Every so often....

"Narcissistic Personality Disorder".  (Click to view link)

Isn't that a way to open up a blog post? I felt it fitting to post this because of two very contrasting emails received over the past few days.

An acquaintance of mine, Len, messaged me while he was stationed in the Dunchurch area. 4th year of owning a small chunk of land where he is slowly building a cabin to retire to, staying in a small RV while onsite. He quipped about the cold weather, citing that if it keeps up, the timber will be rotted before he even gets a chance to drive nails through it.

I concurred, telling him that it was pretty cold down my way, the hydro and heating bills will not be appreciated. Realizing how quickly I responded to his message, he caught me online and we chatted back and forth in Messenger, of note, he mentioned that he had been going through propane very quickly and he might consider a small heat box (as he put it), if he could figure out how to vent it properly. Basically a small wood burning stove, very small, in fact. Similar to that below.



With wood being plentiful on his lot, this seemed like a very good idea. He would still need propane but would certainly reduce his consumption while remaining warm.

During our chat about the stove, he mentioned something that I could picture, very vividly, almost made me feel right at home. To quote "leaving the window cracked just slightly to circulate the air as the stew simmered on the stove." Citing a childhood recollection, he was mentioning how his mother would do so and as he came home from school he could smell the stew before he even entered the property.

I could smell that stew. I knew that stove would make an excellent addition to his RV, but also a great slow cooker. On that note, we ended our chat and made an effort meet up, possibly in spring, for some R&R.

Skimming through more of my emails, I came across another one that made me chuckle. The opposite of what I had just experienced, hence the post title "Every so often". 

Yes, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

Several years of being humored by early morning or late night rants finally tired me out. Before I even finished reading the message, it was sitting in my trash folder. I chuckled, thought to myself that I wasted a few moments of my life again with this diatribe garbage, then looked back at the meaningful message and ensuing chat that I just had a few moments ago. What a difference. 
Email is like a newspaper, if you don't like what you read you turn the page.
So I did. And while doing so, I went through other messages, finally cleaning up my inbox, realizing how much time was wasted on frivolous communications. Block users, unsubscribe to mailers. Spring cleanup had come early. 

Len called me back on messenger about an hour later. I told him about the "spring cleaning", funny, he said he was tired of junk as well, but deals with it, Google Gmail is pretty good filtering out crap but some stuff comes through. He's subscribed to Sanebox, I tried it, I like it. Working on the trial right now. But that wasn't the reason for the call. 

He asked "Do you have a fireplace?". 
I hesitated...."No, why do you ask?"
"If you ever need wood, if you get one, help yourself. I should have mentioned that earlier. Guess it's not a big deal though if you can't use it."

"No", I said, I can't, at least not right now, but we have a firepit in the backyard. I'll take you up on that in spring."

"Not a problem", he said. "Have a good one".

Hurry up spring! Enough of this winter!

Coming soon....

I've been working on a composition that relates to all of my experiences in the bush, searching for answers. In addition, there are some theories and conversations with those who have been a part of the discovery and learning process when it comes to the search for the elusive species we refer to as Sasquatch or Bigfoot. Yes, I do know there are many other names, but for brevity, I think we can leave it at that for now. 

As one of my friends pointed out to me (with permission to quote);

"It is refreshing to see how effectively you can paint a scene in your mind, as you move forward, you come to realize that the story has pleasantly grown the way you expected it to."

He was commenting on a section that I sent to him to review for accuracy, should I have left out any parts or misrepresented anything.

I should have a firm date soon, publishing efforts are already in progress for print and electronic distribution. Just awaiting the ISBN clarification and distribution channel once it is obtained.

Reviving a weathered camera.

Took a lesson from my own books and decided to be patient - really patient with a trail camera. So much so that when I went to retrieve it I really felt that it was going to be a wasted trip. Inside the cam there were obvious signs of moisture. A mess. The external battery was still intact, buried in the battery box under a mountain of leaves. The solar panel was still attached to the tree, mind you, it looked like something was playing with it. It was angled in a funny way. Maybe a raccoon or squirrel.
The memory card had green fuzz on some of the contacts. I have not tried to read it yet. It's currently in a sealed container with rice and silica gel packs.

This camera has been out for almost 2 year. Yes, 2 years. Why did I wait so long? What was the point?

Having used this camera before (I have a 2-pack of them) I knew that with the right setup these things can go pretty much forever, using renewable energy and a good external battery.

The display was still on, mind you some of the elements in the LCD were flickering and some were not even showing up at all. I thought it might have been because of a low voltage situation but the low battery LED was not on. Maybe it was beyond that or burnt out.

Not being able to read the display very well, I can only guess that the picture count said 1248. Now if that is the case, then the memory card is still able to be "read" by the camera, meaning we might have a good chance of downloading the photos. It will stay in the dehydration setup for a while, then I will try and communicate with the card.

Wish me luck!

No to techno.

A chat with a friend, adamant to remain disconnected from technology so he gets his 24 hours of "life" per day, only recently started carry a cell phone because of health issues.
Never touched a computer except for when he worked for a few months at a gas bar, quipped that the Lottery machine was about as close he came to operating one.

Having worked with him several years ago, I took an interest in his carpentry skills and always tried to keep in touch, albeit few and far between when we would actually be able to hookup and chit-chat.

It was not until recently that we chatted, I asked him why technology does not work to his advantage. Banking online, staying in touch, being able to say "I'm ok" or "Happy Birthday". No, he still goes to the bank, never been online. Fumbles to text message when his kids bug him to do so. Snail mail is the preferred choice of communication. I'm left scratching my head - how can this be efficient and give you your 24 hour day?

He merely replied "I don't need to count the hours in a day. If I do, I'm on a schedule. I'm retired, I do not have a schedule. People are dying far too early because they need to pack that extra hour into their day."
"If a cell phone or computer buys me an hour of time, what did I push aside to gain that?"

I told him he should be a philosopher. So true.

Camp - Just a nice camp. Refreshing....Relaxing!!!

Take a peek at the pic below:

Looks pretty good, right? Yeah, it was fantastic. Great week out at camp. 

We bought a new barbecue with a propane feed hose to the tank you see in the pic (below). It worked great the first night. Thereafter, nothing. I feared the tank was empty but the weight did not seem to be at that point. I know what a 20lb empty propane tank weighs. Hooking up our stove confirmed that the tank still had gas. Believe it or not, it was a defective hose. That is disturbing but mind you, could be as simple as a grain of sand plugging the valve.

We had two tents setup, one for storage (the one on the left) - and on the picnic table is the BBQ and hose

Bikes were brought up on a "Allen" bike rack and it really is fantastic. $~50 on Amazon.ca and this thing carried two mountain bikes for the whole 400+ km trip. No problem and highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.ca/Allen-Sports-Deluxe-2-Bike-Carrier/dp/B00ASSQYK4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378610084&sr=8-2&keywords=allen+bike+rack

Site was fantastic. Private. Quiet. Could you ask for anything more?

And why pay for a hydro site? Don't want to have to keep starting the car to charge the battery because you are using the cig. lighter. Don't want to have to start the car at all.

So.....this is all we used and it worked perfect. iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, lanterns, etc. All were powered by a battery and solar cell.

5 watt panel into a utility battery.

Coleman 7w foldable solar panel. 12 v and USB output

Now, can I ask about lighting? We have two LED lanterns, crank or USB chargeable. They offer both features. They work well, provide ample light,  but last for a far shorter period of time than expected. Mind you, given the fact it was a rechargeable resource, I know that capacity becomes lower the more that you charge the battery pack. I have used these lanterns for several years and maybe that is the reason.

I would love to see a solar area lamp with a replaceable battery pack, sure, proprietary battery pack, which seems to be the norm now, but preferably, just AA or AAA batteries. Enough to light up a picnic table to the point where you could read a book but not be overwhelming.

This post will be updated a few times as I have video and other pics to send but I tell you, it was refreshing. Very refreshing.

Those who have read through and said "Ok, where the heck did you stay??????"

Six Mile Lake Provincial Park. Great place. Great Time. Great People and a great setup. 

Are we going back again? Indeed. 

J

Routine

I have not used an alarm clock for several years now. I get up at the same time, give or take 10 minutes, every day. It's the same routine. Pack my lunch, catch up on email and news, have breakfast, etc....then out the door.

Habitual behavior gets to the point where you don't even have to think about a lot of things that you do. It is like your body is driving you on autopilot. You are aware of your activities but accept it as a daily routine of what you are supposed to do.

Now you throw in variables. Let's take something that you do not do everyday but it needs to be done. Like taking garbage and recycling to the curb every Thursday. Does the time gap catch you off guard? It's been a week since the last time you did it, is your mind trained well enough to make that trip to the curb part of your routine?

In some cases yes, but we are in the age of information overload. More often, it takes trigger points to make pull us back into our element and get us on track. Simple things, like looking at a calendar, "oh it's Thursday", or a simple conversation "Can you bring the kitchen garbage out?" - things start to kick in and you are again reminded of what you are supposed to do.

It is said that everything you experience is stored in your memory. It's just a matter of being able to recall it.
Which brings me to the point of why I am posting this.
If you do something with repetition, a daily task, a daily routine, you are probably not as prone to remember exactly what you did.
For example, Do your daily routine. For me, I end up being at work for the day after my routine is done at home. At lunchtime, think back about what you did in the morning - you can easily recall. Now put some detail into it. Try it - were there dishes in the sink? Where was the cat? What did you pack for lunch? How much toothpaste is left?

Some can answer. Some cannot. Yet it is a daily task. Your body is on autopilot, just doing it's thing.

Now take a situation that is out of this world. You see a horrific accident as you drive to work. You vividly remember it, for days, months or years to come. On that day, think back about your regiment. How much toothpaste do you have left? Did you empty the dishwasher? At that point it might be a blur. Your "routine" was thrown off.

Or was it?

You still did what you had to do in the morning. You still made it to work. You are doing what you always did yet something remains that is the focus of your attention - the accident.

Things sometimes happen fast. I see a lot of accidents and unusual things on the way to work. I have been trying this theory that you can build your memory by viewing something that you do not see every day, then recalling something that you do every day. Some detail about it. Then refer back to it later. Even if it's something as simple as a license plate number from a hot looking sports car, then referring back to what is on the topshelf of your fridge, what you had for dinner the night before. When was the last time you vacuumed.

In time, I think it has helped me remember details. Why is this important? Well the benefits are obvious but just think about those reports we have seen from people who cannot remember much about their experience(s).
Have you ever seen a newscast - "suspect was driving a silver sedan heading northbound on Main St."
Great. That accounts for about 1600 residents who live on Main St. It's the details that count.

Happy Friday!

Quiet...

Thank you to those who have written in about my recent silence with the Blog and Simply Sasquatch Radio. It was not intentional. There is a time and place for everything and sometimes the timing just doesn't work in your favour - your are caught off guard with things and before you know it months have past.

Simply Sasquatch Radio is not dead. No, in fact, it is coming back very shortly.
As for the blog - well, here I am posting!

My last trip took me to a place just outside of Sudbury back in May. It was a good trip and comfortable, since we had a pair of motorhomes to stay in. Could have roughed it and do the tent thing, or sleep in the truck, but the convenience was to appetizing to pass up.

This past trip taught me a lot about the dangers of being alone, especially when using a ATV. Never drive alone. Always have someone with you on another machine. And make sure at least one vehicle has a winch. We learned that. Several times over.

This trip also taught me that trails are not maintained by anyone in particular, at least where we were. They are just groomed by the traffic that passes through. Large obstacles, such as fallen trees, are typically pushed or pulled aside but nothing really more than that. ATV's are quite capable of navigating some pretty intense terrain.

What I really enjoyed was the fact that is was very private and quiet. We did not see one person, except for traffic on the road, which at best, was minimal. We covered a lot of ground and took in the sights. A great trip.

Happy Summer!

J