Yesterday the goddess and I went walking our giant marshmallows through the deep and drifting snow on the road I usually like to hike. It was a good walk. The sun came out and was very warm while we were slogging through drifts. On the way home we slid off the road, just enough to be stuck, and having the back tire off the ground. Well, all for adventure the goddess said the logging trucks would be coming down soon and sure enough they did. The first guy said he was uncertain and didn't want to try to pull us out but the second guy did. He put chains on his loaded truck (he was pulling a loaded trailer too), took a log chain off the trailer and wrapped it around my trailer hitch. The he backed up. It didn't take much and we were out! It was very slippery on that corner.
The guys told us they will probably only be up the road hauling logs for another couple of weeks. I said that was disappointing because we look forward to watching their progress and seeing them on the road. I shared our story on facebook and with another friend whose boyfriend is formerly a logger. He, and she, both know the guys that so graceously pulled us out and told me their 'names' are Wiener and Hickey. She said I should call them by their names the next time I see them but I suggested that I didn't think I could possibly do that. They are wonderful guys to have helped us out but I don't think I want to know how they got those names.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Lions, and...oh my!
There have been many mountain lion hunters out in the area that I walk. Sometimes they stop and ask if I've seen any and I say I've never seen them. Occassionally I see tracks but that has mostly been down the road to the dam and not where I usually walk. I have seen two separate sets of tracks down there so I believe there is a breeding female with cubs around. Then a couple of weeks ago one of the logging truck guys told me a big lion walked right up to a logger lower down the gulch. Surprised him, I'm sure.
I don't worry too much about lions when I am with the giant marshmallow. I think that's probably why I never see them, though I am sure the lions are watching us pass by. A couple times the marshmallow has frequently watched behind us so I think we have been paced by a lion for a couple of miles, but still I've never seen one.
Then Sunday on our way back I thought I smelled one. Perhaps it was off in the woods or up on the rocky hillside and I couldn't see it. Yet this being a holiday weekend there were many hunters out and I spoke to several looking for sightings. Still I've never seen tracks where I walk and then it snowed Sunday night. As we walked around the big corner yesterday I saw a man's tracks come down the logging road and head up the hill ahead of us. This I rarely see so I assumed it was a hunter tracking a lion in the new snow. Not long later a truck came by with clearly two hunters in blaze orange caps. As I rounded the hill and headed down to the cattle guard this truck came back by, along with another truck driven by a man we usually call the foreman, as he drives by checking on the logging progress pretty much daily. He was very happy, something unusual since I've never seen him smile much.
On I walked and once past the gate I noticed where the foreman had pulled off the road and ran up the hill. Then, on the opposite side of the road I saw the lion tracks. He must have been tracking that lion and I must have really smelled it the afternoon before! On the way back, sure enough, two sets of truck tracks led up the logging road where the footprints came down. I'll bet they got that lion.
I saw quite a few deer again yesterday. That's something you don't see when there are lions in the area. And the birds were singing yesterday too.
I don't worry too much about lions when I am with the giant marshmallow. I think that's probably why I never see them, though I am sure the lions are watching us pass by. A couple times the marshmallow has frequently watched behind us so I think we have been paced by a lion for a couple of miles, but still I've never seen one.
Then Sunday on our way back I thought I smelled one. Perhaps it was off in the woods or up on the rocky hillside and I couldn't see it. Yet this being a holiday weekend there were many hunters out and I spoke to several looking for sightings. Still I've never seen tracks where I walk and then it snowed Sunday night. As we walked around the big corner yesterday I saw a man's tracks come down the logging road and head up the hill ahead of us. This I rarely see so I assumed it was a hunter tracking a lion in the new snow. Not long later a truck came by with clearly two hunters in blaze orange caps. As I rounded the hill and headed down to the cattle guard this truck came back by, along with another truck driven by a man we usually call the foreman, as he drives by checking on the logging progress pretty much daily. He was very happy, something unusual since I've never seen him smile much.
On I walked and once past the gate I noticed where the foreman had pulled off the road and ran up the hill. Then, on the opposite side of the road I saw the lion tracks. He must have been tracking that lion and I must have really smelled it the afternoon before! On the way back, sure enough, two sets of truck tracks led up the logging road where the footprints came down. I'll bet they got that lion.
I saw quite a few deer again yesterday. That's something you don't see when there are lions in the area. And the birds were singing yesterday too.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A Pilgrim School
I'm planning to do my graduate coursework while walking this pilgrimage over the summer. My professor is developing a lesson plan through which I will study the lesser saints who have relics in the churches along the way. The collection of relics or the bones of saints was a big tourist attraction from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Monks even went to other churches to "collect" the bones of a favored saint. This improved the attraction of their own monastery in the pilgrimage trail. Additionally, the representations of pilgrims among saints is prominent in many romanesque designs. I am enthusiastic about this project and looking forward to fleshing out, as it were, the details of this project. It is what can be termed "original" research and as such is important to my degree program. Plus I get to take photos and incorporate them in the project. This will be fun!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Valentine's Day
What can anyone say about a holiday that celebrates love? It is the best of days. Yesterday felt like I began a new step on my road to a new life. I cannot help but be overjoyed and enthusiastic to be on this path. I have some truly good friends, friends who give instead of take. Those are the kinds of people we celebrate on Valentines day! Thank you for being my friends. I take you with me in my heart.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
What the psychic told the pilgrim
I read this book by Jane Christmas entitled What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim. It was about the 50th birthday celebration pilgrimage made by the author. She was familiar with a psychic in her area and went to see her before she left to walk the Camino. It was a funny book because she was guiding a group of women, there were 15 of them in all, on this pilgrimage. The psychic told her she would be walking alone, that she would meet someone along the way, and that she should not take any personal belongings that she did not want to lose. She proceeded to lose her companions during the first week of her walk on the Camino, she did meet a man that she was still in touch with three years after her pilgrimage, and she lost a pair of diamond earrings at a hotel in Lisbon as she was warned not to bring them along.
I've had a long fascination with psychic ability and have known a few different people with clairvoyant abilities. So I decided to contact a person that I was acquainted with sometime over a decade ago and try the same thing. Her response recognized all the work I have done to create a better life for myself. There is a sort of wheel of balance that is part of having a happy life which includes a spiritual, mental, physical and emotional balance. Each one carries a gradation of balance, but of course the wheel is best balanced when each is equal distant apart. I have reached a good balance mentally and spiritually, and now I must work on the physical and emotional. The walking and the pilgrimage takes care of the physical for me. She said she saw me walking with someone as well. This will clearly be my emotional wellness challenge. I am looking for a person, a place, and a home that is caring and kind. That is something I have posted before. I have hoped I can find those things through this Camino. The psychic I talked to said I would, I only need to be watchful of those people who do things solely for themselves. I have had so many of those people in my life and she could see that. I have been taken advantage of so often I should be an expert at recognizing when someone is not a kind and sharing sort of person. But we all seem to do our best to be good to others. So my test is in saying "I'll think about it and get back to you soon". That gives me time to analyze and understand where a person may be coming from and offers me an opportunity to make a decision that is for me and not for the benefit of others. This is not selfish, it is balanced.
I won't share all that I heard here and now. But the expectation of this journey I am on is that it will end very well for me. She told me to embrace my enthusiasm. I am a person who loves adventure and I have created the opportunity for a great adventure in my life. I will take it and see where it leads me. I am open to the possibilities, whatever they may be. And I look forward to whatever my bright future has in store.
I've had a long fascination with psychic ability and have known a few different people with clairvoyant abilities. So I decided to contact a person that I was acquainted with sometime over a decade ago and try the same thing. Her response recognized all the work I have done to create a better life for myself. There is a sort of wheel of balance that is part of having a happy life which includes a spiritual, mental, physical and emotional balance. Each one carries a gradation of balance, but of course the wheel is best balanced when each is equal distant apart. I have reached a good balance mentally and spiritually, and now I must work on the physical and emotional. The walking and the pilgrimage takes care of the physical for me. She said she saw me walking with someone as well. This will clearly be my emotional wellness challenge. I am looking for a person, a place, and a home that is caring and kind. That is something I have posted before. I have hoped I can find those things through this Camino. The psychic I talked to said I would, I only need to be watchful of those people who do things solely for themselves. I have had so many of those people in my life and she could see that. I have been taken advantage of so often I should be an expert at recognizing when someone is not a kind and sharing sort of person. But we all seem to do our best to be good to others. So my test is in saying "I'll think about it and get back to you soon". That gives me time to analyze and understand where a person may be coming from and offers me an opportunity to make a decision that is for me and not for the benefit of others. This is not selfish, it is balanced.
I won't share all that I heard here and now. But the expectation of this journey I am on is that it will end very well for me. She told me to embrace my enthusiasm. I am a person who loves adventure and I have created the opportunity for a great adventure in my life. I will take it and see where it leads me. I am open to the possibilities, whatever they may be. And I look forward to whatever my bright future has in store.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Pour qua?
Do reasons for jumping into a venture like this change? Perhaps they change in becoming more refined. What am I going on pilgrimage for? I started thinking I would go to seek forgiveness for my sins and start a new life. While that may still be a part of it, I have sought the forgiveness I wanted and my priest told me that the pilgrimage is more the start of the new life rather than penance for the old. He said I had served my time in suffering for years. Now what do I go on pilgrimage for? To start a new life. I go to find a new home. I sold everything, really nearly everything I have. I can go anywhere. The question is: will it be better for me to leave here and start new elsewhere? I have such good friends here. I have had such a desire to return to the "old country". I'm not real excited to go to on-campus school. So whether a new home is a place or a state of mind, I think I am going to pilgrimage to find a new home. Wherever that may be, there will I go.
I am searching for a new life, a "do over". I can start new by closing the book on this old life. And from now on, I grow into a new beginning. Perhaps that may entail new relationships. I think I can take my dear friends along. They are my family and everyone has to have family. Maybe I can find someone to share my life with. I hope so. I cannot be afraid the rest of my life. I dream that a new man will come into my life; someone who respects who I am and will not seek to make me his property or change who I am. Family is so important. Love is vital to life.
So when people ask me why I am going on the Camino, I will now say that I am looking for a new home. A home with love, respect, and adventure. That is to be my Camino.
I am searching for a new life, a "do over". I can start new by closing the book on this old life. And from now on, I grow into a new beginning. Perhaps that may entail new relationships. I think I can take my dear friends along. They are my family and everyone has to have family. Maybe I can find someone to share my life with. I hope so. I cannot be afraid the rest of my life. I dream that a new man will come into my life; someone who respects who I am and will not seek to make me his property or change who I am. Family is so important. Love is vital to life.
So when people ask me why I am going on the Camino, I will now say that I am looking for a new home. A home with love, respect, and adventure. That is to be my Camino.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Daily Walks
My giant marshmallow grew stir crazy and has been insistent on daily walks. She does much better on the days we take the longer walks. But any walk will do. She knows the road I like to take very well and remembers spots she wants to check daily on all the routes. When we go to a new area she gets very excited at the new scents and scenery around her. Then on our return she sleeps off the rest of the day and through the night. A good puppy at last.
We haven't been walking less than 5 miles each day. I think the daily walks, no matter the distance, are something of a challenge to get accustomed to. The giant marshmallow shows her weariness as, I am sure, do I. But this is an important aspect of my training - I have to be able to walk every day on the Camino. Once I have accomplished this daily routine of walking distance I must then increase my distance so that my body and, especially, my feet are ready. Most documentation that I have read is inclined to a standard daily distance of around 15 miles. Sometimes more, not often less. I cannot really dedicate this much time at present. Most accounts relegate this to a 5 or 6 hour walking period. I set aside 4 hours to walk, eat, pick up the mail, and shower afterwards. On the weekends I dedicate more time to more distance.
The weather has been fairly cooperative but the sunny, warm days melt the snow which turns rapidly to ice around here. I am clumsy on my best days, but ice compounds my balance problems. I have fallen on the slippery road numerous times but Tuesday I took a very hard fall, on gravel that held some ice underneath. I landed on my right knee, tore my jeans, and scraped and bloodied my kneecap. Remarkably I did not hurt my joint terribly much and have rested to keep the inflammation down, though still walking 5 miles a day. But not long after, on the trek back up the hill to my car, I twisted the same ankle. There's a message in these minor injuries. I need to be more attentive so that I do not injure myself badly before May. This means to stop and stand still when I am trying to adjust my I-pod!
We haven't been walking less than 5 miles each day. I think the daily walks, no matter the distance, are something of a challenge to get accustomed to. The giant marshmallow shows her weariness as, I am sure, do I. But this is an important aspect of my training - I have to be able to walk every day on the Camino. Once I have accomplished this daily routine of walking distance I must then increase my distance so that my body and, especially, my feet are ready. Most documentation that I have read is inclined to a standard daily distance of around 15 miles. Sometimes more, not often less. I cannot really dedicate this much time at present. Most accounts relegate this to a 5 or 6 hour walking period. I set aside 4 hours to walk, eat, pick up the mail, and shower afterwards. On the weekends I dedicate more time to more distance.
The weather has been fairly cooperative but the sunny, warm days melt the snow which turns rapidly to ice around here. I am clumsy on my best days, but ice compounds my balance problems. I have fallen on the slippery road numerous times but Tuesday I took a very hard fall, on gravel that held some ice underneath. I landed on my right knee, tore my jeans, and scraped and bloodied my kneecap. Remarkably I did not hurt my joint terribly much and have rested to keep the inflammation down, though still walking 5 miles a day. But not long after, on the trek back up the hill to my car, I twisted the same ankle. There's a message in these minor injuries. I need to be more attentive so that I do not injure myself badly before May. This means to stop and stand still when I am trying to adjust my I-pod!
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