On March 2, Texas Independence Day, I wrote a post detailing my two week hiatus from social media (Facebook, email, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) and promised an update. Click Here to view it
I am still off all the social media apps except email which I found I cannot live without. It’s the main Master Gardener communication transport. I try to limit myself to checking 3 times a day but am not successful very often.
Since then I’ve started weaning off the news because all it does is upset me and there is nothing I can do about it.
I cancelled my Economist subscription and am subscribing to the local Dallas Morning News instead. I can’t do anything about what is happening in the Ukraine or Cambodia for that matter and on a day to day basis it does not affect me very much. However, the local news does affect me.
On top of that I don’t turn on the TV news and if Gwen turns it on I try to ignore it.
I am not any calmer yet but Gwen’s ongoing battle with broken kneecap and PSP has been very stressful lately.
Two weeks ago I started a social media fast. Except for email the fast was successful in that I did not use any of the social media apps. See my previous post of click here
Of course I had lots of help from external sources. Gwen broke her kneecap on January 27 and I’m her sole caregiver. This, I have little free time to browse social media apps. Plus:
Elon is forcing me to use the Twitter app by shutting down third party interfaces. I tried the Twitter app and I don’t like it. In the past
Living without Tumblr is not hard since I rarely opened it either.
I only opened Facebook late at night during tv commercials. Thus giving up Facebook was easy.
Instagram was the hardest for me to give up. I generally opened it every morning to view the latest photos and post photos of my own. I am not sure if I will start using it again.
Mastadon is a fairly new social media site for me. I had just created an account and started using it when I decided to try the fast. I will probably experiment with it for art least the near term.
Email was a failure for me. I had decided to only check email three times a day but my friends, family, and Master Gardener cohorts would message me and ask why I had not responded to an email. I finally gave and started checking it periodically. Perhaps I should have included messages in my social fast.
What’s next?
Digital news including the Economist. Instead maybe the Dallas Morning News
Games on my phone. They serve the same purpose as social media apps for me. If I have a few minutes or just don’t feel like doing anything I play a game. Instead I could just think
Check back in a couple weeks to find out how I’m progressing on this journey.
I’m reading How to Calm You Mind by Chris Bailey. One of his recommendations is to cut out or cut down on our digital lives. After some thought I’ve decided to do so for a couple weeks. Therefore I’m resolved to do the following:
No Twitter for 2 weeks
No Instagram for 2 weeks
No Mastodon for 2 weeks
No Facebook for 2 weeks
Check email 3 times a day: 9, Noon, and 5
The trick is to replace these activities with analog activities. Right now that should no be a problem for me as Gwen has a broken kneecap and I am caring for her – which is more than a full time job. Any other extra time I may have I’ll piddle in the Landscape or read a good book
I check in again in two weeks – March 2 – Texas Independence Day
“Where have all the flowers gone” by The Kingston Trio was for me a revolution. Yes I know Pete Seeger wrote it but back then I never hear of him. To me The Kingston Trio was a revolution. Growing up in the Northern Midwest I was weaned on Lawerence Welk and the big band music from the top floor of the Hotel Blackhawk. Then The Kingston Trio came along with a couple guitars and lyrics with issues other than “teen anguish” – like “Tom Dooley” and “The MTA”
They were an early folk group I suppose although the they pre-Dated the folk music surge. From Hawaii and California they were also the first wave of alternative music from the west coast.
This is one of my songs on my “Peace” playlist which I listen to when the world gets me down (more on that in the next post)
To be fair another wind of change was blowing though our community at that time. My older brother, Jim, was into a different genre with artists like Bo Diddley and James Brown.
On the Pop stations yet another style was gaining popularity – pop music with songs like “A thousand stars in the sky” by Linda Scott and “Sherry Baby” by The Four Seasons. We called it “Pretty Rock” with a look of disgust.
This was al Pre-Bob-Dylan who totally, totally overturned the apple cart. He appeared at the perfect time in the sixties along with rioting in the streets, Vietnam protests, equal opportunity, cancer warnings on cigarettes, the pill, the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King assassinations, and the list goes on and on
Seems like 2022 just started and now we are in 2023. All in all 2022 was a good year for us. Gwen’s PSP is progressing slowly. There were things she could do last January she can’t do now but the specialist tells us her progression is much slower than normal for people with PSP.
On a happier note we were able to travel some this year after several years hunkered down at home because of the COVID pandemic. However, we had to postpone our major trip of the year which was a Baltic Cruise on Viking because we contracted COVID just before the trip was scheduled. We have rescheduled it for this year and looking forward to the cruise.
We had no major medical problems other than Gwen’s PSP of which there is no cure. I did contract an infection in my leg which caused the leg to swell up below the knee quite noticeably. I’ve no idea how the leg became infected. It’s the leg I burned severely when I was four and has been a problem off and on my whole life.
That’s about it for the highlights. A summary of our year ordered by date is below:
02/02: Purchased a Mac Air M1 to replace my 10 year old laptop – My this baby can fly
02/09: Started the implant process on 2 teeth. Pulled the teeth and did a bone graft
02/17-20: San Diego with the Neustadt’s. We stayed at a house right on Mission Beach. The highlights were the beach, Sea World, and an evening picnic on the beach watching the sunset
03/29: Lowered our bed because Gwen cannot climb in and get our of the bed without my help
04/19-22: Las Vegas holiday just Gwen and myself. We saw Mystere, a show good for children, which we liked very much. Our most memorable meal was at Carmine’s in Caesar’s forum shops
05/16: Replaced two motors in the attic that opened and closed vents
06/10: Canceled our Viking Baltic cruise because we both had COVID
07/07-10: Erin Olson’s wedding in Troy Ohio. Sara and Paxson traveled with us. A good time was had by all. The highlight besides visiting with family and the wedding was the day we spent at the Air Force Museum
07/13: Posts for the implants installed in my mouth – not fun
08/12: Married to Gwen 50 years – seems like yesterday
08/17-22: Steamboat Springs holiday
08/25: I have hearing aids now
09/08: Queen Elizabeth passed away – the longest reigning English monarch
09/21-26: Sedona and Scottsdale holiday
09/28: The doctor says I have two broken toes, an infection in my leg, and massive swelling in my foot and leg – way too much to be caused by the broken toes. Turns out the infection caused the swelling. After the antibiotics cured the infection the leg and foot returned to normal. The process took three weeks.
10/14: Replaced the HP Ink Jet printer with an Epson Tank printer. The HP still worked but I was tired of spending $100 for new ink cartridges
11/08: Replaced Gwen’s iPad – the old one would not hold a charge anymore and the home button worked intermittently
12/10: Bought a new backpack after all these years with the old one. This backpack is a Tom Bihn that cost way too much $$$ but it is so cool.
Now, time to forget the past and forge into 2023 with both eyes wide open. Themes for this year are fighting Gwen’s PSP and travel.
Motto for the year: “Live everyday like this is your last day and learn like you will live forever”
Feels Like Home by Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes narrates Linda’s memories of her Sonoran Borderlands and her Family. I read the book because I had recently heard Linda suffered from PSP just like my wife, Gwen.
In Summary, most of the book is about Linda’s roots: her family, the Sonoran Borderland, Tucson, food, and of course music.
Family: Frederick Ronstadt, her great-grandfather emigrated from Germany in the 1840s, married Margarita a local girl, and that’s where the story begins. Her grandfather emigrated to Tucson as a young man if you want to call it an emigration. Back then the boarder was porous and people traveled back and forth across the border at will. Her grandfather started a hardware store in Tucson and many of his customers came up from the Mexican side of the border to purchase equipment. Most of her siblings, nieces, and nephews still reside in the Tucson area.
Sonoran Borderlands: The Sonoran Borderlands are an area starting at Tucson and extending south around 250 miles and around 150 miles wide at the widest point. Of course the land is an arid desert. The Indigenous peoples of the region farmed, hunted, foraged, traded, made war, and coped with alternating floods and droughts for millenniums. Then the Spaniards came – it’s a wonder any of them survived. Some of the old ways still exist south of the border but they are disappearing fast
Tucson: Linda was born in Tucson in 1946 and grew up there. She left Tucson at 18 for the bright lights of Los Angeles to further her signing career. Her father owned the hardware store and was a musician They lived slightly outside Tucson on 10 acres, a family of six.
Some of her favorite places were The Arizona Inn where she stays when back home, the Mission Garden, the Canelo Projects, and the 47 Ranch.
Food: The book contains many recipes, in fact the book started out as a recipe book but over time morphed into the recipe, story of here ancestors, story of her family, story of the Sonoran borderlands, story of the border, and story of Tucson. I favorite of mine is Dried Beef Stew | Cazuela De Machaca.
Many recipe – in fact the book started out as a recipe book but over time morphed to include the story of here ancestors, story of her family, story of the Sonoran borderlands, story of the border, and story of Tucson
Music: Linda’s father besides being a successful businessman was a musician who led his own group. Prior to her father she comes from a long linage of musicians. Her grandfather, Fred, started Tucson’s first civic band comprised of two dozen musicians. They toured all over Arizona and even into California.
When Linda left home in search of her calling she traveled with an old Martin Guitar first purchased by her grandfather and later her father. She used it until recently when she could no longer make music she passed it along to her nephew, Petie
I enjoyed the book and recommend it. It’s not one of those books you read from cover to cover in one setting. I found myself reading a chapter and then thinking about it and my own past for a few days until I had sorted things out in my mind and was ready to move on.
Now I’m planning on traveling to Tucson the later part of March to visit some of her old haunts.
A Natural History of North American Trees by Donald Peattle is an unfinished condominium of the trees of North America. I’d recommend it for anyone who loves trees.
This book has a different format than other books about trees I have read. The others typically give the physically characteristics, how to grow it, where it can be grown, know problems, etc. This tree tome, however, in many case documents who discovered the tree, how it is used by the lumber industry, rates its hardness, and even incudes antidotal stories about the tree.
The first edition was published in 1950. It’s gone through several editions since then. The original was published as two volumes which have since been combined into one. Although not stated I believe the author planned to document all the trees in North America but for reasons not documented he did not complete. For example he mentions Live Oaks but did not include a section on that stately tree.
The book book does not have a “plot” or a narrative threading from cover to cover. Rather, each short paragraph documents a different tree species. Therefore the book is probably most useful as a reference to research particular tree species instead of reading cover to cover.
Below are a few examples of items I found interesting in the book:
Many believe Redwoods and Sequoias are the same tree species but they are wrong. The giant Sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum is the longest living and largest of all the tree species. It has a very limited range in a couple small areas of California. The [General Sherman ](The General Sherman Tree – Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (U.S. National Park Service) is considered the largest of all trees by volume standing 275 tall and over 36 feet in diameter at the base. The Coast Redwood Sequoia Semppervirens is the tallest of all the trees with Hyperioncurrently believed to be the tallest at 380 feet..
The Magnolia is another very interesting tree. It’s one of the older trees in the Planet predating even bees. The flowers may have developed to entice beetles to pollinate the trees. Fossils of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnolia Family have been dated to be 95 million years old
The Quaking or TremblingAspen is the most widely distributed tree in North America. It has survived better from the saw of the lumberman much better than other trees in part because the fibers are too short for making paper.
Mr Beattie includes the Canoe CedarThuja plicata . That term is no longer in use these 72 odd year later. The common term in use today is the Western redcedar. The original name came about because the Northwest Indians used the tree to make canoes. By the way Lewis and Clark also made canoes from this tree after they crossed the Continental Divide. The canoes were up to 65 ft in length and could hold 30 people. The Indians also used the Western redcedar for totem poles.
The White Ash is one of the most used trees in North. America because of its white wood and its hardness (second only to Hickory in North America). Most young boys are familiar with white ash because all baseball bats are white ash. Among Darwin and others the white ash is considered the highest evolutionary scale of trees.
Finally, here’s a typical vingette (one of hundreds): In olden times in Kentucky homemade soap was stirred with a sassafras stick to make a good quality soap
Just to get away for a few days we flew to Phoenix and drove to Sedona for a couple days and then back to Scottsdale for a couple more days before flying home.
I caught up on my rest. We dined at some great restaurants. We hiked a little . Sedona is one of the most scenic areas in the USA; therefore, our eyes were drenched in some of the most brilliant sites imaginable.
The Road Goes on Forever
Logistics
Flights
9/21: Flight 417 – 10:25AM – 10:50AM
9/26: Flight 569 – 11:05AM – 3:40PM
Hotels
September 21-23 at Wyndham Sedona
September 24-25 at Home 2 Salt River
Restaurants
True Food Kitchen Scottsdale for lunch
Cucina Rustic in Oak Creek for dinner
The Hudson in Sedona for lunch and dinner. Make reservations as early as you can
Mesa Grill for lunch at the Sedona Airport
Beckett’s Table in Phoenix for dinner
Portillo’s in Scottsdale for when you miss Chicago Italian Beef
Grassroots Kitchen & Tap in ScottsdaleRestaurants not good
Golden Goose in Sedona – Been there forever – reminded me of eating back home in Alexis
Olive & ivy – very good restaurant but nothing on the menu that Gwen can eat
Activities
Mainly eating and hiking
Montezuma’s Castle – although not as good as our last visit. Some flooding tore up the area along the river which was the prettiest part of the park
Oak Creek Canyon
Jerome
Desert Botanical Garden
TL;DR
Sep 21, 2022 at 9:08 AM: Yesterday was the Training Class at Myers Park. Went well. We used Camtasia to the the whole screen to record the video. I’m going the produce the movie on vacation.
The night before Training Class which would be the evening of the 19th Gwen was very restless and non-coherent. We went to bed late because based on her behavior I did not think she would sleep anyway so best to keep her up for a bit.
Shortly after we did go to bed I must have been asleep she called out to me to take her watch off. I stubbed my toes really bad in fact I think I broke at lest one and the entire foot is sore. Then before I could get to Gwen to take her watch off I fell against the bed “foot board” and hit my thigh pretty bad. The day before that I had banged my left shin against the “foot board” and cut it. It now appears to have an infection and is very sore also. So I have a bad left foot, sore left shin, and sore right thigh. And we are traveling to Sedona to go hiking. What a mess.
Stayed at Mike & Sara’s last night. Had a good time. Gwen slept like a log. She seems to be in a predictable cycle – one night can’t sleep & the next night sleeps like a log.
Sitting at the Airpot in Terminal B waiting on our flight to Phoenix
The flight was on time and the ride was smooth. No passengers hit the flight attendants. Our rental car is a Nissan Kick which is a nice little car.
Phoenix and the trip up to Sedona is cloudy, cool, and with little light drizzle.
We ate lunch at True Food Kitchen in Scottsdale. – a great and healthy lunch spot.
We made a slight detour and stopped off at Montezuma’s Castle on the drive to Sedona. Its a cool, in the Summer, and shady place to spend some time. The ancient Indians constructed a pueblo 3/4 the way up a sheer Clift there.
Dinner was at the Cucina Rustica in Oak Creek Village. The food and ambience was outstanding. On our next trip I’ll pack a pair of long pants just for restaurants just like this one.
Sep 22, 2022 at 10:47 PM: Gwen had a bad day today. Lots of pain in her shoulders.l
This morning we ate breakfast in the Wyndham. Then we took a walk on the Sunset Park Trail which is near the condo.
We had lunch at The Hudson. I think it Gwen’s favorite restaurant – at least for lunch. The views there are most excellent “dude”. We’ve never eaten there for dinner because like Eote you need to book 2 months in advance when the reservations open.
View from The Hudson
After lunch we drove up to the top of Oak Creek Canyon . Its usually a very scenic and leisurely drive up to the top of the Colorado Plateau. Not this day. First, the rains came with a vengeance . After the rain subsided we came upon a traffic light – red of course. A sign above the traffic light said the light will change within 15 minutes. I believe we waited 14 minutes before it changed. Turns out the road up the escarpment was a one lane road for maybe two miles. We drove to the top, admired the view, and then drove back down to Sedona stopping at the traffic signal again.
Flowers at Oak Creek Canyon Lookout
We ate dinner in the condo. – leftovers
Sep 23, 2022 at 10:58 AM: We slept in until 5AM. Breakfast in the condo again – bread from the Eatery we brought with us from Dallas.
In the morning we drove to Jerome and took some photos. I scored a Indian Scout Sign in a souvenir shop. The only Indian Scout I will ever own.
We ate lunch at the Mesa Grill. It’s not fancy but both of us loved our meals.
After lunch we just drove around the hills taking photos.
Dinner was at the Golden Goose. I think its been in the same location before there was a Sedona. The servers all must have worked their 25 years. This place would fit right in Monmouth Illinois like a glove. Gwen liked her pork chop. I had the meatloaf and would not order it again. If you ever eat there don’t get the calamari. As for us we will find a different restaurant
Sep 24, 2022 at 8:40 AM: Gwen had another bad night sleeping last night. That’s at least two nights in a row. Hopefully she will sleep better
Breakfast in the Wyndham and then drove to Scottsdale.
Lunch at Portillo’s. My Italian Beef was excellent.
Tried to check in at the Home2. Been waiting 3 hours now. Just setting in the Lobby watching football games.
In parallel Gwen wanted me to go to an Urgent Care because of my leg swelling. I did and they basically told me they did not know what was wrong and I should go to the local ER in case I had blood clots. Talked it over with Gwen and decided to wait until we are home and go see our family doctor.
Dinner was at Beckett’s Table. We first visited this restaurant on our first visit to Phoenix and liked it so much we have gone back on every trip here. We were not disappointed on this visit either. I had the Green Chili Stew.
Sep 25, 2022 at 3:51 PM: Gwen had yet another bad night and so did I. My problem was the bed. It was as hard as a rock. Many hotels have extra firm beds and I don’t know why.
Breakfast was in the hotel as is normal for us on this trip. The bread from the Eatery really paid off. We did have to buy a bread knife here in Scottsdale because the room did not have one. However, the price of the knife was less than a McDonald’s breakfast for us.
After breakfast we visited the Desert Botanical Garden.
For lunch we drove 5 minutes down the road to Grassroots Kitchen & Tap. I was surprised the server gave us their regular menu. Apparently they don’t have a weekend brunch. Good news for us. Grassroots is definitely a “go back to” establishment. The food was most excellent dude.
We spent the afternoon watching NFL games in the hotel.
Dinner was at Olive & Ivy. Although it’s a great restaurant there is nothing on their menu Gwen can eat so it’s out for us from now on.
Sep 26, 2022 at 8:42 AM: Up at 5 so we could make our flight. Sitting at the airport now waiting for the flight to board.
Home 2 thoughts: The bed was a good height for Gwen but the hotel has shown a lot of wear and tear with no obvious attempt to keep it in tip top shape. We had to wait over an hour after they promised us we could have our room until it was actually ready. Maybe because of the location but the hotel is a madhouse of families with teenage noisy youths.
Summary: We like Home 2 hotels because of the bed but would not stay at this particular location again
The Underland by Robert MacFaland was not the kind of book I thought. I had developed an interest in Geology the past several years. The book as advertised at least in my mind to be about what’s below the ground. Perfect I thought. Well, it was in a way. The first chapter started out interesting enough about cave pictographs by early humans with some descriptions of the stone the pictographs were drawn on. But over the the next few chapters the focus shifted to the environmental damage we were subjecting the Earth to. The word antrhopocene appeared more and more frequently as the pages wore on.
Finally the story culminated in a visit to the just completed Finish nuclear waste storage facility constructed 430 meters underground in bedrock named “Onkalo” meaning cave or pit in Finish.
From the depths of a Greenland glacier to the Paris underground to Norwegian caves this book is part travel, part nature, and part environmental. A great read!
Howdy, Several years ago – 2017 to be exact – I paused posting to WordPress and started my own domain’s blog to gain creating website experience. I gave up my website several months ago because my provider (Machighway) was bought out by another company. After numerous problems with their service I gave up the website.
For now I am posting to WordPress again. Sometime in the future I will re-start my website but until then I will utilize this service.
I may publish the last five years on this facility. I have not decided yet. If I can figure out an easy way to do so I’ll press forward with the plan.
Posted by molson46 
