When I saw the prompt for this month's Photo Blogging challenge, I thought it might be difficult, but then I remembered that Easter was right at the beginning of the month and I knew we'd be with family, plus I also hosted a geocaching event at the beginning of the month, so then it actually became even tougher as I ended up with quite an assortment of photos for the theme.
That being stated, I decided to go a little bit different route with this month's theme. And so without further ado, I give you my five photos for the theme Friends and Family.
1. Handprints in cement
I think these handprints are from when I was about eight or nine years old. Mine is the one on the right. Sometime during that period, my dad poured some concrete at our house in Santa Ana, CA where we grew up and had all three of us put our hands in the wet cement. When they finally moved out of that house about 15 years ago or so, my dad pried up that piece of cement and brought it with them to their new house where it now sits on an island in the front yard. It's definitely a reminder of when we were a lot younger and smaller and it's fun to look at. You can see I really relished squishing my hands into the cement, whereas my sisters were much more dainty in their approach to the gooey stuff. Boys will be boys I guess.
2. The Calendar
I'd say close to 20 years ago, my two sisters and I decided to start a family tradition by giving my parents a photo calendar. The past 6 years or so, I've coordinated the effort, collected the photos from various people and put the entire thing together on my computer. It's worked out rather well and my parents cherish this gift each year and it proudly hangs on their refrigerator in the kitchen. The first year, my dad wanted to actually use it to write calendar reminders in it, but my mom put the kibosh on that very quickly. They also don't throw them away and my mom says she goes out in the garage where they are stored and looks through them from time to time. She gets to see her grandkids grow up every time she does that.
When we started this endeavor, it was a lot easier because there was only three sources that the photos came from since the kids were small and the adults, my sisters and me were the ones who took the photos. Now, with four of the grandchildren on their own, we have to really on photos from seven different sources. That just means we have to start the process earlier each year. Before, I used to send the "all call" for photos sometime just before Thanksgiving and I'd have the photos soon afterwards and it would be a done deal. This year, we were slightly late getting the calendar to my parents, but they did get it before New Year's Day, so it's all good. April of this year was my niece's and her husband's month, so they're featured on that page.
3. University of Notre Dame
Some of you might not be aware of this, but I was born in South Bend, Indiana, home of Notre Dame. This all came about, because my grandfather taught at Notre Dame back in the early 1930s. Because of this, my dad and two of his brothers also went to Notre Dame. Some of my cousins went to Notre Dame and I also had a cousin who was a priest who taught at Notre Dame. This cousin also married my parents and married my sister and her husband. Notre Dame is a family affair with us and although I didn't attend there, mainly because it was out of my price range when it came my turn to attend college, I follow the college quite closely, especially for football.
Growing up in Southern California, that was sometimes very tough to do, mainly because many of my friends in junior high and high school were USC fans. My best friend attended USC and during the 70s and early 80s, it was tough being a Notre Dame fan when they played each other because usually USC came out on top. Yes, I was there in 1974 when Notre Dame was ahead 24-7 at halftime and I watched Anthony Davis run back the second half kick off directly toward the Notre Dame section at the closed end of the Colosseum in Los Angeles, which started an avalanche of points, eventually leading to a 55-24 loss to USC. That was just ugly.
I was also there in 1988 with our entire family to watch #1 Notre Dame battle #2 USC. Both teams were exceptionally good that year and my dad and I surmised that the winner of this game would become the national champion that year. My dad took no chances that year as he was decked out in full Irish regalia, including his blue and gold Notre Dame tam-o-shanter. That's when I finally realized that my dad was one of "those" people. Those crazy alumni you always see. I'd never seen him like that before, but he really wanted a win that day. I don't believe he'd seen Notre Dame win in Los Angeles since 1966 when the Irish shellacked the Trojans 51-0 enroute to a national championship that year as well. Anyway, to make a long story short, Notre Dame came out on top that year and our family went home very happy. I haven't been back to see a Notre Dame/USC game in Los Angeles since that game. I want that memory to last forever. It was very satisfying.
4. Father of the Bride
About a year and a half ago, I was up visiting my daughter. I'm an early riser and my daughter isn't so I'd usually get up early, find some local geocaches and then hang out with her later in the day. This particular day, my daughter's boyfriend asked me if he could tag along and go geocaching with me. Sure, why not? But I had a suspicion that he had ulterior motives, after all he'd been dating my daughter for four years at the time and we were pretty sure they were serious about settling down.
Eventually that day he asked for our blessing to marry my daughter. I don't think my daughter could have picked a finer young man to spend the rest of her life and my wife and I were both thrilled that he was going to be joining the family. As you can see, all of this will be coming to fruition in the middle of July up in the Bay Area. I will fully admit that I will probably be very emotional about this and will probably be the one crying as we walk down the aisle. But I know if I start to cry, so will she and it will just be a mess, so I will restrain myself and think of happy things. Maybe I'll even crack a joke as we walk down the aisle. I think part of me is sad, after all, I loved her first, but most of me is very happy. He makes her happy and I like that. I'm looking forward to when I can call him my son-in-law.
5. Geocaching friends
Most of these photos have been about family, so I knew this last one had to be about friends. Another part of geocaching that I don't always talk about is the number of friendships that have developed for me over the years since I started this crazy game. Outside of my wife, I can say most assuredly, that most of my best friends are fellow geocachers.
This is Craig who I've known for three years, possibly more. I don't think I can pinpoint the exact time I met Craig, as it's more of a gradual thing as opposed to a specific day. Either way, Craig is a very good friend of mine and although this isn't the best photo of him, the only other one I had was of his backside carrying a tire while we were cleaning up a trailhead last weekend during a Geocaching earth day weekend event. I'm sure he's probably glad that I didn't post that one.
Craig is the friend that I helped last summer hike the John Muir Trail. He needed a ride to get up to the starting point in Yosemite Valley and I readily jumped at that opportunity. In fact, I credit Craig with helping me get into better shape. When he decided to do this hike, I was invited to come along. I knew I wasn't in any kind of physical shape to do that kind of hike, but over the past year, I've lost weight, gotten into biking more and am just more physically fit. If he'd been doing this trek this year, I probably would have gone on the hike. As it is, there was a time in the last couple of years when I thought my hiking and backpacking days were behind me, but I don't think that anymore and I thank Craig for being that inspiration. This year, he and I have another road trip planned for June just because we like to geocache and it's fun to go out on the road and explore new territory.
And that about does it for this month's photo blogging challenge. I hope you have enjoyed this month's selection. It's not my usual type of shots, but I wanted to do something a little bit different this time around. To see other people's interpretation of this month's theme, stop by P.J.'s blog and click on the links at the bottom of that page.
Today's prompt is Ten years ago, I was probably....
And the answer is obviously, Geocaching! I've actually been geocaching for almost 14 years, but my interest in it really took off about ten years ago.
A lot of people always wonder why I go out and geocache. One of my sons just calls it "the weird thing Dad does." He has geocached with me in the past and will tolerate his old man finding a cache or two when we're out and about, but it's not really his thing, and that's OK. It's not for everyone.
I first learned about geocaching from a Where's George? chat room. Where's George? is something else I could say I've been doing for the last 10 years or more, but that's an entirely different story which I'll probably save for another time. Anyway, a friend of mine was talking about finding this hidden treasure on a hike he'd been on in Maryland and I asked him about it. He said it was Geocaching.
He led me to the site and I checked it out. At the time, the closest geocache to my house was 7 miles away and a half mile hike. I told my wife I'd discovered something cool and I knew what I wanted to spend my birthday money on. Two days later, I purchased my first GPS unit and two or three days after that, I took my two sons with me and we drove over to the Claremont Wilderness Park, and hiked the half mile in on the trail there and found the geocache.
To be honest, as we were hiking up the trail, I kept thinking to myself, that this just couldn't be real. It has to be a joke. Who's going to hide something out in the wilderness and then who else is going to be crazy enough to go out and find that thing that has been hidden out in the wilderness? I fully expected to see Allen Funt from Candid Camera come out of the bushes and say I'd been hoodwinked and that this was all a Candid Camera stunt.
But no, it was for real. We found a large plastic bucket full of all sorts of things in it. I know one of the things we brought home was a happy meals whistle that my youngest really wanted to have. Let's just say we made that an outdoor toy and it kind of conveniently disappeared after a week or so.
But once we'd gotten back home, I was hooked. I love the outdoors aspect of geocaching. Back then, the caches were few and far between and you drove to a trailhead and hiked two, three, possibly five miles to find one cache. I discovered all sorts of new trails in the foothills just north of where we lived. Before that day, I'd never even knew the Claremont Wilderness Park even existed and there were all these trails to explore and caches to find.
Every so often, not nearly as often as today, I'd gather up the boy, or the boys and just go by myself and hike a trail to find a cache. I'd get some good exercise along the way. It has probably kept me a little bit thinner than I might be if I'd never learned about geocaching.
The hobby has changed over time. Where there used to be one cache on a trail, now there might be half a dozen or more. That first hike, we found one. In fact, had we hiked the entire loop of that trail, we'd only have found that one cache. Now that loop has 12 caches hidden on it, four of them by me.
No one really thought about hiding caches in urban areas. Now that's mostly what you see is a lot of urban caching. Not as much exercise involved there, but you can still get quite the workout if you pick and choose where you go. It's something that you can do where ever you go. I found that it was another nice diversion whenever we were camping. Instead of just a hike, now it was a hike with a purpose.
I have over 160 photos in my Flickr album dedicated to photos taken while geocaching. And yes, every one of these on this page was taken while geocaching. The first photo is a shot I took in Waterman Canyon which leads up to my in-law's house in Lake Arrowhead, California. I'm standing on a slight rise above the road, with the geocache directly behind me.
There's a geocache out on that island with the lighthouse in Crescent City, California. The trick is you have to wait for the tide to go out so it's only available during certain periods of the day. We got very lucky with that one as we had been hiking in the Redwoods and got back into Crescent City and discovered the tide was out, so we walked out over the rocks to get to the island. Most of the time, you can't do that.
We spotted the snake at a rest area along Interstate 80 in Montana. We'd been visiting my Dad up at my parent's summer house on Lake Couer d' Alene and decided to find some caches in the panhandle of Idaho. Not one to miss out on a chance, since we were so close, we decided we might as well find at least one over the border in Montana. We drove into Montana, pulled off at the first exit which was the rest area and found the cache and the snake. Since we had to go down to the next exit to turn around on the freeway, we found the cache hidden at the next exit and for good measure we also found the cache hidden on the westbound rest area on the other side of the freeway.
The last shot was taken in July when I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge to find the geocache on the northern side of the bridge. As you can see, geocaching has taken me to a lot of place, many of which, I don't think I would have visited were it not for geocaching. I've actually found caches in every county in California (for those of you keeping count, there's 58 counties). It has allowed me to explore various parts of the state I might have missed and it has also allowed me to explore my own back yard, those trails in the foothills. Unless something drastic happens, I can see myself 10 years from now still writing about geocaching.
This is an interesting topic to be talking about for day two of the Chill challenge. I'm not exactly sure what winter comfort food really is, mainly because we don't get much of a winter compared to other regions in the United States or in the world for that matter.
The weathermen in Southern California could "predict" the weather as "Sunny and mild" every day and be right probably 75% of the time. In my book, that's a pretty good track record for weather guessers. Winter, the way most people view winter, doesn't happen here.
So comfort food is, to me anyway, things that I don't get on a regular basis during the year, mainly because it's either not very good for me, or too expensive, or just ridiculous. Christmas time is always the time for all of us in the family to get some really good stuff, just because. That's what ends up stuffing our stockings every year. It's gotten to the point that our stocking stuffers take up grocery bags, because my wife goes all out with it.
Things that usually end up in my stocking are Oreo Cookies, Pop Tarts, Clamato Juice (don't judge me, I like it), bunches of Heath Toffee bars, boxes of Junior Mints and York Peppermint Patties and Pringles Potato Chips. Sometimes if I'm really lucky, I'll get a can of Macadamian nuts. See? All the things that aren't really good for me, but that I love tremendously. Once all of those things are gone, then Christmas is really over.
Needless to say, I've been rationing things this year, so Christmas isn't over, even though I went back to work yesterday. I still have half a bag of York Peppermint Patties and an entire package of mint Oreo Cookies. And my youngest better hide his stash, because I've been eyeing his Triple Decker Oreo Cookies that landed in his stocking.
One of the things I've noticed is that common courtesy seems to be waning everywhere. Where once people looked out to make sure that they weren't inconveniencing anyone, now it seems that most people have a "me first" attitude toward everything.
I ended up buying a new mountain bike from my friend yesterday and took it out on a paved trail just to see how it handled on regular street paths. The path I chose this morning is crowded in the morning. I get that. But I was going up hill so I wasn't traveling very fast so it's relatively easy to avoid getting in the way of a bicyclist. I'm constantly calling out "on your left" to alert people that I'm approaching that I'm coming up and intend to pass them on their left. Most people move over slightly and that's fine as they really don't have to as there's always space to pass easily.
This morning I came up on two groups of people. It was apparent they were talking about something, perhaps the dog one of them had because the other bent down to pet the dog. The problem was, they'd seen me coming up the path. I had slowed down because they weren't moving out of the way and that's when the one woman bent down to pet the dog in the middle of the path. Are you freakin' kidding me? Yep, they forced me off the path because they refused to move out of the way so I could pass them.
That's my rant of the day. And just so you know, I do know there is a lot of common courtesy out there as well. Just this past April, several teachers and I took a group of kids (7th and 8th graders) into Los Angeles on the Metrolink. At lunch time, the group that I sat with all pulled their phones out and put them in the middle of the table, intending to have a lunch without social media. We had a very good conversation, because no one was immersed in their phone. It was a welcome breath of fresh air and proved to me that there is still hope for our species. Now, hopefully, this small gesture can replicate itself.
And I know I've said this before, but I intend to write more frequently. For whatever reason, the first months of the school year seem to suck up all of my time. And just to let you know. All this biking has led to me shedding almost 12 pounds so far since the beginning of July when I started biking.
When I've been geocaching in the past, especially with my friend Jim, he's always been quick to point out that you can't park in a bike lane. I've always heeded that pronouncement, since it made sense.
But I wanted to see exactly what the wording was regarding bicycle lanes, especially since I've taken to riding my bike again. The reason? Yesterday, while taking my morning ride, I encountered 5 cars parked in the bike lane. Only one, according to the California vehicle code was legally parked. I've quoted the specific code regarding bicycle lanes below.
Bicycle Lanes
A bicycle lane is a designated traffic lane for bicyclists, marked by a solid white line, typically breaking into a dotted line ending before it reaches the corner. Different from a simple white line showing the edge of the road, a bicycle lane follows specific width requirements and is clearly marked as a bike lane.
Treat a bicycle lane the same as other traffic lanes.
Do not turn into the lane if there is a bicyclist in the bike lane
Do not obstruct bicycle traffic by reducing the width required for safe bicycle passage, typically 3 to 4 feet. (bold my emphasis)
When you are making a right turn and are within 200 feet of the corner or other driveway entrance, you must enter the bicycle lane only after ensuring there is no bicycle traffic, and then make the turn. Do not drive in the bicycle lane at any other time.
You may park in a bicycle lane if your vehicle does not block a bicyclist and/or there is not a “No Parking” sign posted. (bold my emphasis)
Drivers of motorized bicycles should use bicycle lanes carefully to avoid collisions with bicyclists.
The two portions I've bolded above are the parts where I feel these particular vehicles were in violation of the law. Their cars completely blocked the bicycle lane, forcing me to move into the regular traffic lane. Only the last car I encountered on Towne Ave, just east of where I live didn't do that and that's because the bike lane there is wider than normal allowing me the 3 to 4 feet for safe passage.
I think because there weren't "No Parking" signs on the street, the owners of the vehicles felt they could park there. A reasonable assumption, but one that puts bikers at risk. I doubt any of the violators follow this blog, but if you decide to park in a bicycle lane, please be aware that you are blocking bicycle riders and putting them at risk for injury.
That's my soapbox for today. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
I've hear jokes in the past from various people stating, "I'm in shape. Round is a shape." Yes it is and while I'm not round, I'm rounder than I'd like to be.
Last year, we changed our health insurance and I decided to take advantage of that and get some things looked at that have been sort of sitting on the back burner for a couple of years. The justification was I was busy, or it can wait until summertime, etc., and then summertime would roll around and I'd find other things to occupy my time and it wouldn't get done.
When I was donating blood on a regular basis, I knew my blood pressure and weight. Donating platelets every other week, I had a handle on those two things. Because of a lab snafu, where I tested false-positive for something I don't have, I cannot donate blood anymore. That happened about five years ago which meant I no longer had access to my blood pressure and weight on a regular basis. That's when things started to go south.
With the various appointments I've had this spring and summer, I've heard one recurring theme, which was bothersome to me, "Has your blood pressure been this high in the past?" Yeah, that's not something I want to mess around with, so I made another appointment to talk to my doctor about a sensible way to bring my blood pressure down. Obviously, the best way would be to lose some weight.
When we used to live over in Rancho Cucamonga, I could see my work from the back yard of my house and I used to bike to work. I'm not sure why I stopped doing that, but once we moved, the commute ended that. I held onto the bicycle giving myself all sorts of incentives to get back on it, but that never panned out until this week.
My doctor gave me three different options - swimming, running or biking. I have never been a good swimmer and I have never enjoyed running either, but I have enjoyed biking in the past, so I dusted the old bike off, took it in to get it serviced and Sunday went out on my first bike ride. Nothing spectacular, but I have a slight uphill grade for half the ride and the first day I traveled 5.78 miles. Day two, on Monday, I did the same ride, but the GPS said I did 5.83 miles. Yeah, I didn't zero the GPS out on the first day until I was a little ways away from the house, but I have a pretty good readout of how many miles I'm traveling if I take that standard route.
Tuesday, I took the day off as my thighs and rear end was barking a little bit, but I was back on the saddle again today for another run. So in three days, I've traveled almost 17 and a half miles. I'm sure the mileage will increase as I work my stamina back up, but for now, it's baby steps to get back in shape, bring my weight down and hopefully, my blood pressure as well.
I've decided to make this one of the regular occurring features in this blog, so if you don't want to read about my success, or lack of success on the road, feel free to skip it. I'll post the same photo as I've posted above to alert you ahead of time that this post will be a fitness post.
Here's to a thinner me in the future.
