walking suits me because while I like to get outside, I tend to be an introverted person who enjoys quiet. It's not that I mind saying hello to people on the sidewalk, but when I walk I admit I prefer not seeing a soul. And living just outside of a major city, this is one of the few times when it’s actually quiet.

Occasionally I'll scare up a dog who wants to bark, but that's about it. While walking I often either solve some issue nagging at my brain, or it simply melts away and I realize that on the scale of things, it’s insignificant...especially if you look up.

I've often figured that people may suspect I'm up to no good -- out walking around at 3am. There’s a paved trail that runs right beside the house that's open "dawn till dusk" -- it's a little like the Silver Comet Trail, except I imagine at a moderate pace you could cover it in less than an hour. If someone asks me what I'm doing out there, I've always figured that the best answer is I'm doing what everyone else does during the day.

The association of night with danger and evil goes back to man's most primitive roots. Night was a time when the world was transformed into a place full of hidden dangers. Later men associated night with the time that ghosts left their graves and witches held their Sabbath with the Devil. On a deeper symbolic level where spring and morning represent birth and awakening, nighttime, much like winter represents the end of life ("Dead of Night" anyone?).

It's easy to see these fears as somewhat justified, imagine if you lived in a cabin deep in a hollow two hundred years ago without electricity. When the sun set over your mountain it suddenly got dark, real dark. Not dark like we have today, where the sky is inevitably lit up by some nearby town. The silence was overwhelming and when there was a strange sound that your nature-keen ears couldn't identify it would chill you to the bone. It's no surprise you stayed inside by the fire, door bolted. You must admit, trees do appear a bit more gnarled by moonlight…

I imagine if I was a female I would feel uncomfortable doing this, but I think these fears are simply ingrained into us from a more primitive time and aren’t as justified today. I hope that as we continue to exist in a 24 hour world people will become comfortable with the night, until then I’m happy to have it to myself.

See Ya Later, I'm Going For a "Wog" (Walk/Jog)

I certainly don't claim to be a professional physical trainer, but I've had the same cardiovascular exercise routine for about 7 years, and for me it works perfectly. It only takes thirty minutes every other day and it works if you stick with it.

It's as simple as: walk 5, jog 5, walk 10, jog 5, walk 5.

Walk-------------Jog-----------------Walk -------------------Jog ---------Walk
|---------------|---------------|------------------------------|---------------|---------------|
0-------------5-------------10----------------------------20------------25-------------30

The first 5 minutes is a warm up, but the speed is the same throughout. The first 5 minute jog is to really get the heart rate up while the 10 minutes of walking in the middle maintains that rate. At this point you're at the 20 minute mark -- the generally agreed upon time where the body begins to burn fat. So the second 5 minute jog tries to make the most of this fat burning opportunity and the last stretch is simply to maintain.

I keep the speed around 4 - 4.5mph, but this can be increased or decreased depending on the target heart rate you need to achieve. Target heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from 220 and multiply that by .7 and by .85 to get the lower and higher levels of the range, there's plenty of calculators for this online.

I don't think I've broken a secret code, I imagine 30 minutes of any exercise every other day would do most people a world of good, but I do think there's benefits to doing it this way. First, this is something that's very easy to do and it takes up very little time, and second it's not as vigorous as some routines, so you don't have to be as motivated for it.

Two other things worth mentioning --

1. The best time to do cardio is about an hour after you've woken up on an empty stomach (not true for weight training). Doing this, you're burning stored fat and not just carbs you've eaten throughout the day. This works well for me as I'm not hungry until I've been awake for 2-3 hours anyway. Also you're more motivated when you first get up, there's less chance to put it off and eventually count it out because you're tired.

2. I've never been a believer in using distance as a measure in exercise, your body doesn't care how far you've gone, cardiovascular exercise is all about pushing your body to the point where you begin to burn fat (wherever that is exactly, most say 20~ minutes) and exceeding it.

I put on some extra pounds this winter, partly from slacking off, not eating right and from getting sick a few times. I kick myself now for doubting that the same old workout routine would work again, but it has -- just had to be patient. Some might see this routine as a step toward jogging full-time, that may be for some, but for me personally I've never seen the need to go to full-on jogging.

Spring Has Arrived...Or Is It Summer?

If you read my last blog post (not shown here, but you can read it at http://andy9279.xanga.com/724432540/my-first-spring-bike-ride-hanging-out-with-christians/), you know that I took a rather long, cold bike ride recently. But it's hard to imagine that one would have needed gloves, a jacket and a toboggan to ride on the Silver Comet Trail just ten days ago. If you tried to bike for 3.5 hours wearing that today you would probably die. Today it's changed over from just warm to qualifying for the term "hot." I went outside today for just a short time and coming in to the air conditioning was quite nice.


I wanted to see high-70s to low-80s before I'd take another ride, I got my wish, it's 86 right now -- unfortunately I doubt I will be going out to see the parents again for another month -- and by then the real Georgia heat will have fully settled in to stay. The average for this time of year is 70, we are only 2-3 degrees from setting a record high for today.


As far as air conditioning goes, all you environmentalists, especially "you's guys" from the North who say, "Just open a window, turn on a fan!" You can kiss my ass. How can one describe Georgia heat...

No, not that kind...

Here's an image for you: the heat here is like a fat, sweaty mother holding her child tightly in her arms, and she won't let go. The heat and humidity just envelops you, its worst when there's no breeze at all. The most common term is "sweltering."

It's really a shame in fact, we usually have four distinct seasons here in Georgia, but if any of them is disappearing I would have to say that it's spring. Winter and summer certainly will always exist as yin and yang, but they're slowly bleeding into the other two, it's as if someone is playing two sides against the middle.

Fall tends to still take up a good 2-3 months as the days grow shorter and cooler, but spring is quickly becoming indistinguishable from summer here. The only thing about spring that remains after the moderate temperatures have gone is the bad storms it can bring. I'm no meteorologist, but it's as if summer has such a hold in this region that it is quick to catch on when it's time comes along, yet it's slow and grudging to go away.

The arrival of spring or at least the departure of winter has done much for my mood.

Here's a random few of the positives: I walk outside and it's as if I had forgotten what it feels like to actually feel hot. And I love it, I feel more alive, more healthy, less sick, more looking forward to the future, less worried about it. I can roll the window down in the car; wear short sleeve shirts and shorts. I'm not constantly warming my hands or shoving them into my pockets. I can walk around the house barefoot. Life is re-appearing in nature, and the days have grown longer, the nights warmer. People are out walking, getting exercise and seem more sociable and friendly. I feel like I can get more done and I have more motivation to do so. I find myself getting up earlier and sleeping less -- and wanting to do both. I'm more curious about the world. I'm exercising more. Finally, I like most people have fond memories of this time of year -- school would be out soon and you had several carefree months ahead. In short, I'm happy with this change.

I knew the seasons affected my mood, but this winter was particularly long and harsh. I'll never underestimate that effect again.