Tag Archives: Camping

Catching Up

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I’ve spent a great deal of time this morning attempting to get the permissions set correctly on this WordPress site, and – so far – have had very little luck in doing so.  I did manage to get a plug-in installed to tell me what’s WRONG; Unfortunately, it has been unsuccessful at actually fixing those things.  Looks like I’ll be doing manual edits for a while.

I perused my latest entry and discovered that I haven’t written anything since going to Annapolis two weeks ago, so here’s a quick rundown on what’s gone on since then.

As mentioned, I spent the week of August 8th in Annapolis, MD, helping to set up a new client for the X Company.  It was pretty straightforward stuff – adding machines to the domain, setting up printers, installing the correct version of the Citrix receiver and antivirus on machines, and then spending a few days working with the people there and showing them how to navigate the cloud, finding fixes for individual problems, etc.  I would have enjoyed myself a lot more if some actual planning had gone into the project, rather than just a basic, “Here’s a domain controller. Knock yourself out,” approach.  The more I work at this company, the more I realize that they talk a really good game about project management, but they actually do very little of it.  If/when I’m ever able to find another gig – and if I get an exit interview – that will be the #1 thing I have to say.  They’re growing too fast, they don’t plan for more than the simplest changes, and it’s eventually going to bite them in the ass.

Maryland itself was fine, I guess.  I didn’t see much of it.  Contrary to the thoughts of a few of my friends, I was not on a vacation.  I was up by 5:30, in the office by 7:30, worked 11-12 hours a day, and returned to my hotel, where I normally ate microwave macaroni and cheese and either watched television or played “Medal of Honor” for an hour before going to bed.

I did go out to dinner one night with my co-worker, Nate.  We found a sushi place across the street from my hotel and gorged on it.  Blew through my entire per diem for that one meal, but it was worth it.  Besides, by eating Mac & Cheese every other night, I made a few hundred bucks on unspent per diem.

I had planned to drive back from MD on Friday morning, but the more I thought about it, the more attractive it became to leave on Thursday night.  I didn’t want to hit morning traffic in D.C.  I wanted to have an extra day to decompress at home before going back to work at the office.  And – seriously – I missed my cats.  So I left at about 7:30 Thursday night.

Had a fairly uneventful drive, although I discovered U.S. 360 West – got on it somewhere around Richmond and took it over to 29 South.  Very pretty drive, although I got confused at one point and ended up on an “ExpressPay” lane for about a half a mile.  Since I don’t have any type of transponder, I’m wondering when I’m going to get a bill for that, and how much that little goof is going to cost me.

I got home at around 5:30 Friday morning, slept for a good part of the day, mowed some lawns, and had a decent weekend before going back to the phones on Monday.

The GBB kicked off rehearsals on Tuesday, so that was a nice diversion.

While in MD, I requested and received paid time off for August 21 & 22 (which is today).  That being the case, I headed for the NC mountains on Saturday, August 19, with an eye towards catching the solar eclipse in both totality and relative seclusion.

As it turned out, there were about a billion other people who had the same idea, and so it was incredible luck that I got lost on the way to my original destination (Big Fat Gap) and ended up driving down an increasingly horrible road that ended at a lovely hunter’s shelter near Deep River Gap.  My friend Brett, who had planned to meet me at BFG, got concerned on Saturday afternoon because 1}BFG was incredibly crowded, and 2}I hadn’t shown up.  So he started randomly driving around the area and actually ended up finding me on the increasingly horrible road.

This is not the first time that we’ve managed to locate each other, without any type of communication, in 20 square miles or more of wilderness.  We started talking about it on Saturday night and determined that we’ve probably done the same thing – him finding me or vice versa – 5 or 6 times in the last 15 years.  It’s uncanny.

Anyway, the increasingly horrible road was a godsend, because we only saw 2 cars and 1 motorcycle at our shelter between Saturday afternoon and Monday afternoon.  People would see the road and just turn around.

I know this, because I damned near did the same thing.  Now that I know where the shelter is, though….gold.

On Monday morning, Brett said that he wanted to catch the eclipse somewhere along the Cherahola Skyway, but I was in no mood to fight with the crowds and the traffic (I’d heard that Huckleberry Knob – where we’d originally planned to hike up and see the thing – had been outfitted with dumpsters and porta-potties), so I stayed at the shelter and Brett left.  I’d been told that an old, closed, forestry road that continued up the mountain from my shelter eventually ended up at The Hangover, which is a beautiful spot in the Joyce Kilmer forest; so at around 1130, I started hiking up it.

After 3.5 to 4 miles – every motherlovin’ step of it UPHILL – the road-cum-footpath ended up at a clearing in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  By then, it was 1:15, and I decided to head back down and try to make it to my backup plan for the eclipse, which was a nice little hill on one side of the increasingly horrible road that would offer close to a 360-degree view.

While the hike down was much (MUCH) easier than the one going up, it still took a while, and when I found an open spot on the trail at around 2:00, I took out my eclipse glasses just to see if anything was happening.  Good thing I did, because the eclipse was well under way by then.

So I set up my tripod and camera (did I mention that I carried both of those things all the way up that trail?  Auuuuugggghhhh!!), and spend the next 40 minutes trying to get some shots.  I assume that I did.  I haven’t looked at my memory card yet.  I did, however, get a look – with my eyes – during the 2 minutes or so of totality.

Wow!  It really was cool to see the corona.  Very cool.

It was also a fascinating experience in less majestic ways.  Like, for instance, the way that it went from light to dark as if someone had flipped off a switch.  Or the way that the crickets were chirping and birds were singing their twilight songs in the middle of the afternoon.  Or the fact that the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in 60 seconds. Or that I could actually see a few stars.  I’ve seen (that I recall) two other solar eclipses – but never totality.

It was worth the trip, and the increasingly horrible road, and the 3-mile hike uphill to nowhere.

After the meat of it was over, I continued back down the trail to my car at the shelter, packed up, took one last drink of filtered stream water, and headed out.  Within 500 yards, I saw a truck approaching from down the increasingly horrible road, and pulled on to a turn-out to let it by.  It pulled up next to me, and I saw that it was occupied by a family of 5.  The driver, looking very concerned, asked me, “How much longer does this go on?”  I told him he was near the dead-end and that the worst was over, and the kids in the back started celebrating.

So at least one other family no knows the location of my new happy place.  Though, I don’t know if they’ll want to make the trip again.  When I said, “Truck,” earlier, I meant “Minivan-like vehicle.”  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it had bottomed out at least four times to get as far as it got – and that part about “the worst being over” was a complete lie on my part.  The last 500 yards were the worst on the road.

But I’ll go back.  And I might even hike that stupid trail again, although my calves are SCREAMING at me this morning.

The NC mountains never fail to calm me.

A Necessary Saturday

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Today’s featured image was taken three years ago.  The boys were just about 4 months old, Boo was still the biggest critter in the camp, my renter was a large and bald ex-bouncer, and I was probably mentally ready to head to Canada for a couple of weeks.  Today, Boo is dwarfed by her little brothers, my renter is a relatively petite customer service manager, and I’m still mentally ready to head out anywhere – although that’s not going to happen for quite some time.

Got kind of a punch in the gut last week when I applied for an Onboarding Specialist position that’s opening up at The X Company.  Informed my new boss of my intention to apply, he said fine – he’s been my boss for all of about two weeks, having just been promoted to the L1 lead position.  Did an interview with our talent scout, who is filtering applicants to send to the hiring manager.  I thought it went fairly well.  He asked all the usual questions, including what my boss would say that I did well and what my boss would say that I didn’t do so well.  I explained that I really didn’t know what my *new* boss would say, as I haven’t talked with him; but said that my previous boss, Joe – based solely on the (three) one-on-one meetings that I’ve had with him, since he and I have barely spoken since I started working – would probably say that I do a good job with my clients, consistently meet my metrics, have good communications skills, and generally know my shit.  As for what I need to work on, I really didn’t know and I said that.  Perhaps more consistency with the metrics, but judging on the daily stats that I get combined with his comments – written and verbal – in those three meetings, I really couldn’t think of anything that I needed to drastically improve.  I know I’m doing a good job, and I told the guy that.  Said, fairly bluntly, that I understand that I’m new, but that this is stuff that I was doing close to 30 years ago, that I’m going to get better and better at it, and that I’m going to be bored to death with it within 6 months.  Also mentioned that I’d taken a 50% pay cut when I accepted the job.  Didn’t pull any punches, but was polite, positive, eager to learn new things and be more involved with customer planning, yada yada yada.

Got a fairly terse email the following day informing me that the interviewer had spoken with my bosses and they’d informed him that I really needed to improve, that my metrics were below par but getting better, and that the interview process could not proceed because “we’re only looking for people who meet and exceed expectations.”  I was mildly stunned.  Pulled up the daily stats and graphed them.  My metrics are solid.  At the top, in fact.   So I pulled up the records of my three meetings.  Scored 9/10 in my first one, 10/10 in the next two.  Got a bit pissed off, but decided to be cool.  Sent a nice note back to the interviewer and stated that I disagreed with the take on my performance, but that I understand that I’m new and I try not to take anything personally and it was nice talking with him, thanks, etc.

Two hours later, my new boss (Ben) sits down next to me, says, “Will you have a few minutes to talk today?”  I said I could talk right then.  So we go to a conference room and he begins his remarks by saying, “Joe and I never said anything to Neil about your metrics.  You’re doing fine.  Joe thought you might have an attitude problem because you haven’t been particularly friendly.”

I agreed with him on that point, particularly where Joe is concerned, explaining that I haven’t been overly friendly with Joe because I’ve had the feeling – from day one – that Joe actively dislikes me.  Ben said something along the lines of, “That’s understandable, and you’re not the first one to say it.”  I then explained again that it was all good.  I wasn’t going to worry about it.  If there were issues – perceived or real – then I’d just go back to taking care of my clients, which is what I’m paid to do.  Ben said he’d talk to Neil (the interviewer) and straighten things out, and I assumed that I was back in the running.

The next day, I got another email from Neil that said, “I hope that, after talking with Ben, you have a better understanding of what the problem is.”  So I wrote back and said, “Actually, I’m now more mystified than ever, but – again – I’m not going to worry about it.”

Two days pass, and we arrive at yesterday afternoon.  Joe called me into his office.  I’m like, “Oh crap.  Can we just let this thing go?” but I sit and ask what’s up.  He says that he heard back from Neil and that I said I was still not sure about how I’m underperforming; so I laid out the whole timeline for him (did not mention that I still think he dislikes me), and said for about the 15th time, “It’s okay.  I’m new to the job and the company.  I guess I’m trying to move too fast.  I just have seen no indication that I’m not performing as expected.  If I am, please tell me what I need to do to improve.”

And Joe says, “No, your metrics are great.  Your firms have nothing but good things to say about you.  You obviously are incredibly technically qualified.  Your communication is good – wish the other guys out there would document things like you do.  You pay attention to detail.  You’re doing great.  The thing is, we worry about your teamwork.  Some of the guys on the floor thought you came off as sort of condescending when you started here.”

And I’m like (in my head), “THAT’S what this is all about? Seriously?”  So I laid it out for Joe.  I came to work at The X Company after 17 years of being responsible for nearly every bit of infrastructure – phones, computers, televisions, signage, wall hangings, heaters, fuse boxes, coffee makers, you name it.  While I did work in a business casual atmosphere there, it is also a Fortune 50 company and there is certain level of professionalism that is expected.  Prior to working at BellSouth/AT&T, I was a contractor for three years and worked for some of the most respected companies on the planet.  And when I got to The X Company, I was thrown into the middle of a bunch of kids who spent their days playing ping-pong, talking about online gaming, and shooting rubber bands and nerf guns around the room.  The company took a day off to have a picnic and play kickball.  The dress code includes The X Company t-shirts and shorts.  Not to mention that I was doing my best to 1}Learn the applications that I’m supporting, and 2}Provide my clients with top-notch support.  So, yeah.  I probably did, and perhaps still do, come off as aloof and/or condescending at times.  My focus is and will be on my clients, and if the office that I’m sitting in is one step up from kindergarten, then call me the guy without team spirit.  I’m okay with that.  And oh, by the way, those guys are now coming to me for help with their own clients.

Joe got the message.

He and I then talked about upcoming projects (wherein people like me go to new clients and get them set up) and an opening for a project manager (who manages people like me who are going to new clients to get them set up), and he encouraged me to sign up for some of the former and to apply for the latter.

So after the gut punch, maybe there’s a glimmer of light.  We shall see.  At least Joe, and hopefully Ben – and maybe even Neil – now knows where I’m coming from.  I’ll shoot the nerf guns between 5:30 and 6:00, after I’ve shut off my phone and I’m winding down. The rest of the day, I’m focused on my clients.

In other news, I took a short trip up to the Pisgah National Forest (the Shining Rock Wilderness Area) over the Memorial Day weekend and spend a wonderful, restful, couple of days in the middle of nowhere along the Pigeon River.  Only had to hike in about two miles to get away from the day hikers.  I setup my tent and a tarp, drank some apple-crisp whisky and splashed in the river on Saturday; then slept like a dead man while a massive storm raged during Saturday night.  On the way up to the area, I passed the Davidson Creek campground in the national forest, and thought that it might be an alternative to my Lake Superior campground for later this year.

Looked it up online when I got home.  The 2nd and 3rd weeks in October are almost fully booked, and it’s $40/night!  I’m once again leaning towards going back to Pictured Rocks on Superior.  Yes, it’s a longer drive – but I know that I’ll be fairly alone, and I know that it’s a beautiful spot.   Actually, while talking with Joe about upcoming projects, I learned that there is one in Wisconsin and one in Michigan (I believe North Lake, MI, which would be incredible) coming up in late August.  Am considering trying for one of those with the idea of scheduling my vacation at the end of the on-site week, so that I could just leave and head to the lake, saving the company air fare and getting my lake jones taken care of in one fell swoop.

On the good news front, I spent this morning rolling coins and counting the paper money that I’ve been stuffing into a water jug over the last year.  You know the drill – you get home, you empty your pockets, and you save any money that’s in them.

I’ll be making a deposit of just over $2,700 this morning.

It’s going to be a nice vacation if I can ever get it scheduled.

 

A Superior Week – Part II

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Well, it’s been 11 days since I put up the first half of my journal from a trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and I should probably go ahead and finish that story.  Before I get to it, however, I might as well catch everyone up on things that have happened in the last 11 days.

For starters, I’m now officially free of credit card debt, having paid off the last one earlier this morning.  Technically, I’ve still got an ongoing one, because I set up a few monthly utilities to be paid automatically by my Discover card, just to see what type of cash-back kicks I get.  If it works out, I’ll leave it that way.  If not, I’ll undo the auto-pay and call that one done, too.

In other news, I’ve been fighting a head cold for the last week, and it’s really getting on my nerves.  Particularly considering that I had a brass band performance yesterday, followed immediately by a wind orchestra rehearsal.  Thought my head was going to explode.

The performance went well, anyway.  And we sold a good number of our brand-new CD.  So there’s that.

On the home front, I switched from U-Verse television to DirecTV a couple weeks ago – mainly because my employee discount is so much steeper for DTV.  I was paying around $25 for U-Verse and I’m getting DTV for $10.  So that’s nice.  I’ve learned, however, that DTV is *worth* about $10/month.  What a piece of crap.  Leave it to ATT to push something that’s terrible while trying to get people off of the one really good product that they have.  Pathetic.  And now they want to buy Time Warner?  Seriously?  Ugh.

Enough of that.  It’s depressing me.  Lessee…what else has been going on in the last couple of weeks?  Oh!  I got a meatloaf from Publix the other day, and DAMN was it good!  I may have to do that more regularly.  Or, you know, learn how to make meatloaf.

But enough.  Moving on to the conclusion of my Superior Week:

10/6/16@11:20 – Hot dogs didn’t happen.  I made some freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff and a couple of cheese sandwiches in the tent and then crawled into bed at around 19:00.  Slept okay for the most part, although I lost my blankets at some point and woke up at around 02:00 due to the cold – and because I had to pee.

Ended up getting up for good at around 05:30, at which point I put on a sweatshirt and a headlamp and set off for the lighthouse in the dark in order to accomplish a number of tasks.  I needed to check my bank balance (today is pay day), shoot the sunrise, download some new podcasts, and book a hotel for Friday night.

Think about that for a second.  I checked my bank account and booked a hotel – in minutes – in, basically, the middle of nowhere.  It wasn’t long ago that, when taking a long trip, I drove until I got tired and then started looking for a hotel, hoping for a vacancy.  Cellphones really are kind of amazing, as intrusive as they are.

I had hoped that the cold last night would be enough to kill of the flies, but they seem to be worse this morning than they were yesterday!  Ugh!  If I do this again next year (assuming I still have a job), I may wait until November.  Stupid global warming.

[Note: The featured image at the top of this entry is one of several that I took of the sunrise that morning, using my phone’s camera.  I didn’t bring a DSLR with me on the trip and wanted to figure out if I could use the phone’s “pro” settings for low-light stuff.  I thought it worked okay.]

10/6/16@16:21 – So after getting back from the lighthouse this morning, I had a breakfast of freeze-dried Mac & Cheese (good stuff!) and then began pre-packing for the trip out tomorrow.  Put all the stuff that was in the tent into the car and then setup my mattress in the tent.  If all goes well, in the morning I can just deflate the mattress while in the tent, put it in the car, strike the tent in a few minutes, and hit the road.  Hopefully, it won’t rain tonight.  It’s been sunny all day and my stuff is dry.  I hate packing out wet stuff.

Going to start a fire in about 30 minutes and try the hot dogs again tonight.

Forgot to mention that I walked over to the Twelvemile campground and back this afternoon.  It’s a nice place, with several campsites very near the lake (almost said ocean!), guaranteed to have a non-stop breeze, though maybe a little sandy.  They look quite nice, though, and the wind would keep the flies away!

10/6/16@20:47– The hot dogs were excellent….but I forgot to use the relish!

10/7/16@18:47 – Lima, OH – And so I’m halfway home, staying the night at the same Carlson In that I stayed in on my way up to the lake.  Same room, in fact.  The ride down was largely uneventful, although I had about 100 stowaways in the car: the flies.

By driving with all of the windows down through most of the upper peninsula, I was able to lose most of them, but still had a few in the car when I hit the only traffic jam of the day – which happened less than 20 miles from this hotel.  Try as I might, I couldn’t get the last hangers-on to flee, so they’re still in the car tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.

Planning to have some noodles in the hotel room tonight and hit the road early tomorrow – after a shower that is going to feel amazing.  One cannot appreciate how awful one can smell until one goes a week without bathing.

And that, friends, Romans and countrymen, is the end of the journal regarding the trip.  I did indeed leave the hotel very early on Saturday the 8th and made it home by around 2 in the afternoon.  Spent some time emptying out the car, watched some football, and hit the sack.

Should you be wondering, there was one final fly left in my car when I went to work on the 10th.  It got out with me in the office parking lot.  So I’ve probably brought an invasive species to Georgia.

These things happen.

A Superior Week – Part I

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So I’ve been back from my fall vacation to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for nearly a week, and I guess I could share parts of my experience with the madding crowds hitting this here blog.  I’ve decided to do so by simply transcribing the notes that I took while there, and those will follow in this post and the next one.

To set the stage, I should mention that I took a short week to go camping at Hurricane River campground on the southern shore of Lake Superior.  If you look at the little map up there, Hurricane River campground is represented by the two little tent icons a third of the way across the map – oddly enough, on the Hurricane River.

The dot at the point of land to the right of Hurricane River is the Au Sable Light Station.  That small point is virtually the only area on the entire map where one can pick up a cell signal.

Moving west from Hurricane, you can see the icons for the Benchmark campsites (back country), Twelvemile Beach campsites (cars), and Sevenmile group and single campsites (back country).

To the east of the Au Sable Light Station are a number of back country campsites, the Grand Sable Dunes (labeled) and the little town of Grand Marais.  The distance from the Sevenmile sites to Grand Marais, were one to walk along the North Country Trail, is right around 17 miles.  Over the course of the week, I did indeed hike every inch of that distance.  And loved it…although one of my ankles is still bothering me.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the field notes.

10/3/16@19:10 – I’m sitting at my picnic table in a leather bomber jacket, listening to Lake Superior crash on the shore while my fire crackles happily.  It is so nice finally to be somewhat chilly.

Today was mostly a driving day.  I left my hotel room in Lima, OH, after sleeping until nearly 07:00, which was nice in and of itself.  The drive to Grand Marais was uneventful for the most part.  It did get rather interesting in the last 10 miles, when my GPS discovered what it presumed to be the quickest route fro me.  Last year, I took only paved roads.  This year, however, the Garmin took me about 8 miles down what amounted to a logging trail – and not a very good one.  I admit that I considered turning around a few times, but the Subaru was a trooper.  The Audi wouldn’t have made it.

[Note: I opted to take a longer route on the return trip.  Did not want to try the Rhoddie Truck Road again after a night of rain!]

 

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

 I arrived at my campsite at around 16:30 and got things set up before taking the 2-mile walk to the Au Sable Light Station to check my email and to let Jenny know that I’m still alive.  Had a voice mail from my boss, so I called him and was informed of a mandatory meeting at 10:00 tomorrow.  Oh goodie.  I wonder if either a}Digital Life has been sold or b}I need to start looking for a new job…

10/4/16@08:15 – Not to be a global warming alarmist, but it is decidedly warmer here than it was during the same week a year ago.  If I had to guess, the temp is in the low 60s this morning.  I’ve put on my leather jacket now, but have been sitting here in just shorts and a t-shirt for the last 45 minutes.  Last year, it was more like 45.

Made some coffee this morning, but probably won’t have anything else before I start the hike to the lighthouse for the 10:00 call.

Charging with boiling water!

Charging with boiling water!

While making the coffee, I did my first real test of the “charging pot” that I bought a few years ago.  It has a wire attached to it that clips to other wires and eventually goes into my phone (or iPod or exercise band or whatever).  Through some sort of magic, it is supposed to be able to charge small electronics by using the heat generated in coils built into the bottom of the pot.  I was delighted to find that it works beautifully on my Coleman stove, and am determined to try it on my alcohol stove the next time I go ultra-light.  What a great thing it would be to have a renewable source of recharging on those trips, rather than having to carry relatively heavy charging blocks.

I also brought a solar-and-crank-powered radio with me on this trip, but haven’t tried it yet (though I did let it charge via sunlight on the first driving day, and it seemed to take a charge really well).

Woke up twice during the night.  Once at around 03:00 to pee, and again a bit after 05:00 because my blankets had become dislodged and I was cold.  The first time, my fire was still burning, but it had died by the 05:00 awakening; and it was so unbelievably dark that I seriously wondered if I’d gone blind.  After trying (with no success) to see my hand in front of my face, I pressed the “light up” button on my wristband and reassured myself that my eyes still function.  Had an interesting time falling back to sleep, entertaining myself by imagining what I’d do if I’d actually lost my sight and had to hike to the lighthouse in order to call for help.  Or, for that matter, how’d I’d be able to dial 911 (assuming I got there) on one of these newfangled phones with no tactile buttons.  I guess “OK, Google – call 911” might work.  I’ve never considered it before.

10/4/16@13:20 – As I suspected, the meeting this morning was called so that my boss could pass on information regarding upcoming firings at AT&T (“surplussing” is what they like to call it these days).  Apparently, the company has decided that too many people with my job title exist, and they’ll let us know later this month who will get to stay, who’ll get shuffled to new AT&T jobs, and who needs to watch their ass as the door slams shut behind them.   Having gone through this so many times previously, I’m almost too tired of it to be worried – although I’ll admit that it adds a bit of stress to life as I try to determine how I’ll take care of the cats if I end up looking for a new job in a few months.  But I’m on vacation, dammit.  I’ll try not to think about things like that for a few more days.

Made some hot dogs and mac & cheese for lunch and finished listening to “Mozart In the Jungle” this afternoon.  It’s a book by oboist-turned-author Blair Tindall.  A fascinating tale about a woman who hung her hat on being an orchestral musician while the world of orchestral music spun out of control financially.  At 40, she gave up on her dream, went back to school, and became a journalist.  Well worth a read (or a listen).

This afternoon, I think I’ll go for a long walk.  The breeze is lovely, temp is in the 70s, and rain isn’t due to arrive until late tonight.

10/5/16@09:00 – Didn’t sleep particularly well last night.  Not entirely sure why, as I re inflated my air mattress, had plenty of blankets, and got a lot of exercise yesterday.  I think that it might’ve been too quiet, although at one point I got my radio out (works great!) and listened to a bit of the VP debate.  There was no wind, however, so I couldn’t hear the trees or the surf.  I need that stuff to sleep when I’m here!

It is much cooler this morning.  I’m still in shorts and a sweatshirt, but the breeze has come back and the temp is probably in the 50s.  Weather forecasts, however, have been saying that it will remain unseasonably warm – nearing or surpassing the 80-degree mark.  Not at all what I was hoping for.

Flies were terrible this year.

Flies were terrible this year.

The heat – what else can one call 70s and 80s in the U.P. in October? – has had one extremely negative effect: flies.  Flies have been incredibly annoying over the last two days, and I’m sitting here now stamping my legs under the table in a way that reminds me of Vermont Holsteins in the summer.  During my walk yesterday – from Hurricane River to Grand Sable Dunes – I must’ve killed 1000 of them on my shirt.  It used to be an orange one….now it’s orange with multiple little blood spots all over it.  U.P. Tie-Dye, I guess.

Made some coffee and sausage links for breakfast today and took the opportunity to charge my charger while doing so.  Everything seemed to work pretty well in that area, and I’m back up to 75% power on the charger.

Not sure what today will hold, but if it gets to be as hot as predicted, I might just jump into the lake for a minute.  My hair could certainly use it!

10/5/16@19:03 – I took a very long walk today – long enough to drain the battery on my Microsoft Band, so I’m not sure how much distance it’s going to give me credit for.  I know, however, that I went about 18 miles.  Left my campsite at Hurricane River at around 09:30 and walked on the NC trail westward until I got to the Sevenmile back-country campsite, which is just about 6.3 miles.  I then turned around and came back east, passing my site and continuing to the Au Sable back-country sites, which are about 3 miles east.  Stopped at the lighthouse on the way back in order to upload the information from my Band.  As I mentioned the Band was dead by the time I got there, so I just checked my email and walked back to the tent, where I started charging the band.

My feet, by the way, are killing me.  However, I got a really nice (and really COLD) dip in the lake about 5 miles west of here.  I kept passing side trails leading to gorgeous (and completely empty) beaches; so finally I took one of them, stripped down to my jockeys, and got wet.  Spent probably 15 minutes there before getting dressed and continuing on my trek.  Yeah – getting the sand off of my feet was a major pain in the ass, but I dried off pretty quickly, so wasn’t cold.  In the water, though…wow!  “Bracing” seems like a good word for it.  Each dunk felt kind of like my torso was going to break.  But damn, it felt good.

This was MY beach. Gorgeous, cold, and empty.

This was MY beach. Gorgeous, cold, and empty.

As I said, my feet were on fire when I got back to my tent…and I was also sweating like a pig….and I was also out of beer.  The last problem needed to be addressed, so I unhooked the tent from the car and drove to Grand Marais, which is a tiny town about 13 miles away.  It basically survives by catering to North Country Trail hikers and hunters, although it was a booming lumber town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Got some beer and some relish, figuring on grilling some hot dogs over the fire tonight, and came back to my site.  Got the fire lite….and then the skies opened up.  I spent 10 frantic minutes arranging tarps and tent flaps and getting everything into the tent, with a minimum of things getting soaked.

And that’s where things stand now.  The fire is burning merrily in the rain and I’m waiting it out from the confines of the tent, wondering if maybe I should just boil the hot dogs.   At least I’ve got beer.

To be continued……

Insidious and Insightful Insights Into the Debate

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So it’s Tuesday afternoon and I’ve nearly recovered from the last 5 days of activity, which included driving up to Greenville, SC, for a mini family reunion – during which Dad met his first great-grandchild – and driving over to Conway, SC, for a football game in which Furman was pummeled by 20 points largely because their special teams gave up 18.

Both events were enjoyable, of course.  I’m just not quite as young as I used to be, and that was a lot of driving in a pretty short period of time.  Basically, I got about half of the sleep that I needed between Friday and Monday (and, believe me, I was a mess yesterday).

So the big presidential debate was last night.  Here’s my take on it:

 

Moving on, let’s talk about my cat Chamberlain, who has had a pretty rough couple of years but has come through like a champ and, in the process, has turned into possibly the sweetest feline on earth.
chamberlainIt was just about a year ago today that I brought him to his vet because he’d been losing weight and had very little energy.  He was diagnosed with diabetes and had to start getting daily insulin shots.  A month prior to that visit, I’d taken him in to the vet because he was scratching incessantly and had bald spots all over his head.  That, it turned out, was because he had a flea allergy.  Just a few bites had turned his life into a nightmare – which was cured with some superb flea medicine and a steroid shot.

As it turned out – or at least appeared to turn out – it was the steroid that kick-started the diabetes; fortunately, he eventually recovered from both.  I’d weaned him off of the insulin by about March of this year and everything was going great.  He had lots of energy, enjoyed playing and racing around the house, and occasionally snuggled in my lap.

In April, he got startled during one of my lunch hours, jumped off of his cat tree, tore through my music room, lost control cornering on a hardwood floor, and was immediately unable to put any weight on his left leg.  Two hours later, we were back at the vet and I was looking at the x-ray confirming that he’d broken the ball off of his left femur.  Surgery to extract the broken femur head was scheduled for three days later.  A few days after that, he came home and we started a long rehab.

For a week or so, Chamberlain was confined to my guest bedroom – the mattresses removed from the bed and put on the floor so that he wouldn’t try to jump more than a few inches.  In the mornings, I’d carry him downstairs for breakfast and then carry him back up to his room while I took my walk.  In the evenings, I’d carry him down to lie in the kitchen for a while before bedtime.  At night, I slept on the mattresses on the floor so that he could have some company.

It’s now 5 months later and, unless you know what to look for, you’d never know that the little guy has absolutely nothing attaching his left leg to his skeleton.  He runs and jumps and plays and does all the things that a cat should do – but his personality has completely changed.  Cuddling in my lap is no longer an occasional thing – it’s something that he loves to do whenever I sit down.  He used to be somewhat of a loner, but now he wants to be wherever everyone else is.  He rarely tears around the house now – not because he can’t, but because he’s more inclined to look around and SEE what’s happening before reacting to it.

Can’t say that I blame him for that.

Anyway, he’s a sweetie.  And – hopefully – we’re done with the vet for a while.

I’m on vacation next week.  The plan as of now is to drive up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and spend a week on the southern shore of Lake Superior at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  I discovered this place last year and fell in love with it.  Looking forward to some fresh air, cool temperatures, steady breezes, and solitude.

 

Oh yea! Spammers!

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You know how I said that this weird URL might help keep spammers out?

Yeah, that didn’t happen – although it’s fairly obvious that the 11 spams so far were all robotic.  Guess I can’t do anything about that, and some of the “comments” are sort of amusing in their complete idiocy.

Taking a short break from fixing software issues while listening to the soundtrack from Hamilton this afternoon.  Not really paying attention to the words, but the music isn’t bad.  Considering its success on Broadway, I’m sort of surprised that it hasn’t been made into a movie yet.

Andi Sprague had surgery on her leg yesterday.  Jenny tells me it went well.  Now the fun part – recovery – begins.

The picture for today is one that I took of the river, Little Santeetlah Creek, on the banks of which a buddy and I set up camp a couple of weekends ago.  It rained the whole time – pretty miserable, really – but the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is so damned gorgeous that we had a good time anyway.  JK is definitely in my top 5 places to throw up a tent and spend a few days (camping is allowed just outside the national forest part).  Great hiking, a beautiful river, very few people, no cell coverage.

Anyway, Brett and I spent a few days shooting at cans with my pellet pistol (purchased for its remarkable resemblance to a real gun and hopefully a deterrent to anyone who wants to mess with me when I’m camping.  If it’s not, I guess I’ll get a real gun one of these days), getting soaked under a leaky tarp, taking one short hike, and taking cheesy pictures of the river.  I rarely bring my DSLR with me anymore, and decided to see how much I could mess with the aperture and shutter settings on my phone’s camera.  I thought it did okay.

I need to empty out the band’s folders tonight, but I really don’t want to.  Would much rather go play trivia.

So maybe I’ll do the folders tomorrow.