Line in the Sand II

It seems like Fresno is a perfect place to try a few things to encourage folks to ride to work regularly. It's flat. What more could a commuter ask? Could Fresno and Clovis designate some east/west and north/south streets as bike, scooter, electric car paths during a rush hour to try something out?

If we closed Maple, Fruit, Barstow, and McKinley to autos for a couple hours in the morning and again in the evening, maybe people would get on board with commuting with our gas guzzlers.

Line in the Sand

$4.00/Gallon Gasoline
It is time for communities and people to draw a line in the sand over the cost of getting to work. We need local leaders who will begin looking for ways to help their communities break away from the gas pump. Can we begin to look for ways to encourage people to ride bikes, high mpg scooters, electric vehicles, mass transit, etc. to work?

I'm thinking we can. There must be answers out there.

I've been toying with the idea of biking to work. I live in East Clovis and work in Southeast Fresno, and wonder what a good route from Bullard and Armstrong to Cedar and Jensen would be.

I'm looking in to a moped.

Any ideas?

Another cool thing happened today. Rebekah went to a technology conference at Sunnyside High and won two prizes. One was a gift basket from Sierra Nut House with a gift card from Barnes and Noble. The other was an Airliner. It is a tablet that allows you to wirelessly connect to a computer so you can roam around a classroom and continue to manage a slide show or other presentation. It is very cool. It is from the same folks who make the Smart Board.

San Joaquin River Trail

Today I joined some friends from church and walked part of the S. J. River Trail. We had become interested after seeing an article in the paper about a new bridge that makes it easier for bikers to use the trail. It was a nice hike. Here is our picture and one of some of the scenery. The river gorge is beautiful. I did about eight miles round trip. Some others hiked through to Sky Harbor, about eleven miles. Next time I'd like to go through too.

Eden Hope Wilkinson

Anna had her baby today, leap day, 2008.

the words:

1. pot 2. pan 3. spoon 4. fork 5. knife 6. glass 7. fire 8. water 9. light 10. sink
These are the words that Mike asked people to use in a story.
Here is my story.

The two young people stopped and considered the fork in the road.

“Let’s head left,” said Tom, “I’m pretty sure the village is that way.”

“I think you’re right,” said Fred, “lead on.” So they headed down the trail to the left. Soon, they heard the sound of a stream up ahead. When they got to the water, they realized that it would be too wide and probably too deep to wade. Looking around they soon found some dry wood to use for a raft. They used Fred’s knife to cut some vines and tied the logs together. Before too long, they were ready to board. Happy that their ride did not sink, they made their way across the stream. Tom said, “Use your glass and pan the other shore for a trail on that side.”

Fred studied the far bank until he announced, “I don’t see a trail, but there is a fire ring and I think a coffee pot in the shade of that large cottonwood tree. If someone is camping there, a trail can’t be too far.” He used a light branch as a paddle to head them toward the camp site.

Reaching the shore, they hopped off their raft and sent it down stream. As the boys passed the encampment, they resisted the urge to spoon themselves up a helping of the fish stew simmering on the fire. They found a trail heading in the right direction and lit out once again.

Before long they came to the outskirts of the village and were soon splitting wood for their grandmother.

Tag: Woody, Anna

At the Matinee

We saw The Bucket List today. I liked it a lot. There were some real good lines, scenes, and points to ponder. Anybody else see it?

Dominoes

The girls and the grand girls were over tonight. We had Chinese food and played Mexican Train.
Our camping trip with the Martins is booked for July 9th to 15th at Manresa Uplands State Park. Hopefully during that week some of us will take a surf lesson or two.

Old Posts

Wow, Sitemeter says someone in Florida checked out my old posts about the old window swamp cooler. What a deal!

Jan got a cool new bathroom scale today. They had a coupon at Costco. We've never had a digital before. It's top is glass. I'm a little uncomfortable stepping on this thin pane of glass, but the paperwork says the maximum is 400 lbs. so it must be okay.

5. Loose Weight -I've lost 25 pounds or so. That goes back to the end of 2006. I'd like to keep it up. My doctor wants me to eat heart healthy which I think means lots of oranges and bananas.

Good time at church today, we were asked, "What will have happened by this time next year?" (I'm paraphrasing because I can't figure out how to ask the real question without spending much time explaining the context for it. I'm pretty sure this is an incorrect use of parentheses, but I don't know what to do about it.)

These are the areas we were challenged to think about:
In my Spiritual Life,
In my Intellectual life,
In my Physical Life,
In my Relational Life,
In my Financial Life.

We filled out cards answering what we thought would have happened by next year. They will be mailed back to us mid-year.
I thought it all fit nicely into my lists of things to do, so here they are.

4. Walking- I figure this is the easiest so far. I have a course near home that takes me about 40-45 minutes depending on how I change it up and how much I jog. I usually go out in the evening sometime between 7 and 9. I hope to go for my walk or be on my bicycle (Maybe that's tomorrow's blog.) everyday.

Buckets and Buckets

Today I eliminated a possibility. I won't be putting in-line skating on my list. I saw a young couple out skating and began wondering if that wouldn't be a good thing to learn. So I called a friend to see what he thought since he's about the right age to have done some skating. He said he had trouble with his ankles not being strong enough so that's enough for me because I had the same problem whenever Jan and I would go ice skating.

3. Back Packing- I haven't been back packing in probably 25 years. It feels like it is time try it out again. I wasn't an avid packer, but went a few times, twice with Jan. Our first trip together was as part of a geography (That was her major.) class at Fresno State. We hiked about 50 miles. I think we started at a trailhead at a place called Horse Corral Meadows to Lodgepole in Sequoia National Park. I know we hiked up Deadman Canyon (There's a grave, a shepherd I think.) and camped a couple nights at Big Bird Lake. The next night we stayed on the Tableland before hiking out the last day.

A friend, Shawn, is quite an outdoorsman and keeps telling me we'll do a weekend hike this summer. It's starting to sound like a good idea. At least there won't be sharks.

More for my Bucket

2. Volleyball- Years ago we were volleyball players. Our little group would get together at Millbrook Presbyterian for volleyball on Friday nights. As far as I know, none of us were necessarily experienced but were pretty good and enjoyed it immensely. In five years I imagine we only missed 20 or 25 Friday nights. We also got together on some holidays if enough of us had the day off. Winters were interesting with the fog and such, but we were steadfast, braving most everything. Those were great times.
So I'm putting volleyball on my list of things that can keep you from aging too fast. This year I'll see if I can find some interest in playing at least occasionally. Now that there are sprinklers in at church, maybe we'll have grass too. That would make a great place to play.

Bucket List

Mike Wise and his list for this year has me thinking. So here is the beginning of my list.

1. Surf Lessons- Last summer on our yearly camping trip to the coast, my friend Wil and I found the Anderson Family Surf Camp. Since then I've been thinking that learning to surf during our camping trip would be a good thing. They don't have this year's dates posted yet but I hope I can work in at least a day's worth of lessons. My cardiologist thinks I should stick to long boards. That's what he rides.
I'm thinking that if you only do old people stuff, it starts to rub off on you. So I'm going to try to think of some other less elderly things to do.

Swarm

We had a great Christmas. All the girls and their families were here. This one of my a Christmas presents. It is a remote controlled bee called Swarm. I also got a kite, a Starbucks Card, and a sweatshirt. I like them all.

58 minutes cycling

30 minutes shooting

10 minutes walking (I broke the left crank off my bike so I had to walk to get home.)

Yesterday

60minutes cycling

30 minutes shooting baskets

High Chair with Tray

I finally got a tray made for Georgia's high chair. Everyone says they like the way it turned out. This week I am going to varnish the whole thing. I think I'll spray it. A friend at church suggested a clear finish that he likes to use.

I've been under the weather since Monday and today was my first back on track.

22 minutes cycling

17 minutes shooting baskets

Tomorrow I'll get high chair pics up.

I've been trying to live a little healthier. Today I did the following.

60 minutes cycling
25 minutes shooting baskets