Bowling for Seattle

Last weekend, while perusing the DVDs at our local Beverly Hills Video store near the Best Mall Ever in Sadyba, I found a few nice scores to add to our puny collection: Raging Bull, Das Boot, Memento and the best deal was Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (Zabawy z Bronią) for less than $3.

Little did I know that the timing of our purchase came just a few hours after one of Seattle's worst shooting rampages. Kyle Huff, a nice, quiet, large man from Montana, while visiting an after-rave party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, shot and killed Jeremy Martin, Melissa Moore, Suzanne Thorne, Chris Williamson, Justin Schwartz, Jason Travers and then turned one of his guns on himself when confronted by a lone police officer. Two others were injured and fortunately several escaped. It was a story that made little news here in Poland, but it did make it to the top spot on Google's international news page by the end of Saturday and remained there for around 72 hours and is, obviously, still front page news for all of Seattle's papers.

We watched Moore's Bowling for Columbine documentary last night. It wasn't the first time we'd seen it, but the first in a very long time. We're very familiar with his work, as we spent our second-to-last birthday (yes, they're the same) watching Fahrenheit 9/11 in the theater before going for an overnight hike to Mt. Pilchuck in a numb state, hoping that this film would be enough of a catalyst to oust Bush from office.

Oh, well.

How Moore mixes comedy with 'the awful truth', and yes, some manipulative images and quotes from a wide variety of politicians, media moguls and everyday people, it is still a stirring film that is both entertaining and educational and still has a strong punch four years after its release. But most importantly, this week's event goes to show that America's form of gun control is still way out of line. Yes, many people in America own guns, but so do Canadians, and our death by shooting rate is more than 1,000:1, respectively.

Kyle Huff already had a record of gun abuse back in Whitefish, Montana. The authorities there reduced the felony offense of "shooting up an 'artsy' moose" in court and he was allowed to keep his firearms which he later brought with him to Seattle and used in this killing spree. By law, the city and state had the power to revoke his weaponry...but everyone plays with guns in the Wild West...it's our right to bear arms, dammit, so we can't deprive this youth of his guns.

Some people and the police do have guns here in Poland, but they don't tend to use them on eachother like Americans are willing to do. Most deaths here seem to either be alcohol or driving-related, and not always when the two are mixed. It's economy, health care and infrastructure-related problems here, as unemployment and alcoholism is high, and the old communist-era roads are in horrible shape, where even the fanciest SUVs can take a tumble when hitting the massive potholes at high speed.

Has America's news media reduced its infatuation with presenting violent crimes since Bowling for Columbine was released? Unfortunately, I don't think so. More unfortunately, it's a form of marketing that is spreading around the world, marketing fear across the globe, with potential terrorists in London, Madrid, Morocco, Indonesia and even here in Warsaw.

Do we really have that much to be afraid of?

PolPics.com and other news

Hi!
Long time no read, eh?

First off, check out this nice link, in English, called PolPics:
http://polpics.com/

It's a massive collection of intriguing photography from all around Poland, and since I've been so lame about putting up my own semi-decent shots, you might as well check out the pros' work.

We have our first American visitors in a long while coming soon, and they're both named Kris!?!

This Wednesday, our first contestant on the Polish Zloty Price is Right is Kris Cummings, from Seattle/Phoenix. We met through the Seattle Mountaineers on a lovely epic climb of Guye Peak's West Face several years ago. She has a great dog named Lucy (and another new one now), but the pets aren't coming to torture Dudek this time around. I think we'll do the Warsaw/Krakow thing, then she's off to Copenhagen to visit other US expats, then to Budapest...then back here again for more churches and WWII memoriabilia.

Next up is KJ, Krash, Kris-Cross, island boy, the man, the myth, the legend, my best friend from oh so many years, Kris Morrison. He somehow not only fenagled a 3 week trip to Europe this spring, but got almost another week off for mine and Jill's mid-week wedding in June. That's pretty sweet! I'd love to quit work for the full time he's here and join him. He's doing the War-Krak-Praha-Wien-Budapest loop. I haven't seen him in over 2 years...this will be fun!

We're super psyched both Krises are coming and they're also bringing some tasty treats from home! Yummy!

OK, what else is shakin'?
Spring came, happy equinox! The temps have been above freezing every day for over a week now! Rain came and the snow is starting to vanish! I've been running, cycling, swimming, climbing, lifting and doing some yoga...more sun means happier Jill and Jeremy :)
We like Poland, and we're here another year, but we've decided to try sunnier climes next time around...but where will that be?

Dudek is doing well, but he's feeling super cramped up in our flat. He got his rabies shot this week and he'll be venturing out soon. By the way, we're still looking for cat caretakers for the summer if you're interested!

Jill's spring break is coming, so as Kris #2 arrives, she'll already be in the middle of her Italian/Tuscan bike tour with Lisa. Yesterday we rode 50 km and her bum was hurtin'... and the two of them are riding today-nothing like crash course training for a week long bike tour. I wish the newbies the best of luck! But how bad could it be, bike touring through one of the most beautiful parts of Europe, where the temps are already nearing 70 F every day and the flowers starting to bloom.

Yes I'm jealous. We'll be fighting over the camera for that week, I'm sure.

So 2 and 3/4 months to go until our big day! :)
If anyone sees any cheap flights that'll get me back in time for my wedding, I'd greatly appreciate it!

;-)

cu!

jr

Endless Winter

Yesterday we were tricked

All of us.

The temps rose to a record 39 F and the sun was shining and all were happy, smiling and yapping about.
But with the sun came an occasional stiff wind, which brought not only the cold back today, but even more snow.

5 days until the first day of Spring, the Vernal Equinox, and still no real sign of it actually happening. Perhaps when the Poles get all dressed up in their wild costumes on this day they'll be able to frighten Old Man Winter away for good. Then Jill and I have exactly 3 months to scramble for our big day in June!

:)

There's a cat out of the bag! Quick, get it!

Greetings one and all, for those online enough, regardless how far away, or those fortunate to be in the same city as us, I've let you in on a little secret about a nice little event that occurred in recent months, in fact 2 months and 14 days ago, high on a sun-soaked cliff, above the Mediterranean Sea.




I proposed...

















and Jill said "YES!"


Proposal: December 21st, the Winter Solstice
Wedding: June 21st, the Summer Solstice

:)

raining and pouring

Wow, the deep freeze finally ended.

Temps rose above 0 C for the first time since before Xmas, I think, and it's made Warsaw a big, slippery, slushy mess. Riding was easier in pure snow than this stuff. Yuck.

On the positive side, an old student, Renata, returned for a reliable 2 classes per week at school, and I picked up another young, recently engaged couple who ventured to Venezuela this fall and had a heck of a trip. They're getting married in one of Warsaw's oldest churches in May, the one famous for the statue of Christ carrying the cross, along Nowy Swiat and featured in Roman Polanski's excellent film, The Pianist. The church is also famous for being home to Frederic Chopin's heart, literally, as it was his wish, and the rest of him is in France. I wonder who delivered it and how smoothly that trip went! They're nice people, Ula and Slawek, and perhaps we'll get invited to our second Polish wedding (first was Pawel and Magda's on New Year's Day, 2005, in the oldest, surviving church in Warsaw. That was nice!)

Starting the 18th, Jill and ASW have their winter break. We're likely off to Slovakia to Jasne, Mala Fatra and hopefully to do some ice climbing in Slovensky Raj (Slovakian Paradise)... but Jill's chompin' at the bit to board some huge, Alpy slopes in Austria, so who knows where we'll end up.

Hope everyone's well!
Ciao!

Jestmi zimno!

I think I had the coldest bicycle commute in my life this morning. It was negative 30 degrees Celsius, which turns out to be minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. As my bike's wheels crunched along the frozen, packed snow along the various roads to school, my moustache and the hair that was sticking out of my hat and scarf began to turn white and freeze solid, and then my right ear froze and felt like a rock. I'm glad I was wearing sun glasses, I'd hate to think what the water in my eyes would've done.

But, hey, it's a dry cold!

The last time I experienced temps like these was when I was over 16,000' on Denali (Mt. McKinley) in May of 2003. Then I was fighting with thinner air acclimatization and frostbite, and now I'm fighting with the latter here at nearly sea level. The sharp cold has surely reminded me that a few of my fingers, the end of my nose and I guess my ear did not escape Alaska without a longterm reminder of how brutal these conditions can be for the human body.

I hear that this is the coldest Warsaw's been in one hundred years...but I also here it's warming up a few degrees tomorrow.

So maybe my next ride won't be so frosty!

:)

Oh, and if you'd rather think about sunnier climes, Erden Eruc is about to set off to complete his main crossing solo of the Atlantic from the Canary Islands. Follow him or check out his previous adventures as he tries to circumnavigate the world all under human power...and climb 6 of the 7 continents' highest peaks in the world, too, at:
www.around-n-over.org

As they say in Poland, I'm holding my thumbs for you, Erden! Paddle hard, sleep hard and eat well!

Czesc!

Wow! I suck!

Greetings, Earthlings!

I feel I've returned from a galaxy far, far away. I'm ashamed at how long it's been since my last post...but I've had my reasons. I'm not allowed to disclose them all, but here's a bit of what we've been up to...

1) Got my tooth fixed, and then while climbing in (see #2 below), the clinic called to tell me that my dentists is sick and will have to cancel his appointment with me 8 days from now. "Wow, the dentist knows he's going to be sick that long? Or is it just a coincidence that the appointment was at a ridiculously early hour, and right between Xmas and New Year's?!" (Jan. 8 and still no crown on my tooth!)

2) Jill and I went to Spain! KLM was delayed twice out of Warsaw and Amsterdam, so we (I) desired an extra day in Barcelona (say the 'c' like an 's' or better a 'th' with a serious lisp to match the Catalan pronunciation!) so we could get in enough Gaudi and other interesting sight seeing before we hopped in our little rental Citroen and spent nearly 40 frickin' Euro to drive the toll way to the death of all tourist beaches in the Mediteranean, Benidorm-a sin of a place that is so overbuilt with a wide variety of crappy and somewhat nice skyscrapers, not high rises, but buildings that must rival Chicago's skyline in scale and height and...anyway, it's mostly built by British investors, so Jill and I don't want to hear about how Americans overbuild and destroy beautiful places from you Brits anymore...at least we do it on our own land and live with it ourselves! Grr.
Anyway, we actually avoided Benidorm pretty well, and stayed in the interior of Costa Blanca in Finestrat at a pseudo climbers' hostel called the Orange House. Much fun was had freezing to death the first few nights in our tiny room with no heat (I later stole a space heater from one of the nice rooms) and then we felt we deserved better and moved into a fancy room with its own bathroom! Plush! Well the climbing was great, better than what we experienced in Italy last year, when we climbed in and around Arco/Trento...but Italy still wins with scenery...but Costa Blanca did win big with having 2 good Indian restaurants!!! :)
OK, so the climbing was good. It was almost entirely sport, which was good for us mentally so we could push it a bit, but not so good for my tendons...I think I squeezed in the one rest day (Xmas eve) at the right moment to avoid serious injury. Hooray! The one day we did do real trad it wasn't so hot, and the guidebook is really subjective on the ratings.
But, in a nut shell, we'd return definitely to Barcelona and very likely to Costa Blanca for more winter or spring rock climbing.
3) New Year's Eve/Sylwester in Warsaw. Pawel, one of Jill's coworkers invited us to a real, genuine Polish Sylwester party (Sylwester happens to be the 'names day' of Dec. 31 po polsku (they celebrate birth names and birthdays in this country. Polish calendars list every friggin' birth name throughout the entire year. God help Poland on the days of Magda, Piotr, Agnieszka, Marcin, etc....the country must be hopelessly overwhelmed with vodka purchases on these special days...)). Anyhoo, it was also nice because it was a Polish 70s/80s theme/costume party. Jill and I weren't sure if there dress was any different than the states, but we took our chances and all went well. Pawel (Cobra) and his wife Magda looked stunning. Hopefully a pic will pop in here soon. Night was fun filled with lots of talk in another Magda's flat, with some dancing and vodka shots with all the men. Jill was scared for me, but she was rather impressed with my ability to keep up with the Pollocks...my new record was reached in the wee hours of the night...13 shots and still standing...and the slurring began after #12, I think!?! (and had 2 beers, too!). Midnight came and we all ran out into the deep snow and watched the gazillion illegal in the states but plenty legal here fireworks of large size go off all over the place and fortunately didn't see anyone get injured. Fun snowball fight was had, too!
Next day was rough, that I remember.
4) Finally watched Star Wars, Episode III. Nice to see Obi-Won looking more like Alec Guiness with the beard and all, but AG was really unmatchable in acting and charm. I'm sorry he's gone.
And was that really Frank Oz's voice digitized for Yoda? It didn't sound right, so now watch Empire Strikes Back, I must, to learn the ways of the dark side.
5) Jill had 3 weeks off for xmas. I didn't. For once, I worked a lot more in one week than she did. Jill slept alot, in fact she probably had more time to relax than either ever, or in over 10 years or so... long before her teaching days....!
6) We finally made it to Zakopane and the beautiful Polish Tatry mountains!
We trained it to Krakow, then bussed it to Zako. Seriously nice bus facility in Krak, seriously flawed clerks and any sense of order when boarding/paying. They have much to learn, they must, to meet other standards of other EU countries!
Weather was foggy and cold day 1, didn't see much but the famed Krupowki street and all its tacky karczmas, swarmas and more karczmas (these are forms of Polish eateries/restaurants). Day 2, cold, cold, cold foggy start. Got up to Kuznice and took the 7 km long gondola ride into Tatry National Park and into the SUNSHINE!!! We skied at a place I can't pronounce or remember how to spell, all day long in gorgeous sunshine with wonderful views of surround high peaks and may have even stepped into Slowakia. BUT, the ski area has one 2 lifts. and basically 2 slopes to ski. Compared to Austria, where last winter we visited Ischgl in western Tirol, where they literally built a lift or a ski run on every piece of skiable terrain possible, and were in the midst of building more (?!?!?!), here the Poles have thankfully been very rigid in protecting their wilderness and reducing the impact on their precious piece of the Carpathian mountains. So an interesting trade off. We know we sure as hell won't go there for a week long downhill ski trip... but we'll surely return for the climbing, scrambling, XC-skiing and another day or two skiing on another clear day.
Oh, and I found I still really suck at skiing, and that Jill is still really awesome at snowboarding.
7) ? Well, that's a secret for now...until then, Happy belated New Year (Dosiego Roku) to everyone!

Cheers!

JnJ

My Worst Night in Poland or An Enemy Returns

Last Wednesday night, I was visited by a resurfacing arch enemy, the toothache. Mind you, I don't have your average set of teeth. Nearly every dentist says I can thank my birth parents and their kin for my set of choppers. As my mom recently wrote, "Your teeth have always been rotten." Thanks for the support, mom!

This ache wasn't your run of the mill tooth pain. This was an old mercury crown from I'm not sure how many decades ago, and either it, or what was left of the tooth below it, was loose. For the last year this tooth would ache for a few days then go away. Only once before while climbing in the French Alps did the pain get bad enough to take some killers. Wednesday was different.

As the night progressed, the pain worsened and stretched from my lower jaw to my neck, middle of the back of my head and then continued down my spine. Did I also mention a fever? This little loose tooth came on with a vicious infection that sent me spiraling towards a black hole of misery. I was freezing and sweating, my hearing was amplified so any noise was supersonic, my loose tooth had to come out, so out came the pliers...but to no avail. Back to bed, still freezing with a half meter of covers on me. I was so cold that my teeth, as sore as they were, were chattering uncontrollably. I even used a sock. Jill slept through all this, by the way...

5:30 a.m. she wakes to my convulsions and moans and takes my temp: 103.7 F (39.8 C). Not good. We (she) scrambled and started making calls for emergency dentists that would hopefully speak English. My condition was surreal, much like when I was experiencing high altitude mountain sickness after summiting Denali (Mt. McKinley) in 2003, I could move and make decisions, but my motions and thoughts were slower than a snail. Jill thought I was going to drown myself in the bathtub as I couldn't physically quite get to the tap to shut it off.

Dentist #1 was a lovely Polish lady who hung up on her. #2 spoke just enough English to say the doc wasn't in. #3 repeat of #1. #4 was Lux Med and they said come in ASAP. Small vicotories.

Even in my state, I was still fearful of what this Polish medical experience would be like. The hospitals here haven't had any good press here for nearly a century. At the clinic, my stomach didn't agree with the mixture of sterile hospital smell and the cigarettes being smoked in the entry way, three times, so at least they knew I wasn't kidding about being sick. From then on the clinic did a marvelous job of providing someone who could translate for us and take care of this bastard child in my mouth.

I was smart enough to bring my dental records and x-rays from the states. I thought the Polish dentist would just want to yank it, but he actually wanted to save it. Turns out it was the last tooth on that side that hadn't had a root canal yet! So I ended up getting the old crown pried off and got the fastest root canal I've ever had in my life. The implements (files) were similar, but not as coarse, and he didn't take the time to continually widen the hole, but he did keep dropping in the toxin they use to kill off the rest of the living tissue. The work was complete in 10 minutes. No gloves, no assistant, no sucking thingy hanging off my lip, no soft rock/classical music. But unlike the states, where it'd be a thorough scouring for hours and a temp put on the same session, he left my new hole in my tooth wide open, refused to give me any antibiotics and told me to come in the next 2 days for a 'rinsing' of the hole. If things were bad, then he'd issue the antibiotics. Oh, and I had to eat with a wad of cotton covering that side of my teeth. For comic relief, try it sometime when you're trying to impress someone like the in-laws.

The next three daily visits (an extra was required, apparently) were all with different dentists at the same clinic, and all had various forms of poor English. Since it was just a 'rinsing' no translator was really necessary. The last woman dentist (2 male, 2 female, btw) put in the temporary fill after re-poisoning the tissues again and sent me on my way to schedule the next appointment, where we'll prep for a crown. My pain and misery reduced relatively quickly, but it took several days to recover from the high fever, as I was still weak on Tuesday (6 days).

And the cost for all this suffering and modern Polish dental medicine and procedures at a private clinic, where they didn't even bother asking if I had insurance (was it that obvious?!)?

50 Złoty! ($15)


Hopefully it's not a 'you get what you pay for' experience, but so far so good (no infection, yet!).

Perhaps I'll invest in a new set of Polish choppers while I'm abroad!

Bring on the novocaine!

:-)

Other sad medical news...

Our lovely, little Dudek is getting his little boys chopped this afternoon. I cringed every time the vet said the word, 'castration,' oh, it just sounds so cruel, especially in a Polish accent.

Wish him well. Live and toy mice are welcome.