Archive for the ‘camping’ Category

Historical landmark – Aug 24, 2007

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

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Here are Shannon, Mark, and Andy checking out a historical landmark: the Sonora Pass, elevation 9,628 feet. Not the highest mountain we’ve ever been on top of, but probably the highest one we climbed in California. Assuming we accept the definition of “climbed” as “drove to the top of.” Which I do. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus camera, taken during one of our trips to Clark’s Fork, and part of my famous Shannon and Camping series.

Pretty nice day. I had a few things that needed doing, but never quite got to them. It’s so easy to occupy my time doing other things. I’ll get to the important stuff tomorrow.

Mark and I went to Tokyo Boys for dinner with the Sushi group. It’s a nice place I’ve been to a couple times before and it’s pretty close to our house, so I was glad the group went there today. There were two people there I’ve eaten with before, but everybody else was new to me. There was a mother and daughter who were with the group for the first time tonight, which is nice.

The weekend was very nice. Joanne and I went to Lake Las Vegas for dinner on Saturday evening. We ate on the patio of an Italian restaurant that overlooks the water. There’s a stage right off the shore – maybe floating, maybe not – and there was a very nice jazz band playing. The music was loud enough to easily hear but not so loud you couldn’t carry on a conversation. There was a fairly decent-sized crowd listening, the weather was nice and warm with just a very gentle breeze, the food was great, and it was just a pleasant evening. We walked around the little village after dinner and just really had a nice time.

Sunday, Mark and I went to Ken and Melanie’s house for dinner as usual. We had lasagna and it was delicious. In a pleasant development, Tonya’s husband Diego was there. He has recently changed jobs due to a promotion (yea for them!), and thinks his Sunday evenings will be free from now on. I’m delighted about that – he’s a very nice guy and I like chatting with him. Both Tonya and Laura are married to great guys.

And that’s it for tonight. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: butter rage!

See you tomorrow.

Warming hut – Aug 29, 2010

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

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Here are Shannon and Mark in front of a warming hut somewhere out in the woods in the Sierra Nevada. It was closed that day. I don’t think anybody needed warming up in August. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus camera and part of my famous Shannon, Architecture, Camping, Hiking, and Vacation series.

It’s not too often that I find a picture that fits into five different famous series. Also, I’m pretty sure that picture was used before. But I don’t care. I like it, and I’m still working on my informal Arm Around Mom series. My Loyal Readers are invited to enjoy it.

Pretty good day today. I didn’t really get any work done. I got busy talking to folks on the phone and via email, and in the afternoon I helped Mark put together his new computer. It’s fully operational now and I’m not sure if I’ll ever see him again. My one significant bit of work was going to lunch with a lady I recently met who is a longtime software marketer. She gave me all sorts of good ideas and advice. Plus, the lunch was pretty good. So there’s that.

And there’s really nothing else to discuss tonight, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: peanut butter assault!

See you tomorrow.

Campfire watchers – Sept 3, 2005

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

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Here are Shannon and Andy sitting by the campfire one evening during our memorable trip to Worlds End State Park in Pennsylvania. Great Art courtesy of my old Minolta camera (with its bad pixels not too obvious in this photo) and part of my famous Shannon and Camping series.

Yet another pretty decent day. I got to speak with several family members today, although I forgot to call Tony back. He called yesterday afternoon while my friend Gary was here and I promised to call him back today. I thought of it in the morning, but he would have been at work, so it seemed better to wait until the afternoon. At which time I forgot. Sorry, Tony! I’ll try again tomorrow.

Not much else to report today. I went to the Homeowners’ Association meeting tonight to meet some folks, thank them for their kindness to my family on behalf of Shannon, and listen to a nice lady from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society speak about the Light the Night walk scheduled at the beginning of November. Really wonderful group of people. They hold the meetings in a conference room at our local Ford dealer, so while I was there, I ordered a license plate mounting bracket for the front of my beloved pickup. The old one was gone before I got the truck, and I’d like to have it. They had to order the part, so I expect to receive and install it on Friday.

My new [amazon asin=B00BGGDVOO&text=Roku 3] arrived today. I got it installed and working in my bedroom and moved the old one to the office, as planned. Much better solutions in both places. Recommended, in spite of the fact that Amazon just introduced [amazon asin=B00CX5P8FC&text=a new competitor] today (or was that yesterday?). It seems like a nice unit with very impressive specs, but one review I read says it’s still quite rough and without much support from third parties. That will change with time, of course, but I can get a Roku that works perfectly today. So I did.

And that’s about it for today. As usual, I’m lonely and broken-hearted, and things are improving for me every day. Small steps, but improvements.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: sword-brandishing taco heist!

See you tomorrow.

Bug inspection – July 28, 2003

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

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Here’s Shannon inspecting a bug with Andy and Mark during a hike in Hickory Run State Park in Pennsylvania back in 2003. At least I think that was a bug. Might have been a rock or a stick or something else. But let’s go with bug. Great Art courtesy of my old Minolta camera, taken during one of our all-time favorite camping trips, and part of my famous Shannon, Hiking, Camping, and Vacation series.

Remember, Loyal Readers, that we were homeschooling the boys, so Shannon was their teacher. She often used little opportunities like this to teach them something useful. How I envy them all that wonderful time together!

I went to a meetup.com get-together this evening. It was at the Peppermill restaurant and lounge at the north end of the Strip and was for single people over 40. Much as I dislike the fact, I’m now a single person over 40. Anyway, I met several very nice folks. I even made a buddy! His name: Buddy. Seems like a nice guy. I hope he likes to golf and is terrible at it. I think I’ll visit this group again. It’s really great to be out with people. I wish I was out with my dear Shannon instead, but that’s not to be.

And that’s about all I did today. Mark and I did our third consecutive day of exercise at the gym. I have some sore muscles, but I’m really trying hard not to overdo things and I think that is paying off. I can still walk! It’s not particularly easy to go there every day yet, but I expect it to take at least several weeks of constant attendance and hard work to start making us feel healthier and stronger. Then it will be easy to go. I may have mentioned that we’re not going at 7:00, as we did with Shannon right after we moved to Las Vegas. We’re going at the much more relaxed time of about 10:00. That allows Mark to get the sleep he needs and lets me get up at a leisurely pace as well, although I’m also managing to get an hour or two’s worth of work (of some kind) done before we go. All in all, I’m pleased with how that’s going.

I watched [amazon asin=B000ECX0S8&text=The Trouble with Harry] this evening. I think it’s one of my two favorite Hitchcock movies, along with [amazon asin=B0045HCJ9E&text=North by Northwest]. Leave it to Alfred Hitchcock to make a hilarious romantic comedy involving the repeated burial and disinterment of a possible murder victim. Beautifully filmed in New England, brilliantly acted, and masterfully directed, of course. Highly recommended.

Paul reports he’s struggling a bit with his feelings about Shannon’s death. Mark told me he had a tough day today, although he doesn’t see his mom’s death as necessarily being the immediate cause. I know Katie and Andy are struggling too. I also got a very touching note in the mail from Mia today, expressing her sadness at her grandma’s death (and including a St. Patty’s Day picture of a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end!). Things are hard. I wish I had a magic wand to wave to make everything better, but I don’t. I sent a note to Mia tonight telling her that I also am still feeling very sad about the death of my own true love Shannon, but I feel that in a very real way, we haven’t entirely lost her. We still have our memories, many photos, a few videos, our endless love for her, and each other. I told her I think the best thing we can do to remember her is to live happily. That’s taking some effort right now, but we all have the ability to do it.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: train-dwelling fugitive crabs!

See you tomorrow.

Campout hike – May 26, 2003

Friday, March 14th, 2014

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Here’s Shannon leading the way on a hike through one of the beautiful East Coast campgrounds we visited. What a beautiful place that was. Great Art courtesy of my old Minolta camera and part of my famous Shannon, Camping, and Vacation series.

We loved camping, and we especially loved camping on the East Coast. Virginia, Pennsylvania, upstate New York. They were all spectacular. There were a few places we enjoyed in Northern California and Colorado too, of course, and many of them were lovely too, but there was something about the greenery in the east. Plus, the state park campgrounds there were always magnificent. Just as an example, here’s our campsite from the trip featured above:

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Nice, huh? If we still had access to places like that one, we might not have sold the trailer a couple years ago.

On the other hand, we might have sold it anyway. The trailer was starting to get a bit old and pretty much needed repairs every time we took it out. On top of that, the Suburban was getting old too and we really didn’t want to buy a new one, as the kids were moving away and we didn’t need anything that big anymore. So I guess that phase is over.

Although my brother Chris suggested today that I buy a teardrop trailer and tow it behind my beloved pickup. That sounds like some fun, but I don’t think I care to spend that kind of money for something like that right now. Nevada camping isn’t world renowned for its beauty. And cruise ships have certain advantages over campgrounds. But those teardrop trailers are pretty cool, aren’t they?

Not a lot to report today. The plumber came by pretty early this morning, examined a few things and couldn’t find any blockage. Then he took the cover off the water meter vault to see if he could see anything wrong there. He found it.  Last night’s plumber left the main shutoff valve nearly completely closed. So the fix was easy and we’re back in business.

After the plumber left, I got a call from Ken. He had a small medical procedure performed on his eye yesterday and they had given him a contact lens to protect it. Sadly, the contact had come off overnight and he was in a bit of pain. So I ran over there, picked him up, and took him over to the doctor’s office. They fixed him up in just a few moments and we were on our way. To celebrate, we went to Carl’s Jr. for a bit of breakfast. I enjoyed getting together and hope Ken’s eye heals up quickly and painlessly.

Didn’t do much else today. Can’t explain why, so I won’t.

Paul sent a text message today telling me he and Melissa had just finished dinner at IHOP. It sounded good, so Mark and I went to our local IHOP for dinner too. It not only sounded good, it was good. So I didn’t need to plan dinner today. I’ll find something to eat at home tomorrow night.

Hung around in the jacuzzi for a while this evening. Mark was busy with something else, so I was on my own. Mark suggested we jacuzzify together tomorrow night, which sounds nice.

And that’s about it for another week. Life gets easier every day. Today is day 40 since Shannon’s death. I can hardly believe it’s been so long. It seems like just last week that we were still together. But time passes and before I know it, a year will have gone by and then two and then five and more. Memories will fade but my love for Shannon won’t. I don’t believe the pain will ever completely go away, but I do believe it will fade and become easier to bear.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: 140,000-pound walnut heist!

See you tomorrow.