Storm!

 

Weather radar,
 after the power went out.

A huge wall of thunderstorms came through here Thursday afternoon, around 4 pm. The power went off a few minutes after the leading edge came through. Both dogs were perturbed - Bixby was shaking and trying to burrow under me (I hugged him swaddled in a blanket, it seemed to help). The storm lasted less than an hour, and cell phone service worked all along. So I knew the power outage was widespread. I reported on Pepco's app, and they initially estimated "restored by 6 pm". Their estimates got progressively later and later over the next couple of hours, ending up at midnight.

After the storm had passed, reports of trees down throughout the neighborhood came in via Whatsapp and email. I couldn't reach my brother-in-law, and there was a report about a huge tree down across his street. I set out to walk around and check.

I once was chased by a falling tree, and fell and split the back of my head open (the tree never touched me, it turns out I can run faster than a tree). I had been alerted by the distinctive "CRACK" noise that comes - we have enough big trees around here that I've heard this before and since. I also had a huge tree fall in my own yard, with a glancing blow to the house - I wasn't home when that happened, but it was a very big deal.  I'm a little skittish about things falling on me. But, after the storm, the air was clean and fresh, there was no power in the house, and I was craving a chance to stretch my legs. (I'm really working at getting those walks in, upping my steps!)

Hilltop Road

The tree(s) down were really impressive. One house had the whole end ripped off, as the tree fell between the chimney and the side wall, and took them both out. It then toppled another tree, and they both fell at right angles to the road and took down wires and a telephone pole. So one house rendered unlivable. It was a distance from my BIL's house, which looked fine from the far side of the tree. I finally reached him by text - he had been home, but went out when the storm had passed.

I ate a cold supper (one quick dip into the fridge, door closed again quickly). I read on my fully charged kindle with its own light, fired up a couple of solar camping lanterns so I wouldn't bump into things, and considered whether in the morning I'd be able to boil water for coffee on the gas grill in the back yard, what pot to use, and where my pour-over coffee setup was. I actually forgot that I don't have any ground coffee in the house, only whole beans! But I travel with a few packets of instant coffee, so all I really need is boiling water. I have flashlights and charging bricks, so I figured I would be good for while.

Damaged House,
but nobody hurt

The power came back on about 9:30 pm, after only about five hours. I had no raw meat in my fridge, and I figured everything in there was fine. The freezer, untouched and completely full, was even in better shape. 

We'll be having more of these high-energy storms, I'm sure. The number of big trees in my 'hood are decreasing, but I was recently hit with an insurance company inspection that suggested I had too many big trees near me. I think there is only one killer tree left, a 3-foot + diameter white oak, and some tall but slim other oaks and tulip trees. But I've planted trees destined to grow into big canopy trees, if they live that long. The benefits of the canopy for cooling and water management still outweighs the danger, in my opinion.

How Active Am I Really?

Or, Keeping Myself Honest

One of the reasons I started this blog is because I know how fallible my memory is. I cannot rely on my memory of how active I've been, what I've eaten, or how much I weighed in the past. I've been thinking that I'm pretty content with my fitness level. For a while this spring, I felt strong! This feeling is absolutely real, but it has faded over time. Now, I feel mostly ok, but I know I'm doing so much less than I used to do.

When I retired, I developed a report card for myself.  It tracks a variety of things about my life, from how many steps I take to how many books I read. I don't keep it up rigorously every month, but I actually do keep track of all of the components to be able to bring it up to date whenever I decide to update it. The last time I posted about the report card was about a year ago, where I only posted the comparison to the year before. Because I was still within six months of knee surgery, I gave myself a pass on the activity statistics, which at that point were looking not too bad.

Well, yesterday's comprehensive review of the data revealed a different picture. I looked over a longer period time - basing everything on 2019, when I retired halfway through the year. Pretty much every single way I look at activity has gotten significantly worse, trending further down each year. Sigh. I slice and dice my data, looking at different measurements, averages and peaks and valleys, but it pretty much tells the same story. 

What do I track? Here are my activity measures:

• Average daily calories
• Days with more than 2,200 calories (very active days)
• Average daily steps
• Days with less than 5,000 steps (very inactive days) 
• Stand time in minutes (new in 2023 with Apple)
• Minutes rowing (new in 2023)
• Minutes stationary bike (newly tracked last year after knee surgery)
• Minutes Nordic Track  (new this year)
• Miles walked (while "taking a walk", not incidental distance) 
• Gym workout days (tracked manually)

All but the last of these are from my Apple Watch. When I switched from the Fitbit in 2023, I noticed the calorie counts were substantially different (higher on Apple). I don't really care what exactly the number is or how accurate it is - but I do care that it correctly captures trends up and down. I redefined "active days" to not overstate them with the more generous estimates.

But all of that detail just above can obscure the main fact: I am substantially less active now than I was in recent memory.  I want to tell that story clearly and unambiguously, to convince myself that I need to get off my butt and move! 

So, after bringing the data up to date, digesting the big impact, I took a long walk. Then, I picked up the computer again and made an infographic to show the sad, sad, facts. Remember, I worked in data analysis all of my working life, and using data to tell a story is something I enjoy. So I amused myself quite well, learning how to make a totally new type of graph, and how to present it so it tells my story. So below, here it is:

So what is this?

I simplified my measures to the five comparable measures since 2019 (clockwise from top): Calories, Steps, Active Days, Miles Walked, and Workout Days. I scaled them all relative to 2019, as if that year were perfect. (It wasn't bad.) I display them on a "radar" chart. 2019 forms a perfect pentagon. Each year since then is another pentagon, with this year's data so far in red. We see that calories don't vary much, and neither do gym workout days - in fact, both are slightly better than in 2019. But daily steps and active days are only slightly more than half of what they were back then, and miles walked is less than 25% of what they were. 

Steps, miles, and active days are all increased by getting off my butt more. The more I get up and move, the closer those red corners of the pentagon move towards the 2019 pentagon. 

So it all boils down to this: make the red pentagon as much like the big blue one as possible. 

 

 

Wet and Cold

I'm back from my first adventure trip of the season - a four-day jaunt from Old Town Alexandria, down the Potomac, and back up the Chesapeake Bay and Patapsco River into Baltimore, aboard the Pride of Baltimore II. This is the ship I've taken several trips on before. This time, my friend's husband (also a friend himself!) came along. I had a great time, but still the way to summarize the trip is cold and wet. Or wet and cold. You get the idea!

My compact bag and boots

For a couple of weeks before the trip I followed the weather forecast. We had days in the seventies here, where I had all the doors and windows open, airing out the house. But the forecast for the trip got progressively worse and worse. By the time we left, the forecast for the four days started with pouring rain in the 40s, 30-knot winds with temperatures in the 30s, to a relatively benign sunny and 40s with light and variable winds. Welcome to spring, climate change style in the mid-Atlantic!

I hate to be cold, and staying dry is also a key part of staying warm. So I packed fairly compactly, but I brought all the outerwear I would bring on a longer trip. It all fit in a neat little carry-on sized backpack, with my waterproof seaboots attached on the outside. In fact, the first time I zipped the bag, it went too easily, so I opened it back up and added more socks and doubled up on hats and gloves. 

We joined the ship Sunday evening at the dock in Old Town Alexandria, a town that pre-dates the founding of Washington DC. It's got plenty of George Washington sites, and parts of it were surveyed by Benjamin Banneker, in a project run by President Jefferson. In fact, the original 10-miles-square District of Columbia included most of the city of Alexandria, but when the federal city grew only slowly, it was returned to the state of Virginia in the nineteenth century (along with the sites of the Pentagon and DCA National Airport). As we enjoyed the waterfront and getting to see the ship, it was just starting to drizzle.

Through the bridge at 3:30 am

A highlight of the trip for me was going under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, interstate 495. This relatively new bridge only opens between 2 - 4 in the morning, so after orientation aboard ship, we settled into our bunks for a quick sleep. We were roused to the deck in the drizzle at 2:30 am, and the ship cast off the dock and went through the open bridge at 3:30 am, using the engine with no sails. After that, two thirds of the crew were dismissed to go back to bed, but my friend and I, along with some professional crew, stayed on deck on watch. I noted when we passed Mount Vernon on the shore south of the bridge. The skies opened up to a pouring rain, and we motored down along the narrow and twisty river with very little visibility. We spent the next four hours straining to see ahead and to the side, occasionally pointing out to the watch captain some object. There were flashing lighted buoys to show the channel, but they were far apart and unlighted buoys were more frequent. There were essentially no other boats out, which was a relief. We had GPS with displays to help out, but actual eyes were needed. It poured the whole time. Dawn came very slowly, impeded by the heavy cloud cover and rain. 

Drowned rats, ready to go below

By the time dawn came, the fun had pretty much gone out of it. Did you know that most rain gear, exposed to hours and hours of pouring water, will end up letting moisture through? I discovered after being dismissed below at 8 am that I was not wet to the skin or on the bottom of my 3-4 layers, but I did have very damp fleece outer layers under the wet insides of my rain gear. I turned it all inside-out and draped it about the cabin. The lining of the rain gear was dry by afternoon, and everything except my thick gloves were dry by the next day. A hot filling breakfast and a morning nap were very welcome. I was distressed to realize that my phone had gotten so wet it was acting very fluky, but there was nothing to be done except see what happened. (They have a dedicated rice bag to rescue phones!)

Nan at the helm!

We went back up on deck on watch at 4 in the afternoon, after hanging out down below chatting with crew and the cook. The rain was tapering off, and we had rounded the corner out of the river and turned towards north and home to Baltimore in the wide Bay. We were still under power, as the wind was from the wrong direction, and the Captain was anxious to get to a safe and sheltered anchorage before the 30-knot gale started. We, the amateur crew, were given a chance to steer the ship! We each took two hour-long tricks at the helm, and it was a lot of fun to manage such a large, heavy object being buffeted by wind and waves. There is a significant lag time to when you turn the wheel and when something happens, and you have to stop turning the wheel long before the ship comes to a heading. It's not easy, and as the winds and waves picked up, it got harder. Over the course of our four-hour watch, the rain stopped and the temperature dropped and the wind picked up and it got dark. Because of the wet and the cold, I found I was holding a huge amount of tension in my neck and shoulders, and two hours on the wheel was physically challenging. But fun!

My friend at the helm

We were dismissed below at 8 pm, had another hot and nourishing dinner, and I went right into bed. Hygiene suffered, as I wasn't anxious to shed layers and add wetness to my cold and tired body. I normally sleep with an eye mask for darkness, and I am used to listening to a book or a meditation to help me fall asleep or get back to sleep when I inevitably wake up at night. I have acquired a "Musicozy", a soft head/eye wrap with build-in tiny flat speakers that bluetooth to my phone and play privately into my ear. It worked very well! A bonus is that it is thick and soft, and actually added warmth to my head sticking out from under my large heap of blankets.

In the middle of the night we heard the chain rattle, and I realized they anchored the boat without my help. I snuggled back down into my nest of blankets and fell back asleep to another chapter of my Italian murder mystery (I am constantly rewinding because I miss things as I fall asleep!)  

The next morning the whole crew slept in, with no engine noise and not a lot of motion. We had an 8 am breakfast, and the Captain informed us we'd be staying put for the day as the wind chill put the temperature down at 18 degrees! We had a schedule to meet back in Baltimore, but years of experience have taught them to build in significant buffers for weather and for things breaking. The crew had plenty of maintenance to do on the ship, and we were welcome to pitch in or else lounge about. 

At anchor in Annapolis

The Captain, feeling some obligation to the guests, made himself available for an "ask me anything". This guy has made this ship his life - he's done a lot of other nautical things over the years, but he has been involved with the Pride of Baltimore II since before it was built! He's commanded every trip I've been on (this was my 5th). I've learned he loves to talk. He is an expert, and he knows it, and he explains things very well. So that was decent entertainment for the day. I also took periodic trips up to see the sun-drenched but chilly outside. In the afternoon, I found a little niche to hide in, down on the deck between a couple of crates, out of the wind but in the very strong sun, and just hung out for a comfortable while. My friend's son lives in Annapolis, and he came down to the shore and got a shot of us at anchor, right by the Naval Academy. 

Weighing anchor in the pre-dawn

We also enjoyed watching a small fleet of teenagers aboard little fiberglass sailboats practice their racing moves in the late afternoon. One unfortunate boat capsized four times in the still brisk winds. Three times the crew righted it, climbed aboard and kept going. The fourth time, they were significantly separated from their boat, and they must have been very cold and tired. One of the four little motor boats shepherding the fleet came and got the two people out of the water, and another one towed the capsized boat back. They did get it righted again, and the crew went back aboard, but they went right into shore - good idea!

Sails up!

Early to bed, and a pre-dawn all-hands assembly on deck to head off to Baltimore. The crew raised the anchor with a manual lever and capstan. The engine was running, but we raised sails as soon as the anchor was aboard. With two sails up, off went the engine and we were sailing!

 

 

 

Always anxious - will we fit under the bridge?

It was a gorgeous day, though still nippy. The wind was unfavorable, so we sailed close-hauled under the Bay Bridge, and then tacked our way up the bay for the rest of the morning. Sail handling is a lot of work, and this was only the second or third voyage of the season, so the crew needed a lot of coaching by the Captain and the chief mate. I have learned to mostly stay out of the way as I am not that useful in hauling on the big heavy ropes. I did do some rope coiling, however.

 

 

 

Close to the bridge! Captain at the helm

 

 

Typical view on the bay -
wooden ship and modern freighter

We dropped the sails before heading up the river to Baltimore. The crew, and a couple of the more eager guests, headed up the mast to tightly furl the sails. We motored through the remnants of the Key Bridge (the one that collapsed a year ago) and into the ship's permanent home. My brother-in-law came to get us, saving us the train ride home. It seemed warm and sunny once we were at the dock!

Going aloft to furl the sails

 

 

Bridge remnants - eerie!

 So, the verdict is, it wasn't the best trip ever, but it beat staying home! Sadly, my phone is permanently wonky, but I was able to use it on the last day to take more pictures. I got a new phone yesterday, (I had been contemplating the upgrade anyway - it's a significantly better camera, and who knows what's happening with imports) and spending the day setting the new one up seemed as ambitious as I needed to be for the entire day. I was still tired!  

BIL admiring the boat

There may be more trips like this in my future. This one, while disappointing as far as sailing went, showed me that the right and sufficient clothes make a huge difference. Standing around will be colder than moving around. And, this trip had very little disruption of my sleep - up most of the night Sunday night/Monday morning in the rain, but a good night's sleep both Monday and Tuesday nights. There is a lot of ladder-climbing required aboard ship, and that went well. All the work I've done to strengthen both legs has paid off!

Input

My morning mass endoggenment
I have the ipad and coffee right there,
but it takes two hands to pet two dogs

As our world is burning down around us, I've been thinking a lot about modifying my consumer behavior - both where I spend money and where I get news and entertainment. I've had a ritual for a number of years now, in retirement, where I rise relatively early, let the dogs out while making coffee, and then settle down with my ipad to check in with the world. (First the dogs pile on me for a morning pet fest, topping up my oxytocin levels that decline overnight.) I have my routine: texts (they don't wake me up if they come in while I'm asleep), emails, blogs of people I know in real life. Then, a deep breath and the news. 

The news is bound to upset me, and I've learned to meter my input, checking my arousal level, and sometimes just walking away for a while. But this morning checkin is where I decide on my civic actions for the day. I write or call my federal representatives, or my state and local ones, almost every day first thing. (Not many calls, while I know they are supposed to be more important than emails, but I am very thoughtful in my phrasing in emails.) I might enter comments on some federal or local issue that has a public comment form available. I have a weakness for having to actually research a topic before commenting on it, clicking through to read source documents and think about it, so this is time consuming.

This is my main ipad screen with my news sources,
recently enhanced and rearranged so I can get at my most used
Links to email reps at the bottom

I have subscribed to the New York Times and the Washington Post for years, and since I got the ipad, I actually read or at least skim them every day. I am disappointed in their performance right now, but I still believe they have legitimate investigative journalists doing good work. (Their headline writers, on the other hand, suck.) Not only am I reluctant to deprive myself of these papers' content, but I am willing to pay to support them. I am working with many additional news sources as well, and increasingly I'm paying for them as well.

 I subscribe / pay for Vox, Pro Publica, the Baltimore Banner, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, New York mag, Heatmap, Wired and Rolling Stone. These last two have a surprising amount of relevant investigative journalism right now. I'm considering contributing to the AP - I only just realized it's not-for-profit. Heatmap is a climate newsletter someone I know writes for, I only read it sometimes. I subscribe to a large number of newsletters, most through SubStack, and I pay for a few of them.

I never watched TV news, ever. But I used to live on public radio. I've been contributing since right after college (the tote bag and coffee mug collections have finally been whittled down.)  I owned a radio for every room in my house. On weekends, I would turn them all on to the local station (WAMU, Shout Out!) while I did chores and projects. Now, I have Amaz** Alexas in many rooms, and I can with a voice comment turn them all to the station and hear it as I move throughout the house. But I want to meter my input of upsetting news, not allow random voices to appear and hit me in the gut with something with little warning. And so more often I tee up a podcast from my list, or a book, using the devices as bluetooth speakers for my phone. 

I will also play music throughout the house, either directly with a voice command, or again bluetoothed to  my phone. I also still have my big, dumb, ipod, loaded with many LPs and CDs I loaded into my computer as MP3s. Its battery has no staying power, but I have it plugged into a charger, and wired to a high quality speaker. Often I will put it on random shuffle from my entire collection of songs (about 100 hours worth!) and play it loudly while going about my business. It's pretty much guaranteed that every song on the ipod is something I liked enough to own at one time, and sometimes there is an unexpected pleasure from hearing something I remember only from long ago. Sweet!

Book options

Books are my big thing. I have a kindle and a kobo which are "epaper" readers. I much prefer them to long reading on the ipad - the screen is easier on my eyes and the device is much lighter to hold, and it's a great battery life for travelling. I find the epaper devices seamless to read on, a better experience than the printed page because I can adjust the font size and backlighting to the conditions. I'm trying to unwind myself from Amaz**, and it's hard. The public library offers a kindle option for most of their ebooks, and I usually go that route. In addition, a Prime membership gets me a couple extra free books (limited selection) every month. And many independent authors, self-published, are only available there. The kobo has fallen into dis-use. Recently, Bookshop.org has offered another alternative for buying ebooks. Their website allows you to choose an independent bookstore to profit from sales to you on their site. I've designated "Loyalty Bookstores", located in DC and Silver Spring. But their catalog is not extensive - especially in a back catalog if I find an author I like and want to catch up on all their books. And books bought through them have to be read on my ipad currently, though apparently they are in discusssions with Kobo. I have discovered there are some untethered chrome-operating system generic ereaders made. I was excited, until I researched on Reddit and found they are mostly made in China, system messages are in Chinese, and they require some savvy shenanigans to use. I'll stay tuned, but not ready to purchase yet.

I also listen to books a lot. Audible is the obvious choice there, and I've been on a subscription there since I bought my first ipod. Now the app is on my phone, but I can also download to my kindle, which can save phone battery while traveling. The Audible subscription level I'm on gives me access to a lot of no-extra-cost books, mostly back catalogues or indy authors. The library audiobooks are Libby, which works very well on the phone. I also use Libro.fm, which is affiliated with Bookshop.org and has the same deal of designating a local bookstore to share profits. I am currently also subscribed to Libro, but it has the same issues as Bookshop's ebooks in terms of fewer choices and no back catalog.

I use Goodreads to keep track of my reading, and to get updates from other people. It is owned by Amaz**, and when I finish and rate a book on the kindle, it automatically is registered in Goodreads. Books read elsewhere, or audiobooks, require entering manually. There are other social reading sites, Fable and StoryGraph, which are frankly better. Except, they don't have the automatic updating. I am a voluminous reader, and I like the convenience of the automatic updates. So I'm still on Goodreads for now. If my kindle reading declines, perhaps the convenience factor will too. (Both StoryGraph and Fable allow importing a Goodreads export, which captures all your history up to that point. But, that's a one-time thing and all future books have to input manually.)

John Scalzi has an excellent post that covers the nuances and pains of trying to disentangle from various Evil Empires run by oligarchs.  Two notable quotes: "Boycotts are a fuckin' slog, y'all" and "No ethical living under capitalism is a real thing". I'm sorting my way through the mess. I'm on Facebook and Instagram regularly, where I see posts from people I know in real life and want to keep up with (I post very rarely). But I'm not on Twitter nor Threads, though I have IDs there. I've been a Prime member, and I'm not turning that off right now. But I'm trying to go to other sources for things, with mixed success. Covid tests available for same-day delivery via Amaz** took eight days to arrive when ordered direct from the manufacturer. A maintenance item I needed was only available via Amazon - the manufacturer's website pointed only there. Whole Foods has been my major grocery store (visited more than once a week last year). I've joined the local food coop and checked out Mom's Organic Market (local chain, twice the distance). Both are less convenient - I often would drive to the WF parking lot, where I could also go to the farmer's market, hardware store (employee owned!), CVS, and library all in one trip. Shall I spend more gas driving around for errands? Nuance and trade offs, guys.

BlueSky has definitely hurt my sleep. I've turned on controls on my ipad - BlueSky is limited to 25 minutes a day, and the whole ipad turns off at 10 pm. Controls are easily over-ridden, but at least it's a conscious decision. 

Poor Quality Tears

AI generated image from the prompt
"drawing of poor quality tears"

"Poor quality tears" is a phrase that has been rattling around inside my head, a phrase that can be used as a metaphor in so many ways. My eye doctor diagnosed me with this. When I went to her because I had gummy, sticky, eyes, she diagnosed me with "dry eye" which seemed wrong when my eyes are runny. She explained my tears are very low quality, not lubricating my eyes, and so I over-manufacture them because my brain believes my eyes are dry. I've been crying poor quality tears, full of grief, but not able to articulate exactly why.

My nephew's girlfriend posted this on Bluesky: nothing can possibly prepare oneself for the crumbling sensation of feeling like any and all futures you dreamed of just vanished into thin air. She captured so close to what I've been feeling! Of course, she is young, was on the brink of significant career success, and now in very real danger from our government - it's all come crumbling down for her. I know her tears are the real thing, of very high quality. Her losses are real and significant.

I believe that, for a brief time in the past year, I've been in a golden spot where most things were going well. Kids healthy and on good tracks. Me healthy and wealthy, if not wise. My life was organized, moving along so that I felt I had purpose and pleasure in good proportions. A solid collection of true friends. Living a life full of convenience, comfortable habits that made moving along easy.

Now that has all come tumbling down. The world will not go back to the way it was. I'm mourning the loss, not just of my world of the past year, but also of the trajectory, the future world I imagined was coming. Too much has happened - the future has been changed. Not all of my losses come from the shitstorm that is our political world - the specter of chronic, severe illness is also with us now. I am privileged, mightily. I'm losing convenience and certainty. My life will be fine, though different. But I ache for the young people, for the uncertain future they face, instead of the golden one I imagined for them. I ache for those in real jeopardy, and those whose present has already been blighted. I ache for our world, changing in ways no-one would have believed a few months ago.

I'm angry, and I do what I can to fight. But just for this moment, I'm tired and I'm sad.

———Edited to add a tag from a fired fed in my neighborhood:

“ We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that’s waiting for us. – Joseph Campbell”

Stories of Stuff

Like most people, I have seasons of accumulation and seasons of divestment. Sometimes, it's even at the same time, I'm chucking and acquiring all at once, in different categories. 

In my fifties, I desperately wanted to renovate my basement, but the huge barrier was getting rid of all of the stuff that had accumulated there, from my several moves and my mother's big downsizing into an apartment. I worked away at it, and finally declared defeat and hired someone to finish the job. "Just get rid of it, and keep it out of the landfill" I said. By then, I had picked through it, and successfully disposed of most items of value. But some stuff I wasn't prepared to sort or part with, and so it all went into boxes to be stored in a shed in the back yard until the renovation was complete. Then, when my beautiful basement was complete, I sorted before allowing anything back in. Much stuff was gotten rid of. The basement was furnished, but uncluttered.

Then, my mother died.  Not tragically, at 92 she was just beginning to fail, but suddenly, and unexpected at that particular time. Among the tasks that fell to me was the cleaning out of her apartment. 

I was pretty organized back when I started in the storage unit

"Gosh, she has a lot of nice stuff! I mean, it's really nice, but it's a lot!" was the universal comment that came from everyone that came in to help. Yes, yes it was. I had embraced the philosophy of minimalism (though not entirely the practices, in fairness). All this very nice stuff. What to do with it?  I wrote about the struggles at the time.

I'm now down to the last remaining items in the storage unit I rented. To get it cleared out, I brought several boxes home, where they are cluttering up my office and spare bedroom. I'm done with most of the sentimentality that made me want to hang on to things. But, I do have sadness for the stories that attach to the objects. I had an idea years ago - about the time I retired, before my mother died, of using a blog as the place to capture the stuff and tell the stories. I even started the documentation when I retired. I had a big box of awards I had gotten at work, and I was never going to hang them up on the wall at home. So I photographed them, and blogged about them, in a separate blog. But I never published it, and shortly after, overwhelm hit me and I never got back to it.

But now I have picked it up again. I have some objects I am going to dispose of, and the blog posts are partly advertisements! Other things, I'll just write about without trying to flog them off on anyone. They may be gone already, anyway.

So, take a look at my Stories of Stuff blog.

 

Quick Trip to California

 I went out to Santa Cruz to assist my girl with some medical and logistical issues. This was my third trip to Santa Cruz, and the second where I stayed in the very lovely seaside motel. I ended up in the exact same room - probably their smallest, set aside for single cheapish travelers. 

The first sunrise, from just outside the room.
Part of the pier washed away just before Christmas!

 

The motel gave us sparkling wine, roses and chocolate
for Valentine's Day!

From the room, I have a view of the ocean (actually, Monterey Bay). With the window open, I can hear the surf and sometimes even the honking of the seals that hang out there. Even though this is the Pacific Ocean, due to the curving of the coastline, my view is to the south east. In February, that puts the rising sun directly in front of my window. As an east coast person, I was awake for every sunrise.

Second sunrise. Absolutely spectacular! I couldn't look away!

 The visit was great! My grown girl is a joy and a delight. We had several great meals, some successful and some unsuccessful shopping for her up coming semester in Australia, and mixed medical updates with a lot of uncertainty. I am now familiar with the area, and when my girl was busy I was able to amuse myself nicely in the lovely seaside town. There is a pleasure in going back to a place - I don't know it well, there is lots still to discover, but there are also known pleasures to revisit. 

 

Surfers! Many, all in wetsuits, shortly before sunset
Taken from the motel garden

We made an excursion down to Carmel-by-the-Sea, a precious rich-people's enclave with galleries and shops that were fun to browse. We amused ourselves looking up houses on Zillow- the cheapest we found, smaller than my small house, was $2 million! There, we had the best meal - a micro brewery that had a terrific fancy vegan bean-and-eggplant burger, and a smash burger for me.

Third sunrise - duller, but the Boardwalk amusement park was lit up!

 

On the beach at Carmel

I was fairly profligate in spending on this trip. My return flight was scheduled to depart at 6:20 am from an airport an hour away from Santa Cruz. I did that which you are advised never to do: pre-paid for a tank of gas to save the time of hunting for an open gas station near the airport at 5 am. (We managed to put 350 miles on the rental car burning a lot of gas; I figure this option cost me only $20 but saved me twenty minutes.)  In addition, when I booked the flights, I was offered an upgrade to first for the smallest increment I've seen. (I have a jillion miles on United because of the affiliate credit card, and charging some college tuition on it.) So I went for it! This was my first time in domestic first class in 25 years. (In my years working at the airline, I often flew standby in first class.) Judgement: nice to have less hassle overall and a bit more space, but truly not worth it.

First class pre-ordered hot breakfast

 

Last sunrise of the trip - fabulous!