A Work in Progress

For the last several years, I have navigated my life around what I like to call 'Wild-Ass Plans.'   A WAP is a goal, a plan, that doesn't have to be spectacular, just something you want to accomplish.  One should always be there, somewhere on a back burner.  Anything from starting a family, making a expensive but meaningful purchase, to going back to school or traveling to a new and exciting place. I firmly believe these things are essential to a meaningful life.  They have helped me be decisive on big things, helped me to be frugal, and helped me to strive toward a purpose driven life. The first and my favorite step of a WAP is to always say yes.  Despite what your friends, family, or colleagues say, if you want something- go out and get it. If someone questions your plan and your instinctive answer is "Why not?" then you are well on your way.  All you may need is a little spark in your mind. A little idea that becomes a (healthy) obsession.  Yes is...

Yesterday I witnessed something magic.  For the second time in my town, we hosted a High Wheel bicycle race.  This is a race between those huge one giant wheel/one small wheeled bicycles.  Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.  In fact, more awesome, I discovered, as I wandered through the huge crowd that had gathered for the occasion.  All sorts of people were there, and all stood for an hour, encouraging the racers as they went by.  These cyclists, due to the unusual fortitude required to sit five feet up on a wobbly bike with no brakes, have clear personalities.  There was the guy who fabricated his bike by hand into a work of art.  Another who wore (rather wisely) a full face helmet and was guided by the skull figurine welded to his handlebars.  The more traditional riders wore early 1900's garb and looked right at home atop their impractical velocipedes.  Well, at some point they were practical.  Until the chain drive was invente...

I've found that using 'I can't do that tomorrow, I'm driving a Lamborghini.' as an excuse is very satisfying, especially when it's true. Last week, with my dad and friends we went and participated in a super car driving experience.  It was about five minutes of driving bliss.  The track was set up in a parking lot, which doesn't sound glamorous, but they packed in as many turns as possible.  And when you're in a Lamborghini, that's what matters.   Although, I would have liked to drive it in a straight line for a longer time, just to see how fast I could brave.  It is a powerful car.  So powerful that when I did get to punch it on the straight, the speed pushed me back in the seat and my foot slightly off of the pedal.  If you're wondering, it was an automatic, or had stupid flappy paddle shifters.  I did a lap and a half with the paddles before the guy asked me if I wanted to switch.  "I don't know.  How am I doing?"  "No so w...

I love facebook, but it has its drawbacks, as we all know. Poised to turn 30, it is my generation whom has taken over this free version of classmates.com and made it what it is today: a place where we can all annoy each other based on accomplishments, vacations, jobs, spouses, and babies. I’ve seen pictures of babies I will never meet, weddings I didn’t attend, and vacations I didn’t go on. It’s really rather insane. While I love hearing about everyone’s successes and accomplishments, seeing your vacation pictures and keeping up with kids I rarely see, sometimes it’s all too much. Now I know that I’m guilty of too many pictures, too many meaningless updates, and too many ‘wish you were here’ posts, but...I don’t know, I’m empowered to complain. Here’s a list of things I’d consider banning if I were in charge of anything. 1. Baby development pictures. I know you’re excited about your baby and you should be! I just don’t want to see every moment of its gestation. Especial...

I recently acquired what I call my ‘pirate tooth,’ a crown of gold atop a, now humiliated molar. It was very expensive, so I like to show it off. It can’t be seen unless I pull my cheek back, so showing it off is difficult and gross. But all will appreciate my hard earned tooth! I have one, unrelated half crooked tooth in my mouth and when I first met my new dentist, she looked at me carefully from each side and then determined that the side of my smile without the offending tooth was my “better side.” Well, thank you, that is the angle used in all of my photo shoots. Then she suggested that I get invisalign for my one semi-crooked tooth which I entertained for a second before she said it was $4000. Then I laughed for five minutes, but what if I had two “better sides”? Anyway, back to the pirate tooth. I found the whole thing traumatic as I hate all things teeth and dentistry. Like many people, I have an irrational anxiety at the dentist. I guess I should stop hiding my anxi...

In cycling, if one rides 100 miles in a day, they call it a century. It sounds cool. When I did 50 miles for a charity ride last week, they called it 50 miles. I think it would be much better if cycling adopted cool names for smaller accomplishments with your velocipede. Such as 50 miles is a 5 decade. It can be applied to any number of miles under 100. "Yeah, I did a 7 decade yesterday, it was awesome." or, "I did a 2 decade! And I lived!" or, "I did a decade on my bike yesterday," he proudly sniffed. "Wasn't so bad." Anyway, I did 50 miles and it really wasn't so bad. Probably because I was slightly prepared, had good company, and the terrain was more or less flat, but I did survive. I'm not sure how I got roped into it, but, it was one of those situations where I knew I wouldn't regret saying 'yes.'  Only three days before, I bought my first proper road bike.  It's a 1983 trek, sold to me as 'vint...

I have some strict beliefs about running.  I really don't understand doing it for recreation.  Why run when bikes exist?  As a rule I only run away from things, or in the airport.  But I will modify that from now on having had to run to a pier to catch a boat.  Both my friend and I were running uncharacteristically late.  Well, we left on time, and the uncontrollable elements of a big city got in our way.  But we found ourselves arriving at the port for our boat to Victoria, Canada with literally minutes to spare as we parked the car.  So, I only run away from things, or toward things that will take me on a trip.  That adage is a work in progress. Running toward your transportation is an exhilarating way to start a holiday.  Then sitting in a boat for 3 hours is less exhilarating, but, as I love boats, I didn't mind.  I'm sorry, Canada, but it is easy to forget you are a foreign country.  I blithely put my passport back in ...

At 5000 feet in the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier National Park, one is still 9000 feet from the summit, in spring it makes rare, unscheduled appearances.  From the visitor center, we did glimpse the summit for a glorious 5-10 seconds, it's curved, snowy, outline barely discernible from the clouds behind it. Wind and snow decide how tall and how straight the trees grow here, and even in late May many struggle to peek out of the snow.  They are called krummholtz, a German word meaning twisted and crooked.  Shrouded in cloud, Mt. Rainier is a mysterious force.  It is considered an active volcano, which is more concerning having visited Mt. St. Helen's.  25 glaciers adorn the mountain which would melt in the case of an eruption, forming a violent mudflow that would travel for miles into populated areas.  But, that is unlikely.  Kind of. Even on a rainy day, the park is amazing. The mountain road to 'paradise' is windy and wonderful and full of view...

The Puget sound is the second largest estuary in the United States, behind the Chesapeake Bay.  Within the Puget Sound are the San Juan Islands.  We took a ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island, an upiside-down U shaped island, where we would be camping for the next four days.    Washington state has the largest ferry system in the US.  I think it's pretty awesome. Mostly because I love to travel by boat.  The only problem with the system is that there is no reservation system.  Therfore, when we arrived with an hour to spare before our boat, we were quite surprised to actually miss it because there were already so many people waiting.  Therefore we got to hang out at the ferry port for, well, quite some time.  Eventually we did get on a boat and even found our campsite at Moran State Park and set up before dark.  In the morning, we took the ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  This is a cute port town full of artists and...

The entire purpose of the trip out west wasn't to visit Astoria, Oregon, home of the Goonies, but it was a pretty important part.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  We drove west and turned onto the pacific coast highway, before us, over a cliff was my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.  We stopped on the first turnout and immediately saw a bald eagle.  This was just a prelude to the beauty before us.  From the wildflowers to the strange rock formations jutting out of the ocean, this was a beautiful sight.  The weather was perfect and there were stacks of waves forming on the bright blue water.  Okay, maybe I'm not good at describing it. So, here's a picture.  We then headed south to Oswold West state park to dip our toes in (as dipping anything more would have led to immediate hypothermia) at Smuggler's Cove.  It's a short walk through towering evergreens to the beach which boggled my East coast mind where the prelude to the ocean is...

On May 18th 1980, Mt. St. Helen's erupted in a spectacular show of mother nature's power.  A 5.1 magnitude earthquake sent the north face of the mountain flying.  The initial blast burned the landscape 14 miles away.  From there, a hot, turbulent flow of mud and debris traveled down the mountain at 300 miles and hour, destroying everything in its path.  (please read that in a dramatic, movie trailer narrator type of voice.) It's pretty scary to think about, but also one of most fascinating places I've been.  Sadly, we did not see the mountain itself due to clouds, (even though it is 1300 feet smaller than it was on May 17th 1980). After coasting back toward sea level, we visited Multnomah Falls 30 minutes outside of Portland, Oregon.  These falls are literally yards from the highway and a popular destination for travelers.  At 582 feet, they are the second tallest year round falls in the United States.   It's a little over a mile to see t...

I owe you this post.  Landed w/semi self portrait. 

The Freemont Troll.

Beautiful Buchart Gardens.  I know I said 'no more flowers' but this is really a picture of a bee.

Insert Mt. Rainier here.

On Friday we went to Seattle where I didn't see Frasier or a heartsick Tom Hanks, but I did ride a monorail, see a great fish market, and watch the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Seattle is a bustling city of over 620,000.  What I know it best for is that their EMS has the reputation for the fastest response times and best cardiac arrest survival rates in the country.   But enough of that nerdery. The monorail took us on a thrilling one mile ride to the Space Needle.  This Seattle classic is a must do, if only for it's camp value.  Built for the 1962 world's fair, I don't think much has changed since then, except for gift shop expansion.  It's a 40 second elevator ride to the top, and the view from 605 feet is great from the city center to the far reaches of Puget sound. Back on the ground, we visited the Chihuly Glass Garden which was stunning and fascinating.  It is a whole museum of his instillations as well as a garden that joins glass ...

I am relaxing in my friends apartment after four days of camping.  I've dried off my sleeping bag, started some laundry, and taken a 56 hour shower, so now I'll take some time to write about this trip. My dear friends moved to Tacoma this year, and I am visiting them to fulfil my promise to annoy them wherever the Army life takes them.  They'll be moving (sort of) back east this summer, so I am striking while the Pacific Northwest iron is hot. I arrived in Tacoma and was immediately introduced to Pacific NW life.  My friend took me to their farmshare where they pick up fresh fruit, veg, and eggs once a week.  There is plenty of kale.  We had a great lunch and I had my first of many craft brews. In the late afternoon we went to Point Defiance Park , which is an unbelievable municipal park full of beach, ancient trees, well kept gardens, as well as an aquarium and a zoo.  Municipal. Park.  It's lovely.  The next day, I explored Tacoma by hitti...

A misty view up to Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island.

Frog!

It's tough to choose today, so here's a kick-ass bald eagle and a waterfall.