Getting legally stoned

Now that pot is state-legal, I've been experimenting for the first time in decades. Here's what I've done this year:

In February, I bought THC tincture. One dropper sublingually (Feb) did nothing. Two droppers (June) did nothing. Three droppers (July) got me very slightly "fuzzy".

In August, I bought a vaping pen and one cartridge. But in October, before I had a chance to try them, I was given a tin of THC-and-chocolate-coated blueberries. On Oct 18, I tried two berries got a very slight, short-lived buzz.

On Oct. 26, I had four berries and finally got high! After 2 hours, I felt unstable mentally and physically and had time dilation. I was also quite happy. All of this lasted for more than two more hours.

The other day, I noticed the tin has a Best By Date of 11/17/18, and they are berries, after all; they might indeed go bad. So I decided to use some more yesterday. I tried five this time, hoping for one more thing I remember from decades ago and still hadn't experienced since: the urge to speak or write some discoveries. It worked! I think 5 berries (25 mg THC) is the perfect ingested dose for what I was after.

Details (from notes written while high!) : 

• 10:50 am - early lunch
• 1 pm - five berries
• 1:10 to 2:10 - walk to Nina, walk with Nina, walk to park bench
• 2 - slightly woozy ... medium-term memory effects
• 2:15 - time dilation; easily distractable; thoughts jumpy; easy to "follow" a flock of circling crows ― pick out the leader(s), see the flight pattern
• 2:20 - colder wind, less sun on the bench; start to move indoors. Time dilation: walking home seemed to take a long time, but it didn't, according to my watch
• 2:30 - more loquacious [than last time]; unsteady; happy; mental maps falter
• 2:40 - further time dilation. This is probably the perfect dose for what I was seeking!
• 2:45 - The physical unsteadiness may just be a side-effect of time dilation: I seem to feel the various tiny movements of my body that I feel (!) must be always there, and it registers as unsteadiness.
• 3 - Might the same be true of thoughts?!
• 3:15 -  More of the same; nothing new. I think it's mostly time dilation that causes the rest.
• 3:40 - Can still play FreeCell (but probably not sudoku)
• 4 - continuing; intermittently, just a smidge euphoric; now I want to close my eyes, maybe sleep
• 5 - continuing
• 5:30 - continuing
• 6:30 - almost all gone
• 7:30 - slight residual wooziness. Also, I wasn't especially hungry during most of this time, but once I started eating dinner (around 6), I've been noshing since!

Reflecting the next day, I still think my stoned revelation was correct: I think most of my "unsteadiness" when stoned, both physical and mental, is a side-effect of the time dilation.

Addendum

I did it once more on 14 January. I decided ahead of time to find out what the effect of time dilation would be on listening to music, reading, doodling, and sex. I wrote these down so I wouldn't forget. I ate five berries.

From notes written while high, here are the results:

Music — At first, just background. Hard to focus on. Somewhat difficult to physically "keep time" (hand or finger or foot tapping) Music is too darn fast! But an hour later, it sometimes seemed too slow; different, in part, depending on whether I'm trying to physically keep time or not.

Reading — I can't read even a single sentence if it's a bit long; by the time I get to the end, I don't remember the beginning.

Doodling — At first, hesitation / indecision / reluctance (or is it only time delay?) No inspiration. But soon, the hesitation was mostly gone or, at least, different: No longer a reluctance to draw, just "Where now?". I'm seeing shapes / directions (more than usual) in the doodles that make me want to either change (if I don't like what I see) or reinforce (if I do) the design. Examples: Oh, that is beginning to look like part of an alligator / a dog / a person... but I don't want that here, so stop that line and go somewhere else. As time went on, my doodling simplified and worsened.

Sex (masturbation) — It seemed difficult to get a full erection, but maybe that was just time dilation. I did eventually come, in a usual amount. No heightened sensations.

One other thing: Quantitative adjectives and adverbs (very much, somewhat, more, etc.) are difficult while stoned: If I start one, I immediately interrupt myself: "Are you sure or just stoned?"

That's it for the berries. 

New-ish things in Mérida ― Dec. 2018

I travel to Mérida so often that I rarely write about it. Here are a few items worth mentioning.

Victor at the Palacio de la Música

Link to more photos

There's a new museum of Mexican music, Palacio de la Música. It's underneath a new music school. The museum is free, modern, interactive, mostly bilingual. and quite extensive. There are many exhibits; multiple visits would be necessary just to listen to more of the music clips. The link in the first sentence is to an excellent English introduction.

(part of) Paseo Verde

Paseo Verde, now at least 5 years old, is a 7 kilometer (!) linear park not far from Victor's house. I often see it from the air when landing in Mérida. We walk there frequently.  It includes separate walking and bicycling paths, soccer fields, exercise stations, and more.

La Playita

One long-delayed attraction along Paseo Verde has finally opened a little bit: La Playita, a large childrens' aquatic playground, was supposed to open three years ago. It's finally now open ― for all of three hours a week! There was exactly one family visiting when we passed by Sunday. I trust it will become more popular.

Gran Museo del Mundo Maya

Now several years old, the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (Mayan World Museum) is definitely worth a visit.

Finally, along Paseo Verde, one house has some striking metal grillework. I suspect the owner is the designer and perhaps the manufacturer.

Left Turns in Juarez

This is just crazy:

Consider the intersection of two busy streets, Ave and Blvd. Both streets have three lanes of traffic in each direction and medians separating the two directions of traffic. On Ave, about 50 yards before the intersection, in both directions, there is a cut through the median where cars can make a U-turn, and there are traffic signals to stop the Ave traffic for U-turners. On both streets, about 100 yards before the intersection, there are signs showing drivers how to make a left turn. The intersection has the expected traffic lights, but no left-turn lights. 

This is the sign for left turns from Ave to Blvd. It tells the driver to be in the leftmost lane, go straight through the intersection, use the U-turn, then get into the rightmost lane and turn right onto Blvd. Whew!

And here is the sign for left turns from Blvd to Ave. Drivers must be in the rightmost lane, turn right onto Ave, then get into the leftmost lane and use the U-turn. Whew again!

Note that unless you're familiar with the intersection, you don't know until you see the sign whether to be in the leftmost or rightmost lane to begin your left turn! What a nightmare for the drivers who don't do this every day.

Visa: more damn delays

We are in never-exciting Juarez, where we expected to finally get Victor's visa. No such luck. 😒

Yesterday, even though I knew it wasn't needed, we had to visit the applicant service center, an appointment they gave us after I selected the interview date. This is for photo and fingerprints, which we already did. They checked and determined that, yes, we had already done that, and they put a small stamp on one paper.  An unnecessary extra day in Juarez and a waste of time. 😡

Today, when Victor went for his interview appointment, they said that his medical exam in May was now too old! I clearly recall the doctor in May telling us that it was important we complete everything within a year or we would have to re-do the exam. But now, they said the medical exam was only good for six months, and we would indeed have to re-do it. Now the conflict between the interview date they sent me mid-summer and my trip to Montreal and Quebec has become even more consequential! 😠

The minor mob scene outside the U.S. Consulate from about 6 am to mid-day every morning.

And despite his new chest X-ray showing the same damn spot that they previously determined was not TB, they have to determine that again! Yes, we have to stay an extra day in Juarez for Victor to give three days of sputum (again), and yes, we have to wait eight weeks for the culture results (again)! As before, that means discarding non-refundable flight tickets, buying new flights, an additional hotel night, and another trip to Juarez later. Not to mention months of delay in getting Victor to the U.S. 😠

This time, I'll make damn sure I don't schedule any travel until they send us the next interview date! When they send the date following a medical delay, it's generally about a month later. As I learned last time, when I have to choose a date, it winds up being many, many months later.

Every delay makes me more furious that they won't give Victor a tourist visa and that they can't handle fiancé  visas at the U.S. consulate in Mérida! 

As another applicant told Victor today, it seems that everything is set up to force applicants to spend more time and money and emotion than they ever expected to or should ever have to. The service centers, medical clinics, hotels and restaurants around the consulate just love this. Quite a racket. 😠

Four spots in SE Asia ― Nov. 2018

 With a demon guardian at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok

Feeding a liger, Bangkok

Merlion, Singapore

Hong Kong cityscape from Victoria Peak

Link to more photos
(View the photos individually to see the captions.)

As I wrote previously, the new interview date for Victor's visa is in December. Because of the delay, I scheduled a trip to Mérida in September, and went looking for another trip we could take later. 

I found this whirlwind introduction to Bangkok, Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong, from a company we've used before. I even got them to adjust the itinerary slightly, putting an elephant ride in place of bamboo rafting in Bangkok.

We had a great time, despite my suitcase being destroyed along the way. Happily, it only rained one afternoon in Singapore.

Getting from Mérida to Bangkok was an ordeal: We left Victor's house at 3 pm Tuesday. At 6 pm, we flew to Mexico City. At 10 pm, we left for Tijuana. After two hours there, we left for our 13.5-hour (!) flight to Shanghai. We had about four hours until our next flight. The damn lines and repetitive (!) checks took more than three of those hours! And we were only making a connection! The flight from Shanghai to Bangkok was 5 hours. When we arrived, it was 4 pm Thursday.

In Bangkok, our first afternoon was free, probably to tackle jet lag. But instead of sleeping, we walked to the Husky Cafe. We got there at 3:15, but we didn't know that you need a ticket, and they allot their last tickets at 3 pm, so we couldn't go in.

In addition to elaborate temples and palaces, we had an evening dinner cruise, a visit to the floating market, the elephant ride and feeding a young liger (both at Chang Puak), and a visit to the River Kwai bridge and its museum. Much like Xochimilcho in Mexico City, I didn't care for the floating market; there was no scenery, just endless vendors vying for your attention.

In Singapore, we connected with an acquaintance who lives there now whom I hadn't seen in eighteen years. We had dinner at one of the food court streets and stopped at Dorothys, a gay bar. The next day's city tour included the merlion, a Taoist temple, the National Orchid Garden, and Little India. Later, we saw the Raffles Hotel on our way to Gardens by the Bay. There, we were visiting the two large conservatories when it started raining. Because of the rain, we never walked the rest of the grounds. After the rain, we tried durian; it wasn't as tasty as I'd heard. 

We only had a short time in Bali, and a good chunk of that was taken up by replacing my ruined suitcase.

Our Garuda Indonesia flight from Bali to Hong Kong was more than ⅔ empty! The most empty seats I've ever seen on a commercial flight. Speedy immigration in Hong Kong, but then a one hour wait for the hotel shuttle!

Our Hong Kong tour began with Victoria Peak. Visibility was good, but hazy in the distance. Stanley Market and vicinity was a bit more interesting than most markets. Our hotel was very near Kowloon Park, so we wandered there, too.

Somehow, the trip back to Mérida wasn't as exhausting as the trip going out.

Suitcase destroyed

On our Asia trip, we flew from Singapore to Bali on Tiger Airlines, operated by Scoot Airlines, and my suitcase was destroyed! 

When the bag was checked in Singapore, it was fine — zipped closed, and with a small combination lock. When it was on the conveyor belt in Bali, the bag had knife cuts, the zipper was cut through, the zipper pulls and combination lock were gone, and the bag was open with contents spilling out. It could not be closed at all; the zipper is completely open and there are no zipper pulls.

I did not see any Scoot/Tiger luggage office. The bag could not be wheeled. We had to use a luggage cart, and it required both of us to lift it onto the cart. We proceeded to the exit. Our Bali guide was there and took some photos of the suitcase. 

I have no money or jewelry or electronics in my luggage, so the would-be thief was disappointed. As far as I can tell, nothing was missing or damaged from the contents. If the bag was open during the flight or even during off-loading, surely some stuff would have disappeared. Since nothing was gone, this must have happened at the Bali airport.

I wrote Scoot Airlines about this. They replied that I had to

report the lost baggage to a member of the Scoot ground services team prior to leaving the airport. Baggage claims cannot be dealt with after you have left the airport.

When I responded that I did not see any member of the Scoot ground services team at the Bali airport Baggage Claim area, they said that the case was already closed. 

Of course, we had to spend a chunk of our time in Bali buying a new suitcase. At the large Matahari (!) department store, I bought a "Jack Nicklaus" bag (fake?) for about $66. It's the first bag I've had with four wheels instead of two (so it rolls alongside instead of being pulled) and with a built-in TSA combination lock for the zipper pulls.

Sloppy math

In response to a glaring error in one sentence of this op-ed, I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published):

Teicholz says, "The claims ... have been shown ... to be correct only 0% to 20% of the time." 

Fine. But she then says, "This means that 80% to 100% of the time, they're wrong."

That's completely wrong. It means they might be wrong, but they might be right, too. We can't know.

Autographs ― Édouard Louis

This young gay author from France spoke and signed books at the L.A. Central Library last night. I haven't yet finished reading this book. I also wanted to buy his first book, but they only had this one for sale. His next book, already published in France, also sounds interesting.

I was very impressed with his English. Yes, he has a French accent, but he speaks English fluently and quite rapidly, without pause. I wonder when he began learning English.

He has an unusual definition for a novel. He says the books are entirely factual, but he labels them novels because they are "constructed" and not simply linear histories.

(Index of autographs)

Amending the constitution

The Los Angeles Times recently ran an op-ed piece by Michael Kinsley. The print version was headlined "Leave the electoral college alone." I was puzzled why anyone would say that in California. I was annoyed that he didn't even say why until the very end. I sent this reply (not published):

Finally, in the last paragraph, Kinsley gives his reason to leave the electoral college alone: launching a constitutional amendment might bring on other amendments.

That's the best he can do? Abolishing the electoral college wouldn't call for a constitutional convention, just an amendment. Kinsley would have us never amend the constitution. Pretty stupid.

Fiancé visa on hold

I called back as soon as I could, August 22, to try to get a new interview date. They said they could now report (?!) our missed interview and I should call back in a few days. I called Monday, Aug. 27, while waiting for my connecting flight at the Montréal airport. I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me. I called this morning, Aug. 29, and they said to wait a few more days. They refused to say why, or exactly when, or even how many days it took the last person who got a new interview date. GRRR!

A bit later, I thought I should try the website where I first chose an interview date —  the one that earlier in the summer was simply showing our scheduled Aug. 21 interview. There was a "Continue" button, then a choice for "Missed interview," and a box to explain why. Once I submitted that, I was immediately able to select a new interview date!

On the pop-up calendar, I tried a mid-September date, but it wouldn't click. I tried several times, as well as different dates. October dates were the same. I clicked forward through November. When I got to December, there were clearly dates available. I chose one of the earliest, Dec. 18th. That worked, and we're now set for a new Juárez interview then.

I have no idea why the first available dates were so far in the future. Is it just happenstance, or seasonal, or Trump's State Dept. cuts, or ... ?

So much more needless delay. Now Victor won't be here until next year at the earliest. Sigh.

Montréal and Québec City — August 2018

Panorama of Old Montréal 

(Click the photo to view it larger.)

Group photo in Québec City

My first time visiting Montréal and Québec City. It was this Road Scholar tour. One reason I did this with a tour group was because I don't speak French!

In each city, we began with a tour by a local guide. Our overall leader and the two city guides were excellent.

The tour went well. There was a bit of rain the first full day, but I never used my umbrella. We focused mainly on Old Montréal and Old Québec City. In our free time, I visited Montréal's Gay Village one day and the Botanical Garden and Olympic Park on another day. I also made sure to try peanut butter dumplings in Montréal.

Besides the standard tourist sights, we had private concerts in each city —  an organ concert in Montréal and a chamber music concert in Québec City.

I have four sets of photos:

• Around Montréal and Québec City (6 photos; view them individually to see the captions.)
• Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (6 photos; view the photos individually to see the captions.)
• Montmorency Falls, Québec City
  (5 photos)
• Montréal Botanical Garden (9 photos)

This was my favorite painting at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts — laugh-out-loud funny. Click the photo to view it larger.

It just so happened that my cousin's daughter Lisa and two of her children were visiting Montréal at the same time! We arranged to tour the Botanical Garden together. Here I am with Lisa and Ben (Emma is taking the photo).

More stupid rules

More State Department stupidity

After waiting 8 damn weeks, the good news is that Victor was not told he has tuberculosis. (He wasn't told no, either. The silence was the message. As I've previously complained, that's stupid.) So next, we waited to hear about the new interview. Again, as I've previously complained, no one could tell us when this would come, nor whether this would come by phone or by email, nor whether it would come to me, to Victor, or to both of us. More stupidity.

New stupid rule #1: Yesterday, about ten days later, I received an email with a new interview date. (P.S. Two days later, I also received a postal letter.) Although I chose the original interview date, this time, they assigned an interview date with no input from us! How stupid! Naturally, the date is the very day I fly to Montréal for my next trip. GRRRR!

New stupid rule #2: Despite several online references to changing appointments, this assigned date can't be changed!

New stupid rule #3: If we wait until after the assigned date, we can get a new interview date. That's right, they would rather wait than do it now. GRRRR!

Because of these stupid rules, we will have to wait until late August to re-schedule the interview. It will be at least a month later, it appears. GRRRR!

The Road Scholar trip to Montréal and Québec City has multiple departure dates. I tried to switch to a later one, but it is so close to the date, I would lose 100% of what I had paid! (Not to mention change fees for air travel)

I discussed one other possibility with Victor: We go to Juárez for his morning appointment, and then I immediately leave for Montréal and Victor returns to Mérida by himself. As I expected, he didn't like that idea and prefers to wait for the later interview.

Washington, DC — June 2018

The National Museum of African-American History and Culture and the Washington Monument​

13 photos at the U.S. Botanic Garden

19 photos​ from some of the places I visited. (View each photo individually to see the captions.)

It's been more than 20 years since I was last in Washington. I wanted to visit the many new museums I had never seen.

The weather was hot and humid, but I was indoors most of the time. It rained one afternoon, but, again, I was indoors during the rain.

I'm a rapid museum-goer. I rarely spend more than a couple of hours in any museum. Here's a day-by-day rundown of what I saw:

Saturday:

• National Postal Museum — Better than expected.
• National Building Museum — Less than expected. A nice building and store.
• International Spy Museum — OK. Not much new to me. The most crowded place I visited.

Sunday:

• Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Gardens — Better than expected.
• The Phillips Collection — OK. The featured exhibit was good.
• National Geographic Museum — Less than expected. There is a small permanent exhibition in the back building, and that is free. But you don't know that when you enter at the front, where you pay for only two exhibits, one of which I was not at all interested in seeing. There are also some fine large photos in the display windows all around the front building.

Monday:

• The Freer & Sackler Galleries — A few exceptional items.
• National Museum of African Art — OK, but not much of interest to me.
• National Museum of the American Indian — Several very good exhibits, but the tribe-by-tribe layout of some parts of the museum gets to be exhausting.
• Newseum — OK, but too many parts were just about historical events, not so much about the reporting of the events. And little about the history of news organizations. Altogether, less than I expected. A huge space. 
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial — Strong.
• National WWII Memorial — Not much at all.

Tuesday:

• U.S. Botanic Garden — Small, but enjoyable.
• National Museum of African American History and Culture — Very good material. Nicely done.
• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum — A difficult layout, but the exhibits are excellent.

Bank and card fees

Responding to a column two weeks ago, I wrote this letter, published in today's Los Angeles Times:

The “Credit Card Fee Game” [May 20, Money Matters, by Catharine Hamm] made me think of two peeves of mine, one longstanding and one brand new:

— I go to Mexico several times a year. Even though Citigroup owns Banamex, I still get charged a hefty fee for getting pesos at a Banamex ATM using my Citibank ATM card. Grrr.

— My United Airlines MileagePlus Explorer Visa card has a hefty annual fee, but at least the 10,000 bonus miles I get for spending at least $25,000 per year almost completely pays for the annual fee.

However, the card company recently notified me that the 10,000 bonus miles benefit will be disappearing. Grrr.

Even though I fly United frequently and use this card as my main one, I hate fees, and I may not keep it after this year.

Rodney Hoffman

Juarez — May 2018

Giraffe in Parque Central

Link to more photos. (View them individually to see the captions.)

As discussed in the previous post, Victor and I went to Ciudad Juarez to pursue the fiancé visa, and, due to the complications I detailed there, we had to spend two extra days there, too.

We took a tourist bus tour of the city early in our stay. We went back (by regular bus and by foot) the next day to get better photos of some of the sites.

In general, we were not too impressed with Juarez. For a city of well over 1 million, ...

• It's very unfriendly to pedestrians. It's quite difficult to cross major streets due to the weird way they handle left turns. There's almost always lots of traffic.

• There are few parks.

• Other than the single giraffe and one ostrich in Parque Central, there's no zoo.

• ​There's one rather small art museum and only one other, mostly history, museum.

• The sun and heat are unrelenting; there are rarely any clouds.

• The airport insists on immigration checks coming and going, even if you're coming from and going to other cities in Mexico.

That said, there were a few good things. Parque Central was about a 40-minute walk from our hotel. Even though the walk is not very pleasant, most mornings, we walked there and then spent two to three hours walking repeatedly around the mile-long perimeter track, sometimes going through the cactus botanical garden, stopping briefly to use the exercise machines, always admiring the lake and the many ducks and geese. Curiously, there's a second half of the park that's private and almost completely empty of people.

We also learned of a few highly-recommended small restaurants. We were able to try one for burritos and one for tortas, both excellent.

Visa progess: Step 2.5

I should have known better. I thought this trip would finish everything, but I forgot that there have been unexpected complications and delays at every step. Sigh.

Victor's medical exam x-rays yesterday showed a scar / lesion in his lungs. Now he must follow additional steps to rule out tuberculosis. Just look at what that means:

• The interview next Monday is postponed until this TB check is done.
• He needs to give early morning sputum samples for three consecutive days. Since they're closed on weekends, that means it couldn't start today, Thursday. Instead, it will be next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
• Our non-refundable flight back to Mérida was for next Tuesday. Now we have canceled that and bought new tickets for next Thursday. We have also extended our hotel stay for two more nights.
• The cultures from the sputum smears take 8 weeks to complete! We will find out the results around July 12th.
• Either immediately after that, or after treatment if he has TB, we will have to make another trip to exciting (* sarcasm *) Juarez for the postponed interview.

So, instead of this trip being the third and final step in the fiancé visa process, it turns out to be Step 2.5. The medical exam itself is complete, but the final interview is postponed. Even if everything now goes as well as it can, Victor won't be in the U.S. until late summer at the earliest. As I said above: Sigh!

My math publication

My only mathematics "publication"

In 1984, The Mathematical Intelligencer magazine asked for pithy definitions of applied and pure mathematicians. A definition just came to me, I got an honorable mention for it, and it was printed in the magazine, as you can see in the lower right above:

   An applied mathematician loves the theorem.
   A pure mathematician loves the proof.

I still like this a lot.

Autographs ― Walter Mosley

I have not yet read any of Mosley's books. I decided to attend his talk at this past weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I knew they would have his newest book for sale, but I wanted to start with one of his earliest, so I bought this one the night before at Vroman's.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs ― Lawrence Wright

I have always enjoyed Wright's work in The New Yorker, and our book group discussed The Looming Tower back in 2006.

Until I read about this new book, I didn't know he lived in Austin. I went to hear him at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this past weekend, and I bought this book. When I was getting his autograph, I told him I had been born and raised in San Antonio, went to Rice, then came to USC for grad school.

(Index of autographs)

An apparently religious boy

Chip Levine Memorial Award (CLMA) 

Rodney Hoffman

for Devotion to Jewish Studies, 1964

To all appearances, I was quite a religious boy. I'll say why, and then talk about what happened.

We didn't go to services every week, but we did go on major holidays and some other occasions. 

I started kindergarten at the synagogue, learning to read before I entered first grade. 

I went to Sunday School through confirmation at age 16. I won the Jewish Community Center's Bible Bowl (named and modeled after TV's College Bowl). 

I went to Hebrew School twice a week. Almost everyone stopped going to Hebrew School after Bar Mitzvah, but because my Bar Mitzvah was in October, and I had already begun the new academic year, I finished out that year, almost a full extra year of Hebrew School. Because of that, in May, I won the gold watch pictured above. 

I was in SAFTY, the San Antonio chapter of the the North American Federation of Temple Youth, and went to SAFTY and TOFTY (Texas) events. I won one of the Temple's four camperships to NFTY's Hagigah, a two-week arts camp in Warwick, NY. 

In college, I went to quite a few Hillel events. In grad school, I still went to a few.

But starting years earlier, I found the number of religions, each claiming The Revealed Truth, baffling and impossible and the very idea of God dubious. Conflicts between religion and science, historical and current, pushed me away from religion. Coming to terms with being gay was the final breaking point.

I have now been an atheist for decades. My hatred of religion has only grown over the years. I think raising children to be religious is child abuse. (See all my blog posts tagged 'religion.')

I reluctantly attend religious weddings and funerals, but otherwise I don't even step into churches, temples, or cathedrals. I respond negatively to anyone pushing their religion in my face, including fish on cars and crosses on homes, saying, if only silently, "Keep it to yourself!"