Facebook Break

Posted on by Dave
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As I occasionally do, I am taking yet another break from the unprivate world of Facebook for personal reasons. It’s not that I’ve got some kind of incurable disease that has rendered my body useless. Hell, I rode over 12 miles on Sunday and played some over-the-line on Saturday so I’d say I’m in decent condition for a guy who will be 43 in about a week.

No, I need to take a break for several reasons with time consumption being the most prevalent. I mean really, I spend way to much damned time at that place either posting goofy stories or pretending to be the funny guy that everyone loves.

It’s just not true and I don’t wish to seek that kind of validation for a while, which means that I will be back – I’m not closing my account. I take care of a friend’s restaurant page and need to still be in the loop.

Yes, I did try this in the past and I don’t think it lasted very long. In fact, my goal was to write blog posts based on what I was going to post as my status but that never happened. This time, however, I will try a little harder.

Additionally, my uncle sent me a personal message about his third book now being in his publisher’s hands. When I mentioned that I needed to follow his lead, his words were to “follow no one; follow what you are led to.”

It was pretty heavy. There have only been a few times in my life when someone’s words really kicked me in the ass and forced me to do better for myself. This was definitely one of them. The other time was when I was working a (yet another) crappy job and learned that I might possibly be moved to the overnight shift. I was not happy about this as I was attending college at the time and the change in shift would have made it difficult if not impossible to attend.

I spoke with one of my art professors about the possibility of quitting the job. His words:

“If you don’t do it now, you never will.”

I walked into my job the next day and quit on the spot and without notice, much to everyone’s shock. My art professor was proud and I was able to continue attending night classes – and found a job without much difficulty.

This all comes back to how my time is spent, and how much less of it I need to spend there. While it’s great keeping up with everybody, there’s only so many times I can view reposts of George Takei’s photos (as many of my friends are also subscribed to Mr. Sulu). It’s funny, it’s cute, it’s more than I need to deal with at this point.

So with that, my Facebook days have been cut to a minimum for an indefinite period of time.

I’m currently nestled deep in the corner of the den listening to various white noise apps drown out whatever noise is in the background. The fan is on and I’m wearing my robe (I know, it’s weird but it’s part of my comfort zone).

It’s time to work on what I’m being led to. And I’m looking forward to it.

Another Staycation

Posted on by Dave
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One of our semi-annual traditions – semi-annual for reasons I can’t comprehend – is taking a trip to Wrightwood, a small town nestled up in our local mountains. Not only is it a quick escape from city life, we love to go up there and enjoy playing around in the snow since that’s what city folk do.

Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been good enough to bring an acceptable amount of snow. There was a storm that moved through the area a few weeks ago that did dump 4-5 inches but we were afraid that by the time we got there it would all be gone.

So last Saturday we decided to make a trip up there to see for ourselves. The conditions on a local website stated that there was still some left in the snow play areas.

And for the most part, the snow was indeed all gone. It took some driving up Angeles Crest Highway to find some of the more bigger patches of snow and once we found a good pile, we stopped and had some fun.

Before we ventured out (or up, for that matter), we stopped for breakfast at the same place we always do: the Evergreen Café and Raccoon Saloon. Still the same: great food at reasonable prices. Note that the picture to the left is from our trip in 2010. For the heck of it, here’s my post from 2008.

With that done, we stopped at Mountain Hardware to get some info on where the best snow play areas were.

What I like about the hardware store is that they have a webcam mounted above the entrance which you can use to check conditions any time. In fact, here’s the camera:

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We got a map and directions then headed on up Angeles Crest Highway to see what we could find. While we did see plenty of places to stop, we opted to stay at this site:

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There was a little snow on this hill and it was enough to keep Anthony happy:

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Down the hiking trail was even more of the white stuff and that’s where we threw some snowballs at each other for a little bit. It was also here where we saw one huge paw print that we’re sure wasn’t any kind of domesticated animal:

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I swear I should have put something down next to this for scale because this print was gigantic. We’re guessing it was a bear. It had to be.

We were pretty high up: 9,000 feet if I recall. This picture should give you a better idea of exactly how high up in the mountains we were:

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The weather was perfect, too. It has to be in the 50s so it wasn’t very cold but it was definitely windy. About the only time I needed my gloves was when we were playing in the snow.

Once we were done we headed down to a small shop that Ann loves to peruse — and she never leaves empty-handed. All in all, we a little over 200 miles on the Yaris round-trip and it was a nice way to spend the day with the family. Not too bad for a simple, local getaway.

Next trip: who knows? But I’m sure you’ll see pictures from it.

(Note: some of the images shown here were taken with my LG Optimus V because I don’t have a wide angle lens for me DSLR, which would have been more ideal.)