| Volume 20, Issue 11 |  | November 21, 2018 |
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In this Issue:
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Mama's Mighty Measures for Staying Younger Longer
| Volume 20, Issue 11 | | November 21, 2018 |
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In this Issue:
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Mama's Mighty Measures for Staying Younger Longer
As I write (on 11/16/18), my mother, Julia, now ninety-six, is struggling against a rising tide of impairments, the future looking bleak in some ways, and yet her indomitable wit and spirit remain. Hers has been a Cinderella story of sorts. The family was abandoned by her father in 1932, when she was nine. Subsequently, she would be abused by her step-father who later lost his work after a heart attack, the household then reduced to near starvation and living in a lean-to on the banks of a small rural TX stream. Later she was taken in by her grandfather, yet her step-grandmother treated her as badly as had the fairy tale heroine's step-mom, and she was not given a room, only a small space on an enclosed porch, cold in winter, hot in summer. Still in these circumstances, her relationship with my dad began when she was fifteen. Though prince charming he was not, Leon must have looked pretty good to her at the time, and they were married when she was nineteen, weeks after Pearl Harbor.
So began her new lease on life. Intensely independent, and though with but a high school education, she was determined their family would be successful and that her kids have a better future than the childhood she had known. A number of key traits were her weapons in this, and to her it was indeed a fierce endeavor. Throughout she has shown strength and resolve.
Though Dad thought he could dominate her, more the custom in those times, she found ways to get her own back, as when he fell asleep while expecting her to give him a pedicure, and she painted his toenails a bright red. In the dark later, he did not see the evidence. The next morning, he was more shocked than his peers and supervisors when a surprise military inspection, down to the skivvies, revealed more than anticipated, and he was whisked off for psychiatric evaluation. He did not ask her to give him pedicures again.
My mother was devoted to having a big family. RH factor difficulties and a tendency toward miscarriages did not faze her. She became pregnant at least 14 times and bore eight children, the first when she was twenty-one, the trio living in a small rental place in FL. She had a bit of flair for real estate, and they would soon buy a house. It was profitable, and another followed in San Antonio, when her first-born was about two and Julia was living near her husband's folks' place there while Leon was overseas, first in Hawaii, as the Pacific War was turning against the Japanese, and then in Japan itself, where he led a team under General MacArthur that investigated for the War Crimes Tribunal. The couple bought their next residence in Falls Church, VA, and remained there about four years while Leon was working out of the Pentagon. An Omaha real estate venture did not go so well. They lost money on it, so after that they delayed further property investments till Leon had retired at age forty-eight and the family, now nine-strong, moved into a fixer-upper with a bit of surrounding acreage a little northwest of Austin, TX. Here she would have one more youngster and, though their oldest went off to college, she and Leon would raise the rest on this little tract of central TX land.
Ever since their initial house in FL, Julia had been a gardener, and in the tough clayish and limestone gravel soils of their little spread, her green thumb began to glow. She was resourceful in finding ways to make that barren dirt into a rich mulch. Before long, she had a wide expanse of bountiful produce from out back of their abode, plus flower or cactus gardens, cool shrubs, and even trees where there had been nothing but weeds and an arid landscape before. Her love of gardening persisted and was in full bloom once the couple moved, a quarter-century later, to a larger ranch with nearly 200 acres and river frontage, one she called the Rockin' B. Even when Dad had died and she was down-sizing to a smaller residence in Woodway, TX, the gardening theme prevailed, with ample blooming flora on three sides of the dwelling.
In high school, Julia was a member of the National Honor Society and later delighted in reading and in book groups. She also got into storytelling and always had some entertaining tale or anecdote to pass along. She went to a number of storytellers' conventions, trained herself in the skill, listened by the score to tapes of professional storytellers, told stories herself for young people at local venues, and remained active in the Mexia or Waco storyteller groups for decades.
Besides her passionate involvement in the lives of her children, their girlfriends or boyfriends and later spouses, her grandchildren, and afterward many great grandchildren as well, she and Leon, and later - after their marriage of 53 years ended with his death in 1995 - just she herself, hosted multiple family gatherings that kept her relations as close as possible amid diverse outlooks and styles. Through the years, these happy reunions would remain memorable for her offspring and for new generations of her growing extended family.
Intellectually curious, Mom maintained a healthy skepticism about a lot of popular notions and enjoyed chatting about current political or other issues. Despite her lack of higher education, she took correspondence and community courses and loved discussing with her gradually more educated descendants ideas they were learning in school and university. Nor did she discourage budding geniuses in her midst, and when one of my brothers showed a talent for tearing apart anything electronic, she was tolerant of his seemingly destructive habits. He would presently be an Air Force electrician and, a little later still, an electrical engineer working on some of the country's most sophisticated aircraft.
Music and drama were important to her too, and her leanings in these directions helped cultivate such talents in more than one of her children, their kids, etc.
She is also quite the traveler. Julia and one or more good friends would often go on cruises or driving or flying trip jaunts. Before this, she had also gone on trips with her daughter and son-in-law that included Europe, especially France. And she has taken many a journey in the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska, plus vacations to both Canada and Mexico.
In addition to these noted diversions, Julia has been committed to volunteerism, in so many ways involved in her community and always having people about whom she is concerned, making phone calls or personal visits, coordinating social events, leading people on entertaining excursions, and so on.
My father had been content with one major career outside the home, working for first the Army and then the Air Force, as it split off from that branch of the service. He retired in 1960, then saw little need for moving off their first little ranch. In contrast, Julia about that time was just getting started in the world of work. True, she had been a candy factory employee for awhile in the Great Depression, starting at a dollar a day, but then was doing her job enough better than her peers that they told her to slow down, to stop making them look bad. She did not, though, and soon began to get raises. After Dad retired and more of her children were going off to college, but the family budget was as yet skimpy, limited at first to Leon's monthly pension of $600, she determined to help out with the education expenses of some, and went to work for a variety of employers, IBM for instance, and later was an office manager for a physician, a choice close, at least, to her original idea of becoming a nurse, which choice was abandoned after she became an officer's wife and would soon be trading locations on average about every 13 months for the next 16-17 years. Still later, Julia was working just for the heck of it, not only to get the extra funds needed to fix up their place or maybe put a little more aside on their growing nest egg, now also for the enrichment of these vocational experiences. She had her most rewarding such endeavor as the producer of a weekly nutritionist's TV show. She also worked for the Austin Rape Crisis Center, helping put with outreach programs for secondary school youth and counseling with young people who themselves, like her, had suffered sexual abuse.
The peak of her working career, though, involved a lot of sweat, not out in the mid-day sun, but leading chair and water aerobics classes. She taught these for over twenty-eight years, a vocation embarked upon when most people would be retiring, at age sixty-six. This occupation not only kept her physically fit long into others' relatively disabled phases, but gave her a wealth of social interaction. Julia loved people, and they loved her. She could inspire them in her 
classes to stay in shape, just as others around them were dying too young. And she kept her sessions fun. Perhaps her penchant for drama came out a bit here, for she almost always would give her classes a new animated joke or anecdote to send the participants off with smiles on their faces. Often as not, these were a bit raunchy, and to see a rather ancient lady giggling uncontrollably over her own off-color humor must have been a cool accent to an already enlivening class. Beyond the paychecks, useful yet hardly substantial, Mom probably gained more from the social and health benefits of her aerobics instruction.
Nor were Mom's leisure pursuits limited to books or the arts. Following her husband's and his father's lead, she displayed a growing practical enthusiasm for investing in stocks. This began when one or another of her children had some extra cash. The trouble was that Leon was jealous of his own portfolio and funds and did not care to share. Independent as always, she devised a way to take up the hobby herself. Julia offered to give her sons who had extra dollars 10% interest, risk-free, in exchange for some of their money, which she would then invest in carefully selected assets. After Dad had died, the experience gained from these smaller trades served her well as the amounts in play were substantially larger. One of her sons, a financial consultant, has noted that she became pretty good at picking stocks.
Mom also took quite an interest in interior decorating, sewing, cooking, the holidays, and antiques. She was never as good at these pastimes as some in our talented extended family, yet she managed by using these combined interests and with very little expense to greatly enhance the home settings, the satisfactions of mealtimes, personal wardrobes, and the fun of family gatherings.
Personally, I think the most impressive of a lifetime of her accomplishments is that Mom maintained much autonomy well into her nineties and then, as medical and accident-related set-backs would occur, kept bouncing back with remarkable resilience. Time and again, her family might think Julia, after each of a terrible succession of heart challenges, major blood pressure spikes or drops, awful injuries, a knee replacement, or other orthopedic hurdles when at an advanced age, and so forth, had been knocked to the proverbial mat and surely now would not be up again, yet to date it is true of her that you cannot keep this good woman down.
What are the secrets of my mom staying younger longer? I note but five: a good sense of humor; adaptability; a tenacious will; commitment to the things she loves; plus generous and empathic engagement with others.
The desert is a rough environment for the plants and animals that live there. The unforgiving dry, rocky and stark habitat pushes life to the limit, where heat and drought shape the entire biome. Most plants are tough and spiny, while animals have to contend with a narrow range of options for shelter and food. Water sources are widely dispersed and the wildlife that lives near them includes many predators that rely on the hydration needs of their prey.
On a recent trip I took to Candelaria, in Presidio County, TX, the Chihuahuan Desert landscape appeared both amazing and intimidating. While the Rio Grande provides water, just a short distance from the river bank are steep rock cliffs, with plenty of cactus and other xeric plants clinging to the sides. The dirt road we followed along the U.S. side of the river is in the flood plain, but it seems the water only rarely expands over its usual course. When it does, naturally it is as a torrential flood that certainly disrupts the inhabitants but also replenishes the silt around the rocks in that narrow band of relatively lush growth. I had arrived after a fairly rainy period, so many plants had green foliage and were blooming.
I was part of a group of eight that included others with expertise in the biological fields, so we were on the lookout for any intriguing flora and fauna on a number of excursions, including one along the river. We had arrived in two ATVs and then got out to explore. Several folks had walked up a steep rocky path along the cliff face and I was photographing insects in the riparian vegetation when they called to me that they had found a big millipede.
After scrambling up the path, I was pleased to see one of the large rusty-colored desert millipedes that are common in the area. I did a quick photo op, then carefully started back down the loose rocks of the path. On the side of the trail was something I'd not seen when climbing up: another millipede that had apparently been stepped upon and was writhing around as yellow and black guts spewed out of its injury. I took a closer look, as something seemed very odd, but I couldn't tell just what it was. The "guts" didn't really look like the usual damage an arthropod would sustain if it were crushed between boot and stone. It took a bit more deliberation to finally figure out just what I was witnessing. Then it suddenly dawned on me; I was looking at a glowworm larva attacking a millipede.
What little I know about glowworms has come from those that I see in Austin and a bit of cursory research. Glowworms are a family of beetles, Phengodidae, in which the males have wings, large eyes and huge, feathery antennae while the females are larviform, meaning that they look pretty much like the larvae even when they are adults. I've seen a number of males which are attracted to lights, and also one larva that was crawling on a sidewalk. The larvae are brightly colored with yellow, orange and black bands. I've never seen a mature female, but I understand they are supposed to be larger and with more subdued coloration. I knew that glowworm larvae are predatory, but had never considered what they might attack.
As I watched, I realized I couldn't really tell if the glowworm was attacking the millipede or just holding onto it. The millipede was bigger and seemed very agitated but the two animals were so intertwined that it wasn't obvious who was winning this struggle. The other people were waiting to move on so I picked up the arthropod pair and put them into a container.
We drove our vehicles to another location and, when I had the time, I checked on my peculiar invertebrate guests. They were still wrapped together so I dumped them out onto my palm to get a better look. At this point, the millipede was on top of the glowworm and it looked like it might actually be the attacker. I found this puzzling because millipedes are scavengers, but, heck, I've seen some strange things. As I inspected the little beasts from different angles, I then realized that the millipede was no longer moving and the glowworm had its jaws clamped onto one of its victim's antennae. It actually looked like the glowworm was lugging its prize on its back, much like a hunter would sling a rabbit or pheasant over his shoulder.
It was time to move on again and I put the pair back into their little vial. We stopped at numerous other places and it was a couple of hours before I checked them again. The inside of the jar was a mess! When I spilled the contents out, the glowworm was busy munching through the millipede's head, hence all the slimy goo. I didn't seem to be disturbing the ravenous beetle at all, so I just replaced it once more. When we got back to the house where we were staying, I put the feasting glowworm into a larger container. By then, its head was down inside its victim, while a few remnants of millipede exoskeleton, in the form of thin rings, had been cast off.
Several hours later, the mess in the container was getting rather smelly, so I dumped it out once more to clean things up a bit. The glowworm had eaten nearly halfway into the millipede. That's about 1.5 inches of millipede going into a 2 inch beetle larva. The glowworm was significantly fatter. But it still wasn't fazed by my handling. We left early the next morning and I took the voracious little beast with me. It seemed perfectly content to keep working its way down the millipede's body as it continued to chow down. There was a litter of legs and body segment rings, along with a very rancid smelling slime that was probably a combination of rotting prey and predator feces.
Once home, I cleaned up the remains of the glowworm's banquet. The larva was now extremely rotund and rather lively. It had a strange constriction about 1/3 of the way down its body and I thought at first it might have been injured. Then I discovered that it simply had a millipede ring stuck around it. I used the tiny pair of scissors on a Swiss army knife and clipped the ring off. I could almost hear the glowworm's sigh of relief.
Putting the glowworm in a clean 2-inch deep square plastic container, I pressed down two corners of the lid and left the other two ajar to allow for a bit of air flow. The larva was restless but couldn't climb the slippery sides. Thinking the insect might now be ready to molt again or maybe even pupate, I added a bit of mulch to the container and left it on our dining room table while I attended to a few other specimens I had brought back. Checking back later, it appeared the larva had buried itself in the mulch.
Further research answered one of my pressing questions, which was about a glowworm's typical diet. It turns out that millipedes ARE their diet. Well, that little bit of information certainly fit quite neatly.
I had an entomology class to teach the next day, and was sure that my students would be delighted to see the glowworm. The next morning, there was no movement and I carefully sifted through the little bit of mulch. No glowworm. The lid was still on the container, but, obviously, my strong little captive had pushed its way out and was now finding a habitat more to its liking somewhere in our house. I checked the entire table top, along with the piles of papers and other objects that are part of the semi-permanent artifact collection there, as well as all around the floor, but to no avail. I was quite disappointed that I didn't have such an impressive prize to show everyone, although the situation was rather humorous, reminiscent of times during my childhood when a wayward snake or crayfish would escape its aquarium and I'd have to frantically search my bedroom.
That was over a month ago. Since then, I sometimes glance along the baseboards in our dining room or look up near the ceiling. If the glowworm had been female and managed to pupate successfully, it would be on the ground, emitting pheromones and using its pale greenish glow to signal to a potential mate. If it were male, it would eventually become evident as it flies around the house. Two other possibilities exist, though. It might have simply died, or it might have actually crawled out our back door, which has gaps big enough to allow roaches and spiders entry. If I never see it again, I sure hope the latter is the case. Any animal that entertaining deserves a better end than just expiring beneath our sofa.
It takes ingenuity to manage a ranch on the mountainous Chihuahuan Desert region of Presidio County in far west Texas, and this creative multi-lock gate mechanism proves it. With various parties needing access on the private road, including, but not limited to, owners, utility workers and law enforcement, this is one of the most artistically elegant solutions imaginable. It's simple, as long as you know which lock to use, remember the combination or key, and are good with spatial configurations so you can relock it properly after yourself.Val took the photo in late August, 2018, when she was a guest of one of the landowners in Candelaria, a border town on the Rio Grande. The mountains in the far background are in Mexico.
| (The Terra Tabloid is a venue for the discussion of issues pertaining to the past, present, and future of our planet and human interaction with it.) |
In the U.S. alone, termites cause about $30 billion in annual destruction to homes, other buildings, or crops. Thanks to the critters' numbers being greater in much warmer areas, diverse global economies, relative differences in national currencies, variations in the effectiveness of combating the insects, and disparities in reporting accuracy, it is not possible to tell with equal precision the creatures' worldwide damage tally. It seems safe to estimate it, though, at between half a trillion and one trillion dollars a year.
In our country, the average amount spent to repair after a house termite infestation is $3000. Every 12 months, another 600,000 homes in the U.S. fall victim to termite damage. Subterranean species live in all U.S. states but Alaska. Agriculturally, our country fares better than other regions. Yet here too shade trees, sugarcane, and other crops are destroyed by such invasions. These social insects have been making successful colonies around the world since the times of dinosaurs, the species evolving from a type of insect similar to cockroaches. Termites are thought to have first appeared about 130 million years ago. A fairly modern looking termite was found in amber dated at roughly 100 million years young. They are quiet consumers, giving few clues to their destructive habits until significant damage has often already occurred. Though individually tiny, the total weight of the world's termites easily exceeds that of all humans. A termite colony might have up to 5 million individuals. A healthy queen can lay 30,000 eggs daily, and she might live 25 years or more.
The worst effects of termite damage are to buildings and agricultural products in the subtropical and tropical regions of Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia.
Termites' combined metabolism is associated with the generation of up to 11% of the world's methane released into the atmosphere, this gas being a major source of greenhouse effects and so of global warming.
Yet to focus only on termites' negative consequences for people reveals less than half of their role in the biosphere. The insects provide much benefit. They are a major source of protein and are eaten by humans and their farm animals in many cultures. These little food packets are loaded with fat and vitamins A and C, plus other micronutrients, yet without some of the anti-nutritional factors often associated with more popular fare. They are food too for many types of wildlife, including primates, shrews, moles, mongooses, bats, numbats, aardvarks, anteaters, and echinidnas. Besides these, of course, hundreds of bird, reptile, amphibian, insect, spider, and even nematode species eat termites.
Oddly enough, they also have a role to play in medicine. Derivatives from the bodies of some species possess antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. Notwithstanding that some folks are allergic to both termite dung and their mouth fluids, termites themselves or concoctions made from their mounds, which contain termite saliva and fecal material, are useful in treating gastric disorders such as ulcers, diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera as well as being helpful with iron or calcium deficiencies. They have analgesic properties and so are effectively employed against pain.
Termites have a huge part to play in our overall ecology through the breakdown of complex dead tissues, especially so with cellulose, the aeration of earth, and nitrogen fixation. They are thus vital to the health of forests and help barren soils become rich enough to support abundant plant growth. Australian researchers found that soils aerated and nitrogen-enhanced by ample termite and ant colonies produce 36% more wheat than soils without many of these insects. Termite mounds are used, as in Laos, as charcoal kilns and to fertilize gardens or staple crops such as rice. The termites themselves are often used as fish food, the fish later being harvested for human consumption. Important food plants, such as the wild yam, thrive on termite mounds and can be vital during major droughts.
Without termites, there would be fewer and less healthy forests, and many other plant forms would have a tough time making a go of it in vast stretches of Earth's warmer landmasses. Absent plentiful forests and other flora, fauna, of course, would also be less plentiful. Happily, that is unlikely to be the case for a long time, for these little creatures seem destined to be as successful in the next several millions years as they have been for eons already.
Even the 11% of global methane generation for which termites are responsible (which figure is not going down, termites being here to stay) might be offset relatively easily by humans consuming about 22% less domestic meat. Though termites may be less tasty for the human palate than hot dogs, steaks, mutton, bacon, and chicken tenders, the relative benefits of the two sources of nutrition greatly favor termites over cattle, pigs, sheep, and chickens.
All in all, it is well to note that only 1% of the named species of termites are directly harmful to humans. The 99% balance are at least neutral to our interests or decidedly helpful to them. Termites are major factors in our global landscape, and the world would be a far less inviting and productive place without them.
The cute little globular drop (Helicina orbiculata) is an extremely common land snail in our area. It is most often seen during wet weather, crawling on low vegetation where it scours organic matter with its rasp-like radula, or "tongue." During dry weather, the snail estivates in its shell, sealing off the opening to retain moisture within. This species is more closely related to many marine snails than it is to other land dwellers, and is described as a tropical terrestrial operculate gastropod. Translation: it needs a warm climate, breathes air although it is not related to pulmonate snails that have lungs, and has an operculum (a lid to close off its shell). One of the most notable signs of the globular drop's distinction from our numerous other land snails is the location of its eyes. They are not at the tips of the cephalic tentacles but at the base. Another, not so obvious, difference is that the sexes are separate; most land snails are hermaphrodites.
This snail has an odd feature that is not yet understood. The edge of the shell opening varies among individuals, ranging from very thick with a sort of back fold to thin with no lip at all. One theory is that the mollusk can sequester calcium in this feature when conditions provide ample amounts of the mineral and then draw upon that store when it is needed during lean times.
Investing is often thought of as a complicated affair, best left to the experts. Yet there are a few basics one can apply that might well assure monetary independence without hiring a professional or doing so only for assistance in getting things set up. Various writers may differ on the exact steps called for, but most successful programs have certain elements in common. Here is a version with which I am comfortable:
Whether of dividend-paying small-cap companies or strong, established corporations, if choosing to buy stocks oneself, assets that have little debt, significant yields, and relatively low price to earnings ratios have generally proven to be profitable over the long-term.
The average household, saving and investing 20% of income annually and investing as above, might typically see $12,500 in the first year (and total investments over the life of the program of about $600,000) grow to $4,000,000 or more after 30 years, though with some variation, depending on exactly when in their investing experience bear markets occur. Those who have not had as much chance to put substantial reserves into low-cost shares during severe market downturns or who have suffered large bear market losses just as they are retiring might do worse, yet even for them the approach should be a winning one. Over the long haul, average compound total returns even 20% lower than those usual for the S&P 500 Index can be rather gratifying in their capacity for turning fairly modest investment amounts into a large nest egg. After 30 years, the indicated approach would likely raise that initial investment (as supplemented in subsequent years) to over $2,000,000, assuming only an 8% average yearly return.
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While we enjoy the cold weather, ample rains and even a hint of autumn colors here in Austin, we hope that our readers, no matter where you are in the country, find plenty of reasons to be thankful as we approach that thoughtful holiday. Please stay safe, drive attentively, act with kindness, and be content.
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| For others who may have chanced upon this site, larvalbug bytes is a monthly family-and-investment newsletter, put out by an old codger and sweet thing, with sometimes a little help as well from our engaging pooch, Peri. We invite readers' comments by and would also be happy to readers when new issues are published. Articles and stories from back issues are available in our archives. |
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