Tenth photo

CrazyCris over at Here and There and Everywhere just tagged me in a photo meme, with the instructions to find the tenth photo in my first album (that's over there on Picasa if you have a blogspot blog) and post it with a note. Well, here it is: Smart Guy and me on our wedding day, getting married in freefall May 5, 1994. We are passing the symbolic Baton of Commitment (in his left hand) while flying (okay, falling) over Loveland, Colorado. On our marriage certificate, we stated that we would be married when we passed through 5,500 feet on 5/5, and nobody objected, so there you are.

In Colorado, you don't need anyone to "marry" you (like an ordained minister) as long as you both sign the certificate and get a witness. Our camera man Bill acted as our witness, and we had another private ceremony on a hilltop near our home earlier in the day.

Now I believe the only other thing I am supposed to do here is pass the instructions along to five other people, and IF YOU WANT, go to your Picasa web albums and look at what the tenth picture is in your first album, and let us know by writing a post about it. Nobody will come banging on your door if you decide this is a silly meme, and believe me, if my tenth picture was not one I wanted to share with you, I'd do what Cris did and substitute, or just blow it off. No worries. This blogosphere is supposed to be fun, not work!

Weather Vane (Rae's picture will be probably be funny)
Somebody Else's Nose (Whitney's lovely blog about her family life)
A Slower Pace (Linda in Portland doesn't accept awards so might not respond)
Animal Talk (Jan's animal blog, it's gonna be a critter)
Far Side of Fifty (Connie has 3 blogs, this will be interesting)

I just tagged those I felt curious about. And if you don't want to do it, please don't feel obligated.
:-)

Not one raindrop

Very few Senior Trailblazers (seven to be exact) came out today for our regular Thursday hike. It had something to do with the weather forecast: it was awful. All last night the wind blew hard, and more than a half inch of rain fell. The forecast for today:

Windy...occasional showers. Precipitation may mix with wet snow in heavier showers. Highs 45 to 50. Northwest wind 15 to 30 mph. Local gusts to 45 mph this morning. 

When I woke to find the sun shining, I figured it would end soon. I packed my new backpack with all the rain gear near the top, and since it was going to be windy and rainy, I took lots of warm clothes. That picture above shows the beginning of our hike today, up what we call "Cub Creek." Isn't it an inviting trail? We meandered up the trail in perfect hiking weather. We covered eight miles in total and 1,500 feet in elevation.

As we climbed higher, though, this is what we saw: snow. Apparently last night while it was raining in Bellingham, at the higher elevations snow was falling. This is Al, who led our trek up past the Cub Creek trail to the Stewart Mountain road. The rain never came, and the only precipitation we had were the big plops of snow falling off the trees onto us, like on Al's arm. (Click to enlarge.)

When we got to our lunch spot, we looked at the temperature and noticed that it wasn't exactly warm, right around freezing. But the wind never blew, other than an occasional gust (just enough to let the snow on the trees give us a nice shower). Here's how much snow was on the logs when we brushed them off to have lunch:

I would say it's about five or six inches, and walking in the snow was a bit tiring. By the time we had gone four miles and stopped for lunch, we discussed whether to go on longer or start back. The consensus was not to push our luck, so although our total miles were just under eight, several of them were in snow, which takes a little more effort to walk through. I'm tired but not terribly so.

I just had to show you my new pack: it's an REI Ventura 30, which gives me the room to carry everything I need. That's my nifty inflatable REI seat cushion, much nicer to sit on than that cold snow, my sparkly hat, and my trekking poles. We did get a view now and then.

This picture looks out past the snow-covered trees to Lake Whatcom, where we started out. It was a truly wonderful day, and although I'm feeling well exercised, I'm not hobbling around like I was a week ago. This was much more fun, although one of our more enthusiastic hikers thought it was a "wimpy" hike. Not! And not one raindrop.
:-)

Dreams about flying

Do you dream about flying? This picture I found on the internet almost exactly pictures the dream I had last night. The only real difference was that I was in a flatter position, with my arms below me as though I was cupping air, and I was de-arched instead of arched like this woman is.

That could easily be because I have more than 64 hours of accumulated time in freefall (being a skydiver and all), and if you need to gain altitude in relation to someone else you are skydiving with, you need that de-arched body position.

Thinking of my dream, I can very clearly see myself taking off from the ground by pushing hard on the air with my arms and gaining altitude, until I reached about a first-story height off the ground. And when I woke up from the dream, it reminded me that I have dreamed this before. After gaining some height above the ground, I lazily flew around in a very serene manner, looking down at the trees and pushing through gossamer clouds. I landed a couple of times and took off again, I think to confirm that I really could fly any time I wanted.

In looking for a picture, I found several websites about lucid dreaming where people decide to dream about flying, and lots of pictures, but this one certainly reminded me of the feeling I had. I think I have pictures of myself in freefall in almost exactly that position, but with one major difference: I had a parachute system on my back! And shoes and a jumpsuit. Well, there WAS that one time I did a naked jump, but I won't talk about that right now...
:-)

The legs tell the story

I took this picture of my legs this morning, wanting to show you what some well-used ones look like. They have been with me since 1942, and they are still going strong. The knees give me some trouble on the downhill parts of our hikes, and without my trekking poles I would be in serious pain, but I can still hike as much as I want. My left knee that had the ACL replacement also has some meniscus damage and sometimes it clicks and pops. 

For about twenty years I ran (actually jogged) with these legs on a regular basis, but the serious skydiving accident I had ten years ago stopped that. However, I'm still skydiving during the summer months (and have already made four this year, not too bad for a lot of rainy weekends lately). I used to make about 30 skydives a month on average, but I'm happy to have other activities now that I'm getting a little older. My time spent at the YMCA in the company of many like-minded friends is high on my list.

And those of you who read this blog regularly know that I go hiking with the Senior Trailblazers every Thursday and add a post with pictures of each day's adventures. Because of this group, I now know about many wonderful hikes in the Mt. Baker Wilderness Area. Last week I learned that many of us were hurting by the end of our 11-mile jaunt. Many Seniors take drugs before heading out the door (like ibuprofin, Naprosin, etc.).

I am trying my best to live up to the spirit of this poem by an anonymous author. I've seen a few different versions of it, but this is the one I like best:

Life is not a journey to the grave
With the intention of
Arriving safely in a pretty
And well preserved body,
But rather to skid in broadside,
Thoroughly used up,
Totally worn out,
And loudly proclaiming,
WOW !!!! What a ride!

:-)

Easter epiphany

Last night I went to see the musical Cabaret with my friend Judy and her daughter-in-law Amy. We went out for dinner and then to the theater to make a night of it. I have seen the movie version several times and knew the story and the music very well, but Amy hadn't ever seen it before. I keep forgetting that the younger generation doesn't have the same background I take for granted.

I woke up to the theme song "Life is a Cabaret" and "Money" reverberating in my mind and thinking about the play. The version we saw at the Mount Baker Theater had a very wonderful actor playing the part of the Emcee (for those of you who remember Joel Gray in that part). So, in keeping with the theme of movies about Paris during the Nazi occupation, I watched Inglourious Basterds today, which has been sitting on the side table for weeks now, with me not willing to deal with Quentin Tarantino's penchant for violence but really wanting to see the performance by Christoph Waltz, which earned him every accolade out there for his performance as Col. Hans Landa.

I am really glad I watched the movie today, on Easter, thinking of what I want to resurrect and what I want to let go in my own psyche. If you have only seen the trailers for this movie, you will be surprised when you finally do see it. It's not what you think. Yes, there is violence, but it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, and less than "Saving Private Ryan," which I cannot bring myself to watch again. I could see this movie again.

As usual, as soon as I finished watching the movie, I went over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what the "freshness" rating is and was pleased to find out that 89% of the reviews of the movie have been positive. Brad Pitt is funny and offers almost comic relief when compared to the scary brilliance that Waltz portrays. One reviewer (the Oscar Guy) says it very well:

Waltz is anything but humorous. He plays a character so repugnant and vicious that his mild manner and friendly gestures belie a horrible temperament, which perfectly captures the charisma inherent in the Third Reich that allowed them to so effectively creep into the minds of the public and encourage them to support their evil machinations. He clearly recognizes the needs of the role and executes them perfectly, shifting from French to German to English in character with the ease of a studied actor.

 But what of the epiphany in the title of this post, you ask? Well, it was about some of the feelings I had while watching the movie. After being pensive thinking about what the Nazi occupation did to the French and the Jews in Cabaret, I began to root for the vicious killers who were on the "right" side of the violence in Tarantino's movie. And then the realization hit me: I was feeling justified in my desire to watch them suffer, in effect becoming like them. Also from the Oscar Guy:

The viewer rejoices in what happens on the screen, but does not recognize how alike that response is to those of the Germans in the film. We are at once repulsed by their reaction, but celebratory of their own demise to that point. And I can fully attest to those same feelings. There’s a certain satisfaction in seeing the events as they transpire at the end of the film, but if we can recognize that in ourselves, it makes us far better able to amend our ways so that we don’t take that slippery slope towards exclusion, prejudice and injustice.

 Amen. That's the epiphany. The thing that keeps these things going on in the world from generation to generation: a desire for revenge, to see "justice" done, to keep alive all those feelings that I really want to see gone from the world. I have a duty to see the humanity in the struggles of all of us toward the light, toward wholeness. The place to start is in my own heart.
:-[

Farmers' Market 2010

I went out in wind, rain, hail, and blustery conditions to share the opening day of the 18th Annual Farmers' Market with my fellow Bellinghamsters. I loved this pansy, which looks to me like a face with its eyes schrunched shut and saying, "Happy Easter!" The Bellingham Market always begins the season with the mayor of the city throwing out the first cabbage. Here he is welcoming us all to the market:

You notice he's holding the cabbage as he tells us what he's getting ready to do (as if we didn't already know), since this is now a tradition. I got the cabbage in mid-flight, but unfortunately it's not completely in focus. Last year it was sunny and the camera movement wasn't as critical. Plus I had to elbow my way around professional camera people who kept blocking my view.

The boy in the blue sweatshirt successfully caught the cabbage, which gave the market opening an auspicious beginning and hopefully heralds a good season. Even with the weather as unwelcoming as it was, people turned out in droves. And by the time we got ready to leave, the weather began to improve. We even were serenaded by this cute little guy, playing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "This Old Man" on his violin. The little girl seemed more interested in the money!

Even though it's pretty early in the season, I saw asparagus and greens for sale, along with plenty of flowers. People seemed happy to be there, and some were lined up six or eight deep to buy, probably because they have been feeling starved for the market wares. Not only is most of the food here organically grown, but it also supports the local farmers, which is worth a great deal. You can click any picture to enlarge.

There are also local bakeries displaying their wares, which made me decide it was time to leave and come home to have lunch. This delicious baked goody caught my eye, and after suppressing the rumbling in my stomach, I stopped to snap a picture before heading back home. Mmmm!

But just as was heading back to the car, I saw these gorgeous radishes, and the vendor told me they are called "Easter egg radishes" which I thought meant they are just perfect to finish off this post. All pictures were taken this morning at the 18th Annual Farmers' Market.

Happy Easter! And have fun dyeing and hiding those eggs, Mr. Easter Bunny!
:-)

Lost in the Chuckanuts

Eleven hardy Senior Trailblazers carpooled to the Clayton Beach parking lot, with the rain spitting and making some of us silently question our sanity. We were trying a new hike in the Fragrance Lake/Lost Lake area in the Chuckanuts (where we have been before), but intending to hike up an old road to a new loop trail. Pat (one of our fearless leaders) showed up this morning to beg off, having picked up a bug of some sort, and Al got directions from Pat about the location of today's hike. This first picture (click any to enlarge) shows what Bellingham Bay looked like when we got a look at it. It did give us some hope that the day would not be spent completely in the rain. We optimists could see some blue sky in that picture!

But frankly, this is what we spent the first couple of hours looking at: mist, fog, rain. The picture is a bit out of focus, but I think it actually adds a realistic dimension to it. Not to mention that all the rain we've been having lately made the trail more than a little muddy. Al kept checking his GPS and assuring us that we were on the right track, but by the time we reached Lost Lake, he told us that somehow we had missed the turnoff to the trail we were looking for. Having been to Lost Lake before, he told us that we could either turn around after lunch and head back the way we had just been, or we could take the trail around the lake and head back that way. We chose to go around, making our total distance 11.5 miles and up and down almost 3,000 feet in elevation. No wonder I'm so tired.

As you can see from this lunch picture (sorry to Sally for getting her with chipmunk cheeks), we still had no sun at noon time. Carol and Norm in the background show that we weren't exactly warm, either. Bundled up, happy to have lunch with a letup in the rain, we started back on the very muddy path to the other side of Lost Lake. Once in a while I was totally enchanted with the moss on the trees. Some of you know I don't waste any time getting out the old camera. When I lived in Colorado, I never imagined forests like we have here.

I didn't even know back then that moss grows on living trees, but it does. As you can see, there's no way to tell which direction is north by looking at the way the moss grows. (You know the old saw that you can tell the direction of south and north by looking at the way the moss grows? I don't think so. It's everywhere.) But just after I took this picture, we had reached the downhill part of our trip, and lo and behold: the sun came out! We saw people heading up from the parking lot in shorts and t-shirts, while we still had on most of our raingear.

Sally and Gary are on the home stretch as we headed back to the trailhead and our cars. Although it's a short drive from the parking lot to the Senior Center, by the time we reached our morning starting point, I could barely climb out of Al's car. Now, an hour later, I have downloaded my pictures, taken a very welcome hot shower, poured myself a glass of wine, and am writing to my favorite buddies about the day's hike! I think I'll sleep well tonight.
:-)