A Little Adventure before I Go

I have 8 days before I need to be on a plane to London!  I'm excited, overwhelmed, and more overwhelmed.

I've now finished all the big projects that absolutely have to be finished before I go except the whole class prep project.  There are two other projects I should also get further on.  But at least I've taken steps on one of them.

My friend, K, who's going to house sit has moved in.  So far, this arrangement is working out really well.  I hope he enjoys living in the house!  (He's a really good guy, and easy to get along with.)

I started riding my bike again this past weekend, just on a local trail.  And on Sunday, I was thinking about cutting my ride short to work on something else, so I turned off the trail onto a road in order to be able to turn around more easily, and saw a sign that pointed to a landing and said something about the joys of taking your kid fishing.  But I'd never heard of this landing, and it's only about a mile off the bike trail.  I rode up the road, which I'd thought ended at the gravel mine (visible from the trail crossing) and realized that it turned and went on from there.  What I found was a little park area, with a gravel/packed dirt and pothole parking area, a few picnic tables, and a little paved boat ramp with a sign saying that it was four something miles up river to the landing near campus, and 5 something miles down river to a landing further down.

I had a plan.  It wasn't a particularly cunning plan, but a plan.  I could put the kayak on the car with the bike inside, and drop the kayak at the landing near campus along with my life vest, paddles, and so on.  Then take the car (with the bike) to the new landing, leave the car there, and ride the bike up to the landing near campus, lock it there, get in the kayak, and go down river.  So I could do my own drop off and pick up because it's fairly close.

And that's what I did yesterday.  I was a little anxious about it, especially worried about what if I missed the landing somehow?

The thing is, right across from the landing is a ski jump, and that's visible from pretty far away, and not easy to miss, so the chances of my missing the landing and having to go another five miles were low.

The weather was good, and I told a couple friends what I was up to, and texted them before I got on the water with my eta (and then when I got out again).  But still, doing things all alone makes me a bit apprehensive.  It doesn't usually stop me doing them, but it makes me worry a bit along the way.

Here are some pictures from the adventure:

My kayak at the first landing.  (There's an ice rink right near, owned by the city and university jointly, and the city rec people were kind enough to let me leave my life vest and paddles and such there.  I used my bike lock to lock the kayak to the sign, probably illegally.  But it was out of the way at least.)

At the second landing, ready to get on the bike!

Bike parked at the ice rink, and locked up!

Kayak loaded and ready to go!

Gorgeous day on the river, mostly very quiet and calm.

Ski jump in the distance!  (Why was I worried I'd miss that?  I blame my recent reading of The Mill on the Floss, where Maggie becomes a "fallen woman" because Stephen purposefully "misses" landing at the town where they were supposed to land, and ends up going so far that they have to be sort of rescued by a ship and spend the night on it.)

A much closer view of the ski jump.  I really don't know how anyone has the courage to slide down that and fly through the air.  But they have big competitions here during winter.

The landing (with my car parked up the hill).

Pulled out!

Packed and ready to go back and pick up my bike!

All in all, it was a really lovely adventure, and I'm glad I went.  I'd like to try the next leg, too, maybe next summer!

Last Hurrah

I went camping up at a State Park this past weekend, probably the last hurrah of the season.

So, naturally, I took some pictures.  It was (according to WU) 26F at night, and boy is that cold.  But the morning was totally worth it!

Solo

I did a solo kayak paddle yesterday, from a town just up the river, to a little lake-ish area in my little city.  I think it was about five miles, and took me an hour and a half, not working very hard (but with the wind against me).

I put a green dot at the put in place, and a red dot where I took out.  The shore line has lots of houses and boats along the river in some areas, and not in others, so some places look pretty pristine, and some less so.  Still, it's a beautiful river, and was good for paddling for me.  (It's not white water, at all, but there weren't too many big boats to worry about.

My neighbor had offered to pick me up any time he's around, in his pick up.  So I called him when I was on land again.  It worked out GREAT!

(To the right of the green dot, it looks like that's another river coming in, but it's really a little lake, separated by some land, with probably an open pipe under the road between the little lake and the river.)

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a happy new year.  I hope we have a breakout of peace in the world, but I'm not holding my breath.


A rundown for 2014.  It's been a busier, more eventful year than I realized before I started this post. 

Goal for 2015: good health and happiness, being a good friend, being a better teacher and colleague.

Professional:
I taught a totally new senior seminar and learned a lot.

And I taught my usual two comp courses, an unusual two Shakespeare courses (usually I teach one, sometimes none).  Had a course release for committee work, which helped a lot, considering how much work the committee was.

Goals for 2015: Finish two current projects, teach better


Birding:  The best birds of the year were Snowy Owls, Northern Hawk Owl, a Garganey (at the end of the post), Warblers galore!  Yellow-headed Blackbirds.  Sora, Swainson's Thrush, and a YHB!  Brown Pelicans and Sooty Shearwaters (also Dolphins!), Pigeon Guillemots and Western Gulls  Wow, it was a really good birding year for me, wasn't it?  I saw a lot of new birds, and learned a good bit along the way.

Trip: California in summer, Hearst Castle, and Elephant Seals!  (And some birds, too!  See above.)

Goal for 2015: Maybe take a camera class, see more spring birds, more snowy owls, and see the Hawk Owl again.


Biking
Bike odometer: 10763.  That means I've ridden over 10K miles on my bike.  That's a lot when you think about it.

2014: 1022 miles (76 hours)
2013: 700 miles (52 hours)
2012: 1296 miles (89 hours)
2011: 460 miles (29 hours) (in UK from July to December)
2010: 1020 miles (66 hours)
2009: 2380 miles (166 hours)
2008: 1425 miles (97 hours) (in Japan from January to early June)
2007: 2011 miles* (There may have been more miles, before I started using the bike journal thingy, but I seem to have started using it in mid-May, so probably not tons of miles.)

One thing that's fun about a blog is that it's searchable, so you can look back fairly easily.  Here's what I had to say when I started looking for a new bike, and a post after my first ride, both back in 2007.  I'd say that bike's been a pretty good investment.

Goal for 2015: Bike 1500 miles, and have more fun!


Kayaking
I bought a new kayak in May.  And named it, the Retirement Fund.

Goal for 2015: Enjoy more kayaking!

Gardening
I had some planting beds put in the south side of my yard, and planted a veggie garden for the first time.  Here's what it looked like on May 8th or so.

And here's what it looked like in August.

Goal for 2015: Be a little more realistic about planting, and enjoy it as much!


Gardening, the Artichoke Project
Last winter, I managed to keep a couple of artichoke plants alive through the winter.

This winter, I've brought in five pots, and am trying again.  I've added light, but so far, I have a bug problem I can't seem to shake, though not spider mites this time.  When we had a break in the weather, and things were just above freezing, I put them out for a couple of days, hoping to kill off the bugs.  But it doesn't seem to have worked. 

What my friend and I have learned: we should put the plants out as early as possible, and bring them in late.  Bringing them in late, after a couple of frosts, may help kill off the bugs.  My friend reports that her plants don't seem to have bugs, and that's what she did, and mine do, and I didn't bring mine in as late as she did.  We're hoping that putting them out early, even if we have to cover them some, will give them more "winter" and thus get them to produce more chokes in summer.


And finally, I started some forced bulbs the other day, so in a couple of months, I may have tulips and daffodils!

A First

I went camping yesterday. 

I went up to an island park, complete with my car packed full.  How full?  I think the Lewis and Clark expedition had less stuff.

Maybe not quite, but there was a lot of stuff.  Some years ago now, I bought a tent for a specific purpose, though I no longer quite remember why.  I used it once for that purpose.  And I lent it to a friend about five years ago.

 

When I thought about going camping recently, I aired it out and found the friend's reading glasses (a different style than my own).  So it's been a while.  I wasn't sure I'd enjoy camping, even, so I made a one night reservation, and figured if I hated it, I could leave and come home and never go again.

 

 

I got my camping spot and set up my tent.

 

As you can see, it's a beautiful site.  There's water!  (But there were surprisingly few bugs, which was great.)

I had the Retirement Fund with me.



So I went for a paddle, a couple of hours, first up the river, and then back down.  It was beautiful, and quiet.  I saw some other boaters, but mostly fishing or paddling themselves.

Then I went for a 20 mile bike ride, first scoping out the nearby town, where I found a diner.  Towards the end of my ride, I stopped at the diner and had dinner, and then road back, making it to my campsite in plenty of time to get stuff ready.  And then it was time for bed.  I was really tired, so I was lying on my sleeping bag, trying to get the energy to take out my contacts  (I did).  It was semi-noisy until it got almost totally quiet at 8:45.  After that, there was the occasional kid noise, but almost nothing.

And then it was morning!  I made my coffee (elixir of life!), and had some basic breakfast, and then I paddled around the island.  And as I was reaching the landing, I saw something swimming in the water.  I thought it was a muskrat, but hoped it was an otter.  So I paddled closer.  (I was a good ways off.)  And then it turned towards me, and it had a tan muzzle.  And round ears.  My eyes got big, and I stopped, and it swam a bit faster towards the shore.  So I paddled a bit faster.

And Yes, I saw my first bear!  It wasn't huge, but it was definitely a bear.  It got to shore, and jumped up, and went off into the underbrush.

That was pretty much the highlight of a really good camping trip.  (Short, but good.)


Meanwhile, I did some birding recently and saw a couple new birds, some of which I even got pictures of!  (The first is a Least Sandpiper; there there are Red-headed Woodpeckers.)

Get All the Things Done

I'm leaving for vacation on Wednesday early in the morning, so I'm trying to get stuff done.  I'm excited about seeing some friends (for a day, and maybe a lunch), but otherwise, not really excited about this trip.  My Mom and I are going on a tour run by a company that targets retired folks, and it looks like a full day of lecture is on the plan, one day of doing what my Mom really wanted to do, and then a mix of lecture and stuff that would be better done independently.  But I stupidly said yes.

I weeded the front yard this morning and did some dead-heading of the irises.  And while I was at it, I breathed in a gnat or something, and started coughing something awful.  Ugh.

I've done some of the housecleaning, but need to finish that.

And then there's this school project.  When I signed on, the folks running it said basically you can work at your own pace in June, and it will take about 40 hours.  But then when we did the prep, it turned out we could work at our own pace for half, and then turn in that half by the 13th, and then within a few days, we'd get the second half and needed to be done with that by the 27th.  So, I'm guessing they're going to send out the second half, and I'll work like a madwoman on that tomorrow, and then finish when I get back.  (I asked during the prep period, when I first learned about the two work periods, but the person sort of blew me off.  Oh well.  She's agreed that I can finish when I get back, even though that will be after everyone else.  And I turned in my first section in less than a week, but it was really time consuming and hard.)

So today, the list goes on.  I need to pay bills, arrange this and that.  Do wash.  Pack.

Yesterday, I rerigged the bungee cord stuff on my kayak and put on new handles and a new set of paddle keepers, so it's looking inviting.  I may go for a paddle this afternoon just because.

Delights of Summer

I've named my boat, and even got a decal with the name:

We even christened it, some friends and I, by pouring water from a waterbottle over the bow.  (This is a waterbottle boat, not a champagne boat.)  (The hardest part of the naming decal was deciding on the font.)

I sent away for new bungee cord stuff, new handles (the rear handle is missing), pieces for the paddle keeper (one is broken now), and a cover for the cockpit, so if it's raining and I have to take it on top of the car, it won't fill with water.

And there are flowers!