Other Things (Distractions) This Wild Year

A few musings, as the year draws to a close ...

Within the realm of personal responsibilities, most of my days of the last four years at home include "elder care", i.e., helping my wife take care of her 92-year-old Mom (with mild to moderate dementia).  (I do have a quarterly part-time job and I may have something else early next spring.)  

As we don't have the funds to put her in a quality nursing home, unless something drastic happens, such as a fall resulting in a broken hip, then we may have to make do with what we can (we are not "spring chickens" ourselves).

During the almost four years that we have been married, when my sister-in-law is between West Coast contract jobs, she can take care of their mom, while we get out for varying lengths of time.  During prior years, we made do with our Honda CR-V and motels, as we traveled.  Our last notable outing was June of 2019 when we went to Gettysburg National Battlefield Park (we are both history nerds).

The subject of the "Van Go! Project" (Figures 1 and 2) has been touched upon in other posts.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

A different endeavor ...

In January 2021, at my wife's suggestion out of concerns for my health, I began an outdoor walking program along local sidewalks and streets, for the sake of exercise.  My most recent dedicated walking program was in 2016 doing mall-walking around a one-mile-long "ring-shaped" mall near my hometown (about 30 miles from where I live now).  (That particular mall, Sugarloaf Mills, is popular for mall-walking.)

After beginning my 2016 program with four laps (4 miles), every other day I increased by a mile until I reached 12 miles per session.  (Good progress, but that "ate up" four hours of my day each time, so I switched to outdoor walking to get the benefits of walking up and down hills.)  If I went through my files, I might be able to find monthly records and a 2016 yearly total, but other current endeavors keep me occupied.  

I do recall that I did exceed the 100-mile cumulative mark with that indoor project.  This project, however, did come to an end when I met my 2nd wife on the last day of the year (during the day, at a local Dunkin' Donuts for coffee).  Thereafter, it seems that I was distracted during 2017 - 2020.

For 2021, while getting reacclimated to walking (with my doctor's approval), I only covered 13+ miles in January.  I decided to step-it-up to an ambitious 67 miles per month (equal to my age).

Progress:

January - 13.53 miles                                                            February - 74.96 miles                                                              March - 89.53 miles                                                                      April - 72.76 miles                                                                          May - 79.65 miles                                                                          June - 44.92 miles (foot problems helped by Podiatrist visit) July - 99.04 miles                                                                      August - 6.33 miles (Vacation prep and vacation)                  Sept. - 17.39 miles (Post-vacation chores and quarterly job)  October - 77.17 miles                                                          November - 124.48 miles                                                    December (thus far) - 73.78 miles, need 30.96 mi. (+/-) more

Cumulative distance - 773.04, with 2021 Goal of 804 miles.  Including the unfinished December walking, my monthly average is 64.42 miles.  December rain and quarterly job present some challenges, but it is certainly within reach.

My Reading Program ...

I usually read one book per month (I did 14 last year and 12 in 2019), but this year with van-preparation, traveling, and my walking program, I have only finished four books and have two more "in the hopper", though I don't know if I can finish both.

Common threads through these books are: 1.) They all have a "science connection" and 2.) Five of them were unfamiliar to me (I had heard of "A Sand County Almanac").

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

This next book I found in a local bookstore (they apparently do not have a website) after we returned from our 22-day adventure through the Northern Midwest and Great Plains.  (Talk about bad timing.)  (I also found the above two books at the "Corner Book Store" in Winder, GA, as well as "A Sand County Almanac".)

Figure 5.

This next book is a follow-up to "Buffalo for the Broken Heart".  The experiences described in Buffalo for the Broken Heart were the precursors for Wild Idea Buffalo Company.

 

Figure 6.

In reference to the "bad timing remark", from the Wild Idea Buffalo Company website, it looks like their Rapid City, SD office is about 1,000 feet from the Rapid City KOA campground!  

If I had found "Buffalo for the Broken Heart" and then ordered "Wild Idea" from Liberty Books in Lawrenceville, GA two months earlier, we would have dragged our campstove along and purchased a couple of fresh Buffalo steaks and cooked them right there.  (The campsite might have had a grill, I don't remember.  The campstove was one of the things we forgot in the final rush to leave on August 10th.)

I have had Buffalo burgers a couple of times at Ted's Montana Grill, but I am sure they were nothing like a fresh steak.

After reading these two Dan O'Brien books, I have to say that he is my second favorite contemporary American Non-fiction writer, after William Least Heat-Moon.  (They both do fiction, as well.)

"A Sand County Almanac" and "The Floor of Heaven" are the two in-progress books I need to finish in the fading days of the month (and year), along with the quarterly job and walking.

Figure 7.

I found "The Floor of Heaven" in a Goodwill store in greater Dacula, Georgia.

 

Figure 8.

Without addressing any undone tasks for 2021 ... (Perhaps another time.)

The Butterfly/Hummingbird Project ...

For the last two or three summers, my wife and I have talked about putting out some Butterfly/Hummingbird-friendly plants in both our front yard and our backyard.  We finally got something done about it this year.  (Details in another post.)

I Wish I Could Go Back to Kansas - Part 2

 Returning to Kansas for a few days of exploration and photography has become a sort of "Bucket List" (or Geo-Bucket List) goal. 

As recounted in Part 1, since 2014, I have been immersed in a writing project, with the first goal being the production of an interesting narrative about two "crossroads events" in 1973 and 1974.  These events were a 1973 Western family vacation (the last one for the four of us - Dad, Mom, sister, and me), followed by my 1974 Western road trip with my college roommate. 

Both of these events were influential towards my moving 1500 miles from home in 1977, to attend graduate school in El Paso, Texas.  Events that followed included meeting my first wife (1983), my first marriage (1984), adopting our daughter (1986), graduating from the University of Texas-El Paso with a Master of Science degree in Geology (1990), and us moving back to my native Georgia (1991).  

The genesis of this project was "decadal anniversary-induced nostalgia", triggered by the 40th anniversary of the 1974 road trip, and continuing through a time of significant life changes, career plans/expectations fizzling out (2013), being widowed (2015), my daughter's family moving to Phoenix (2015), being given a used Digital SLR camera by a friend and then buying a new Pentax K50 (2015), engaging in three Atlanta-to-Phoenix (and back) driving trips (2015 and 2016), meeting my second wife (2016), my daughter's family moving back to Georgia (2017), and getting remarried (2017).

  

As recounted in Part 1 of this posting, the 2014 rereading of William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" inspired my writing efforts.  Other of Heat-Moon's books subsequently read and enjoyed included (in no particular order) "Here, There, Elsewhere"; "Roads to Quoz"; "Writing Blue Highways" and in 2019, "PrairyErth" and "River-Horse".  Of these books, "PrairyErth: A Deep Map", published in 1991, is the most profound in terms of its quadrangle-by-quadrangle detailed analysis of Chase County, Kansas.  As defined by Wikipedia, a "deep map" is "a map with greater information than a two-dimensional image of places, names, and topography."  

Figure 1.  Monument on I-70.  Image by B. Masterson

Chase County, roughly between Topeka and Wichita, is within the "Flint Hills Ecoregion" and hosts the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  Heat-Moon's intense deep-map coverage of the geology, ecology, history, culture, botany, and geography of Chase County and the uniqueness of the Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystem is credited by some as drawing the attention needed to create the National Preserve.  Formerly covering an estimated expanse of 400,000 square miles, agriculture has inadvertently reduced the Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystem to a fragmented remnant of what it once was.

The major hurdle to bringing this writing project to fruition is fashioning a suitable format. Adversarial considerations include; 1) The road trip took place 45 years ago; 2) There was no travel log kept, as we were 20 years old and not given to thinking about legacies and such; 3) Memories are fading; 4) There are few - if any - surviving Kodak Instamatic photos; and 5) An attempt was made to save the marked 1974 AAA maps, but that ended with a 2011 home renovation when the maps were inadvertently discarded.

As stated in Part 1, if I can achieve a satisfactory solution to the "Kansas chapter" of my narrative, it should serve as a template for the remainder of the recounting of the 4-week, 8800-mile journey.  As current conditions stand, in terms of health concerns, family obligations, and finances, a retracing of this route does not appear likely in the near future.  Though a "virtual journey" format with flashbacks and vignettes may serve the purpose.