Wednesday 20 June 2001

Pic of the day: The rivers keep running to the sea, but the sea never grows full, nor the rivers empty.

Rains and brains

It has been raining much of the day, and this evening I have had recurring but moderate chest pains on the famous left side. The two things are almost certainly connected. Then again, aren't all things?

Despite being just the right age, I don't really think the brief jabs of pain are a sign of heart problems. It is little more than a year ago that I was thoroughly checked at the local hospital. They claimed I had a heart like an athlete. I sincerely believe and hope, on behalf of the athletes, that this was an exaggeration. It would be kind of sad if sweating for hours a day in physical exertion should have no more effect than walking to the bus and taking the stairs at work.

It is more likely that my digestion is subtly acting up on me. It is certainly not in the best of moods generally. I suppose the Big Mac hamburger did not exactly help. But that is where the rains come in. No rain, no hamburger. Let me explain.

***

Kristiansand has only one brand name burger outlet, to the best of my knowledge: The McDonalds family restaurant. There are also a few tiny "street kitchens" as the Norwegian designation so fittingly describes them. Often run by immigrants, they are basically fast food kiosks. In winter, this is enough to satisfy the resident population and the students, most of the time. But in the summer, lots of tourists arrive. And they want fast food too. Not least McDonalds burgers. (McDonalds has a very strong position in Norway, though I personally prefer Burger King. Both of them adhere to very strict quality guidelines here, and have reasonably competent workers. I hear this is not so everywhere.)

Now the tourists are mostly other Norwegians, come to the south coast for the warm and sunny climate. So when the rains come out, the tourists don't. This is why, after a month or so of dry weather, I could get myself a burger again. Only a few young people were out in the downpour.

But since I had fairly recently eaten breakfast, a Big Mac and shakes was perhaps a bit much. Also remember that I usually eat very little meat and fat. So I don't hold it against my digestion if it complains. Still, I would probably sleep easier if it had found a more unique way of expressing its disquietude. This is the part of life where stressed programmers suddenly have a heart attack and die. Then again, stressed programmers smoke like chimneys and live mostly on caffeine.

***

One of the nice things about living some decades, is that you notice small patterns like this: Tourists staying indoors on the first day of rain, families filling their shopping carts on Fridays, shops with many black and brown customers being overall the cheapest. I'm sure I have mentioned this before. Today it was in the news again that this chain of low-price stores (REMA 1000) were cheaper than others. They need not have told me. I just follow the immigrants. They know where they can save money. Whether it is because they need it more than others, or because they have more free time to study such things, I cannot say. I just notice the pattern.

I think the current theories of evolution fail severely. Why? Because they cannot truly explain aging, the decay of the body. The body maintains itself quite well for a long time, and then it starts to slide. But if it did not, then new generations would be hard pressed to compete with the old. The longer we live, the more we learn. Where we once only saw a wilderness of details, we see patterns emerge. We become better and better adapted at life. And then we die.

But hopefully not for a while yet. Not that I can promise anything, but I certainly don't plan to do anything to hasten my demise. Except for the occasional burger and such.