Still walking

 Yesterday I finally downloaded a hiking app and can say I walked .7 miles in and .7 miles out on the trail.  This trail walks like a remote woodland trail, but I can hear the traffic from the highway it parallels and I usually meet someone either on the trail or at the trail head.  My neighbor  who kinda looks out for me is worried about me hiking alone in bear country (it is) and so I reassure him I'm not really out in the boonies.  

Last time I met a couple of guys at the trail head getting ready to do a multiple day hike as this trail ends up joining the Arizona Trail and goes as far as you want.  I talked to one of them for a few minutes about hiking clothing and various places we had each hiked.  This time there was a group setting up a small tailgate base camp and they had matching t-shirts.  I asked what the group was and they were support for a friend who was celebrating her 30th birthday by running 30 hours on the trail.  She was in hour 27 at that point and due in to their welcoming arms soon.  They offered me water and laughed at my amazement for the birthday girl's accomplishment.

Driving shuttle has wound down as the trips either get cancelled or there are no weddings to shuttle for at the even center we drive for.  I'm fighting the tendency to just sit on the couch.  Wanting to update my progress here is one of the few things that get me up and moving.  I have decided on my goal with the walking:  5 miles in and 5 miles out by September 1.  Doable, but a stretch goal.  I'm going to up the plan to walking twice a week, and try taking Callie dog with me as she will need to be with me when I'm in Utah in September.  The primary thing keeping this going is that I truly love walking on the trail.

I'm keeping on keeping on with Duolingo.   Another of my stated goals is to manage 7 days straight on Duolingo Spanish.  I made it 4 then skipped 2 days.  I'm at a 3 day streak this time, so I try to focus on at least making my online time worthwhile rather than vegging on FB videos for hours.

Report so far

 I haven't walked yet.  I need to drive for my shuttle boss (not really a boss, more a friend) in a bit so my weekly (hopefully) walk is postponed until tomorrow.  I now have my hiking boots, hiking poles, pink backpack (so I can be easily spotted if necessary), water bottles and such in place.  It is still overkill, but as I go longer I may need any or all of it.  I noticed my ankles were talking to me a bit after my approximately one mile hike last week.

I was going through things on my computer and found a note labeled 'books'. Only 2 listed, and one was a knitting author whose book of patterns I've already purchased.  The other was 'The Most Human Human' by Brian Christian.  I've got it up in PDF form and read the first chapter.  So far, what I've learned is that I really, really need new glasses.  Moving to the actual book, it is about how he was a 'human' in a Turing Test contest against AI chatbots.  In a 5 minute conversation with a judge, who also has a 5 min conversation with an AI chatbot, he tries to let the judge know he is the 'human'.  There is an award for the most human human, the one who won the most votes from the judges as the human.  From what I've reado so far he is going to go into great depth about what makes humans human.  This is the first thing I've voluntarily stepped up to that I have to actually think about for awhile.  Time will tell if I make it though the entire thing.  Also, how wonderful is the internet and the places that put these types of book into PDF form to be accessible to random folks searching for obscure things.

For the knitters, the other book is about Elizabeth Zimmerman's Surprise jacket.  At some point I'll make a child's size to learn the method, and I already have some Noro yarn bought specifically to make that jacket for myself.

Croft, I knew I was close.  We got to Victoria at 8pm.  I originally had hoped to put out an invitation to join us for a drink or fish and chips.  It didn't work out that time, but I do have a trip up your way penciled in for either later this summer or next summer.

Two is a trend

 I went up to the Highline trail again yesterday.  My modest goal of once a week walking on an actual trail seems to be achievable.  I went twice as far as the week before and had less trouble breathing.  I think my breathing issue is more allergies to whatever is putting out pollen than it is elevation, but I haven't been able to isolate it since I've been coming up here.  As the season goes on I have less trouble breathing.  But then, it isn't spring anymore after awhile, either.

I sometimes drive a shuttle for a guy here in town.  I drove two days so far this week, and am scheduled for 2 more next week.  It gives me a bit of spending money during the summer.

I hope today to make progress on things around the place, and tomorrow I'll go down to the other RV and get the things I keep reaching for and remember they are at the 'other' place.  I am hoping that it will get easier to have two places as I get settled more.  I definitely have at least 2 of everything I own, I just need to get what needs to be where it needs to be.

Catching Up

 I did finally get the header picture to post at the correct size.  I just don't do this stuff much anymore.  It took two different editing programs, but I finally got it.

Let's see.  I own 2 Class A motorhomes, a 1997 and a 1994.  I was using the 1997 one for storage as when the fridge door fell off after I had just put a lot of money into the rig I gave up and bought the other one.  I've been living in the '94 Pace Arrow for a couple of years now and really like it.  It is smaller that the other on in that it is more narrow and isn't as tall.  Those things take away inside space.  It is a better quality motorhome, though.

When I decided to start going to Quartzsite for the winter next winter I really didn't want to tow the car all the way from the summer town to Q, about 5 hours, maybe 6 in the motorhomc.  I decided that I needed to see if I should say last rites over the '97 rig and sell it to salvage it or try to resurrect it.  My friend Mike was able to put the fridge door back on (the fridge works), and so I started cleaning it out and getting it ready to live in.  Original plan was to bring the '94 rig up here, get both rigs set up to live in, and take one or the other to Q and leave the other here.  Issues at the park in AJ made me not want to vacate my lot for the summer there, so I've been running back and forth emptying the one up here, and getting the other one emptied of things that the extreme heat in the Valley would affect.

The last couple of weeks of May my Aunt Carol and I went on a 'free' cruise to Alaska that the casino gave me.  Our 'free' cruise cost around $2K all in, which is ok, I guess.  We had fun.  I flew back to Phoenix on May 30th late, got up on the 31st and loaded the car up.  Original plan was to have the electricity (and air conditioning...) turned off the next day.  I was too tired from everything to get it all loaded that day so I gave myself until yesterday to go back and finish.  I now have everything that NEEDS to be out of the heat brought up here.  Electricity is to be turned off today.  Which reminds me that I haven't gotten the text yet.  I turned off the fridge and air conditioner and shut off the water before I left.  I'll go down over the summer at least once a month, probably more often, and start the motorhome and check on things.

I am not sure at this point which motorhome will stay up here and which will go to Quartzsite.  I knew I needed to get this one handled to either get rid of or live in.  So far it is fine to live in with a few things I want to fix.  That is just part of living in an RV, though.

And that is how I spent last winter.

Needs work

 It's been awhile since I did modifications to this blog page.  I'll work on getting the header picture shrunk down after I walk the dog.

Later...

I'm trying to shrink the size.  I cropped it but it put the cropped image in at the same larger size.  I haven't done this in a long time.  I need to run back down to the Valley.  This 'improvement' may take awhile.

Turn the Page

 I decided that on June 1st I would cross a chasm in my life.  I'm no longer spending my time working out how to get all this stuff done.  For decades I've spent my time figuring out how to move this, clear that, organize everything.  Now, I will still work on those things, but I'm ready to live my life now.

I think one of the reasons I quit writing here was that it was the same thing over and over.  I'm getting rid of stuff.  I'm moving from this place to that place and sorting and organizing.  I'm cleaning out Mom's stuff.  I'm cleaning out my stuff.  Over and over, the same stuff.  Even I was bored.  I declared that I am as finished clearing out Mom's stuff as I'm willing to make that a priority.  A bit like when I got divorced.  About a year after the (amicable) divorce I realized one day that I had gone the entire day and not had a single thought about how I was 'going through a divorce'.  I figured I was finished with that chapter.  I was right.  Now I am finished 'trying to get rid of stuff'.  I'll still get rid of things, still organize, but not at the expense of doing other things.

I'm going to change the header picture as soon as I get the picture off my phone.  It will be a trail head.  I went up and walked a bit on the Highline trail yesterday.  I have a long way to go to feel like I'm in any kind of shape to take long walks, but it is a start.  Breathing is my main issue at this point.  The trail would be at around 5500' elevation, as it is near the top of the Mogollon Rim.  Hopefully acclimation by living here at 5K' elevation for the summer will help that.  I have a goal to be able to walk around Southern Utah in better shape on our trip this year than I was last year.  One method of approaching goals is SMART:  Specific, Measurable, Achievable,  Relatable(?), and Time-sensitive.  I Specifically want to be able to walk for longer distances.  Measurable is a bit hazy, as it now means just further than I can walk now.  Achievable is that I'm hopeful that if I walk on the Highline at least once a week this summer I'll improve.  I think the R is relatable, in that it relates to my current life.  Time-sensitive means I have a deadline.  The middle of September is my first trip.  And so, now I'm accountable here.

For once I actually have more to write, but I'll post what I've been doing the past few (6?  where does time go?) months next time.  And hopefully that won't be months from now.