All my life I’ve had a healthy heart — as far as I know. I’m active and my heartbeat and blood pressure have always been at the lower level of healthy. Back in January I was told there is something wrong with my heart. Continue reading Senior Moments: The Heart
Tracks Hiking Staff: Better Than Trekking Poles
Hiking staffs have been around for a long time. Moses used one to lead his people out of Egypt. Confronting Ramses, Moses transformed his staff into a snake and then back. He used it to produce water from a rock, and even used it to part the Red Sea. Try doing that with a set of trekking poles!!
Continue reading Tracks Hiking Staff: Better Than Trekking Poles
Black Diamond Mega Light Pyramid Shelter: Not A Review
Time to write about something other than our house remodel. Since we are forced to stay at home, I can’t go backpacking or camping for a while; thus I can’t share any trip reports. Writing trip reports are a pain in the ass anyway, something I have mostly quit doing the past few years.
This isn’t a review. In my opinion, a review requires several years of use, or a few hundred days/nights of use. For that reason, I find most gear reviews of limited value. Often I find gear reviews useless.
This is a Shelter Comparison
Continue reading Black Diamond Mega Light Pyramid Shelter: Not A Review
House Remodel: Guest Bath Demolition Phase

If I haven’t bored you yet, this is the next post on our house remodel.
Of all the rooms I completely tore down to the wall studs during our house remodel, this was the easiest. Probably because my skills improved as I progressed room-by-room, it was more intuitive to anticipate problems, and there was only one big obstacle in this room. Continue reading House Remodel: Guest Bath Demolition Phase
House Remodel: Kitchen Demolition Disaster
Again, I’m continuing the House Remodel series. What else can I do since backpacking and camping in California are pretty much closed to me. I have patience. The last post in the series was about our master bath demolition, which went well over all. The same cannot be said about the kitchen.
Of all the work I had planned, the kitchen was supposed to be the easiest.
In my post on planning for the demolition, I mentioned that,
A simple galley kitchen, there wasn’t a lot that could be done without some really, really major construction. So we would end up upgrading the cabinets, countertops, and flooring.
As it turned out, we found a plethora of problems after we removed the old kitchen cabinets. Continue reading House Remodel: Kitchen Demolition Disaster