Vital Statistics

Lower deck finished

Bike miles in 2022: 0

Aches & pains: sciatica, right shoulder, left knee

Current reading: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Recent listening: Talking Heads, Making Sense with Sam Harris, Very Bad Wizards

Recent viewing: Air Disasters, Call the Midwife, Seinfeld, Five Days at Memorial, The Patient

Recent playing: Wordle, Quordle, Duotrigirdle

Recent events: Columbia River Gorge adventure, annual birthday party, first public performance, Thomas visited, new glasses (goggles)

Visited family in Iowa, Graham & Kate got engaged, several family members got Covid

Recently accomplished: Finished replacing lower deck, fixed ice maker, cleaned shed roof, carpet cleaning

Imperative To Do: Fix the Spector, fall lawn care, clean the gutters, paint touch-ups

Vital Statistics

With my mom in Iowa

Bike miles in 2022: 0

Aches & pains: sciatica

Current reading: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Recent listening: Hidden Brain, Planet Money, This American Life, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Making Sense with Sam Harris

Recent viewing: The Sandman, Stranger Things, Hustle, For All Mankind, Surface, Trying, Five Days at Memorial, Black Bird, Synecdoche New York

Recent playing: Wordle, Quordle, Duotrigirdle

Recent events: Visited family in Iowa, Graham & Kate got engaged, several family members got Covid

Recently accomplished: Deck demolition, credit card churning, new glasses, yard debris disposal, landfill trip, lumber purchase, bought “new” grill

Imperative To Do: Lower deck replacement, fix ice maker, clean shed roof, clean gutters, fix the Spector

Vital Statistics

At Devil’s Punchbowl

Bike miles in 2022: 0

Aches & pains: sciatica, ankles

Current reading: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Recent listening: Hidden Brain, Planet Money, This American Life, Dark Side of the Mule, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers

Recent viewing: Better Call Saul (season 6), The Wonder Years, Nova, Frontline, Made for Love, Barry, Hacks, The Flight Attendant, The Time Traveler’s Wife

Recent playing: Wordle, Quordle, Duotrigirdle

Recent events: Mini-vacation on the Oregon Coast, visits from the Codys and John January, working at the office, Kate’s graduation, Graham’s birthday

Recently accomplished: Replaced jack in the Ibanez, lawn mowing, Portland Heritage trees, called before I dug, mail for Mother, paid taxes, planted grass and root vegetables

Imperative To Do: Go on a bike ride, fix Graham’s bass, store CDs, Graham’s interview, buy new grill, landfill trip

Road Trip 2010 revisited

Awhile back I wrote about a potential future road trip we might take in the summer of 2010. The intent was to visit family and see the sights along the way on a trip that encircled nearly all of the continental U.S. According to my calculations then, the trip would involve 16 days for just the driving, never mind time taken for family and recreation. Given the unlikelihood of having 4 weeks of vacation by next summer (I have about 2 days at this moment), here is a revised itinerary:

  1. Portland
  2. This 1326 mile length will take two days. Stopping point will likely be Salt Lake City.
  3. Colorado Springs (Tina’s dad, Leroy)
    378 miles/5.5 hours
  4. Albuquerque (Jan and Tom)
    1010 miles/14 hours
  5. Houston (home to Tina’s grandfather, TQ)
    354 miles/6 hours
  6. New Orleans (stopping in Baton Rouge to visit my nephew, Wally, for a few hours)
    546 miles/8 hours
  7. Jacksonville (stopping in Pensacola to visit cousin Beth)
    139 miles/2 hours
  8. Savannah (Mardy and Steve)
    765 miles/12 hours
  9. Cleveland (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
    344 miles/6 hours
  10. Chicago (various sights)
    377 miles/6.5 hours
  11. Riceville (stopping in Dubuque to visit my old friends, the Sunleafs
  12. This stretch of 1800 miles is a two or three day drive. Stopping points will be dynamic.
  13. Portland

That reduces the trip to 12 or 13 driving days. I would expect we would take extra days in Cleveland and Chicago and have all the equipment for your kids, although we could see the HOF in the morning and drive to Chicago in the evening. We’ll also need several days in Riceville for a probable family reunion.

Leaves were falling, just like embers

I’m sitting beneath the picnic shelter at the Wolf Lodge Campground in the beautiful Idaho panhandle near Lake Coeur d’Alene. Today it’s just me and the dog watching over the camp as everyone else in our party cavorts at the Silverwood Theme Park and Boulder Beach Water Park. I didn’t bring a laptop with me but the dog’s owners brought several so I bummed one for the day. The dog is completely deaf and not a good conversationalist so I will amuse myself with some blogging, assuming this HP laptop doesn’t drive me crazy first (windows keep popping up every minute and it chooses to ignore many of the letters I type).

Continue reading “Leaves were falling, just like embers”

Road trip 2010

Last week as I chatted with my newly discovered cousin, Beth, I pulled up Google Maps to get a better idea of where she is geographically. Specifically, I wondered how far she lived from my sister, Mardy. It didn’t take long before I realized that a killer road trip could be devised. My first pass at possible destinations yielded this list (see Glossary if you don’t know any of these names):

  1. Portland: Our home.
  2. San Francisco: Home to Uncle Ralph, Aunt Carol and cousins David and Danielle.
  3. Moreno Valley: Home to Maridee, Steve, Trisha and Michael.
  4. Phoenix: Home to Michelle, Ric, Xander and Wil.
  5. Albuquerque: Home to Jan and Tom.
  6. Austin: One of America’s music capitols. Need to find worthy venues to visit here.
  7. Houston: Home to TQ, Tina’s grandfather.
  8. New Orleans: Another of America’s music capitols. Will probably need a couple of days here. Any suggestions for family friendly spots?
  9. Pensacola: Home to Beth and her family.
  10. Jacksonville: Home to Mike, Micah and his family.
  11. Savannah: Home to Mardy, Steve, Barrett and Kendrick & his family. We should spend at least three days here.
  12. Charleston: My old stomping grounds and historic southern city.
  13. Washington, D.C.: Our nations capitol. We would want to spend more than one day here visiting monuments and historical curiosities.
  14. Philadelphia: A natural follow-up to a visit to D.C.
  15. New York: The boys have a long list of places they want to visit here so this might also take a few days.
  16. Cleveland: Home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  17. Madison: My cousins Dee and Jon live near here.
  18. Riceville: My little hometown where my 25th class reunion will be held in 2010.
  19. Colorado Springs: Tina’s cousins, Natians and Kelly live nearby.
  20. Salt Lake City: Much maligned but beautiful city.
  21. Portland: Our home.

Continue reading “Road trip 2010”

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2360
Van odometer: 150701
Weight lost (in pounds): 8
Hours of sleep last night: 7
Aches & pains: none
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
Recent listening: The Rising Tied by Fort Minor, The Shepherd’s Dog by Iron & Wine, This American Life, Wolfmother by Wolfmother
Recent viewing: Countdown, The 4400, Superbowl XLII
Recent playing: Peggle
Recently accomplished: cleaned cat boxes, recycling, paid bills, finished Holiday Road series, evaluated Quicken Online (fail), started new job
Imperative To Do: Sift through inbox, post office (Kent, Sue, Lala), phone calls, finish Best of 2007, test bike commute, join gym, 401k rollover, find new internet host

Holiday Road: Day 15

Friday, January 4

As I recounted earlier, snow and car accidents kept us from completing the final leg of our long journey home. We stayed overnight in Redding, CA, hoping that we would be able to make it home the next day. Discover step by step car restoration process by Classiq Cars services.

I woke at 4:30 am for an early morning reconnaissance mission up Interstate 5. When I reached the exit where we had been forced to turn around the day before and found that the roadblock had been removed, I concluded that the road was open and turned around. When I got back to the hotel, we roused the boys and departed Redding with no breakfast.

We hit the first snow as we ascended near Mount Shasta. About this time we noticed that we had acquired a small crack in the windshield on the passenger side. At first it wasn’t visible from the inside, but as we climbed we watched the crack grow! While we watched over a thirty second span, it stretched at least two more inches towards the center of the windshield. I turned down the defrost and it seemed to stop for the moment. It would continue to grow in fits and starts throughout the day whenever there were major differences in the inside and outside temperatures and later replace the windshield with the help of the autoglasstec services which specialize in this.

We had not put on the chains but we wouldn’t need them yet. A snow plow was less than half a mile ahead of us and when we reached what appeared to be the summit, he exited and headed back down from whence we came. At the same time, a snow plow from the other direction turned around at the same exit and blazed a trail for us going down.

Once we got back down to where it was raining, we stopped at a gas station to get fuel for the Scion and snacks for us. Since the pumps were covered by a canopy, I decided that it would be a good time to put on the new chains since we were certain to hit snow again at the Siskiyou Summit which was about 10 miles away. Unfortunately, my clever plan did not work as well as I would have liked. Because I had pulled to the forward-most pump, the front of the car (where the chains go on a front-wheel drive car) was sticking out from under the canopy. I had on the new raincoat which Tina had given me for Christmas and it worked perfectly, but my sweat pants were soon soaked as I struggled to put the chains on. Putting on chains requires quite a bit of knee-to-pavement contact, especially when one doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Unbeknownst to me, not all tire chains work the same and these were very unlike the set that I had bought and mastered for the van. Parts of the directions seemed vague until I was nearly done. When the meaning of “hooks up” became obvious, I removed the chains and started over again. After struggling with them for at least 45 minutes, we were finally ready to roll. I remembered the extra pair of dry pants from the night before and changed into them before we left. Now things were starting to fall into place!

It wouldn’t be long, though, before we began doubting our decision to chain up early. Driving the car over 45 mph caused a horrendous sound to come from the tires and Thomas pointed out that the directions said you shouldn’t drive over 40 mph with the chains. So we bump-bumped along for ten miles before we started seeing signs of snow. Soon, though, we felt good about our decision as we passed people trying to chain up in the cold. There were even entrepreneurs who were charging a fee to chain up other people’s cars. We drove right by the whole mess and continued on up to the pass.

There were no snowplows in sight this time but we traversed the pass at full speed (i.e. 40 mph) nearly the whole time and it was only about 45 minutes before we crossed the state line and descended into Ashland. After a delicious breakfast in Ashland, Tina took over the driving for the rest of the day while I napped. When I woke up Portland loomed in the distance and we faced afternoon rush hour on a Friday afternoon. It was only fitting, though, as it had seemed that the last hour was always the longest of each day of our entire journey.

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2360
Weight lost (in pounds): 22
Hours of sleep last night: 8
Hours billed last week: 0
Aches & pains: sciatic (when I stand or walk too long)
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees
Recent listening: NPR Story of the Day
Recent viewing: The Daily Show, Gilmore Girls, Incident at Loch Ness, The Year of the Yao, Tin Man, Countdown
Recent playing: Guitar Hero III (Wii), Peggle
Recently accomplished: cleaned cat boxes, recycling, paid bills
Imperative To Do: Sift through inbox, post office (Kent, Sue, Lala), sunglasses, InstantCake, phone calls, bike shop, return cans, finish Best of 2007, finish Holiday Road series