I went to see the movie Into the Wild with my brother on Thursday. The movie is based on the book of the same name by John Krakauer, and we had both read the book a while back. The movie’s soundtrack is also done by Eddie Vedder, so that was another draw.
The movie was quite good. For those that don’t know the story, it details the life of a 23 year old that leaves the world behind after graduating college. He gives away $24,000 earmarked for his graduate degree, burns the rest of his money, abandons his car and starts backpacking/hitching his way around the western United States. He kayaks down to Mexico on the Colorado, works a farm in South Dakota, and hangs out with some modern day hippies in Arizona. Though he spends about a year bouncing around, his ultimate destination is Alaska to see the wilderness and to live off the land.
A big part of me sees the draw of this type of life. I have Thoreau’s desire to “live life deliberately” off in a cabin in the woods. I enjoy walking away from the world’s comforts and responsibilities when I can - to slow things down, to simplify things. I have particularly enjoyed my one and two week biking/camping trips, though we certainly weren’t without some of life’s comforts. As my friends consider camper trailers, I continue to resist leaving the tent life behind because I truly enjoy cooking over the fire or fighting with my 50 year old gas stove.
There was a great PBS series some years ago about a man who moves to the Alaska wilderness to see if he can make it for a year. He brought a camera along and filmed his progress as he builds a log home and lives off the land. His year-long experiment turns into a decades long way of life, as he stays there until his age and health force him to come back to society. I need to see if I can find the series on DVD. From my memory of it, the guy reminds me a bit of my father-in-law.
As I was heading out to see the movie, the wife says something like “now make sure you come back”. She understands the draw heading off to the woods has for me. It is just a dream really, but a nice one to hang on to. For now I am satisfied for my little trips into the woods, not into the wild. I’m not sure I’m ready to kill dinner just yet.
October 13, 2007
October 12, 2007
Friday's Eco-tip
This Friday's eco-tip is brought to you by Clff Bar. I need to dust off my old hybrid bike and get some panniers. There are plenty of shops within 2 miles of home.
http://www.2milechallenge.com/ride/
http://www.2milechallenge.com/ride/
October 11, 2007
If it ain't Bud, it ain't sh**
Coors and Miller are looking merge their U.S. operations. They are hoping this will help them compete. If the merger is approved, 80% of the U.S. beer market would be controlled by two companies.
More disturbing is that Anheuser-Busch already controls just under half the market. It is just so wrong.
More disturbing is that Anheuser-Busch already controls just under half the market. It is just so wrong.
It's what's on the outside that counts
Some are making a stink because Barack Obama doesn't wear a flag pin on his lapel. Now we need to spend time asking all the candidates what they think and how often they wear their pin.
Barack's response - "My attitude is that I'm less concerned about what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart. You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and ideals." I would have to agree.
Oh, and Google is saluting communism.
Barack's response - "My attitude is that I'm less concerned about what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart. You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and ideals." I would have to agree.
Oh, and Google is saluting communism.
October 8, 2007
The results are in
Bellingham Half Marathon
Sean 2:01:22
Tami 2:07:35
Wendy 2:22:08
Cherie 2:35:54
Congrats to all, and to a new half marathon PR by Tami! She shaved off 7:21 off our time at Whidbey in April.
Weather.com reports that winds were between 21-27 mph while we were running, with much higher gusts. My Polar watch recorded that we climbed about 700' as well. Great job everyone on a windy and hilly day.
Sean 2:01:22
Tami 2:07:35
Wendy 2:22:08
Cherie 2:35:54
Congrats to all, and to a new half marathon PR by Tami! She shaved off 7:21 off our time at Whidbey in April.
Weather.com reports that winds were between 21-27 mph while we were running, with much higher gusts. My Polar watch recorded that we climbed about 700' as well. Great job everyone on a windy and hilly day.
October 7, 2007
An odd combination
When we were unpacking our food Friday night, these two were next to each other in one of my friend's boxes. I thought it was funny. All part of being "Team Drunken Promise".
Bellingham Half Marathon
I am the proud owner of a new half marathon PR!
It was the inagural running of the Bellingham Bay Marathon. There were a few attractive things about this run. One of our friends grew up in Bellingham, and we always enjoy hanging out at his Mom's property. Along with the marathon and half marathon, the event also had a 10k. Something for everyone! We had three people walk the 10k and four of us running the half. Plus it is always cool to do a first-time event.
We headed up Friday night, so we had Saturday to relax and get settled. The packet pickup was just that, no expo. No cool running gadgets to spend money on. We had a traditional pasta dinner and some tasty beverages. While we were having dinner, the weather turned ugly. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the rain was coming down. Lots off branches were coming down in the wind. It was not looking good for tomorrow.
In the morning, the wind was still blowing pretty hard, but the rain had subsided. We bundled up and headed down to the start line near the waterfront, and the wind was even worse by the water. A whole line of porta-potties had been blown over (not pretty). I had jumped online to check the weather, and I was pretty sure we were going to get rained on before we were done. We were all pretty bundled up. The walkers headed out at 7:30 and the runners at 8:00.
The route was nice, running through Fairhaven, along the waterfront, and up through a shwanky neighborhood before doubling back. It was relatively hilly, but mostly in the first half. We were also running into the wind in the first half, so the route home was much easier. My IT band issues resurfaced in the last 2 miles and the last mile or so was back into the wind, so the end was a little tough.
I really didn't have a definite time goal in mind. I haven't been running regularly and the farthest I had run was an 8 miler five weeks ago. The runs I have done recently have gone pretty well though, so I had some hope. Outside of the knee trouble, the day went pretty well. I kept a pretty steady pace throughout. My previous best was 2:14:56 so I was hoping for around 2:10 if all went well. I came in today at 2:01:22, so I was pretty happy. So now I'm only 3:32 from my current half marathon goal.
It was the inagural running of the Bellingham Bay Marathon. There were a few attractive things about this run. One of our friends grew up in Bellingham, and we always enjoy hanging out at his Mom's property. Along with the marathon and half marathon, the event also had a 10k. Something for everyone! We had three people walk the 10k and four of us running the half. Plus it is always cool to do a first-time event.
We headed up Friday night, so we had Saturday to relax and get settled. The packet pickup was just that, no expo. No cool running gadgets to spend money on. We had a traditional pasta dinner and some tasty beverages. While we were having dinner, the weather turned ugly. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the rain was coming down. Lots off branches were coming down in the wind. It was not looking good for tomorrow.
In the morning, the wind was still blowing pretty hard, but the rain had subsided. We bundled up and headed down to the start line near the waterfront, and the wind was even worse by the water. A whole line of porta-potties had been blown over (not pretty). I had jumped online to check the weather, and I was pretty sure we were going to get rained on before we were done. We were all pretty bundled up. The walkers headed out at 7:30 and the runners at 8:00.
The route was nice, running through Fairhaven, along the waterfront, and up through a shwanky neighborhood before doubling back. It was relatively hilly, but mostly in the first half. We were also running into the wind in the first half, so the route home was much easier. My IT band issues resurfaced in the last 2 miles and the last mile or so was back into the wind, so the end was a little tough.
I really didn't have a definite time goal in mind. I haven't been running regularly and the farthest I had run was an 8 miler five weeks ago. The runs I have done recently have gone pretty well though, so I had some hope. Outside of the knee trouble, the day went pretty well. I kept a pretty steady pace throughout. My previous best was 2:14:56 so I was hoping for around 2:10 if all went well. I came in today at 2:01:22, so I was pretty happy. So now I'm only 3:32 from my current half marathon goal.
October 5, 2007
Another doper caught
Marion Jones has admitted to taking steroids. She began taking "the clear" before her 5 medal performance in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She claims she only found out that she was taking steroids when she stopped in 2002. She will be arrested for lying to federal authorities. Article here.
Another in a long line of disappointing stories. I apparently missed the announcement that Floyd Landis lost his hearing and is now banned for two years. I still remember watching his performance that day to snatch back the Tour de France. It was inspiring, but now tainted. I still like to believe he is innocent.
In this year's Tour, more doping was exposed. Alexander Vinokourov made a couple of "heroic" comebacks, only to be found to have doped his blood a couple of days later. Barry Bonds still hasn't confessed, so his home run record may stand.
It is to the point where any athlete that does something extraordinary is assumed to be guilty of some sort of doping. You don't want to get too excited about their performance until the tests come back.
Another in a long line of disappointing stories. I apparently missed the announcement that Floyd Landis lost his hearing and is now banned for two years. I still remember watching his performance that day to snatch back the Tour de France. It was inspiring, but now tainted. I still like to believe he is innocent.
In this year's Tour, more doping was exposed. Alexander Vinokourov made a couple of "heroic" comebacks, only to be found to have doped his blood a couple of days later. Barry Bonds still hasn't confessed, so his home run record may stand.
It is to the point where any athlete that does something extraordinary is assumed to be guilty of some sort of doping. You don't want to get too excited about their performance until the tests come back.
Friday's Eco-tip
Avoid products that are packaged for single use (i.e., drinks, school lunches, candy, cat and dog food, etc.). Instead, buy in bulk and transfer the products to your own reusable containers. Many health food stores have bulk bins where they sell everything from grains to cereal to cleaning products.
Try to avoid any small packaging. Ironically, the smaller the package, the greater the waste.
Try to avoid any small packaging. Ironically, the smaller the package, the greater the waste.
October 3, 2007
Marathon Haikus
Found while surfing the net
Training ain't easy
Yet I signed up anyway...
What was I thinking?
Nursing inflamed joints
What is best form of treatment?
Yes. Ibuprofen.
Start a little slow
Keep steady pace in middle
The clock will thank you
The rabbit learns soon
The joy of meeting strangers
Passing from behind
Poor decision: I
had another glass of wine.
Dehydration sucks.
I'm at mile eighteen,
someone hands me goo on stick:
Vaseline tastes BAD!!
October 2, 2007
Need a RAM upgrade, or maybe a new motherboard
So I’m running around Lake Sacajawea again the other day. The running trail dips in toward the lake to pass under the bridges so you don’t need to wait for traffic. Very nice touch. The bridges are not terribly new, and the posts supporting the structure are large posts similar to pier supports. They are treated with the same chemicals and have that dock/waterfront smell. I tried to remember what the treatment was called. I kept running, kept passing under bridges, kept waiting for that sensory memory to kick in and give me the name of the treatment. Nothing.
It was a word used to know, and now it was gone. I began wondering how many other things have fallen out. More importantly, if my brain capacity is finite (it is), what information bumped out the name of the wood treatment. Was it more important or more useful than the treatment name?
I’m driving down the road the next day. A song comes on the radio that I haven’t heard in probably 10 years. I knew every word. I couldn’t even remember what the song was until the chorus rolled around, but I remembered every word.
The brain is an amazing thing, something we will probably never fully understand. How does it work, how are things stored - what to leave in, what to leave out. Why as you age does the long-term memory improve and the short-term memory degrade? Will I ever turn to my wife and ask, “Do I like this?”
P.S. the word came to me a day and a half later - creosote. The song was “Don’t Let it End” by Styx.
It was a word used to know, and now it was gone. I began wondering how many other things have fallen out. More importantly, if my brain capacity is finite (it is), what information bumped out the name of the wood treatment. Was it more important or more useful than the treatment name?
I’m driving down the road the next day. A song comes on the radio that I haven’t heard in probably 10 years. I knew every word. I couldn’t even remember what the song was until the chorus rolled around, but I remembered every word.
The brain is an amazing thing, something we will probably never fully understand. How does it work, how are things stored - what to leave in, what to leave out. Why as you age does the long-term memory improve and the short-term memory degrade? Will I ever turn to my wife and ask, “Do I like this?”
P.S. the word came to me a day and a half later - creosote. The song was “Don’t Let it End” by Styx.
October 1, 2007
Quote
"Your mind is a greater limiter to what you can achieve than your body ever will be," - Mark McCampbell, Seattle, WA - from "Late Bloomers: Age is Just a Number,"
The new plates are here!
I have changed the license plates on my truck. I have had various personalized plates for the last 13 or so years. Washington has begun issuing “special design plates” which can show your support of schools, organizations and hobbies. I had been waiting until you could also personalize the plates before getting one, but the state has been dragging its feet.
So anyway, I am back to being a number, but supporting the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.
So anyway, I am back to being a number, but supporting the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.
This Weekend
Well the book club was a success, or as one of our readers put it, the “wine club”. We had a couple new faces that were really faces from long ago. We had a great time catching up before we repaired to dinner and then discussion of the books.
The discussion wasn’t quite as good as last time, mostly I think because people didn’t enjoy the books quite as much this time around. The Glass Castle is the memoir of some neglectful/delusional/drunk parents and their suffering children. The kids were extremely intelligent and were able to break free of the family one by one when they became juniors in high school. They grew to depend on each other early and late in life, as their parents were essentially worthless.
Many of the readers found the story irritating and frustrating, but it was a good read. In the beginning of the story, I almost found myself envious of pieces of their vagabond life. A common complaint was “why didn’t they do something”, i.e. get out of this abusive situation. I find myself thinking about what I would do, but in reality this is me thinking as a 40 year old, not as a 10 year old. Would I have the strength then to get out? The book actually deals with this pretty well when one of the daughters takes over while the mother is out of town.
The Traveler was the thriller with some “big brother” themes to it. Not the best thriller out there, but I found it pretty interesting. The technology of the book is pretty much here already. Not everyone finished the book, so the discussion was pretty limited. The book is supposed to be the first in a trilogy, and it was good enough for me to pick up the next one.
Sunday started pretty lazily (probably the wine). And it was raining. I had some things to do outside, so I checked weather.com to see how long the rain would last. The radar was green (rain) everywhere with no end in sight. So I put on my work clothes and headed out.
The first task was to clean out the bed of the truck. There were some things I had picked up from my father-in-law’s storage that I hadn’t unloaded yet. The next step was to take the canopy off of the truck for the next trip down. I have had the canopy on for over 7 years and it has never come off. I originally didn’t like getting one, but I needed it for carrying around tools for work. The wife was inside listening to a presentation on fabulous vacuum cleaner. Some neighbor kid (20 something) wanted to try out his sales technique, and the wife took pity.
So anyway, I was on my own to get the canopy off. It is a bit heavy, and of course awkward. It took some prying just to get it unstuck from the bed of the truck. Seven years of heat and weather is pretty good glue for the weather-stripping. It actually took up some paint. I crawled up under it and did my best Atlas impersonation and lifted and spun the canopy so now it was sideways on the bed. Now I had to get it down. Some towels and patience and I had it slid off and walked across the side yard. I have found I am a pretty good MacGyver when figuring out how to get something done. For a while building decks I was on my own, and you have to get kinda creative when doing things that should be a two-man job.
As I was wet already, I started trimming back one of our trees so that our yard waste can would be full for Monday’s pick up. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but the wife said it looked better than when I started. By the time I headed back in, the sales presentation was over. It had gone way over on time, something the “kid” needs to work on. True to his word though, he hadn’t tried to sell it to her - she had to ask what the vacuum cost. The wife was in no way tempted to buy the system as the price tag with all the attachments was $2,000. He will have a tough time out there
The discussion wasn’t quite as good as last time, mostly I think because people didn’t enjoy the books quite as much this time around. The Glass Castle is the memoir of some neglectful/delusional/drunk parents and their suffering children. The kids were extremely intelligent and were able to break free of the family one by one when they became juniors in high school. They grew to depend on each other early and late in life, as their parents were essentially worthless.
Many of the readers found the story irritating and frustrating, but it was a good read. In the beginning of the story, I almost found myself envious of pieces of their vagabond life. A common complaint was “why didn’t they do something”, i.e. get out of this abusive situation. I find myself thinking about what I would do, but in reality this is me thinking as a 40 year old, not as a 10 year old. Would I have the strength then to get out? The book actually deals with this pretty well when one of the daughters takes over while the mother is out of town.
The Traveler was the thriller with some “big brother” themes to it. Not the best thriller out there, but I found it pretty interesting. The technology of the book is pretty much here already. Not everyone finished the book, so the discussion was pretty limited. The book is supposed to be the first in a trilogy, and it was good enough for me to pick up the next one.
Sunday started pretty lazily (probably the wine). And it was raining. I had some things to do outside, so I checked weather.com to see how long the rain would last. The radar was green (rain) everywhere with no end in sight. So I put on my work clothes and headed out.
The first task was to clean out the bed of the truck. There were some things I had picked up from my father-in-law’s storage that I hadn’t unloaded yet. The next step was to take the canopy off of the truck for the next trip down. I have had the canopy on for over 7 years and it has never come off. I originally didn’t like getting one, but I needed it for carrying around tools for work. The wife was inside listening to a presentation on fabulous vacuum cleaner. Some neighbor kid (20 something) wanted to try out his sales technique, and the wife took pity.
So anyway, I was on my own to get the canopy off. It is a bit heavy, and of course awkward. It took some prying just to get it unstuck from the bed of the truck. Seven years of heat and weather is pretty good glue for the weather-stripping. It actually took up some paint. I crawled up under it and did my best Atlas impersonation and lifted and spun the canopy so now it was sideways on the bed. Now I had to get it down. Some towels and patience and I had it slid off and walked across the side yard. I have found I am a pretty good MacGyver when figuring out how to get something done. For a while building decks I was on my own, and you have to get kinda creative when doing things that should be a two-man job.
As I was wet already, I started trimming back one of our trees so that our yard waste can would be full for Monday’s pick up. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but the wife said it looked better than when I started. By the time I headed back in, the sales presentation was over. It had gone way over on time, something the “kid” needs to work on. True to his word though, he hadn’t tried to sell it to her - she had to ask what the vacuum cost. The wife was in no way tempted to buy the system as the price tag with all the attachments was $2,000. He will have a tough time out there
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