Open Letter to Any Politician Who Will Listen

To [Politition]:


I am a citizen of the United States of America, and I reside in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Over the past couple of days, our president has increased his attacks on our governor and our businesses and their executives.

In his press conference on March 27, 2020 he said:
"I say Mike (Pence), don't call the governor of Washington; you're wasting your time with him. Don't call the woman in Michigan," Trump said. "It doesn't make any difference. You know what I say? If they don't treat you right, don't call."

In a tweet from 10:29 PM · Mar 27, 2020, He said this:
"I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA"

In another tweet from 11:16 AM · Mar 27, 2020, He said this:
"As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”."

On March 27 the president enacted the Defense Production Act and targeted toward General Motors:
"Today, I signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators. Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course. GM was wasting time. Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives."

I have a few concerns about how this is playing out and how my state is being treated. If my understanding is correct, GM now has to prioritize and produce ventilators that will go to the federal government for distribution. If this is incorrect, please let me know. If our president is only providing assistance to states whos governors show the appropriate level of appreciation and the VP has been ordered to not talk to our governor, then the citizens of Michigan are effectively making resources that are desperately needed in our state, but we won't have access to. I can't even begin to wrap my head around how insane this is.

I have worked for manufacturing companies my entire adult life, and Mr. Trump's criticisms seem totally unfounded to me. GM doesn't make ventilators, they make automobiles. Furthermore, they don't really make the automobile, they assemble them. Yes, they manufacture some of the components, but the majority come from outside suppliers. To convert an assembly line to build a totally different product and set up a supply chain is a huge undertaking. The fact that they are promising 6000 ventilators at the end of April is nothing short of amazing. Mary Bara should be congratulated for that level of effort. Of course, Mr. Trump has never run a business that actually produced anything, so he is not a reliable expert in how manufacturing works. It would be nice if he would listen to the experts in the field and stop attacking people who are doing their job.

I am not seeing any leadership coming out of Washington. Between the bickering, infighting, and name-calling, it is like watching a bunch of fourth graders playing on a playground where the biggest bully has commandeered all the equipment. In a national emergency like this, the number one job of the leadership is to put partisanship aside and remind Americans that we are all in this together. Attacks and namecalling only create division and distract from the work that needs to be done.

I was not a fan of George W Bush, but on the evening of 9/11/2001, he gave a speech asking the American people to come together and unite to get through the tragedy. It was one of the best speeches I have ever heard from a president. We treated the first responders as heroes, and we loved our neighbors because they were Americans before they were republicans or democrats. We came together as a country. That is what we need from our leadership now. Lead by example, follow the guidelines and give people a reason to come together. That's your job.

I am a firm believer in not complaining about something without being able to propose a solution. This situation is so irrational that I can't begin to think of a way to resolve it. The problem isn't a partisan issue or a fiscal issue. It is all about egos. Thousands of people could die because of one person not showing enough appreciation to another. Is that really where this country has devolved?

I am not sure what options Michigan has. If Washington is controlling the distribution of emergency supplies, we are in trouble. Can the governer send the state police to GM and confiscate the ventilators when they are produced? I would support that, but then we have the same problem with other states not getting the resources they need, so that isn't an acceptable solution either. We need leaders to come up with rational solutions, and balance distribution based on need, not appreciation level.

I really hope someone responds and tells me that the press briefings and tweets are just there for the ratings of this reality show we call America, and in the background, there are people doing some real governing and looking out for the lives of all Americans.


Looking forward to your response,


Jim Karnopp
President
Kartech LLC

Don't forget the units.

Remember in school science classes how they beat into you how important units are? Like you cant add inches and centimeters together, you have to convert one of them to the other first. I ran into this issue in a couple of ways this morning. I got up this morning ready to work my first official day from home, and when I looked in the mirror, I was a little frustrated that I didn't get a haircut before the ban on barbershops being open. I was already easily a month overdue for a haircut, and going another month didn't sound very appealing.

I figured with all the social distancing, I'm not going to see anyone in a professional environment for at least month, so what the hell I'll just trim it myself. Usually, when I go to the barbers, I tell them to do a four around the sides and back and then as short as possible on top without it sticking up. I figured I would take my trimmers and set them to 6, and just do everything the same. It will grow out in time anyway, right? Now, remember my comment about units? I am not sure what a number 4 is in the haircutting world, but one thing I can guarantee you now is that it is not millimeters.

In my own defense, this was first thing in the morning, and I hadn't had a cup of coffee yet, so rational thought was not part of the equation. A couple of simple estimations in my head would have helped me prevent the subsequent error. I mean 6mm is just a little over half a centimeter, and a centimeter is a little less than half an inch right? In other words, 6mm is really fucking short.

So I took my beard trimmer set at 6mm and again not thinking clearly I didn't try doing a small test, no I do a full swipe up the side of my head. The really funny thing is that I was looking in the mirror, so when I say, you should have seen the look on my face, that's because I was able to see it quite clearly at this point. All of a sudden I was wide awake, and all the calculations and conversions I have mentioned flooded my brain in parallel. Of course, once you have a big stripe of almost bald head staring at you in the mirror, you realize that you are totally committed. I proceeded to trim the rest of my head down to match.

Now vanity isn't really my thing. I know nothing of fashion or style, and I am definitely not a sexy man, but I am kind of glad that I will be working from home for a while. When Forrest came home from work he kind of looked at me funny and asked if I got a haircut, when I started to explain, he couldn't even let me finish before he started laughing uncontrollably for what I think was just a little too long. I think he almost died from lack of oxygen. Then he pulled out his camera and started taking pictures, It turns out, it looks worse in the back which makes sense since I can see that side at all.

I definitely won't have to worry about a haircut for a while, and it is probably better to screw it up now than right before going back to work.

Goodbye to My Dad

I just realized that I hadn't posted this here and that it was only on Facebook, so I am reposting this, so it will be saved with my other life posts.

Goodbye to my dad:
Bruce Harvey Karnopp
June 13, 1938 - Jan 1, 2017

When I was really young, I thought my dad was the most amazing man in the world. When kids would compare their dads to mine and say their dad was better than my dad, I knew they were wrong. My dad was a teacher, a doctor, and an engineer. In my young mind I thought it was so cool when he left for work in the morning I imagined him driving a train to work, teaching kids math, and then going to his doctor's office to heal people. As I got older I learned the difference between a PhD and an MD, and that he wasn't the type of engineer who drives a train. I was a little disappointed that I would never get to ride in the front of the train with him, but it didn't change my opinion of him.

As I got older and started working in the tech field, I realized just how cool it was to have a father that went to MIT. In the U.S. MIT is the engineering school mecca, and I was really proud to have a father that went there. My dad didn't really like being an engineer. He worked for a couple of companies as an engineer, but it really wasn't what he wanted. He loved teaching, and he was very comfortable in academia. In actuality, he was more fascinated in the math of engineering than the design aspects.

My brother and I were born in Canada while my dad was teaching at the University of Toronto. My brother John was born with Downs Syndrome, so when my dad was looking for a new job, the University of Michigan was one of his top choices. Washtenaw County had plans to build a new school for special needs kids, so we moved to Ann Arbor right around 1970. My sister was born right after we moved here, and my brother did end up going to High Point School as soon as it opened. My dad remained in Ann Arbor as a professor of mechanical engineering at U of M for his entire career.

My dad really had two great loves in his life, his family and teaching. I wouldn't say that my father was the best father in the world, but he wasn't a bad father by any means. He loved his family more than anything, and his faults were because he loved us so much. As an example, when I was young, my dad bought a couple of gloves and a softball. He took me to a park and he tried to teach me to play catch. At one point the ball hit me in the mouth and I got a bloody lip and cried. My dad felt so bad about hurting me, we never played ball again. My dad and I both learned from this experience, and I can say he was an awesome grandfather as a result. When my daughter Sarah first started calling him grandpa, he was a little reluctant, but he warmed to it pretty quickly. He played a lot with my kids especially my son, and really tried to do things differently with them.

He and my mom were together until his death which is a pretty big deal these days. My dad always referred to my mom as his "Wonder Wife" and loved her with all his heart. He had nicknames for all of the kids. My brother was Turnip, and my sister was Itsy which was short for Itsy Bitsy Baby. My nickname was Bumble which came from a Sesame Street Cartoon. I recently found the segment on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiQ49q7Ivd8, and played it for my girlfriend. It was about a little boy named bumble who turned 9 and invited 9 swine to dine on wine while the mother was away. They destroyed the house and when the mother came home she kicked them all out, but let bumble come back in because she still loved him. It is funny how symbolic that nickname was with my relationship with my parents.

My dad's love of teaching made him very happy in his career. There was always a lot of politics at the U of M, and it didn't sound like a job I would enjoy, but my dad loved it. He really enjoyed teaching, and all of the students I ever met would tell me that he was their favorite professor. He has remained friends with so many students over the years, and he kept in contact with them well beyond when his dementia took hold. A number of students contacted my mom because my dad had stopped responding to them, and they were worried something was wrong. I can't begin to count the number of times students have told me that my dad saved their academic career in engineering. He touched so many lives and received a number of awards for his teaching.

In 1974 my dad published a book called "Introduction to Dynamics" which he used in his class at the university. He dedicated this book to my brother and me which shows how much we meant to him at that young age. On page 189 there is a problem with a boy pulling a wagon with squash and pipe in it. The illustration for the wagon says "Turtle Enterprises LTD, JDK Prop." The problem was based on a time when I went through the neighborhood selling pipe that I found in the woods and squash that we had grown in our vegetable garden. Whenever my dad an I would build something together, we would brand it with "Turtle Enterprises" our fictitious company and often use "Bozobuilt" a division of Turtle Enterprises as well. We enjoyed building small projects together.

My dad's biggest hobby was photography. He also enjoyed swimming, and he did some cycling when he was younger. He continued doing photography in black and white even after the digital revolution pretty much wiped out film. He would order film from New York and develop landscapes in his basement darkroom. He loved the classic cameras and collected old 4x5 and 6x9 cameras. I think he really loved the mechanics of them and they didn't just sit on a shelf, he took them out and used them. He loved taking the same picture dozens of different ways from bracketing the exposure to using different films. In his later pictures, he really loved using infrared film on wooded landscapes. My dad and I would often debate the merits of film and digital. He did eventually buy a digital camera, but he hardly used it. He preferred to pack up pound upon pound of equipment on his cart and head off to take pictures. One of his favorite spots to take pictures was in northern Michigan near his cottage on Lake Huron.

When I got settled into my career as an IT Architect, my dad and I would talk about cycling, swimming, computers, and photography all the time. We emailed each other almost daily throughout my adult life. When my dad came down with Alzheimer's, It started out slowly with little behavior changes, but as it progressed, he would forget who I was and think I was his brother and that my mom was his mother. It was hard because he would have good days where he knew me and bad days where he wouldn't. Eventually, my mom had to take his computer away, and it was then that I realized how much we communicated via email and how that connected me to my dad and the rest of the family. Eventually, he had to be put into a home because he kept wandering and it was really dangerous. It was extremely difficult to watch my dad's brain dwindle away. So much of what defined him was in his intellect.

When my dad was moved to the Nursing home, my brother and my son were so amazing with him. My dad had taken care of John his entire life, but now John was taking on more of a caregiver role and helping him in any way he could. Forrest would do the same. He would stop by and make sure his bathroom supplies were stocked, talk to the nurses and hang out with my dad. We had several holidays and birthdays there, but every time he deteriorated further. His sentences got shorter and shorter until finally, the most we could get was yes and no answers.

I remember one time visiting my dad at the nursing home, and when we got to the floor, we were told that he was at Church. I was astonished because my dad had always been an ardent atheist. He would never be caught dead in a church. We waited in the common area, and they rolled my dad back in his wheelchair, and in his lap was a bag of chocolate bars. Everything made sense at this moment. My dad could care less what kind of religion you are peddling, but if sitting through it meant he could get some chocolate, well that's okay. He was smiling while eating his chocolate bars.

When my dad was in the nursing home, he was 5 miles away from my house, but I didn't visit him very often. I meant to and tried a number of times. I would ride my bike to his building then ride along the back where I could see his window, but I couldn't make it inside. I could do it if Forrest were there, but I just couldn't do it alone. I loved my dad, and it tore my heart out to see how far he declined. There were so many times I would ride my bike home feeling so guilty for not having the courage to walk through those doors.

On Christmas of 2014, we hired a transport company to bring my father to my house for Christmas. It was a great day. My dad knew who I was, and was really responsive. He enjoyed having a nice meal with the family, and everything was as good as it could be. We talked about doing the same thing for barbecues when it got warmer, but his health and mobility took a downward turn soon after that Christmas and I never saw him out of a nursing home again. The following Thanksgiving, my mom packed up my dad and brother and moved to a home in Florida where they could be closer to my sister. Forrest and I remained in Michigan.

This Thanksgiving Forrest and I visited my family in Florida and went on a cruise. We scheduled time before and after the cruise to see my dad. The first time we saw him, he wasn't in very good spirits and seemed really agitated. When we came back and saw him again, he seemed really happy to see us. He could no longer speak, but he smiled and held my hand. I really felt he knew who Forrest and I were and was happy to see us. This was the last time I would ever see my dad. A little over a month later he died on January 1st, 2017.

My dad was a wonderful man. I have really missed him since dementia took away his ability to communicate. I really loved our daily emails hearing about his swimming accomplishments, his photography, and how the rest of the family was doing. I was never close to any of my extended family. I saw grandparents every couple of years, and uncles, aunts, and cousins once a decade or so, so I have never felt the pain of losing a loved one. As much as I knew this was going to happen, and knowing it really was time for him to be released from this horrible disease, it is still really hard to imagine that I will never get the opportunity to talk to him again.

My dad had what they believed to be a stroke days before Christmas, and he stopped eating and being able to swallow. After 12 days of not being able to eat or drink, my dad died on New Years Day, 2017.

My dad had no religious beliefs, and I inherited that from him as well. It is unfortunate that I don't believe that he is in a better place and that we will be reunited someday, but my brain isn't wired that way. Alzheimer's ate away at his life for years, and he died with very little pain, so I can say he is no longer being ravaged by this horrible disease which is better. I will never see him again, but he will live on in my memories and the memories of my children. I wanted to write this down as a way to remember him and give a brief synopsis of how I viewed our lives together. There is so much more I could write, but for now, I am just going to say goodbye to the father I loved for almost 50 years of my life.

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak's rhyming story about Bumble's 9th birthday. For more fun games and videos for your preschooler in a safe, child-friend...

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Sesame Street: Bumble-Ardy

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak's rhyming story about Bumble's 9th birthday. For more fun games and videos for your preschooler in a safe, child-friend...

Hiking Life

It is curious how ironic life can be. When I started dating my last girlfriend, I was really active. I did a lot of bicycling, kayaking, and traveling, but I didn't really do any hiking. I have deformed bones in my left foot that make long walks and hiking very painful. The only outdoor hobby she had was hiking, so I invested in hiking boots and backpacks, so I could hike with her. We went on a couple of hikes at the beginning of our relationship and then never went again. It turned out it really wasn't a serious hobby of hers. After she dumped me last year, I decided to pull the hiking boots out and give it another try.

I joined several groups through meetup.com and started doing regular hikes on the weekends. Most of the hikes are between 4 and 6 miles, and some of them are in pretty challenging areas with a lot of hills. As the winter hit, I had to get some cleats to go over my hiking boots and as it got colder, I had to get some additional base layers. The funny thing is as the weather got worse, I started enjoying the hikes more and more. The main group I hike with is the Sierra Club which a large national group that does environmental preservation and activities designed to get people out in nature. They lobby for preservation and environmental issues.

The nice thing about going on difficult hikes in cold snowy weather is that the people you are hiking with are serious about being outdoors. These are the people I want to hang out with. They are a lot more interesting to talk to than people I have met in other "social" groups. The hikes are more than just exercise, I have learned a lot about the glacial geology of the area, the different plants, and trees, what is native and what is invasive. There is often some piece of history about an area of a hike.

Even with regular hiking, the pain in my foot hasn't improved. I think I am able to recover from it better, so the next morning I am not hobbling around anymore, but it can be very painful after the hike when I finally sit down. It is totally worth it though. I love getting up and getting out of the house every weekend. I feel a great sense of accomplishment, and I have made some good acquaintances. I really hope this is an activity that I can keep doing until the day I die. 

Damn Dog Ate the Cheesecake

Now that Forrest and John are both type one diabetics, I have been trying to find recipes for sweet treats for our Monday night dinners together. I have always hated baking, so this has been challenging, but I have come up with some real winners, and it makes them very happy. This past weekend I decided to try to make a couple of cheesecakes, one peanut butter, and one chocolate. 

I had two recipes. The peanut butter one was a 7" cheesecake that could be made in the instant pot. I had to modify it to make it low carb by changing out the crust with an almond flour crust and substituting a monk fruit sweetener for in place of sugar. The second chocolate cheesecake was cooked in the oven and was a low carb recipe already. I prepared both of the crusts at the same time and then proceeded to the peanut butter filling. As the peanut butter cheesecake was cooking in the instant pot, I made the chocolate filling and began cooking it in the oven. Once the cheesecakes were done cooking, I had to put them on a wire rack to cool to room temperature before chilling them in the refrigerator. I put the cheesecakes on the counter and then went into my office to work on some servers for work. 

As I was working in my office I heard a noise come from the kitchen and ran out to see what happened. My 150 lb Great Dane / Mastiff went bolting by me and started cowering at the back door. I looked at my cheesecakes on the counter and saw they have been pushed off the cooling rack, and a bite had been taken out of each one. I was furious. I had worked on afternoon on these, and the dog seemed to know that he was in trouble. I put the dog outside and examined the damage. I decided I could cut out the bitten area and save a little over half of each cake. I scooped out the dog drool cheese filling and put it in a bowl and set it next to the sink where I normally stack dirty dishes. Then I wrapped the remaining cheesecake and put it in the basement fridge. 

At this point, I thought it was a good idea to go upstairs and do a spin class to work off some of the calories from sampling various iterations of the cheesecake making. While I was doing my workout, my son and his girlfriend came home. Forrest said hi to me and told me they were going out for the evening. I finished my class and got ready to go out with some meetup friends. When I finally made it downstairs I noticed the bowl by the sink was almost gone. I thought maybe the dogs had gotten it, but the invisible fence field protected that portion of the counter. I started chuckling thinking Forrest probably thought it was extra filling from the cooking process and he probably ate it. Then I wondered if he had shared with his girlfriend. 

I went to my meetup event, and after a couple of beers, I relayed the story to my companions. I was not the only one who found humor in the situation. One woman told me that was the best story she had heard all day. She said I would have to let her know when I found out if my son had eaten the filling and more importantly if he had shared with his girlfriend.  

The next evening I finally saw my son again, and I was talking about making the cheesecake and how good I thought the filling turned out. He nodded with a big smile on his face and said he thought the filling was good too. I said oh, you tried the extra that was in the fridge. He just sorts of agreed, then I told him about the dogs getting into it and having to scoop out the drool. It was really fun watching it dawn on him that the bowl of filling that he ate has been the dog drool remnants. He just looked at me and asked why I would just leave the bowl sitting on the counter. I told him I had been more worried about saving the remaining cheesecake and didn't get back to it. Forrest burst out laughing and said that was hilarious. We had a good long laugh about it.  

Forrest stopped laughing and said with an almost serious expression on his face, "Becky can never hear of this". I asked, "What, did you share it with her?". He said of course he did, then we both broke out laughing again.