A 5K for 5K Geocaching finds?

 Late last year I was talking with some geocaching friends, some of whom happen to be runners, and an idea was hatched to host a 5K run event for my upcoming 5,000th geocaching find. A 5K for 5K, get it? I crunched the numbers and figured it would be sometime in February or early March when I hit that magical number. Five months of number managing later we picked a location/date that worked and the event was on! It had been nearly 10 years since I ran that far so, during the next 2 months, I tried to get myself back into some kind of shape. I logged 22 miles and got up to running 2+ miles without falling apart so I figured I was ready for 3.1 miles. My running log is below.

The day of the event the weather forecast was promising rain off and on all morning and this kept some folks away. However we still had two dozen hardy cachers (and a geo-pooch) in attendance - 10 of which opted to run/walk the 5K loop. At the last moment Allison decided she wanted to run the race as well so I hung back with her and we ran an easy pace - even taking a walk break to enjoy the scenery of the beautiful Manasquan Reservoir. The rain had tapered off before the race started but it really picked up its pace during the last mile or so. Allison did too - she flat out sprinted to the finish line just so she could say she beat her old man. :) 

Group shot pre-race - What better way to celebrate than with friends?

 We got pretty wet but it was unusually warm for April so we didn't mind. There were post-race snacks, trophies for the front-runners and real metal medals for everyone that opted to do the loop. The best part - there were new caches hidden for the event and the runners had to choose between being first to find and first to finish the race.

The weather could have been better but it also could have been a lot worse. There were actual tornadoes in the area that evening! It was a lot of work to setup the event and get back in shape but it was worth it for a memorable 5K for my 5K. I guess 10,000 will be my next big milestone. It took me over 16 years to get 5,000 finds. Will I be able to run a 10K when I'm 64? Only time will tell!

Running Log:
2023-01-29 - 1 Mile with Allison
2023-01-30 - 1 Mile solo
2023-02-05 - 2 hours roller skating (Took a spill)
2023-02-09 - 1 Mile solo (9:54) (Back tweaking)
2023-02-12 - A few minutes of running with Allison while out caching
2023-02-13 - 1 Mile with Allison (11:02 due to side-stitches)
2023-02-16 - 1.1 Miles solo (9:02 for the mile)
2023-02-19 - .5 miles on treadmill + swimming
2023-02-20 - Fast walked around 4 miles. (11K steps)
[Rest of February - sick!]
2023-03-06 - 1.2 miles plodding at 13:26
2023-03-09 - 1.5 miles to MAMS in 14:44
2023-03-12 - Dance party while cleaning. 3000 "steps" recorded
2023-03-16 - 3.1 miles with many stops through Tatum. 1 hour 4 minutes.
2023-03-17 - 6 mile hike/bushwhack feeling the burn from yesterday.
2023-03-20 - Quarter mile sprint to get Allison's shoes to her at the bus-stop
2023-03-21 - 2 miles ploddy ploddy 20:37
2023-03-22 - 1 mile solo - 8:47 (PB)
2023-03-26 - ~3.2 miles with HILLS and lots of stopping (Aprox 39 min)
2023-03-28 - Short sprint with Allison who wanted to see if she's faster than me yet.
2023-03-29 - ~2.2 miles in 24:00 for my final "long" run before the event!
2023-03-31 - A few miles of broken/thorny/damp terrain while caching.
2023-04-01 - 3.1 miles, untimed, running with Allison.

Total 22.0 measured miles + Skating, Hiking, Dancing & Swimming.

Just some High-Handing, Grand-Standing, Ban-Planning Fire Fanning

 

Back in the early 1990s I used "biodegradable trash-bags" as my science fair project. They haven't caught on because IT DOESN'T MATTER in the slightest. I might generate a few pounds of plastic bag trash every year while the farmers use hundreds of millions of pounds of "plastic mulch" in the same time. My contribution isn't even two tears in a bucket.

But don't worry, New Jersey will save the world by just doing whatever New York does. Our governor is like the little dog dancing around the big bull dog in the old cartoons. "Hey Spike! What are we gunna ban next Spike? Come on Spike, let's ban something! Heya Spike! Wanna get high, Spike?" It's been a while since I've posted because I've been collecting data. It turns out the ban on Plastic Bag only extends to the people and stores where it is most likely to annoy us instead of actually achieving anything useful. Are you feeling like you've made a sacrifice? That's will assuage your guilt from living an otherwise wasteful lifestyle! Don't feel bad. You're American. You really have no choice.

It's been a while since I've posted because I've been collecting data. I'm not going to spew a bunch of internet-researched fake news numbers supporting anything in particular. I'll just point out a few things and you can do the math.

1. Since the ban started to get real this past Spring the family has been given about 2 dozen tote-style bags to replace the single-use-plastic-bags. The majority of them are made of plastic.
2. 8 out of 11 stores we have shopped in (that are not labeled "grocery stores") have given me plastic bags in which to ferry my stuff home.
3. Some cats share our living space. They make the poops so our "grocery bags" were never single use. We've now had to buy bags in which to put the poops. The new bags are made of corn and will decompose if the humidity gets above 80% but the manufacture and distribution isn't carbon neutral like the bags already in our home were.
4. Here's the best part: I estimate that the groceries coming into our house would have used 28 bags. We've used none since the ban! Yay! I can upgrade my car engine to have a fourth cylinder without guilt now! Oh, but wait. The groceries themselves contained 97 single use plastic bags. Plastic bags in the cereal box. Plastic bags to hold the fresh veggies. The sugar. The apples. The tissues. The meat. The bread. Hot Pockets individually wrapped? Like anyone eats just one at a time! Oh, and this number could be a LOT higher if I counted the little things. Each. Kashi. Bar. Is. Individually. Wrapped. With. A. Small. Plastic. Bag.

So, for all the hubbub, the "ban" hasn't done much good. Sure did annoy some people though so that brings the magic of Awareness into the equation which is then touted as winning. Of course, we've always been aware we just don't care. No, that's too strong. We just don't have time to care what with dodging the potholes while driving our kids to school in the morning because of the bus-driver shortage, trying to find a vaccine that actually works so we can visit Grandpa in the veteran's hospital, and getting a building permit so we can build a pantry to hold all of our new bags. The point is, these little plastic crimes against nature are and have always been recyclable. You can bring them right back to the store you got them and, if you dig around under some old boxes, you'll possibly find an empty "plastic film recycling" receptacle covered in dust and mouse droppings. Making these more prominent and accessible would have been easier than a high and heavy handed ban that required a big media campaign. Ah, but I forget... the point isn't making a difference. The point is making a big media campaign. Paid for by our taxes. Damnit, the Murph just wrote himself a campaign check and we happily endorsed it.

Let's pretend for a moment that we care to make a difference, why not? We've already hit the first "R" of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra. Here's a no-grand-standing, no ban-planning, no political fire-fanning approach to making a difference:

1. Reuse: Compress those bags into flat strips and use them for insulation in our homes. Energy efficiency will play as big a part as deplastification in the future.
2. Recycle the bags we have. Seems a forgotten no-brainer. They were always crappy (even before my cats got at them) so they're not good as double-use-bags anyway.
3. Ask stores to start giving out biodegradable bags, if they must, like the brown paper bags that were, counter-productively, also banned by this law.
4. Forget all that nonsense because the VAST majority of plastic waste is NOT the bags.
5. Start asking local companies to go back to wax paper, cardboard, cloth, tin or glass for their packaging. Then ask harder. When they stop donating to your political campaigns, out them publicly. Reward those that willingly comply.
6. Fix the recycling programs that no longer actively recycle cardboard, tin or glass.

There, wasn't that easy? It shouldn't take more than 50 years but by then it will be a problem for our grand children and they are bound to be smarter than us. Hopefully they were not crippled by anxiety after being told daily that everyone is out to get them, everything is dangerous and everything they do is harming the world. Hmmm. I think we need an addition to the above list.

7. Get off your high-horse, stop feeding us a line of horseshit that the world is ending and go back to using horseshit to get around, feed our fields and fuel our fires. The world has been around for 4.5 billion years and will be here long after we're gone. Enjoy it while you're here, do no harm, and don't put anyone on a pedestal who wouldn't gladly pull you up to join them. Oh, and don't forget your damn tote-bag in the car.

Clyde North Carolina Trip 2022

 Over Allison’s Spring Break we took a family trip down to the Asheville area to visit Aunt Claire, Aunt Glady and Cousin Xavier. We had a good visit and saw a lot of wild hills and scenic nature. Good times were had by all! Go ahead and click an image to see a larger version. I dares ya!

Eye Pillow + Neck Pillow = First Class

Heather makes some musical friends in Waynesville

Family project – The Flagpole Mulch Square!

Lake Junaluska at dusk

My girls at the Looking-Glass Falls

Wild Beauty

Heather holding court at the Devil’s Courthouse

Puffy Hair + Bandanna

Allison needed a rest from the hills & elevation

The rental car – Honda HRV

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Atop Waterrock Knob

Outside the 1885 Mingus Mill

Elk in Cherokee

A park where the playground is the river

We arrived on Tuesday and met the family then Heather and I took a walk around the small town of Waynesville while the kids played at the house. On Wednesday we worked around the house a bit then enjoyed a trip to Lake Junaluska at dusk. Thursday was the day of adventure as we took a hundred mile tour through the Smokies checking out waterfalls and scenic vistas, getting in a few short hikes and finding caches in 4 different counties along the incredible Blue Ridge Parkway. On Friday we all piled into the mini-van and headed to Waterrock Knob & Cherokee where we, eventually, were able to track down some of the herd of elk that wonder through the town. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather at the tail end of the day in a park that is just rocks in a stream. Simple beauty!

Many thanks to Claire and Glady for hosting and acting as tour guides. It was a wonderful week!

Spring forward… to a bright new future!

It’s March! Spring Forward for Daylight Savings! For most of my adult life I have disliked the twice-annual time-change. It screws with my sleep patterns, gets the US out of sync with the rest of the world, messes up the daughter’s bedtime and has occasionally caused me to be up in the middle of the night making sure computer scheduled jobs didn’t run twice or not at all. Whether springing forward or falling backward, I’ve never been a fan. I won’t lie, I did rejoice when Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extending Daylight Savings by a few weeks. I do enjoy the daylight in the evenings since I’m really not a morning person… but it’s such a pain to keep switching. And changing the clocks! About 12 years ago I spent a lot of time and money researching and purchasing clocks that would keep themselves in sync and automatically adjust to daylight savings changes. They never worked right. Invariably, right after I would manually adjust all of the clocks in the house, the power company would blink the power off/on and make me do it all over again. Watching the stove, oven and microwave all blinking 00:00 at me I determined that I would be OK with perpetual Daylight Standard. Imagine a world where there were fewer pitch-dark mornings and we could set off the summer fireworks BEFORE the kid's bed time!

But… what if the U.S. of A. could say “screw you” to the rest of the world, leap forward an hour… and stay that way? A federal bill, possibly inspired by NJ’s own bill from 2019, is moving through Congress to make it so. A billion patches to phone/computer/scheduling software is a small price to pay and we have done it before. Twice! From 1942 through 1945 the U.S. was in perpetual daylight saving “War Time”. We instituted it again in the 70s during the “energy crisis”. Unfortunately, in winter with the clocks forward an hour, the sun will not be fully risen until after 8. Any morning commute – including kids waiting at the bus stop or walking to school – will be in the dark until 7:45 or so. It eventually was a rash of pre-dawn car accidents involving children that ended the 1970s experiment after only 2 years. Maybe we saved some energy but the price was high.

That was then and this is now. While the energy we use is greener than it was in the 70s, our average usage has more than doubled. It’s not really about the energy savings anyway. When it gets dark we don’t turn off the A/C, stop microwaving burritos or unplug our phones (and cars if trends persist). Nobody really believes this is about energy savings. We just like getting home from work before it is dark out. The morning issue is real but fortunately we also have a lot more crossing guards and school buses (not to mention hyper-protective parents and school districts) than we did 50 years ago. During parts of the school year, my middle-school aged daughter will have to leave the house before it is light out to get to school on time. I’ll have the same issue getting to work on days I actually go into the office. But that’s really only for December and January. In the summer, it will be as though nothing has changed! It will be light from around 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Hooray for the long days! The rest of the daylight-savings countries will be in sync with us and all will be well with the modern world. Crank up the A/C, grab a cold one from the fridge, a hot one from the nukerowave and Let There Be Light!

It will be interesting to see if this passes and if other countries follow suit but I just hope something comes of it. Whether the country goes for forever standard or perpetual savings, I’m all for it. Just leave my clock alone!

Family Biking and Binge Watching during a Pandemic

I promised in a previous entry that I’d talk about what we did during The 2020 Pandemic. At least I thought I did. Regardless, I’m doing so now even if you were not forewarned!

I guess the best thing that came out of the spring of 2020 was Allison finally getting comfortable on her bike. For most of the summer she enjoyed just riding up and down our street learning how to hit the bumps and how fast she could go before her little bike would start to wobble. Of course we had to go on some bike ride adventures too – including hunting down the Easter Bunny who was riding around our neighborhood on the back of a firetruck. In the past year Allison little bike has been upgraded to a “big girl” bike but still prefers her original. 

But there are days that are cold, lazy. dark or wet. Sometimes all four. Bicycles are not appropriate. You need to kill some time during lockdown?  Forget a measly 8 seasons of Game of Thrones.  Try binge-watching 706+ episodes of The Simpsons! It took a year and a half watching an episode or two or four a day but we made it through all 32 seasons available at the time. Not all of them are available on DVD so we had to pick up a subscription to Disney+ for a few months to finish it off. 

Along the way Allison was introduced to hundreds of cultural references. Often I would stop the show and google up some explanations, maps, videos or movie clips. Off the top of my head, The World Trade Towers, the World Wars, The Flintstones, Tom & Jerry, various world religions, Busch Gardens, Orson Wells, Lassie, 2001: A Space Odyssey (Daisy, daisy…), Hitchcock, Twilight Zone, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Star Wars, Rain Man, Planet of the Apes (Rock Me Dr. Zaius!). So many movies and songs! Watching episodes of The Simpsons directly led us to then watching Gremlins, The Nutty Professor, Mary Poppins and Kindergarten Cop. Homer’s love of the song Funkytown led to Allison rediscovering her love of the Lipps Inc’s one-hit-wonder. 

While the show does excel at low-brow humor, we did occasionally raise our brows with discussion of some of the many literary references in the show. Ayn Rand, Goodnight Moon (read by Christopher Walken no less), Harry Potter, Charlotte’s Web, Robert Frost, Kurt Vonnegut. The last was accidentally timed perfectly as I just happened to be listening to “Slaughterhouse 5” at the time it came up. Allison listened in for a while before deciding the poetic prose wasn’t her style. 

Probably the most interesting part of (re)watching the shows for me was picking out the voice actors and guest stars… or just Frank Welker’s animal noises. We enjoyed watching clips of the actors doing their various voices and impersonators doing what they do… often poorly. My voice is naturally closest to Hank Azaria’s so I can impersonate the characters that he voices… often poorly, but good enough that Allison would recognize Comic Book Guy or Professor Frink if they showed up in one of her bedtime stories. I enjoyed cross referencing guest stars with other movies/shows she might recognize them. She enjoyed when I’d be quiet and let her watch the funny cartoons. 🙂 

Two dozen seasons in Allison started to lose interest. I hadn’t seen any of the episodes after season 23 when we dropped cable TV so, while I still enjoyed the episodes, they were clearly not the classics that held up to the test of time. We both agreed that Season 29 should have been final season – and in fact I believe the writers set it up to be. It features flash backs to classic episodes and characters from the early years – all the way back to The Simpsons first appearances Tracey Ullman show. The last episode of the season shows how several of the characters meet their final end including many subtle references to the glimpses we’ve had into how the family would grow up and grow old. Bart dies wearing his Supreme Court Justice robes (Season 4 Ep 6). Marge does eventually marry Ned (Season 4 Ep  2, Season 15 Ep 10 & Season 21 Ep 5). Lisa is still pursuing Buddhist enlightenment (Season 13 Ep 6). 

It’s not the best episode but it felt like reminiscing back to the golden age of the series. My favorite scene featured all of the “dead” characters – including Sherry Bobbins and Bleeding Gums Murphy. No Frank Grimes though. Now that I’ve watched the next 3 seasons I can really see the change. Season 29 was the last season under Fox’s creative control, still had the original voices for characters and still featured fan favorite Apu. It would have been a fine time for the series to fade to black. I wouldn’t mourn the loss but I will treasure the memories – from my own childhood and those I’ve made with my family.

RIP Titus – 2007 to 2022

 Last week we had to say goodbye to Titus. We rescued him and his sister from a semi-feral litter when he was just a kitten. Heather named him Titus the Tiny Titan and the little guy did his best to grow and earn that title. 

He eventually grew to be a long tall cat tipping the scales at 26 pounds despite being on a “Diet”. Over the years he took his dwindling food rations and then eventually insulin with characteristic nonchalance. He was a big goof-ball but nobody warmed a lap better. He was a beast to his sister but also a protective older brother. When young Allison entered the picture he shared his favorite warm spots with her.  

He had a strange fascination with our slippers ever since he was small. Usually Allison’s towards the end. In the middle of the night he would start an unusual howling cry and then grab a slipper in his mouth and carry it downstairs where he would lay on it. Allison would wake up the next morning and, finding only one slipper, have to go find it in the basement.

His last few years we had his weight under control but cancer is not so easily controlled. Towards the end he had a lot of pain but he continued to eat and enjoyed his nightly lap rituals. We did what we could to make him comfortable and the last thing he did on this earth was purr. Farewell Mr. T. You’ll be missed!

Pain in the Brain 2021 (Now with Politics!)

I’ve been overdue for a cluster cycle for a few years now so every Spring I’ve been mindful of avoiding triggers. Stress and sleep issues are #1 and #1 again in the short list. The stress of 2020 apparently wasn’t enough or maybe social distancing during the onset months of April and May made a change? I can’t say. Well, I could say but it wouldn’t be backed up with scientific proof. Then again, the burden of proof doesn’t seem to even be a passing distraction for the bulk of the suddenly-an-expert-on-virology Interneteurs out there. But I digress… we were talking headaches here. Know what else is a headache? Wearing a mask that inhibits normal oxygen intake. Instant. Eyegraine. Brainpain. When forced into a desperado mask situation I found that full-lung meditative Darth-Vader breathing helped a lot. It also made sure nobody invaded my 6-foot bubble. Especially when combined with tantric eye-contact. But now I’ve trigressed. better start a new paragraph and pretend this one didn’t happen.

So, yeah. in April of 2021 I started getting the all-too familiar aura just as I was beginning my day. A few weeks later the aura was sometimes coming with sensitivity and mild nausea. The pain aspect finally kicked in near the end of May. The periods slowly shifted from morning to afternoon to evening – a vast departure from my old “10:00 to 10:30 every day” routine. Through June I was experiencing some form of headache 3 or 4 times a week, usually in the evenings. I had my last full-blown episode on July 10th and a few minor issues over the next few weeks and then nothing since. With the 2016 cluster cycle persisting into October I’m rapturously ecstatic at having a cycle apparently end in July. Was it something I did to shorten the cycle? Very maybe 99% sure!

The yuuuge difference this year is my environment. Working from home. The kid and wife often at school or work. Easy access to walking paths down by the bay and the weight set in the basement. Best of all: I could get a nice quiet dark room whenever I needed one rather than have to try and ignore a headache while trapped in a meeting at the office. I’m still finding the quickest relief with high-intensity lactic acid producing workouts that cause endorphins to be released en-masse. Ahhhh… a quick hit of the natural endo and the ‘graine is gone. This time around I also experimented with antihistamines now that I’ve found some good ones that don’t make me zombiesque. On days spent fully on histamine blockers I experienced nothing more than an aura of the headache. I try to only take the stuff when I need it for known allergens so more research will need to be conducted.

Speaking* of research, the world continues to become more aware of Cluster Headache and now uses a “CH” as a know abbreviation. The Wikipedia article is no longer a stub but a full article and many major medical sites now have some information on it, though their stock-photos of headache sufferers make little sense. Apparently CH is also called Horton’s syndrome now. Who knew that Dr. Seuss’ big blue elephant was suffering from clusters? The good doctor was obviously ahead of his time. He also predicted 2021’s use of pandemic politics in his book about Sneeches. Whether you choose to wear a star or not is irrelevant as long as McBean gets paid. Remember that and follow the beans! Be safe. Have fun. Don’t believe everything you hear. Fear nothing. Except bright lights and strong perfume!

Until we next cluster again…

Yep! Yet another day in the life...

Every few years or so I get the notion to journal my day. Rather than micro-blogging or uploading a score of photos to Instabook.com I'm consolidating them all here for your condensed and concentrated consideration. Crikey!

05:?? The cat is reminding me that he's nocturnal and nobody has offered play, grooming or food in hours. I tossed a blanket over him and fell back to sleep.
06:45 Hello world! Yet another rainy day. At least I'm scheduled to be indoors most of the day.
07:30 Morning discussion with the daughter: skid marks vs poop streaks. She decides she wants her bedtime story to be about "poop paint". Hey, you can't make this stuff up folks!
08:20 Daughter is spooning out canned cat food wearing a dust mask scented with essential oils. "This cat food is toxic." she remarks. The cats agreed. No more of that brand.
08:30 Running late again. One bite of my English Muffin tells me it had gone moldy. Blech. Opt for some blueberries and peanuts to break my fast.
08:45 Finally leaving for work. Car reports 47.1 MPG on this tank so far.
09:10 Arrive at work safe and sound. 46.8 MPG now. The parkway is inefficient unless I can tuck in behind a bus or truck.
09:11 The Geese Police are checking out the office pond to make sure the Canadians haven't invaded over night. The side of the truck says "Get the flock out."
09:15 Only two immediate tasks await me in my inbox. A good start!
09:50 A coworker lets me know that Bitcoin is up yet again. Since nobody knows who started it Bitcoin is probably Skynet. I refuse to fund the future War of the Robots! Unless it looks like they are winning... then I for one welcome our new Robotic Overlords.
10:12 Thinking about a future redesign of the NJNG bills and comparing to other utilities. The JCP&L graph looks exactly like ours. Imitation/flattery and all that... but we splurge on color. :)
11:45 90 minutes filling in a spreadsheet documenting servers of which I am responsible. This is not exciting work but it's better than putting out virtual fires - my usual morning routine.
11:50 The Lunch. Ham & cheese sammy, crackers & a green apple. #GourmetDining.
12:00 Heading to Red Bank for long meeting. My commute within my commute.
12:20 I stop off at Brookdale Community College to replace the missing second stage of the Jim Gary tribute cache stashed on campus. The rain held off until I was on my way back to the car. Usually a nice view but day was dreary. A woodpecker was drumming above when I took this.

A dreary view of the Swimming River Reservoir

14:00 I'm wearing Purple today to support one of the business resource groups at the office. We all line up on the office steps and have out photo taken for the corporate newsletter. Unfortunately I'm not in that office this afternoon so my purple has gone photographed.
16:46 Co-workers are talking about this new Corona Virus thing. Let me spoil it for you: The news outlets will milk it like a bloated heifer. It will reach New Jersey. Sheeple will freak out. In the end it will be a typical viral flu season. If the stock market catches a virus just buy early and buy often. Stay calm and carry on people.
18:18 Home at last! I got the gas mileage up to 47.2 MPG but I think I can do better.
19:00 Looking at output from the Christmas Gift night-cam. I spy with my little electronic eye... A few cats, a skunk and two fat raccoons at half-past-midnight.

Two fat raccoons retreat after exploring the wonders of our trash bins.

19:10 Daughter and Wife return from "The Little Gym".
19:30 Like ships in the night, the wife is off again. Working in the public sector requires working when most folks are not. But can I get the kid fed and to bed on time? Of course!
20:05 A late dinner of left overs and more left overs. Beef & bean chili over rice, a few carrots and some home-made chicken soup. Not a bad mix really. More #GourmetDining. Bon Apetite!
21:00 Bedtime story! A story about a white kitten with brown streaks that likes sleeping on the toilet but gets stuck in the bowl. The cat's name? Poopoopaint of course. The cat goes on to star in a series of toilet commercials to the delight of my single audience member.
21:30 Laundry. The tip of my finger is scorched off by static discharge. Dryer balls no bueno. I'm going back to dryer sheets! Or bribing the kid to wash her own clothes.
22:00 Watching a second season episode of "Game of Thrones" via a borrowed DVD. For a wonder nobody died in this episode. I can guess how the whole series ends: Dragons burn some zombie wights... but all of the people already killed each other so the zombies start a new civilization based on cooperation, peace, equality and a brain-based economy. Tourists visit "The Great Wall" and everyone lives forever in bliss and harmony.
23:20 I've uploaded all of the images for today's entry. Now to head to bed and edit this thing later. Today wasn't my most interesting day but I enjoyed it. :)

The Polar Bear Club Photo Essay

Back around 1990 I joined the local "Polar Bear Club" by jumping into a partially frozen river on January 1st. I remember it being a VERY cold day. We had to break some ice away from the river's banks to be able to jump in. I also remember standing on snow after getting out because IT FELT WARMER THAN THE GROUND. Good times! A few years later I needed a Christmas break photo essay for my high-school photography class and I remembered the Annual Polar Bear Plunge. I arrived on scene with my 35mm loaded with classic black & white film. I snapped a few photos of the plunge, developed the negatives that week, printed/mounted the shots the following week and got a decent grade on the photo essay. I recently unearthed the poster-board on to which I had glued the photos. Rather than just throw it away I have decided to retype my essay correcting only the spelling errors and share it with the world. Ladies and Gentlemen... The Polar Bear Club!

The date is January 1992. The time is 11:59 A.M. The temperature is approximately 34 degrees and the stage is set for the seventh annual Polar Bear swim in the Tulpehocken river at Stone Cliff. This year the number of Polar Bears slipped to five after peaking at thirteen in 1986 but there could be no doubting the bravery of the remaining quintet.

A small crowd of spectators and photographers as well as passers by stood waiting as the local heroes stripped to their swimming suits and prepared for the inevitable [shock] that awaited them. Then as watches and alarms announced the start of a new hour, five figures plunged into the frigid river and, after much gasping and wheezing, swiftly departed the murky waters. Shivering visibly, the five quickly donned warm and dry clothes, thankful that it was over but already anxious for their next opportunity to prove their worthiness of the title Polar Bear.

A split second before the Big Chill



The Polar Bears take the plunge


The swimmers hit the beach

Now back to cleaning out the basement (and justifying keeping the flat-bed scanner).

More Mailbox Mayhem

It has been a while since I shared the contents of my "Other Eric Dalton's" spam folder. Much of it really isn't spam and the past few weeks has seen a few real gems. Names, excepting mine, have been changed to protect the errant!

Of course, I continue to get invoices and quotes intended for E.D. of South Africa. Everything from industrial vacuums to boxes of paper to... Grease Nipples!



My namesake in Minneapolis is invited annually to a CBS Sports March Madness pool. As best I can tell... he has never won the pool... possibly because it is my address getting the invite? Phoenix Arizona E.D. was busy too... with a different kind of pool. He got a quote from North Star Pools for cleaning out and repairing his swimming pool. He's one of the worst for giving my address to marketers.  It is nice to finally pinpoint a location. Now that I have his address I'll send him a post card when I'm visiting.  Over the years he is probably responsible for:
North Star Pools (March 2017)
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union (March 2017)
P.F. Chang's (February 2017)
Hughes Federal Credit Union (October 2015)
PetSmart (March 2015)
University of Phoenix (April Fools 2011)

But my FAVORITE of the week was this gem from my friends in Virginia:



I have no words to describe my feelings about this email. Until next time, stay classy!

Not just rich... Beanie Rich!

I was recently mindlessly browsing the Facebook and a post caught my eye with an idiotic title suggesting that "if you have one of these 11 beanie babies you can retire now". I must have been avoiding doing actual work because I clicked through and crunched the numbers. If I had all of them and could sell them at the prices the inflated prices and EBay/Amazon didn't take their cut... I would have only 150 thousand dollars and couldn't possibly retire. Sounds like a Pump-and-Dump scam to me. But it got me to thinking.... so I brought out my Beanie Baby collection. Yeah, I have a whole collection! Back in the late 90s when they were all the rage I noticed the pattern that if they had "hard parts" like pincers, beaks, horns, etc, they were not collected as aggressively so they became rare. This collection method seems to have worked as my paltry beanie-stash contained 2 of the 11 on the list. Hooray! Good thing Allison wasn't too interested in them the last time I brought them out.

So, can I retire for a month or two at least? The two should fetch $3500. Let us check the Electronical Bay of Auctions to see for what price they are actually selling:
Mystic the Unicorn (with the Iridescent Horn & Yarn Mane) goes for $5.00 NOT $1,000. Oh well.
Claude the Crab (with the "error" on the hang-tag) goes for $4.00 NOT $2,500. Dad Gummit.

So, no I can't retire or even pay for my Fat Tuesday meal tonight at Popeye's. The BBs were only a few bucks each back in the day so I'm just going to give them to my daughter. Any she doesn't want can go into a Beanie Baby geocache. That way I get a few smiles out of it ... and hyperbole spewing bloggers and the EBay listings that feed on them don't get a cent. Yeah, Babies!

Pain in the Brain 2016

Question: What rhymes with couch and hurts like hell? Answer: OUCH.

I'm a few months late in writing this but BLTN as they post. Only two years after my 2014 cluster headache cycle I started a new one in 2016. This time around I fully documented every headache in an online calendar log. I started with the Auras in early May and by the end of the month was having at least a minor episode nearly every day. The onset of the cycle was likely expedited by the pressure/sleep and stress changes involved in a trip out west. This cycle was a little strange in that they headaches skipped tuesdays for the first month and then were not as long or as painful as I expected. Unfortunately by late July I was having them every day. August saw many days with multiple occurrences and a few dreaded waking eye-graines. The pain continued into September and faded out over about four weeks into early October. So May through October with 2 and a half months at full blast. This was a few weeks longer than the previous cycle and very painful. Since I started really documenting these each cycle has been longer. This is not a sustainable happiness model.

The good news is that these are now mainstream. Google has special results for when you search for them. They are considered Common and the pharmaceutical industry is standing by ready and willing to push me into a heroin addiction whenever I'm ready to offer up a co-pay. They may be willing to substitute a cancer causing steroid. Hooray! Ok, so yeah, the bad news is that nobody has figured out what the deal is with these as of yet but mainstream awareness just may prove useful. Can an awareness ribbon be far behind? We'll have to pick a color. I recommend something dark that doesn't strobe and kick off a headache for anyone actively in a cluster cycle.

Some links that give me hope:

• Clusterbusters.org - Somewhat new website that offers something of a support group and has info on clinical trials. I joined the patient registry and will be following them closely.


• Clusters are now well documented in the International Classifications for Headache Disorders... so where is our Awareness Ribbon already?!


• The disorder now has its very own ICD9 code. Once insurance companies recognize a disorder proactive pharma/nutraceuticals soon follow. Money talks!


• The top 5 links under Cluster Headache all seem to have been updated in the last year.

Until some solid science comes up with a preventative I'll just keep stomping up and down the steps and doing pushups at the first hint of an aura. Adrenaline still works for me which is a blessing. I will leave you with a fun quote:

Experts have suggested that cluster headache may be the most painful condition known to medical science.

Well, at least I don't have THAT kind of cluster headache! [attribution]

Yet another day in the life...

Every two years or so I get the notion to journal my day. This time around I picked my birthday. Not for any special reason but just because it seemed like it might be a full day. It was! I then forgot about actually posting the entry for nearly 2 months. Better late than never! Without further palaver, this was my day:

06:18  A full 12 minutes before the "first" alarm I'm up and heading for the shower where I will hopefully wake up before I start driving anywhere. Sleep driving is never advisable.
07:15  Allison is awake. She's very excited that we're going to go see her Meemaa in "ONLY TWO DAYS!?!"
07:40  Pizza. It's what's for breakfast. Nice home-made stuff prepared by Heather and Allison the night before. Yummers!
07:45  Out the door and pulling out of the driveway. Allison waves good-bye and blows kisses as she does pretty much every morning. "Bye Dad! I love you one hundred million years!" I blow a kiss back. She eats it. "OM!" Then I toss one "for Mommy". Allison pretends to jump up and intercept it. "OM!" You read that right. We eat our kisses. Yummers!

08:15 I'm parked in the last lot at Durand Park in northern Freehold attempting to be the first one to find the new "Float like a butterfly..." mystery cache. A few minutes later I had the cache in hand. Very cute. FTF! I complete a loop of the walking path and then head off to the office.
09:00  I make it into the office right on time only to find I had no reason to rush. No fires to put out this morning. A perfect birthday gift!

10:30  I just spent the morning coding a new automatic process that will update the status of "child" work-orders when the "parent" work-order is updated. When I go to test it I see a checkbox right there on the screen saying "Update Children". Did nobody ever notice this before asking me to make a "behavior modification" to the program? Fortunately the option "does nothing" so my changes were actually needed. Yeah, my job is exciting!
11:00  When signing into the website, some customers aren't able to see their bills that were generated last night. Turns out there was an internet outage that took down the interfaces last night. Craziness! What is crazier is actually getting bent out of shape because you can't immediately sign in and view your bill hours before it even makes it into the mail.
12:00  An email from my brother: "Haha You're old!!! Happy birthday, treat yourself to a hip replacement!!!". I reply with a promise to use my new hip to kick his ass the next time I see him.
12:30  My program changes are working. Time for my PB&J sandwich then a half-hour lunch-walk around the pond to scare the frogs.


13:00  Frogs go splash as I walk along the edge of the pond. Some frogs are taking flight where I am not... then I notice the water-snake moving along the bank. It is pretty scary to a frog too I suppose. I also spot some Sun-Fish and a mockingbird looking at me mockingly.
14:00  Everyone in the office is pretty busy this week. One co-worker has put up a sign across her door-way saying "Please Do No Disturb". If only the door-way had an actual DOOR she'd be able to get some work done.
14:30  I'm informed my Mentee went home early today and will not be attending the Graduation this afternoon. This is part of "Project Venture" a collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Monmouth & Ocean Counties of which I'm a mentor. My mentee is a great kid but has a poor attendance record.
15:00  I pop by the graduation anyway. Hey, free pizza and snacks are not something to be spurned! A half hour later the official ceremony is over so they break out the pizza. I wait for the ravening hoard of middle-school students to get their slice on then get in line just in time to have a choice between "White" and "Stuff we swept up off of the floor" topped pizza. I choose the white and miss the red sauce. Man those kids can eat!
16:00  "Small World" moment: One of the BBBS coordinators has looked familiar to me since I started the program back in September. I finally take the time to chat her up and figure out that we probably have met before. Turns out they have a branch office at the same church where I used to drop off non-perishables for a food-pantry. Neat coincidence.
17:45  I have left the office and I'm heading to Tatum Park where I will meet up with the family for a short hike in the woods to replace one of my geocaches that had been vandalized.
18:00  I'm listening to an Audio Book version of "All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot. Funny stuff. Much lighter than my last book which was "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. "Tell me about the rabbits again George!".
18:30  Hiking in the woods with the family! Allison picks every flower she sees and gives it to one of us. I show her a game from my childhood where you hold a Buttercup under your chin. If your chin turns yellow... you like BUTTER! This amuses Allison to no end - especially when it turns out that Heather, the lactose intolerant member of our party, is incongruously a big butter-fan.

19:15  Back to the cars, Allison decides she wants to ride home "with Daddy". I treat her to some James Herriot who is relating an amusing anecdote about the time the pigs got out and ran down town. She sometimes likes the "Grown-up stories" I listen to. Separated into bite-sized chapters this one is a good fit.


20:00  Munching Cheddar Bacon Burritos as the Birthday Dinner. Yes, they are yummers. 
20:30  My mother-in-law pops by to hand me a B-Day card (Thanks!) and asks if I had seen the Chewbacca Mom video yet. We pull it up and it is indeed very funny. Her laugh is contagious! Allison also thinks the lady is giggle-worthy. We then watch Star Wars Wookie clips instead of reading a bedtime book. YouTube Parenting!
21:00  Allison's Bedtime story features Chewbacca who accidentally ends up crashing his spaceship in Cliffwood Beach, NJ and is then tormented by a butterfly that keeps landing on his nose. Eventually he re-wires the Dalton family cars into a new spaceship & rockets away. As he settles in for a nap the butterfly lands on his nose again & flutters in the snoring Wookie wind.
22:00 Time for some Throw Back Thursday action pulled from the old slides I had developed for my birthday present from Heather. Horse!
23:00 Tired of fighting with GSAK trying to set up way-point filters for the trip I think I will instead turn in for the night. I had a good day. Here's to another year!

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Orignal From: Yet another day in the life...

Pain in the Brain 2014

Just a quick note to document my cluster cycle this year. They started early – March maybe. Very slow burn-in this time with a few false starts and aura-only episodes. They went full-blown at the very end of May and lasted until the end of August. The final one was in the middle of the night. Around 3 months of this is a LONG cycle. I was able to short-circuit most of them before they got a grip on me by burning up my legs on the stairs at the office. I added push-ups and tension-hanging but couldn't do much else without buying a membership at the "office gym". I've wondered before if just letting the headaches "run their course" doesn't shorten the cycle but I'm not willing to do that when a quick hit of adrenalin pops them like a bubble. I wouldn't say I learned much new in this cycle. Knocking off sulfates doesn't seem to do much in terms of preventing or shortening the cycle. Sleep cycles were definitely out of whack and stress was high this summer so those are still definitely my prime suspects. Science continues to play catch up with my own personal research. ;)

Coincidentally, the cycle lasted from around the start to near the finish of the "Get The World Moving" Global Corporate Challenge that I was participating in this summer. That worked like this: Wear a fancy pedometer that records your "steps" throughout the day then enter the steps online and succumb to Peer Pressure to increase your daily-step count. I averaged 13,700 steps a day and, according to my stats log, walked 548 miles in the 100 day challenge. I must admit I was completely bored with it by mid-point so I started playing games with the pedometer to see how I could increase my count without wasting more time walking. The end result was that I did get out more. I even started running again. :)

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Orignal From: Pain in the Brain 2014

Another day in the life...

Back in July of 2012 I cataloged a day in the form of 2 dozen Facebook posts rolled into one blog entry. This past week I took a vacation day because of the endless snow and decided to make a record of my day. Enjoy my banality! Here is my day...

07:30  Who needs an alarm clock when you have a 2 year old? Allison wakes us up by bringing all of her teddy bears and blankets to our bed and hopping in.
08:00  I'm called a "Wimp" by the folks at the office for taking a vacation day and not braving the elements yet again. They're just Jealous!
08:30  Allison and I are cracking peanuts with a lineman's pliers. Not the right tool for the job but it certainly makes instant peanut butter!
09:00  While Heather is preparing breakfast I'm watching funny cat and fox videos with Allison. What does the fox say? "Abay ba da bum bum bay dum" obviously.
09:30  Breakfast is served! Vanilla Almond Pancakes with Banana/Strawberry/Apple compote. Before we begin Allison taps her pancake on mine and says "Cheers!"
10:15  Breakfast is all cleaned up and we start to get dressed to go outside to play in the snow. We had 6-8 inches of fresh powder but it was starting to turn to sleet.
10:45 Finally dressed, we head out into the... rain? Drats! Regardless, we make a snow angel and a snowman/fireman because a little rain wont soak through too quickly.
11:15  Allison back inside with Mommy. Shoveltime! I clear the entrance, the drive, the walk and a path to the trash cans. Super soggy snow is triple heavy. Sux.
12:15  Ok, that's more than enough shoveling for now but the driveway looks good and I don't fear it will freeze into a brick overnight. Inside!
12:30  Time for a pretzel snack and some My Little Pony. Yeah, it's a show for little girls but for some reason the whole family likes it. Maybe it's the inclusion of mythological and geek-culture creatures like the Cockatrice and Tribble-esque Parasprites. Or maybe I'm just a Brony? True Bronies are a fascinating bunch.
13:30  Lunch. Wraps and leftovers. Nothing to write tweets about I guess.
14:00  Allison is calling me "Dad" instead of Daddy today. Not sure what to make of that.
14:30  Time for a few minutes with Central Jersey Chat and uploading this mornings adventure to Facebook (the snowman picture above).
15:30 Allison is down for a nap. She wanted to lay on "MommyDaddyBed". Heather is out shoveling so I'll just lay here too until she falls asleep. . .
17:00  I wake up with my legs tingling because Allison is laying across them like the cat usually does. Nice nap though!
17:30 Checking my afternoon mail and solving an easy Geopuzzle before Allison wakes up.
17:45  Allison has invented a new drink: Milk & Grape Juice. I dubbed it Purple Milk and the name has stuck.
18:30 My Little Pony Round Two. It was still up on Netflix and it's hard to say no to a grumpy toddler. I take the opportunity to set up the massage and Heather hops on for a tune up to the back and arms.
19:00 Story time on the sofa while dinner prep begins. I make up the story of the little reindeer with a boo-boo inside herself and the time Elmo took too much stuff to the beach.
20:00  Late dinner. This tends to happen if I'm home to distract, Teehee! Ravioli, asparagus and spiced cauliflower are worth the wait.
20:30 Playing games with Allison and her stuffed kitty cat. The cat keeps going pee-pee on the carpet and we keep making it go outside while we clean up. Suddenly Allison changes the game and the cat goes nuts and sprays all over the whole room while I scream. Instead of cleaning up I decide we have to move out. Great fun!
21:30  Allison is snoring quietly. Owl Babies for the bedtime book. Little Bill's "I WANT MY MOMMY!" gets a giggle every time. Time for a massage to fix the damage done by shoveling!
23:00  The bed is calling. It's been a long day but a good day. Night-night!
23:01  ZZzzzzzz....

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Orignal From: Another day in the life...