FWIS3

I forced myself to promise that I'd get on and post today before setting out to take on the day.
Sorry I've been absent for so long. I missed the daily interactions with everyone, then over time I unfortunately got used to not checking in daily. It was so convenient as well as cathartic to log on daily while at work. I sat at a work station all day, if I had to sit there, at least I could come here.

Well, now I'm never on a computer. I check email when someone texts me to yell at me that I haven't checked my email. I order from Amazon quickly each week and that's about it. Oh I hit up youtube for instructional videos on about a car, or a vacuum cleaner.

I can't hope to catch up with everything that's going on in everyone's lives this morning, but I will try to give a brief recap of the last year. The Kid is in her 4th year at OSU, she's got a couple internships lined up this summer, which she's excited about. She had one lined up last year that evaporated with the shutdown. She'll probably graduate next spring. Last July she took me on a back country backpacking trip to the Sierras, culminating in a summit of Mt. Whitney. About the hardest thing I've ever done. And probably the greatest experience of my life. She's a beast.

I've been working with my buddy regularly, usually about 20-25 hours a week. I need routines and it gets me up every morning to get to his truck and see what we're going to do today. It usually hurts, it makes me sore and I'm tired. But I look forward to getting up which didn't happen much in the last 30 years.

Mrs. T was working from home until a month or so ago when she got shit canned. Her new boss was a dick. I understand the company is going down the shitters financially and she's trying to save it. But to be let go in a Zoom meeting on a Friday and that's it. Unacceptable. Mrs. T has worked with Every single executive director in the company's history over 34 years. This last one didn't appreciate anything she did. But Mrs. T is glad to be away from her and is slowly and calmly looking for something she'd enjoy doing. Oh and that led us all three to scramble to find health care for ourselves. At about 4 times the cost of last year. Luckily, we paid our house off in November. Wow, no mortgage for the first time since we've been married...

We currently have a dog and two cats, I'd like another dog but we'll see. The latest cat we found on a walk last fall. I had to crawl into a field tile drain to get him, dragged him out by his face but he's forgiven me. He and Mrs. T are best buds.

Nobody in the family has gotten Covid. The Kid gets tested routinely at school even though they're all remote this semester. Our three parents have all gotten both their shots. Mrs. T and I are scheduled for our first shots next week. I've had many friends that have gotten it, most mild cases. But a former work buddy nearly died and is in for a long slow recovery. My neighbor's step parents got it, she recovered fine, he did not make it. I should be a little more responsible than I am. I'm not worried for myself, but if I got it and gave it to someone who died, I could not live with that. There are so many people who don't take it seriously enough.

I think what I miss the most is live music. I will greatly appreciate getting out to a concert, any concert when able. My sister's favorite boss is an avid birder. He reached out to me and invited me to a birding trip in Ecuador next January. I think I'm going to do it. Well, the laptop battery is about to die, I have no idea where the cord is. I you've managed to make it this far, I miss you all and wish you all the best. I promise to check in an catch up. Now to load a bunch of softener salt into the basement then service the mower. As soon as all the snow melted last month, it got up to 60 and the grass is starting to grow. Take care all.

Thanks for the update!

Hi Thump, thanks for checking in! I figured you were too busy enjoying yourself in retirement to do so, and am happy to see I'm right.

Re: birding, hilarious that that's my pandemic hobby too (well and hiking before the snow hit, and buying a house which is totally a new hobby one takes on). Heading down to South America to find some new ones sounds amazing!

I'm so so happy to see you here. I'll catch you up tomorrow!

Here's my pandemic year in a nutshell.

My mother died of lung cancer in January, one year after diagnosis. She was doing really well for about 10 months, but the last 6 weeks or so the cancer became aggressive and she deteriorated quickly. We are considering ourselves fortunate that she didn't suffer for long. I went to see her the weekend before she died, the best decision I ever made. We are doing ok. My dad's strong and will live a good life going forward. I am struggling with not being able to grieve with my family in person, but that will happen once it's safe to travel and gather.

Other than that, really, things have been ok. We've stayed healthy. (Along with no Covid, it's been awesome not to have colds for a year!) MrPi and I are both employed and working at home. Buster (11, 5th grade) and Rooster (almost 9, 3rd grade) just started in person school in February. They got through distance learning pretty well and I think had a better time than most at learning and staying emotionally stable. It was certainly a challenge to be productive at work while they were home, but my workplace has given all employees a good amount of grace.

We just started a 20% reduction in work hours and pay, February-June. So Mondays are my day off, and I'm going to learn how to garden and re-learn the piano. And I'm going crazy with cross stitching. Right now I'm working on watersheds of Minnesota, Pokemon, and a huge supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.

I am glad you've had a pandemic-ok year. I'm sorry to hear about your wife losing her job, and I hope she finds something worthwhile to replace it! And fingers crossed that The Kid's internships go on as planned. I'm starting to feel optimistic about the summer. We seem to be finally figuring out how to do things safely in this country, even if not everyone is doing it year.

Ok, off to read about gardening! I look forward to hearing back from you.

geonuc wrote:Thanks for the update!

We did drive through and make two brief stops at Death Valley (but only to pee). It looked like most of the place was essentially shut down. What I found remarkable was summit day. We woke up at 3:30am to start our ascent. It was probably 38 degrees at 12,000 feet. A few hours later, after traversing some snow, we were at the summit at 14,505 ft, and probably 40-45 degrees. After descending 7000 ft we got in the car and a few hours later were were at -252 feet, and 127 degrees. Quite a day.

Rommie wrote:Hi Thump, thanks for checking in! I figured you were too busy enjoying yourself in retirement to do so, and am happy to see I'm right.

Re: birding, hilarious that that's my pandemic hobby too (well and hiking before the snow hit, and buying a house which is totally a new hobby one takes on). Heading down to South America to find some new ones sounds amazing!

Ha as fun is birding is, Mrs. T calls me an "angry birder" for my propensity to get frustrated when I cannot positively identify a new one. Pete is a prolific birder and I brought this up with him. I will be no help in identifying calls or most of the exotic birds of Ecuador. Last year he topped 1100 species to his "life list." If I worked hard, I could probably come up with a hundred. I'm sure I've seen birds in the past that I didn't positively identify, but that doesn't really count.

Home owning as a hobby. At least you have a good attitude. I choose hobbies to get away from the chores of homeowning. Good luck, and have fun. It's only money and hard work.

Thumper wrote:We did drive through and make two brief stops at Death Valley (but only to pee). It looked like most of the place was essentially shut down. What I found remarkable was summit day. We woke up at 3:30am to start our ascent. It was probably 38 degrees at 12,000 feet. A few hours later, after traversing some snow, we were at the summit at 14,505 ft, and probably 40-45 degrees. After descending 7000 ft we got in the car and a few hours later were were at -252 feet, and 127 degrees. Quite a day.

Yeah, that's one of the amazing things about the area. I've never summited Whitney (and never will with the state of my knees) but the view from the top of Telescope Peak is pretty cool. One of the tallest base-to-peak heights in the world, if not the tallest.

They call Whitney a "walk up."
Yeah, dream on...

Good to hear from you Thumper

Thumper wrote:They call Whitney a "walk up."
Yeah, dream on...

Ok I just looked it up and can confidently say I don't think I can do that and am pretty darn impressed you did. Over how many days? I vaguely recall you talking about it but I don't remember.

We enjoyed our last skiing day here (60F and very mushy snow) and I'm itching to wait a month or two until mud season is over in NH to start hiking there again on my hiking list. But Mt Washington clocks out at 6288' so you never have to deal with elevation, and the longest I did last year was 10mi/3200ft elevation and I was dead by the end of it- definitely way too much. Though I hear the one insanity of NH hiking is it's unusual that all our trails just go straight up with no switchbacks...

The Kid planned a 5 day excursion of approximately 46 miles, Onion Valley to Mt. Whitney. We parked the car at Whitney Portal (the campground directly below Whitney at about 7000'.) We camped there then got a ride to the Onion Valley Campground (again at about 7000' and we camped there.) Then we hiked up over Kearsarge (12000' something) pass, two days later Forester (13000' something) pass, then two days later Whitney Summit (14505') then down to the car. 5 full days of hiking, 4 nights of back country camping, carrying all supplies on our backs. It can be done alot quicker, The Kid did not want to kill me, and wanted us both to enjoy the experience rather than setting a record. Still she was tough to keep up with. She waited on me constantly. From the time we got over Kearsarge Pass to the time we walked off of Whitney, we were almost always over 10000'. And I've spent almost my entire life at around 800'. So I was missing some oxygen. But each day I felt like I could get up and do it again, I was just extremely stiff and sore from sleeping on the ground. Naproxen was definitely my friend.

Ah cool. What a special thing for you two to do together!

I know!

thumper, wonderful to hear from you!

the best of luck to mrs t on her job search.

Mrs. T started a new job last week. One of my long term buddies (we were college interns at ODOT in the mid 8'0's) asked if she was still looking. He's co owner of a an engineering/surveying firm. She is now their marketing manager/administrative assistant.

Awesome! I hope she enjoys the new job.

Been busy lately. Always is this time of year as mowing and yardwork explode. Also very busy helping my buddy. This time last year we were constantly building decks, this year it's all bathrooms. I love setting toilets!

All three of us are fully vaccinated along with family and most of our friends. No bad reactions to report. So we're slowly, carefully starting to have small gatherings. We had the mothers over for Mother's Day along with my Dad, The Kid, and Mrs. T's uncle. First time we've all been together in a couple of years.

Mrs. T slowly getting used to new job as well as working outside of the house. The Kid started a summer internship (Paid!) yesterday. I've got the day off today and I need to get about 20 things done. So I need to get off the computer and out into the mud.

Thumper wrote:

Rommie wrote:Hi Thump, thanks for checking in! I figured you were too busy enjoying yourself in retirement to do so, and am happy to see I'm right.

Re: birding, hilarious that that's my pandemic hobby too (well and hiking before the snow hit, and buying a house which is totally a new hobby one takes on). Heading down to South America to find some new ones sounds amazing!

Ha as fun is birding is, Mrs. T calls me an "angry birder" for my propensity to get frustrated when I cannot positively identify a new one. Pete is a prolific birder and I brought this up with him. I will be no help in identifying calls or most of the exotic birds of Ecuador. Last year he topped 1100 species to his "life list." If I worked hard, I could probably come up with a hundred. I'm sure I've seen birds in the past that I didn't positively identify, but that doesn't really count.

So, Thumper, assuming you come back sometime, where were you going to go birding in Ecuador?

Turns out this gal is heading there next month for her honeymoon, a lodge in the Yasuni National Park and the Galapagos, because it's stupid cheap and everyone in those areas is already fully vaccinated (and you need very fancy travel insurance to visit the Galapagos already). I am not going out of my way to do serious birding on my honeymoon, but suspect I'll get a healthy number for the list anyway.

Rommie wrote:

Thumper wrote:

Rommie wrote:Hi Thump, thanks for checking in! I figured you were too busy enjoying yourself in retirement to do so, and am happy to see I'm right.

Re: birding, hilarious that that's my pandemic hobby too (well and hiking before the snow hit, and buying a house which is totally a new hobby one takes on). Heading down to South America to find some new ones sounds amazing!

Ha as fun is birding is, Mrs. T calls me an "angry birder" for my propensity to get frustrated when I cannot positively identify a new one. Pete is a prolific birder and I brought this up with him. I will be no help in identifying calls or most of the exotic birds of Ecuador. Last year he topped 1100 species to his "life list." If I worked hard, I could probably come up with a hundred. I'm sure I've seen birds in the past that I didn't positively identify, but that doesn't really count.

So, Thumper, assuming you come back sometime, where were you going to go birding in Ecuador?

Turns out this gal is heading there next month for her honeymoon, a lodge in the Yasuni National Park and the Galapagos, because it's stupid cheap and everyone in those areas is already fully vaccinated (and you need very fancy travel insurance to visit the Galapagos already). I am not going out of my way to do serious birding on my honeymoon, but suspect I'll get a healthy number for the list anyway.

Yeah, birding should be fun. We got to meet with Pete and his wife recently and we talked about this. I told him I'm looking forward to the trip and having fun. But I'm not going to obsess about identifying as many birds as possible. He totally agreed. I'm not exactly sure where we are going. He had a couple of options and laid out the pros and cons. We both agreed on Option 2... I'm just not sure what/where that is. I think it's Eastern Ecuador. He's working on the logistics now. He just booked flights, at least I just paid him for airline tickets.
I'm sure I'll know more soon. I feel behind already. Still need to update my passport, get some vaccinations, and maybe learn a little Spanish. Time is just flying by this summer.

Following on my last post, life is a blur. I'm helping my buddy almost everyday and it's exhausting. I get home and attempt to keep up with chores. We grab some dinner, then I pass out on the couch watching TV. Most recently of course the Olympics. Lots of Olympics. Then drag myself out of bed the next day and go work my butt off. But I enjoy the work and helping. I owe him my life, literally. He saved my life back in the '90s, everything I've been able to do/accomplish since then, including having/raising/and watching my daughter succeed, is because he prevented me from bleeding to death one night.
So I may figure out some balance here soon...But when Ralph wants me, I do everything I can to be there.