We really are Getting Married in the Backyard

In July, Terri suggested we get married in the backyard which set in motion much angsting and activity (documented here in painful detail). Well, the ceremony is tomorrow, and as I look at the yard I marvel at what our patch of dirt has become. It's a real backyard now. The dogs in particular love the grass (rolling in it and chewing on it) when they're not tearing it up by rough housing on it. (It's established now, but still relatively fragile as it hasn't had time to develop that Tall Fescue turf toughness yet so it's actually much more pleasant to walk around on right now.)

Plus we got a lot of flowers first as plants and today I got a whole bunch of cut ones to make flower arrangements. I've discovered that if you have any artistic eye, that flower arranging is really easy to do.

And our friends and family have been so supportive mostly emotionally, but also helping out with all sort of things (even though we're deliberately keeping it to a very small almost entirely just family ceremony - with a look to a large party come November after the election.)

Now I just have to keep my head together enough to get dressed and made up tomorrow and try to keep the dogs from going completely nuts with 8 other people in the house.

Before:



Today:



Flowers:

The Ex-Homecoming Queen's Has a Gun

OMG I love Julie Brown and her novelty songs especially [Everybody Run] The Homecoming Queens Has a Gun. She's on The Stephanie Miller Show this morning and it turns out she's rerecorded the song to be about Sarah Palin: The Ex-Homecoming Queen's Has a Gun (The Girl-VP has a Gun).

It is a scream. Unfortunately I can't find Julie Brown on iTunes.

GOP chooses Sarah Palin and insults all of us

I've been avoiding writing about Sarah Palin for 2 weeks now hoping it would all blow over, but it keeps getting worse, and Move On is encouraging us all to write letters to the editor. I'll just consider this my letter to the editor.

So much has been said about Palin that it's hard to be original. She keeps proving over and again that she is completely out of step with current knowledge. She still thinks Global Warming is not human caused. She still believes that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. She's anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-evolution and thinks it's fun to shoot animals purely for sport (I'm not bothering with references - I trust you can look it up).

She was chosen not because of any qualifications, but instead purely on idealogy and because she's a nice looking woman. Never mind that this royally insults every Hillary Clinton fan, but honestly Palin is who should be insulted. Instead she doesn't mind being used - if there's something in it for her. What does that make her? Radio commentator Randi Rhodes would call her a whore for that (this isn't a letter to the editor so I get to write that, but there are plenty of men who do that as well so there has to be a better (but equally judgemental term let's hope) way to say it.)

One thing that scares me about Palin is one that is just now being touched on. If someone in her administration disagrees with her, she immediately tries to fire them. That may sort of work in small government (though it backfired on her twice - one with trying to get the librarian to consider banning books and the other with Troopergate), but every private enterprise CEO who turns to politics (not that she's ever being a CEO by any stretch of any imagination) has to learn the lesson that you can't do that with elected officials, you have to learn to negociate and compromise - that's politics. This more than a lot of things really underscores how woefully unprepared she is for life in the big leagues.

Call me prejudiced, but I want my presidental candidate to be a brilliant law professor who also does social activism and who is a caring parent, not a power mad, gun toting hockey parent and PTA member who doesn't believe in evolution and plainly isn't that bright.

I just heard that Obama has shattered fundraising records for August. Yahoo! I do so want this to be a decisive, landslide victory.

A friend just sent me the link to Women Against Palin which has a great video of the various signs that were at a recent rally. My favorite is: This Insults Pitbulls.

More Wedding Writing

There were two more portions of the wedding ceremony I needed to think about.
One is a special greeting that I wanted to be said by either Mike or I (haven't decided who yet).

Thank you all for coming today, both Terri and Ellen are deeply honored that you have chosen to join them in their marriage celebration. You are here in a ordinary backyard for a relatively uncomplicated wedding, but you are also taking an extraordinary part in history. This event simply could not have happened as recently as 3 1/2 months ago. They are grateful for your support and know that you will be with them regardless which way the legal and political winds blow. Thank you all very, very much.

The other is an optional reading. After going through several, briefly thought about writing something and decided that was too much work and far too presumptuous (it's more commonly a recognizable quote), I came across a great Diane Ackerman excerpt whose work I have admired before. It makes me smile. Though I did cut the quote off a line early as she talks about diatoms in the next line and I couldn't quite parse how small razor sharp little chips had to do with love and decided I didn't want me or anyone else in the audience pondering that.

from A History of Love by Diane Ackerman

“Love. What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful. It has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love’s spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable? Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots spreading into deep and mysterious days."

Angsting about Vows

So yesterday we met with Mike, the person who is marrying us, to go over wedding details. The difficulty was that I wanted traditional vows and Terri wanted more original ones. I wanted traditional as I've spend more than 20 years being excluded from marriage and I want what I've been denied all these years.

Fortunately, Mike (a former priest who is now happily married) was terrific in reassuring us and laying out what the structure usually is while stressing how much flexibility there is. We finally decided with his help that we can do both. Have a non-traditional vow that we read to each other and then roll straight into the traditional vows. Sounds great but now I had to come up with something to say. Aaaaaa.

Fortunately Terri was nice about letting me stress all the while saying that it wasn't supposed to be a super stressful thing and that I could choose anything. I was flipping through various ideas and none seemed right. Then it finally occurred to me that if it didn't sound right then I already knew what I wanted to hear and I should just write it down.

Was that every a "Duh, of course silly" moment. Got a new window on the computer and started typing and had it in just a few minutes. A few more minutes of adding and rearranging and it was done. Maybe I am a writer (or just a good plagiarist).

Terri
I see the magic of your smile
and feel power of your gaze
I am awed by the brilliance of your mind
and charmed by your humor
and I know the love I feel for you is also
shared by you to me.

In this and in every setting
I give myself to you whole heartedly
With no regret or hesitation
To be a part of each others lives in marriage.

[traditional vows then follow]

Betrayed by Appetite and Metabolism

I've often been about 10 more pounds heavier than I needed to be and I've just sort of put up with it, but like many folks in their 40's, if I don't watch out, that number starts to creep upward.

So I decided that I wanted to at least lose the 10 pounds, so I would have a better margin if I got injured and couldn't exercise.

You would think that for an active person with a good diet this would not be so hard to do, but as just about anyone who's tried can tell you, it's very difficult to convince your body that yes indeed I want to burn that fat off. My body is programmed to be a certain size and it thinks it is life threatening to lose that padding, and convincing it otherwise just isn't really working.

So after trying many different (not radical - I've not really overweight) tactics, I've resorted to simply getting used to being hungry and not snacking in between meals and often not eating breakfast at all. I no longer trust my body's inclination to eat (unless I'm really, really hungry). My appetite is dialed into when I was younger and had a higher metabolism, and even with regular exercise that metabolism and appetite have not meshed. It's very difficult and not really maintainable, but it is sort of working. I'm part of the way there. Though I notice that if I give in for just a little bit the pounds go back on (though they seem to come off easier now too.)

I'm hoping to be further along on this before the holidays undo everything and I have to start over.

Wombats ride

Sat was the monthly Wombats ride (Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society). It's billed as a mellow ride, but it's not (too much climbing to be mellow) but Jacquie has yet to come up with another description.

This is a climb/ride that I've now done 4 times. I can now do the climb without walking but I use my lowest gears which are really really low. The advantage of this is that I get to stay on the bike longer. The disadvatage is that other bikes (my bike is brand new this year) usually don't have this gear ratio and so their riders if they are able to turn the pedals at all, by necessity, go faster than me. Sure enough, I was told by one rider that she was a slow climber. And sure enough she rode away from me like I was just standing there. Sigh.

Irksome as it was, I was genuinely grateful that I was able to climb up the hill on my bike without needing to walk. There was some question there as I had a heart rate monitor on and my pulse started to climb up into the anaerobic range of 165. When that happened I did have to pause and walk a few feet (10 maybe) but my body recovered nicely and I was able to get back on. I want to work up to being able to climb in 3rd gear or so as that's about where the other bikes stop anyway. Since it's ok a bike, unlike climbing, this is something I can likely work on in a gym.

I saw a buck on the way back and I just paused for a while while he and I communed for a while (ok he ate). Annie rode back to check on me and once I pointed out the buck she in fun said we should embellish it to we saw a mountain lion take down an 8 point buck. I laughed, but said that I rooted for the deer in those cases.

On the way back I opted to go down the road where I could break speed limits without having to worry about crashing into a hiker. (Those trails are very popular.)

Unfortunately it was stinkin' hot which I really didn't notice until I got back to the car. I was fine on the drive back but the rest of the day and night was completely wiped out, which only seems to happen when I'm strenuously exercising on a hot day. All I wanted to do was lay in bed. My brain felt slow and well cooked and I could not keep my head up very long. It's a strange feeling.







On the way back down I opti

Setting Oneself Up To Fail

So I've been moping about this altitude thing since Sunday and it's taken me this long to realize that I had set myself up to fail (even though I actually did get up and back down the peak in mostly one rather miserable piece.)

It was a training hike and an experiment. I deliberately pushed my pace just to see what would happen, to find the limits, and I know from experience (which I had conveniently forgotten) that if I over-exert, I run out of oxygen and funny how everything stops working right then. This doesn't explain my difficulty on Shasta, but that may have been slightly incorrect training (or training that more included having to life my entire body weight.)

Being able to climb is fun and I tend to get carried away and go faster than I probably should. Part of the issue is that I tend to climb slower than others so I was enjoying being able to climb faster, and was trying to prove to myself that I could do it. (Sure, for a little while.)

It's tempting to redo the first part of the hike at a more moderate pace and see if I hit the wall at 7500'. My guess is that while I would probably slow down around that height, it wouldn't nearly be so dramatic. In particular, I should avoid forcing my muscles to work anaerobically (where they burn) while climbing as that may have been a factor.

Mostly I really need to stop persecuting myself about this. It's a challenge, not a character flaw - geez lighten up. I started to slip into the "Woe is me I never get to have things that are really important to me." Which is so not true.

This is all on hold till October as this Sat is a Wombats ride and the rest of the weekends in Sept should be spent prepping for our wedding.

Even though it may not help me much I am going to get an oximeter, as I love having hard data (like a heart rate monitor), and I judge myself less.

Advance Fee Scammer Reads an Autoreply

I've never seen such a thing before.

Bifriendly's (the bisexual social group that I run) email address was getting so much spam that I changed it and put an autoreply telling folks what the real address was (since spammers don't bother to read replies anyway.)

Well today the new address got its first email as a result of that auto-reply. It's from an Advance Fee Scammer. Ha!

But it gets better. The scam is about this wealthy xian convert who only has 4 months to live and wants to distribute her wealth to various religious groups and "she" located that email address from our website. Really? From a site dedicated to bisexuals and has no mention of any deity whatsoever? I think they did no such website visiting. But this person really did take the time to read an auto-reply and type in another email address and put [bifriendly] in the subject line as instructed. Wonder what they thought "bifriendly" meant?

I took the ill advised step of replying saying that I was amazed that an advance fee scammer bothered to read an auto-reply.

I need to send it on to abuse@yahoo.com (which I have done) Pity though - shame to shut such entertainment down, but these scammers can get dangerous and nasty in a hurry. I'll just have to blog about it instead. (No reply from the scammer yet.)

Ralston Peak

Where to start? Shall I chronnicle how I like/hate to torture myself or should I just write down what I set out to learn and learned instead. I'll go with the latter.

First of all the drive behind all of this is that I like to climb things. I like the physical challenge and I love the view that you don't see under any other circumstances. The bummer is that I've been having real challenges at altitude and I've been trying to figure out a way to deal with this. Also I have an awful lot in common with the kitty cat who climbs up the tree and doesn't know how to get down. Well sort of. I know how to get down I just find it a miserable, painful experience when on dirt (snow is better). If I could get a helicopter to pick me up I'd do it.

Sunday I climbed Ralston Peak (photo) which won the contest of 9000' mountains that are easy to get to (it's 9235') and semi-close to the Bay Area. The trailhead is located at Camp Sacramento on Highway 50, and took me just under 3 hours to drive there. It's a 4 mile hike in, though I wound up taking a use trail which shortened the distance, but was harder, so I went back the regular way.

I did this hike for fun and curiousity (never done it before) and to try to answer some questions about why I was having difficulty climbing. The trail starts at 6500' and climbs up to 8800' before turning off to climb the peak itself. The use trail peels off around 8200' and heads up. I started out at a very brisk climbing pace (around 2.6 mph) up a somewhat steep in places trail. I was doing great and was comfortably climbing at a pulse rate of 150-160. Then at some point in a steep section it climbed to the leg burning (anaerobic) rate of 165-170. I got through that and was ok but right around 7500' I hit a wall. Suddenly my muscles pretty much stopped working. Every step was a huge effort. What's weird was that I wasn't out of breath, and I wasn't sick. This was my experience on Shasta and it is nice to be able to replicate it fairly easily and inexpensively. This is what I came to wrestle with.

The one thing I wish I had was an oximeter to verify my theory. I've resisted getting one as well it's money and it's not like it would change my behavior and it's not really a training tool (though I may be able to turn it into one). I started to pressure breath where you take deeper breaths and forcefully exhale to get the old CO2 out of your lungs. Doing that helped and I was able to climb more but at a much more measured pace.

I came to a use trail and took it thinking it was the main trail but others thought it was and it wasn't until I was most of the way up that I could tell from my GPS that it wasn't as I was going straight up the south face and the main trail overshoots that face and goes up the less steep ridge. Now above 8000' and on a steeper non-maintained use trail, I am crawling, but had already decided that I wasn't going to stop as I'd just want to come back and, of course, I wanted to see the view from up top. Taking a break helped, but it was really frustrating watching some other hikers comfortably hike much faster. The other possibility was that it might be an endurance issue but at Shasta I'd had a night's sleep and was still slow so that doesn't seem likely.

I finally got to the top. The wind was howling and I own a huge debt of thanks to Patricia for introducing me to the Marmot Windshirt. With it I was comfortable up there and could even hang out and shoot a short video.

Then I had to hike down. The first part off the peak itself was surprisingly easy. What was hard was the long 3.5 mile slog down the steep climb with the big steps (gentle downhill is not a problem). I turned my ankle and fell and was worried about doing it again. I put on my spikes and that helped a lot and probably should have put them on much earlier. It was a struggle the whole way. Each step down took way more effort than it should have and I cried out of frustration at least once. My body was yelling at me: "why, oh why do you do this?" and I don't have a good answer for the downhill, especially downhill on dirt with big steps down (and I use trekking poles which makes it even possible.)

Good sense is telling me that I should limit most of my climbing to biking and skiing and snowshoeing (or at least hiking on snow - which is much nicer to fall on and I know how to stop "self arrest" if I fall on a snow slope), but this doesn't yet address the altitude problem. I'm nearly to the point of trying supplemental oxygen but that's not readily available.

Because I can't stop thinking about it, I ordered some more mountaineering books when I went there to order a different book. Silly but cheaper than getting hurt falling down a rocky slope.

Maybe I will get that oximeter or maybe I should just bring along that personal oxygen I already have.

But I'm not moving to Tahoe. I love it here and I'm closely identified with the ocean and large bodies of water.

If I do this again I'm just going to do up to where I slow down. That's only about 2 miles up so I would be relatively fresh coming down. Maybe after I get married - I'm still sore from this one - need time to forget and that hasn't happened yet.

[later]
Did some google research and found plenty of evidence that altitude can have a very significant effect on muscle fatigue. Here's one ref.

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/85/4/1448?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=altitude&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

They and other talk about live high - train low. Unfortunately that's not going to happen with me. For someone to see a genuine adjustment to altitude (more red blood cell) they have to spend at least 20 days at altitude and more than a month is better.

Maybe I should check out supp. oxygen. [later] I did, and affordable oxygen really doesn't last that long, but I could use it occasionally. References are many and confusing and I have yet to sort them out.

I think I would like to work on this altitude issue more just so I can ski/snowshoe/snowclimb higher.

I think I'll head to Tioga Pass Rd in Yosemite while it's still open in October and try some short hikes above 8000' with out Diamox (in case that's a factor) and with an oximeter.

Athlete for Life

I was just commenting to Terri that for me to take the best care of myself, I'm going to have to commit to being an athlete for life. If I take excellent care of myself I do really well, but, as I get older, I just don't have that much room to slack off like some do (who are actually quite few we're learning).

There's an article in the Chron today about older athletes.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/22/MNIE12DQV3.DTL

Which talks about how the age that you'll see people competing in the Olympics is shifting up. (The swimmer Dara Torres being a great example.) I bet there will come a day when Dara Torres current age (41) is no big deal at all.

Hopefully this phenomena will have an influence on current standards like how to calculate your max heart rate. Right now, it's 220-yourage which I know isn't accurate for me as I've pushed my heart rate that high (174 - and know I could go higher as I train with a heart rate monitor - which is an excellent training tool). While there are other alternate calculations for fit people I've found that I can get a good approximation by using my "real age" which last time I checked was about 9 years younger which for me puts my MHR at 183 which is probably more correct. I also like the mental advantage I get by thinking of myself as 37. Until someone younger kicks my butt at something. :)

The World Without US

More Olympics. I'm watching the womens Javelin final. There are no Americans in the competition so the US Media is not really paying attention so there are no commentators though it does have graphics accompanying it and Javelin is pretty straightforward so I'm not so lost. Basics are throw the javelin within the specified area and don't step on the line (a common problem).

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=at5h-bj-sd31-082108-191003&channelcode=sportat

It's actually unfortunate that there isn't commentary as it's obvious that there are stories abound in it. I would love to hear interviews with all of the top placers (A Czech, a Russian, and a German) - who clearly know each other and compete with each other all the time, and some of the ones that didn't do that well. The usual: what motivates them, how they do their training.

Some minor digging turned up this on the winner: http://www.iaaf.org/OLY08/news/kind=100/newsid=47206.html

Here is one great quote from that link that it's sad that the US media ignored:
Not only did Spotakova steal the gold from under Abakumova’s nose, she strangled her continental record almost at birth. Furthermore, she wasn’t going to be beaten by a Russian on the date that she said had been in her mind since she knew the schedule. 21 August marks the 40th anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Now that's something of a payback. :)

The net is making the world smaller - I love it.

BMX racing - another Roller Derby

The Winter Olympics has Short Track Speed Skating which is very much like a modern day Roller Derby (RD being a sport that claims to have rules but I don't believe it: ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4). In the Summer Olympics there is now BMX racing (ref1, ref2) which is very much Roller Derby on bikes. There isn't body checking but it happens anyway. Pretty exciting stuff (oh and it has a commentator):

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0821_hd_cbb_en167

The Power of the Narrator

So I've been watching the Olympics both on TV and on the internet. the cool thing about the internet is that you can watch any of the sports so you get a better variety, but on many of then you don't have any commentary. It's just like you're there with some titles and instant replays thrown in.

We often make fun of the commentary, but when it isn't there I find I really miss it. With sports I'm not familiar with like fencing, judo, shooting I am completely at sea. Sports I have some vague acquaintance with I really wanted a commentator to fill me in on what I'm missing. Especially complicated sports that have a huge history behind them like dressage. Even sports I know and have competed in like badmitton and softball I still want a narrator just to give it a feel of legitimacy maybe?

Some of the events don't really have an announcer. Taekwando actually had announcers and a very active referee and crowd which make it kinda exciting, in contrast shooting was as dull as you might expect (and I'm pretty tolerant) and each fencing match was over before I knew anything had happened. There is even a very talented American doing it so I'm surprised the network isn't talking about it.

McCain Quote: Nations Don't Invade Other Nations

Yesterday afternoon, I was casually listening to NPR and they were discussing the Russian invasion of Georgia. Naturally they talked to Obama and McCain about it and, of course, they were completely against the Russian invasion. McCain took it a step further than I would have expected him to and I'm wondering if there's any way to hold him to that.

He said: "In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations."

I was driving in Berkeley in traffic and it was really hard to not run into someone when I was saying "WHAT?! What do you think we just did at the very beginning of the 21st century?"

What kind of special glasses do you need to be able to see what we did and what they did as different? Of course the issues are different. Our justification was nebulous at best and mostly false, Their issues are a very real territorial dispute.

Waist to Hips Ratio - a better health measure

So I've ranted here about how I really dislike the Body Mass Index (BMI) as if you're muscular you will appear overweight. It's an easy bet that many Olympic athletes in Beijing right now would be considered overweight. An example being those gorgeous male gymnasts I was watching yesterday who are relatively short, but have arms larger than my thighs. Even many of the American Gladiators would be considered overweight or even obese which is a hilarious thought.

So I was thrilled to hear of more recent (recent being relative - it's not that new) research that indicates that fat around the belly ("apple" shaped rather than "pear" shaped) is a good indicator of health risk. There is now the concept of Waist to Hips Ratio (WTHR - ref1, ref2). Simply divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. Women with a ratio of .8, or men with .95 are at what is considered low risk (ref.)

I like this measure. It's a lot less ephemeral of a concept. Fat around the internal organs is a credible threat (an older but surprising good USA today ref)

I'm right at .8, but just barely so I'd like to take another inch off or so.

Chinese and Western Culture - Worlds Apart

A few days ago, I was listening to a radio program on KALW (I forget which program) about how China views itself (kind of a large generalization since we're talking about a billion people). The view of the person talking was that China has a self image similar to what the US had in the 1950's. The one where "Everybody loves us." and they were really stunned to learn that in the "West" (US and Europe) that's oh so not the case.

What makes me realize over and over how far apart the cultures are is that the Chinese put so much stock in shame and are so firmly convinced that's supposed to carry weight in the West. They quoted one person saying how "ashamed" they were of France around the torch relay protests. "Shame on you France." All I can think of is "Huh?" You ignore that your country steamrolls over basic human rights on a regular basis (too many refs to list), and when someone else points it out, all you can think of to say is that they should be ashamed for dishonoring China and themselves. All I can do is shake my head in amazement, we may never be on the same page at this rate.

Though I must admit I'm looking forward to the Olympics, but I always do. I think the expectation of many world records is a little high given the horrible air quality in Beijing, but we'll have to see.

Wombats Ride - Aug 2008

I owe Bladium big time (Well I guess I do pay them, but still). 1 year of spin/RPM classes and now riding up Deer Park Road and Shaver Grade (in Fairfax), is pretty much entirely doable for me. Before I would have to walk a fair portion of it. Places where before my muscles would have hit failure I was able to work through - I had this sensation that my quads were able to get more oxygen even though they were working under load. I had this sensation when I was doing the quad strength test (see last entry) and I've often had it during the RPM classes. Either that or they are working anaerobically - I have no way of telling. Though they were not burning which is usually the indication for me that they're not working aerobically.

It was great to see Jacquie again, and I met a woman named Lisa who is out here visiting and is from Brooklyn. The day was filled with things not going as planned, but with just enough of things not going as planned that they meshed perfectly. First of all I was late and made myself even later because Tom and Ray of Car Talk were amusing me so much that I forgot that I was getting of the freeway at San Rafael and fell into autopilot going up to Santa Rosa. Fortunately I had got only a few miles out of my way and was able get back on track. At the same time, Lisa who was waiting for the Wombats in the wrong location, realized her mistake and headed over to Deer Park which was the correct location.

I finally get there and don't see Jacquie which I'm only half surprised about since I'm so late (though it's not like they leave right on time either). I get the bike out and changed shoes and I notice there's a woman riding a bike slowly in the parking lot. I finally ask her "Have you seen Jacquie?" (Amongst Fairfax mountain bikers it amuses me that I can do this to just about any person on a mountain bike and most of the time they know who I'm talking about.) She says "Well it's funny you ask that." Turns out she's looking for her too. I'm familiar with the first part of the route up to 5 Corners and I was betting that if we just hang at 5 corners we'll eventually see her. We have a nice chat while we ride up to 5 corners and we were just getting ready to sit down and settle in to wait when a polkadotted dreadlocked biker appeared. "There you are!" I say, and we were all reunited. Those sort of coincidental misadventures you can not plan.

We continue on up Shaver Grade to Sky Oaks [paved] Road. Ride past the beautiful Bon Tempe Lake and continue on to Lake Lagunitas (not to be confused with the one by Stanford). Circle the lake and then head back this time staying on Sky Oaks the whole way back down.

What was fun about staying on the road was similar to going down Mt Diablo Road you can really scream down the hill and you don't have to worry about running over a hiker (or getting a speeding ticket which, in Marin, they do had out to mountain bikers). And in the same vein of you never forget how to ride a bike, the muscle memory of how to go down a hill fast on a bike doesn't disappear very quickly at all. I may have had to spend a year getting back into the shape I was when I routinely climbed mountains on a bike, but I didn't have to spend a year relearning the go downhill fast skills. though the disc brakes help a lot with better, more efficient braking power and my hands are not horribly fatigued like they used to get.

And of course we had tea and much dish afterward. I always like to hear how the bordering on incestuous Marin bike community is doing. This isn't a gossip column so I'll skip naming names.

I really like how much time Jacquie takes teaching biking skills to women. It's fun to watch her work. One thing that I found fun was that I had headed off to charge down a hill (not a beginner skill) and she was going to hang back with slower riders and do some instruction, but just as I left, I found that she had easily caught up to me to give me directions for the bottom of the hill, once she had done that (which was done at not slow speeds), she was immediately able to send me on my way and ride back up to where she had started from. Pretty talented multitasking there.

She wants to write a book for women over 50 who have never ridden a bike before (or haven't for a long time.) Given the increasing interest in exercise and alternative transportation her timing sounds right.

I tell Jacquie that I want take her skiing this coming ski season and she's all for it. I keep telling her that skiing embraces eccentricity much more so than the mountain bike crowd. (I tell her that she needs to see any Warren Miller film to see what I'm talking about.) Well this should be fun.

Well I thought I had Weak Legs

So I'm still pondering why my leg strength seemed to abandon me on Mt. Shasta.

I'm wondering if it has to do with a combination of altitude not delivering enough oxygen to my muscles, and perhaps the smaller stabilizer muscles needing more strength work.

If it's the previous that's a bummer as I have no intention of moving to a higher elevation.

I've noticed that I still have balance trouble with lunges - they do a lot of them in the Body Pump class and I hate them but realize that I absolutely need to do them. (This site says that they are the king of leg strength builders.)

I found another site here that says that doing a "wall squat" (sitting in a chair position against a wall sans chair) is a good leg strength evaluator. So I decided to try it. It says that 45 seconds for men is excellent (39 for women - don't know why it's less for women as women's legs are strong). I did 1:00 and this is with my feet sliding on the floor some, so I repeated it with a non-slip surface under my feel. Then I did 1:15. This is so not fair - why does all this strength go away above 8000'? Maybe I should just climb with oxygen (absurd at such low elevations).

I'm going on a mountain bike ride Saturday with Wombats (a pretty easy ride, but there is a climb), so I'll see how I do climbing on dirt at low elevations. Got to also figure out how to do assisted lunges in case I lose my balance. Right now I can do them, but don't sink very low.

More Healhnet Follies

It's been 4 months since I submitted my Max Out of Pocket Expenses form to Healthnet. This means that they had 45 business days (9 weeks!) to process it. They did but right at the end I realized that they hadn't told the pharmacy which should have been a simple day or two but that gave them the excuse to start the clock over and the claim suddenly had a June date (argh).

I received a letter date July 10th (though I received the letter much later), that the claim was going through "further review." (I need to check if this is legal.) I've seen this once before but usually it means that the check will be coming soon, but I haven't seen it yet.


Sat July 26th
The check finally came.
The End - till next year.

Sure let's get Married in the Backyard (eek)

So Terri innocently suggests that rather than going to find a place to get married, that we can just get married in the backyard. To a non-gardening person I can't begin to explain the excitment and horrible stress that causes. I think the first thing she noticed was the color draining from my face and the pained expression. You see we have two very active Corgis who tear around the yard and it is now a pile of sand with ceremonial bits of unmowed grass in it. Terri's explaining where we could stand and where people could sit and all I'm thinking about is how long I've been sort of trying to unsuccessfully patch our lack of lawn with two wee barking curs racing around it, and with water restrictions imposed. I make mention that we'll have to lay sod and she blighthy says: oh we can just lay down a green square of something and I refrain from outright appoxia and just started making funny gurgling noises. To her credit she notices (but does not completely understand) my distress (I am marrying this person and fortunately her understanding of this issue is not a deal breaker). This is supposed to be a very special day and I'm not having our guests standing or sitting around on green plastic.

I suppose I could come up with an alternative to grass. After all, she's suggesting that we stand under one of the trees and that won't have grass, so some nice mulch would work well there, but a small lawn of grass would be nice for guests even if there's only 4-5 of them.

This is very exciting though my low blood pressure may change some. Guess I'll go by the new Borders in town (or Books Inc) and look for some ideas in either Garden Design Magazine or a Landscaping book.

But first I/we have to clean the backyard first. Then I can start thinking about things like fuschias and other goodies.

The fitness null set

I'm feeling a little at sea
I'm in great shape when I'm at my gym, but I don't do well on Mt. Shasta.
I was in spin class and doing really well and I was actually kinda depressed about it.

For my own sanity I think this means I need to change gym routines. Maybe switch over to kickboxing and mixed martial art exercises and Body Jam.

-----------------
Insight.
I've had a day to ponder more.
I think I see what's different in doing actual climbing vs. gym stairclimbers and bike training.

On the gym machines or on a bike, if you get tired and pause, your weight passively applied to the stair or pedal will help carry you through. This is not so when you are climbing. Your muscle is what has to lift the weight of you up. I think I've gotten to used to relying on the mechanical assistance without fully realizing it. This is why I can bike up all sorts of things but actually climbing them is another story.

What sad about that is that the gym stairclimbers can only help me just so far. At this point I have to go back to just working on my leg muscle strength and endurance. things like doing step ups, or climbing actual stairs, and doing a lot of traditional squats and leg presses.

Or maybe I'll just take a break and do kickboxing.

Yeesh, why does it take me so long to figure these things out?

Mt Diablo more attainable goals

So to make myself feel better I did ride up Mt Diablo on my bike. I stopped short of the summit just because Mark and Jan wanted to take me out for my birthday, but I easily could have made it and I think this next Saturday, I'll do it again and give myself more time.

I think the thing with biking is that you can easily compensate for muscle weakness. Others on bikes certainly did pass me and it was partially because I was on a mountain bike, partially because I have lower gears available to me, and partially because I was just going slower.

Once again I was way exhausted to the point the Jan was worried about me at dinner, but I recovered after a fair bit of sleep.

And the ride down. Pure speedy bliss. Make me wonder why I ever descend on foot at all. Took 30 minutes tops, and it was fun to chase the cars down. I think for Shasta I really should work on skiing. What I love about biking up (and I would guess skiing too) is that the climbing adage of the summit is only half way, really doesn't apply. You can pretty much kill yourself going up and just have to save enough energy to descend safely. I like that.

Back from Shasta - wiser and really tired

I'm back from Mt. Shasta. Short answer is that I didn't summit and I learned much more than I planned on.

For reasons that it took me a day or two after the summit climb to figure out, I was moving slowly - even with a light pack. As we climbed, the fatigue in my legs increased and something clearly wasn't working and it was obviously not a summit pace, so at first offered opportunity, I opted to go back down (I got up to around 10,400' or 10,500'. Now I've been training for this for months, so it wasn't like I was out of shape. I had gone up 2 days early so I was acclimated and was not sick at all. I was convinced I had no excuse and no reason which is a little maddening.

After a day's reflection, it finally occurred to me that likely I had some residual leg weakness that only showed up under the very demanding conditions of Mt. Shasta (elevation, snow, climbing a steep slope in crampons), and didn't show up at sea level workouts or even ordinary hiking. It's 3 days later and my legs are still tired and have a bone deep fatigue.

Unfortunately, training for such a moving unknown target is really difficult and sanity suggests that perhaps I want to look for another obsession that's more suited to where I live. I love where I live and have absolutely no plans on moving to the mountains. I like visiting the mountains, I love the challenge of climbing, but I don't have any compulsion to live there and even spending the extra time to acclimate I kinda resent as it takes me away from Terri and the dogs.

So here I am wondering what to do.
I think summit dreams are now on a very lengthy hiatus, while I go pursue relatively easy goals like climbing Mt. Diablo on a bike (already have done it on foot multiple times), or day hiking Half Dome, and toy with getting more seriously into biking again. doing more rock climbing, and try to find a way to recreate this leg weakness issue so it won't interfere with skiing next season - I may have to start lifting more heavy weights or at least bench pressing them. (I'm not a weight lifting fan so it's going to take some attitude adjustment.) Shasta, for now, will be a ski and glissade destination - which is not a bad thing at all.

So I'm disappointed, but feel freed in a way as well.

I grew up listening to Jim McKay

Jim McKay passed away today and what a legacy he leaves.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/06/07/obit.mckay.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

While I worked out on the stair climber with a light pack (probably last one I'm going to do before my climb), ESPN was on the TV right in front of me and they did a 1 hour tribute to him. A large part of my television life passed before my eyes. I was an ABC Wide World of Sports fanatic and I loved watching the Olympics.
And McKay was so much more than a sports announcer. They replayed him having to announce that the Munich Hostages had been killed and he did it with such dignity and respect and this is after he had been on the air for 16 hours.

I saw so many people and events for the first time through his eyes:

• Olga Korbut
• Ludmila Tourischeva (even ABC mispronouncing her name initially)
• Kathy Rigsby
• Mark Spitz
• Bruce Jenner
• Dwight Stone
• Secretariat
• A J Foyt
• and the Chinese Olympic Gymnast who competed with a broken leg (and we all could feel his pain because of McKay's description.)
  

and on and on and on. What a great presenter and story teller he was. I remember him talking so well now even when I didn't realize it was him talking. It's such a shame he missed seeing the Belmont today and I miss that I didn't hear him talking about it.

The Belmont Stakes: What happened to Big Brown?

Like a lot of horse crazy girls I wanted to be a jockey. Ever since I've had a love/hate relationship with Horse Racing (I hate the injury and death rate of race horses). I simply can not help paying attention when the Triple Crown races come up.

And what an inspiration for Da'Tara a 38-1 longshot who led the whole way. Talk about don't listen to what everyone else is saying. Just go for it.

here is a so-so video of it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CXhQ7uX8lrY

Here's ESPN's
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3431280&categoryId=2488837

If you let the above video play it will also have interviews with the trainers of both horses, the track vet, and Big Brown's future. Speculation is that the heat may have been a factor. Other speculation is that he was on steroids before the Kentucky Derby came off of them for the Triple Crown races, and that he may no longer be getting any benefit from them. Or maybe that quarter crack injury in his hoof is bothering him.

This is Big Brown in the Preakness. Near the end of the video you can see what an incredible finishing kick this horse has, and that just wasn't there today.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tWFcspLo13w&feature=related

Well we'll be hearing more in the next few days.

ESPN did retrospective videos of previous Triple Crown winners.
Secretariat's is here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3429342&categoryId=2488837&n8pe6c=2
There still hasn't been a horse like Secretariat since.

Healthnet Follies 2008

I have a high co-payment for my shots (30%). Af a result I meet my max copay for the year quite early and every year three years running it's a chore to get them to notice and pay me back.

To share the pain, I've started keeping a call log:

Health Net Call Log

Tracking the progress of the 2008 Maximum Copayment Liability Notification (Out of Pocket expenses)

2008 Payments to Caremark - submitted
1/21/08 547.75
2/20/08 547.75
3/17/08 547.75

Payments to Caremark after form submitted
4/19/08 547.75
5/19/08 547.75

Total 2738.75 (1238.75 after 1500)


3/25/08
Calling Healthnet
Talking to Rodney
Asked how I could fax in the 2008 claim
Claiming that I have to mail it it.
I explained that I faxed it last year and it got lost three times when I mailed it. He's checking again
Says the fax number is 818-676-5008 Attn Claims and it will get scanned it


[later that day]
Tried fax number - it answers but then hangs up (tried 3x)
Faxed to main number to "Claims"

Finally just sent it to the main fax number 800-204-3778 Attn Claims and that seemed to work and I didn't get a bounce fax soon after.

4/2/08
Calling Healthnet
Talking to Robert
Has OOP for been scanned in?
Yes, Received on 3/27/08 (that has to be it.)

Takes 45 business day (= 9wks, that would be 5/23/08)

4/18/08
Calling Healthnet
Talking to Betty
Checking Status
Currently being reviewed (they check all expenses)

5/14/08
Calling Healthnet
Talking to Deborah
On 3/28/08 send to claims by mistake (that was probably me though they told me to do that).
Form needs to go to specific person (Carmen), not claims, it got scanned in but there it will sit until someone actually does something with it
Deborah is sending all information to her.
Deborah says that if no name on the fax then it does get scanned in, but just sits there

5/28/08
Calling Healthnet
Talking to: Marie
Form sent back with 2007 information. (That's deliberately dense of them.)
Accumulator spreadsheet for 2008 empty and they need to update it.
Will resubmit and expedite
Says request does go to claims (but likely then gets shuttled off to Carmen)


6/4/08 11.40am
Calling Healthnet
Talking to: Brendisia

on hold - told her last person I spoke to was Marie and was a couple of weeks ago.
Everything updated on Accumulator spreadsheet [well that's good news]
Have met OOP for 2008
OOP status has date of 5/30/08 [slow slow slow]
back on hold while she checks on refund check
Asked that information be forwarded to pharmacy
Doesn't show overpayment
I will have to look up my own copy
She says that Marie is working today and that when I call back I can ask for her.

[Didn't have time to call back later that day]
Checked my copy of the Maximum Copayment Liability Notification
My total at the time was $1643.25 submitted 3/25/08.


6/4/08 12:07pm
Called Theresa at Caremark
866-833-3752 option 1 x4141

to see if there's a way to check if OOP processed
They have to put a claim through to be able to check.
I will call next week when I need more.


6/5/08 2:30pm
Calling Healthnet
Talking to Tara (Helpful - familiar with OOP Max)
Asked if Marie is working today (I don't think she was)
Tara sees the accumulator sheet and
not sure of status of overpayment
Will send email to Carmen (who handles these things) about the OOP overpayment reimbursement (told Tara 1238.75)
also asking how to let pharmacy know that OOP Max has been reached.
When she hears back tomorrow she will call me on the cell phone.

--------------------------------------------------------

Geez, I should at least get a merit badge for this pain.

Finally it's over! We have a nominee

It's over! It's finally over. Well not quite yet but close enough dammit.

Obama is the democratic nominee, and I really hope that there is a great power position for Clinton to have. My original dream ticket was Obama/Clinton, but Clinton may be a real pain in the rear for a Vice President, but what power that administration would have.

Don't Mess with "Crush"

Gina Carano, who is also known as "Crush" on American Gladiators (which starts up again on June 9th), is in her other life is a very successful Muay Thai fighter, and CBS showed a fight of hers yesterday (Sat 9pm). I didn't watch it, but I found a link to it here. She is tough, even when allegedly out of shape (Ha - I am in good shape and she could run rings around me.)

It's interesting how much fascination a lot of us have for her. Right after the fight, suddenly there was a jump in the stats for my first Blog post about her so I'm not alone in this intrigue.

I'm Getting Married

and it's not quite sinking in yet at all.

I haven't even told my friends yet so consider this an inside scoop. The California Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriages should be allowed, and though we've hesitated before (we're both property owners and we feared it would complicate life too much being in that legal limbo of Registered Domestic Partners) it seems important now to stand up and be counted.

We haven't told people about it as come November it might be anulled by a constitutional amendment that is going to be on the ballot. Because for some reason we are still the ongoing political flavor of the month. However it appears to be getting less so. In this article in the SF Chronicle they talk about how younger generations who have grown up with friends who've identified as LGBT their whole lives don't see what the big deal is at all and overwhelmingly support same-gender marriage. The graph here really shows the dramatic change.

At first I was thinking that getting a constitution amendment might be difficult as I mistakenly thought it took 2/3 of the vote to pass. But it turns out that in Calif there is the idea of revising the constitution (which takes 2/3 vote) and amending it which if proposed as an initiative only takes a simple majority (ref.) (I need to write a separate blog entry on how I hate the initiative process - I'm not a professional lawmaker why am I being asked to be one?)

So we may get the fun of being married for a few months. Anyone wishing to take over as political football is welcome to do so. The cool thing is to see the writing on the wall. It's inevitable that same-sex marriage will be legalized in Calif over time as the voter attitude shifts, likely other blue states will eventually follow suit. After a considerably longer time the Federal laws should shift once people see that nothing horrible has happened. Wonder if I'll live to see it, given how dramatically things have changed I might well indeed.

In the meantime, I get to wear a really cool ring. :)

The Rest Step - I can finally do it

It's taken me years but I finally get the Rest Step. I feel silly that it took me so long to get it but it involves immediately locking your knee and I've been conditioned for years to not lock my knees so it was a huge mental and physical block for me.

When you take a step you straighten and lock the leg that is getting the weight (what will become the trailing leg) and relax the leg that is brought forward for the next step. The thing I wasn't getting is that you straighten and lock the leg immediately. In this way, you can walk uphill at nearly normal speed.

I was hoping I could find a You Tube video on The [Mountaineering] Rest Step but there isn't one (and there needs to be one).

There are these refs:
From Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills
http://books.google.com/books?id=O_SNr4LPdUQC&pg=RA1-PA114&lpg=RA1-PA114&dq=rest+step&source=web&ots=5SIm2A7kCC&sig=5KxV6fzRsH2KRQtvIubTzf6opoo&hl=en#PRA1-PA108,M1

And also:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2547689470078157984mOchMu
http://www.ehow.com/how_14512_perform-rest-step.html

I finally put it together while working out at the gym with a pack. It became clear even before I got to the stair climber machine but when I was walking up the real stairs of the gym. I hit a rhythm and was able to then work out on the stair climber for 45 minutes while carrying a 27.5 lb pack. It of course helped that NCAA Women's Fast Pitch Softball championships were on as I'm real familiar with fast pitch softball as I spent all of jr high and high school playing softball until I had to quit from a shoulder injury which I handled all wrong so it didn't heal for years. (As a result I became an excellent hitter.)

I walked out of the gym knowing that, for once, I was ready for Shasta. I should increase the weight and the speed but I pretty much have it.

Songwriting and Music

Music is a passion of mine that unfortunately I'm not inheritly good at. I've spent years working on playing guitar and piano better and was passable, but never really that good. I pretty much stopped when I was dealing with Carpal Tunnel and realized that I essentially had to pick which activities mattered the most to me as my hands weren't going to be able to do everything. I chose work and art and sports and let playing music slide. But I continue to mentally work on musical concepts here and there - trying to recognize notes, harmonies and keys.

But it's taken me a long time to get to the point of admitting that I'm much more visual that auditory. Visualizing things is very easy for me, except I can't just look at written music and know how it's going to sound, and keeping time musically by manually counting is out is very difficult for me (though if I hear it I usually can figure it out). I took a basic music composition class and it was fascinating (and demoralizing) how easily playing music came to some folks.

But I have to remember that writing (at least expository writing) is very easy for me and probably a lot of those folks would struggle with that. Or they may not be as visual and able to imagine an object at several different orientations in space. We all have our talents.

But it doesn't stop me from being really jealous. I keep thinking that I could at least write lyrics, but my brain doesn't seem to work that way. When I write a song I'm more writing a story and the idea of stopping to write a chorus just doesn't jive at all. It's clearly a skill that I need to learn but once again it would be an uphill struggle for me. When I stop and imagine myself writing a particular song that I'm listening to, I realize that I would never have occurred to me to arrange the words that way. Maybe I'm just too linear though I don't think of myself that way. Hmmm.

I'm obviously making this far more difficult than it needs to be. Each time I have trouble, it's magnified into a moral failure. Oh please.

Waiting is not a Horrible Thing

Twice now I've seen commercials selling the idea that waiting is a worthless time waster (I can't find a good reference but I'm sure you've heard them), One in particular outright says "No one has ever gotten anything worthwhile by waiting" (paraphrase). Implying that waiting was bad (since they were selling the speed of their service).

It's odd that they can actually get away with disparaging waiting. Waiting is an excellent exercise in patience. A sort of zen-like opportunity to work on breathing and relaxation, reading, writing or thinking.

I find it also helps to realize that as long as you are taking up their space it's quite likely they will get to you. It's hard to ignore a human. Humans take up space and a business only has so much of it. Not dealing with you is actually costing them money, so they have an incentive to work with you.

Waiting is not so bad. Really.

Miserable in Paradise

When battling training daemons it's best not to be alone...

I never got home sick as a kid, but I sure do now and I'm just realizing that's a part of what it is that is plaguing my trying to do mountaineering and altitude adjustment while by myself.

Thur, Fri, Sat I was up at Mt Shasta's Horse Camp (run by the Sierra Club). I had multiple purposes in mind. The most important was to invest the time to adjust to the altitude to see if that made a difference in the AMS that I'm prone to get. The good new is that plus Diamox kept me from getting sick.

The bad news is that after 24 hours I was miserable missing Terri, Yoshi and Trek, plus I was dealing with feelings of being a failure (at mountaineering, but you know how these things get generalized in one's head - sigh.)

While there I wrote this somewhat pathetic missive:

Thur Arrived 5:30pm [it's a 1.25 snow hike up to Horse Camp from Bunny Flat]
Fri At Horse Camp acclimating.
Midday - I will leave at midnight [for a training climb - which I wussed out on and didn't leave till the morning]. The spring isn't running yet. Caretaker is concerned.
I never count on how depressed I get when I'm away from Terri & the dogs.
This is tricky as for me to aclimate takes extra time [at least 36 hours or so], but I so much want to leave now. This doesn't bode well for my mountaineering future.
On the Alaska trip [a week long class on an Alaskan glacier] which started on a Sunday, by Tuesday I wanted to go home despite being in one of the most beautiful places on Easth - the Ruth Glacier.
I love physical challenges but I need to find somethng that takes less time. I joke that I should take up something simple like riding centures [100 mile bike rides].

Wonder if something I'm taking is affecting me. I need to Google diamox serotonin [didn't find anything useful]
I went and helped work on the digging out of the spring and the: carry wood, chop water (sorry) exercise seemed to help. I must say it's nice not to be sick. I can eat all I like.

So I think my future is in shorter duration alpine skiing where I aspire to be an excellent black diamond skiier. (Right now, I'm ok with easy blues). I will go on the Shasta Mountain Guides trip that I have paid for - that will be in June, but I'm not going to do any more solo training trips that exceed a day. I'll just start bringing a pack to the gym and doing the stair climber and also work out on my elliptical here.

As far as actual training and carrying skills I still have some work to do. My rest step is still too slow to use all the time, and even when doing it my right hamstring tends to tire so I'll need to strengthen it more.

Predatory Lenders - They're Back

The Predatory Lenders are back in my mailbox. Different tactics, but just as deceptive.

This one is from "Insite Financial Corp." Who is a real estate broker (Ca lic #01522406)

It's offering me more than my original loan, but for a lower monthly payment, claiming to be a 30 year fixed. Today's interest rates are higher than my current loan so I know there's a huge catch in there somewhere.

Looking carefully at the language it says "30 year fixed loan with a payment at 3.25% amortized" odd that it doesn't say "interest rate," and in the next paragraph it says APR or 7.99% which is way over what my loan is and a major red flag.

Turning over the page in search of the fine print, and the "offer" goes from sounding friendly to a financial nightmare.
"New loan is a 30 year fixed with minimum payment option starting at 3.25% for the first year. Minimum payment is available for 120 months [10 years] with the following minimum payment schedule:

Year Amount
1 1074.34
2 1154.92
3 1241.54
4 1354.56
5 1434.76
6 1542.37
7 1658.05
8 1782.40
9 1916.08
10 2059.79

So in 10 years the payment doubles! And what year does it exceed what I'm paying now?
Year 4. Such ripoff artists. Especially since during the years where you're not paying much money, interest in accruing.

Oh and there could be a prepayment penalty in case you had the idea to use just the cheap part of the loan. Run away from these types of quagmire loans.

Muddy Buddy ride and run

Muddy Buddy: A bike ride, a run, an obstacle course, and a crawl through a mud pit.

Do I get to admit that this looks like an absurd amount of fun? And it's only 6 miles total - part of which will be on a bike. You actually could not train for it and be fine.

Check out the race video: http://www.muddybuddy.com/info.php

There's one coming up in San Jose on June 8th and entries are open till June 5th.
http://www.www.muddybuddy.com/events.php?id=2

Unfortunately, that's right before my Shasta climb and I'm paranoid about getting hurt as I'm more than hell bent on climbing that mountain this time. I really do want to put someone up to this so I can watch. Wonder if a dog could go along? Maybe just not ride the bike though the dog could be carried through the obstacles (and would love the mud crawl). Given that would add to the sillyness the organizers would probably be all for it.

Bad Web Design Still Lives!

It's gotten harder to find, but really bad web "design" is still with us.

I found this completely by accident: http://www.crossedsabers.com/

This is amazing. This is not a case of ignorance of how to set up a page. You have to work to make it this bad. This person knows how to change the font and backgroud colors, insert photos, change the text justification, but they have no sense of TalkingTooMuch. In fact, no sense of text placement at all. There is a blizzard of text all over the page. And the text language is seriously off kilter. The miles long crap in the left column where you should only put basic outline headings. It's an easy bet that their in person communication skills are just as bad, but I'm not willing to check further.

And the content is a hoot. Saying they will shoot anyone caught trespassing and cutting their horses tails. So much for due process - who made you judge and jury? And I love the barn manager ad for 40-60 hours a week at sub-minimum wage ($5.00/hr - maybe that's normal for West Virginia.) And I love the near religious references to "Our Executor."

This isn't a web site - it's a side show.

This person is a West Virginian Republican. Surprised? Thought not. :)

Workshop Organizing - Learning New Skills

Well I thought they were new skills, they really aren't.

There's a dog trainer in Southern California that I've been wanting to take Yoshi to as the training techniques ("Control Unleashed") are proving to be very effective. I made an appt for him in March and had about a month to work on the exercises presented in the book. As the appt got closer my dog started getting behaviorally a lot better and then I realized I didn't know what I wanted to work on so postponed the appt.

In the meantime, I had joined a Yahoo group of people also working on the techniques and found that there were about 4 of us in the Bay Area who were interested, so it started to look like it might be easier to bring Kienan up here instead of a group road trip. To get an idea of interest, I asked the Bay Team list and got an avalanche of responses. I decided that it was time for this to happen in the Bay Area and on the spot decided that we should organize a Control Unleashed Workshop (even though I'd never done something like that before). My life hasn't been quite the same since.

The cool thing is that I was able to get The Bay Team to sponsor it and thus I had both insurance (the big part) and, also important, the advice of our Trial Secretary which helped huge amount.

Technology made a huge difference too. I created a Yahoo group and invited people to it and had an easy way to talk to people and get suggestions and feedback from them. I kept the simpler documents on Google docs, and used Open Office for the more complicated ones that used special fonts (like the flyer and the completion certificate). Even Google Street Views got into the act as a view of the parking entrance was really helpful to put in the directions of the confirmation. And my monocrum of graphic design skills got dusted off as well in designing the flyer and the certificate.

Even though we used the mail to send checks, I used email heavily to confirm receipt of the checks, and made liberal use of my cell phone. The cell phone was invaluable the day of the event so last minute things could be taken care of easily.

What helped a lot was that I've taken several seminars and I know what generally happens at them. I knew what I liked and didn't like and actually had the power to do it differently this time. I hate it when people can't use cameras, so I allowed them. I don't like having to pay for lunch separately so I just included it in the seminar price which also meant that we didn't have to manage who paid for lunch or not (a huge win in my view). Though the biggest win was to offer an auditor spot to someone who would be the food service manager. She bought and brought all the snacks and breakfast items, laid it all out and dealt with the caterer. Phew.

I guess this is all about how to delegate which is what the management gurus always talk about.
Though I was stepping outside my usual sphere, I never felt lost and actually didn't realize that I was doing it. I think I kept waiting for reality to hit and I was standing in it the whole time. The funny part was that I got to sign my own completion certificate which was a schizophrenic sort of feeling.

One of the more fun things was the opportunity to publically thank my dog for bringing us all together on that particular day as he was the reason it all happened in the first place.

Praying for Lower Gas Prices - Oh please stop

Seriously. There's an article in the Chron today about how Rocky Twyman staged a pray-in at a Chevron station (!). He must be kidding, but he swears he's serious.

As if God gives a flying whatever about how many trading tokens it takes you to secure a gallon of dead dinosaur residue. Especially since according to this cnn Money article, we're still only playing about midrange in the scope of world gas prices (at least it's closer to normal than before when it was absurdly inexpensive.)

People invoke God in the oddest ways. I'm much more in the God sets up a system and then leaves it alone. I mean you gotta admit that particle physics and evolution are pretty cool tools (now that's intelligent design) in the scope of universe design. (If you care, I'm kind of a non-practicing Buddhist myself.)

A friend sent me an article that someone did a creationist museum that shows Adam and Eve's progeny in a world complete with docile (!) dinosaurs (ref1, ref2). Now that's funny, tempting to go see it, but it's way off in Kentucky.

Am I going to get in TROUBLE for this?

So I'm organizing a dog training workshop (which is a long story in itself). People sign up and send me checks. Sometimes the level they want is full and they have to send me a different check (easier than my managing refunds) This has been working great and I just had one deadbeat who I had to nag a little. I wasn't getting answers via email, so I left a message on her voicemail at which point I find out that she's an elementary school Principal. Eeek!

When I was a kid (and I'm informed that this is no longer the case) the Principal was the most powerful figure in a young kid's life beside their parents. So it was difficult for me to leave a slightly nagging message on the PRINCIPAL'S voicemail. I don't think my voice shook, but there was a groveling small child in me worrying that I was going to get in trouuuuble.

I did eventually get the check and the workshop is about to happen, but I sent out email asking for a reply to let me know that they had all received the workshop confirmation and directions. I've heard from all but 2. Wouldn't you know? She's one of them. ARRRGH. My inner child does not need this anguish even though I keep telling her that she needs to get over it.

I'm going to wait a couple of days in hopes that I don't have to face these silly internal issues.
Let's hear it for avoiding issues.

Torch Run - Afterwards

As you have no doubt heard, SF (Gavin Newsom) changed the path the torch took, avoiding a whole bunch of protesters, but disappointing those who came out to see it.

I was trying to think what I would have done in the city's position.

I came back to

A city's responsibility is to
1. protect its citizen's and visitors
2. not stomp on civil rights

A caller to KFOG mentioned yesterday that it was a powder keg on the Embarcadero and there were people planning on violence. I think Newsom probably took the best of a set of not fun choices. The protests got to happen. The torch got to run. And most importantly, no one got killed or severely hurt.

Yes, people were disappointed that they didn't get to see the torch but they likely wouldn't have seen it anyway. They would have seen a street brawl at best. And the stick thin torch bearers would have been at considerable risk.

Olympic Torch in SF - Worry

The Olympic Torch is here along with all the accompanying controversy. Mayor Newsom is taking what I think is the right tack of encouraging peaceful protest and for the most part I'm sure that's what will happen, but there is always some group that takes things further and gets violent in some way. Usually in a protest without a specific target that's [relatively] fine.

But this is different. There is a focal point and a vulnerable one at that - the torch and the torch bearer. This is going to make tomorrow more than a little exciting for those charged with protecting the torch bearer from harm. I'm hoping we'll have no violence, but historically that hasn't been the case there's always been some.

Of course, the Chinese Gov't doesn't give a hoot about what happens (I really dislike the Chinese Gov't and for good reason), but the rest of the world will be watching. I'm particularly impressed with the protesters who climbed the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now that's bravery.

I Hate When My Superstitions are Reinforced

"These things go in threes." I hate the foreboding that I get from that saying.

We've had three dog agility related people (all male) pass away recently. The last one Bill was a former Power Paws classmate of mine who just died yesterday of Bladder Cancer. When I heard about the second death I had already heard of Bill's diagnosis and the fact that he and his wife Nan had moved to Houston from Ottawa, Canada (where they had moved for an employment opportunity) for treatment. While Houston is an okish city as far as Texas goes the culture shock must have been appalling.

But I should stop making this about me. I loved having Bill and Nan (and their dogs) in class. Bill had this perfect staccato way of saying "Bert" (their first Border Collie). I wish I had a recording of it, but it is so embedded in my brain that I probably don't need one. He loved his dogs and he loved seeing them succeed and never yelled at them (in a bad way), even when Radar was doing his best imitation of that fictional slow race horse whose name I can't find now (and I've just wasted 10 minutes looking). Though Nan has a special way of saying Raaay-Dar.

I'm wondering how Nan is doing as I spent more time with her. I selfishly hope she'll move back here.

In start contrast to Kevin, Bill's death is not a shock or a surprise, but no less angering. He gave it his best shot. He should have won, dammit. The world is a less happy place because he's gone. Their web site is http://www.kednac.com/index.html

Randy Rhodes - shy soft-spoken radio host

Randy Rhodes who is a funny, bright, very direct Air America radio host came out to San Francisco for an appearance and got into hot water by really letting loose (seems that SF brings that out in folks) and called both Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton "fucking whores." Geez Randy - don't hold back now. :)

She's apparently indefinitely suspended. Oops - but you know she'll be back.

The video is here:

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=42226&cat=14

Air America's web site says:

"Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our Hosts," said chair Charlie Kireker.

While I don't think Rhodes tirade is really constructive, the trouble is - it's really funny.

Squinting at Lawn Signs

The Alameda Education Foundation has started a campaign to support the school programs that are facing being axed. Things like music for grades 1-3 and athletics for high school and advanced placement programs. Very admirable goals and the campaign has a sense of novelty that I admire. The one problem is that the important part of the lawn signs (the contact information web address) is unreadable from further than 10 feet away, which makes them pretty pointless if you're driving by.

Here are a couple of examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12094656@N00/2338265903/in/pool-672557@N20/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24943895@N07/2356188736/in/pool-672557@N20/

The second one with the blue stripe is the most mysterious to me. What is the purpose of the blue stripe? It cries out to have the invisible url larger, in white, and on top of the blue stripe, and it's driving me a bit nuts as these signs are all over the neighborhood.

Problem is that while I totally support our schools and vote for every school related tax accessment, I'm leary of whining too much about this as I don't want to get roped in to redesigning the sign as I'm busy enough as it is. So here I whine, but I really hope they work on the presentation.

Predatory Lending - New Tactics

They're back in my mailbox, but differently styled, and just misleading instead of borderline illegal.

Two came yesterday.
The first on was from Loan Management Services in Oakland, CA

Right at the top it displays an inflated estimated value of my house or what it was probably worth a year ago at the top of the real estate value. Then it goes on to say what my loan is (a public record), and then it asks if I'd like to discuss options for refinancing this loan.

The next one from United Capital Mortgage Solution starts out with Fed Lowers fund rate below 3.0% and says that that congress has approved increasing the loan limits from $417,000 to 729,00. Both of which are completely irrelevant. Then it goes on to say: You may meet the requirements to take part in a government backed 30 year fixed rate mortgage program.

This government program does not require a good credit score to quality and this program may allow you to obtain Cash Out of up to 95% of the value of your home. It goes on to say that I had an adjustable rate loan (I don't) and should call to refinance. This one at least has fine print which basically admits this product or service has not been approved or endorsed by any government agency. Which means all the stuff they told you doesn't apply to what they're proposing.

So it seems as if the tactic is to shove a bunch of true but completely irrelevant but nice sounding information into the promo letter.

Truck transmission

Well the brake trick didn't last long for my truck and it's getting harder and harder to get it into gear. Eventually it's going to strand me so I gave in an let my mechanic take a look at it. At first they were wondering if it's the clutch but I was pretty sure it wasn't as the clutch had been replaced not too long ago, so I wasn't surprised at all to hear that yes indeed it's the transmission. They found a used one for me for $850 and out the door is going to be in the neighborhood of $1900. (Ouch).

Unfortunately that's going to impact the agility budget, but the truck is for the house so I may bill the house for part of it.

What's interesting is that it's cheaper to just replace the transmission rather than take it apart and find out why there are metal filings in the transmission fluid (I trust these folks as this would be a great way to rip someone off) I am having them keep the old transmission so I can take it apart to learn more about how it works.

[later]

Unfortunately the place they got the transmission from had a $200 refundable core charge which means they want the old one back or I give them another $200. Fun as pulling a transmission apart would be, it's not worth that much.

I did call them back as the clutch felt really soft and Rodell told me that the clutch was replaced (appartently you get a clutch out of the deal too as it's like trying to change the oil without changing the filter) and the new clutches are super smooth and they feel totally effortless (and hence wrong), but that it's normal and as long as it's going into gear that's ok.

Just Spell It OUT Jodie

I don't usually make a habit of reading Parade Magazine but if it's waved under my nose I typically don't resist, because it takes less time just to read it than avoid it. (Make People Magazine look downright literary), and I freely admit to being the curious type.

So I read the Mar 16, 2008 interview with Jodie Foster. and I'm a little ticked off at how they presented her as not having found love (she's been in a long term relationship with Cydney Bernard for years and they have 2 kids) but at the same time realize that if Foster isn't going to tell Parade Magazine the whole truth then what are they going to say?

Given that John Hinkley tried to assassinate Reagan in her name, she pretty much has earned a right to her over paranoid privacy, but these days I don't think it serves her as then you get things like Parade Magazine (deliberately I believe) densely calling Bernard her "longtime friend." Foster has been in the "If they're not bright enough to figure it out." camp for a very long time and now is making it so obvious (your kids share your names!) that it's appalling that Parade takes the single, loveless Foster tack (which I find pretty offensive.)

Come all the way out Jodie, enough with coded acceptance speeches that you've been doing for years. Spell it out even to the dense. You don't have to discuss every detail, but just tell them the truth of who Bernard is for you.

Alameda Telecom on its way out

I hate being correct when I don't want to be.

10 years ago. Alameda Bureau of Electricity called me up doing a survey of whether I thought them going into the cable business was a good idea. I said I wasn't sure I wanted my city's very successful municipal power company getting mired in the risky cable business. This was during the dotcom boom and every thing looked rosy, but already there was this sneaky sense that this all couldn't go on forever.

But they did it anyway, and my household needed to get out of dialup hell and I wanted to support them as I was hoping that my caution was totally off base. The service has been great all this time. Unfortunately they've been losing an astounding amount of money and the electric company side of the business has had to loan them money.

According to the Chron's Chip Johnson and other sources the writing is pretty clear that the cable side of the business will have to be sold, which is fine. I didn't particularly want to choose Comcast as a cable provider when a local one was available, but if suddenly we become Comcast customers for some reason that seems ok. I just hope they don't offer me the Discovery channel as I would never leave the house then.

On Writing

It's funny the categories that one makes in ones head. I write. I have no problem with writing, I'm a liberal studies undergrad (English, History Theatre, Math) so you could say that I've been trained as a writer. And friends who are real writers say they like my writing (a huge compliment that always takes me by surprise). But I don't see myself as a Writer, nor have I ever aspired to that lofty goal. And yet here I am. Writing.

For me writing has been a means to an end (my apologies to the real writers for the cliche). I want to tell a story or an anecdote or express an idea and writing is the most natural way for me - probably because I spent a lot of time alone as a kid (my siblings are older than me and were out of the house while I was young.) I would tell myself these long narratives as a way to cope. This has left me a little weird about spending significant amounts of time by myself, but that's another blog entry.

I see myself now as more of a chronicler that a writer.

While I love to read fiction, I'm rather poor at creating it. I'm much more the write (mis)adventure stories. Also, as a way to keep myself motivated to train my dogs, I write about my dog training and one of my dog's has obliged by having some very challenging behavior problems, so the Training Diary has developed a following (probably from sympathetic souls) - something I never anticipated. I put the Diary online so I could get at it from anywhere, and so if I had a question for a trainer, I could easily point them to the Diary, and yes of course I use it to share silly dog stories with friends. These days, people do come up to me at agility trials commenting about an entry and of course I get email too. It still happily surprises me that people read it and I hope it always surprises me.

But this was about writing wasn't it? I think one thing I'm noticing is that I'm starting to really enjoy it. I'm sitting in the parking lot of Sugarbowl and its windy and chilly outside and what am I doing? Writing this. Ostensibly I'm waiting for it to warm up and be less icy and that's mostly true, but when I got here and noticed the conditions, I was thrilled to pull a notebook out and start scribbling instead. But the slopes are starting to call and hopefully I will stay mostly on my feet/skis today.

Automotive Mysteries

My truck is acting strangely and it's taken me months to even figure out a work around to the problem and I don't understand the solution at all.

For months my truck has been sometimes difficult to shift into first when it's sitting still. I tried a whole bevvy of supersticious things like: trying other gears (fine if it would let me), holding the gearshift against the gear (rarely would work, double (and more) clutching, and changing the transmission lubricant.

A couple of days back I by accident found a solution and I really don't get it and need to spend some quality time with my mechanic. The plus side is that it may well be cheaper than a transmission rebuild to fix.

If it won't go in gear, I press on the brake pedal and 9 of 10 times it will then allow me to smoothly shift into first. Say what? How could brakes have anything to do with a transmission? That question will surely be answered by my mechanic, but I just save myself a bunch of money by knowing what fixes it rather than pay them to puzzle it out. It's probably some hydraulic problem and stepping on the brake increases the pressure enough, though I have no problem with the brakes so it's something deeper down.

Odd. I suppose chanting might help.

[followup]

Now stepping on the brake is no longer working. It pretty much has to be in motion. To the shop it goes today.

Hillary Should Concede

Much as I hate to write this, given that the Republicans are deliberately crossing party lines to vote for Hillary as they see her as a more defeatable candidate, and given that Obama is in the delegate lead, I think it's time for Senator Clinton to bow out honorably rather than keep attacking Obama. As long as it was a positive campaign I certainly didn't mind that it continue but this negative slamming of each other just is not serving us at all, and the republicans are loving it.

Randi Rhodes thinks that she knows what Clinton is thinking. That McCain is a one term president but Obama is a two term president, so she has a better chance of eventually being president if she were to run against McCain even if she were to lose the first time. If that was even remotely what she is thinking that would be remarkably short sighted as we need a Democrat as president Right Now. 4 more years of a Republican administration is going to come at a terrible cost of both lives and money.

Skiing Progress

I'm starting to "get" skiing. Or more specifically, my muscles are getting it. The memory of how to make a proper turn is starting to sink into my muscle memory (ref1, ref2). I'm starting to think of the turn as a whole process rather than over thinking each part of the turn (though I still have to do that some.) No longer do I feel I'm strapped to these unwieldy things whose operation is a mystery to me and that I have to think about every move I make with them or else they will turn on me and throw me to the ground. They do still throw me to the ground from time to time, but I usually understand what I did wrong, and also I haven't fallen when exiting a chairlift in a long time. (Unfortunately, that was also my only chance at being in a Warren Miller film - Yes, I've seen many of them.)

I spent the day on Sugarbowl's Jerome Hill going down the Trailblazer run (over and over again) I'm almost to the point where itn's getting a little dull, but not yet. Then I'll have to go looking for steeper blue square terrain of which there's no shortage of. Next season I hope to be able to start learning black diamond.

My right turns are still awkward but getting less so, but it is my left leg that does get fatigued quicker and I have to stop to rest on the way down the run. As one might guess, the less I'm fatigued, the better my form is. I did a fairly short day today as I wanted the form to have more time to set in rather than having me struggle with poor form when tired. It's tempting to just do half days, but the best skiing conditions span the mornings and afternoon (10-3 or so).

With the climbing season coming up I do need to spend more time actually climbing up the snow, but I think I'll squeeze in one or two times more this season. I will be at Shasta in a couple of weeks, but I really should be snowshoeing then.

The nice thing about learning to ski is that I'm not overcome with wistfulness when I see skiers fly past me on Shasta as I now know what's involved. I will be able to comfortably ski mountaineer one day - just not yet.

I'll have to plan with my trainer Bryce about how to increase quad endurance for long climb and ski days. Probably lots of squats - oh boy. The best exercise is still without a doubt walking around in ski boots, carrying ski equipment. I was thrilled to realize that my heart was hammering away and I wasn't out of breath at all. (I'll credit Indoor Cycling for that)

The only bummer is that I seem to have reinjured the muscle pull near my ribcage (base of the lat). Hopefully it won't take long to improve.

While skiing, I still use my poles a lot to keep me on my feet and the avoid stupid pratfalls. This makes me think that I might not enjoy snowboarding that much as they don't use poles. I'll stick with skiing for now as there's plenty to learn and it's more useful for mountaineering.

Dying from Treatable Illnesses

Someone I know (but not well) just passed away from Bacterial Meningitis caused by a Strep infection and I'm feeling pretty angry about it and this is by far the best place to vent rather than make the living feel worse than they already are.

The problem with Strep is that we have some familiarity with it but it has a dark side that can be very nasty and deadly if not recognized and treated early and aggressively (ref1, ref2, ref3). I think of it like driving a car. As an analogy, we are very familiar with driving, but to stay sane, have to retain some denial of how very dangerous it can be (and I just drove 300 miles yesterday), but that analogy doesn't hold really is that while most of us drive, if asked, we know about the danger, and that probably isn't true about Strep infections.

This is all very much on my mind as ironically I was listening to a Discover Magazine's Vital Signs podcast of someone nearly losing a leg to a Strep infection resulting from a stupid scratch on her foot and the medical staff disagreeing on how to treat it. It was very much a parable in don't take infections lightly and if you think it's Strep treat it immediately and aggressively.

The person I knew had been battling a sinus infection (page down on the ref. to "eliminate infection") for several weeks. Now while I know him casually, I don't know his health status, his attitude to getting medical attention (how long he'll just "put up with it"), how his body responds to large doses of pennicillin (Strep responses well to it according to the podcast) or the skill and patience of his doctor, and most importantly what strain of Strep it was (group A or B - see the numbered refs above). Sinus infections are common and it's easy to just think of them as a nuisance and they mostly are, but ones that hang on I think (though I'm no doctor so what do I know? Just enough to make me dangerous.) is a red or at least a yellow flag. More than a week is certainly long enough to get a culture to see what you're dealing with and I don't know if that was done (and I'm not going to ask as it's beside the point for us as it won't bring him back, and a kind loving person is no longer in this world and we're worse off because of it.)