javacat

I have plotted out two weeks of camping and backpacking already. 

I have never seen the Columbia River Gorge. I *could* take one day to see it between Troutdale and Pt. Townsend, WA. Recommendations, Oregonites or former Oregonites, for a camping spot or hostel for one night? What should not be missed?

July 7 - at Sol Duc Hot Springs.  Last day of backpacking.
July 8 is the official end of the trip, in Pt. Angeles. 

I might stay in Sol Duc and meet my friends there for more camping, or go to Pt. Townsend, then go on another backpacking trip with them (this one: http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2007/06/enchanted-valley-backpack.html
and hot spring before and/or after at Sol Duc.  I think. I need to find out where the enchanted valley IS.

Then on to Corvallis for the Da Vinci Days!  http://www.davincidays.org/

Somewhere in there, visits to niece in Eugene, maybe to the coast again, maybe finally get north of Tillamook in OR. Definitely a trip to Breitenbush.  http://breitenbush.com/

I have never been to Victoria, maybe that would be possible?  Pt. Angeles is the ferry departure point.

Library books read in 2011 listed below. Book list below does not include:
* Text books: Meteorology Today, Environmental Geology, Physical Geography, and Pipkin's Geology workbook.
* Backpacking and camping books:  Between a Rock and a Hard Spot, Aron Ralston; Animals Make Us Human, Temple Grandin; and I forget the rest.
* A bunch of YA and youth books, before I mailed a box of them to a newly-literate adult friend:  Lauren Myracle's TTYL set.  Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Underworlder series. The Little Prince. The Velveteen Rabbit.
* The trend:  Biography. Home improvement.  Young adult fiction.
Favorite books:  Room; Unbroken; Swamplandia; Shiver; Dust; Inside Scientology; 2030; Animals Make Us Human; Bossypants; The Diana Chronicles.
 
( tl:dr )

I've been sick for a week and since I'm over the so-sick-I-sleep-all-the-time phase, I might get out and about today. I have to get my Environmental Geology homework caught up for one thing, and I suck at doing homework at home. 

I'm reading Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman, the book that was excerpted in The New Yorker earlier this year. It's very well written, very readable.

Parts that I particularly like and relate to --
Page 68:
          But Jeff was bored. He was searching for something; he didn't know what.  The Summer of Love had come and gone, along with its haze of promise. The war in Vietnam continued to kill thousands of young Americans. Many who made it back alive wore the dead-eyed stares of the walking wounded. Active in the anti-war movement, Jeff was haunted by the memory of one large demonstration outside the Los Angeles Convention Center, where he's seen a twelve-year-old girl beaten up by the Los Angeles police. Drugs, Jeff knew, weren't the answer -- a bad acid trip a few months earlier had cured him of that interest. He spent most of his spare time poring over books on meditation, yoga, cybernetics, hypnosis. 
...
Page 70:
          And so Jeff Hawkins, a shy, somewhat awkward young man usually dressed in jeans, sandals, a blue work shirt and tinted granny glasses, got into Scientology, as did his friend Jerry and thousands of other young people all across the United State. For those like Jeff, who were smart, curious, and searching, Scientology provided its own form of rebellion, which was perfectly timed, as it turned out.
          Had the sixties never happened - which is to say, had a tremendous  number of young people not become convinced of the moral and spiritual bankruptcy of their parents, the church, the Republican Party, and other people and institutions collectively known as the establishment -- Scientology might have gone the way of other fringe movements and died a quiet death. Instead, repositioned as a mystical quest rather than an alternative mental health therapy or religious movement, Scientology rode the countercultural wave, and by the late 1960s, a whole new generation of spiritual seekers had caught on to the renegade vision of L. Ron Hubbard.

Page 71
         In Kenmore Square or Washington Square, on Shattuck Avenue or Sunset Blvd, in the Haight or Golden Gate Park, pretty young girls dressed in hot pants or mini-skirts [hey, it was the fashion of the day], smiling radiantly as if they'd discovered a secret they were bursting to share, would approach young, mostly male college students or hippies and invite them to come with them. And, like lemmings, men would follow, said Nancy Many, who worked for the Scientology organization in Boston.  It was unwritten policy that the church would deploy its most attractive staff to recruit people off the street.  "No one had any idea where they were being taken," she said, chuckling, "but these girls were gorgeous and so the guys would go." 

I did that! That was my job!  I had NO idea that I was lovely with youthfulness though. Once again, youth  wasted on the young.
---
I didn't know that Neil Gaiman's father David was the PR director of England. I wonder if he knows Gillian Christie, one of my sister's former roommates when she was in the SF Scn. Org.  Gillian is one of the top people in the Guardian's Office now, has been for a long time. It's kind of the FBI/CIA of Scn. I think the offices are in the same estate.  Perhaps I'll find out as the book goes along.

I'm really grateful I was only involved to the extent that I was. It was a lucky fluke that I was around a lot of power players in the org, and being young, was accepted as a helpful mascot without having to dump a lot of money into the org. And then I had a regular Scientologist boyfriend, and boy howdy did I see how differently he and his family were treated than the people I normally hung out with.  

This is a good XKCD:  http://xkcd.com/931/ ; (f*ck cancer, yes yes)
A local friend has spindle cell sarcoma; not good. Her arm has been surgically stripped to bone and tendon with bits of skin.  If it was me, I think I'd have it amputated.

My second housesitter asked if I was going away again and I took the opportunity to schedule another trip. I leave this coming Friday for:   Big Basin Redwoods, Big Basin, Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel, Asilomar, Asilomar, Manresa State Beach, Manresa, New Brighton State Beach, Home.  

I didn't check the College of Marin schedule before I paid for all my reservations, duh. I will miss the first week of class.  Oh well. I'm taking classes from people who know me by now, and they will be okay with it. 

Since I got back, I'm not depressed exactly, but I don't want to do anything. I've been spending an astonishing amount of time in my pjs, reading, and catching up on a some key shows.  I remind myself of the lady Harriet the Spy spied on, although I am not ill or pretending to be ill, I'm very well and just stuck. I suspect it's a post-retirement malaise.  The thing to do, is to not do it, and I shan't be once I get back and start lap swimming classes and a couple of science classes.  Yay for school.

Rumor has it that one of the younger generation in the family is having a baby. THANK GOD. We have really healthy genes and hardly anyone has procreated. Damn shame. I'm glad there will be at least one packet of DNA shot into the future, as Jonquil once wrote.  

Temple Grandin's book Animals Make Us Human is fascinating. If you have any interest in how animals, domesticated, wild, and human, work,  you should read this book.  Especially if you have bought into any of this hocum about dominance over your dog -- Ian Dunbar and now Temple Grandin are debunking all the Cesar Milan stuff.  Read it! 

So I've been on vacation since June 22nd, that's what, 2.5 weeks. I went on an organized backpacking trip, group called fitpacking.com, for 70 miles along the Calif. coastal trail from Orick, CA (just N of Arcata) to the Oregon border. Then I left for a 3-week car camping trip on July 4th.

For all that I wanted to travel and see all these places in Oregon, I checked into this awesome little cottage (brooklanecottage.com) in Corvalis around 4 PM today and all I want to do is sit and read what various of My Peeps are up to on FB and over here and in email and so on.  I've been doing Nothing But That for four hours straight now. I am fine on my own, but I can't help being a social animal.

I've been to Brookings - 1 night (an airbnb.com place; amazing house, artist-MD + retired psychologist own the house and the 4th of July party was full of arty hippy folks older than me, three of them from about 4 miles away from my house in Calif.; made friends with a couple from Coronado who have invited me to stay there anytime);  Gold Beach - 1 night (Sheila the camp host and Britney the other single woman traveling with her cat to Orcas Island); where was I on the 6th? The yurt at Bullard's Beach near Bandon; Jesse Honeyman State Beach July 7 and 8, spent most of the day on the 8th riding my bike around and reading a book on top of a picnic table next to Wheatabix Lake (some other name); on the 7th, driving, Coos Bay,  ___ where the oysters are. Here I am in Corvalis, losing my mind on the 9th!  Drove from Florence, stopped at the Sea Lion Caves and in Yachats.  This morning, I lost my high school sleeping bag thanks to the Yakima pod not being locked when I thought it was, so bummed about that. 

An old friend from work who has been living in Pt. Townsend for yonks is taking the train down from Seattle on Monday. I'll pick her up in Albany OR and we'll travel around from there.  I'm looking forward to company.

Well, I've been wanting to do laundry, I suppose I could do that now instead of frittering away the day doing it tomorrow. Except it's a treat to stay put and have household amenities! I can't decide whether to watch tv or not. I'm glad I had leftovers from Bandon so I didn't have to go out for food tonight. 

I find I'm avoiding the crowds mostly by accident but I don't mind it. The big county fair in Eugene is this weekend. I'll be there next week instead.  I am sorry to miss the Da Vinci event in Corvalis next weekend, I'd like to see a kinetic parade.  I drove on by the Fish Fry in Yachats.  I originally was going to be home by July 24 but I think I'll aim for July 22 instead. We'll see.

I haven't posted since Easter, not that anyone's dying to hear about me but ... here's what's up with me --
Finished my two academic classes. I probably did okay on the final exams.  I miss swimming already. I was sad the day after the last class because I enjoyed the classes and the prof so much. Studying for tests was a pain, though, so I probably will take just one academic class in the fall.

I have been saying "I'll start it tomorrow" for a long time, and so am not in very good shape for a two-week backpacking trip that leaves in three weeks.  I need to remedy that.  My laziness is epic, which I'm not proud of, but hey, it's good I recognize reality?

I'm working out an itinerary for a three-week car camping trip to OR and WA beginning the day after the backpacking trip ends.  SIX iterations so far! I'm uptight about reservations on Friday and Saturdays, when I think it will be hard to get a spot somewhere, and some of the parks are supposed to be very popular. The bones of the trip are similar to my Seattle F2F trip two years ago, with more time. (Yay for being early-retired! )

My mother is hanging in there. I so hope and in my agnostic way pray that she stays okay while I am gone.  I asked family members to start phoning her - she needs it for many reasons, but  no one has. Group email was not effective, dammit.

My back hurts. I bought a  new mattress that arrived today and thought I was maneuvering the chest bed base around in a safe way to vacuum behind it, but maybe not. Here's hoping the new mattress helps it feel better.

I have various contractors coming for various upgradey things around the house before I go. One inquiry often leads to the need to do something else first, which is not unexpected, but kind of amusingly annoying.

I had a really nice day yesterday. Went hiking with a friend I haven't seen in a long time and her dog, followed by lunch at a nice riverfront restaurant in Petaluma that I never knew existed, Demsey's.  Then I visited the ex Henry and his wife Ruby for most of the afternoon and we had a really nice time catching up.  Always on the list of things I'm grateful for is being friendly with both of them.  Ruby said they have been together now for 18 years.  Shocking! So I broke up with Henry 18.75 years ago?!  Time goes by fast.

What is up with this cold cold weather? I shut off the heat about 2 weeks ago, thinking summer was here, and had to re-light the pilot two days later.  Brr. I'm taking a stand and putting cotton, not flannel, sheets on the new bed. I hope I don't regret it. 

Okay! back to email, the house sitter for the last week of my trip, and, eventually, a hike.

It's amazing how hard it is raining. There was a lull between 4 and 11 PM HOORAY since I had to be out and about. Not much soil drying-out time, but it helps a little.

I studied ALL DAY for the meteorology test. (I am not an all day studier, though I suppose I could be.) A month ago, I arranged to take the test early so I could attend a lecture by Michael Pollan. I left two messages for the prof to confirm, morning and early afternoon, and arrived 20 minutes early to check in with him and have a last quick review before the test. He hadn't listened to his voice mail or prepared the test yet! By the time he got to the classroom with the test, there wasn't enough time to take it before I had to leave.  I'm taking it after the Tues. afternoon class now. So... more time to study! Yay?

Good lecture by M. Pollan. I wonder if he scheduled being here to coincide with the 5th Annual Artisan Cheese Festival in Sonoma County this weekend. (The College of Marin offers an A.S. in artisan cheese making now!)  I blew it on getting Friday farm tour tickets, but am going to the marketplace event Sunday. Also: events at the Center wow me. It was built by Frank Lloyd Wright, is so beautiful, and the acoustics are amazing. Knowing how lucky I am to live here rushes through me, always.

Mom is hanging in there, but the importance of routines was emphasized by how whacked out she got skipping her dinner tray last Friday. I thought it was a bad idea, and called several diff times of the day to ask if she was sure about it, and she said yes every time. But I should have overridden her. She got up at midnight, dressed, and walked down the hill to the dining hall (which was locked) for breakfast. Twice. In the rain. To her credit, she did not fall, got extra exercise, and called me after her second trip. (She should have used her "help button" device, but, no harm done.) Poor Mom, she was hungry, and confused about what time it was! I have restocked her tiny cupboard. We have to update her Power of Atty. anyway for a financial thing and are restating/updating her trust. I called the atty. to suggest he take this off the back burner. 

I have a new haircut. It's a real haircut, like, styled haircut. I like it, although it's hard to see the bigger Splat blue streak because of the way the hair falls on one side.

I've found two camping events and one backpacking trip that I want to go on. Have to figure out house/cat sitting.

What else. Oh! I was at my former workplace Mon. for the 30-year award they forgot to give me last year. The timing was good to reconnect with people. So, I heard on Wed. that one of the two people hired to fill my position was fired and escorted from the premises. This is not a place where people are escorted from the premises! Or wasn't. SHOCKING. Schadenfreude! I am SO GLAD I retired. Speaking of which, the pension increase (which add'l multiplier I paid for with my own money) is finally going into effect. It's been pending since last June! I'll get a nice retroactive check to bring me current. YAY.

Dear Sister,
Your parking ticket was issued at 2:02 PM on Nov. 13.  My airplane was scheduled to touch down at SFO at 9:00 PM on Nov. 13. The earliest I could have gotten back into town is 10: 30 PM on Nov. 13.  I assure you, I was in Hawaii when you got the parking ticket.  I did not "make you" get the ticket.  I am not that powerful, trust me.
Really.  Me.

Dear Sister,
Today was the administrative appeal to the parking ticket you got while I was on vacation in Hawaii in November. I dressed up in conservative and nice mufti, was 20 minutes early to my court date (he heard me right away, which was nice), and gave my best pitch on why you were parked in the cross-hatched area next to a handicapped parking spot, complete with a copy of our mother's ID showing that it was a few days before her 95th birthday and her disabled placard. I tried my best and thought we might have a shot, but the hearing officer said his hands were tied;  you violated federal ADA law by parking in the cross-hatched area, and would have gotten a legitimate and legal ticket even if Mom was in the car with you and her placard was hanging from the rear view mirror. I tried. I had to pay the ticket in order to get the appeal date. The ticket was $275.00.
Your sister, LT

What I did not say: 
Dear Sister,
Seriously? Do you really not get that you can't violate the law without paying consequences? This is the second time in three years that you have violated federal law and paid for it - or rather, I've paid for it, and you have to pay me back.
Your sister.

I wonder what exactly is wrong with her? Maybe I've been watching too much Criminal Minds lately, but I wonder if there is some screw loose that makes her think that she is so special, she isn't subject to anything normal people are. One of our family members is bi-polar and schizophrenic, and in the middle of a breakdown, was convinced he was too special to have to eat or sleep normally.  I wonder if she's got some spectrum of that going on. 

No matter what, it's both annoying that she got the ticket, and disappointing that my argument didn't work. But -- I'm kind of glad that the law was upheld, at the same time.

Dear Sister,
Thank you for your Valentine's Day ecard.

I don't know why you think that your sending me an ecard would make me too stupid with filial love to notice your sentence about negotiating to rent my friend's Stinson Beach cottage for the month of October for $1,400. I don't know why you think that I might have forgotten that you owe me tens of thousands of dollars, and that you periodically inform me that you might not be able to pay me this summer because you will be broke.  And no, renting a cottage on Stinson Beach isn't "just like college!"

Ah sigh, there's the sister I know:  a looonnnnnnggggg recriminatory reply email filled with accusations back to me.

Dear Sister,

Let us be clear about this:  Your crying, screaming tantrum in my car about a year and a half ago did indeed result in my agreeing that it would be adequate for you to pay me $500 a month towards the debt.  Under no circumstances should you interpret that acquiescence as a mandate to pay me no more than $500/month. In fact, the full amount is due and payable every day as far as I'm concerned. 

Your sister.