Day One-hundred-and-thirty-four: A sudden urge to ride

The day started out as a quite domestic day.  When I got up I thought that I should wash my sheets.  After my stretches and crunches, but no push ups or Nordic Track, I cooked some wild rice while I was cooking my high fiber oatmeal (with All Bran).  When I was brushing my teeth after breakfast I noticed that the new valve was leaking.  I was glad that I hadn't put away the tools as that allowed me to put a little extra torque on the compression nut.  I went ahead and put a cap on the out flow just in case the valve itself was leaking.  This allowed me to put away the tools.  On one of my trips to the garage, I took the clothes, and sheets, and set one load to washing.  Then I ran a dishwasher load while I drained, chopped, and mixed the Mango Black Bean Salad (MBBS).  By that time all that was finished, it was time for lunch so I ate some of the MBBS.  It was made with fresh mangoes and I suppose they were better than frozen mangoes, but they would have been better still if they had been a little riper.

After setting my first clothes washing load to dry and starting my second, I noticed my motorcycle.  This put the question in my mind as to where I could ride.  Now, I have a tremendous amount of things to do staying around my house but when I went out in the backyard and saw that I didn't yet need to water I decided to forego doing anything else around the house.  Not to be completely unproductive, I decided to take the scenic route to Whole Foods to buy the supplements I do actually need to buy.  Whether or not I truly need the supplements is another question.  The nice thing about buying such things, they aren't bulky and definitely fit in my motorcycle's sissy bar bag.

After the third start, I finally made it a ride.  First I just went back my drive to get a reusable bag.  Then after starting out again and getting into second on the road in front of my house, I realized that I hadn't checked the temperature and needed to.  As it was, I just had to go back for my chaps.  The ride consisted of going down Highway 1 to Pescadero Road, Alpine Road, Page Mill Road, around Palo Alto stopping at the Whole Foods in Palo Alto, reconnecting with I-280 from Sand Hill Road, and home.

But what the ride represented and reminded me of was a trip down Memory Lane.  (Something my whole Life after Layoff has been.)  I passed the La Honda Band Camp site, which was also the site of a team building Ropes course for a team that was okay, except for its manager.  I passed Heritage Grove and Los Trancos, two stops that Marilyn regularly had us go to and often took guests.  I didn't pass the turn around spot for Marilyn and my last motorcycle ride together.  Instead, I made a bigger circle around it but I certainly thought about it, a lot.  (It is hard to ride when eyes keep tearing up.)

Some of the ride, Alpine Road, was literally on the equivalent of a paved lane.  I had forgotten what it was like to ride a leaf covered multiple 180 degree turn road that was barely wide enough for one car, in spite of the yellow dashed line on most of it.  There were spots the road painters gave up trying to sustain even that fiction.  Fortunately what little traffic there was happened on the two widest sections of that road, three cars together with the first two Police Cars and one car by itself on a blind greater than 90 degree turn.  Thank goodness it was a small car and cautious driver as I was shaving the middle but still on my side of the road to minimize my turn degree.

I didn't pass a convenient gas station while I was in Palo Alto and noticed that the richer cities seem to have fewer gas stations anyway.  Maybe they are just artfully hidden away.  I barely noticed a whole shopping center with all the trees and demur signs.  So, to make sure I would make it home, I stopped in even a richer city but with a gas station I knew exactly where it was, Woodside.  Woodside is supposed to have more horses than people.  Houses are supposed to be on a minimum of an acre of land.  Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, is reputed to have a most expensive estate in Woodside.  I don't know whether or not he has horses.

However, I have a tenuous connection to Larry Ellison thanks to Marilyn.  She had our bed frame and end tables reconfigured.  The wood worker/cabinet maker that did the work used left over teak from some work she had done on Larry Ellison's yacht.

Back at home I quickly emptied the clothes dryer, plopped in the washed clothes, and started washing the towels that I used to sop up my indoor fountain water.  All in all, I did four loads today.  What with cooking and clothes washing, it was still quite a domestic day, with the joys of at least a three hour motorcycle ride to boot.

Day One-hundred-and-thirty-three: Night storm

And by "night storm," I'm not referring to the weather.  I was laying in bed thinking after about five hours of sleep and had a couple ideas that I couldn't get out of my mind.  Since several people have advocated keeping a note pad by the bed for those ideas, and I hadn't, I thought that I should get up, find a note pad, and write them down.  In this manner I thought to purge my mind and be able to go back to sleep.

Well, either the purging didn't work or the process of finding everything and writing them down took so long that I was even more fully awake, I decided to throw on something warmer and do something productive, i.e., make this partial entry into this blog and catch up on my budget tracking.  The latter is boring enough that it may just put me back to sleep, which is one reason that I haven't done it for so long.  Unfortunately, there are others, including my lack of spending within my budget.  (I haven't really wanted to know how bad it was.)

But, if I want to make this early retirement work, I either need to find a reliable source of money that doesn't force me to un-retire, or spend far less.  Of the two, I know which one I'd prefer.

As for the ideas that kept me up:  starting another blog, documenting my memories (of me) for my grandchildren yet to be born as a complement to my Memories of Marilyn; and writing a Christmas Newsletter for the first time in my life.  The former I would title, "A walk on the wet side of the beach."  The latter would be in part to make up for my failure to send out thank you notes to all who truly did remember Marilyn and her family, offering us much needed solace.  It would also be a good way and reason to contact all of Marilyn's address book entries, some of whom may not have yet heard.

I must also admit that my thoughts were also churning on more mundane matters, for example, rerouting the water supply for the new toilet and wondering whether or not compression fittings could be "fit" onto the pipe regardless of how close it might be to the stud or whether I would need to "sweat" the extension on.  Then I rambled on to wondering whether or not I could even find my "sweating" tools or whether I still had them.  And finally, at least for what I'll report here, what kind of support I would need to arrange for the pipe and whether it would cause knocking or excessive wear.  Another example would be mentally reminding myself to buy my MacBook's extended warrantee along with a dozen other things for my to do list, including remaking a to do list for the items, some of which I've already forgotten.

I'd close and publish this post right now except for my dental appointment.  I think I'm going to have to stay away from blueberries.  There may be other sources but something is staining my teeth and I've avoided all of the other orally ingested items I considered possible sources.

It's a pretty sad commentary on my Life after Layoff when the anticipated two significant events in a day are not being able to sleep and a dental appointment.

After writing the above, possibly to avoid the tedium of entering my spending into my budget, I went back to bed for another two and one half hours.  This did kind of rush me through breakfast, getting cleaned up, and making it to the dentist on time.  But, the teeth cleaning was truly the best experience, for that activity, I've had in a long time.  I'd like to say that it was the meditation as I did try to relax through it but it more likely was the dental hygienist.  It may also have been my relatively little amount of plaque.  All is not good news.  The dentist wants me to come back this Friday to have a couple of fillings replaced.  Since I was thinking of not continuing my dental insurance, now is a good time to be taking care of these things.

As I paused while exiting the dental office parking lot, I had this strong urge to go somewhere, anywhere, but home.  Since I couldn't think of where that should be and had my budget still to do, I came on home--and proceeded to update this entry instead of doing my budget.  I'll get right on that.

I was almost done with my budget entries, including making a list of things to find so I could enter them as well, when I received a phone call.  It was a good call that got me up to date on the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund.  The head of the National Lymphedema Network has spent a considerable amount of her time on it.  She reported that a speech she gave to an audience in Albany, New York, may have solicited a good donation from a lymphedema sufferer who is also quite well off.  I hope so.  I really want that memorial to be sustained as a lasting memory.

Then I noticed that it was after 1:00 PM.  After I ate my lunch salad, I was still hungry.  So, I decided to make a loaf of beer bread, primarily because I could enjoy it today rather than waiting until tomorrow.  While it tasted good, especially with a honey topping, it didn't raise quite as much as previous loaves.  (Chunky not funky.)  I don't know whether it was my conversion of All Purpose flour with Baking Powder and Salt or my use of Spaten Pils as the beer.  I think European beers have less carbonation than standard U.S. beers.

I think I finally finished with my budget data entry.  It would be far less a chore if I did it more often, which would help me do it more often.  The size of the chore delays it.

Day One-hundred-and-thirty-two: Indoor fountains

My daughter wanted to get something done since the weather wasn't exactly conducive to any outdoor activity, damp and chilly.  So she decided and I agreed in spite of my reservations to install the toilet I have had sitting in the garage for some time.  After taking out the old toilet and measuring things, the water inlet was just a little too close and will have to be moved.  Unfortunately the valve didn't shut the water off completely.

This prompted our first trip to the hardware store to buy a cap to seal where the water was escaping from the valve.  When that didn't work, we made another trip to the hardware store for a replacement valve.  I installed the valve, verified that it was indeed closed, opened up basin faucet, and then restored water to the house by opening the shut off.  My son-in-law remarked that it sounded like spraying and I assured him that I had indeed verified that the new valve was closed but had opened up the basin faucet.  Then I leisurely proceeded into the bathroom to see my indoor fountain.  Even though I quickly turned the valve truly off this time, there was already a lot of water in the only catch basin for a fountain of this type.  I carried out a good six inches of water in the trash can and used several large towels to sop up what I could from the floor.  I have a space heater running in there now and will leave it on until it bothers me tonight.

When I come back from my road trip, I will relocate the water supply pipe a little more to the left so I can install the toilet.  I really like that toilet but part of it is also belief in my own competence.  While I am at it, I will now also replace the base molding to match the other bathroom.  This will allow me to do something worth getting my nail gun out and nail the two pieces not nailed in the hall.

Nothing like a little excitement in my Life after Layoff.  I probably was a little calmer than I would have been without my meditation.  It's not a bad place to be coming from any and all times.

After a hot summer in Davis followed by a warm trip to Florida, my daughter found my house a little cool.  So I had to turn on the furnace.  It isn't on right now because its programmed temperature during the day is 60 degrees but I haven't turned it off, yet.  I hesitate to leave it on because it could lead me to forget to turn it off prior to my road trip.  Even though I intend to take the southern route, I have decided to buy chains for my Prius.  If I don't need them so much the better.  After the amount of time the doors were open today the removal of the damp chill was nice, that is when the furnace came on this evening.

Day One-hundred-and-thirty-one: B-lated B-day

My youngest daughter's birthday was 15 days ago but with her travel to Florida (and her not telling me what she wanted for her birthday until the day before her actual day) we didn't get around to celebrating it until today.  Knowing that I wouldn't be able to celebrate it until late, I went ahead and  bought a belated birthday card, before her actual birthday.  This made it an appropriate card to give her with her present today.  After she opened her gift, we went out an bought her her Christmas gift as well, a rice cooker.  This was so she could use it to make dinner, and use it whenever she wants to in December while I'm on my road trip.  Besides, she didn't want to haul it back from Ohio.

This gift was very good for me since I got the benefit of a hot meal and a Christmas gift already taken care of.  Now I just have umpteen more to go.   I'm not that good at shopping so getting one gift out of the way is a great day in my Life after Layoff.  To have that gift then gift me right back is icing on the cake, which we didn't have, icing that is.  I made a batch of Basic Chocolate Cupcakes from my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook.  We ate them with Soy Delicious mint chocolate chip ice "cream."

We also pitched the tent I bought in my living room.  They are encouraging me to use it on my road trip and have offered me the use of one of their mummy bags with its -20 degree rating.  I'm debating with myself on two fronts.  Do I really want to "winter" camp, and do I want to do it with borrowed equipment?  It is true that I will not likely need a sleeping bag with that low of temperature rating if all I'm planning on doing is using it on my motorcycle trip across America (U.S.) and around North America, at least Canada and the U. S.  I can only do these things, if I manage to stay out of work.  I can't ride my motorcycle in snow and on ice anyway.

We went to four stores today:  Fry's Electronics, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, Whole Foods, and Costco.  The Prius couldn't find Gryphon Stringed Instruments because we were spelling it Griffin.  After we drove away from Fry's toward downtown Palo Alto, my son-in-law called 411 and got the address.  We punched it into the Prius navigation system and was directed back to a half block away from Fry's.  We first thought that we had done something wrong because just as the guidance said, "Your destination is on the right," we were passing Fry's.  The Gryphon Stringed Instruments sign was obscured by some trees.  As I was pulling over to reenter the navigation information, since you can't enter it while moving, I noticed the street sign of the road ahead.  It was the street that Gryphon was on, right on the corner.  We had almost parked closer to it than Fry's when we parked in the Fry's parking lot.

At Gryphon, I got to listen to some rather good banjo music as both my son-in-law and a very knowledgeable and skilled sales person tried out and demonstrated several banjos.

First last weekend and now this one.  Having great fun being with great people.  I must admit to feeling a little sorry for myself when I'm alone.

Comcast didn't come again today.  Even though I can still watch TV, I am not going to allow them to charge me for it.  My daughter is encouraging me to cancel my AT&T land line as well.  I must admit, the only real use I make of it is to call 800 numbers and to fax stuff.  My family plan roll over minutes are still accumulating so I should be able to call all the 800 numbers I call from my cell phone.  None of the other people on my family plan have land lines, now that my oldest daughter is off on a new family plan with her husband.

Incoming faxes might be a problem in my Life after Layoff with no employer's fax to use in an emergency, but for outgoing faxes I can always use whatever Kinko's or Mailboxes Etc. morphed into.

Since it appears that my daughter and son-in-law are still on Florida time, I can go to bed early as they have done so already.

Day One-hundred-and-thirty: Narrowed choices

Today my choices for breakfast were narrowed considerably by what was clean to cook in, nothing.  Rather than delay breakfast until after a kitchen clean up, I had a tomato open faced sandwich on a slice of my Almost No Knead whole wheat bread.  Then I had another slice with honey on it.  Not only was the bread good, eating breakfast this way delayed my kitchen cleanup chore.

One nice thing about cleaning up the kitchen is the hot water.  Yesterday I finally broke down and took my thermostat off of "hold" at 58 degrees, which meant that it was to go to the pre-programmed temperature setting.  When the furnace didn't come on, I checked what the programmed setting was only to discover that it was set for 60 degrees during the day.  This was obviously programmed for a time that I was working.  Rather than re-program everything to be more in compliance with my Life after Layoff schedule, I decided to suck it up, put another layer of clothes on, and find some other way to keep warm.  (I should have done the dishes then.)  Ah, the joys of warm water.

After the dishes it was close enough time to eat lunch but since I had already had my tomato for breakfast, I had Bush's chili beans and a salad.  Then I went out and cleaned the gutters.  They weren't as bad as I had thought they might be but they were bad enough.  Some places even had moss growing.  When I was almost done I remembered the gutter scoop that Marilyn had bought and went looking for it in obvious places.  It wasn't in any of them so I completed the chore the slow way.  At least this time I wore gloves, my bulky leather work gloves on hands that already don't fit very well into gutters, let alone clasp the stuff to get it out.  And finally, I made a start of cleaning the rest of my house.  I'll finish the rest tomorrow, hopefully before my youngest daughter and son-in-law arrive.

The Comcast guy never came, but I had already disconnected the cable box.  It's a lot less tempting to turn on the TV when it isn't plugged into anything.  I called and they suggested I call tomorrow. 

After a long gap I've started writing more of the "memories" I have of Marilyn.  I still have a lot to write and may never be finished but I was running out of prepared topics for the blog.  My daughters were right to ask me to do this.  It is good to remember the joy.

Day One-hundred-and-twenty-nine: Work reprised

Well, even though I've titled this "work reprised," it wasn't the work itself.  Today was very much the kind of non-work things I did for so long when I also worked.  I rode BART into San Francisco, buying the commuter paper.  (Yes, my commute was that early.)  I attended a meeting in an office building that was just off the exit I normally used to go to work.  After the meeting I went to Stacey's Bookstore and even bought a book and ate lunch at Henry's Hunan, their 110 Natoma restaurant.  As I walked up Market on my way to Stacey's I was almost by my old office building before I realized it.  I really don't miss working.

I wasn't the oldest person at the Senior Support Group meeting, but it was a close thing.  There were a lot of people from Gap and other Financial Services companies.  At least three were in the Information Technology field.  It was the last meeting for two of them as they had accepted jobs, one after looking for a year and a half.  There was one other person there with a similar attitude as I, if not similar circumstances.  He is not in any rush to find a job and is enjoying his house husbanding.  If it were only more than the house I am husbanding, I might be enjoying it more in my Life after Layoff.

Unlike previous Thursdays where I've dressed up for a San Francisco meeting, came home and dressed down only to dress up again for Toastmasters, today I stayed dressed.  This meant that I didn't get my exercising, or my afternoon sky chair sitting in.

The Toastmasters theme was hamburger, yes the meet patty.  Since the "ground beef" was named hamburger for the city in Germany that supposedly originated it, the word today was "Germany."  It's supposed to be a word that may stretch our vocabulary, not a proper noun.  I tried a little pun and talked about saying "Grr many" times when I was playing with my children when they were young.  It didn't even get a groan.

Next week I get to ask the questions for table topics.  This is the section that is to train members on how to think and speak on their feet.  Except for the impromptu nature of it, it is kind of like the minute or so elevator speech every aspiring junior manager is to have in case they get the ear of a superior in an elevator.  Maybe I used to many poor puns in them as well, but it was truly other reasons that allowed me to be enjoying this Life after Layoff.

Day One-hundred-and-twenty-eight: Paper shortage?

Admittedly it was after noon but while I was out mailing something and buying some salad, I had to go to three places to buy a paper.  I wasn't trying for anything historical, I just wanted a paper for the puzzles in my Life after Layoff without TV, but after getting the absolute last paper at my third stop, I wonder if I shouldn't keep it for history.  But then again, newspaper doesn't really keep all that well.

I did call Comcast to cancel my cable TV.  They have to come out to the house to put a filter on the line.  This is the only way I can keep my Internet connection without TV.  But wait, there's more.  The smallest window in which they can schedule this task is ALL DAY, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.  Now I've stayed close to home several days when I didn't have to, just this last Monday for example, but there is something galling about having to stay this close.

Well, a day without TV is more productive.  I decided to start my Almost No Knead bread this morning so I could bake it tonight.  I had to.  I foolishly bought a couple heirloom tomatoes, Caspian Pinks, yesterday and didn't want to waste them in something that would dilute their flavor.  As expensive as they are, I didn't want to take the chance that they may not last until Friday.  So, with my excuses all lined up, I now can eat some great homemade bread.

(By the way, I just thought to check and Cooks Illustrated has their Almost No Knead bread recipe online.  The magazine article has the Whole Wheat variation, which I use in two forms, whole wheat only with two tablespoons of honey dissolved into the water, and without the honey for my olive bread.  Whole wheat just substitutes one of the cups of unbleached white flour with one of whole wheat.  If I wait the prescribed 20 minutes for cooling, it is entirely by accident.)

I've done a number of other things as well but won't bore you with a list.  One of the things though, let me discover that my HP 17" laptop is really messed up.  The other, was that I got my first draft of my Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund flyer/post started.  This is what I hope to post in friendly spots across the country as I drive back to see family over the holidays.

I've also restarted keeping track of my calorie, fiber, and fat calorie percentage.  Today I've eaten 1,565 calories with 7% of them fat.  I've over done the fiber even though I'm short three grain servings and one fruit serving.  I need to do meal planning if I am to eat the right number of servings from grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.  Now its hard to believe that others ever thought me to be a planner.  (It isn't on my 100 favorite things to do.)  At least I need to start reading some of my cookbooks to get better ideas on stuff to make and maybe buy the ingredients.

Being responsible for the "word" last Thursday at Toastmasters made me find at least some of my dictionaries, including a compilation of Ambrose Bierce's definitions from his writings, The Devil's Dictionary.  Ambrose was born in Ohio in 1842.  I am including one of the definitions below, but it is hard to choose.

"Acquaintance, n.  A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.  A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous."