It’s all I can do not to jump on the scale lately, but I promised myself no more than once a month, and I’m sticking to that. It’s tempting, though, because just in the last couple weeks I am starting to wonder if things are actually moving. I feel more toned, and I’ve noticed clothes feeling somewhat looser. Read more
Morbid Musical Notes
I happened upon the Internet Wayback Machine site today through a random series of clicks and started looking for archived versions of my blog. Sadly when I changed hosts I did it in a huff and didn’t execute it well and have (I’m pretty sure) lost everything before late 2008. Most of what’s archived is only the beginnings of posts, not the full posts, but I did find this one, which was posted in its entirety. Read more
Categories: Life, Skydiving
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The Next Big Adventure
Yep, that photo above will be me in mid-August. I’m finally knocking something off my bucket list – a rafting trip on the Grand Canyon with Outdoors Unlimited. After considering the options (full trip, Upper Canyon, or Lower Canyon) I decided on the Lower Canyon. Reason #1 – it’s the right length at 9 days. I felt like 15 days might be a bit much considering the longest trip I’ve done so far has been 5 days. Reason #2 – it starts with a hike into the canyon rather than ending with a hike out of the Canyon. The idea of doing a long, downhill hike to start the trip was more appealing to me than doing a long, uphill hike to end the trip. I’m pretty sure that all I’ll want to do at the end is head home to shower and turn into a pile of goo. Read more
Categories: Travel
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I’m Back
So, after all that angst, I made a skydive today. It was rather non-eventful, a moderately successful 12-way (exit funneled, but we got the first point back together). Unfortunately, the wind picked up and I decided to scratch the second jump; as the remainder of the group (many had dropped out because of the wind) was planning the third dive, the whole dropzone went on a wind hold. But really, I must say, Jump 788 was pretty much like the 787 before it – I was comfortable and happy and glad to be back. Read more
Categories: Life, Skydiving
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First Quarter Check-In
Back in early January, I set some goals, that included goals for that day, week, and quarter. Here were are at the end of the first quarter and it’s time to check in. Read more
Categories: Life
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A MacArthur Genius Who Can’t Spell
Or, the death of copy editors…
On a hot summer day in 2007 I flew into the John Wayne International Airport in Burbank, California, rented a cheap compact car and headed east on Route 10, away from the smog and suburbia of Los Angeles toward the Mohave Desert and the Arizona State line.
That’s the first sentence of Chapter 5 of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind our Obsession With Bottled Water by Peter Gleick. There are, by my count, two glaring errors* in that sentence, one factual, one spelling. There are two errors in a sentence that is really a throwaway sentence, one that sets the reader up for the author’s visit to a bottled water processing plant. Read more
Categories: Life, Nostalgia
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
I read this article in Wise Bread (a fantastic blog, btw) in which the author says recycling is his lowest priority (after reducing and reusing, of course). Ever since I read it I’ve been thinking of how I do on that front, and it’s been particularly top of mind as I did a bunch of spring cleaning yesterday (good activity for a dreary Saturday).
Categories: Life
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Focusing on the good stuff
We went up to SkyDance yesterday for Safety Day and with the hope of jumping (the forecast was iffy but turned out to be totally wrong as it was a gorgeous day). I also say hoped in my case because I was waffling between ambivalent and apathetic about getting into the air, and I’ve always been a firm believer that if I’m not feeling it, I’m not jumping. I hoped that would change being up there, but … it didn’t. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little chicken; I’m also a believer in getting right back onto horses that you fall off … and since I didn’t have that opportunity, what with having to wait to recover, I’ve had plenty of time to overthink my comeback. I’ve got no regrets at all about being conservative about my injury, but I’ve long since run out of physical excuses for not jumping. Read more
Categories: Life, Nostalgia, Skydiving
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Where Did March Come From?
I realized I haven’t written since we came back from Reno. I guess things have been kinda busy, at least during the week. I’ve had two two-day trips to Pasadena (one each of the last two weeks). The weekends have been relaxing, but still fun. This weekend we saw Rango today (fun movie!), and worked on some reading this afternoon. Yesterday we started the day with a walk around the lake, ending at the Farmer’s Market – a nice way to start a sunny day before the clouds rolled in later in the afternoon.
Otherwise, not much to report, I suppose. But if anyone’s still reading this, at least you know I’m still alive and kicking!
Categories: Life
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Back at Sea Level
We decided to take our chances with the drive back from Reno yesterday; I’m glad we did. We were able to get out of Reno around noon. We made a quick stop at an auto parts store to pick up some tire cables (figured we’d get a much better deal there than closer to the pass), and filled the tank up with gas. Chains were required for about a 30 mile stretch, but it seemed surprising that they were – the roads really weren’t bad at all and there wasn’t a lot of snow falling while we were driving through the higher elevations. Still, of course we complied with the chain-up requirement, and Sean was kind enough to do the dirty work of putting the cables on. Read more