Christmas Letter

You would think that after a full year of independent living, not being dependent on any job, I would have had plenty of time to get out my second ever "Christmas Letter" or maybe some cards. But no. For some reason I am much further behind this year than last when I was gone on my grand Holiday Tour for the whole month of December visiting both Marilyn's and my families. At one time or another while I was in Ohio and West Virginia, all of my children and their spouses showed up, which made it a great family visit as well.

Since I was going to be gone for so long, I drove across country, taking the scenic route that meandered through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, ...

I started back on January 6th and having decided to take my chances with snow, drove as straight as I could back across the country. The only place I had any snow issue was in Colorado, Friday evening, just after the Continental Divide. After driving downhill for about two miles, I took the first exit I could in the hopes of letting the snow plows do their thing for better driving the next day. I had forgotten that it was ski season. The lobby was packed and everyone I spoke with in the rather long line to check in had reservations. I did get a room, a quite nice room, in point of fact. With a rush of relief that swept all of the adrenaline fed anxiety right out of my system, I slept very well, even without my memory foam pillow, which I had left in the car. (I mention this because sleeping well allowed me to get an early start the next day, when it was just nine degrees. My memory foam pillow was as hard as a rock. It thawed well though as I was able to use it the next night.)

The early start also allowed me to really make distance the next day, all the way to Ely, Nevada. I was even there early but decided to stop anyway, after all, gambling is legal in Nevada and was available right in my Hotel/Casino. The room would have been inexpensive except for the gambling. As it was, I also got to bed early that night as well. This again allowed me to get up early. In fact, I drove by Reno too early to stop and decided to drive all the way home. (After my gambling experience in Ely, I'm sure my not stopping in Reno saved me a lot of money.)


Then there was the commemorative ski trip with my daughter Andrea. She had me post-holing up a steep cliff just to see the sunset. She had me on skis dawn to dusk and then after another half day of skiing to catch all of the trails, she had me back out on snowshoes to go out on a couple trails that were closed.

Next came the Pacific Crest Trail hike preparation. Other than my house looking like a food warehouse for a while and preparing what seemed like an endless supply of chicken jerky, my part wasn't all that much. Andrea and Neil, the actual hikers stopped by and taste tested my sample batch of chicken jerky, taking the sample with them across country to finish their training in West Virginia with my parents. There they helped reinstall some electric fencing that had been substantially removed during the logging a couple years before to allow my parents' 22 goats the illusion of greater freedom and walked.

Then when they once again returned to Pacifica to finish their packing, we walked. Finally, all of their planning came together. They had all of their packages ready with instructions on when to ship them to where using what service and they were ready to start. I had the distinct pleasure of being able to deliver them to the trail head at the U.S.-Mexican border on April 30th. In the brief time we were actually at the border, we had three separate, friendly, border patrol agents come up to speak with us and check us out. Then, they were off and so was I. As I was still in the car, my speed was considerably greater.

As they reached the Los Angeles National Forest in May, they were able to take a day or two away from the trail with Andrea's sister Elisha and her husband Ryan. Since the hiking on the PCT burns up to 5,000 calories a day and they carried only 3,000 calories, Elisha met them with some prepared food in what looked to be a decorated bottled beer six-pack container. She called it a Mackey Meal.

I also got a chance to play Trail Angel a couple weeks later at Tehachapi. Our first stop was for some food they could eat right away. We must have hit every "all you can eat" place in Tehachapi and Mojave, after they got cleaned up. In the relatively short time that we were there, we also managed to see a movie, "Up," and I made a couple extra trips to the trail head to pick up and drop off hikers. Believe me, dropping off is better. It's amazing what eight days of no water for bathing while walking through a dusty dessert can do to body odors. At least the hikers get used to it. (You can read about most of their hiking experience at: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=9044. You can also see their SPOT recorded progress at: PCT Progress.)

Then it was my time to rush to get ready as I had an opportunity to ride with my parents to Alaska. After my successful car trip across the U.S., I decided that this time I would ride my motorcycle. To see if I could even go the distance, I rode down to visit Elisha and Ryan in Pasadena a couple of times. While that didn't prepare me to do it day after day for five or six days, I was convinced that this additional 1,600 miles of riding after barely riding twice that in the previous ten years would be enough. (Since I made it back, it must have been. If you want to read a little more on my riding my motorcycle, I've posted a Toastmaster speech I gave on it at: http://doingsomething-aboutit.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-do-i-do-it.html. )

On one of my visits to Elisha and Ryan, they took me to Huntington Gardens. Of course I had to take a lot of pictures, some of which are posted here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008189&id=1288023430&l=6df59e2daf

They also visited here and once again hiking was involved. While I'm jumping ahead chronologically, this is the best place to put my last visit to Pasadena. It seems that hiking has become a tradition in our visits with each other. In my last visit just before Thanksgiving, they took me on a walking tour of downtown L.A. With the reputation L.A. has about their use of cars, this was certainly a unique experience that I'll treasure. Elisha, the person who avoided all musical instruments growing up has decided to learn something about the violin. She has also continued in her CalTech Choir. I'm hoping to catch one of her concerts.

My son Sean and his wife Amanda made it to my house just before I left. They were only going to stay in New York for a certain length of time and that time was up. Even though I only saw them for a week or so before I left, it's been great having them around since I've gotten back. Amanda is going to school for her teaching credential. Sean is taking after his "old man" in being gainfully unemployed.

But back to the Alaska trip. Counting my motorcycle miles, the total trip covered over 16,000 miles. There were spectacular scenes throughout, even the long ride through Canada after the Rockies. The large fields of yellow canola oil plants intermixed with alfalfa fields were truly spectacular in this stretch. (It's given me something to mull over as to whether or not I really want to ride my motorcycle around North America. I'm leaning toward yes but it really requires a lot of other things to come together as well. From this Alaska run, I do know that I want to have specific plans, and reservations, in place.)

We saw Mount Rushmore, Glacier National Park, Banff National Park, Lake Louise, Hyder Alaska, Denali National Park, lots of glaciers, all of which were spectacular. My sisters, Gail and Joy, joined us in Juneau for about ten days. In fact, they flew out of Fairbanks and we drove out the weekend before Sarah Palin's resignation picnic in Fairbanks. We were in Fairbanks three nights, before and after Denali and after the Arctic Circle. Yes, we were on the road made famous by the Ice Road Truckers. We didn't get a stone chip until we were within a couple miles of being off of the gravel portion, just when we thought we had it made. We had looked into renting a car for the trip but surprise surprise, none were available.

A few of the many pictures I took on this trip, which I've uploaded into albums on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012968&id=1288023430&l=12fe066478
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013233&id=1288023430&l=39d47500db
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013531&id=1288023430&l=422b56dd9e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013730&id=1288023430&l=c578b7af2b
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013928&id=1288023430&l=7d6e848873
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013977&id=1288023430&l=43273174f5
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014346&id=1288023430&l=f7be62e8cf

I have lots of notes in my 2009 "At-A-Glance," but have only transcribed them, so far, into one story at: http://doingsomething-aboutit.blogspot.com/2009/10/camping-and-not-on-road-to-alaska.html.

After Alaska, most of my time has been spent seriously and non seriously looking for a job. The serious looking happens when I see something that I think might be interesting. The non serious looking is just to fill out my quota for unemployment, which is going to expire soon anyway. The real problem has been my own lack of direction, especially knowing my own desires, well that and the economy whose improvements still haven't reached us.


But all in all, it's been a truly great year, even with heartbreaking news that I haven't included in this "letter." In addition to all of the above, my first grandchild, Sophia Kalina Westbrook, arrived on December 1st at 8:24 AM PST, weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 19 inches long. I've been able to hold her, feed her, and only once had to do a diaper change, so far. With all of these adults around so much to give her lots of attention, she will certainly have every opportunity to be spoiled. In point of fact, her Aunt Andrea made a special trip down to see her. Even her Great Aunt Joy stopped in for a visit. More pictures can be seen in an album I've uploaded to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024292&id=1288023430&l=bda6c7b3c5.

I hope your holidays are great and wish everyone the best throughout the new year and beyond.

Plenty of vitamin D

Yesterday afternoon I went out to mow my back yard and decided that I didn't want all those broad leaf weeds, with their seeds, in my compost pile. I then proceeded to get my gardening gloves that Marilyn bought me one of the times we went to Sloat's Nursery, on Sloat Ave. across from the San Francisco Zoo, a weeding tool, and marched over most of my backyard lawn on my knees. After about two and one half hours, my green bin was about 2/3 full of noxious broad leaf weeds. I didn't even dig them all out as I still mowed the lawn, got cleaned up, ate, fed the cats, and still made it to Toastmasters. Ever since I saw the professionals mow the yard, I have been doing what they did, mowing it twice. First I go back and forth one way and then back and forth perpendicular to the previous direction. This mowing also required back and forth over one section diagonally to the previous two directions.

This morning I fertilized the fuchsias, filled the bird bath, put shredded newspaper over the grass clippings in the compost pile, and watered the plants, including the compost pile. As I was doing that, I noticed some more broadleaf weeds that I just had to pull. Again I limited myself to literally one handful as I had a variety of indoor tasks to complete and packing for my motorcycle trip south.

At one time I was going to go along the coast and camp in the Big Sur area but since the timing of my trip requires that I be down there on Tuesday, returning on Wednesday, and I want to get at least one day of visiting in, I'm now just planning on a leisurely one full day trip all the way there tomorrow, Saturday. This will be a closer simulation of my planned cross-country ride in June. It will also tell me whether or not I'm in shape to ride long distances or whether I still need to exercise more.

As I'm planning on exercising more anyway, whether I need to or not is moot. I am up to the third level of the Pushup Pro but am not yet doing the full number, unless I do two sessions. (Most often I only do one.)

Gas prices are shooting up around here again but I'm still going to ride my motorcycle. It gets around 35 miles to the gallon driving California Expressway speeds where the Prius gets around 48. While I don't get to listen to anything, I still have more fun on my motorcycle.

With all of my time outdoors yesterday, I got so much vitamin D that I had to put aloe gel on my face. I'm still taking vitamin D supplements with all my other supplements but probably should look into what getting too much vitamin D might do to me.

Someone sent me instructions for linking Twitter and Facebook as a way to post Spot "OK" location messages into Facebook. There is a technical problem with the Facebook application, which has so far prevented me from completing the steps. Once I can complete it, I intend to use the Spot more on local walks and other motorcycle trips besides the big one this summer.

This is as far as I got on the San Andreas and Crystal Springs trails on April 1st. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=37.5628,-122.397&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 I have some pictures posted on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008035&id=1288023430&l=308b96d1c6.

Well back to the preparing...

My kind of shopping...

This could also be called: "buying while I can," which is really my kind of shopping, buying. Basically I went to REI and bought a couple of things, well four things but writing about two of them would be too much information. The two things I bought that I will write about were the Spot, for my motorcycle trips later this year and possibly next, and a Halo head covering for use under helmets. Well, bike helmets but I will use it under my motorcycle helmet to help keep my hair from going all directions.

My father has planned a 10,000-mile round trip RV drive to Alaska in his Roadtrek this summer. I am planning on going along. To get to the start, I will be riding my motorcycle another 2,000 miles each way. So, I am buying stuff that will allow me to make this trip, future trips, and preparatory trips, not that the Spot is directly related to that. I am shopping for saddlebags as well, small enough that I don't have to make any physical changes to my motorcycle. This will give me a sissy bar bag, an eighty-five liter backpack, and two approximately 11"x10"x6" saddlebags. I still haven't figured out how to attach the backpack. It is not going to be on my back but backwards on the passenger seat. I also need to figure out a wind and rain cover so it doesn't get beat to death at my motorcycle speeds.

If you are interested in receiving a Google Map email of my location on this and other trips I may take, you can either comment on this entry with your email address or, if you know my email address, send me an email directly. I will be doing some research to see if I can get the Spot's postings directly into Facebook. If I figure it out, for those who aren't yet my FB friend, I will let you know how to become my FB friend and keep up with my travels that way. (My recent experience with Facebook is worthy of another blog entry or two.)

Just one more unrelated comment, which I was originally not going to post. Last week I applied through my current mortgage vendor to refinance my mortgage. They declined my application for a 30-year note that was at a lower rate than my current 15-year note and also over a third less monthly payment. They "sell" the mortgages they write to Fannie Mae and Fannie Mae doesn't buy mortgages that don't have associated income streams. My investments, severance package, stellar credit rating, and payment history on a substantially more expensive mortgage doesn't count for anything. I have written President Obama on this but do not expect anything to come of that. After all, most of the bailout money is going to people who caused the problem rather than to help people who can benefit the most, and thus help the country the most.