Goals for the year

This post, as are most things in my life it seems, is just a little bit late.  I got caught up in the 20 days of Chill challenge and really didn't think about posting something along this line for the month of January and here's now almost halfway through February.  But as one of my students said last year, "Better late than never."

Goals that I have for myself are as follows and they fall into two main categories:  Hobbies and Personal.  Interestingly, the main personal goal is tied up with my hobbies.  If I work on that one, the others will fall into place.

First off, let me talk about hobbies.  I went out geocaching today.  Big deal most of you will say, but what you don't realize is I've only  gone out geocaching four days in the entire month of February.  In other words, I've taken a step back, slightly.  Many of you might not know is I just completed a 601 consecutive day streak where I either found a cache or attended an event.  It stretched from June 1st, 2015 until January 21st of this year.  Sunday, the 22nd felt weird not to go caching, but it rained hard all day and I was able to use the rain as justification for me not going out and finding a cache that day.

I have other geocaching goals in mind, many of them most of you will probably find quite silly, but those particular goals keep me interested in the game.  My current goal is to get every date on the calendar filled in with 11 finds each.  Since I've been geocaching since 2001, you would think that I'd found at least 11 caches on every day of the year.  Not so.  There are certain time periods, notably the months of September and December, where I am busy doing other things and geocaching takes a back seat.  Since the consecutive day streak has ended however, I can now concentrate on filling in those dates.  This won't happen by the end of the year, since I already have a couple of dates in January and February that still need to be filled in 2018.  But, at least I can put a dent in that particular goal.

Since taking a step back, I've decided that I want to find more quality caches.  If I have to walk or hike to a cache, then I rate that higher quality-wise than if I just walk up to something and find it there.  That doesn't mean I'll change my entire caching habit, but I would like to work on that aspect.  Today was a perfect example of both aspects.  I went over to Whittier today to cache along a trail in the Arroyo Pescadero.  No such luck since the trails were closed due to the weather we've been having.  So I found some nearby caches in parks and along some streets and ended up over near another large park where the trails were open and I was able to find some good quality hiking caches.  It was like the best of both worlds.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if I'd had a caching partner, but that doesn't always work out and I'd rather do a solo hike then sit at home because I don't have someone to go caching with.

Today also made me realize why I need to step back slightly from geocaching.  On the trail today, I saw two swallowtail butterflies flitting around each other, most likely in some kind of mating or territorial ritual.  And I didn't have my camera with me.  Two years ago, I always took my camera with me.  Now, it very rarely comes out of the camera bag.  I take photos with my iPhone, but those don't compare to the ones I post here.  That's also probably one of the reasons that I don't post as often here on my blog.  The blog's title is "A Photo a Day."  I really need to get out more and take photos again.  I discovered today, that I have missed taking photos. I think the consecutive day streak had something to do with that as well.  I was pretty much consumed with making sure I found at least one geocache, that I wasn't concerned about other things that I enjoyed doing and so photography fell by the wayside.  That's going to change this year.  I just need to strike a better balance between the two.  And a better balance between the two means, more photos and thus more posts here as well.  It's a win/win all the way around.

And lastly, but probably most importantly, is my personal goal:  Lose another 15 pounds by the end of the year.  I have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic.  This is not a good thing and I don't want to slide down that slippery slope and so losing weight is a very good option for me to help me avoid becoming diabetic.  In the past two years, I've lost 30 pounds.  Another 15 to 20 pounds will put me back at my college weight, which will be much healthier for me in the long run.  Hiking, and thus geocaching will help with this.  But if I can't find a geocache, then I can always walk the Thompson Creek Trail or the Claremont Wilderness loop.  A five mile hike is always good for the body and good for the soul.

Thanks for reading this. As always, I look forward to your comments.  

Cheese (Day 16) - 20 Days of Chill

Up until this past year, I'd only ever known P.J. was through the Internet.  I used to write a blog entitled Electronic Breadcrumbs, which was all about geocaching.  I believe this is how we first met, and when I got tired of writing that blog, I created this one and he eventually followed me over here.

Last summer, he went to a lot of baseball games, 75 of them in all.  I really love baseball and I think in my best year, I probably went to no more than about 20 games, so 75 is an incredible amount.  Anyway, his last three games were out here in Southern California late in September.  He flew in Saturday morning and attended the Dodger game that night, then he and his friend drove down to San Diego on Sunday morning and I met him down there and we met for the first time.  We then to the train from Qualcom Stadium to downtown San Diego and took in a Padres game at Petco Field, the first time I'd been to Petco.  Monday night he went to Anaheim to see the Angels play and then flew home.

This story, however, is about where he ate.  Since he's not from around here, he'd never been to In-n-Out.  If you live in Southern California, or have lived in Southern California, you know what In-n-Out is.  Best burger place ever.  Consistently good.  When my son went to England to study abroad, we stopped at the In-n-Out to get his last meal before leaving the country.  That's where this photo was taken.

So P.J. and his friend went to In-n-Out Saturday night and ordered standard fare.  I think he Tweeted about it and got a response back from one of his followers something on the order of, "Did you order off the secret menu?"  THERE'S A SECRET MENU???

So needless to say, we went to In-n-Out Sunday night after the game.  On the drive up there, we'd talked about the secret menu and other things related.  They ended up in one queue and I ended up in the other.  I did my standard order, "Cheeseburger, extra toasted bun, whole grill, fries and a medium drink."  The server didn't bat an eye, although extra toasted buns and whole grill are not on the main menu.  I know I've never seen whole grill on the secret menu.  P.J. wanted something a little bit more "out there" so he ended up ordering fries "Animal Style."  That's fries, with special sauce, grilled onions and cheese melted over the top.  Delicious, but not really good for my waistline anymore, so I usually don't order it.

There server was very entertained by their order.  You could tell they weren't regulars, because they stumbled over their order, but it was fun to watch. Regulars rarely stumble and if you click on the secret menu link I've posted, there are plenty of things that still aren't listed there, including the two I usually order.  

Now, I think I want to go to In-n-Out and order a order of fries Animal Style and have them hold the special sauce just to see what they'd do.  Cheese and grilled onions on fries sound good all by themselves.

For more stories about Cheese, click here.

Ten years ago, I was probably..... - Day 16 of the Chill

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.

Word for the year - Day 11 of the Chill

This one is a really easy write, something that I've been wanting to post about for sometime.  The word for the year is weight.  Sometime in the past year.  Actually right around the end of June, I decided that there needed to be less of me around here.  I was out of shape, my clothes didn't fit right and every time I went to the doctor's office, I kept hearing the same comment, "Has your blood pressure always been that high?"

A little history behind this would probably be helpful.  No, my blood pressure has not always been that high, but about five years ago, I stopped getting myself weighed on a regular basis.  Well, it was more of a forceful stop as opposed to something that I really intentionally did.

I used to donate blood, actually aphaeresis, about every month.  On my last donation, my 79th pint, I was deferred permanently, because I test false positive for Hepatitis C.  Please note the false positive.  The government said I couldn't donate anymore, because of the reading, even though I knew, as did my doctor at the time, as did the personnel at the Blood Bank, that I didn't have Hepatitis.

Every two weeks, I'd go in to donate, get my blood pressure checked and get weighed.  That went out the window.  I didn't own a scale, so I wasn't keeping track of my weight and it went up, and up and up.  Fast forward to this year and we changed insurance, so I got new doctors, and decided to check out my new doctor.  Needless to say, because of my age, I got all sorts of tests done and everywhere it was the same, "Has your blood pressure always been that high?"

My new doctor gave me three choices, swimming, running or biking.  I'm not a very good swimmer, nor have I ever liked to run, but I did enjoy biking when I was younger so I opted for that.  He gave me moderate goals to work toward and said if I followed the regimen he specified, I'd lose some weight and in his words, "The beauty of this is you'll probably be able to eat just about anything you want."

And that has been pretty much the case.  Bad weather and other things curtailed my biking during the holiday period.  Add to that extra food that always seems to be around during that period and I went up a little bit, but this morning I weighed myself and I'm back to my pre-holiday weight, which is 20 pounds less than I weighed when I started this back in July.

I bought a bike off of a friend of mine.  I take it out for nice rides, both on streets and trails as often as possible.  I also won a Fitbit in August and that has really gotten me obsessed about how much I walk during a given day, which has also helped.  I feel better, I have a lot more stamina than I used to, don't get winded on hikes like I used to.  In the past, when I'd go on an 8 to 10 mile hike, my body would scream in protest for the next day or so.  Yesterday, I went on a 8 mile hike, found 56 geocaches and this morning went on a half hour bike ride, then walked 3 miles later in the day.  My body doesn't protest anymore.  It feels good.

And that's why the word for the year is weight.  Because I'm losing it.  All I ask is that you don't find it.

What is “chill” and how do I do it? - Day 6 of the Chill

For those of you following along, the 20 days of Chill Writing challenge only happens Monday through Friday, which is why there weren't any posts this weekend. The second reason why I haven't posted this weekend was because I was busy.  7 of us took a road trip to Escondido on Saturday for some geocaching, hiking and other frivolity.  A good day was had by all and I believe I ended up with 31 cache finds.

Moving on with the prompt of the day.  What is "chill" and how do I do it?  Maybe more important, do I care whether I do it or not?  I'm under the impression that "chill" means different things to different people, so does it really matter what I think chill means?

People in most parts of the world probably associate chill with cold.  I've always associated chill with being relaxed.  Chill out dude.  I could always use more of that chill as I've always been pretty high strung about a lot of different things?  NO???  REALLY?  

I believe I'm less high strung than I used to be.  That still hasn't helped my blood pressure much, but I'm working on that.  Then again, maybe it has helped my blood pressure.  So, I'll address what relaxes me, mainly because that's my chill.  Hmmm.  Things that relax me.

Good music.  Pachelbell's Canon in D.  Mozart.  Beethoven.  Vivaldi.   

Roadtripping.  I like to drive and it relaxes me.  Getting in the car and just driving somewhere, preferably with a view of some kind is what I find very relaxing.  I live within two hours of three national parks, Death Valley, Joshua Tree and Channel Islands, and within 6 hours of three other national parks, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite.  Put me in any of those places, in a tent and enough food to last me for a couple of days and I'll probably come out of it at the other end pretty chill.

And I will be the first to admit that this challenge is not chilling me at all.  I look at some of the prompts and thing to myself, "Self, now what the hell am I going to write about in response to that one?"  And this is just that.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't write about something like this at all.  Not my style.  But I guess that's part of the game.  And so it goes.

The photo is from Bryce Canyon National Park.  I've been there 3 times.  I could go again and again.  It is my second favorite national park next to Yosemite.  There's not nearly as much to do there as there is in Yosemite, but I just can't get enough of those hoodoo formations.  Plus the hiking down amongst them is something that I just love to do.

And now I need to think about how I'm going to formulate something about 10 hotdogs.  That's not getting me to chill at all.

Favorite Winter Comfort Food - Day 2 of the Chill

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.  

I should have gone earlier in the day

But I just felt like sleeping in a little bit, so after that, I decided that I wanted my morning cup of coffee and then there was breakfast and I never got around to my morning bike ride until 9:43 in the morning.  And that made all the difference in the world as there were too many people on my chosen route of the Thompson Creek Trail this morning.

To the couple walking their dog.  Do you have to take up the entire trail?  That's why there's a center stripe in the trail to indicate the two lanes of the trail.  Then, when you hear me say "on your left," instead of moving your dog over so I can pass safely, you turn around and give me a look as if to say, "Who the heck are you?"  Only when I come to a full stop do you then move your dog out of the way.

To the woman who was walking on the right hand side coming toward me.  Was it necessary to cross over on to my side to continue your walk?  At this point, I have no idea what you're going to do since you're not looking ahead at all, but looking at your feet, so I have no choice but to slow down to an almost dead stop until I know I can pass you without having you veer suddenly into my lane.

To the the numerous people who don't clean up after their dogs.  Seriously?  The city puts dooty bags along the trail.  You couldn't grab one on the beginning of your walk so you clean up after your dog?  Don't tell me it's coyote scat.  I know what coyote scat looks like and that's no coyote scat.  And, you didn't even bother to at least have your dog crap on the side of the trail instead of right in the middle of it.

To the guy standing at the side of the trail.  This is the third time I've passed you in the past month while you were standing there shooting the breeze with your friends and your dog was on leash.  This is also the third time your dog has lunged at me as I've ridden by and the third time you've looked surprised that that has happened.  I call BS on that look.  If your dog lunged at me, then we all know it lunges at other bike riders.  Keep a better rein on your dog.

Rant over.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Bike lanes

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.

Round is not a good shape

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.

Total Random stuff

I have been challenged by my blogger friend P.J. to a post of randomness.  11 random thoughts about me, 11 questions from P.J.  Then I'm supposed to challenge 11 other bloggers to do the same thing.  That's the tough part, which won't get done, and you'll see why in the randomness below.  I hope not to repeat any randomness that P.J. might have already stated, but that's the randomness I guess.

So here goes.

1.  There are 58 National Parks in the United States.  I have been to 24 of them.  I will not list them all here as that would be tedious. At one time I had a goal of seeing them all.  Whether that will happen all depends now upon how healthy I can stay over the next 20 to 30 years.

2.  I think most people who read this blog don't realize that I am happily married.  I post a lot of photos of my kids, but very few of my wife.  I've been married for 26 years and they have been the most fulfilling years of my life.  I would not be the person I am with her.  Therefore, every photo in this blog will feature her.

3.   I have had two concussions that I know of, but it could be more.  Perhaps the dain bramage associated with concussions has knocked that out of my memory.  First one was when I was 8 or so and I got run over by a neighbor while we were playing kickball in the street.  I was knocked unconscious and lay there for a long time.  I have no recollection of this incident outside of what my parents have told me about it.  The second time was between 8th and 9th grade in a bicycle incident.  Not saying I wouldn't have gotten a concussion had I been wearing a helmet, but I wish they had been mandatory back then, especially with all the evidence coming out recently over head injuries in sports.

4.  I have broken my right pinkie finger twice and my left arm once, all between February 1972 and July 1972.  Let's just say that the last part of my 8th grade year, I was always splinted up in some way.  I broke and dislocated my pinkie playing basketball.  Three days after the doctor took the splint off of my finger, I bumped into a friend of mine and broke the finger again in a different place.  That splint lasted until the end of the school year.  My left arm was broken in the above mentioned bicycle accident.  As an aside, I am still very good friends with the girl who I bumped into when I rebroke my finger.  She doesn't know about the incident, unless she figures it out by reading this.  Also, when I hold my palm up on my right hand, my right pinkie doesn't meet with the other fingers.  These are the only bones I've ever broken.

5.  I have cool looking eyes. They are bluish gray with gold flecks in them.  Looking at some photos of my youngest son, he has similar eyes.

6.  I do not read very many blogs.  In fact, I don't think I could tag 11 other bloggers to get them to repeat the process, so I won't be doing that part.

7.  I used to do counted cross stitch.  I entered several of them in the Los Angeles County Fair and one year, my design took home a first place ribbon.  Our home is decorated with many of my designs, most from patterns that I used to buy.  When people visit and see them for the first time, they always compliment my wife over her stitchery and she always has to refer them back to me.  I don't do this anymore because it aggravates my carpal tunnel syndrome.  My hands go to sleep in minutes after starting to stitch.

8.  There has been a teacher in my family since 1896.  I consider myself a fourth generation teacher.  My dad was a teacher as were both of his parents.  I have a newspaper clipping from 1896 that shows my great aunt as the teacher in a one room school house.  There is a little doe-eyed kindergartener sitting in the front row - my grandmother.  She was being taught by her oldest sister, who was basically a full generation older than she was.  My daughter has continued on the tradition.

9.  If I wanted to recreate my proposal to my wife, I couldn't.  I proposed to her as we floated over Fantasyland in Disneyland on the skyway.  That ride doesn't exist anymore.  Why Fantasyland?  It was too noisy on the Tomorrowland side, so I waited until we rode through the Matterhorn into Fantasyland where it was a little quieter and then popped the question.

10.  My favorite painter is Pablo Picasso and my favorite photographer is Ansel Adams.  I could look at paintings by Picasso or photographs by Adams for hours on end.  When we go to the Los Angeles County of Art, I always head to the Picasso area first.  After Adams died, I went to a showing of 100 of his photographs.  He is a fine landscape photographer, but I don't think he could do portraits very well.  In my opinion, they lacked something that the rest of his photographs had.

11.  My favorite singer when I was in high school was John Denver.  I saw him in concert twice, once at the Universal Amphitheater and once at the Inglewood Forum.  The concert at the Forum was in the round and he was on a revolving stage, so he faced the entire audience at one time or another.  He put on a very good show both times.

Well, those are my random thoughts about me.  P.J. also posted 11 questions that I'm supposed to answer too, so here those are.

1.  What is your dream vacation spot and why?

One of the national parks I have not visited is Arches National Park in Utah.  I would like to go there, spend an entire day sitting near Delicate Arch and watch the light play over it, all the while taking photos.  I guess, in the long run, any place I haven't been to yet would be a dream vacation for me.  I love to travel and going somewhere new would be incredibly fun for me.

2.  Where did you come up with the name of your blog?

At the time, I was doing my 365 project, taking at least one photo every single day.  So this is another part of it - A Photo a Day.

3.  How do you define blogging success?

I think success is dependent on the blogger.  What some people would consider success, others would consider failure.  As long as I continue to write here, I consider that a success however.

4.  What is your favorite type of "going out" entertainment?

Getting outdoors and hiking with someone, or geocaching with a friend is what I enjoy the most.

5.  How many states have I lived in?

I was born in Indiana, lived there until I was 3 and a half, then my parents moved us out to California where I've lived ever since.  Interestingly, it wasn't until I was in my 20s before I stopped thinking about Indiana as "back home."  

6.  What is my favorite holiday and why?

This may sound selfish, but I like President's day.  It happens right around my birthday which usually means I get a three day weekend out of the deal.  I kind of like that.

7.  What your favorite number and why?

13  My favorite football team is the Miami Dolphins and my favorite football player is Dan Marino who wore 13 during his career.  I also like the fact that most people view 13 as unlucky.  That makes it good for me.

8.  What would be your dream vehicle to own?

Pretty much anything from the 1950s would be really cool to own.  

9.  What is your favorite hobby?

Geocaching.  Some would say it's an obsession of mine, but I enjoy participating in the silly game.  It keeps me busy and out of trouble for the most part.

10.  How do you try and keep your blog fresh?

My first blog was entitled Electronic Breadcrumbs and it was solely about geocaching.  After awhile, you can only talk about geocaching for so long before you end up repeating yourself.  I found I was doing that and started to write less and less on that blog.  That's one of the reasons I started to write this blog.  It's about anything I want it to be, which keeps it fresh.  I don't think I'd write a specialty blog again.

11.  Where do you do your best thinking?

When I'm out mowing the lawn.   Mowing the lawn is pretty mind numbing, so I think about all sorts of things while I'm mowing the lawn.  It keeps me occupied and seems to shorten the process of getting the grass cut.

Well, there you have it.  That's probably way more than you ever needed to know about me.  I'd love to hear your feedback, preferably here as opposed to on Facebook, but I'll take it either place.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday's post originally was entitled Thanksgiving.  I changed it after I started writing, so since today is the actual day this year, I'll be posting some of my thoughts on what I'm thankful for.  You may not agree with all of them, but that's your right.

This will not be a post about being thankful for friends, family, etc.  I'm always thankful for them.  I want to show some thanks for other things that I think many of us take for granted.  And while it's true, we may take our family for granted, I hope that I don't.

First off, I am going to say I'm thankful for our health care we have here.  My dad was an "orphan" by the time he was 27, my mom was "orphaned" before she turned 40. Both of my parents are still alive as is my father-in-law.  Without advances in medicine that we've had in the last 50 years, it's very likely that they might not be around to enjoy their grandchildren.  While it weirds me out a little to realize that I'm now the father of three adult children, my parents have seven adult grandchildren.  I don't believe my dad's parents even got to enjoy one adult grandchild.

I'm thankful that I can get up in the middle of the night and get a drink of water if I want.  Nearly one billion (yes, you read that right, billion with a B) people don't have access to safe water on a regular basis.  According to water.org website, 3.4 million people die each year from a water related illness.  The majority of those illnesses are caused by fecal material (still hungry for that turkey dinner?).  More people have a cell phone than have safe water to drink.  Those are some sobering statistics.

I'm also thankful that I live in a country that allows me to worship, or not worship as I please.  Can you imagine living in a country where you could only worship via one religion?  What if you didn't agree with that religious philosophy?  Think about that the next time you kneel down to pray.  Our country might not be perfect in many ways, but it's a lot better than many other areas out there.

Lastly, I'm thankful that we can all share in discourse about what we think is right and wrong with our country and with the way some businesses choose to run their business, which is what I'm going to do right now.  

Over the past week, I've seen many posts on Facebook from people voicing their displeasure over certain stores opening for business today.  The business of the company is to make money for the company.  They don't make money when they're closed.  If they believe this will bring in more money for them, then more power to them.

You don't have to go.  Yes, I respect your right to voice your displeasure, however, I believe you're wrong.  If you don't like it, don't go.  When I worked as seasonal help at Disneyland back in college, I never worked on a holiday.  Why?  Not because Disneyland was closed, but because the permanent employees all wanted to work.  They got paid time and a half.  Granted some stores might not do that because they aren't unionized, but the employees might need that extra money down the road for Christmas presents.

I also find it interesting that all this complaining has been directed at stores opened on Thanksgiving Day.  How many of you watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade?  Do you think Macy's produced that out of the goodness of their heart?  Why are there no complaints about the people holding onto the tethers of the balloons at the parade?  In fact, why is there no complaints about the NFL playing football on TV?  All those poor football players, and referees and stadium employees away from their families on Thanksgiving Day?  What a travesty.  I think we should boycott that too.

Tongue in cheek aside, I hope all of my readers have a happy Thanksgiving, no matter how you choose to celebrate it.  As for me, my plan is to watch the Lions win on Thanksgiving for the first time since 2003, then drive with my wife and boys to my sister's house to gather around the table with the family that's here in Southern California.  My thoughts will be with family members (especially my daughter who will be celebrating with her boyfriend and family in San Mateo) who weren't able to make it down.  I know we shall be seeing them at Christmas.

That's a lot of people

This is not a article I would usually write, but I stumbled across a website today that had some pretty sobering statistics.  According to this site, I was the 2,909,470,267th person alive when I was born and the 76,444,994,032nd person to have lived since history began.  In my mind, those are staggering numbers.  Think of all the people that have ever been on this earth and 1 in 15 are alive right now.  Between the time I was born and my daughter, my first born, was born, 3.7 trillion people were born, including my three sisters and my wife.

Since I was born the population of the planet has more than doubled with the population surpassing 7 billion people in October 2011.  If that trend continues, the population of the earth will pass 8 billion in the year 2025 and it could conceivably triple since I was born by the year 2043. With good health, I think I have a reasonable chance of still being alive then and 9 billion people on the planet sounds like just an enormous amount of people. 

With the strain from this many people, resources, such as food, water and fuel will become increasingly scarce.  Based on the consumption of resources and the population increased, sometime during the 2030s, the UN estimates that we will need the equivalent of two earths in order to support all of the people in it.  Of course a lot can change between now and then.

Clearly, this can't happen since we only have one earth.  But technology could bail us out.  200 years ago, 97% of people in the United States lived and worked on farms supplying the needs of the entire country.  Today, only about 3% of our population lives and works on farms and those farms supply most of the food for the world.  Somewhere down the road, there has to be a limit to the amount of food that can be produced.  What it is, we don't know yet.  Perhaps we've already hit the limit.  That food will be a limiting factor on the population of the planet is a foregone conclusion.  Fresh, clean, drinkable water will be the other main limiting factor.

I do not know what the answers to these problems will be and of other problems that plague this planet, but it seems as if we need to work together.  I'm concerned about the future of number 80,198,082,265, number 80,520,546,297 and number 81,067,205,912.  How we react to this in the future will probably be our legacy to not only our children but our grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond.  What numbers are you concerned about?  And consider this.  In the time it took you to read this short article, the earth's population increased by slightly more than 1000 people.

Getting into shape

In the past 6 days, I've hiked almost 10 miles total on three separate occasions.   Well, hiking probably isn't a very good word, more like walking on level ground, but it's a start.  I used to do a lot more hiking up into the hills and I've gotten away from that over the past year or so.  This past week, I decided that I needed to get some more exercise back into my life and I've started to go out on walks again.

Having the stamina back is a good thing.  Today was my longest walk, 4.6 miles on fairly level ground along a biking trail in Riverside - the Santa Ana River Trail.  I went out fairly early, starting at 8:35, and had put in 2.05 miles in less than an hour.  That doesn't sound like a very fast pace, but I was also geocaching at the time, so I did some stops to find the cache.  I got my heart pumping and the sweat was flowing so I felt good about it.

I do this for a couple of reasons.  With our camping trip coming up in 10 days, I wanted to build up some stamina for some of the hikes that I plan on doing with my kids.  Last year I was totally outclassed by my son at Bryce Canyon.  I expected to be.  He was 16 years old and I'm just old.  Still, I had stamina to do the same hikes he did, just at a slower pace.  This year, with all three of the kids, I figure we'll do some hiking.  Three years ago when my son and I were at Lassen there was so much snow in early July that many of the trails were still closed.  I'm hoping with the below average snowfall this year that the trails will be open so we'll get in some good hikes.

The second reason for this is I want to lose some extra poundage I've put on over the past couple of years.  This just makes sense from a health standpoint.  I'm not done with all that I want to do in the course of my lifetime and I want to be able to enjoy these activities fully.  I've seen a joke passed around the Internet recently that says, "I'm in shape.  Round is a shape."  I don't want to be that joke and so I walk and I hike.

And speaking of hiking - yeah, I know this will probably be a bad segue, but I wanted to do a shout out to an old high school friend of mine, Don Erickson.  I met Don in 7th grade.  We were in several classes together, throughout junior high and on to high school and we were both on the yearbook staff our senior year.  I can remember Don being a very free spirit, one who would climb the school's flagpole on a whim. (Yeah, I remember that).

After high school, as most of us tend to do, we lost touch. I was very disappointed when he didn't come to our 10 year class reunion as he was one of the people that I wanted to find out how he been getting on.  A couple of days ago, I discovered  that he's walking across the United States to support Organ Donor Awareness.  Right now he's somewhere in Pennsylvania.  You can follow his progress on the Facebook page that he's set up to chart his progress.  I've sent invites out to many of my friends from high school that I'm in touch with on Facebook, but I felt this might be a better way to reach a larger audience.  

My thoughts and prayers are with you Don.  Good luck and Godspeed.