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Zero day

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:32:00 +0000

In hiker parlance, “zero day” means a day with the hiker spending two successive nights off trail. No hiking. A bit of a misnomer, as there is almost always a lot of work to be done: buying food and repackaging it, laundry, post office visit, route review, and lots of town food eating.

To me today it means nothing done. Zero. If I don’t take pain medication, I’m incapacitated by pain. If I take the pain erasers, I’m incapacitated by them. It is a loss of freedom. I rail against this loss.

Except about Republicans — and that’s understandable — I think that I seldom complain. But I do not like losing a day.

Walk well. God is love. At least I used to think so.

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Pain

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:32:42 +0000

Shingles.

Excruciating pain. The kind of pain that makes me want to shout, “It’s not fair!”

I usually go to the Veterans Affairs hospital in San Francisco, but wanted to get a diagnosis and treatment for the pain as soon as possible and went to the VA clinic in Oakland. Separate systems. Fill out forms. But. The staff were uniformly kind, quick, and professional. I am so very fortunate to have access to great medical care.

I am taking antivirals and serious pain medication, but there is still substantial pain.

My grandmother had shingles. She was a stoic woman. I never heard her complain. Until she had shingles. One of the ways she dealt with it was to write a poem about it. I wish I had a copy.

Walk well. God is love.

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Even more robins

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:57:27 +0000

Same spot. Rainy day. Maybe 50 robins flying around doing robin things. I had not seen this the prior three springs on Coolidge Avenue.

Walk well. God is love.

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4.8 ounces

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:24:24 +0000

The iPhone:

GPS device: I have already tested it with an upload to GPSMotionX app of Section A of the trail. Amazing. I can press a button and see my location relative to the trail. In seconds.
Telephone: with preloaded numbers of trail angels and vendors along the trail, and vendors for special items like shoes.
Access to files through attachments to POP email accounts
Camera: this is the big drawback for me. The quality is not that good.
Email for journaling
Web access for a number of things, including AsABat’s water report

I’ll carry it wrapped in a one quart freezer bag in a pocket on my hipbelt. I have yet to decide on recharding: whether to carry a solar charging system (5.8 ounces) or to recharge in towns as I did in 2008.

Walk well. God is love.

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The year of Vivaldi

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:46:21 +0000

Just for fun.

I thought I would embed a recording of one of the twelve movements of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons each month.

Winter II: Largo

I hope I remember.

Walk well. God is love.

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Generally morons

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:34:18 +0000

I saw some commercials today from General Motors: Buick and Cadillac. It was as if the ads had been done by college advertising students about imaginary products. General Motors has not changed. The company is still marketing gimmicks, not quality or innovation. It’s sickening. But this has been going on for decades. The solution: eliminate unions. Blame the powerless.

Walk well. God is love.

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Blue coyotes

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:12:11 +0000

I wish they weren’t blue. It’s not that they are unhappy, but that my camera in “program automatic” mode just happens to leave out the red and green information. More than 50 great pictures lost. Well, not necessarily great, but possibly usable.

I hiked from Kennedy Grove to Inspiration Point along the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Not my best hike. I got off trail (read: lost) twice. With written directions and signs. Twice. I have explanations, but they probably wouldn’t sound very plausible. The good thing about this, as I was making a GPS track is that it was an out and back hike. So. I made a second track: one without pauses or misdirection.

The trail has three distinct sections: along San Pablo Dam, the Eagles’ Nest Trail, and the Nimitz Road. As the trail goes along San Pablo dam, it is alternately grassy trail and paved road and moves through built up areas. Then the hike up Eagles’ Nest is a moderate to steep climb to Nimitz Road. Nimitz Road is paved and goes along the ridge top. And crowded.

But when I first got up there, I saw a coyote coming towards me. It veered off about 50 feet away, and another was coming from the other direction. First coyote goes into submission on its back. Then they part and continue in the direction they were first headed.

They are blue because my camera is malfunctioning. Not my favorite hike.

Walk well. God is love.

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Common ground

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:04:19 +0000

I heard Sister Helen Prejean give the homily at Mass at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco one day. There is a special light about her. She is best known as the nun who was the spiritual advisor to two men on Louisianna’s death row. And from the book she wrote about that experience. And from her portrayal by Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking.

The movie is showing on Hulu now and is one of my favorites. Sarandon and Sean Penn give some of the best performances ever captured on camera. And the writing is worthy of those performances.

Sarandon as Sr. Prejean and Penn as Matthew Poncelet are meeting for the first time. They are separated by a wire screen. Prejean comes from an upper middle class New Orleans family. Poncelet is poor, from a poor family. Prejean works in the projects in New Orleans. Poncelet is on death row. Prejean:

You and I have something in common.
What’s that?
We both live with the poor.

Art. Powerful art. Excruciatingly clear.

Walk well. God is love.

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Pencil and paper

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:12:22 +0000

I am thinking of disconnecting.

Apple Inc. has applied for a patent that will allow the company to force users of the company’s products to watch ads. To have to answer questions about the ad before proceeding. The advantage to the consumer will be lower prices for the product. I do not like this. Even the idea of it. The company that built its early image as thwarting a 1984 ideology is embracing it. My response to this is visceral.

Apple makes beautiful devices and elegant software. And I have considerable expertise using it.

In looking at my response to this patent filing, I thought, “I have no choice. I cannot make a switch to PCs; wouldn’t even want to. I’m stuck.” And then I thought, “No. Live simpler.” I am spending thousands of dollars each year for software, equipment, and bandwidth. I am thinking of an ultralight life.

A friend of mine — a very wealthy man — had a rotary dial telephone when he died a couple of years ago. No answering machine. No computer. No mobile telephone. And he lived very well. When I wanted to talk to John, I called. If he were there, he answered. If not, I called back.

I sense that I am at the point of living to support being connected.

Stamps, pencils, paper.

The problem is photography. I like pretty pictures, and I like taking pretty pictures. I will think about that.

I will consider this at least for a few days, but am likely to make a considerable change.

Walk well. God is love.

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Green Jello

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:12:57 +0000

Fifty years since I have eaten Jello. Today, though, it is one of the few things I can eat. As long as it is not red. I am to be subjected to a colonoscopy tomorrow.

So far I have drunk 32 ounces of water. Three times. One large bowl of Jello. At three, I am to drink a bottle of magnesium citrate. And then. A gallon of Colyte. In three hours.