A new high

Last night in my rush to get the cats wet food treated and locked inside for the night so I could make it to Toastmasters, was the night that Napoleon decided to climb up on the roof. Since the allure of his treat food was so great, he did eventually find his own way down before I could get out the ladder and I did make it to my meeting on time.

I was quite surprised, both by the delay, which caused me to go looking in the first place, and by where I saw him. I didn't see him go up or down so can only imagine where he might have done so. I have seen Humphrey climb the willow tree and get every bit as high as the roof. I was just glad that he did either remember where he went up and used that path back down or forged a new trail down in time. Unlike a tree, there should be very little traction for his claws, at least I hope there isn't especially hoping he didn't make some.

I got up this morning and got busy outside with watering and fertilizing the potted plants, and the in ground fuchsias. This is what allowed me to learn that the piercing smoke detector battery low sound that caused me to replace batteries was actually a bird. With daylight savings time now being most of the year, I no longer have a good six month rule of thumb replacement date and wasn't smart enough to label or record my last replacement.

I've been doing a lot of thinking on a particular bit of wisdom that I got from a Peach Oo-la-long Honest Tea cap. I don't drink it all the time for two reasons: every once in a while I stop drinking caffeine, and at $1.69 at the local store it is expensive. However, I do enjoy the tea and the caps. In fact, I have a collection of them.

This particular thought provoking cap says: "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I still like quotes, particularly those from caps, based on the quote itself not the names of the sources. After using a quote in one of my justifications at work for the words, my supervisor at the time looked up the source and advised me that the source no longer had any credibility and would not advance my purpose. So now, I do look up the source and use the quotes anyway.

Antoine was the third of five children born in 1900 to a French provincial noble family. He was an author, commercial pilot, and a WWII pilot for the Free French. He died in 1944 on a flight to collect information on German troop movements in preparation for the Allied invasion. More details are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exupéry.

But it is really the words. For most of my life I have been adding things that now I realize limit what I can be and do. More, it seems that everything I want to do requires the addition of something else to enable it. I have a storage shed and a garage full of stuff that I rarely, if ever, use. (Although some of the stuff in the garage I would like to "take away.") When is it enough? Why can't it be now?

A lot to post, but not tonight...

Blisters and all my youngest daughter and her husband have made it to my oldest daughter's and her husband's place in Pasadena. The lack of the Spot "OK" message the last two nights had to do with the terrain, trees, and inability for the Spot to find the satellites. They are going to spend at least one zero day, i.e., no walking, there and may be buying more shoes. As much as they are spending on shoes, they may need more money than planned to complete the trip. I suggested that they press the Spot "OK" button every day, even the days they are staying at their RR&S.

Yesterday I moved one step closer to my cross-country motorcycle ride by getting my motorcycle serviced. It sounds great again and rides very smoothly with a new rear tire. I also got a new jacket. Not only is my leather jacket too big, it isn't really suited for summer weather riding. Indeed, with the wind blowing up the sleeves, it wasn't all that suited for less warm riding either, especially with the zipper problem with the lining. My new jacket has multiple vents including scoop features along both upper arms and shoulders. It is also very adjustable. Wind will only be getting in where and when I want it to.

As far as the rest of this post, there won't be one. However, I do have a lot of Honest Tea bottle caps that I want to share in some future post. As Ambrose Bierce has said, I like their "predigested wisdom." I also have a couple Toastmaster speeches I've given without posting and my opening remarks from the time I was Toastmaster, basically the emcee of the meeting. I also have a couple more twoems, which I tweet into Twitter via a text message from my cell phone.

More Olio

Again, it's not grease or a misspelled cookie.

I had lunch with a person I knew from Amdahl, over 20 years ago. She is planning on going to Guatemala this summer with her significant other to work with people who are HIV infected. We spent about three hours catching up and never did go for the walk she was ready for with a spare set of walking shoes in her car and I wasn't. I had on my polished pair of Florsheim's with the leather soles, not even my concrete ready Ecco Shoes with the rubber soles. Her mother and mother's husband are traveling to Mongolia. (He is eighty.) Her daughter is doing a business project on sustainable farming for her senior project.

Of course, I talked about my children and my own plans to ride my motorcycle and RV to Alaska. She may have a networking contact for my son, the son of her Godmother, a contractor in Marin.

The cats have been needy this morning for some reason. I think it is a combination of a cool outdoors, the diet my daughter insists that I put them on, and the fact that I am sitting down at my computer trying to get something done, this blog posting. I have taken a few more pictures of them but I'll only include one of them here. Napoleon is literally on the fence. At least this doesn't look like a snake hunting position.

It's graduation season. I finally broke down and bought a card. I almost bought a packet of them as I imagine I'll receive a few more announcements before it is over. But then, who do I know that is graduating?

I went out for a latte again today. It's a ritual that I will soon stop, not only because I will be traveling but also because I won't feel nearly so rich. My severance package ends in another month. While out for the latte, I did the puzzles in the paper, including the two crossword puzzles. While I was able to get them all without cheating, the Chronicle has the solutions in the same paper, I wasn't able to do just the downs like I had done on the two previous days. Either the puzzles became sufficiently more difficult or I became sufficiently denser. I do them in ink because, if I make enough mistakes, I stop doing them. It's far better than erasing. I do them primarily as a mental exercise anyway.

My youngest daughter and her husband ended up after a whole day of walking yesterday in a position west and a little bit south of where they were the night before. According to the Google map, they must have walked even further to the south to get around Silverwood Lake. I guess they could have taken a boat across. I can't wait to read about it in their journal (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=9044) when this day's entry is posted. I can only imagine what they think about going away from their much further north destination. It is really dramatic when you see all of their Spot locations on the same Google map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114519601591229133288.00046988bde89eb7ea868&ll=33.408517,-116.559448&spn=2.842849,3.878174&z=8. I believe they are walking on some ridge line in the San Gabriel Mountains and will until they are picked up for a day's RR&S by my oldest daughter and her husband who live in Pasadena. (Rest, Recuperation, and Stuffing.)

I've completed Unit 1 of my 16 lesson Conversational Spanish. Since it doesn't have any written accompaniment, I won't attempt to write the words that I may have learned although rightly or wrongly I was visualizing them as I was saying them.

Well, I'm headed back to the written and mental list of things I must get done before I have guests, and an even longer list before I can leave on my motorcycle ride.

"Walking" Errands

It had been some time since I had gone hiking so I decided to walk to the three places I had to go to for my errands. They were more or less in a shortest distance to each other without any long side trips. The only real problem was that most of the walking was along what turned out to be a much busier street than I thought would be the case mid-morning on a Friday and some of the cars and pickup trucks were polluters.

I did get all my "errands," well at least the ones I'd planned, done. I mailed my absentee ballot. I returned a DVD that wasn't late even though I forgot to return it yesterday when I drove to the Toastmasters meeting. I got a couple extra house keys made. (I only needed one but now have one that I can hide outside to let unplanned guests without keys get in. Or, I could do what I currently do, which is leave a door unlocked. I think that my son and daughter-in-law may want the doors locked more, particularly after December 4th, the due date for my first grandchild.) And I walked over seven miles.

On the way home I passed a church sign that said, "Only pray on days that end in y." Perversely, I remembered more of my high school French than I had in years: Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, ... Further and perhaps deeper thoughts had me wondering what I would pray for. With free will, I don't see myself praying to change someone else. I certainly don't see myself praying for myself for any material gain or even my own health. Those sentiments seem selfish.

However, if blessings and good wishes are a form of prayer, I am doing that every day. While I certainly am thinking of these blessings and good wishes for people I know who may have needs, I am also doing my utmost to think such thoughts for those I pass and encounter who show signs of stress and thoughtlessness. I'm also making it a point to smile, if I should be so fortunate to catch their eyes. It is amazing how many people go out of their way not to look at those around them. Other than my stop in Starbucks and a few dog walkers, I didn't pass that many people while I was on my walk. It was about 50/50 for any semblance of friendliness in those with whom I did make eye contact. This hike had a much higher ratio of both eye contact and friendliness than my previous walk along the Crystal Springs Reservoir trail over a week ago.

While I'm currently only scheduled for one more speech before I have to start out on my cross country trip to make it to West Virginia in time to travel to Alaska with my parents, I have three more to give to finish out the first book and attain some Toastmaster rank. Since I'm going to be gone one of the four meetings that are left before I travel, I don't see how I will get them in. I wouldn't have even thought of it, if the outgoing president hadn't asked. I guess being able to report member advancement is a feather in his cap. At least I already have this next one prepared.

As I have discovered, I normally think a lot on my walks, particularly when I forget to carry one of my iPods. Now that I have 16 conversational Spanish lessons on the nano, I should have been able to complete at least three lessons on my walk today. In lieu of listening and learning, I thought of a couple more speech ideas. One was triggered by a speech last night on "Speaking Up." It also has a little Stephen Colbert in it. The first idea was, "I can speak on anything and so can you." For this idea I couldn't help but think of Howard Cosell who was reported to be able to speak for an hour on any topic and four hours if he knew anything about it. Surely I can make it into the five to seven minute range, even speaking about being able to speak on anything. The second idea was triggered by a number of quasi-related things: the economy, a Tonight Show Katie Couric interview where she was talking about a gold seller in Saudi Arabia that just tied the flap of his booth shut and went to lunch, my getting keys for a door that I rarely lock, ... In this idea I want to just barely scratch the surface of nature vs. nurture, as in why do we ascribe selfish grabbing of more than a persons fair share to human nature. Indeed, why do we almost to a person make decisions that only affect the size of our piece of the pie rather than the size of the pie?

More Cat Tales

I am inspired to write this entry because of Humphrey, one of two of my daughter's cat that I am sitting while she is through hiking the PCT with her husband. (See her hiking in the wind on the PCT somewhere in Southern California at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Ieuw-Tgl8.) The most recent "cat tale" has to do with actions that are taking place as I write.

I am Toastmaster in tomorrow night's meeting. As a result, I needed to print out the program. Humphrey is really intrigued by the printer that automatically prints out toys, anything that moves on its own. I can now truly understand the excuse that the pet destroyed homework. I have kept Humphrey from destroying my double-sided program. However, on his way to the side of the desk to view the printer, he walked over my keyboard and pressed the "play" function key. I didn't even know it existed. Anyway, I am now listening to music.

The other day Napoleon, the other of the two cats, brought in a snake. His mewing was close to crowing. This time I didn't delay but grabbed it right up and tossed it over the fence into the neighbors yard. I guess I didn't make enough of a big deal about his hunting prowess because he went right back out and caught another one. At least this time I knew what all the caterwauling was about. (I know it wasn't really caterwauling because both of them have been "fixed.") However, this time I spent a little time praising him before I threw this snake across the fence. Either he ran out of snakes or the praise was enough to stop his hunting show.

Neither cat has caught a bird that I know of. I think the snakes just move slower in Pacifica's temperature. I did see Humphrey up on the birdbath with no bird around. I do see some birds using it but not nearly the numbers I saw before the resident cats.

Both of them kind of sneak out as they act like they are creeping up on some prey. Every once in a while, one or both will literally sprint to the cat door. I've never seen the cause. While I was buzzed by some bird at the local mall parking lot, I've never been buzzed at my house. I have seen some neighbor cat in the yard sporadically. Maybe that is the scoot for the door trigger.

Last night Napoleon was a little slow coming in for his wet food treat. He finally responded to the bicycle bell. When I first saw him he was up on top of the gate that I cut a cat hole in. I don't think I've ever seen them use it. This time Napoleon definitely wasn't using it.

Both of them do like to go in, and out, any door that I open. They have it timed perfectly, taking the maximum amount of time that I will wait for them to actually go through the open door and it varies. If there is a substantial temperature difference between indoor and outdoor, the time is shorter but they still manage to use the maximum. It's a control thing.

My printing is done. I still have my Toastmaster remarks to prepare before I call it a night. My theme is "And I Quote." I've selected a few quotes to make my point from http://www.brainyquotes.com/ and have put a couple that seemed to have something to say on speaking, such as: "Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret." - Ambrose Bierce; and "The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause." - Mark Twain.

Olio / Hodgepodge / A Mixture

Most of my postings are a mix of things, but this one is likely to be such a mixture that nothing stands out as a possible title, hence the title.

I was concerned that my Macbook was fried this morning when I couldn't get the screen to light up. I had left it open and the larger cat of the two, Humphrey, was laying on the keyboard while I was taking care of stripping the beds for a day of laundry. Since I am typing this after the fact, you already know that it wasn't but it was definitely warm and I had to power it off before I could reboot it and see that indeed it was truly working.

The load of laundry I started, I started without detergent. (I must not do enough laundry to forget such a critical component.) I did put in the scoop of Oxy Clean and set it up for presoak. While they weren't all that soiled being primarily the sheets off of the guest bed, I am rewashing the load with detergent but this time without the Oxy Clean and presoak. What with sheets, towels, and regular laundry, I have at least two more loads to do. I don't mind the washing nearly as much as the folding. Now with the two cats, it is difficult to find a cat hair free surface to do it on. Thank goodness I haven't moved the TV out of the guest bedroom. Now that most of the trail supplies are moved out of the guest bedroom and the fact that I've also kept the cats out, gives me a surface to fold on. Plus, the TV can provide a distraction.

I'm knocking the easy things off of my long list of things I have to do before I travel across country on my motorcycle. This week I picked up a box to mail clothes, essentially to myself at my parents' address, and tried out my new straps that hopefully will keep my 85 liter backpack held upright on the backseat of the motorcycle. Now all I have to do is go camping to get it loaded and ridden rather than just strapped on.

Since I missed the April 30th Toastmaster meeting, I was not a speaker as originally scheduled at the May 7th meeting. I now do not have a speech scheduled before I'm scheduled to ride out for the trip to Alaska, but I have one prepared. (You'd think that with all my use of scheduled in the previous two sentences that my life is well planned. It's not.) I am the Toastmaster for the first time at the May 14th meeting. My theme is "And I Quote." I still need to call the other participants and confirm all of their attendance. In addition to speaking to the uses and abuses of quoting, I plan on referencing one of my favorite quote sites: http://www.brainyquote.com/ and an article in the June, 2009, issue of Reader's Digest.

My reference of Reader's Digest is not all that positive. Their featured wrongly cited misquote is wrong. They prominently use the example: "If you stop telling lies about me, I'll start telling the truth about you." Their claim, in the article titled "They Never Said That," is that the person to whom, Lincoln, it is most often attributed never said that. Now I don't know whether Lincoln never said anything similar to that or not but they have a rather significant typo in their version. It is missing a "don't." As I've heard it, it should be: "If you don't stop lying about me, I'll have to start telling the truth about you." But still, accidentally or intentionally trying to obtain credibility by a false quote is a good contribution to my theme.

There is definitely a tradeoff here. I'm of very mixed minds about getting this last point across and by doing so admitting that I read Reader's Digest. Saying I read it for the jokes reminds me of my college days of "reading" Playboy for the articles, well, come to think of it, also the jokes.

I have received my 48-page instructional brochure on "Program Planning and Proposal Writing." This is yet another thing for me to schedule. I still like the thought of developing my expertise for proposal writing and offering that expertise to the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund and its sponsor the National Lymphedema Network but also to other non-profits. While whatever writing I do for the NLN will be strictly volunteer, I am not adverse to having it develop into a true job.

Speaking of jobs, I am reaching a milestone and am to officially submit my "retirement" paperwork. I need to talk with someone knowledgeable as well as find hopefully cheaper health insurance. Ideally I will be able to get unemployment after this milestone and am somewhat concerned that "retirement" paperwork may preclude unemployment. If I don't find an alternative to what is essentially Cobra health insurance, I will have to "retire" to get insurance.

PCT Start Video

This is the video of Andrea and Neil starting out on the PCT. Below is today's Spot location:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=33.1098,-116.4755&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Another Wet and Windy Day

The rain over the last three days are somewhat significant as they are outside the normal rainy season. Unfortunately the amount hasn't been significant. I have used it as a good excuse for not doing any yard work as well as a less good excuse for not doing much else. In fact, yesterday after opening the cat door, which because of the weather they refused to use, I went back to bed and slept until noon.

There were other reasons than the rain for doing so. Primary among these were that it was the second day of me being off of caffeine and my body had adjusted to the stimulant again. Two days before I had gotten up by alarm clock and driven my youngest daughter and her husband to the Mexican Border Trailhead of the PCT. After seeing them start their 2,650-mile hike before 8:00 AM, I proceeded to drive all the way back to Pacifica. It took around ten hours including the couple of stops for food and espresso, which was also a good secondary reason.


I'm planning on personally delivering one of their resupply boxes. If I don't and they can't get a ride by hitchhiking, it will add 11 miles to their 2,650 trail miles. Yes, off trail hikes to resupply towns aren't counted. Two weeks earlier they will be met by my oldest daughter and her husband. They plan a zero-day of rest and eating. In fact, I believe I heard them say that they hope she knows of an all you can eat Sushi bar.

The trail is demanding and challenging in several ways, but the most significant way is food. They can't carry enough of it. In point of fact, on the days they are walking they anticipate being short by at least 2,000 calories a day.

They are carrying The Spot, a device that among other functions, sends a url of their position to a limited number of recipients. They've arranged for my son-in-law's parents to forward it on to the larger number of people who desired notification. Since I am lucky enough to be on The Spot's limited list, I'm including the positions I've received so far below:

The start: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32.5898,-116.4669&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

First camp: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32.6852,-116.5172&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Second camp: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32.8358,-116.421&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Third camp: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32.9797,-116.5236&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

My son-in-law's parents are also going to maintain their trail journal in between their limited opportunities to do so. It can be referenced at: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=9044

I'm looking forward to tracking them up the PCT. While I don't see this adventure in my future, it is inspiring me to have one of my own. I like the thought of riding on mine.